COLONY SHIP (eBook)

LEVEL 7 VILLAGE

Kai stood at the edge of the ocean at looked up at the sky as the light for morning began to start to appear. The small lights above began to slowly blink out as the morning grew brighter. Behind him, the early morning fog began to rise from the ground below the Village built into the steep terraced hillside. Animals in the Jungle began to move and stir about, the predators of the night went to their dens while the other residents of the Jungle began their day. Kai was tall and slender with a muscular build from working hard doing physical labor on several projects. Unlike most of the others in the Village, Kai was curious about many things others took for granted. The Village faced the Ocean, and was surrounded on the other three sides by dense Forest and Jungle growth. Over the years, many attempts had been made to penetrate the Jungle and Forest to see what was on the other side, but every attempt had failed due to the deep darkness, thick growth, and many predators who attacked the unwary explorers. The Jungle provided food for the Villagers, but the Elders did their best to prevent any further explorations into the area out of concern for the safety of the remaining Villagers. Strangely, the predators remained deep within the Jungle boundary, and did not venture out into the open Village areas.

The Elders always warned people not to go too far out into the ocean, bad things were known to live under the water, and going too far into the Jungle meant Death from the unknown creatures within. Over the years, several other Villagers had made trips along the shore of the ocean in both directions to try to see what was beyond, and they always came back with tales of huge canyons and massive waterfalls with no way to cross guarded by strange beasts with glowing eyes and loud fearful cries that moved swiftly without walking like normal animals.

The ocean seemed endless, and nothing could be seen across the vastness, even by those villagers who had tried to cross it by boats they had made. They brought back tales of fantastic beasts beneath the waters with strange glowing eyes that could be glimpsed occasionally. The last group that went out several years ago told the tale of one of the creatures emerging from below, right under one of the boats, and crushing it like it didn’t even notice it.

Even knowing all of this Kai was not satisfied. He saw the birds of the air flying across the ocean, and watched them until they disappeared into the distance. Surely there must be something out there for them to fly to. The Ocean teemed with fish, and the Forest had plenty of animals to hunt for food so there was no real need to leave the Village, but Kai was determined to do so if only to satisfy his curiosity. The Village itself was his home, his family was here, and he had grown up here and yet he felt limited by staying there.

He felt Cera’s presence enter his mind before he saw her walking towards him. Cera was petite and had long dark hair that flowed behind her when she walked. She was the strongest telepath among their group. Kela was slightly larger than Cera, but kept her dark hair shorter, and was more of an outward type of personality. Kela quickly joined them, and they both shared his thoughts. Cera was an Empath, and a Healer, Kela was the Thinker/ Planner part of their Family of Three. The Villagers grew up in groups of three, always a combination that included a strong, Aggressive, Leader type, a Thinker / Planner, Creative type to offer alternative ways of thinking or doing things, who acted as a check for the impulsive urges of the Aggressive Leader type, and an Empath who was a strong Healer. They would find each other telepathically when they were very young, and Bonded together as a unit. The gender of the individuals varied from group to group. The groups were telepathic with each other, but not always able to communicate telepathically with another group. The Elders were not able to explain this, but said that it was always that way, and encouraged the groups as they grew up together, and taught them what they knew.

The Village was built into the steep terraced hillside above the ocean shore, and many hours had been spent growing plants and trees into useful and artistic shapes in front of the square shaped caves that the Villagers lived within. Vines and trees were grown into useful passageways and paths connecting the various levels and many varieties of the plants provided fruits and vegetables for the Villagers to eat. Nature was a part of everyone’s daily life, and cared for and nurtured by everyone.

Cera and Kela of course knew of Kai’s restlessness, and had tried to dissuade him from leaving the Village, but eventually realized that the only way to satisfy the urge was to indulge it. Part of his curiosity drive had infected them as well. They had gone with him on the hunts into the Forest and Jungle to find food, and had helped him build a boat they would use to travel, and helped him stock it with supplies that they felt they would need. As youngsters growing up in the Village, they had listened raptly to the many tales the Elders told of the ancient history of the people of the Village. The Elders spun magical tales of things that the Villagers had never seen within their lifetimes, and most of them were too strange to understand, and the younger people were convinced that the Elders had simply made them up to make the stories more entertaining to their audiences, but the stories had planted the seeds of curiosity within them that Kai seemed to have naturally. When the Villagers wanted to cook over open fires, they always had to keep the flames protected, and the fires were never made very large because early efforts had disastrous effects. Whenever they tried to build a large fire in the open, Rain would suddenly fall from the sky and put out the flames. Everything in the nearby vicinity would be soaked as well. Then the rain would just as suddenly stop coming down. The Elders tales spoke of things called Clouds dropping the rain and these were never seen by anyone. The Elders tales described a large light in the sky during the day called the Sun, and another one at night called the Moon, but these too had never been seen by the Villagers. The sky simply got brighter in the day, and darkened at night.

The population of the Villagers was said to have been much larger in the Old Times the Elders spoke of in their Tales, but the Village Population had never been large as far as Kai and the others remembered it. Everyone knew everyone else, and nothing was ever very far away from the Center of the Village. Children were rare, and treasured for being very precious to their Family.

Cera looked tired and had good reason, she had been up most of the night with some other Healers trying to help one of the sick children in the Village. She looked at Kai, and said “I hope you aren’t planning on leaving this early. I haven’t finished making my preparations yet”

“No, he replied, just sitting here looking out over the water, and wondering when we will be ready to go. Just watching the sky to see if I can see the Sun the Elders are always telling stories about. How is Mia doing by the way?”

“She is holding her own, but it is a struggle. She gets weaker, and then gains some ground, then seems to slip back, and we can’t find a cause for it. There are no apparent reasons, for her to be sick, no broken bones, no open sores, no high Fever. She is so young, only six years old. I have looked into her mind, and do not see any fears that would prevent her body from healing itself, but something seems to be missing. We will just have to keep a close watch on her to look for signs or symptoms. I have met with the other Healers and compared notes, but there seems to be a recent trend of more sickness caused by something unknown, we may have to find a cure outside the Village somewhere, which is one of the reasons I think your journey to find something else is so important.”

Kela asked “Have the Elders been able to give you any more information from the old stories that may help us?”

“No, they only have what has been passed down to them from others, no one has any personal knowledge of what is beyond the Ocean” replied Kai. “There are some faded memories of things written down somewhere somehow, but no one knows how to read what the Elders call “Books” that they claim exist from the “Old Days”. They claim that the knowledge has been lost, and the few “Books” that they have are too fragile for us to handle without damaging them.”

Cera yawned and stretched, then announced “I am off to get some sleep, I will see you later.” and she walked away.

Kela looked at Kai, and asked “Tomorrow morning we are leaving? Are you still sure this is what you want to do? Are we really ready?”

Kai looked back at here and smiled as he replied “Yes, we are leaving in the morning, and I feel very strongly that this is something we need to do. Our life here can’t be all that there is, there has to be something more, and I can’t believe that we are the only ones in the world, that doesn’t make sense to me. Look at the birds in the sky. Where do they go when they fly out over the ocean? They can’t just fly out there forever, they must get tired, and have to land sometimes. Where did we come from? Our true beginnings, not the stories the Elders tell us. Where do the animals come from, and the fish in the Ocean? I need to find answers to some of my...