Chapter Two
"Sometimes the most important things come from where we didn't know to not expect them from."
Unknown
At this altitude, only a thousand cubits or so above the plain of the valley below, the air seemed much thinner, and the man who climbed was obviously exerting himself as he went up the ruined roadway that was plastered against the sheer face of the rock like a worm-eaten ribbon tacked to a wall. His shorn head glistened with sweat, the effort of his climb being compounded by the heavy pack slung across his uncovered shoulders-- both his collar and robe removed to help disperse the heat from the climb into the cool night air-- but he made no sounds of complaint, loosing himself in the sheer mechanics of the climb. One hand above the other, pull, reach: Foot up and deploy. Rise. Repeat.
There was an effective state of mind, almost a meditative condition achieved during the total concentration required to climb- perhaps it was one of the motivations that drove the man to do so frequently. It could of been the obvious physical exercise from this, but the bulk of the man's thick musculature spoke to the trained observer as being deposited from more repetitive behavior and not from climbing. Surely, this high up a smaller body would be of more use, but the man was easily over four cubits in height, very broad in the shoulders and of compacted musculature.
"Ha'as!" The strident feminine voice rang out below him, almost shattering his concentration as he hung from one hand and looked down at the girl about five body lengths below him. Even without the pack she was slow, unused to the kind of strain involved in climbing up four hundred cubits of nearly vertical rock wall. She'd taken off the short black wig and tucked it into her robe, sweating as much as Ha'as. Most unattractive, he thought.
"Temt, I'm sorry. I'm not used to making this climb--" he almost said 'encumbered'-- "with company. I'll wait." Ha'as hung by his left hand and foot, letting the other side of his body refresh itself in the wait that was more than two minutes as Temt climbed laboriously to his level. His lips pursed in annoyance, Ha'as nodded at the younger girl and resumed the climb upwards. He wouldn't frown, but he didn't spare her much of a look, nor offered assistance as he resumed the climb upwards. Didn't want to bring you along anyway. But I can't stand whining either. Double edged sword, totally useless to resist. Why did she need to be so persistent? All I wanted was to go to the top of the mesa and wait for the sunrise. Did not involve nor interfere with you and it should of stayed that way. But he didn't have much time to mentally complain as he sank back into his broken pattern of climbing: One hand above the other, pull, reach: Foot up and deploy. Rise. Repeat.
As usual he was jolted out of it as his hand touched upon smooth, cold ground, tilted at a ten degree angle from the horizontal, reflective as he pulled his body up onto it and stood carefully, but not too close to the edge. Little too slick for that. Temt was noisily climbing the bit of distance but Ha'as made no move to assist her as he dropped the heavy packs and slowly spun, taking in the sights in the valley below and on the smooth face of the lower mesa above. The contrast was immediate and deep: The ground more than a thousand cubits below was gently hilled but none to extreme height over the plain, neatly and geometrically divided into fields of different crops. To the right- a large pasture for various animals that stretched off over the horizon, bisected by the thin grey line of a road that ran through the settlement directly below him and there split. One section continued toward the geographical North and the city of Peruf, a regional capital. The other followed a brook that originated in a spring on the other side of this mesa, wound it's way through the town and out to the east toward an unknown region.
Ha'as spent more time looking at the inclined plane of the lower mesa- it's smooth blackness not quite reflective enough to show the stars and smaller moon visible in the sky but still enough to give it a certain sheen, an attractiveness that Ha'as could not explain. If I look at it long enough the edges loose their hold on the sky- the sky and ground become one- and as long as I am very still I float in the center of it all. More a part of the sky than the ground below! Not a part of this flimsy ground on one planet of many. Out there people exist who never set foot on a planet! They make their own gravity! And there is where I want-
"Ha'as!" Temt shouted at him, half-hanging over the ledge where the smooth ground met the rough cliff and the empty air behind it. Started from his spacelessness, Ha'as stared toward Temt for a few seconds before he saw her, then turned, bending to help her up. The next minute Temt spent wheezing, sitting quite far from the ledge with her arms wrapped around her knees, face buried there as she shook and gasped. What an annoying girl! Ha'as thought, looking down on her as she collected her wits after the long climb. He was long past sympathetic.
