Vestige

The scream was so sharp it caused the elderly woman to fall out of her wicker bed and onto her mastaba-hut’s floor. It was a good thing Tyra kept a high-quality, thick rug that one of her grandchildren had crafted and gifted her under her cot; for it softened her landing!

“I detect no rogue synthetics, Councilor Housenn Sohill,” her old portable volunteered for her, for he knew that would be her first question.

“Thanks, portable!”

After quickly wrapping her comfortably clothed body with a more public wrap, Tyra ran out of her hut and straight toward the scream in cMaj’s windy night! The township of Vestige 2 had developed a network of connecting walkways that were mostly a clear path via natural pedestrian traffic. She utilized the walkway system—lit up by a few solarvoltaic light-pieces. By the time the councilor passed the center of the spreading mastaba-huts and domicile patchworks of projects spread throughout the Colony, there was a second scream!

By that time, the majority of the township was out on the crossways; some of the Colonists brandishing hand-made weapons!

“It’s alright, sisters and brothers,” Geologist-Fillip Natsome—the eldest of the entire Tribe—countered the three scores or so of villagers as they sought out an enemy; frantically looking around the Settlement with their sophisticated spears, axes, and crossbows! There were a few times over the fifty years since the original Colonists had to fight off the rogue synthetic beings on cMaj after the Synthetics’ Rebellion up to more recent years, so the villagers of Vestige 2 had a long history of combat and weapon-manufacturing!

Standing next to the slender, old geologist was one of his and Lanay Thuall’s adult sons, Lannel and his common-law wife. It was Lannel’s children—Natsome’s grandchildren—that were the ones that had done the screaming! Lanay’s daughters and sons were gathered around him and his common-wife; all looking toward their mastaba-hut as they squeezed against the middle-agers.

“It’s not the synthetics—” Fillip started; yet keeping both hands held up as he tried to calm down the crowd—indeed, there was a time that the survivors of the original Vestige colony would’ve thought humanity would never again see such slowly growing numbers!

“Yes, we know,” one of the younger male villagers from the Housenn Sohill clan shot back. “The portables informed us already…what’s the problem?”

“Tardigrades,” one of the geologist’s grandchildren spoke up; her finger jutting out toward the lit hut; its front door closed with large rocks blocking it, presumably in case the door’s fashioned-lock had not held up to the unnaturally, enlarged proto-animals! To Tyra, it seemed a bit overly done, given the Tardigrades’ species had gotten bigger due to the radiation from the old ship’s enclosed sector, but they weren’t exactly bears, either!

“—Stars’ gravity!”

“—those damn Synthetics…they brought them here!”

“—What good will our analogue weapons be against thousands of those?”

“About how many did you see,” Tyra finally asked as she quickly stepped up and joined the family.

“Councilor,” Fillip Natsome quickly greeted her with a snap of his head. He then cast his attention to his son. For it was his family’s home.

“Councilor…I’d say about twenty!”

“—probably just the vanguard.”

“—Better check all huts tonight!”

“—thought I heard some scratching last night!”

“—gods!”

“Well, it has been about thirty years since we’ve first seen them at the ruins,” Tyra said absent-mindedly; her eyes on Lannel’s family’s mastaba-hut in the windy night. The three, mixing clans that made up the Tribe were mummering behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, to get the attention of the Tribe. “Honestly, sisters and brothers, I’m guessing this is just a natural migration of the Tardigrade species from the old Ship’s ruins…I was afraid this would happen one day!”

“Councilor,” came Chemist-Luciana Salomenes’s voice from farther back in the crowd, “can we have synthetic laborer Number Four stand guard for us tonight?”

There was a noticeable pause from Tyra. She turned to face the two-thirds of the whole township of Vestige 2 that were there; retrograde weapons drawn, the people in a tense posture! “I ask that we set up your portable, Luciana; your portable, Miriana; and, of course, I’ll set up mine as well, to keep a scanning watch over the village. I have Number Four on an important task.”

Tyra’s family all knew this from the most recent family argument they had over at the Councilor’s hut a couple of days ago! But the rest of the Colonists that were there all cast confused glances toward each other! But none protested.

‘Yes, Councilor,’ came the chorused responses from the chemist and Tyra’s eldest adult child.

As cMaj’s seasonal strong wind blew that late-evening, Councilor Housenn Sohill looked about the villagers as they began to disperse—Lannel and his wife in a conversation with Fillip, arranging how the whole family could stay at his and Lanay Thuall’s hut for the night while the Tardigrades were playing guests that night! “Could everyone please wait for a bit…?”

The nearly forty colonists all stopped at once…a bit eerie, Tyra thought. Indeed, in some ways, after all those decades on cMaj and as Vestige 2’s leading colonist, she still sometimes felt uncomfortable with her power over the remnant of the human species!

