The Triple Rising — Chapter 5
Atlantis Is dead — but her progeny lives.
When the smooth white doors slid open to allow her exit, Semylyn’s thoughts held her so distracted she nearly missed the still form of her father standing just outside the doors.
“Oh!” She exclaimed softly as he stepped toward her.
“I’m sorry I startled you. Did you learn anything helpful,” he asked, gesturing with a nod towards the Warder’s Hall.
“Not particularly. I suppose…”
She hesitated. Remembering his many warnings on verbal accuracy, she couldn’t help choosing her words carefully.
“The Warder has always given me answers and explained difficult things so that I could understand them as a child. I guess I find comfort with him as I do with you.”
They reached the archway that led out into the corridor. Omree paused here, and Semylyn followed suit, glancing up at her father.
“Semylyn,” he said, “the Warder may have an information core, a processing database, but you know he doesn’t have a mind or personality, not like you and I have.”
“I know, Father. Although — his answers did seem a little strange today. There was a feeling of personal concern as you’d expect from someone with emotional capacity. Or, maybe I just felt what I wanted to feel. I don’t know. My perception may be a little unstable with all that’s going on at the present.”
Omree nodded knowingly. “Perhaps it does have more to do with us, than with him?” He caught Semylyn’s gaze and held it for a long while. “Semylyn, things are going to get very difficult, and very soon. Are you sure you can handle the challenges that lie ahead?”
An automatic reassurance rushed into her throat, but she held it back. Was she prepared for what was about to happen?
“You have taught me well. No matter what happens, I know how to make good decisions, and I will protect our city as best I can.”
Omree smiled one of his rare, genuine smiles. He put a hand on Semylyn’s shoulder and drew her close.
“My daughter,” he murmured into her hair.
Semylyn closed her eyes and leaned on his chest, breathing in his clean, slightly tangy scent.
“You’ve grown up so quickly. Always believe in yourself. Never let your youth cause you to doubt. When the time comes, accept the position for which you’ve trained your whole life. You will be a far greater High Guardian than I ever was.” With a rush, he released her and turned away.
“Shall I join you for the evening meal?” she asked before he could leave.
“You go on and eat. I’m going to speak with the Warder. After, perhaps before you retire for the night, I would like you to take me to the Life Cycles lab.”
Semylyn nodded and watched her father as he turned to re-enter the athenaeum.
“See you then,” she offered and watched her father nod without turning, proceeding towards Owena and the Warder’s hall, his even stride steady as ever.
Semylyn stood just inside the doorway of the combat training room and watched Troyak’s arm muscles bulge and tighten as he started another set of lifts.
“One, two, three…” His voice reverberated off the padded walls.
She knew he’d be here, as always, taking the last two hours of his day to lift weights. She smiled. He was more than a little prideful about his physical power. Tonight, he was the area’s only occupant. The strong overhead lighting had been turned off, Troyak preferring the light which showed through the long high windows running around the top of the walls. The soft blue, water-filtered light cast strange shadows in the corners of the room. It gave her an eerie feeling, the shadows emphasizing the aloneness of the man she watched.
“I’ll never understand why you do this in the dark,”
Troyak froze without looking toward her. She was never able to sneak up on him, but this time he seemed genuinely startled by her presence. With a great, heaving thrust he set his weighted bar on the ground in front of him and turned to face her.
“I’ve told you. Weight lifting is all about what’s in here,” he tapped his mind, then his chest. “Anything out here,” he broadly gestured to the room, “is just a distraction. The dark helps me focus.”
“If you say so.” She shrugged her shoulders.
He lowered his gaze and stared at the floor in front of him for a long moment. Evidence of inner turmoil scrawled across his face, leaving a trail of uncertainty. She wished she had the right words to comfort him, words to banish the problems that imprisoned them both.
Finally, he seemed to come to some kind of resolution and looked up at her.
