Fine Line

Chapter Seven

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world... .
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.

— Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses, 1842

It had been a month since the NOVA colony has settled on Wolf. The inhabitants had observed the newcomers and accepted their attempt at communication. Rapidly, exchanges happened between the settlement and the caves; weapons, food, clothes, even plants and flowers were part of these transactions.

The linguists had found a way to translate the Wolf language, similar to how the Slavic languages were written. It had been a bit difficult for the Novans to learn to speak Wolfe as most of them were originally form the Asian and Pacific regions of the old World.

The simple life based on hunting, fishing and cultivating appealed to Van and Gauguin. It reminded them of their past on their island. Their tattoos also gave them an advantage with the natives, as all seemed to have lines etched on their body.

As the seasons passed, the two friends learned the language and started to spend more time with the Wolves, as they started to call the original inhabitants of the planet. They particularly liked the old sage who used to tell myths and legends. Van felt like he was with his grandfather. The nostalgia of their former life slowly dissipated as the integrated a new society.

On a starry night, the old Wolf told the young Novans a tale of falling stars and Wolves awakening from a long and dreamless sleep. The grandpa continued his story telling about how the Planet, after the star had fallen, decided for who would be accepted to live off her gifts. The chosen ones, then, received the lines on their body as sign of welcome. Those who didn't receive the lines had to return to their profound and lonely sleep.

Van and Gauguin didn't think further about this story, though the old man seemed to insist and retold it almost every night, as if to pass a message the two younger men couldn't understand.

After a long period of cold and darkness, the life came back with a spring on the Wolf planet. Van and Gauguin were almost indiscernible from the Wolves and spent few time with their former friends from NOVA.

Most of the Space Station had been vacated, with only a small amount of scientists remaining up there to further their research and keep an eye on the space tunnel. The others had settled in various location around the mountains; small villages had sprouted from the muddy floor.

On their way to visit Nic and Vince, Van and Gauguin were accompanied by a young Wolf interested in knowing more about the newcomers, the people who came from the stars. The two scientists had moved their settlement in a part of the Forest the young men were not familiar with, thus the reason for the Wolf presence.

A strange mound attracted their gazes as they were talking animatedly with their new friend. Van approached to take a look as it seemed strange and out of place. The trees around the monticule were shorter and sparser than in the rest of the forest.

The Wolf tried to stop them as they were trespassing on sacred ground. The old man, he told them, had always forbidden the younger ones to go near this place. It was sacred and dangerous, and could anger the Planet.

Gauguin, intrigued, followed his childhood friend when the root of a gnarled tree made him trip over, and he fall head first in the mud. His head, however, didn't find the watery and tender soil as he expected, instead, he bumped on a hard and rigid floor. What surprised him the most, though, wasn't the painful hit but rather the echo resulting from the encounter of his head with what seemed to have been a metal plate.

Searching Vance with his eyes, Gauguin saw his friend closing on him, standing beside him. He forayed with his foot until he succeeded in reproducing the echo. Kneeling slowly, he dug with his hands for a moment before he could find a handle. Trying a short pull without high hope in opening the door, Vance was surprised as the panel gave way.

The two Novans paused a moment, looking each other in a silent communication. Gauguin decided for is friend has he set a foot through the hatch. He still couldn't understand how it could have been so easy to open it. The only explanation he could think off was that someone was maintaining the place, oiling the hinges regularly, removing the vegetation when it became too invasive.

As they passed an airlock, Van and Gauguin were even more surprised to find a setting similar to what they had gotten used to on NOVA. After a short walk through a corridor, they entered a large room. There was almost no light, though they didn't need it to realize they knew what they were seeing.

Van approached a storage container, wiped the dust on the front panel and looked through the opening at the top. There lied a man, fallen from the stars, frozen in time.