Writing 'Colonies' Part XXIII: Have I gone mad?

Yeah, so ... I'm still working on Canceron, that hasn't changed.  Remember how I said I had an idea about how to build up the first part that I didn't like?  How that part was too slight?  Well, I had an idea about how to add some content and context, so I started writing the other day.

I may have gone mad.

Once you read what I've written (this is the first of the planned four such parts of new material), you'll understand my question.  You might even recognize its inspiration.  Read it after the JUMP.

 

THE DIARY OF LORD CHADWICK APPLETON
AND HIS JOURNEYS ABOUT THE UNKNOWN WORLDS

 Written by the same in the Year of Our Lords 837; discovered and published in the YOLs 918

 

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER

The tale spun herein is one to beggar the mind, yet I've no doubt to its veracity. 

My business is one of generations, and it seems that a woman came to my grandfather some time past with this text and the portrait you have seen.  She was called Mirth Goody and bade my grandfather to publish this work.  She had naught to pay for it, having in folly commissioned the portrait of its author with none to spare. 

Deeming the woman worthy of charity, he did investigate its claims, and though finding much support among the people and places of Virgo named, still believed its story too bewildering to publish.  My grandfather offered Goody a sum of 50 dram which she gladly took, though he had no intent to print the diary.

The text and his findings were stored and the portrait was hung in our shops attracting little interest save mine own.  My father neglected the vaults but I in my fervor to know the man "Appleton" so named in the painting searched all I might.  I came upon this text and have now fulfilled the contract bought by my grandfather some seventy years prior.

My workers asked me to solicit the thoughts of many in our society including the clergy and the Royal House.  A few have done so and found the claims scandalous and heretical despite the investigations of my grandfather proving its truth.  The pages that follow are being printed against their advice for I feel the weight of their importance.

As a publisher, it is my duty to inform and entertain in the greatest ratios possible and to save money as we do so.  To that end, I have removed many pages which speak to the peculiarities and mundanity of travel and astrogation.  The work would have doubled in size had I not, and its messages diluted.  I could not allow this.

However, if my own ignorance of stellar affairs shall have led me to commit some mistakes, I alone am answerable for them.  And if any traveler hath a curiosity to read the work entire, I will be ready to gratify him.

EDWARD SYMPSON

  

A LETTER FROM MIRTH GOODY TO THE PUBLISHER SYMPSON

I write to you now in answer to your letter of last month and your further questions on Lord Chadwick.

I knew him but a month when he came aboard the Pale Swan and we spoke only in the course of our duties before the events described.

Due to my youth and his kindly nature, he shielded me from the worst of our travels, though I could see the pain of them writ upon his face.  I have read the text of his diary many times since my return and find no fault whatever in his descriptions of the various worlds.  My sense of the people, where I encountered them, also align with his writings.

We spoke on Tinasus upon his return to our vessel and he said little of his time among the kingdoms.  He did mention that the Council of Nolufray had made him a lord of their people but he renounced the title soon after, yet he would not say why.  I did not understand his reasoning until I read the totality of his journal.  However, I found him both in life and in text to be a lordly man, and I wished to grant him the title despite the vile nature of those who bestowed it.

I thank you again for your payment and it hath spared me and mine many pains.  If I may aid you further in the publication of his work, you need only ask.

 MIRTH GOODY

19 Quin., 852

   

PART I – A RETURN TO THE CRADLE

The author gives some account of himself and family.  His inducements to travel.  He is wrecked and comes upon a wasted world and a surprise resident.

My mother had a small estate in Wilton where I was the second of four children.  I was sent to the College of Excester when I was of age so that I might become a priest in the temples of the gods as my father before me.  I found the coursework not to my liking and sought leisure at every opportunity and took particular joy in the art of sailing.  When I was not at sea with my newfound mates, I lingered about the Port of Excester where I saw vessels of wide variety take to the skies for other cities and other worlds.  At the end of my first term, I petitioned my mother for a change in studies which she forbade, though my father may have granted it, would the decision be his alone.  I asked her for a small sum so I might depart home for my own ends and she provided it saying she would do no more.

