YroliE

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Yroli E and Kickback

Maura's and Kickback's Reunion

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(c) 2000 Claire Basney and Mark Becker

Yroli E was born underwater. Considering that everything on her world happened underwater, this was not a surprise to her parent, and she was as yet too young to surprise. Her parent, Asana Y, had come to the place of birth the requisite earth-year ahead of time (not long at all for the Elso E A, her race) and had borne her alone.

Actually, everything about Asana's parenting was done alone. The Elso E A were a tiny race, in terms of numbers: the number of children every born was tiny and, as such, all Elso lived an extraordinary number of Earth years--1000 or more, so that each one might have the chance to reproduce.

Asana Y had had no partner: when the time came that she could bear a child, her body changed to produce the necessary chemicals and processes, and she became pregnant. Not every Elso did, and those who bore children were sterile ever after: though none required a partner to reproduce, only some had the required chemical structure for the one birth, as Asana did. Asana stayed at the place of birth until Yroli E was large enough to swim on her own and breathe easily through both her gills and her nose, having taken her once to the ocean surface.

Then she, losing her female characteristics, rejoined the main group of the people and Yroli E stayed by herself until she felt the need to find the others. She was warmly greeted when she did appear, and she was surprised that she was by that time (about 5-10 earth years) as large as any of her companions. Asana Y had always been much larger. When she saw Asana again, she was working together with Yrela--the brilliant and articulate person who had just recently become the leader of the Elso.

Asana saw her coming and smiled at her. "Yroli. Look what we have thought of now." Her lips did not move. Yroli E had, since her birth, heard her parent speaking to her mind to mind, thoughts on waves like sound carried on water, but better. Yroli came over to look, her blue-green scaled head and large eyes bending over the sandy ocean bed. Yrela had formed a written idea, which showed the importance it must have had. Very little was written among the Elso, for the water ran over it and washed it away unless it was set magically into being. She had used her thumbs and webbed fingers to make hand prints in the sand, outlining the design of a ship.

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Yroli stared at the handprints in the sand. "What is that?" she asked. "Lady, what is it? Is it an underwater... structure, house, or..." Yrela's eyes were shining, bright with excitement, but she turned to look over her shoulder. "Ysone A. Ysone A, come here please." From out of sight, another Elso--a lighter blue than either Yroli or Asana--swam over with the grace of a butterfly in air. Her legs hardly moved, and the webbing rippled as she came close. "Lady." Yrela tucked her legs up, floating almost in a sitting position. "Yroli has just come from the birthing place; Asana is her parent. Tell her what we are thinking of doing. Tell her the history of this place."

Ysone A's eyes were dark blue, almost purple, and she smiled at Yroli. With a tiny motion of her chin, she told Yroli to follow her and swam back in the direction she had come. Yroli stretched her arms over her head and obeyed. Ysone was already speaking. "We do not have to stay in the water, you know."    "I know. Asana took me to the surface to breathe the air. It smells wonderful, like salt and sand and warmth and..." Yroli felt a euphoric, bubbling feeling in her mind and realized Ysone A was laughing. "You know this, of course."

"Of course. We have long ago explored the land, before Yrela became the Lady. We have built structures on it and, though you have not yet seen them, have built them even far from the water where we can only reach them if we walk on our feet and take water with us. There are oceans all over this large place, with land in between, and we can reach ocean to ocean. We are in every ocean we can reach, now, and we can reach every ocean. Except one."
"Which one?" Ysone spread her arms again with that graceful movement that made Yroli catch her breath and shot for the surface. Yroli followed. When they broke the top of the water, Yroli opened her mouth in joy as air flooded over her face, into her nose and mouth. She turned toward Ysone, floating on her back on the water. "Where are the--"