“I was planning on telling everyone this during our next tribal meeting—which I’ve yet to even schedule!” There were some polite laughs. The winds flung everyone’s long body-wraps and hair about as Tyra thought more on her words and turned to face Miriana; standing within a knot of the colonists. “Long before any of our children and their children were born, there were six original colonists from the original Colony, and four of us were members of that old system called the nodule government—including me…

“Something like a year before the Ship arrived at cMaj, the nodule took a vote on if we should even bother to tell the colonists about the Ship’s system automatically adjusting the planet-like conditions within the O’Neillian sector of the Ship. The majority voted no; I voted that we should…even after all those years, sisters and brothers, I’ve always felt it was an unjust vote for a small group of people to vote to keep almost three million people in the dark over the governing nodule changing the Colony’s planetary conditions! The nodule’s intentions were well-meaning, that I remember. But…”

Tyra shook her head. Remembering the events when she was a young woman in her twenties at that time. And, now, when she looked around at the Colonists that were around her, she had grandchildren about that age! “Intentions are not tangible; it’s what we do, affirmed? Well…now, I had found myself doing the same thing, in principal…I’m sure everyone here knows about the unique qualities of Lake Thuall’s sand by now?”

There were nods of consent; smiling faces watching her silently. Tyra continued as she nodded and shrugged.

“Alright…I’m just going to throw this out there now while the majority of the villagers are here. Based on official Vestige 2’s laws, we have a clear quorum: I make note that we open Lake Thuall to all Colonists, but with a warning that they go cautiously; as we still don’t know much about the sentient-sand…”

The Councilor paused, then looked around at the silent colonists. Clearly, some couldn’t believe they were taking an actual vote, literally, in the middle of the township in the middle of the night, after they had just dealt with Tardigrades! But, indeed they were, and those present had voted unanimously for the Councilor’s noted statement!

In an almost surreal setting, the Colonists present began to applaud the results of the vote! There were some small talk and quips, but Councilor Housenn Sohill had at least one more order of business for the impromptu tribal meeting…

“I sent synthetic laborer Number Four on a peace mission…”

Silence…except for the seasonal winds of cMaj.

“I’m sorry, Councilor,” one of the adult grandchildren of the Natsome Thuall clan finally spoke up, “what do you mean by peace mission? Is that when the victims of attacks give into their assailants’ demands and the victims give up some of their land…?”

Obviously, the young man was being sarcastic, but the thrust of his retort was exactly how most Colonists felt! Indeed, all the positive outreach that Councilor Housenn Sohill had done that late night and her having conducted an historic vote for the tiny Colony was all undone after her last short statement!

Some of the Colonists were actually yelling at the councilor! Others just looked at her as they slowly shook their heads…in some ways, Tyra thought to herself, they were worse than those yelling at her. One didn’t know if they were planning an assassination!

The commotion after the Councilor’s announcement of the peace mission to the rogue synthetic beings on cMaj had gotten so bad, the rest of the Colonists that had stayed behind in their respective mastsaba-huts had ran out to see what was going on! But she had to re-take control of the escape pod, otherwise known as the Vestige 2 settlement!

“Listen! You all know the sentient aspects of the sand on the lakeshore at Lake Thuall! I had a long meeting with Number Four and my portable about the lake and its sand after Four took me around and recorded the whole trip…after examining the pictions and other data on the sand, there is no way such sentient being could evolve on its own on a planet! Sisters and brothers, are you understanding what I’m saying?

“The data that synth Four and I collected several days ago show that either there is another intelligent species right now on cMaj and we don’t know who, what, and where they are, or historically speaking there used to be such an intelligent civilization on this planet and they left or died out—leaving the living sand here on cMaj by itself!”

Well that got the Tribe’s attention!

“Are you understanding now, sisters and brothers…? We were still in the process of studying the lake and its sand, so I can’t tell you for sure if it’s only Lake Thuall with the living sand, or if it’s planet-wide…But this is why I’ve decided to send Number Four to try to strike a conversation with the rogue synths: If it is so that whatever species had created and placed the sentient-sand on cMaj is still here, based on the historical research Four, my portable, and I have done, typically, the more advanced civilization—ironically—will feel threatened and enslave and/or destroy the less advanced society…”

Tyra looked around the, now, silent village. That time, the entire population was there in the night as the wind kept buffering the colonists. She went on.

“In case you haven’t noticed, my sisters and brothers, we aren’t exactly at gods-status since the Synth Rebellion! Look, we can’t do this on our own if there is an advanced civilization on this planet—not with our population now…” Tyra shrugged. “The way I figured, all of the synthetic beings that are on cMaj have something like another thirty years left in their life-cycle. If we and they continue to maintain good computerable hygiene practices. Of course, some of us will have passed away by then, but our little colony would have a much better fighting chance than if we continue to inch forward as a species instead of taking long, striding steps!”

There were very long, silent glances exchanged within the Colony after that. They all did not need to say it—again! But truth was, the vestige of humanity owed Councilor Tyra Housenn Sohill a lot! Over fifty years prior, it was her search crew under her command that had found the alarm that alerted the governing nodule system that the old Ship was low on nuclear fuel—and from that mission, it lead to Vestige’s ship diverting to planet cMaj.

Twenty year after the Rebellion and the homo sapiens species came within six human individuals from literal extinction and it was Tyra Housenn Sohill who came up with the plan to migrate the Three Tribes to the plateau region—a gamble, true. But it paid off greatly with a region richer in soil, more solid rock-structures for housing and making tools, and hundreds of miles between the burgeoning Colony and both the rogue synthetic beings and the Tardigrades!

And, now, that same Colony—which had grown just shy of ten times its population since the day of the old Ship’s bombing—was being asked to trust that same woman on the next chapter of the human species’ recovery from oblivion with trying to have a peace treaty between that Colony and those same synthetics…