Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 57

Shen woke, his head in TL’s lap. He sat up, orientating to a moving world, and it came back to him. His first thought was no waterbed, ever. TL was watching him. He stood, found the sun in front of them, just off the horizon. He heard Arne laughing with Erico. Shen wanted to end the laughter. Hadn’t he lost crew? How soon does one laugh after losing crew? He told himself to suspend judgment. This was not his world. He didn’t know enough. Even in his own world he didn’t know enough.

Shen didn’t fully meet TL’s eyes, but he looked towards her, and offered a hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet.

“You okay?”

“I need to pee and poop,” Shen said.

“I will show you where the bucket is,” TL said.

“Their toilet is very unappealing. Can’t you just beam it out?” Shen asked.

“You need to do your business,” TL said. “Unused muscles will atrophy.”

“I’ll wait for land, then,” Shen said.

“I wonder who will win, the sea or Shen,” TL said. “As a nurse, I can tell you, holding it is bad.”

“Routine holding is bad,” Shen said.

He offered his arm. She accepted and he led her back to Arne’s fellowship.

“Good Light, Brother,” Arne said.

“I see,” Shen said. “May we join you?”

“Of course,” Arne said. “Erico, get him food and drink.”

“Wait,” Shen said. “May I speak with you?”

“Come aft,” Arne invited.

“No. I wish to speak to all of you,” Shen said.

Arne let out whistle. People immediately gathered, accept the man in the watching for land position. “You will be heard.”

“Jon?” TL asked.

Shen repositioned his arm so that he was now holding her hand. He squeezed, reassuringly. “I am sorry for my mood and behavior…”

“You don’t have to…” Erico said.

“Let him finish,” Arne said. “Go on, Shen. You will be heard.”

Shen looked at the deck. His boots seemed out of place. They were out of place. The style of these Vikings were a blending of traditional and ultra-modern. Jerica’s legs were revealed as a breeze moved across the deck and caught her asymmetrical dress, where Yaffa and Torny wore dresses that fell below their boot tops.

“This present darkness is not about you. And it’s not about Jazmyne,” Shen said. He frowned and looked at TL, thinking he heard something. There was nothing there; she was listening. “This darkness was always in me. Jazmyne could not have appealed to me otherwise. Even a revulsion would have been me reacting to myself. She has revealed something I need to contend with.”

“You intend to return to your isolation…” Jerica said.

“Let him finish,” Arne said.

“No,” Jerica said. “He’s not ready to face the darkness, and he shouldn’t be alone. There’s eyes enough here to see the solidity of that.”

“I am not ready for her. For that. Well, fuck, is anyone ever ready? My clarity and resolve is fading and I will be reduced to rambling idiot in a moment. What you should know- I am grateful in my unknowing. I am grateful for you, Loxy. Arne, Jerica, all of you, I am grateful for your company and your tolerance of me. Erico, if you allow me to translate what I think you were going to say, I don’t have to apologize because it’s not my fault. Yes, it’s my fault. That is explanation, not blame. At some point I must own that fault. If I have a lotus addiction, I don’t keep lotus on the table. I am strong now, but I am not always strong. I will face Jazmyne again. Not today. Jerica, I do not want to return to isolation. I need the company of good men and women. I need you. All of you. That’s it.”

Arne hugged him. It was sudden and took his breath. “You will never be alone, brother.”

Shen coughed, “With caveats.”

Arne released the hug and held him by the arms and looked him in the eyes. “Caveats are for friends. You and I are family. That is unending.”

“Families have caveats,” Shen said. “Usually more than friends.”

“Sometimes, little brother,” Arne said.

“I am older than you,” Shen said.

“No you’re not,” Arne said.

“Yes, I am,” Shen said.

“He’s taller than you,” Erico said.

“Everyone here is taller than him,” Orton said.

They all laughed. They all hugged him as one.

“Oh, back up, I think he needs to feed the fish,” someone said.

“Why are the shadows moving?” Shen said.

“Jon?!” TL said.

Everyone was still. They looked up at the sun. It was moving in an odd way across the sky in real time.

“Path change!” Torny shouted. She and the sisters ran for their books.

“Secure everything,” Arne shouted. “Bring down the sails. Go go go…”

“What’s going on?” Shen asked.

“Find rope, tie yourself and Loxy to the ship,” Arne said. He ran off to help his crew secure the ship.

Shen looked to Loxy.

“The world’s axis is changing,” TL said.

TL turned to the sisters who were debating numbers, looking at their books, and the abstract calendars they used for measuring time. She went there to listen.

“It hasn’t been a full season yet,” Yaffa was saying. “Hem’s daughter isn’t even four.”

“I have not missed in count…” Torny said.

“Your counts aren’t wrong,” TL said. “Nor is your math. You are just missing data.”

They looked at her. TL looked to Shen.

“Reveal it as we know it,” Shen said.

TL nodded. She sat down, lotus position, to deliver her message. She held out her right hand and holographic image of a map appeared. Their ship was placed on the map. “We are here.” The sisters were mesmerized. The boat fell away and island and continents arrived on the map. It fell away until water was below clouds. The map folded into a sphere. It rotated above her hand. She pointed out the terminator line, and explained day and night. She added graphic to explain one full day was 36 hours. She explained the sun going around the world was an illusion. The world shrank and a portion of the sun was brought in, as if both objects were fixed in space. “Not to scale.” The rotation of the planet gave the appearance of rising and falling. The world was presently spinning off its axis, which was why the sun was moving so oddly. The sun and planet were shrunk until the full sun and the planet were represented. She explained the years and the season, one orbit equaled one year.

