Part Nine

In attempting to establish exactly the reasons behind any events which occurred in the past, the historian is faced with a number of obstacles. The first is the length of time between the time in which the historian is writing and the time in which the events in question took place. For the vast majority of historical events, this time period will be long enough that no witnesses to the events will have survived.

The second major obstacle is that even if the historian has access to many living witnesses and large amounts of documentary evidence, she can never be entirely sure if any of it is actually true. It is a sad truth that objective reality is impossible to define, because the recollections of all people are different, even when describing the same event witnessed from almost the same location at the same time. Added to that is the problem that even if two people remembered an event in exactly the same way, one or both of them may not wish to tell you everything they do know. Selective omission of information is a serious problem in researching history.

In some cases, of course, the information was deliberately destroyed or hidden. When investigating the colony on Dira Tulag, it is clear that at least partial success was obtained in pretending that the entire incident never happened - at least, enough to keep the news from the population of Alledora for nearly six years, at which point it became one of the triggering factors in the start of what we now call the Psidar War.

The fact that these events happened nearly five thousand years ago merely complicates the issue further, but we do at least have the benefit of the memoirs of the Psidar Iyshe, of House De Rin, the teacher of Psidar Arkyna Dekarantos, who was great-aunt of the legendary Psidar Zarata Kross, of whom many of my readers will have heard. Indeed the Zarata Kross of four thousand, nine hundred years ago is the same Zarata Kross who reappeared during the Cholprya War.

How she accomplished this is best left to another text and I suggest that readers consult one of the many excellent histories of that war if they are curious about the matter.

Returning to the matter at hand; what evidence remains suggests that after using her Psychic abilities to dismantle the second storm which threatened to wipe out the colony on Dira Tulag entirely, Arkyna Dekarantos entered an unconscious state akin to a coma. This state is now well-known to the medical community as being caused by the raising and direction of amounts of Psi energy larger than the user can safely contend with, and it is believed to be a survival mechanism to prevent a Psychic from going even further and killing themselves. The curious reader is referred to numerous studies by Alledari, Do and Rashtamé scientists supporting this theory.

While it is clear that perhaps a full half of the colonists were horrified by Arkyna's open use of such extreme Psychic talent, some of their number took her to the colony medical centre, where she was entrusted to the care of the doctor, Delar Kross. One fragmentary record recorded by Arkyna's father, Ashlar Tiu Vor, suggests that the doctor may have attempted to murder her by slowly overdosing her with a painkiller, but whether this is true or not, it is apparent that Psidar Iyshe took over Arkyna's care, and she recovered shortly afterward.

This was just the start of the unrest within the colony, for shortly after regaining consciousness, Arkyna slipped away during the night, leaving behind a note which explained that she had seen in another dream the origin of the storms, but that it was too dangerous for anybody but her to attempt to deal with the situation. Immediately there were numerous volunteers to search for her. By allowing most of them to participate in the search, the ruling council of the colony easily separated themselves from the entirely pro-Psidar contingent, who had been causing an increasing amount of unease during Arkyna's coma.

Records from the colony are unclear on exactly how long it took the searchers to find Arkyna's trail and catch up with her, but Psidar Iyshe's journal reports that it was several days and that they realised they were close behind her when they came upon fresh tracks leading into a deep cave near the coast.

— Extract from Causes of the Psidar War by Psidar Ishin Ti Mon, writing after the Cholprya War

And rose he up, and spake he unto those gathered at the foot of the mountain: Lo, for as all is storm and chaos will there be power to turn back the cloud, for power have ye in ample quantity among you, and so it shall always be.

And spake one of those who had gathered: Mighty one, how speakest thou of power among us, when all power is thine and thine alone?

And so then rose he again, and troubled was his face, for this was not as he had hoped to find among the people. Lo, said he, for I have great power as ye have seen, yet in accepting my power have ye denied your own. Thus must I leave ye, that thou mayest find thine own power and accept it.

And so turned he and climbed to the summit of the mountain, from where summoned he the wind and flew he away, and never more did he return.

— Fragment of a legend recovered from inscriptions in ruins found near Dero, Alledora, believed to date from over two thousand years before the Psidar War.

Psi is all forms of energy in a unified force and converts readily according to the will of its user. Therein lies its inherent power, and its inherent danger. As with any universally applicable source of energy, some will always find destructive uses for it.

The destructive potential of a talented Psychic rivals that of the most advanced anti-matter weaponry and some are capable of surviving any conventional nuclear or anti-matter weaponry deployed against them. Cultivate those who support your cause, for without their protection you will be sorely struggled to prevail in any conflict.

— From the memoirs of the Psychic Oruuar-Sarthia, General in command of Evolutionist forces on Do'ann during the Do Great War

Small people go to the shelf to get what they want. Small Psidar make the shelf come to them. Use what you have; don't be a slave to the shelf.

— Pro-Psidar graffiti seen in a public lavatory in Spir, Alledora, at the start of the Psidar War

—

'Did I mention that I don't like caves?'

Iyshe had mentioned that he disliked caves, numerous times. None of his fellow searchers were inclined to pay any attention to him though; Arkyna's tracks led straight inside the gloomy cave mouth. Clearly defined and deep, they were obviously fresh, perhaps not more than an hour old.

'It'll be fine,' Firnor said. 'Lanterns?'

Ashlar and Riik produced small but powerful handlamps from their backpacks and switched them on. The bright beams penetrated the gloom, revealing damp rock walls, a dirty floor and clear evidence of Arkyna's passage. Iyshe sighed.

'I suppose we'd better go in then,' he said. 'Did anybody bring any helmets?'

