NIGHT 25. The senior meteor hunter, Starbek, and his surveyors Stronta and Mekura, together with their team of nine apprentices, on nights when the sky is clear, often set their learned instruments at three singular locations some five kilolechas distant to the other, oriented about a center point marked with a lantern containing beryl lenses and mirrors of polished onyx. In this array they chart the incident paths of meteors upon the night’s myriad blackness. By said protocol they can cipher the height, pace, and compass of these brilliant packets. By assaying the varied hues of their streaks across the heavens they are able to also distinguish the metal from the stone meteors. So refined is their skill that they are able to harvest these copious objects when they fall near the route of our advance. Starbek is the master who is noted for his discovery of the Orengawa meteorite on the ice steppes of northern Kalikeri some seasons before. Alloy from this object has been used to construct scores of chronometers and other navigational instruments.
The methods used by these calibrators to locate fallen meteors is of such advancement that few citizens fathom it. Recent developments in computation have revolutionized the success and speed of meteorite hunting. The talents of Laki and Starbek have contributed much to this advancement. Although this new method has been explained to me, I am imperfect in its understanding. It is said that the old method required tedious manipulation of large sets of quantities. However, the new method that the calibrators call complexion, allows the sharing of the computational weight of a cipher by groups of calibrators who establish themselves in certain formations of operations known as stadia and powers. The calibrators within these formations then break the cipher into parts and pass the products and quotients between each other in an organized way to achieve the solution in a very short time. The cipher is controlled by a particular calibrator called the initiator, who is positioned between the stadia and powers. There is no limit to the number of complexions that can be arranged. Therefore, cases exist where complexions occupy the positions of initiators, stadia, and powers in even larger complexions. In this way, difficult ciphers that once took many seasons, or even lifetimes, can now be solved in less than a day.
It is said that in Kalikeri, a great hall has been constructed with 2,000 rooms that each house calibrators working in complexions to solve fundamental ciphers about the universe itself. There are rumors that they have uncovered mysteries of such pitch that they cannot be revealed to the citizens without fear of creating panic. I have asked Laki about this and he has refused to comment, other than to tell me that the mystery behind these rumors is what propels our mission to this foreign place. He has told me to say no more about it. So I obey.
On this night Laki, Jodessa, Acales, and others join Starbek and his party as they set their survey camps on a clear plain arrayed about us where many meteors streak across the heavens. The surveyors dial their chronometers and transits and prepare for ciphering.
On occasions, Starbek and his team observe meteors that defy the rule of falling motions. Such an occurrence does manifest outwardly on this night. There is suddenly observed by all present a curious meteor that does not burn out, does not explode, nor does it strike upon the earth. This meteor makes a change in its advance and then speeds away westerly, like an arrow, into the bulk of the ethereal depths, as if hurled, caught, and returned by an invisible hand.
Jodessa: “Praise Mareus, what was that?”
Starbek: “Fear not! Comrade Jodessa, these odd meteors have been observed before, yet as if rarely. Note well, Laki, how the pace and aspect of the object changed as we observed it, how it went near stillness, like as to a pause, then came back to a streakish rate in a reversal of will.”
Laki: “Then again, what was it?”
Starbek: “No philosopher has yet served a reasonable explanation, to my mind, in the justification of these strange meteors. Therefore, we have compelled ourselves to assume little with regard to their franchise. Actually, we in practice mostly shun their mention lest we appear unpragmatical.”
The trite assurances offered by Starbek do not abate the impassioned discords of Laki. He is plainly disturbed and therein compelled to a state of uncertainty. He tugs at his beard and conjures a contemplative rapture as he scans the heavens for copies of these odd features. After some pause he speaks to us.
Laki: “This precocious object defies the principles of mechanisms, which govern the motions of falling masses. Such a violation, to my knowledge, is unnatural and can only manifest if so compelled by focused action. Some agent must propel gestures of flight as they are therein displayed. Like a fowl in aerial course, by his will he turns and loops but in his death at the hunter’s force, he plummets like a stone. No, I put to you good masters, these objects indeed challenge and unsettle the foundations of our knowledge and herein require that we examine and weigh all of our vulnerable assumptions.”
Jodessa: “Laki, cannot these specks be little more than whimsical spirits, uncaged in their capricious maneuvers amid the tsunami of the stellar abyss, as unknown to us as we are to they?”
Laki: “Perhaps sir, yet rightly so, such beings wherein even as they would be, as you say, therefore beg more perfect explanation to the unsettled eye. Winged meteors, spirits, magical jewels flung against Heaven’s veil, I know not. Yet a certainty, singular in its moment, is thus abruptly born herein, they have aroused our sensibilities. No, these are not the children of a realm that we are common to. Though in patience, this sudden enlightenment shall prompt our intelligence of such implications and we will formulate a response. We shall not be surprised by these strange lights again! In fact…good Jodessa, my soul tells me that we should follow these lights.”
Jodessa: “The truth of what you say I sense in my mind, yet still I will await another sign, else I go about aimless.”
Laki: “Jodessa, mark it now, east we may turn, north, or whatever, yet that was the sign and so it shall west for us be, sooner, better, or later can do. Yet it will come.”
Jodessa: “We shall see soon enough then. Acales, what seems so particular with you in this?”
Acales: “I have a curious intuition concerning the men who sail in those little meteors.”
Laki: “What is it then?”
Acales: “My heart tells me something odd...my heart tells me they are poets.”
Starbek: “Even if men, how is it so with your thinking in this...that they would be so arrayed like singers?”
Laki: “I think I would know what Acales’ idea is in this, yet speak it anyway, sir.”
Acales: “They are poets, because if they were not, they would be disposed of us, they would kill us.”
Laki: “Aye, this I too sense!”
Stronta: “Gentlemen! What sophistry is this?”
Acales: “No sophistry, only the main. For even as we who attend to noble chases, and whatever pretensions that go with such arrogance, still in our mass, as men, we make plump targets for a higher sensibility. We are a slaughter for someone. Yet poets are beclouded by quaint dualities and abstractions and appreciate enigmas. They would pick out the subtleties of little beauties laminated in amongst the basest things. Even in the most fracted hearts of men some grace could be copied, and admired. This, I think, is what they see here, so that is why they let us still live. They are curious about our mettle.”
Laki: “If what you say is true, then the universe is far more elegant than I had supposed.”
Acales: “Never doubt that, even if what I say is false.”
Laki: “I see the truth of it.”
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