I traveled to Buskirk to attend the Atlarian School and learn the maths and physic relating to travel among the stars.  The sum I was given would not grant me entry, so I became a worker along the Tyburn where I might enjoy sailing as I earned coin for the bursar.  After four years, I had saved enough and began my courses.  I enjoyed the charity of some scholars who knew of my station at the time and sought to give me aid.  After my second year, my savings had been spent more rapidly than I intended and I found that I did not have enough to continue and was forced to resume full work on the river.  Two years later, I was allowed re-entry and completed my studies with the title of Studied Astrogator.  With it, I might seek a posting within Her Royal Majesty's service or among the many private companies, with and without Royal Charters, that operated trade routes among the worlds.  As I had experienced nearly a decade impoverished, I desired to never experience the same again, so I applied at the first private company I found, Royal Route Trading.

I was in the employ of Lady Lane Burton.  She was a manager with a fair hand and a rigid sense of duty.  My degree made me one of the most qualified among her people, yet she insisted, rightly, that experience buoy the education.  If after two years I hath performed well, she would name me Master Astrogator and I could have my choice of posting and price. 

I served at first aboard the transport Gray Fox and guided her to and from Gemini for a full year, delivering many tools and equipment to the Virgan folk who call the place home, and returning with holds full of the prized Gemini lumber.  The journeys became rote after a time and involved a total of three engagements of the light engines with measurements preceding each.  It was in these moments that I performed my work and sought to hone my abilities.

After the Feast of Carista in the Year 837, I was posted aboard the Pale Swan.  This was a larger vessel with a greater complement, so I took this to be a good omen.  The captain of the vessel was one Mr. Everett Budd.  Though jovial, I found his command difficult because of his desire for speed in all things.  I am certain that this compromised me and my work, but the Fates might have acted regardless.

The Festival of Five Days approached as we set off on our final voyage before the holiday.  Pisces seemed to be the only destination of the Pale Swan and I lamented it solely for the smell of our return as the holds bore many tonnes of fish from that ocean world.  The vessel leapt into the gulf between stars and I set to, searching the blackness for Alpha and the blue world of our target.  Captain Budd bade the helm engage the engines full ahead and the Pale Swan began a journey across the emptiness.  With the change in speed, over time, my calculations could prove ill for us, yet I was able to secure our position and the position for our next engagement.  As I prepared to signal the captain that the indicators were now set, the vessel was ensnared by a turbulence I've not experienced outside of a violent sea.  The crew were rocked from their seats and the captain was rendered unconscious by some blow.  The deck began to still yet when I returned to my instruments to verify our location, I descried the movement of the stars.  The Pale Swan had been caught by some current and we were being ferried far, far away from the worlds we had known.

Our provisions could sustain us and we had enough for some twenty days before we might have need to break into our holds full of farmed goods bound for Pisces.  The captain regained his senses after several hours but was injured and could not command.  The First Mate, Dayna Spaulding, urged a series of maneuvers to free us of the current.  Our rockets could not make headway against it, however, and she turned to me, bidding that I find our place for a safe engagement of the light engines.  I was sad to report that I found our speed too great for a leap as I could not accurately determine our position with the instruments we had.  She then asked that I simply seek to place us in some openness of space, free of the current, where we might journey home.  I told her, after a full day at this speed, I feared that we had too little fuel for our light engines to carry us, to speak nothing of our simple rockets.  The crew then argued with her and I felt guilty for my part in the doubt that had been sown.  I returned to my scope as the bickering continued and I announced that our position was some fifty light-years beyond the stars of home and growing still at an increasing rate.  Hearing this, the engineers confirmed that we had too little fuel for such an effort.  Spaulding acceded to the thoughts of the crew: that we should secure ourselves and the ship as best we may and pray that the currents would sweep the Pale Swan to a world with fuel.

Boredom became our adversary moreso than the currents for most among us, however I was still new to the vessel and took the opportunity to learn what I might about the twenty-six people with whom I was now stranded.  I found more than a few too boorish for my tastes yet I remained polite.  Others I found too haughty and some complained about every moment of this unfortunate voyage though they well realized there was naught to be done.  Were I to make a tally, I supposed there were half of the crew that I might do without knowing.  These thoughts plagued me in the coming days.

We came to the end of our stock of food and the captain had returned to himself by the twenty-second day.  He was reticent to allow the cargo to be pillaged for our survival, but he knew there was nothing for it.  After he gave the order and the door to one hold was opened, the ship quaked again.  The crew returned to their stations but none arrived before the Pale Swan came to its sudden stop.

