Stuart A. Jackson - Water.pdf - Stuart A. Jackson - widez2

Book One

The Koyculture

Book Three

Page 1

Water

Book Two

Novagaia

Chapter One

Tennys had had his doubts about his transport when it had arrived, and now it felt as if those doubts

were justified. The Bus was falling out of the sky, completely out of control, its long legs dangling. To

make matters worse, its belly had become transparent allowing him to see the toy landscape of

Novagaia, upon which he was soon going to be a protein puree.

He screamed.

Page 2

He had arrived at the Hub complex at the centre of the Novagaian orbital only an hour previously,

aboard a small reaction shuttle from Memecast. The view of the approaching structure through the

vehicle’s imaging systems was spectacular.

The Novagaian Hub was ellipsoidal, 10 kilometres in length along its greatest axis. Innumerable docking

spines sprouted from both ends of it, many more than a kilometre long. Looked at from directly above,

the Hub was a spiky, squashed disc. Seen from the side, in line with the inner surface of Novagaia itself,

it was a spiky, flattened lozenge, three kilometres thick, studded with ports, blisters, lights, windows and

shadows. The volume above and below this central section was transparent, flecked with green and blue,

apparently unprotected from vacuum.

After disembarking from the shuttle, his first proper look at Novagaia through the long transparent wall

of the docking spine revealed a world not just ostensibly open to vacuum, but actually open to vacuum.

Having been raised on a sealed Austerity micro-orbital, and being used to the closed environment of

Memecast, the concept of living on such a potentially leaky structure alarmed him greatly.

He must have stood gawping for longer than he thought when he arrived because when he turned around

at the sound of a noise behind him, he was alone. A hoop of striped black was rolling toward him. It

stopped a few metres short. Ivory coloured graphics flowed across the thing’s black surface.

I am Hub courtesy , the words spelt. Can I do anything for you? Secondary scrolling requested his

preferred mode of access, while the machines grew flexible manipulators with small hands. The machine

offered the hands, palms open, in a curiously polite gesture to accompany the silent graphics.

Ah, thought Tennys, a porter. He adopted his usual condescending tone when talking to constructs.

‘Verbal access. I am Tennys Smolensky. Tell me how I get down to the orbital surface and how I find

Chapel Halls.’

‘A Bus can take you to Chapel Halls direct, Tennys Smolensky,’ replied the machine smoothly. ‘Hub

courtesy will provide your internal resource with the necessary directions if you wish?’

‘Yes. I do.’

‘Complying. Thank you.’

With that, the machine folded its hands quickly, in the manner of a ritual bow, its appendages intruded

back into itself, and it rolled away. Tennys was left, his mouth hanging slightly open, staring after the

machine as it moved around the curve of the corridor and disappeared. He was used to a little more

deference from constructs. For a moment, he felt a little silly.

Tennys accessed his resource. It interfaced his visual cortex and a map appeared, apparently hanging in

the air in front of him. Black and grey graphics wriggled into position showing him his position and route.

He began walking and the map stayed with him, a little over 30 centimetres from his nose until he

backgrounded it. His route took him, via a lift, to the other side of the Hub complex. He emerged into a

wide, deserted corridor, very much like the one that he had left. Movement caught his eye as he was

passing the big curved window.

Page 3

Something was approaching the Hub.

Tennys was reminded of pictures he had seen, of the kinds of invertebrate insects that had abounded on

Earth before Water. A dark, bulbous body trailed two enormous legs, monstrously thick where they

joined the body, tapering to broad, flat feet. The thing was drifting in towards the Hub feet first, its legs

slowly retracting, drawing into its body. When its feet touched the outer surface of the Hub wall, the

strange form began to shuffle sideways towards an access port, whilst its body continued to move, its

legs telescoping until it was squatting over the airlock blister. It extruded part of its belly, and smothered

the port, and then was quiescent. Curious, Tennys queried his resource.

‘Comm, do you have access to the Hub?’

‘Yes,’ said his internal resource, tapping his auditory nerve.

‘Well then, could you find out what the hell that is?’ Tennys asked, pointing.

‘One moment.’

Tennys looked again at the thing suckling the airlock blister. It was mostly black, overlain with stripes

and whorls of a lighter brown shading. It looked like it was made from dirty coal. Must be a construct

of some sort , he thought but it did not look like any kind of machine that he had ever seen. An icon

blinked in front of his nose.

‘Proceed.’

‘Summary: The construct is a choo machine, a species of organic, sentient agent unique to Novagaia,

engineered by the orbital ecosphere. Its designated function is transportation within the confines of the

orbital. This form is known colloquially as a Bus.’

Tennys absorbed this information for a moment and gave a little high-pitched harumph of pleased

surprise. Then, belatedly, his mouth dropped open, and his eyes became a little wild. This was also his

transportation!

‘Comm, confirm please: This particular Bus is here to take me to Chapel Halls?’

‘Confirm.’

Tennys reluctantly hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and walked toward the port. When the inner lock

doors opened onto the interior of the Bus, the first thing that he noticed was the smell. Or rather the

smells. He wrinkled his nose, trying to identify the spicy, unfamiliar scents of cinnamon and cloves and

lime. He selected a seat from the dozen or so spaced evenly in the fragrant belly of the machine and sat

down tentatively, wondering if anyone else was catching this Bus. He smelt liquorice and pine - twice -

quiet strongly, causing him to sneeze. Abruptly, the opening through which he had come closed and a

portion of the wall to his left became transparent, allowing him to see the exterior of the Hub. He felt a

trifle heavier for a moment, and the Hub wall began to fall away.

The Bus was in transit.

He sat and let his thoughts drift before asking: ‘Comm, how long is this journey?’

‘The journey will last just over 23 minutes.’

Page 4

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