Temt stood on shaky legs, trying to hide her exhaustion by moving directly into a overly careful walk toward the ledge where Ha'as had returned to stand, the two of them looking out over the landscape that sat dreamily below them. "It's not what I imagined it would look like," Temt said, looking for an opening. "It's so dark- there're no lights anywhere."
Without turning from looking north, Ha'as said, "you just have to know where to look. Examine the pastures long enough and you'll see the small lights used by the shepherds to let each other know where they are. Look now north- that dim glow is Peruf."
Pointing, Temt asks, "what's that?" A black silhouette with an indistinct shape hung in the sky almost invisibly. Several lights could be seen to illuminate it in short bursts.
Ha'as glances skyward, just shy of the smaller moon, nods. "This will be a good preview for you- all of those lights are part of the same thing. See how they move together?" Confident to be an authority, he lists statistics. "That's one big ship, probably Hemetine by the width-to-length ratio. They make long ships. As it passes in front of the small moon you'll get a brief look at the outline."
Temt crept closer to Ha'as as they waited, her head tilted skywards as she tried to sneak her smaller, not-as-callused hand into Ha'as' own. He ignored her attempt until her fingertips brushed the center of his palm and he jerked, disengaging back toward the packs that he had dropped further up the plain of the mesa. "Now that we're not climbing it'll start to get cold fast. Here," he said, offering Temt a heavy robe from one of the packs, "you'll need this." He took another one for himself- the edges of the thick, coarsely-woven fabric threadbare and torn, multiple repair marks on the body of it- and put it on.
She gave him a look of resigned amusement, a touch of bitterness perhaps, and accepted the offered robe. She's going to get all huffy again, Ha'as thought as he clinched the belt that held the robe closed. Distract her before she gets a chance to start into another lecture. "Come on, we should climb to the summit before that ship passes. Better view."
"Whatever you say," Temt said lowly, not looking at him as he turned off and began to carefully climb the smooth inclined face of the lower mesa. Trying again to engage him, he started: "What made this so smooth? I've never seen rock like this before."
He grunted as he slowly walked up the slick surface, the wind picking up a bit. Very reluctantly, Ha'as explained that he did not know. "I've been up here hundreds of times since I was a child and noone that I've ever asked has known anything about it. I am the only person in the village to ever climb this high-" as she snorted- "well, now you have as well. Anyway, as far as I can tell the whole surface is totally smooth. I've never found any scratches or dents or markings of any kind anywhere in it until we're closer to the tower that I told you about."
With some forced enthusiasm, Temt: "I'm really excited to get a chance to see this tower of yours, Ha'as." Mentally, she slapped her forehead in disgust. That was too much.
They slowly climb in silence across the glassy surface, with Temt occasionally looking back toward the sky or a passing cloud. It's hard for her to abandon her youthful exuberance and before long she breaks the silence. "How do you think that this year's harvest is going to be, Ha'as?"
Grunting, Ha'as shrugs his shoulders.
Nonplused, she tried again- "Imet brought in a ram with eight horns last night, did you see that, Ha'as? It was sick, and he didn't know where it came from, but the Kememet said that it would be fine. But Imet is an authority on those animals, he's out there all of the time with them. Never seen anything like that before, have you?" she ran on.
He did not answer her or show any signs of having heard her. "Ha'as!" she shouted at him, but at that moment the wind picked up a bit and her words were drowned in the noise, the gust strong enough to make her stumble. As she forced herself against the wind her foot came down on an obstruction- a fist-sized, smooth and glassy rock. This will get his attention, she resolves while bending to pick it up. Heavier than I thought- this is some hard stuff- hey!
