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Aeryn was lost. Everywhere she looked was the same; a thick impenetrable haze.
But something was important.
Urgent.
She could not remember what.
And it was so much easier just to sit here.
She was cold - cold and wet - and she couldn't move - so being lost couldn't matter.
But there was something she had to do.
It was URGENT, and she couldn't get out of the chair!
And Crichton was - - Crichton was what?
Then she was awake, bathed in sweat.
'Frell. I used not to dream like that.'
She wasn't trapped, not helpless at all, just hemmed in by the heavily slumbering forms of Chiana and Rygel. 'What an incongruous trio we are,' she thought, with a small grunt of laughter.
Ships passed heavily, silently, down the fog-swathed coast - like ghosts. Wide-winged bird wraiths drifted indistinctly above it all. She watched one fold and drop like a silent spear into the water, after some luckless prey.
Aeryn shuddered.
Chiana shrugged awake. "Ever been on a planet you like?" she asked.
Aeryn looked quizzically at her for a microt, then gave a non-committal grunt.
"I'll take that as a No . . ."
"Time we moved." Aeryn said. "This is as light as it's going to get," and she slid down from the high driving seat.
What had it been about Crichton?
She touched her comms badge and heard it 'blip' in response.
"Can you talk?" she asked quietly.
"Just quickly." She heard his familiar voice. "Everything alright there?"
"We're fine," she told him. "Moving on now."
"Good - see you back at the transport. We'll be there today."
There was a long pause while Aeryn wondered if he was covering something, as she was.
"It's settled down, Aeryn. Going fine. No need to worry."
"I wasn't," and she closed the link.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
'How the frell had she got to this place?' she wondered.
She had got here because, not for the first time, one of their famous plans had fallen apart. Rygel's fault this time. Whatever manipulative agreement he had made turned out to be seriously flawed, and they'd run with the goods. Crichton and D'Argo were still in the caravanserai, covering their backs.
Then they'd broken down, in the thick grey night.
She vented her frustration now on the engine. It was an old mechanical thing, and she was sure a Tech would have it functional in no time, but to Aeryn it was just a tangle of hardware. She was on the verge of taking a rock to a stubborn valve when Rygel said mildly, "Have you considered that it is simply out of fuel?"
"Fuel?"
"Fuel. If this indicator is for fuel, and this symbol is a zero, then there is no fuel. So, we just have to fill up again, and we can go."
Aeryn found what appeared to be the fuel reservoir. There was an empty clang when she kicked it. "Fill up? Out here?" She looked round hopelessly. "We'll have to push it!"
"Now wait a minute," Chiana chimed in. "Us? Push this?" She looked up at the heavy vehicle. "You have to be tinked."
"You have a better idea?" Aeryn said. "Maybe we could load it all on Rygel's throne sled. How many trips would that take, Rygel?" Her head on one side she pondered the little Dominar. Only the sparkle in her eyes suggested this was Aeryn's sarcastic mode.
"Float it!" Chiana said.
Chiana had got a better idea, Aeryn realised with surprise - and she should have thought of it herself. She began tearing apart the body of the vehicle. A raft should be easy - and ripping the vehicle apart could only make her feel better!
Half an arn later Aeryn hauled off a sheet of cladding and turned with it in her hands. "Chiana, catch!" she called, but Chiana was gone.
"Little tralk will no more work than -" Rygel began.
"Than a Dominar!" Aeryn finished for him. "Get under there and pull out the cabling - we can use it to lash."
"In this heat . . ?"
"Yes. In this heat. Take it as slowly as you like, Your Eminence."
"Lash?" a cheerful voice called. "Did someone say lash? In this heat?"
Aeryn looked round, searching for Chiana's hiding place. Visibility was almost nil.
"Here!" she called, and there was a crunching by the shore. "Why build a boat, when you can snurch one?" Chiana was pleased with herself, but she was taken aback when Aeryn let out a laugh.
"No pursuit?" Aeryn asked.
"Nope! I was as silent as - well, as silent as Me when I don't want to be heard," Chiana said with a triumphant grin.
"Let's load up, then."
Aeryn swung down from wrecking the vehicle, stumbling as she hit the ground.
