Jarn’s Journal Year 6 Day 105

Year 6 Day 105

Almost any stone will do for pounding, Little Gnu assures me, but for tools to cut, the stone and how it is shaped depends on what is to be cut. Most of the cutting tools he showed me were some form of microcrystalline quartz: chalcedony, flint, jasper or even agate. A few decorative pieces, more for showing off or for grave offerings than for use, were of colored quartz. But his real prize, used only for the most delicate of tasks, was a carefully chipped piece of obsidian as sharp as any steel knife.

“The stone is rare,” he told me, “and not easy to work. Sometimes I can arrange to trade a worked piece for a much larger piece of the raw material. But sometimes a thorn or a spear is driven into the body, and this is the best kind of knife for cutting it out.”

“It is also,” Gazelle remarked, “the best thing for cutting hides. When I can get my hands on it.”

It took me a moment to remember that Little Gnu was not at the gather the year I presented them with obsidian. “Would you like some raw stone to work?” I asked. “I know where I can find some, and it would be easy enough to get it. You could make knives while you cannot walk well enough to hunt.”

He was delighted at the suggestion, and so was Gazelle. “If he has more of that stone, perhaps I could have a knife of my own,” she said, “just to use for cutting tanned skins.”

Jarn’s Journal Year 6 Day 85

Year 6 Day 85

Well, they’ve left.

I keep telling myself not to become attached to individuals of the People, because they age quickly and will die all too soon. On that basis, it is a very good thing that Songbird, Giraffe and WildDog will not be staying with me this year.

I will miss them.

I will even miss Meerkat, who has finally realized I have no interest in her as a mate and set out, very much behind my back, to seduce Lion, who lost his mate to a fever last year. I hope Lion knows what he is in for!

Not that Gazelle, the mate of Little Gnu, is not a good cook and clothing maker, or that her daughter does not remind me of Songbird as I first knew her. Gazelle has also taken to the fish traps, and we eat well even without a hunter.

Little Gnu has turned out to be remarkably adept at knapping stone. Giraffe did make a small spear point for WildDog, but he spent a great deal of time doing it. Little Gnu has almost finished his supply of stone, and every tool he has made is a success. He is not very talkative, but he has managed to make me understand that different tools are best made from different types of stone.

“If I bring you several kinds of stone,” I said, “can you show me what each is best for?”

He beamed as he has not done since the elephant attacked him. I think I may learn more about stone tools than I had intended.

Jarn’s Journal is a part of the remote back story of my science fiction universe. The entire journal to date is on my author site.

Zhaim Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Zhaim is Lai’s oldest R’il’noid son, and as long as he has the highest fraction of active R’il’nian-derived genes of any of the R’il’noids alive, he is his father’s heir – if anything happens to Lai, Zhaim will take over. He took this position from Derik (who was just as glad to be rid of the responsibility) when he came of age several hundred years ago, and has come to define himself in terms of how he will improve the Confederation when he takes over from his dowdy and senile (in his opinion) father.

Zhaim is quite handsome in his way, vain about his appearance, and very fashion-conscious. His complexion is dark bronze, like his father’s, and his hair is black. His eyes are almost clear with silver veining – “ice and silver” is how they are often described. His hobby is making “artistic” sculptures out of living things (including slaves) and he considers himself a great but misunderstood artist. He likes and admires cats, but is violently allergic to them.

He is an important character in both Homecoming and Tourist Trap and will continue in the trilogy. Here he is speaking from the Bounceabout, early in Homecoming.

The Bounceabout. Ha! The Nausea would be more appropriate. And twice in one day?

Damn the old man! He knows how those rough jumps affect me. And he damn near ordered me to come. Blast Derik. I should have been the one left on charge, not that soft-headed fool. He’s even older than my father!

And now my father even admits he doesn’t have the slightest idea of where he’s going. Just that some possible jump points feel more “right” than others. Well, I knew it was a useless quest.

Still, he has a habit of being right. And if there’s even a chance of other R’il’nai out there …. If one of them were female ….

Damn it, the R’il’noids are better than either race! We’re smarter than the Humans; more practical and creative than the pure R’il’nai. We don’t need the R’il’nai any more. But if the old man finds others ….

I’m his heir, the son who has inherited the most of his R’il’nian genes. He mustn’t have a child by a pure R’il’nian!

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

 

Yearday (A to Z Challenge)

The Central calendar is based on the solstices and equinoxes, with the northward equinox marking the start of the year, a planetary holiday called Yearday. The Central year is actually slightly more than 364 Central days, so Yearday is always defined by the northward equinox at the longitude of Confederation headquarters, and if necessary an intercalary day is inserted on the day after Yearday. This occurs roughly every 9 years.

The year is divided into twelve months of 30 days each, with holidays (which are considered not to belong to any month) between them. Yearday is the most important of these, and the only one firmly tied to the astronomical calendar. Northday is approximately on the northern solstice and Southday near the southern solstice; Feastday is near the southward equinox.