Ha'as turned quickly, almost loosing his balance on the slick terrain, and saw Temt on her knees clutching her hand. Blood was running from it, black and glistening in the dim ambient light. Walking to her side, and looking down at the stone, Ha'as commented, "we're getting close now. There's a sporadic field of impurities just east from the tower. Here," he said, ripping a strip from his robe's belt. Tying it around her bleeding hand, "that was a lump of the same stuff that the ground seems to be made of. Makes me glad that it's that smooth- I'd hate to cut up my feet like that to walk." He spared her a slight smile and helped her up by her wrists, while avoiding her eyes as she looked at him. "Back on it, we're not far now. Watch where you're going, you don't want to kick one of those stones." After a few more steps- "and don't try to pick one up again. They only look smooth, but the edges are very sharp."
She tried to let her hand slide into his as he loosened his grip on her wrist, attempted affection even as she ignored his chiding warning. Again, as soon as her cut palm falls into his, Ha'as takes a longer step than normal, striding around a larger stone on the ground that she nearly stumbles into. Was that a message? she asks herself, looking at him in front of her with a stare that says why do I bother?
The ground was strewn with these rocks-- some up to the size of a human head-- and before Temt knew it Ha'as stops and she nearly runs right into him. "Here it is," he said, pointing directly in front of them casually. Temt can only stare open-mouthed at the tower.
In the dim light of the smaller moon it can be seen to have a very smooth face, perhaps seamless, with portals or windows scattered regularly around it's round walls that taper slightly to what was perhaps once a point. Must be a hundred cubits tall! Temt thought. The top appeared unfinished, being smoothly bisected at an angle to the rest of the tower, as if it had been cut off with a knife. The whole thing leaned at such an angle away from them that the bisected top was nearly parallel with the ground, however it would still be quite a climb. Much of the tower was surrounded by a clinging fog, or vapor, down to the ground- on a closer examination it seemed to pour out of some of the windows of the tower. The ground surface about it was totally different than the rest of the lower mesa- normal dirt, some scrubby bushes and small trees, a small pool of water that reflected the stars. The border between the relatively normal earth and the smooth glasslike ground of the rest of the lower mesa was nearly abrupt, a circular blur of transition where things stopped growing and the ground turned to glass. Temt was at a loss for words.
"See how it obscures the moon above?" Ha'as pointed out to Temt, who was starring up at the tower, suddenly realizing that he was not talking about it. "My uncle says that ship would be a thousand times the size of his little ship, and that's still a thousand times larger than a person."
Temt could see the long profile, like a black fabric patch totally obscuring the moon, broad but more than four times it's breadth in length. Toward the end two great pods hung from either side, a dim blue beam dissipating back from the rear portions of them into the darkness of space, hardly visible in the light of the moon. Attendant dots of shadow, motes of silhouette, danced along the sides of the ship as it slowly moved against the moon and began to clear the fare side of the near full moon. "Is that a Tcha?" she asked Ha'as, reaching for the only name of a big ship that she could summon, trying to sound more confident than she was.
He looked at her from the top of his nose, condescending. "It's a Matchabet, a Hemetine super freighter. Attended by Herits." Very plain, as if explaining it to a child.
Temt is suddenly not as interested in the ship, lowering her gaze from it and trailing down the tower that looms above them like some great broken finger sticking out from the ground. Her mouth opens to bite back at him, scowling.
"Come on, let's go to the top," Ha'as prodded her, taking her hand-- finally!-- and pulling her toward the tower, eventually to a prominent portal set somewhat above the ground. Temt didn't have time to resist or complain, and placed his rude behavior in the back of her mind for now. Her hand hurt from the rock and the grip that Ha'as used wasn't very gentle, but they were in a hurry, after all…
The perfectly circular hole was at her shoulder height, bordered with square tiles that were unlike the flat, smooth wall of the tower, but Ha'as had no trouble hopping over the side. Temt stepped forward to lean over a small pool and saw that the sides were terraced in the deep, slightly radiant blue water. Can't see the bottom, she thought, but refrained from picking up anything to drop within.
"Come on," Ha'as called impatiently from the portal, reaching out his hand to her. The presumably empty chamber behind him in the tower lent an echo to his voice, with added volume that made the whole thing sound otherworldly. Temt shivered, drawing the heavy robe about her even as she reached up to Ha'as and was more pulled, less assisted through the aperture.