“Have you eaten yet?” He asked. Semylyn shook her head and he moved to her side, offering her his arm, a ghost of his boyish smile playing on his lips.
“Well then, let’s eat. I’m hungry.”
Semylyn smiled in contentment and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow, glad to see even a shell of the old Troyak.
They left the darkened training room behind and walked together across the emptiness of the Habitation Ring. Warm glows shone onto the courtyard of the Ring from habitation hubs, people enjoying their meals within.
“So what are you hungry for?” Troyak asked after a moment.
“Anything is fine with me,” she said lamely.
“They’re still serving food at the main commissary if you don’t mind Hamel’s over-steamed greens.”
She nodded wordlessly and Troyak led her to the commissary, now abuzz with conversation. Of course, they were the youngest present, by at least ninety-seven years, the youngest individuals in all of Sitnalta, actually. The last progeny of Atlantis to be animated from the now-empty embryonic nursery. The knowledge weighed more heavily than ever before as the thought repeated itself in her mind, Sitnalta’s last hope…
A greeting from the group closest to the entryway pulled Semylyn from the starkness of her thoughts. After exchanging good wishes, the group grew quiet, and the same silence spread through the commissary. It wasn’t as though their presence stilted the conversation, but it did serve to remind everyone of what they’d rather not think about. The recent blackout and the pending transfer of Sitnalta’s Guardian and Defender positions to her and Troyak were sure to make everyone uneasy.
She wondered how many knew about the Sun-Dweller plan. Did they all know she would soon bond with a Sun-Dweller male? It made her skin crawl with an embarrassed flush. Sitnaltians were very private people and she wasn’t any different. Things like the Bonding rituals were always kept private until they were finished.
It was a strange contradiction, she thought, as Troyak showed her to an empty table against the windowed wall and left her to retrieve their food. How could she be the youngest living being in all of Sitnalta, and yet, at times like now, feel so old and shriveled up inside?
“Hello, Semylyn,”
Semylyn heard a hesitant voice from behind her. She turned and saw Ruitan and her partner Nabreeth standing with linked arms.
“How are you?” Nabreeth asked.
“I’m well. A little tired,” she said, surprising herself that her response even approached how she truly felt. Maybe it was because she’d always felt comfortable with these two Habitation Representatives because of their open and genuine kindnesses.
“You look a little worn down,” Ruitan said kindly, placing a gentle hand on Semylyn’s forearm. “If you ever need anything, our quarters are always open.”
Semylyn felt the pricking of tears behind her eyes and nodded mutely. She hated how, when she was emotionally wrung out, even the slightest bit of kindness could breach her protective barriers.
Nabreeth and Ruitan smiled at her and then moved on.
“Here we are, two plates of steamed sea greens and Hamel sends his regards.” Troyak slid a warm plate beneath her bowed head and she breathed deeply, inhaling the spicy scent.
“Thank you,”
Troyak shrugged. “All in a day’s work. Now tell me straight. Do you want to talk about the Prime and the Sun-dwellers?”
Semylyn grimaced. “I think it’s safe to say we’ll be talking about that quite enough in the days to come. So a heavy dose of distraction is what we need, yes?” She asked with a hint of urgency.
“Alright then. Let’s talk about a tiderunner excursion. You in?”
Semylyn nearly choked on her drink of water. “Tiderunner excursion? Surely you’re kidding? Your father made an announcement to the whole city that the new tiderunners were for hunting parties only!”
Troyak smiled smugly and took another bite.
“What are you saying?” Jerking her head in consternation, she whispered across the table. “Troyak, have you stolen a tiderunner?”
He laughed and patted his mouth with a woven napkin. “No, are you crazy? I could never steal one of those things! Where would I hide it, the Council chamber? I’m just saying, I have access to a tiderunner. And, if there were any volunteers to be my navigator…” He trailed off and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Semylyn laughed and waved her fork in front of her.
