"More ahead," Ruuel said, glancing at Taarel.
"We’re not here to clear," she said. "Respond to attacks."
That was an uncomfortable journey. The dogs didn’t attack, but we kept seeing them on the tops of buildings and at the end of streets, watching, following. I was left with a strong impression of organisation and intelligence, and Auron and Ferus stuck very close to me. To my relief it looked like the dogs didn’t like the amphitheatre. Since the main reason we were there was to check out the platform, the emptiness was a big advantage.
The platform room, other than suffering from a lot of ground grot, was just the same. The Setari took some touch readings, and set up the drone, and then the Ddura arrived. Completely hysterical.
"Different Ddura," I said, under all the Hhhhhaaaaa!-ing.
"In the ecstatic phase," Ruuel said, using text over the interface. They all kept talking in text after that, which I thought was nice of them. And better still that Fourth Squad took me back up top while Third finished the final tests. It was still horribly loud, but nothing like as painful as being in the same room as the platform.
There were a ring of the dogs at the upper tier of the amphitheatre, just watching. Stephen King had come to town. I tried to figure out which dog was the pack leader, but there were quite a few candidates.
One thing about communicating with text is it’s only my grammar which sounds bad. I don’t have to worry about my dreadful pronunciation and can write a lot before I transmit it. When Third Squad came up to join us, I sent: "These maybe descendant domesticated working dogs. Similar type to species my planet. Very intelligent animal. Very strong herding instinct."
"How many of the animals on Muina resemble those of your world?" Ruuel asked.
"Hard to tell with birds, bugs. The sheep, the cats, these dogs. Domesticated animal. Otters, not domesticated animal, though did see once documentary people use them to fish. And the people, of course." I was tempted to ask what he thought of my idea that the Muinans had originally been Terrans, but decided I could live without that being on the mission log.
The dogs saw us off, totally like a tribe making sure strangers left their territory. That was their town, just as the first town belonged to the cats. Had belonged.
I was thinking about that a lot and watching scenery as we flew to the rift gate when Tsaile Staben sent me a channel request, a thing which surprised me since she was back at the first town and because bluesuits as a rule don’t talk to me.
"Devlin," she said, when I opened the channel. "It is traditional for the person who discovers a location to name it. The town where you were located was provisionally named at your retrieval, but the new settlement now needs a label. What will it be?"
"Pandora." I didn’t even have to think about it, just translated it into Muinan text.
"Recorded," she said, and closed the channel. Bluesuits make Ruuel look chatty. A few minutes later the new name popped up on the settlement’s map, giving me a fine sense of power.
Eeli had left me alone for the start of the flight back – I’m pretty sure Taarel gave her a lecture about bombarding me with questions, especially when I’m in headache recovery mode – but not long after I spoke to Tsaile Staben she came up to the corner of the observation lounge area where I’d parked myself and asked how I was feeling.
"Is good," I said, smiling at her eager expression. She really is too sweet and funny. "Would go lie down if headache drug wasn’t working."
She lit up. "I wanted to ask about the name of the settlement. Is Pandora the name of someone special to you?"
I laughed at that. "Don’t know anyone name Pandora."
Ferus from Fourth strayed over. I never seem to have these conversations without an audience. "Do I get to guess too? Maybe it’s the name of the place you live on your world?"
"Is creation myth from part of Earth called Greece," I said, suspecting Ferus of wanting to make a few entertaining suggestions. "Pandora was first woman, made by the gods. They gave her a box, told her she must look after it, but never open it. No-one ever seems to invent sensible gods. Pandora couldn’t resist, lifted lid a tiny crack to peek into box. But lid burst open and all the bad things in the world came flying out – hate, misery, greed. Pandora frantically try and shut box, but too late. Pandora in tears, seeing way she wreck the world–" I broke off, because Eeli obviously had no trouble working out why I’d called the settlement Pandora and was looking incredibly hurt and upset. I shouldn’t underestimate her. "Story not over," I said, patting her arm. "Pandora in tears, when she hear noise from box. Something still inside. A voice, pleading to be released, make her brave enough to open box again. The last thing in box is Hope, which is the thing which makes possible to endure all the bad things."
I smiled at her. "Is story of doing something irreversible. I unlock Muina. Bad things will come of that. But good things too. Point of name is that cannot be undone. Been feeling very small, thinking about that."
"What bad things?" Ferus asked, rubbing Eeli’s shoulder.
I pulled a face. "Did you look at building they making there? Great big box. Tarens don’t know how live with outside any more."
That made Eeli laugh, and surreptitiously wipe her eyes. "It’s a right name, isn’t it? One that fits."
"Thought so when Tsaile Staben asked me. Was thinking of those dogs, and the cats at first town, and other animals on this planet. For them, would be better if box stayed shut? Even though Seventh Squad make bad joke about killing them, the cats at Pandora won’t be let stay at amphitheatre. They already starting move away because not like so many people where kittens are. That been their place for centuries. Feel sorry for them. But this world belong you. Not my place to say, no shouldn’t be here."
I’m pretty sure the Tarens couldn’t screw up Muina nearly half as badly as we’ve done to some parts of Earth. Though I have my doubts about them understanding the concept of balconies and a nice view any time soon.
Tuesday, March 25
The art of doing nothing much
A nice quiet day. Not even a medical exam after the one I had after the flight yesterday. I went swimming, and walked the torture stairs, but otherwise just lolled about being glad to be wearing something other than my uniform, and trying to magically transport myself into the bathroom. It’s hard to work out just what it is I did to get to Earth.
I seem to have a rotation with First Squad tomorrow. I’ve missed them.
Wednesday, March 26
Unstable
Unstable rotations involve a lot of fussing over how long the gates are going to last. The spaces were flooded, which meant using the breathers and telling our nanosuits to be more like wetsuits. The first flooded space was a memory of trees, where sharp leaves whirled around like faceless fish and Lohn’s enhanced Light talent came in handy because Fire is not a useful talent underwater, and you sure as hell wouldn’t want to use Lightning even if First had that talent. After the aggressive leaves there was a big cavern filled with scaffolding around a monstrous Greek-style temple.
This was a space First Squad had only seen once before, one of a series which switched into this position. The Ionoth which was there was one they’d never encountered, a long, flat and frilly thing, like something you’d see on the Great Barrier Reef, but larger. It curled and wound its way through the scaffolding, trailing afterimages of itself.