"It's dark," she said, wrapping her arms around her, all of a sudden shivering despite the warming robe. Her words echoing in the chamber, her breath condensing in the air and fogging the space around her head, everything made the whole experience seem unreal to the girl. She'd never previously left the village below the mesa and had only showed limited interest in the tales of the occasional traveler like Ha'as' uncle. Nothing had prepared her for this. As her eyes adjusted to the much dimmer light she realized that she could not see the other side of the room that they were in. Is he worth it? I'm terrified.
Ha'as melted out from the mist in front of her like an apparition, enthusiasm plain on his face, a broad grin: "Quickly now! We must make it to the top in time for the sunrise!" Again taking her hand, Ha'as insistently pulled Temt along what she could see was a kind of catwalk without handrails, about four cubits wide. That was the first smile that I've seen from him in weeks! He truly does live for this, Temt thought as she let herself be swept down the catwalk, the remainder of her anger flowing away. I've found my 'in'. I know how to get him! Temt rushed along the path, Ha'as' enthusiasm a growing infection in her. She didn't even stop to examine the chambers that they passed, some much cooler than the others for no discernible reason. One seemed to glow of it's own accord. Guarding against the cold that Ha'as apparently didn't feel on his shorn head, Temt replaced her straight black wig on her own head.
Without warning they passed through an angled passage and were out on the top of the tower- the feeling of vertigo was suddenly very intense. All of the time that they were in the tower they had felt that they were walking along a horizontal passage, but now that they were at the top Temt realized that the whole thing was very inclined. "Careful now," Ha'as said, his eyes wide and bright. "We must climb the side here to the very top." He pointed at a rope that hung against the former floor toward the summit of the tower. Temt was just as physically fit as anyone else in the village-- ten years of work since the age of five had hardened her body and conditioned her as much as Ha'as was, only years older than herself-- but the prospect of a ten-cubit climb up a sharply inclined shell of a wall hanging nearly a hundred cubits above a glassy mesa top was a daunting prospect. Her stomach churning, she dizzily looked around-- what was I thinking?-- with a slowly-drawing panic starting to cross her face. What am I doing? "Temt." Ha'as had his hands on her shoulders, shaking her gently- an approving look.
She blinked rapidly five times, shook her head once, Temt: "I'll climb first." Score! as Ha'as smiled a genuine, broad smile, the first one, a long-held holding, eyes locked and she slowly leaned foreword, eyes slitting, lips slightly open, a heat rising just a bit in her chest, but the moment was gone, with Ha'as letting her go with a nudge toward the rope. Close, can't screw up now, Temt thinks, but says, "Let's go!" and walks to the rope. Only ten cubits, I can do this. Climbed many ropes. Can't see the ground, I'll be fine, a rough old rope. Is he worth this? The last unmarried man in the village? Is this what I want? I can make him want this… She pulled herself over the last edge of the broken wall and found herself standing on a broken ledge that was formerly an exterior wall.
The wind was ripping around Temt, pulling at her robes, displacing her wig on her head but she didn't care. If a strong enough gust cane along, it would stand a good chance of knocking her over, but for a view like this it might be worth it and she fought to take it all in. Off to the east there was a thin blue line on the horizon heralding the impending sunrise, but with thin, almost invisible threads reaching skyward-- lit only on their upper halves where they were high enough for the approaching morning suns' rays to strike them. To the north the gem that was Peruf was surmounted by hundreds or more of them, with an east to west gradient in affected height noticeable even from this distance. It was like the dew on the grandest spiders' web in the most bejeweled morning ever to exist, a precious thing of beauty that Temt prayed on the spot that she'd never forget. As they watched, a shooting star dropped soundlessly out of space. It seemed to be pointing directly at them, and glowed briefly as it fell.