"You OK?" Chiana asked her.
"I'm fine." But that was not entirely true. The stifling heat was beginning to get to her. This pit of a planet changed from freezing cold, clammy fog, to hot, steamy, stifling fog in under an arn, and Aeryn had been working hard in it for far too long. "Come on Rygel - you can expend some energy here."
The cargo was small, it was only the vehicle they had acquired that was huge. It took little time to stow it on the boat; then they could drift with the current to their transport pod.
"You should not have gone off like that," Aeryn told Chiana.
"You're not my mother, Aeryn."
"If you'd only do as you're told."
"You're not my commanding officer, either"
"Get yourself killed then!"
"Fine! I will!"
Had there been anywhere to stomp off to, Chiana would have stomped off. "You know Aeryn, I can take care of myself - you're not responsible for all of us," she said.
"Who said I was?"
"When you two have finished," Rygel interrupted, "I think we must have overshot - I recognise none of these landmarks - such as they are. . ."
Laboriously they turned and began to paddle back the way they had come.
"Who said this place had a breathable atmosphere?" Chiana gasped. "My lungs are being broiled. . . . Where is the frelling transport? Rygel - get aloft and see if you can spot it."
Out of habit he grumbled, but it made sense, so he hovered away.
"Uh - it was Crichton," Aeryn said.
"Huh?"
"Said the air was breathable - " she broke off thickly.
"You OK?"
"Fine - just take it slow, Chi."
"Not too hot? I know about that heat thing."
Aeryn just shook her head - "It's fine."
"How did you guys ever get to dominate the lesser races?" Chiana wondered.
"We don't bother with the hot worlds."
Chiana looked up from her sculling. Aeryn's face was deadpan but for the twitch of an eyebrow.
"You know, I'd swear it was between those two pillars of stone - under that headland there." Chiana said, pointing to a steep cliff just ahead.
"Me too - " Aeryn agreed, "but the headland was much higher."
They had the same idea at the same instant. "No - " they said in unison. "Rygel!"
He glided down, appearing out of the mist as they yelled.
"Bad news, underlings," he announced.
"The tide has risen," they finished for him.
"How did you - ?" he said. "Never mind. Moya's transport pod is somewhere below us now."
"How could you have been so stupid!?" Aeryn accused him bitterly. "'Put it down here,' you said. 'The bluff will hide it,' you said. You're aquatic, Rygel. You're supposed to understand about tides!!!!"
"Peacekeeper," he said portentously. "I had generals to take care of the details."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was nothing left but to beach the boat and wait.
"I hope Crichton and D'Argo don't come back with a horde of angry traders after them," Aeryn said. "Perhaps we should find out just how deep it is. Rygel - time for a swim."
Half an arn later Aeryn came awake with a jolt, and terrified Chiana by pulling a pistol on her.
"Woah, Aeryn! It's me, just me. . ."
"Huh . .? Sorry . . ." Aeryn breathed.
"Dreaming again?" Chiana asked, but Aeryn did not answer.
There was a long silence; until Chiana said, "You ever talk to anyone about it?"
"Uh?" Aeryn shook the haze from her head, focussing on the question.
"About being dead," Chiana said.
She pondered a long time before answering slowly. "No. I tried once - with Zhaan - but Zhaan and I , we didn't share a vocabulary. I really don't know why she did it." She hurled a stone into the water, lapsing into silence.
Chiana was not put off for long. It was as though she had a need to fill the whispering silence.
"So tell me what it's like Aeryn, being dead?"
"It's not like anything -"
"OK. Well, I guess what I mean is, is what's it like knowing you were dead?"
"It's - ah, I don't know Chiana. I don't know how to explain."
"Give it a try, Aeryn. You have to deal with it."
"No, I don't, Chiana."
"It's driving you nuts! You're not sleeping . . ."
"That's none of your -"
"We need you, sane!"
"Chiana, you don't understand!"
"Well then, help me to. . ."
Aeryn stood up explosively. "Where IS he?"
"His amphibious majesty? - You know where he is - he's trying to find a way back into the transport." Chiana smiled, "He's in his element - literally."
