See all as it is if you want to see it at all.
Emotional pathways scan in progress. Recent observations synced and merged into neural net. Bio-molecular structural integrity at 98%, with further strain on retina. Allowing electron birth-flow and enabling subsequent self-healing processes. Attaining desired integrity in 01 hour. Emotional scan over. Dominant markers, closeness and withdrawal.
Zadek opened his eyes. "I'm in a state of mixed emotions."
Like all Omirions, he held within him an exceptional legacy of correlating timelines and Timelessness, out of which he could access whatever was most clear to his perception. His clock-brain prevalence was an exceptionally-refined inner mechanism that helped him adjust his focus and maintain his level of dependability, yet his humanly side brought a wide range of challenges to deal with, among which he currently detected increasing levels of homesickness, anxiety, and loneliness.
The golden clock-wheels he held as irises were idly gazing at the wall ahead. Swiftly, he turned his head: a continuous, low-pitched sound had become audible from the floor below.
The Engine Room, he thought, and went out into the empty corridor.
It was late at night. He took the stairway, following the sound, and he met no one along the way.
Abruptly, he came to a halt.
A mirror sound-source had been birthed. It replicated the pitch accurately, yet from a different set of coordinates, and both zoomed past him in continuous transmission streams. It was extraordinary to hear – melodic yet deep and cruising through his mind and skin. Then the mirror-sound stopped.
Attentively, Zadek kept going towards the Engine Room.
A light within it awaited – for a moment, he'd thought it was produced by the lightning system on Umbar, but this was different. It greeted him and welcomed him, although it did not move nor made a sound, and then it dissipated across the room.
Zadek was left alone.
***
Five days had passed, and the memory of the sound had remained just as vivid in his mind. At times, he could even feel it on his skin – what was Planet B-17 trying to communicate to him? He'd asked Omiran – Clock of the World, his Maker, – and felt that he would soon learn about its significance.
Retina stem cells were deteriorating at fast rate. Frequent re-calibration and self-healing activities had become necessary. And now this tiredness that he felt... He stopped work, rubbed his eyes, and inhaled deeply, feeling the increasing need for air.
A pulsation of light issued – that light in the Engine Room had returned, – and the walls shivered and decompressed into holograms that fell to the side.
Around him came Seremna and a tribe of humanoids.
When is this? he asked Omiran, certain they couldn't see him.
Behold, came the response of the Cosmic Intelligence known as Time, and see your legacy unwind.
The place felt ancient – old enough to match the frequencies of the depths of Planet B-17. And the tongue these humanoids were speaking! – like bird wings through the wind, yet deep and grounded nonetheless.
An elder was presiding, a long, white mane of hair descending across his back and shoulders. He seemed as ancient as the rocks around them, and perhaps a tad younger than the formation of the sky. But he was strong, no weakness brimming in his eyes.
Before him spread the gathered tribe, most of whom bearing an air of concern. And the beautiful tongue they were speaking!
"É'áma," said one, pleading. "Mi-ttá me?" He was vigorously pointing at the sky. "Umbá!"
Zadek twitched. Had the man uttered the name Umbar?
"É'áma!" he repeated, turning around, looking at his fellow tribe members. "Amá nera-a." Then more ardently: "Imkanna naqna!"
Most of the assembled reacted strongly to those last few words, Zadek's clock-brain prevalence picking up surges in emotions.
"Naqna?" the man went on asking, looking some of them in the eyes. "Naqna?"
Someone nodded. "Naqna ka," he replied softly.
Many glanced up at the sky as Zadek turned his head to see the reaction of the chief. For the briefest of moments, he came under the impression that the chief had been watching him, before calmly but swiftly looking away.
"Naqna em?" asked their leader, his tone calm – a deep, full voice.
No reply.
Zadek moved closer to the Elder.
"Saqna," continued he, "anana bera." All were quiet. He pointed up, then lowered his hand to the ground and drew an oval in the soil. "Ima nara-a." Then he drew as if shafts encapsulating the oval.
Zadek leaned closer. Those markings seemed familiar – where had he seen them before?
The chief's eyes back upon the tribe, he added, "Anana é'áma."
Murmurs all around. The chief lifted his hand and pointed to his heart and temple. All noise subsided. The Elder had decided.
Zadek was fascinated.
Watch and learn, transmitted Omiran.
The luminescent platform on which Zadek had arrived was beaming, growing, and agilely it slipped under his feet once more;
he was transported.
Ahead of him walked the Elder Master, tribe chief and now his guide. To each side, vegetation. A narrow, dirt road under their feet. The chief was humming.
That sound! remembered Zadek all at once, and moved his feet and followed this wondrous man.
He noticed the stick the Elder was carrying, albeit for support it was not, for there was certainly no weakness in his knee. Thus they went on, among trees many, the Elder chief steadily striding in a leisurely pace that Zadek made his own. A turn in the road, and they continued left, before long arriving at a wide opening of rocky soil in horizontal stripes of deep beige.
Hillock past hillock, they went pursuing that which the Elder knew, and had begun to share. At times, Zadek would glance around or at the sky, yet the Elder's eyes never flinched, and he was not distracted.
At last, they had arrived: before them opened a deep cone of neatly carved terraces that went deeper and deeper into the earth; and they descended.
At the bottom, Zadek lifted his eyes up and marvelled at the star-strewn sky, which felt closer than ever before.
Silence – then a hum came upon the Elder's lips: a deep, powerful tone emerging from his core and issuing into the boundless surroundings. He spread his arms, his body swaying gently to the sides, the sky above bluer, the stars more scintillating, and Zadek saw them all at once: tribe chief, sky, and crater.
See, son? the Elder appeared to be saying. See all as it is if you want to see it at all.
Terrace upon terrace, Zadek was seeing Circles of Life.
Terrace beneath terrace, his very own core was revealed.
Terrace next to terrace, all life came to him as one.
And under the terrace, the sky and the moon.
In endless trails of Life, the eternal flow – and the tribe chief's stick was pointing at the sky.
Images began to flow in ethereal whispers, and Zadek discerned that he was being shown the unfolding of events around the coming of their ship. He saw tribes gathering in counsel, of apparently related breeds, expressing diverging opinions around what most likely concerned the Umbarian presence on Planet B-17; then other images he saw seemed unrelated, as if instances of daily life in this place; while others still made no sense at all – energies swirling, reconnecting in links that formed shapes, before fluidly dissolving and shaping something new.
That, my son, is the essence that Umbar is here to know.
Zadek was startled. It was the chief's voice inside his mind.
Now turn back and tell them that Baama the Elder allows them to know.
Rivers of dazzling light flooded the scene, and Zadek was brought back inside the Engine Room.
Oh, I love writing about Omirions! If you like Zadek, check out Misuri Namato's run for his life - and more - in the short story 'Son of Time' and Bizko in his adventure hiding an ancient artefact from the colonists in 'A Balinkar's Friend'.
Until then, how does Zadek seem to you? There's quite a diverse cast on Umbar, different races interacting and soon to explore the planet in their own, unique way. Which of them so far seems more like you?