"You can talk here." Ysone's voice was light, like her laughter, and Yroli's ears pricked to the new sound. She moved her mouth gingerly and then thought, hoping it would come out right. "Where... are the ... structures?"
"There is one there." Ysone stood on the sand and pointed. Yroli saw a tiny... cave, she guessed, like the birthing place, but not made out of rock. "What is it made of?"
"Wood. It is something that grows on the surface, like the plants in the water."
"May I look?" Yroli walked over to the tiny thing and bent to look in. She caught her breath: though it was tiny, and hand-made, the structure was full of delicate carving and decoration. Ysone put a hand on her shoulder. "This was Yrela's work, before she became Lady and determined to reach the other ocean."
Yroli straightened. "That is the second time you said that. I thought you said that we had already reached all the other oceans."
     "Except one."
     "Yes. Except one. Which one is--" Ysone pointed to the sky, crowded with stars as if with grains of sand on a blue-black, angry sea. "That one." Yroli stared at it, having hardly seen it before.
     "It looks... dark. Angry. A structure to carry us to that ocean?"
     "That's Yrela's great hope and wish. It will be built under the water: that way, we do not need to place water within it when we go to the stars."
     "But... how will it cross such a distance? It is not a distance to swim or walk..."
     Yroli felt Ysone's light laugh in her mind again. "That is what Yrela has thought of, but first we must build it. Build it of thin undersea rock and coral and wood so it can withstand the journey, like any traveling Elso E A." Then she turned and dived back into the sea. Yroli realized she was feeling uncomfortably dry, and short of breath, and so soon followed her, after one last look at the strange ocean that Yrela dreamed of.

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After that, days, and years, fell into a pattern. The structure was beginning to be built, held together with magic shields like the ship-pattern in the sand. Each Elso was responsible for keeping a shield secure in one area or other of the ship, with Yrela and those working with her taking the very center--the very heart of the ship--where the real magic would happen. The magic to make it reach the ocean high above them and escape fire or drought or whatever might be in between. Every day, more and more Elso would appear from the distant oceans, wanting to work on the great ship, until almost the entire race was in the home ocean. Yroli alternated between working in a remote part of the ship with Asana and with taking short trips to the surface to gather supplies with Ysone A.

Gathering was always easy. All Yroli and Ysone did would be to sit on the sand and search the landscape, that they had walked before, till they imagined themselves in the source of wood or stone. They would "lift" it with their minds, take it out of their world into a place where it could be carried and brought, and bring it back in next to them at the beach. Then they would carry it down to the ship, with the water helping to bear the weight. Secretly, Ysone conjectured that perhaps this was how Yrela was planning to move the ship. Each Elso had been working to move more and more, and larger and larger objects, and none more than Yrela.

Almost two centuries had passed on earth when Yrela announced the great ship all but finished. It was a beautiful thing--carved wood and stone fashioned by the water itself, thin and rippling. Water filled the entire ship through open doors or ports, which would be closed before the final moving. That way, the Elso could move freely and also talk without their mouths, even far away in that distant ocean. But one test remained. Could they move it to the shore? If they could do that, then the next try would be to the ocean of the sky. Several of the Elso would stay underwater, outside the ship, to ensure that the magical shields did not give. The others would be in the shielded portions, working as a unit, mind to mind, to move the largest thing they ever had.

The day came. Yroli E took her position far from the ship, concentrating on her portion of the shield and several others, since the people who had maintained them were now aboard. Asana was another who was outside, maintaining shields in another place. Ysone A was now working directly with Yrela, in the very center of the ship. The thoughts and magic emanating from that portion of the ship was strong now, like a pulse or a rhythm of breathing as each person aboard synchronized, ready to make the effort. The sea itself took on the thrum, as if the waves themselves were brimming with the Elso song.

And then it happened. A pulse so strong that Yroli was lifted off her feet and tossed like a piece of seaweed head over heels. She completely lost control of her portions of the magical shield, but did not even know it. She was flying not through water anymore, but through air, and then falling. Falling. Her mind was wrenched with what felt like screams and mortal pain, and they took her with them into the blackness and anger of the distant ocean.