Aeryn paced the shore "How can it take him so long?" she said.
"Cool it, Aeryn. He's only little. I'm - I'm sure he's doing his best."
"His best . . !" Aeryn scrunched down on the shore again, hugging her knees.
"He fished you out you know!" Chiana said gently.
"Huh?"
"From the ice lake."
"I wondered . . ."
"But you never thought to ask, eh? That chair - it didn't float too well."
"I know . . ." Aeryn remembered.
"Poor Ryg got pretty well chilled - got his imperial underwear all frozen." Chiana told her.
At this point the Dominar himself splashed grumpily ashore. "The thing's designed for vacuum, not immersion. We will have to wait." He scuttled behind some rocks to shrug into his dry robe, muttering, "Permit royalty some dignity. . ."
Chiana was jittery. "I can't sit here feeling like I'm being watched," she said. "Do you feel that? No? Well, I do. I'm going exploring."
Aeryn came out of her reverie, but Chiana forestalled her - "Don't lecture me Aeryn - I'm just going to look at the stones." She started picking her way up the steep cliff path.
Aeryn sighed, and after a moment, followed her.
"I don't need a mother." Chiana objected.
"I know. I'm not volunteering."
The two pillars on the headland stood as part of a circle of rough stones - silently guarding the secrets of centuries. Chiana shivered as she stepped into the enclosure. "I wonder who built this," she said. "And why."
"Whoever they were, they're long dead." Aeryn said.
The fog shifted amongst the stones. Shadows moved, nebulous.
"You think they're haunted?"
"Of course not."
"Why not? It's an ancient site. Who knows what hangs around?" Chiana said.
"Don't be foolish," Aeryn told her simply.
"Look," Chiana kept her voice low. "Is there something between the pillars, or - beyond them maybe? Columns, arches - as though the stones - as though they're part of something bigger."
"I see nothing," Aeryn said, dismissive. "Just fog."
"You're not trying. You have to kinda let it sidle up to you - don't look at it directly." She looked at Aeryn, imploring her to see the tenuous shapes. "It's like, it's like a temple -" she breathed, as she put a name to forms she was almost seeing - "but like it's not quite here."
"I think you're right," Rygel chimed in, joining them.
"And who is watching the cargo?" Aeryn said, exasperated.
He dismissed this with a wave of his hand. "And who will threaten it? There's not a soul for metras." He went on - "A site like this, cycles and cycles - aeons maybe - of ritual use - devotion -"
Aeryn snorted and he looked at her sharply - tutting. "Peacekeeper, you were brought up in ignorance. Don't you know that every civilised species -" He paused, looking up. Above, swooping over their heads, indistinct shapes wheeled, glided in and landed with a whisper, shaking out and folding leathery wings.
"Oh!" Chiana said, relieved, "just birds."
One of them cocked its head and looked her directly in the eye. "Indeed," it said.
"And you, sir," another addressed Rygel; "are quite correct." Their voices, between a squawk and a croak, were not easy on the ear.
"But you're just birds," Chiana said unnecessarily.
"And you?" the first asked, harsh voice edged with contempt.
"I, I am Nebari," Chiana drew herself up tall, her white mop bobbing side to side.
The second said, to Rygel, "And you, I see, are of the Hynerian race - at home, as we are, on land and sea."
"And in the air," Rygel beamed - and soared high on his throne sled to demonstrate.
"So," Chiana asked. "Do you know about this place? Is it - is it real?"
"It is as real as you see," a tall, silvery-coated bird said.
"These stones - " Chiana went on, "it's like they're part of something bigger - a building -" and as they looked around the nebulous shapes did indeed seem to become more substantial. Even Aeryn could no longer deny there was something there.
"Your presence, your spirits, call it back into existence," a bird told her. "- all of you, or one."
"From?" Aeryn asked.
"Your question has no meaning," they said
"Sure it has!" Chiana said. " Buildings don't just appear from no place!"
"It is as the Hynerian," she gestured towards Rygel, inviting him to supply his name.
He treated them to the whole thing; "Dominar Rygel XVI of the Hynerian Empire."
The silvery bird bowed her head, "And I am the Patikos, Pel Argan," she said.