The school calendar starts with the first day of the fifth month, a month after Northday. There are two month-long vacations, starting with Northday and Southday.

Both Feastday and Yearday are times for parties and celebrations, but most students do not have enough time off school to travel home at these times. Only those whose parents are able to teleport them home normally get anything but the celebrations planned at school.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Wif k’Roi Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Wif is the son of Roi and Feline (feh-LEEN), conceived when both were forced into a sex show as slaves. As a result of this episode and its aftermath, Feline was not quite sane and was extremely possessive of the child. Roi carries the Coven gene and is barred by the Genetics board from having any other offspring, but Wif did not inherit this from his father and as an adult has numerous offspring. He looks strikingly like his grandfather, Lai, except for an eye color that matches his father’s: gold with flecks of metallic gold. In our time, that of the upcoming trilogy, he has become the Guardian of Earth.

He appeared briefly as a baby in Homecoming (where he played an important role as a catalyst) and again when he is three and a half years old at the end of Tourist Trap. I am letting him speak shortly after the end of Tourist Trap.

I rode my pony all morning, even when we cantered! And I wasn’t the least bit tired. Well, my legs were just a little stiff. But this afternoon Daddy said we’d go in the canoe on the river, because he wanted to show me some fish like we don’t have on Central. I had to promise not to jump up and down, though.

I don’t know why Mother didn’t want me to come to Falaron. She never wants me to do anything that’s fun. Even my pony back home. She kept screaming about how dangerous it was, even with Flame leading me. I like auntie Flame better’n Mother, but Daddy says I mustn’t tell her that. He says I have to be polite to her. Even Grandma Marna says that. Grandma Marna made Mother let me come, though.

Oh, look at that bird! It just swooped right down and caught a fish in its feet. Talons, Daddy says.

Flame and Penny are leading my pony and Daddy’s horse along the bank. There’s a path there. I like Penny. She doesn’t scream like Mother. She says I ride really well, and she showed me how to put on my pony’s bridle. Not the saddle, though, I can’t reach that high.

I wish Penny’d come back to Central and be my Auntie, like Flame. I asked her if she would, after lunch, but she just turned red. So did Daddy. Did I say something wrong?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Vara (A to Z Challenge)

Vara is R’il’noid, though not High R’il’noid. She is a breeder and trainer of performance horses, and lives near Nik on Seabird Island. Like most fertile R’il’noids she is subject to the Genetics Board as far as having children is concerned. Her last pregnancy was, by Board decision, to Derik. Trouble was, she knew Derik in his misspent youth and gave in only reluctantly to letting him have anything to do with their son, Coryn. Needless to state, Coryn was conceived by the laboratory procedure, though Derik did insist on using conditional precognition to determine the timing and which fertilized egg was implanted.

Vara appears in Homecoming and Tourist Trap, and will have a continuing part in my upcoming trilogy. Here she is speaking from about a third of the way through Homecoming, after Coryn has invited Roi to visit over the school holidays, and she has (reluctantly) allowed Derik to visit as well, since at this point in time he is one of Roi’s guardians.

I’m glad I sent those extra food packages to Cory. I thought he was just trying to take advantage of me, but after seeing what his “starving, motherless tutee”  looks like, I really don’t think I sent him enough. If he could walk, the boy would be a walking skeleton!

What on Central was Derik thinking of, to send a paralyzed child in a float chair to a school like Tyndall! Oh, Cory says he’s bright enough, But I can’t believe the others aren’t giving him problems. Not with the way he pulls in on himself at any sudden move. I’ll certainly let Derik know how I feel about the situation when he gets here!

At least Roi doesn’t seem afraid of the horses, and Cory says he was quite a rider before he was paralyzed. Still wants to be, I think. At any rate, he really lit up when Cory offered to take him riding double this morning. I did insist that they take old Cotton, instead of that feisty mare Cory had started to saddle! I’m not so sure about letting them go bareback, though when I mind-touched Coryn to check on them a time or two, Ander was the one having problems. I thought that bay might be too much for him, but Cotton’s really the only quiet horse I have right now.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time. Click below for the list of participants.

Uncontacted Planets (A to Z Challenge)

Planets not occupied by Humans or R’il’nians are often found by the Jarnian Confederation. Most are outside the parameters Humans need for life, but when a habitable planet is found, it may be treated in any of several ways. If it is barren, it may be terraformed and colonized. (Example: Horizon.) If it has life but not sentient life it may have some Terran or R’il’nian species imported and then settled by Humans. (Example: Eversummer.) Some planets are of special scientific interest, and they will be kept as pristine as possible. (Example: Mirror.) But if a planet has a native, sentient species, or a species that appears to be evolving toward sentience, that planet will be left alone, and warning beacons will be placed around it.

No contact is permitted with the inhabitants of such a planet: a species must earn its own way to the stars. If the planet is deemed attractive to lawbreakers, it will be assigned a Guardian, a R’il’noid who is responsible for keeping the planet safe and insulated from contact with star-faring species. Such planets are known as uncontacted planets.

