Chapter One

ON HOPE

JILL UREGLIMI
HOPE

"This is really beautiful," Sharon said, standing with her back to the hospital, looking across the islet and beyond.

With her were twenty one Aides, including asLoutha from Cyti, who dressed as a soldier, making it clear that though she could be an 'ini' when it suited, she was also a ZeSha.

Sharon made her way down the chipped path of 'Hospital Hill' as I called it, to the river which separated it from 'Kema Islet' (my name.)  She reached the river's edge, and walked north, inland, as if looking for something. The islet on which the Kema would be placed, was encircled by the rivers. 'Behind' it, the rivers had met in a cloggy stream, where very large trees leaned over, dropping their mansized leaves making a kind of dam.

It was an odd, yet, probably normal feature of such terrain.

With a loud splash, Sharon dived into the river, swam across, the current not very strong. The Aides joined her, I did not.

They, being bigger and stronger found it easier to climb out, and helped her. She indicated a particular tree. I couldn't hear what she said. In a few minutes she returned the way she'd gone, wringing out her hair as if it were a piece of cloth.

The uniform she wore, a thin leather made from the skin of a chchpayn was virtually waterproof. The sleeveless blouse she wore beneath appeared to be a swimsuit.

We walked back to the hospital, her uniform drying in the heat, water streaming down her face and back.

"The Kema can't be here," she says hard and flat. I wasn't shocked, Temi had made the same 'decision' indicating the farthest island.

"Temi suggested the farthers island..."

"Listen to Temi.." she tossed, then, "I'm going to have them build me a tree house," she revealed, avid as a child, "and a little dock, on both sides, so it's easy to get in and out of the river."

"That should be lovely. I've chosen a house spot, myself." I say as we climbed the cliff.

"Where?" She asked.

I pointed, "See that little flat place over there? Just in front of the tree with pink leaves?"

"Tell them what you want", she gestured, "for once they start to build, it won't take no time. It's better to get everything done quick as possible, for when the Retrieved come, they're the priority."

As we entered the hospital, I took a clip board, made a drawing. It was a simple three room house, with large windows. I gave it to an ini, and told them, as Sharon, I wanted my house of wood. asLoutha, who'd been with us on Shalimar, had seen my mother's house, referred to it, and I nodded.

"Man, I'm thirsty." Sharon said, walking to a cooler I'd pinched from the Odin and filled with the 'ageless' water. If she realised it, she didn't speak of it.  

When she'd quenched her thirst, I invited her to look at the other islands, wanting her to see how much effort I've put into everything. She went through the west door and out.

Standing at the western edge I pointed ahead; "We're planting that one, and the others," I point north, northwest, then southwest, "will be mostly for habitation, and the raising of 'eat food' animals" I advise.

"We can also do some fishing, there are fish, I'm sure," she said, then turned and asked an Aide, who surprisingly, wasn't certain.

I picked up from the conversation that just about everyone around us had lived inland, few had seen an ocean until they came to Zechia.  I recall that the cities of Cyti and Zezki were inland. The spots for these cities were chosen by the ini themselves. The remarks of the ZeSha that they'd never seen an ocean until they came to Zechia was bizarre. Weren't there oceans on the ZerShaz planets?

While I ponder, Sharon spoke with them about building boats and fishing and all sorts of random stuff. I didn't follow her conversation because she tended to speak a clipped Shaz with a lot of ostensible Jamaican terms tossed in for seasoning.  Fourteen begged her leave to run off and get others to share the work. We came inside before they flew off.

"Sharon, let me ask you, the ZerShaz people seem almost afraid of oceans. Are there any villages by the sea? Do they eat fish?"

She gave me a totally blank look, then as she processed my question, confusion then surprise. I could read her face as a book.

"I never thought of that. But y'know, I never saw the sea on ZerShaz. It's there, but I don't think anyone lives near it, and I never saw them eat fish. Gee...that's really interesting, y'know?"

I nodded sagely, feeling, (dare I say blessed?) that I'd proven I wasn't an idiot.

I didn't want to remember those hours on the Parkinson, when Daktoy and I had shared a hallucination and I was so certain it was real I made the greatest fool of myself in her eyes.

Then changing the topic she said;" Jill, you training ini as zeduini and..." Sharon began.

"I thought of it myself, Sharon", I interjected tiredly.

"Huh?"

"You were going to mention training the Retrieved?"

She stared at me with respect...twice in one conversation! Twice I've impressed her...not that she was...well...there was this about her...she tended to be right. I took a breath;  " ZeSha consider being a Tubka a demotion. If they are partially functional, they are 'trained' to some minor extent as a ... I don't want to say 'doctor' so I'll leave it as Tubka...but..."

"There's got to be some way to get the rank of Tubka more than the last resort save death..."

I nodded sadly, "I can't suggest it." I know my limits

She pondered a moment, then off hand: "Maybe Tony can give an idea or two..."

"I doubt it." I gave flat out, adding; "The mere idea, the mere suggestion to them...to the Retrieved..."

"'You guys aren't qualified to be ZeSha anymore'...yeah. I know. But isn't there...a couple of Zees who are at least interested?"

"There is one...maybe maybe eJovic...maybe Koli..."

"Can't use the word 'Tubka' have to create some other word ...or some other function..." she reasoned.

The sun was hot, and she sat on the ground, with her back against the wall of the hospital in shadow. I could not believe she was sitting on the ground. It never would have entered my mind to do it. Yet there she was, the great goddess, sitting on the ground, as if a sofa, expounding; "We'll have the Applewhyte and the Gautier crews. They have no where to go but here. Oh, by the way, what about the geniuses from the Ark?"

"I haven't a clue." I replied, "I've been ignoring them. Too busy." This was true now, hadn't been true last year. Hadn't even been true six months ago.

I felt uncomfortable as she turned her face to mine, searching. She was so ugly, but to look away would prove my lie, so I asked; "Does he know what you intend?"

"Yeah, of course." She tossed.

She lit another cigarette and softly; "I can't live on ZerShaz. The gravity is too much, the weather and the days ...y'know what it's like to live on a planet with thirty six hour days?"

It was a rhetorical question, an answer was not required.

"The mornings are freezing. At night, in the eighteen hours of night, it gets colder and colder until it's like a freezer. Then the sun starts to comes up, and you can hear ice cracking, like an alarm clock, cracking. Little cracks and big cracks, trust me, you don't want to hear it. Then it starts to heat up, nice. Then it heats up more, not so nice. Then the humidity so that you can bearly breathe, and then it starts to rain."

She looked at the islet, her jaw working as if angry, and maybe she was.

"And it rains. And rains, first a hot rain, nice, then it starts getting colder, not nice. And it rains. Then it

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 01.04.2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-1056-0

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