Chapter Twenty Six

"We occupy ourselves with doing until what we do becomes who we are. The world of Terra Two grew around us quietly and we discovered it all grown and rich with events, a lot more sophisticated than we expected it to be, full of personality, confident and free."

"We never got used to it, partly because it constantly changed, partly because we weren't born of its essence. We carry the blue sky in our blood, the brightness of the sun, the majestic mountains and the painted clouds and as long as our lives last we'll keep yearning for them."

 

The sisters were quiet, gathered in a semi-circle on the crumbly dirt. The atmosphere was a little tense, there'd been a while since Seth found it necessary to call for an assembly meeting. They were all wondering what this was about.

Sarah was sitting in the back with Solomon in her lap, trying to keep the cat from chewing on the draw string of her overalls. The year had been quite fruitful, she thought as she watched the tall goldenrod panaches swing gracefully in the breeze. The animals were thriving, the barns were full, work on their fancy translucent building was almost complete, and due to their microscopic indigen friends they were all in glorious health.

"The last of the Noah's arks arrived today, from now on we will have to rely exclusively on local resources. There will be some medical and equipment cargo, but mostly passenger travel from now on. If all goes well we should be able to send shipments back some time soon, our vanilla beans are already famous."

Silence covered them like a blanket. They didn't know exactly why, but this great news weighed heavily on them, it felt like the end of an age, as if an essential connection that they thought permanent was suddenly severed.

Not that anybody thought there would be any hardship, Terra Two was holding its own, vibrant and abundant, it was just that until then, even if they never talked about it, they still considered themselves of the Earth and receiving a continuous supply of earthly beings and artifacts nurtured this feeling.

She didn't want to let it show, but Seth was sad too, in a deep and fundamental way that wasn't easy to put into words.

"My dears, I'm afraid we're all grown up", the leader said.

It felt strange, this sadness, especially while a crowd of visitors swept around their little group, almost touching them, and the kids of the island, oblivious to the elder's nostalgia, laughed and screeched with delight, playing catch and chasing rain showers.

"We should ask them for advice", sister Joseph joked, pointing her head towards the kids, "they're the natives."

"I noticed", Seth continued, in her even but firm tone, "that we've all been neglecting our spiritual duties lately. Fortunately for us the construction team built us this here beautifully transparent edifice and we should put it to good use. Vespers are at seven, I will be there every day, you are all welcome to join me if you wish."

This was how the formal part of Sarah's religious life started. During the early days on Terra Two the sisters had forgone the rites and rituals of their order, since daily survival took precedence over ceremony, but found them now with renewed enthusiasm, eager to reestablish rhythm and permanence into their lives.

Common prayer started promptly at seven in the large hall of glass that occupied the heart of the building. Light hit the crystalline edges and diffracted into rainbows, moving like ethereal artwork, bouncing and reflecting off the transparent surfaces. The enchanted backdrop of the planet surrounded them, rendered surreal by the light of the setting suns.

The sisters had decided to dress up for the occasion and wore their ceremonial attire, intimidating in its simplicity and so formal that Sarah almost didn't recognize them at first. They were sitting on the crystal floor that glowed dimly with diffuse light, very quiet in the common meditation their connected neural interlink bracelets facilitated. There were no random thoughts, no banter, the sister's thoughts joined in prayer as one, creating a hallowed space around them, the world at peace.

The evening descended suddenly over the transparent building, with its rich shades of chocolate and coffee, and as the lights started glowing in the crystal palace the image of their silent group became symbolic. 

They prayed long into the evening for favorable atmospheric conditions and the increase of yield, for the well-being and prosperity of their colony, for their families and friends back on Earth, for continued progress of their endeavors and for all humankind.

 

***

 

Terra Two was maturing with the glow and mellowness of an expanding culture. Buildings grew like magic out of the crumbly dirt, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, and the paisley islands became a lot more connected by bridges, ferries and shuttles, to enhance the cohesiveness of their nation of pioneers. As visitors arrived in larger and larger groups resorts developed on the most scenic coasts, dotting the island edges with a delicate embroidery of lights at night, marking runways, main streets and harbors, tracing festoon patterns along roads and around water reservoirs, and draping along the masts and sails of the boats out to sea. 

Sarah had a little home built on the edge of the beach with views to the ocean. The kids often stopped by to have a pitcher of cold water or a few pears. Sarah joined them some times and would have liked to spend more time with them, but ever since the sisters started leading the prayer service the children found them a little unapproachable, they seemed so far removed from earthly cares. The children liked to watch them for a while but soon lost patience with the quiet stillness and fussed, giggling and pinching each other to the disapproval of their parents.

"Behave!" they were constantly admonished, and they would have ignored the rebuke as always, if they didn't happen to encounter Seth's ethereal gaze. If the kids thought that Seth's intense stare was fearsome under normal circumstances, being caught in its unearthly reverie during quiet meditation was way too scary to bear. They would rather have had the annoyed looks of their mothers foretelling trouble as soon as they got home than the all seeing eyes of the 'sainted ones' descend upon their little souls and find flaw.

Of course as soon as Seth and the sisters finished their prayer they came back to reality so to speak and were mixed in the hustle and bustle of the crowd just like everybody else. The talk of saintliness irritated Seth above all and she fought to refute this ridiculous idea at every opportunity.

"So help me, I've broken my bones and dripped every drop of energy I had into the dirt of this planet for eighty seven years and now they're declaring me a saint for staring into space", she commented, frowning.

Sarah tried everything she could to convince the little ones that she was not the recipient of holy grace and to stop calling her sister Sarah, but of course her efforts were in vain. Sister Sarah she remained for a generation or two of children, until she decided to take on the habit for real and chose the name of Joachima.

"If I knew that wearing a robe would bring me this amount of deference I would have done it much sooner", commented Seth, who was no stranger to sarcasm. "Antigravity engine, endless cellular repair, breathing life into the wasteland - nothing to write home about. Formal dress and a splendid building - guaranteed sainthood."

One good thing that came out of the children's healthy respect for the sisters and Sarah in particular was that her semi-formal teaching of botany and chemistry became an actual course of instruction that was studied very seriously.