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Yroli woke to feel a hand shaking her, by the shoulder. Pain coursed through her system, and she whimpered aloud, though her mind was shrieking in agony, enough to deafen any Elso. But the hand that touched her was a peculiar color, when she opened her eyes and looked at her shoulder. Her arm was twisted under her back, and it was from that the pain was coming. Having noticed this, she realized she was dangerously dry. The sensation was coming back into her limbs and she could hear the ocean sifting and crashing nearby. Instinctively, she began to scramble away from the hand and to reach for the water. However, even such a small gesture made her arm wrench and this time she shouted aloud.

There were sounds around her, sounds of dismay and alarm, and then her arm was lifted from behind her. She shouted again, and tried to scramble for the water, but a soft humming sound and almost immediate cessation of the pain stopped her. The sounds were becoming clear: though she was almost certain she could not understand the language, she was hearing words in it somehow.

"...still! Stay still! We're here to help you." The pale, sand-colored hands held her down, while dark brown fingers without webbing manipulated the humming device.
"What are you doing??" she asked, as if she were under water, but received no response. Trying her lips, hoping she could make the sounds, she repeated, "What are you doing?"
They seemed to understand. "Lie still. We are going to help you." She looked up at the speaker, and almost screamed again. It was as if a large seaweed were standing on its roots and speaking to her. Then the face belonging to the hands that had held her came into to view. It was the same sandy color as the hands, but it had stuff on its head, like fur or feathers, that was a darker color. She reached to her own head, and realized her arm was healed. She turned her head and looked at the owner of the dark hands and saw something that was like her, but with more of the feather stuff on her head. This stuff was the color of the sun.

"Wa--ter. Water!" she said, and began crawling again to the sound of the waves. The instant she touched the water, she heard voices of Elso, but... they were hardly there. Few, so few. She recognized Asana, and perhaps one other, but of the most--of the thrumming and strength that had been there before, there was nothing. No hint of Ysone or Yrela or any of the others. And no vestige of the ship.

Lying in the shallows restored her enough that she sat up, only to see the strange other things looking at her with alarm. She shook the water from her face, feeling her strength return with each wash of the waves, and looked at them. She tried again to speak: "Who are you?"
The tall one, not the seaweed, looked at her and said: "Captain Keith Becker, commanding the starship Atlantis. Who are you?" Deep within him, below the boldness of his words, which she still heard somewhat fuzzily, she sensed a feeling of indecision, even apprehension, but no aggression. There was aggression coming from the brown one, so she answered the... Captain.

"Yroli E, of the... Elso E A." The... Captain looked over his shoulder at his companions, and rose to his feet. He nodded at them. The brown one said, unwillingly, "Shaw, Geena. Lieutenant Commander. Security." The way she said the last word was almost an attack, and Yroli recoiled. The plant spoke too, from something of stone or coral hanging from his neck. She could sense nothing but compassion from it... him. "Dasoris, Commander. Science Officer." She stared at it a moment, and it added, with a glance at the Captain: "And you don't have to be afraid. We are here to help you."
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The Captain walked toward the shallows, and she stood up, feeling suddenly formal. She heard Shaw gasp, and looked down at her webbed fingers and legs. But she looked up into the intelligent face of the Captain again. He was speaking. "Are you the only one here?"
She shook her head. "Some more. Maybe... five." On instinct she said, "Shall I call them?"
He looked over his shoulder again at his companions, then nodded.

Yroli returned to her sitting position and put her head under water. "Come out. They are friendly: they want to help us," she said. She heard Asana and the others collect themselves a little, debate among themselves, and then felt their decision. They swam toward the surface, breaking clear of the water as Yroli raised her head again. "Captain Keith Becker," she said, pointing toward him. "Shaw. Dasoris." Also pointing. Then, speaking aloud, she said "Asana. Ilala A. Amava I. ..." She finished the recitation and, for a moment, the peoples just stared at one another.

