The Silka
Chapter Two
Dinah pleaded the need to see to some things on Aaru and left with Marc awhile later. She waited until they were in their cabin before she said, "Okay, tell me."
Marc already had a pen to paper but he looked up. "Firstly we need some of the water from the cavern. If needed, that way we can, possibly, contact the First Ones ourselves. Secondly, we need Darin. I want him along. Maybe he's part Silka or something, what with his dreams. Or maybe he'll just connect in somehow. Who knows. Whatever, even if he doesn't get any of his visions I want him along. I wonder what Chris will think of a metaconcert across that much space?" Marc was grinning happily.
She leaned back and eyed him. "Not so fast. Does Darin mean his brother and sister too?"
"I'd prefer only him, but Dana's okay. I'll have Kalket sit on Dermot if he comes along. No better yet, Laz."
"Okay. I'll send Quinn to ask him to meet us on Tyvek in the morning. Now, tell me what you know about the Silka. The look on your face tonight...I'd never seen one like it before."
He put aside his figures and looked up at her. "Back in the day, I was a fugitive, and hiding in the Pliocene. I created the CE rig to scan the sky looking for other operant creatures. I never found any. It seemed weird, as if there was some sort of blanket limiting my reach. Maybe I just found out the explanation."
"You think," she said slowly, curling her legs under her, "that they used their dreams -- whatever that really means -- to block you?"
"And maybe to create the barrier between us and McGee's outsiders?" Marc suggested.
"Did you ever sense the unimensional worlds? I mean the minds on them?"
"No. And granted I was looking for a coadunate polity, er, think of a sort of complex society connected through psi power, but even so, after I had no success finding that I looked for singular operant species. And found none. I found nothing at all like the unimensional worlds."
"So it wouldn't have been just the outsiders then they were hiding from you. Or rather hiding in general, assuming they were, because it's also an assumption that if they were hiding them from you, specifically or generically. I wonder, assuming you're right, if it wasn't the outsiders they were hiding the insiders from and you were just a fish in the same net."
"I'd guess it was simply a side-effect of the system they created that blocked me. Firstly, it was a few billion years ago, so the unimensional worlds wouldn't have evolved much sentience yet, let alone a coadunate society. And I was using the CE Rig and that wouldn't have fit this area. It was far beyond where the local species were in terms of technology and in terms of evolution. So I might have scanned like one of McGee's outsiders."
"But this is supposition. You'd heard of the Silka, we talked about that once before. You said you'd spent a long time looking for them, as I recall," she asked.
"Yeah, but not in this way. Only that I'd found hints of a species like them. I had no idea of the implications that McGee has me thinking of."
"What implications?"
"That there's some sort of fence around this area of the universe and that they're a part of it."
"I get the fence part from before dinner but not the inductive leap to the Silka being part of it."
"It comes from McGee's comment about the folks shadowing us might know the Silka are getting sick. If they're targeting them, it seems to me that indicates they are somehow involved in the fence. They want in, so McGee says. You take out the soldiers protecting the border to gain entry."
She nodded. "Anything else you want to share with me before I prepare myself for a night without sex?"
"I don't like fences?" he suggested.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I know something you don't for a change. House Brann'Ster is defunct. It has been for a long time, Lantana told me. A very, very, very long time. They disappeared on a survey ship, the MacAshlish and his sister and his sister's mate. When that happened the gene line ended, was totally lost. The name means Star Dreamers. Wouldn't you just love to know what their sigil is?"
"Have you got it?" Marc asked, leaning forward.
She grinned, pleased with herself, and held her palm out, letting a symbol rise in the air and then turn slowly. "Recognize anything?" she asked. Siol'Ster's sigil was a star system in miniature whose center was the mathematical sign for infinity and overlain by a helix. The symbol that rose from Dinah's palm was star system, enclosed by a sphere. The sphere itself was pierced by radiating vectors originating from the symbol for infinity positioned within the center of the star system.
"Well, the infinity sign within the star system. So perhaps the Houses are supposed to be related?" Marc asked.
"I don't know," she said. "I just find it an interesting coincidence, don't you, that the sigils are so closely related. I also find it suggestive that the sigil includes a star system contained inside of something, but the something is being breached by the vectors, a mapping symbol. Brann'Ster was a House that opened new trading routes, among other things. They were explorers."
"Pull up Weru'Ster's sigil," Marc suggested.
Dinah set it along side of Brann'Ster's. Weru'Ster's was a field of vectors overlaid by a shooting star, extending beyond the vectors.
"Now ain't that suggestive," Marc said ruminatively.
Dinah nodded happily. "I'd say so. Someone left a trail of bread crumbs. What I don't get is how we get to be the first ones to follow it."
"Our natural brilliance? More likely dumb luck."
"Thank you for not saying destiny or fate," she said.
"Don't believe in either. Only in intelligence and luck."
She laughed. "Who are you going to use for the metaconcert?"
"I was serious about Christopher. I'll hop in the CE Rig and can use folks from the Refuge as well as our crew. The thing is just to figure out who goes where in the matrix."
She nodded. "Then kiss me and I'll stop bothering you, so you can work. You're really excited about this aren't you?"
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her a promise. "Yes, I am excited about this. And I'll be a tiger when it's all over. So you better get your rest."
"Don't worry, my love. I'm just enjoying the sight of you so happy."
"Well, you are responsible for it, you know. You keep me together."
"No, I just love you. You do the rest," she said.