Temt started as Ha'as placed his hands-- rough hands, worker's hands, but the mind of a lord, she thought-- on her shoulders, whispering right beside her ear, "don't forget to look up…" Temt could feel the warmth of his body against her back, the smell of his breath faintly in the cool breeze, and she lifted her hands up to his and leaned back against him. Looking up with her head before her eyes-- I could feel like this forever- this is what I want-- she relaxed, feeling the supporting presence of the strong man behind her and begging to never let go, exulting in the moment that she'd been thinking about for five years. He's not pulling away this time…
Temt gasped against Ha'as, him smiling his true smile beside her, seeing the same vision in the sky above them both that she was. She was trembling, but Ha'as was unsure if it was from the cold pre-dawn air at that altitude or from what she was seeing for the first time overhead so he pulled Temt closer, truly pleased to have the company for reasons totally unknown and alien to him. Not altogether unpleasant.
The disk of the star Seta was still too far away for the dawn to have risen on the mesa, but it was illuminating space above them as the objects in orbit passed over the terminator and into the light of the sun: Small ships visible only as tiny pinpricks of light, several ships large enough to have a discernible shape with at least a dozen large enough to make out features, to see the lights of the few portals, the glow of their IES-Beam engines as they soundlessly went about their business in orbit in total ignorance of the ground below.
"Is that the Meh?" Temt whispered to Ha'as as her face slowly began to illuminate in the reflected light of the thing hanging above them. She could feel their skin in the humid air, a sweaty feeling without the heat.
She felt Ha'as pull her tighter, stilling her trembling as he nodded. "That's where I want to be. Out there. So little's here, but there is an infinity out there…"
The rising sun cast it's light on the platforms of the Meh in space minutes before it rose on the planet, the spider web-like arrangement of habitation platforms, docking rings, bulbous industrial facilities and terminals extended out toward space, illuminated in cold grey in the rapidly bluing sky. Below it hung three massive towers, pointed like spears straight at the planet below them, blinking lights and moving shadows all about them. As they watched, a great, electric-blue energy discharge flared across and around one of the extended towers, then flared like a serpents' forked tongue between the rest, passing back and forth for nearly a minute around the towers until finally, with an almost audible suddenness, the star Seta crested the horizon and the stellar apparition faded from sight. All that was left was a dull blue with no stars, no ships, no nothing- not even a shadow was there.
What do I do now? thought Temt, the afterglow of the celestial vision still present in her mind. She was suddenly highly aware of the presence of Ha'as behind her, still holding her against the warming air, almost letting her believe that he was feeling something like what she was feeling. I know better- but there's no better time to make my move…
Temt took Ha'as' left hand in both of her own, expecting him to pull away as he generally did, but this time Temt did not let his hand go. "Don't you understand?" she asked him, almost a pleading in her voice. Not letting the squirming hand go, she turned around to face him and placed Ha'as' palm flat on the center of her chest. "I love you," her voice cracked out. Her face was awash in expectation and a little sadness, but his was a mask of resignation and exasperation.
Ha'as was not surprised, sighed, a little too loudly. I knew this is why she wanted to come. I'm finally going to have to cut it off- never going to happen! "Look, Temt, I know you and your-" he began, but she wasn't going to let him off that easily.
"You don't know anything!" she practically screamed, her hands clutching his against her breast almost painfully. "This isn't some childish affliction, satisfied by a teenage rutting! I love you! Can't you understand what that means?" Ha'as' eyes were wide, clearly uncomfortable, but she had no mercy. "Ever since I was a child--"
"Temt, you are a child--" Ha'as again tried to cut her off, but there would be none of that. Temt clasped her hands across his, tears now starting to flow.
"I'm every day of fifteen years old! I'm old enough by years to marry, be a wife and a mother. Women younger than I have full families by now to men younger than you! I want that, I want you to be part of that!"
She let his hand go, wringing her own in an agonized, plaintive gesture, but Ha'as didn't drop her own. "I'm still young, Ha'as! I'm pretty and a virgin- how many fifteen year old girls can you name that fit that? My mother had thirteen children, and nine of them survived! How many do you know that can claim that? Why can't you claim it?"