Captain Becker broke the silence. "Is this all? What happened here?"
Yroli lowered her eyes, and glanced at the others behind her. She knew they had understood, in the same way she did, sensing the meanings of the strange words. "There was a ship we made. We were trying to move it and..."
He leaned forward, suddenly earnest. "Space travel? You were attempting space travel?"
Yroli E pointed to the sky. "Our Lady was taking us there."
"Lady?"
"Our leader, Yrela. She went with the ship."
"Where is the ship now?" This from Shaw.
Yroli still looked at the Captain, who motioned for quiet behind him. "Where is the ship?"
"It is not."
"Not? Not what?"
"Not. Not here. Gone."
"Well, yes, but where did it go?"
Yroli E's eyes looked troubled. "I don't know how to say it so you understand. It is not. It went out and did not come back and took the others with it." Seeing still the uncomprehension, she held out her hand. "Let me show you." She felt the surge of emotion, of fear, from Asana and the others behind her, but she went ahead. The only person to be hurt would be herself.

The Captain held out his hand, but Yroli bent and picked up a pebble. "Stone," she said.
"Yes?" he questioned.
She looked hard at it, and it vanished. "Not," she said.
The Captain stared at her empty, blue palm, and shook his head as if he was remembering something from far away. "Bring... bring it back," he said at last. Yroli cupped her hand and the stone reappeared. She placed it in the Captain's hand, still outstretched. He rolled it around his palm: it was cool and perfectly ordinary.

"What did you do?"
"Magic. I made it not, and brought it back."
"Magic?"
"That is what we call it."
The Captain's face was glowing with some strong, strange emotion. But he turned back to his crew. "Get a team down here. Help these people in any way they need: if they were attempting space travel, they may need to repair some... things. Or something. And get a Subspace Communications Array!" He then turned back to Yroli. "It's all right: don't be frightened."

Even with the warning, she could not avoid a cry and Asana and the others dived back in the sea when suddenly Shaw and Dasoris faded out in a shower of blue steam and sparks, with the sound of ringing crystal. But the Captain gave her no time to think, striding over to her and holding out the pebble again. "You said this was 'magic?'"
"Yes."
"There is a field of magic emanating from your planet: did you know that?"
"A field... a what? A plant?"
"A planet. What we are on. Your magic has been so strong we picked it up on our sensors."
"Your what?"
"Our... Never mind. Technology we have on our ship." The ringing sound came again and Shaw and Dasoris reappeared, with a team and a mechanical array of communications equipment.

The Captain walked over to it and showed her how it worked. "This is so you can contact us and other ships in the area, if you ever need anything."
"I will teach Asana how to use it."
"What? Well, if you like, but only one of you really needs to know the details."
"I want to come with you." Yroli was astonished as the words came out of her mouth, and her emotion was matched by Captain Keith's.
"What?" he said again, as if he had forgotten other words.
"I want to leave this... planet. I want to see your ship and this... technology. Technology that works." And her face looked, for a moment, terribly sad.
The Captain looked as though he were thinking of good clinching arguments why she should not come, but finally he simply said, "All right. But you will have to learn our language, you know. You can't go on using the Universal Translator forever."
"The what?"
He was no longer thinking about what he had said, however. He was staring at the pebble in his hand.

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"Yroli, come over here for a minute." He walked away from Shaw and Dasoris and the team, who were trying to coax Asana out of the water again to show her the communications device. She was stepping out on the sand when a vibration from her right caused her to swing around. Yroli felt it immediately too, and looked toward the Captain. He had closed his eyes and cupped his hands around the rock. Strain crossed his face, and then he opened his hands a crack and peered in.

The laugh that followed rang out over the beach, and Shaw, Dasoris, and Asana looked over again. Yroli had just enough time to see, before he opened his hands fully, that the pebble had been glowing.
She stared at it, then at him. "How did you do that?"
He looked at her ruefully, almost as if he was not happy she had seen. "It is a long story, but... well, I guess you could say I used to be able to do magic."
The fire that lit her eyes told him that that had not been the right thing to say if he wanted to convince her to stay. "Magic? Like us? I thought your people only had machines and... technology!"
"Well, we do. We never have believed in... magic. But I--well, I am different. I haven't done magic for a long time." Yroli fixed her eyes on his face: she could feel that there was plenty he was not telling her, and that he was surprised that he had said what he had. He looked over his shoulder at Dasoris. "Well, if you are going to come with us, you might as well see some of the ship."

To be continued...

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