“Thanks for the invitation, but I doubt my father, or yours, would approve of an unauthorized tiderunner excursion.”
Troyak shrugged, unperturbed. “I figured as much.” He winked, “worth a try though, right?”
She gazed at the spark of mischief glistening in his eyes and nodded uncertainly.
“Alright then, tiderunner is out. Let’s talk about something that doesn’t break any rules. I have a surprise for you after we eat.”
Semylyn gulped down her last bite. “A surprise? I don’t know if I can handle any more surprises today, Troyak.”
The sentiment served to draw another cocky grin from him.
“Oh no, believe me, this isn’t a planet-endangering Prime surprise. This is a Semylyn distracting happy surprise.”
Semylyn sipped her water and raised her eyebrows. “In that case, by all means. Surprise away.”
“Right. As soon as we’re finished eating.” He scooped another fork full of food.
Semylyn gazed through the commissary windows. The aquatic lights had dimmed even further, signaling the passing of Sitnalta’s twelve-hour activity cycle. It would soon be completely dark in the ocean depths outside the city’s walls. Sitnalta’s inner-city lamps would flicker to life shortly, providing a welcome barrier to the encroaching blackness of the vast, underwater night.
Nabreeth and Ruitan stood chatting with another couple near the exit.
“It’s so sad,” Semylyn murmured.
Troyak followed her gaze, then sighed as he turned back to his plate. “They’ve not handled it as well as many of the others.”
Semylyn shivered and turned forlornly back to her plate. There was so much sadness in Sitnalta now, she thought. So much grief.
“Have you ever wondered…I mean have you ever been grateful that we were…you know…”
“Not yet animated?” Troyak filled in and Semylyn nodded. “You bet I am. I can’t imagine what it was like for them.”
She thanked the tides often that the great tragedy had struck before her own activation.
Years earlier, as the embryo numbers began to dwindle; the paired partners of Sitnalta had initiated a motion to begin natural procreation. Sitnalta hadn’t been intended to subsist long-term, and there were plenty of embryos in the city’s nursery, so the idea of natural childbearing had been put off for centuries. Children were born soon after.
Semylyn shuddered. The oldest had lived to his second birthday before the degeneration overtook him. As a result, every last child died.
She’d attempted to watch the recorded funeral in the Warder’s database, but had been unable to finish. Nabreeth and Ruitan were among the fifteen couples who had lost a child, and the wailing of those grieving parents still haunted her.
After that event, procreation became prohibited, although the legal mandate was hardly necessary. All Sitnaltians had to face the hard truth. No child born to two Sitnaltian parents would live. Though scientists in the medical research lab labored to fix the problem, no one held a residue of hope.
“That’s why I signed up to do my apprentice work in the Med labs,” Troyak said.
Semylyn’s thought returned to the present. Troyak often commented on the progress the Med lab researchers were making in finding a solution to the Sitnaltian procreation problem. It was sort of a pet project for him.
“We’re going to solve it,” he said again with vehemence.
Semylyn gave an affirming nod without commenting. She hoped he was right, but deep inside she believed that if Troyak and his researchers were going to find a solution, they would have already found it.
“Are you finished?” Troyak asked.
She looked at her plate, somehow she had cleared it. “Looks that way.”
“Let’s go then.”
“Go?” Semylyn asked, rising as he gathered their plates and glasses.
“Semylyn distracting happy surprise, remember?” He asked with a grin.
“Oh! right! I can’t Troyak, not tonight. My father has already asked me to show him around the Lifecycle lab after I ate. I’m sorry, I completely forgot.”
“It’s okay,” he said, moving towards the waste bins. “We’ll do it tomorrow, after our tiderunner excursion.” He winked at her, leaning against the bins with his arms crossed.
She rolled her eyes at him. “The day you get me on an unauthorized tiderunner excursion is the day the Warder tells a joke.” She elbowed him gently in the side then headed out to meet her father.
To be continued
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