The Fold Ship Part 7

Posted on 06 Dec 2013 @ 1:27am by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim

1,601 words; about a 8 minute read

Allyndra could not believe how nice it felt to be back on the Galileo even if crippled. Though the it was injured it still pulsed with a lot more life than what she had felt on the planet and people they had met.

She sat for a moment on her bed and then decided to finish her log. It had been long talking about this and there was more but the gist of her past and the secrets kept, this was the foundation.

"Computer open Log The Fold Ship"

[Log open recording]

"I remember the GuildMistress keeping her back to me but she continued to speak and it was low and soft and I had to strain hear. I could not make out words, or it was a language unknown to her, but whatever the GuildMistress was speaking had a set of sing song style tonage to it.

I remember blinking as the wall that I had been certain had been all uniform now showed edges or rather etched into the wall was now a dark line that outlined in the shape of a door with rounded corners. A moment later and with a slight hiss the lines deepend and then that section of wall seemed to move back and then to a side revelaing another black tunnel outlined though along the floor with tiny white lights which were reflected off a metallic flooring, walls and ceiling.

As it did so, the GuildMistress stepped into the dark portal and beckoned me with one hand for me to follow. I hestintly stepped through the opening and touched the smooth wall which seemed to exude a slight warmth. Ahead I could just make out the shape of the Guildmistress and noted that tiny dim lights came on as she walked. It was an amazement but hurried least the tiny lights winked out again and leave me in the dark.

As the GuildMistress walked she spoke: 'Once, a long time ago it was discovered that certain individuals developed an ability to make great intuitive leaps. Each house began to breed for the talent, and as they appeared our society made great leaps in technology. It was not long before we began to turn our eyes on the heavens. The neighboring world of Kyllindra was our first goal and we went there. A world cold, and locked in permanent ice, too cold for us even colder then these mountains we now occupy. It was not the world though that yeilded a treasure, it was one of the moons. On that moon were crystals, living things, foregin to anything we knew. It was found that these crystals had unusal properties, they could with the right energy input could do things to space and time.'

The GuildMistress smiled at the blank look on my face which indicated I did not understand. "Think of space as a sheet of paper. A pencil dot on corner is our world, on the other corner another star, the distance between them imaginably long, so long it would take a hundred lifetimes to cross. How would you cross that distance in something reasonable?" Svylena prompted as one would a student.

I thought for a moment my face scrunching up slightly. "I suppose one could crumple the paper or," I said or one could fold the paper." I remember making the leap in my mind's eye and made a motion with my hands as though taking an invisible piece of paper and folding it in pantomine corner to corner.

Svylena eyed me carefully for a moment perhaps she wondered if I had the gift. It was exactly that intuitive leap that had been such an asset and such a curse that I have mentioned before. I learned later that she decided that she would have to watch me over the next years and determine and school properly if such was the case. Svylena smiled suddenly. "Exactly! That is exactly what we found the crystals could do."

Svylena waved one hand to encompass the space they were in. "Ships like this one were built and could jump from star to star in mere blinks of the eye." Svylena sighed suddenly all the joy draining out of her voice. "Unfortunately, things happened, too long to tell now, but suffice to say most turned their backs on what we had achieved and hid history. However, Allyndra, not everyone agreed with the majority, most were killed or forced to accept, but a few, a tiny few decided to pretend to accept and try to preserve what once had been in the hopes that one day what we once had would be needed again." Svylena paused and then reverently said, "We hide the past in order to preserve the future." She then went silent.

As the GuildMistress uttered the phrase I froze. It was exactly the same phrase as what had been written on the wall of the cave. There was a long silence but after a point I ventured, "I thought the House Warraquim was the preserver of knowledge?"

Svylena's face went from remourse and sadness to anger in a flash. "Warraquim! That House was the prime in destroying what we had. Knowledge buried in some dusty archieve perhaps, but forgotten. This ship and the things within it are our real legacy and one that needs to held and nurtured carefully until needed again." She turned and looked at me directly in the eyes.

"I am sorry, I do not mean to insult your House and things have changed over time. The current Guild Mother of your House believes that though we have made alliances, soon those alliances will be tested and we may be alone against great powers. That is why you are here Allyndra illm Warraquim. She wishes that others younger will learn. She is near her last wing cycle and those that follow her, well may not see as clearly as she did."

The GuildMistress' voice dropped low. "Others have come, come here from the stars when we used to go to them and now we are all but defenseless. There are not many left lilke this ship and the marvels within it, and even fewer that know how to work them, you will have to be one that learns." The GuildMistress went silent again searching Allyndra's face and then after a long pause, "And those with the Gift, the A'burab'atu gene while diminshed have not died out."

Again, there was a silence and then the GuildMistress released me and made a motion with one hand to depart. "Enough for now, go get your well-deserved rest Allyndra, for your training starts the day after the morrow. You now know secrets that have consequences and I pray that the breezes blow gently and fair winds guide you. Now go on!" The GuildMistress waved a hand.

I curtsied clumsely and then turned to walk back down the stairs. I had been given admission to a great secret and would be taught deeply. I remember smiling, and my feet going from leaded to almost on wings again. That ship, I thought and the marvels in it would be mine to learn and yet the words the GuildMistress had said at the end as though the ship and its marvels from the past were not the ultimate weapon if need be, but that old odd word. A'burab'atu, the GuildMistress had said. I now knew what that word meant, it meant to one who could do things quickly. Eariler the GuildMistress had talked about great intuitive leaps of the mind. I nodded as I thought it over, intellect was the greatest weapon.

Well I learned the real history of my people, I learned what marvels we had and what and where they were hidden and preserved. I learned how they worked over the course of my years, and I came to want to scream to the roofs and shake the foundations of what fools we had been. However Svylena had been correct, there were others more conservative and who came to power after a time. "Not so fast Allyndra, they said. Slow down Allyndra, they cautioned. The time is not now, not yet, we must tread carefully Allyndra for once a secret is known it is no longer a secret and what we had others may covet."

Now that I have been away I can see now that perhaps I was too hasty. Take the Icconian Gates. They have been much coveted for the few that still work and even their history others turned against them fearing that technology. The Gates though even they had to place and link, what if such a thing existed in which one did not have to first establish the far end?

Such were the Fold Ships and these days in the current instability of many conflicting cultures such a prize or an ally even with such a prize would have very unsettling consequences. I cannot help now but wonder if this path I have had to tread has given me a better perspective than I could have ever had if things had not happened the way they did.

Well the ships are well hidden, the weapons from the time of the A'burab'atu are the same well hidden, but ready just in case. I take comfort in that and also knowing that I am not the only one that knows these secrets. For now, though one day perhaps the epitaph will be different: 'We hide our past in order to preserve the future, until we have learned more wisdom.'

"Computer End Log"

RSS Feed