Chapter Four- Ymir

The Sun Runner's navigator, Ymir Jorgen, doesn't forget much, and he's lived for a pretty long time. But he's never seen anything quite like Eridanus...

Ymir sat in the crew quarters three days into the voyage and watched the Haploka twins toss knives back and forth between their bunks, weaving a ribbon of silver through the air. There wasn’t much need for a navigator during the body of the actual voyage, but the cloven-hooved Hurinai was almost always on night watch due to a sleep schedule that operated on forty-hour time as opposed to twenty-five or thirty hour days.

“Up for a game?” asked the red-haired technician as he ducked under the doorframe, seemingly unconcerned about the knives streaking through the air around him as he flopped down onto his bunk. “I’ve got a great Amset game from when I lived in the Isfet system- amazing glasswork on the playing pieces, too.”  

“You lived on Iithe?” one of the twins wanted to know as both Haploka turned towards Eridanus. Their paws shot out quickly, catching the knives in midair. Ymir was curious to see the glasswork- the Amset were known for their skill at crafting. “Yep.”

“What about your homeworld?” Ymir asked. Eridanus’ eyes flickered away and his fingers crept up to tug on the medallion. “My homeworld- no one lives there now. No one’s lived there for a long time.”

“Did your star die?” Kraik asked sadly. Ymir had heard that the Gwentori had fled a dying star system to build the Liok and establish the System Alliance, but the Gwentori themselves had given no details. A dying star was a horrifying thought, and, depending on the size of the blast, could wipe out two or three systems.

“No. Have you ever heard of biochemical agents?”

“Once.” Ymir answered, slowly. “There is an element of the shadowtree leaves that, when boiled, releases a caustic steam. About thirty standard years ago, the Gwentori council wanted to study the leaves, but they asked for huge numbers of them. Finally we told them that they could have as many leaves as grew on a single stem, but no more. They left, and it was not spoken of again.”

Eridanus’ brow furrowed. “You remember?” he asked. His voice was smooth, but there was a hint of a quiver in the tone.

“I’m older than I look. And I have a long memory.”

Nodding, Eridanus continued, “Close enough to what I meant. An artificially developed plague. I was away, in one of the few working spaceships we had. When I came back, everything was gone.  Maybe somewhere, there’s a few of us left, maybe some of them built private ships and ran.”

Ymir asked, “Did your people not have a public freighter? To escape the plague?”  

Coldly, Eridanus said, “Yes. Two. When I came back, I found them. Lying on the ground, full of old, dead bones. Bones. Rust. Death. They had run, but someone on the ship carried the plague. It struck before they could launch.”

Silence fell on the cabin. “You traveled across the Deep Void and came to Iithe?”

“Yeah. Then I got into a bit of trouble with the local Liok, ssa? Only about two hundred Gwentori manning that one, they’ve got too many holoscrolls there for their own good. Had to dash.”

Ymir choked on his drink, wheezing as he swallowed. The bubbling liquid stung the insides of his nostrils.
“You stole something from the Gwentori?”

“I gave it back later. Nice bracelet, by the way. Game?” Holding up his wrist, Ymir nodded warily. “It’s an Arctur.” The silver torque bracelet was crafted into a sinuous shape with jeweled eyes and a broad, spade-shaped muzzle, thought to be an extinct species by most of the Hurinai. The Yintari, a primitive winged species native to the shadowforest that covered much of the planet, believed that the Arctur were some sort of magical creature, or even gods.

The Arctur’s tail curled around its muzzle, forming a perfect circle around Ymir’s blue wrist. Eying Eridanus warily, the bulky Hurinai shook his head. “Maybe I’ll play later. Tonight, after my watch?” The technician should be asleep by then, though. No risk of his bracelet being stolen.

“No problem, I’ll be awake.”

Ymir settled onto his bunk, pulling out a magnifying monocle and his half-finished automaton Haplok. The automaton was made from silvery metal that he had matched as closely as possible with Kraik and Charaik’s fur, and had the typical bipedal stance and tall, feline ears characteristic of the Haploka. Carefully, the Hurinai began to use a tweezers to insert gears and twitch springs, arranging them around the central keyhole in the automaton’s back.

“What about the captain? What’s her story?” Eridanus asked. Talons clicked sharply on the tile as the door opened, and Syzygy entered, answering, “Captain’s business is captain’s business, Eridanus.”

As Ymir tested the automaton’s arms, rotating them in their metalic sockets, Charaik said kindly, “Ask her yourself, later. She doesn’t mind telling the story.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Eridanus pulling out a holoscroll and opening it, running his gauntleted fingers along the glowing membrane. Deep in his throat, the technician hummed a Yintari tune that Ymir faintly remembered from his childhood.

The wind and the water,

The sound of the sea,

Trust in the sunrise,

Dare to believe.

The fire and the falcon,

The wind in the trees,

Find peace in the night sky,

Dare to believe.

The sun and the snowfall,

The melt and the freeze,

Hear the sound of the silence,

Dare to believe.

The wind and the shadows,

The light on the leaves,

Dance in the starlight,

Dare to believe.

Ymir clambered to his hooves, stretching slowly, and strode off towards the bridge. It wouldn’t be to early to relieve Azul, and the haunting tune was making him restless. He remembered the words clearly now, and they still rang in his head as he walked onto the bridge.

As Eridanus’ voice sang softly, echoing through the metal bulkheads, Ymir mouthed the words with him. How terrible, to have your whole planet destroyed. On purpose, not even by an accident.

The storm and the moonlight,

The whispering breeze,

Sing the song of the ocean,

Dare to believe.

Author's Note

I don't know- is this chapter too short? Also, does Ymir have a distinct voice from the other characters?

Reviews

[Andrew Leister-Frazier]

The writing is addictive, it is a nice sci-fi fantasy. I read all 4 chapters and the prologue and I would like to read more.