To my surprise, although there’s some similarities to the severely plain central command block, someone has actually put some thought into appearance when designing the rest of them. There’s all kinds of etched patterns and designs breaking up the severity of the whitestone, and lots of windows (almost all opaquely shuttered to keep out the cold or the view). And sloping roofs! Just a mild tilt – you could probably walk around on them quite safely, but definitely sloping, with some gorgeous patterns cut into them which also serve to direct drainage. Even the central block had been retrofitted so that its roof slopes.
"I’m impressed," I told Isten Notra, peering out the window of the ten-person shuttle taking us from the Litara directly to the central amphitheatre of the old town. "Tarens remembered that buildings have outsides."
"The cities we will one day build on this world…" Isten Notra began, then stopped and hugged me. "We will make it our home again. Thank you for that, Caszandra."
This embarrassed me incredibly, of course, though I am getting more used to people thanking me emotionally for something I did by accident. I distracted myself by digging into my backpack and pulling out the two beanies I’d bought. I gave Isten Notra the blue and purple one and talked about things I’d learned on my two whole trips skiing at Thredbo, particularly that you lose a surprising amount of heat through the top of your head. Isten Notra was very sensibly dressed, but like everyone else who’d been travelling on the Litara, had nothing resembling headgear. She thanked me and plonked it on right away, making her secretary act like he’d just eaten a lemon. I think beanies might count as little kid hats on Tare or something. Lohn certainly looked like he was trying not to laugh.
I didn’t particularly care, though. My beanie was two shades of green and when they opened the shuttle door I was damn glad I’d brought it. It was cold enough to make my nose hurt, and everyone’s breath steamed out in clouds. It hasn’t snowed at Pandora yet, but they think it will very soon, and you can see a dusting of white on the higher hills in the distance.
New arrivals to Muina are always taken first thing to a platform to be cleared, and whenever possible are all done at once to avoid making the Ddura anxious. There were about twenty newcomers on this trip, easily handled. I stayed on one side of the arena with First Squad as Shon and Isten Notra became official Muinans. The Ddura showed up midway through the process, and made happy noises, but was far less wildly exuberant than those first days. The question of whether I could give people access to Kalasa was settled as soon as the shuttle took the new arrivals off to the warmth of the buildings. No.
I tried thinking all sorts of commands at the platform, but it didn’t react at all as it does when it gets told people are Muinans. And no-one was teleported anywhere standing on it. Maze didn’t push against the inevitable once we’d run through the test options, having Mara take me off to the medical section in the main block for the headache the Ddura had given me. It’s not as excited as it was, and shuts up more on command, but it does still hang about letting off occasional moans if people play with the platform. He’s scheduled the mission for quite early the next day since by then it was evening for me and very late in First Squad’s day, though only just sunset at Pandora.
After my headache had lifted, Maze sat with me to explain exactly what we’ll be trying tomorrow, and was being very calm and reassuring, but with his eyes so unhappy. I wish I could make him feel better about this. They want me bunk down here in medical tonight, thoroughly monitored. I can see they’re worried I’ll have nightmares about Kalasa, and I can’t tell them what’s distracted me from tomorrow. You see, it’s occurred to me that there’s a faint possibility that Ruuel was at least partially aware of the good dreams. If I could make Mori feel she was being stung by giant insects, could Ruuel have spent night after night on the Diodel wondering why it felt like there was a girl snuggling up against him?
It’s an awful thought. I’m hoping it’s just me being paranoid, since I suspect that if he’d been aware of the strangeness of my dreams at Arenrhon he’d have sent me straight for testing. But now that he does know, and now that I definitely am strong enough to make people feel things, I get to be all worried about having a good dream, instead of looking forward to it.
Ruuel has been tied up with something. I glimpsed him once on the Litara, but it was only during the platform experiments that I was close enough to see he still looks tired, and I haven’t seen him since then. I don’t know if the Setari are even in the same building – except for Jeh from Second, who seems to have drawn first babysitting shift, and is in the next room. It’s probably best if Ruuel’s far away, preferably somewhere shielded.
Unfair. Good dreams about Ruuel had almost made me look forward to this mission. But while I have no problems with me privately having all sorts of fantasies about him, it’s totally another ball game making him have dreams about me.
I’ll try for otters.
Thursday, June 12
Into Kalasa
I dreamed I was sitting on the side of Ruuel’s bed, watching him sleep. My subconscious making a compromise, I guess. It was a little cell of a room, just a single bed and a rack for luggage and a door. There wasn’t any light, so I’m not altogether sure how I could see, but it was all very clear.
He wasn’t wearing his uniform, the first time I’ve seen him in anything else. A dark boxer-brief and singlet arrangement. And he was having a nightmare, was shifting fretfully under a half kicked-off blanket. Fully living up to the Place Sight reputation for being haunted. He looked like he was in pain, and I longed to touch him, but instead I made myself wake up. I knew it wasn’t fair of me to watch. I don’t think I was projecting, just looking, which is a big leap forward in control. Not that I’ll mention it to anyone.
Taarel wasn’t with him. Stupid thing to be happy about, and I suppose it’s terribly unlikely they’d be together during a mission anyway. I didn’t dream again after that, and was woken up by Maze, who took me off to an early breakfast with a bunch of greysuit section heads who wanted to ask me about Winter. Being a Sydney girl, I thought this was tremendously funny, but neither Tare nor Kolar have much experience with snow. Tare has a semi-frozen polar region with scarcely any solid ground, while the Kolarens actually live at their poles because the equator area is too hot. So even Australians know things they don’t about seasons, and I yabbered on about hibernation and igloos and tree branches breaking off from the weight of snow, and seasonal migration of animals, and then wandered into a tangent about Ice Ages and dinosaurs. I now have an assignment to review all the information being collated about Muina’s plants and animals, mark any that seem familiar, like the hairy sheep, and write little essays on everything I know about the Earth equivalent.