I was found in the ladderwell by an engineer, Mirth Goody.  She awakened me and found me with a broken arm.  She herself was injured and reported that five others among the support crew yet lived.  The rest, including the captain, first mate, and all officers save myself, were deceased.  When I stood, I discovered the Pale Swan had a list to the larboard side and I climbed the ladder with great difficulty.  On the command deck, I found the bodies of some among the crew.  The windows, however, were not filled with the blackness of space.  There was light.  A white light which seared the eyes yet warmed the hull.  I peered beneath the prow of our ship and saw it in a dark crater of its own making. 

After I bound my arm to a portion of metal, I went to the engine decks and asked for a report.  I was told that there were ruptures in our hull that would have to be repaired.  Three of the four holds had likewise ruptured, yet one was intact.  For this I was thankful as I knew it contained many tonnes of food.  Our fuel supply was fairly low despite having our thrusters disengaged because the engines kept our air and such active for that time.  As I stood there and beheld the survivors of this wreck, I knew that all the rest had perished.  Most of them were among those whom I had dismissed so utterly days before and I now regretted my thoughts and begged forgiveness in prayer.

I gave my orders as the sole officer of the Pale Swan that the ruptures should be fixed so the vessel might take to the stars again.  The six were doubtful of success, yet they set themselves at work.  In the meantime, I said that I would explore the world on which we hath landed in hopes that I might find something to give us aid or comfort.

Outside, I shielded my eyes from the harsh sun for a time as I walked to the wall of our crater.  The smell of the air was of turned soil and burning metal as I remained so near our recently crashed vessel.  The wall nearest us was too high thus I decided to walk within the crater as it tapered away from the ship.  By this shape it was clear to me that the Pale Swan had impacted and skidded along the ground where it finally dug itself into the dirt.

The walk out of the crater was slow as I avoided many stones and pits, but I did emerge and was shook by my view.  The world within my sight was as barren and brown as the depths of the crater.  The sky was not blue nor were there clouds.  I could descry no green tree at the horizon nor a single blade of grass underfoot.  I began to walk and found that nearly a kilometer from the wreck that the air still smelled as foul as before, but older.  Dry and earthen, with a hint of some metallic nature and the faded remnants of fire or ash.  The land was flat within my sight and I gazed back at the ship, fearful that I may not find it when I desired to return, yet I saw that its broken cargo holds extended above the lip of the crater and were likely visible for some distance.

I chose a direction based on a coming breeze.  It was cool and seemed to me to emerge from the north, though I could not be certain of the compass on this alien planet.  I moved to its source and walked for some hours.  The wreck of the vessel was far behind and beyond mine eyes.  The horizon in all directions were bare and lacking in life.  I came to a stop and listened.  I found that there was also no sound.  No birds in the air nor baying animals far away.  No insects that fluttered or buzzed.  There was only the sound of my shoes crushing into the dry, dead soil.

I continued on and after a while longer saw a slope rise gently in the apparent northwest.  I turned about, seeking a marker for this sole aberration in my direction but found none.  I then removed one of the few ties from my broken arm and placed it on the ground beneath a stone.  It was my hope that I would, upon a return journey, find the cloth and turn approximately one-quarter turn to the south.  I looked at my watch and likewise marked the time in my memory for the future walk to the Pale Swan.

As I approached the slope its distance from me appeared to increase though I realized this was an illusion.  I then understood that the hill was in fact a large one and I trudged its slope for an hour when I beheld something new, grass.  It began thin and sparse, but as I continued, it grew in length and density.  Soon I found my feet pressing upon softness and familiarity and, despite our predicament, I smiled.  I continued and noted that the slope appeared to end and that there was a ridge of some sort ahead.  As I neared, I noted a yellow glow behind the ridge that pushed aside the harsh whiteness of this world's sun.  I quickened my pace and desired to see that again for it reminded me of home.

When I reached the ridge, I gazed down and saw that this slope was part of a large mound which bore at its peak, if you will, a crater of its own.  The grass that grew along the upper portion became thicker and carried flowers into the bowl at the crater's center.  There sat the source of the yellow glow.  With eagerness, I began to descend and found as I got closer that the glow was no lantern or fire, but instead a man.  I halted and shook for I could not conceive of what this might mean.  The man, I saw, was lifting stones with his hands and forming a small structure.  Gently, I walked again and found that, like the size of the slope, the size of this man was larger than I guessed.  I know the size of a man to be a meter and two-thirds again and thus did I naturally assume the glowing fellow to be.  With grass and flowers now brushing the undersides of my arms and flowing around my waist like the waters by the sea, I moved closer and the figure towered above me, though he knelt as he constructed this thing.  I drew nearer and felt awash in confusion and despair.  A tear left my eye and I yelped in woe. 