“The sun is also in orbit,” TL said. “There are three major objects, the sun, and two black holes. These are singularity points, and all objects rotate around a shared center of gravitation, here. The sun orbits this center, but also orbits each of these singularity point. The path usually describes a figure eight. This world follows the sun. These points are so massive, they alter the flow of space-time, and churn the very fabric of reality like a water cyclone. I suspect, an energy vortex of space/time caught the world and spun it.”

“That’s why the planet isn’t tidal locked with the sun?” Shen asked.

“Likely,” TL said.

“This system is unstable,” Shen said.

“It is artificially maintained,” TL said. “The stability technology utilized is greater than anything you and I have ever encountered.”

“Fuck me,” Shen said.

“Yeah,” TL said.

“These singularities,” Torny said. “Are you referring to the two hidden sisters?”

“Probably, I need to know more to confirm,” TL said.

Arne was there. “You need to check your brains and get tied up.”

“We have time,” Torny said.

“You either tie yourself, or I will tie you,” Arne said.

“I like the way you tie me,” Yaffa said.

“Now,” Arne said.

Torny nodded. They secured their books in waterproof leather bundle, then into bags, and then secured it into a floor locker.

“Come, we can all be tied together,” Jerica said.

“Flirting will get you everywhere,” TL said.

“No, it won’t,” Shen said.

“Want to bet?” TL asked.

“I need clarity on what we’re betting on,” Shen said.

“You two are like old lovers,” Orton said.

TL smiled. The ship was secure and the crew were belted with rope to the deck the inner wall. And they waited. It was quiet. Erico started a song, and they sang. It was a reasonably easy tune, and though Shen didn’t know the words, he could have sung along after the first chorus. Erico passed the figurative torch to Orton. Orton struggled for a rhyme, and for the life of him he couldn’t think of even a word- which brought the song game to an end.

“You use to be the best orator, and you can’t come up with one song?” Yaffa said. “Continue to espouse the love of lotus.”

Orton was mad. “I am just not in mood for song, that’s all. Shen, give us a song of your home.”

Shen seemed horrified. The crew chanted ‘song, song, song.’

“Yes, Shen,” TL said. “Do sing.”

“Like what, a Beetles song?” Shen asked.

“Oh, can’t go wrong with that, but go easy on them,” TL said. “Something fun. Something catchy.”

Shen thought and then gave them something from childhood. The theme song to Gilligan’s Island. They absolutely loved it. “I am the mate!” Erico said. “I must be the skipper,” Arne said. “What is this word star you keep using?” Torny asked. “Are there more lyrics?”

“No,” Shen said.

“Yes,” TL said.

“Really?” Shen asked.

“You didn’t know you could sing Amazing Grace to the theme song of Gilligan’s Island?” TL asked. She demonstrated.

The crew was quiet. Arne spoke first: “Those are the most powerful lyrics I have ever heard.” Torny was tearful: “You didn’t just give us song, you gave us a foundational heart story. The first chorus introducing the castaways is kind of playful, but in reality they are lost- but juxtaposed with the second verse, it is in being lost they are found.”

The ship rose so suddenly, it was as if it had been launched. If not for TL’s ‘vision,’ Shen wouldn’t have realized how high they went. The depth they fell to was more pronounced, as they were in a deep valley with a foreboding wall of water all around them. The depth took them to twilight, the height brought them back into full day. Looking up at the wall triggered fear of death, as one imagined it would collapse on top of them and that would be it; the sheer weight would crush them. Then back up. Arne started singing: “The weather started getting rough.” Everyone joined in. “The tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew the Aslog would be lost, the Aslog would be lost….” The first part of the chaos was simply amplitude, essentially a ‘six flags’ ride up and down. The aftershocks of waves were shallower, but they crashed over the deck. The ship was underwater some of the time, but it rose. In the air, there was song. Underwater, the rushing of water and heartbeat were prominent. The ship was rolled. The mast was broken clean, with a thunderous snap that sent shivers through the deck. The last submergence lasted the longest, but the ship rolled, and came up. It seemed to come up much more slowly than previous times. Water seemed to fall away slowly. The crew was alive, but exhausted. Arne sang: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, we once were lost, but now are found, have risen from the sea, have risen from the sea.”

The severity of it seemed to ease off, though the shipped moved as if a storm was in play.

“Now that the goddess herself has properly bathed us, we should return to work,” Arne said. “See if we can find our mast.”

Torny was the first to release her ropes. She came up, orientating on the sun.

“We will have night soon,” Torny said.

“But the dawn has just broke…” Orton said.

“You can’t be that stupid,” Yaffa said, passing him on the way to the bow.

“Which way is home?” Torny asked.

TL and Arne pointed in the same direction. Arne laughed. “You’re a compass, as well?”

“I know where I am,” TL said.

The boat rose suddenly and dropped. TL grabbed his Shen’s arm to keep him steady.

“Be awake. There will be more of those, but it will get easier,” Erico said.

“Maybe this was why the gods were warring last night,” Jerica said.

“Who can fathom the gods?” Torny asked.

“We have plumbed the depth of Ninkasi’s brew,” Arne joked. “I will fathom her.”

“I would do more than fathom her, if she drinks with me,” Erico said.

“In your dreams, Erico,” Jerica said, going aft.

“You have both drank too much sea today,” Torny said, and walked away.