Earth is an uncontacted planet. There is a Guardian, and in fact Roi was at one time the Guardian for Earth. It is considered a special planet, as the Humans of the Confederation are well aware that it is their ancestral home. But they keep their presence well-hidden from the Humans of Earth.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Timi (A to Z Challenge)

Timi is the third of the friends Roi (Snowy) manages to keep together as a dancing group. He is black. Not African or looking like it, but from a starship-based, inbred civilization, the Clan. His hair and skin are true black, not dark brown. His eyes, however, are reddish amber, with a protective reflecting layer below the amber pigment. His hair is curly, but only loosely. His culture uses dance as a method of challenge, but it is dance in free fall, with randomly changing artificial gravity fields. He appears in Homecoming, Tourist Trap and Horse Power.

Timi was older than Amber when enslaved in a pirate raid, remembers more of freedom, and fiercely resents being a slave. He had also had considerably more education than Amber and was able to teach what he had learned to the others, to some extent getting around the custom that slaves were not taught to read or to understand numbers. Here he is speaking from before the beginning of Homecoming

Should I go along? I like Amber and I’d like to stay with her, but she’s freebred, a captive like me. That Snowy’s slavebred, and every slavebred I’ve met is pretty stupid.

I don’t think Snowy is, though.

Amber said he’d learned to read faster than anyone she knew just from her reading a few things to him, and was just as quick on what she could remember of arithmetic. And that idea of his: keeping us all together as a dancing group, that we’d be worth enough that way to get decent treatment …. I’ve seen enough to know how slaves can be mistreated. Makes me want to scream, but they’ll just activate the control collar if I do.

And I’d like to be friends with him.

That’s the dangerous kind.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Saroi (Cloudy) (A to Z Challenge)

(Possible spoilers for the first 30 pages of Homecoming.) Saroi, better known by her nickname of Cloudy, does not appear onstage in any of my books, but she plays an important role as Lai’s former lover, the woman who left him bereft. She was his nurse after his father, the only other R’il’nian alive, was killed in an accident, and it was her love and caring that pulled him back from near-suicidal grief. They became lovers, but Cloudy owed her white hair to a dominant gene that kept the nervous system from developing properly. An affected child born alive would be in severe pain and not sane in any normal sense. Cloudy had another dominant gene that confined the effects to white hair, but in theory one in four of her children would carry the Coven gene without the protective gene. The Genetics Board did not want to risk even a remote possibility of a projective telepath with Coven syndrome, so Cloudy was forbidden to have her sterilization (normal for all Central children before puberty) reversed.

She never spoke these words aloud; she remained silent until the end. But she may well have spoken them to herself.

I loved you, Lai, more than I could ever have told you. It tore my heart in two when I wrote you that note, begging you not to try to find me, and then tried everything in my power to hide my traces, to destroy my identity so thoroughly that even you could not find me.

I succeeded all too well. I was kidnapped and sold as a slave.

I lied when I said that life with you was destroying my privacy, but how could I have told you the truth without the Genetics Board finding out? It was a choice between you and the new life I carried within me, and I had to give your child, your son, a chance. Believe me, my love, nothing else could have induced me to leave you.

They have taken him from me, now, and I can only hope I have taught him to hide his abilities, so like yours, well enough that he can survive and keep clear of the Genetics Board.

I love you, Lai.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books of the Jarnian Confederation, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Roi Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Roi starts life as a slave named Snowy by his mother, though she wasn’t able to keep him past childhood. He was sold as an entertainment slave, but his mother’s training, to hide his odd abilities as they could get him killed, was deep rooted. He has golden eyes flecked with metallic gold, but the contrast is so slight it is hard to see. He is white haired like his mother, with dark bronze skin, lightly built but very well coordinated and athletic. He is a superb dancer and choreographer, and learns new sports, such as horseback riding, very quickly.

Roi is the protagonist of both Homecoming and Tourist Trap, appears in Horse Power, and will appear in the trilogy I’m working on, if I ever get it done. He is speaking here from the early part of Homecoming, shortly before he meets Coryn for the second time. (The first time was when Coryn’s father, Derik, owned Roi.) He’s about fourteen and a half, here.

I wish I could figure out what they want from me. Learn, Kim said, and I am. I understand everything they’re saying in class. It’s just that buzzing in my head. I can’t do anything without feeling exhausted, certainly not use that computer the way they want me to for homework. And with Xazhar making threats at mealtimes, I have to lift my arms to the food, and I’m not getting nearly enough to eat. He sees to it I don’t make any friends, either. Peer pressure discipline may work, but it’s sure not working for me.

I wish I were back just being Derik’s slave, with Timi and Amber and Flame. I knew where I was, there. I knew how to get by as a slave, and I could keep my friends with me. Here …. I’ve figured out what they want me to believe, but why? What they’re telling me can’t be true, but what is? And now I’ve even got Kim mad at me.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.