Ha'as finally took a small step back, enough to detach his hand from her, and he fully pulled away as she made a sweeping move to retake it. "That's not what I want, Temt! I don't want to be lost in the village for the rest of my life! The married never leave, it's a law. As long as I have no wife, noone depending on me, I have the chance to leave. I want to go up there--" he dramatically pointed up-- "I do not want to be stuck down here among the animals and crops and smells of shit and sweat--"
"How are you leaving, Ha'as?" Temt sneered, the dust from the climb mixing with her tears to give her a sick charicture of a festival mask. An expansive gesture, arms broad out-- "where is your ship, Ha'as?" Now, slick sarcasm: "Tell me, o Ha'as, do you plan to liquidate your home and small farming plot or will you use your impressive inheritance to finance your travels to the stars, or will you just be hopping a ride at our bustling port? You're not leaving, Ha'as!" she cried, "and neither of us are getting any younger!"
She took one big step foreword, catching him against the ledge of the former exterior wall now floor, and he couldn't back up any further. Ha'as threw up his arms to fend her off, a remorse starting to brew on his face, but Temt deflected his hands and wrapped her own around his waist. "This is not a passing attraction, Ha'as! I want you! You're a kind, gentle man, a smart man, the best among the married or unmarried of the village!" She became more gentle herself, clutching him even more tightly as if he'd fall off the leaning tower instead of letting her cling to his body like that. "I know that this is unusual," she said in a conversational tone, "for the woman to propose. I won't tell anyone!" She let her arms go, stepped back from Ha'as and let him stand in his own confused-looking pose.
"I… I'm sorry, Ha'as," she whispered. "I had to get that out." Another single tear coursed down her face. Sighing, she continued. "I'll go down first, go on to the ram corral. That way, at least noone will know what a fool I've made of myself." Ha'as opened his mouth to say something, but Temt put her finger across his lips to stop him. "I won't bother you again, I'm so sorry…"
A confused look on his face, mixing with something like sadness, Ha'as said, "Temt…." but stopped. I don't know what to say. "I'm going to leave one day, Temt. I have to…" She's cute enough, but…
She smiled a little., sniffing and wiping her face. "I hope you do, Ha'as. But I can't wait forever. Goodbye, Ha'as…" She stepped back, then sniffed and jumped up and embraced him before he could push her away, placing her lips on his own in a heartbreakingly chaste, amaturesque kiss. Too surprised to avoid the clumsy affection, Ha'as stood rigidly at shocked attention.
I have to go, he thought with a yearning, looking up over the girl's head toward the sky. This isn't what I want… But his body was that of a perfectly normal man, conditioned despite mental desire toward certain ends. Despite not wanting to lead her on, he whispered her name out the corner of his mouth. She has to let go…
"Ha'as," Temt breathed, opening her mouth to kiss him again, almost surprised to find his mouth parting to reach her own. Releasing a trembling exhalation into his mouth, her lips attacked his with a lustfulness that even amazed her.
This is not what I had in mind, Ha'as pleaded to himself even as his arms, still trapped in her embrace, came up around her and clasped tightly around her waist-- slender girl, certainly not experienced-- and opened his mouth to take her lips between his. Can't let this be a distraction, Ha'as heard in the back of his mind even as she clasped the back of his head almost viciously, her wig falling unnoticed to the ground as they voraciously devoured each other, free hands roaming across each other's bodies lustfully.
Ha'as lowered Temt to the surface of the formerly exterior wall, their lips still competing for each other's attentions. Her exultation was easily matched by a certain exuberance in Ha'as-- if not an affection, certainly an attraction, but definitely good enough for her. Settling to the ground beneath them, looking up at Ha'as, Temt smiled, whispering, "I love you, Ha'as," as she closed her eyes, thinking of children, a solid rock home, sitting beside her man.
Ha'as knew that he couldn't return the expression, but he had committed to the desires of his flesh: he buried his lips against hers, moaning softly.
Looking up into the sky as Ha'as nuzzled her neck, Temt saw a rising, streaking form sail into space from the west- crossing the demarcation where it's IES-Beam engines could activate, briefly forming a simmering star in the morning sky as a pleasing warmth flowed over her body. Closing her eyes against that, returning her mind's eye to the present, she cupped Ha'as' face in her hands and kissed him deeply. Entangled together, they removed each other's clothes in the rapidly warming, humid air. 
KFL by Allen P Gresham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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