He laughed. "Well don't stop, all right?"
"I promise," she said.
Marc already had a pen to paper but he looked up. "Firstly we need some of the water from the cavern. If needed, that way we can, possibly, contact the First Ones ourselves. Secondly, we need Darin. I want him along. Maybe he's part Silka or something, what with his dreams. Or maybe he'll just connect in somehow. Who knows. Whatever, even if he doesn't get any of his visions I want him along. I wonder what Chris will think of a metaconcert across that much space?" Marc was grinning happily.
She leaned back and eyed him. "Not so fast. Does Darin mean his brother and sister too?"
"I'd prefer only him, but Dana's okay. I'll have Kalket sit on Dermot if he comes along. No better yet, Laz."
"Okay. I'll send Quinn to ask him to meet us on Tyvek in the morning. Now, tell me what you know about the Silka. The look on your face tonight...I'd never seen one like it before."
He put aside his figures and looked up at her. "Back in the day, I was a fugitive, and hiding in the Pliocene. I created the CE rig to scan the sky looking for other operant creatures. I never found any. It seemed weird, as if there was some sort of blanket limiting my reach. Maybe I just found out the explanation."
"You think," she said slowly, curling her legs under her, "that they used their dreams -- whatever that really means -- to block you?"
"And maybe to create the barrier between us and McGee's outsiders?" Marc suggested.
"Did you ever sense the unimensional worlds? I mean the minds on them?"
"No. And granted I was looking for a coadunate polity, er, think of a sort of complex society connected through psi power, but even so, after I had no success finding that I looked for singular operant species. And found none. I found nothing at all like the unimensional worlds."
"So it wouldn't have been just the outsiders then they were hiding from you. Or rather hiding in general, assuming they were, because it's also an assumption that if they were hiding them from you, specifically or generically. I wonder, assuming you're right, if it wasn't the outsiders they were hiding the insiders from and you were just a fish in the same net."
"I'd guess it was simply a side-effect of the system they created that blocked me. Firstly, it was a few billion years ago, so the unimensional worlds wouldn't have evolved much sentience yet, let alone a coadunate society. And I was using the CE Rig and that wouldn't have fit this area. It was far beyond where the local species were in terms of technology and in terms of evolution. So I might have scanned like one of McGee's outsiders."
"But this is supposition. You'd heard of the Silka, we talked about that once before. You said you'd spent a long time looking for them, as I recall," she asked.
"Yeah, but not in this way. Only that I'd found hints of a species like them. I had no idea of the implications that McGee has me thinking of."
"What implications?"
"That there's some sort of fence around this area of the universe and that they're a part of it."
"I get the fence part from before dinner but not the inductive leap to the Silka being part of it."
"It comes from McGee's comment about the folks shadowing us might know the Silka are getting sick. If they're targeting them, it seems to me that indicates they are somehow involved in the fence. They want in, so McGee says. You take out the soldiers protecting the border to gain entry."
She nodded. "Anything else you want to share with me before I prepare myself for a night without sex?"
"I don't like fences?" he suggested.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I know something you don't for a change. House Brann'Ster is defunct. It has been for a long time, Lantana told me. A very, very, very long time. They disappeared on a survey ship, the MacAshlish and his sister and his sister's mate. When that happened the gene line ended, was totally lost. The name means Star Dreamers. Wouldn't you just love to know what their sigil is?"
"Have you got it?" Marc asked, leaning forward.
She grinned, pleased with herself, and held her palm out, letting a symbol rise in the air and then turn slowly. "Recognize anything?" she asked. Siol'Ster's sigil was a star system in miniature whose center was the mathematical sign for infinity and overlain by a helix. The symbol that rose from Dinah's palm was star system, enclosed by a sphere. The sphere itself was pierced by radiating vectors originating from the symbol for infinity positioned within the center of the star system.
"Well, the infinity sign within the star system. So perhaps the Houses are supposed to be related?" Marc asked.
"I don't know," she said. "I just find it an interesting coincidence, don't you, that the sigils are so closely related. I also find it suggestive that the sigil includes a star system contained inside of something, but the something is being breached by the vectors, a mapping symbol. Brann'Ster was a House that opened new trading routes, among other things. They were explorers."
"Pull up Weru'Ster's sigil," Marc suggested.
Dinah set it along side of Brann'Ster's. Weru'Ster's was a field of vectors overlaid by a shooting star, extending beyond the vectors.
"Now ain't that suggestive," Marc said ruminatively.
Dinah nodded happily. "I'd say so. Someone left a trail of bread crumbs. What I don't get is how we get to be the first ones to follow it."
"Our natural brilliance? More likely dumb luck."
"Thank you for not saying destiny or fate," she said.
"Don't believe in either. Only in intelligence and luck."
She laughed. "Who are you going to use for the metaconcert?"
"I was serious about Christopher. I'll hop in the CE Rig and can use folks from the Refuge as well as our crew. The thing is just to figure out who goes where in the matrix."
She nodded. "Then kiss me and I'll stop bothering you, so you can work. You're really excited about this aren't you?"
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her a promise. "Yes, I am excited about this. And I'll be a tiger when it's all over. So you better get your rest."
"Don't worry, my love. I'm just enjoying the sight of you so happy."
"Well, you are responsible for it, you know. You keep me together."
"No, I just love you. You do the rest," she said.
He laughed. "Well don't stop, all right?"
"I promise," she said.
