Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 61 - Dragon Slayers (X)

There is a saying: One falling star signals good fortune. Two is a warning. Three spells doom.

Queen Hadassah was well pleased to have heard the reports of the second falling star, but all of the soothsayer sects agreed that the ancestors had issued a stern warning. Even now they were off in their various temples, reading goat entrails and tea leaves to discern what the warning might be. They would reconvene that evening to argue about it endlessly.

The Queen was content with this. It would keep them busy while she had someone investigate the falling star. Hadassah of Penyong was a cold rationalist; she didn't believe in any of that nonsense about the ancestors building flying machines and other children's stories. She wasn't concerned with omens. What she was concerned with was the fact that fallen stars were valuable.

The one from earlier today had been too close to Cairnian territory to bother with, no star was worth provoking a war over, but this one fell right inside her sovereign lands.  It was hers by right, as long as she could keep it out of the hands of thieves and holy men.

Queen Hadassah decided she would have her son Asher lead the expedition to retrieve the star. It would give the bookish fop something to do. He was completely enamored with fairy stories of ancient humans and glittering cities, so this fallen star might be just the sort of thing to coax some normalcy out of him.

* * *

Prince Asher of Penyong rode out at the head of the retinue with a grim resignation. He was barely able to keep from embarrassing himself on his spider-wolf; he was no arachnian.

Asher was certain that he was headed into trouble. All manner of bandits, enemies soldiers, dangerous cultists would likely be after the fallen star. There were dozens of unimaginable ways he could die out here, so far from the fortified walls of the city. Asher didn't want to end up with his half-rotten, tar covered head on a pike over the parapets of some foreign dungeon. He felt there was a significant likelihood of that occurring now.

For the entire ride Prince Asher was on constant alert to flee at the first sign of danger. There were people out for his head, and he wasn't going to make it easy on them.

Asher was still obsessing over the image of his own tarred head on a pike, turning it over in his mind and fondling it, that he didn't notice the strangers on the road until they called out to him.

"Greetings," said a man with a very posh sounding accent, even to a noble "Do you speak our language?"

There was a group of three of them, two men and a woman. They were obvious nobility, it was clear from their accent and their clothes, which were pure white.

"I do," said Asher "And well met."

It was an odd question to ask. Of course he spoke their language, everyone spoke the same one. The idea of other languages was purely hypothetical. The strangers must be from very far away to be worried about something like that.

Asher started to wonder what might bring strangers from so far away? Perhaps they were after the fallen star. Visions of the strangers parading Asher's head around on a pike, tar dripping onto their pristine white uniforms, began to dance in his head.

"I am Commander Gibson," said the man whose name was apparently Commander Gibson.

"This is Lieutenant-Commander Mitzner and Doctor Kang," he continued, indicating his companions "We are representatives of the Huxley Foundation Starship Armstrong. We come in peace."

Asher stopped, and held out his arm so that his retinue stopped behind him. The strangers, however, continued to approach. As they got closer Asher noticed that they all wore identical golden brooches. Some kind of bird maybe? There were other touches of gold on the stranger's clothes as well, neck tabs and decorations on the shoulders.

His first impression had been the correct one; they were nobles for certain. He was glad he had chosen to be polite to them.

"I am Prince Asher of Penyong, Duke of Pictland, third in line for the crown of Lithica. These are my various men-at-arms and retainers," he indicated with a sweep of his hand "I am not familiar with the Huckle Sea Foundlands. Are they very far from here?"

"That might be a bit of an understatement," said Commander "We're not from this planet."

"What do that mean?" asked Asher.

"We're from other worlds," the man continued, as though that was somehow an explanation.

"That doesn't even make any sense," said Asher "'The world' means everything. It's the whole world! How can you be from another world? Do you mean another landmass? Perhaps the one theorized to exist on the other side of the Ocean?"

"He means other planets," said the woman, who shared a name with Commander. Probably his wife or sister "You know, great big balls of rock in the sky?"

"In the sky?" repeated Asher, dumbfounded "Never in my life has I seen the likes of that! The far-off island you're from sounds strange indeed."

"You're embarrassing yourselves," said the third man, who hadn't yet spoken. Doctor was his name "I am commandeering this conversation," he turned to Asher "Forget everything those two just said to you. What you call 'the world' is a sphere so large that you can't see the curve while standing atop it. It is revolving around its own axis, as well as revolving around the sun. One axis revolution is a day, one sun revolution is a year. Daylight is when the world is facing the sun, night is when it is facing away."

"By the ancestors that makes perfect sense," said Asher, taken aback.

"When you see stars in the sky at night, those are also suns. Many such suns have worlds that revolve around them. That is what we mean by other worlds."

"The stars are tiny suns?" asked Asher.

"See that tree over there," said Doctor, pointing.

"Yes," said Asher.

"Notice how small it is?" said Doctor.

"That's only because it is so far away," replied Asher.

"The sun only appears smaller than 'the world' because it is further away than you could possibly imagine. It utterly dwarfs your planet. The stars are even further away still. Some are larger than your sun, some smaller, but all are many thousands of times larger than your world."

"If what you're saying is true, you must have the same level of scientific sophistication as our legendary ancestors to have traveled between the stars!" exclaimed Asher, trembling with excitement.

"See?" said Doctor, turning to his companions "How hard was that?"