Nobody had. Iyshe snapped his fingers and made a small ball of light which cast the unmistakable bluewhite Psi-light on the cave walls. Firnor frowned for a moment, then produced one of his own. Catching Iyshe's eye, he grinned broadly. When they had stopped late each night, Iyshe had spent half an hour or so working with Firnor on some simple exercises, and the lad was progressing quite well, helped by the theory which Iyshe lectured him on as they were moving.

Judging by some of the things they'd seen on the journey though, he was never going to come anywhere near Arkyna's raw talent and power. Iyshe knew she outstripped him by a considerable margin. She would cause quite a stir when she came with him to Alledora.

Firnor went into the cave first, his Psi-light lighting his way. Riik and Ashlar followed, then Iyshe, Zaya and Erlon, the colony's metereologist. Erlon was along partially because he was concerned about Arkyna, partially because he was curious about Psidar, but mostly because he wanted to know what Arkyna had found out about the two storms which he had completely failed to predict.

The cave proceeded straight into the rock, angled slightly downwards, for about two hundred metres, then turned sharply to the right and changed significantly. The entire party stopped and stared.

'Well would you believe that,' Ashlar said, looking around.

They stood at the end of a tunnel about fifty metres long, perfectly circular in cross-section and obviously cut by artificial means. At the end of the tunnel was what had once been a sealed metal door, but now had a charred hole burned through the middle. The edges of it were still warm, and glowed slightly in the shadows between their lights.

'This isn't our work,' Erlon said. 'We've never dug a tunnel anywhere on this entire planet.'

'And if we had, I doubt we'd have dug one without a flat floor,' Zaya said. There was a general murmur of agreement. 'I suppose it's typical that our daughter would run away and find the first evidence we've ever had of alien intelligence.'

'Alien intelligence...' Iyshe brushed a hand over the smooth tunnel wall. It felt slightly warm beneath his fingertips. 'I hadn't realised that's what this shows. But Alledar can't have built this.'

Ashlar started walking toward the hole in the door. 'Arkyna can't be far ahead,' he said. 'She did this recently. Let's keep moving. We can discuss the anthropological implications of this later.'

And so they climbed carefully through the hole in the door, mindful not to burn themselves on the edges, which were radiating significant amounts of heat. On the other side they found a T-junction, with no indication of which way Arkyna had taken. Ashlar looked up and down, muttering a children's rhyme used to randomly choose something. It wasn't very random at all of course, but he used it anyway.

Firnor reached out a hand and pointed left.

'That way,' he said. Ashlar stopped muttering and looked to the left.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes.' Firnor looked at Iyshe. 'Can't you feel it?'

Iyshe frowned and stretched out his awareness, lowering some of the barriers he usually kept in place. Almost instantly he felt something. Psi held in readiness, not much, but like a pilot light it could be brought to full force extremely quickly.

'Yes,' he said. 'Left.'

'Left it is then,' Ashlar said and started out. The tunnel they took curved slightly, then curved slightly in the other direction, then descended steeply. There were steps of a sort, cut all the way around the tunnel so that the gravity could have been in almost any direction and the steps would still be functional.

'Interesting design,' Zaya commented as they descended.

'Very odd. I wonder why they liked cylindrical tunnels so much?'

'What makes you think you won't be able to ask one of them?'

Iyshe was brought up short by that. He had been more or less assuming that any intelligent inhabitants of this planet would have been long dead, or they surely would have made contact by now.

Then he realised that they had, in fact, made contact through Arkyna's dreams. He simply hadn't recognised it for what it was. How could he? No evidence of intelligent life in the galaxy had ever been found by the Alledar and they'd been looking for centuries. Perhaps they hadn't been looking close enough to home.

The tunnel went down for what was probably several hundred metres, then opened out quite suddenly into a large hemispherical chamber, dotted with smaller hemispheres and dimly lit from above.

'Arkyna!' Ashlar ran forward to his daughter, who was lying on the floor apparently unconscious about fifty metres from the entrance. Halfway to her there was a flash of bluewhite light and he was propelled violently backwards. Iyshe reacted on instinct, catching him with Psi and helping him to stand.

The old Psidar peered into the chamber, but the dim lighting didn't help him to determine where the attack had come from. Psi crackled around him as he resisted the urge to unleash a return stroke. Arkyna would probably have done that and he had nowhere near her strength. He doubted his superior knowledge would be of particular use either.

Firnor was frowning, then pointed. Light shone from his finger and caught a shadowy figure scuttling out of sight behind one of the hemispherical objects.

'There!' he called, and Psi surged from him. Psi also surged from the figure behind the hemisphere. Their energies met in mid-air, struggled briefly against each other, then combined and exploded with a noise that set Iyshe's ears ringing painfully. Firnor staggered; the impact of such a collision on those actually using the Psi involved was considerably worse than for the spectators.

The ringing in Iyshe's ears intensified, then seemed to resolve itself into speech, badly articulated and pronounced with great difficulty.

'Others here! Leave!'

The words echoed around the chamber. Firnor shook his head as if to clear it, then called out a reply.

'We came for our friend,' he said. There was silence, then the voice spoke again.

'Friend not listen! Warn her, warn her. Leave! Leave! Leave!'

'We will take her and go.'

The shadowy figure emerged from behind the hemisphere it had used as cover. Iyshe's eyes widened as he took it in, for it walked on five tentacles, waving four more in the air around its head as it did so. One large eye dominated the front of its head and the Psidar felt a peculiar humming sensation in his ears as the eyes' gaze swept over him.

The alien stopped near Arkyna and slowly pointed at her, Firnor and Iyshe with three of its tentacles.

'Others leave. You stay.'

Unfinished History Archive

MaW

07.10.04 Front Page

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