Abruptly Aeryn fell to her knees and vomited.
"Hey!" Chiana said, crouching beside her. "I know His Lord High Pomposity can be nauseating, but -"
Aeryn tried to fend her off with a feeble push. She felt as though every spillet of strength was draining from her.
The birds turned their sharp faces towards Aeryn.
"Your response to this place is remarkable;" Pel Argon said. "It is as the Dominar said - aeons of worship here -"
Aeryn pushed her way out of the enclosing flock. "Don't give me that dren."
"Here where the margins of land, sea and air shift and merge," one began. Bird-like they tended all to speak together. It was hard to distinguish one from the other.
"Here, where even water does not know its proper place," another indicated the fog with a sweep of a folded wing.
"Right -" Aeryn said bitterly, remembering the drowned transport pod.
"Could it be that you called this place back into time?" a shrewd looking bird suggested.
"Could it be that I drank tainted water an arn ago?" Aeryn said flatly, clinging to the prosaic.
"You feel it, do you not?" one asked.
"The ineffable in this place; the infinite."
"The meshing, the merging,"
They crowded round her, wings raised, excited - menacing.
"No, no wait!" Chiana said, light dawning. "The infinite you said? Aeryn was, she was killed - not so long ago - drowned. Aeryn was dead - is that what you mean? Somehow this place knows?"
"You have known death?" Pel Argon said. "Then you are truly a creature out of time." Her bird face, with its disturbingly intelligent eyes, was a hand's breadth from Aeryn's own.
"No!" Aeryn took a pace back. "I - I was - I was -" she turned away, marching past them all to stare unseeing over the bay where fog hung thick. She needed desperately to deny that she had been dead - to believe it was a mistake, a coma, some sort of suspension - somehow.
"Face it," Rygel told her. "Anyone that deep in an ice lake, for that long, even an invincible Sebacean - - is Dead!"
"And what would that have to do with this place?" Aeryn said.
"The life spirit calls this place back to us, and your spirit is strong, Peacekeeper. Strong and turbulent." Pel Argon said.
The birds flocked round her, in a kind of ecstasy. Aeryn found her translator microbes almost overwhelmed by their cries.
She made out, "sea, land, air,"
"heart, mind, body,"
"growth and completion;" amongst the babble.
Her hand hovered, defensive, over her pulse pistol.
"We can free you from the turmoil," they rasped.
"You are so close;"
"Join us." A couple of younger ones launched from the cliff top, breaking their fall on wide wings.
The flock were edging her closer to the cliff-edge, where one ancient stone stood improbably over the abrupt drop.
"Feel the still centre, where all is one," the Patikos intoned.
But under Aeryn's feet was a vortex - over her head stars tumbled and fell.
Struggling to hang on to the vertical she found herself clutching onto Chiana's arm.
"Deny your spirit and you stunt your whole being. Was it a shock, warrior, to discover your soul?" the bird finished quietly.
"I -" Aeryn began helplessly. She looked up and met Pel Argon's gaze, and gave the briefest of nods - more of an acknowledgement to herself than a reply.
She barely noticed as Chiana led her gently to safer ground.
"Child," Rygel said. "There are more things in Hezmana and -" he waved a regal hand to encompass the heavens - "and elsewhere, than your teachers ever allowed you to dream of."
Aeryn felt a flash of anger, displaced instantly by surprise, at the 'child'.
Her comms beeped. "You guys ready for us?" John's cheery voice came through. "We're on our way - and, erm - we may have some pursuit - for a change."
"We hear you, John," she told him. She looked at her companions. "Now that," she said, "is real! Come on - we need to get that boat ready."
"Right!" Chiana said. "And then we talk . . ."
Abandoning philosophy and bird-folk, Aeryn, Chiana and Rygel skidded down the track to the water, where the transport pod's hull was at last breaking through the ripples. Aeryn breathed a sigh of relief for plan 'B'.
Chiana glanced back to see the heavy, leather-winged birds soar high into the think fog, their calls fading mournfully. Aeryn was already pushing the boat off, ready for John and D'Argo to tumble headlong into it.
Behind them on the cliff top the temple merged unregarded back into the mists of time.