The man looked at me and he gasped.  He spoke in the ancient tongue of the Gods and I thought to my years as a student in Excester, studying the languages of the Scrolls, as well as to my father and hearing his addresses in the temples.  I repeated the glowing stranger's phrase again in my mind and I translated it thus, "Are you alive?"

"I am," I replied.

At once, he stood and revealed his size as some ten meters above me.  Then I became awash in joy and tears fell again, though they were tears of happiness.  At the sensation and seeing the match in the man's face, I knew that it were his emotions placed upon me that confused me so.  Piecing the elements together, I concluded that this was no man.  This was one of the Lords.

"Welcome home, my child."  He bent low and lifted me gently to His chest.  I attempted to force the overwhelming joy from my mind so I could think clearly and study what was happening.  "For an age, I have labored here in the remains of the City of the Gods and tried to bring life back to Kobol.  I have succeeded but only in this small place."

Then did His despair again threaten to overwhelm me.  I studied His face and found it youthful and sad.  His warming, yellow glow was as the sun on Virgo on the most glorious day in memory, and beyond it still.  I realized I was clutched now by the Son Himself, Lord Apollo.

"Tell me, how many have returned?"

"Only myself and six others, Lord.  There were nearly twenty more, but they perished in the wreck."

Apollo then grimaced in pain and I felt it in the pit of my stomach.  "My Father's Price."  As he said it, I recalled myself Lord Jupiter's admonition that a return to Kobol would be paid for in blood.  "And so you have paid some small measure, too."  He saw my arm and, with His finger, brushed aside the ties and splint.  My arm was no longer in pain and was healed.  I lowered my head in thanks and He asked, "Why have so few seen fit to return here to the cradle of all?"

I felt some shame yet I spoke only the truth, knowing that He would discern a lie.  "It was an accident, Lord.  Our vessel was swept up in some unknown current and ferried here from our colonies so far away."

Apollo smiled and said, "This was the work of Atlas.  He wished for humans to return someday and he took from Poseidon the knowledge of the sea and its currents, placing such a one in the heavens.  If your vessel takes flight again, you will find that the current sweeps away from Kobol to the west.  From there you may find home again."

"Thank you, Lord.  We shall use it."

"I would ask for you and your comrades to remain, yet I fear that I could not sustain you."  He turned and showed the greenery of the crater and the tenuous stone structure.  "For many years I labored to return the simplest life to this place and have only recently managed to bring blossoms to please Mine eyes and nose.  I cannot yet form food and I fear that most of the water beyond the lip of this bowl is not fit to drink."

"I understand and thank you, Lord."

He knelt and placed me on one of the stone plinths that led into the structure.  "How find you my new Olympus?"

I looked at the Lord and then at the stones about me.  Again, I did not desire to lie, but I wished to shield my words.  "It is of a size for myself, Lord, but Olympus was the home of the Gods."

"It was."  A melancholy washed upon me and Apollo looked away.  "It is gone, but I shall rebuild it, just as I shall bring life back to this world."  I wondered at what the Lord had accomplished in the near millennium since mankind's flight.  I spun around and beheld it all in a single motion.  "Night is come.  Stay in Olympus.  In the morrow, we will speak."

I could not answer Him for He touched my forehead with His finger and a drowsiness came upon me.  I slept a restful sleep, yet my dreams were troubled.  I saw far-off things and imagined the tales of the Scrolls brought to life.  Here, in this place, they were made manifest and I lived among the Gods as those fortunate souls did so many centuries past.  When I awakened, Apollo presented me with a rose as large as a basin filled with dew.  I drank from it and was refreshed by its scent and the coolness of the moisture. 

"Now you will tell me the tale of man since their departure from this place."

I spoke for some hours on the history of the exodus and the spread of mankind among the worlds, the rise of Empires and the drive to explore and colonize.  At this, Lord Apollo seemed troubled, for I felt it myself, and I asked Him to tell me why.

"I fear that the passage of the centuries has reduced us in the memories of mankind."

"There are some few who may have forgotten on outer worlds," I assured, "but when we encounter them, we will remind them of their Gods."

At this the Lord appeared satisfied but not yet pleased.  It was then that I sensed His disappointment.  He anticipated my question and He asked, "What do you know of the government here on Kobol in ages past?"

I thought and pondered.  My memories were of the Scrolls, the nature of the Gods, the exoduses by the Thirteenth Tribe and by the remainder afterward.  "Forgive me, Lord, but I know little beyond the presence of a Forum."

"The Forum was the seat of power on Kobol.  Know you how many Lords sat upon that panel?"

"I do not."

"None."  He was silent and let me absorb that thought.  After a time, He said, "For millennia, the Lords of Kobol guided mankind and bestowed the gifts to give humanity a better life as you grew into it.  It was the people who governed themselves and not Us who governed you."

"But we are no longer on Kobol, Lord Apollo.  We do not have You to guide us."

"You do not need Us to guide you," he said.  I quailed at the thought and he laughed.  "You fled in fear, but in truth, you were set free.  Were you not prepared for it, would My Father have wished you well?  Would He not beckon for your return?  Once a child has grown, he does not return to the cradle.  So it should be with mankind."

"And so it is, Lord.  We do govern ourselves and our worlds."

Again, Apollo did laugh and he said, "You have just told me of your queens and your kings and the councils of priests and merchants.  What power does a beggar hold in your world?  Has he a say on the policy of the realm?"  When I shook my head, he answered, "Therefore the people do not govern themselves."

Now I shuddered and pondered, Can a God speak seditiously?

"On Kobol, all the people voted on matters of import and elected representatives.  This was the will of the Gods and the people.  It appears to me that your colonies do not follow the example of the Gods."

This did wound me to my quick as it reminded me of Jupiter's exhortation. 

"Let us no longer speak of such matters.  The hour grows late."  The harsh light in the sky did indeed fall toward the west.  Lord Apollo brought me another dew-covered rose and I drank from it as He regaled me with stories from the age of the Lords.  I knew some of the tales, yet he provided new elements to each.  Still more were ones that I had no knowledge of, so I shall write them upon my return to Virgo, if the Lords grant it.

In the morning, after I was sated with another large rose's water, the Lord took me from my place on Olympus and held me aloft near His breast.  "Today, you shall return to your ship.  In the night, I did visit it and found the crew asleep.  I healed them of their wounds and aided their work as much as I might."

I understood yet I was upset at having to depart.  My stomach answered my hesitation with a grumble, for it could not be filled with dew alone.  "My Lord, is there some message You should like me to convey to mankind upon my return?"

Apollo looked toward the green ground and thought.  He then answered, "Remind them of Zeus and that humanity should live according to the example of the Gods.  You may then tell them of our conversations and all that I believe it entails."

"I will, Lord Apollo."

"And grant unto them My best wishes for the future."

"I will, Lord Apollo."

The glowing God then carried me across the wide bowl of the crater and set me upon the lip.  I stood there and beheld Him again and we said our farewells.  As He departed, I felt the warmth of His light retreat, as well as the sense of His happiness within me, and I thirsted for it again.  It is a thirst I shall yearn for to the end of my days and I am certain I will not be satisfied so again until I enter Elysium.  I watched as Lord Apollo knelt by His reproduction of Olympus and set about adding more stones.  With hesitation, I turned and started my long walk back to the ship.

Many hours later as the sun drew near the horizon again, I came upon the wreck of the Pale Swan.  To my surprise, the vessel was now aright and rested securely.  The damaged holds had been cast off and littered the edges of the crater and it was these that drew my eye so far away.

The crew marveled at my return but were moreso enthused about their own injuries.  I told them that I had met with Lord Apollo himself and that this was Kobol, so they grew sore afraid.  I bade them to not fear and spoke of my conversations and that the Lord had healed them and aided the work.  So it was that the ruptures had been healed and the Pale Swan readied for flight only one more day later. 

I began to teach the engineer Goody some of the ways of astrogation and spoke about Atlas' current.  We took to the sky and flew west beyond the shell of Kobol.  The ship shuddered upon reentry to that stream and we were carried far away from the birthplace of mankind.  I left Goody in command of my instruments so we may avoid a similar crash upon our return and retreated to my quarters where I set about writing this account.

Still wondering about the inspiration?  Here you go.

Thanks for reading.