Saradasi-The Search

By Ranjit Ratnaike

The Prophecy, centuries old, states that the unseen cosmic forces of good and evil, led by the divine astral Lord Gaima and the evil Prince Vira, battling for control of the Nereima Galaxy and its inhabitants have fought themselves to a standstill. They agree each would field a small team to decide the fate of the Galaxy.
The evil Prince Vira suggests virtue as the only weapon the astral Lord Gaima’s team need for victory. When Lord Gaima agrees, Vira tricks him into accepting members of the Saradasi race as his team. The treacherous Saradasi ruthlessly rule the Saradasi Empire in the Nereima Galaxy, enslaving billions of inhabitants.
They agree on a future date for the battle.
Vira challenges Lord Gaima to transflux enough virtue into his team of five Saradasi during their many cycles of rebirth before the battle.
Three hundred and seventy-seven years pass. The battle for the Nereima Galaxy begins.
Shanaz, the beautiful young High Chancellor of the Saradasi Empire, who leads Lord Gaima’s team, must first search for her lover Lord Wynan, a team member, who has fled with evil forces, who she had once raised to a god like status, but now could no longer worship nor love.
Shanaz enters a menacing parallel universe with a possibly untrustworthy robot. Mystical figures open her energy centres (chakras) and others set her physical, mental and spiritual challenges she must overcome. She meets astral beings who communicate in colors, mind-reading and thought-controlling inter-planetary water merchants, and religious fanatics who claim they can re-create Lord Wynan from a single cell of his body.
Meanwhile, Sound Masters search for Wynan, using his voice imprint.
She finds Wynan, gravely ill, a captive, with no recollection of his identity. The search ends unexpectedly, and with unforeseen changes in Shanaz’s life away from the Nereima Galaxy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ranjit Ratnaike
• Release date: Dec 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310289880

Ranjit Ratnaike

Ranjit Ratnaike is originally from Sri Lanka and lives in Adelaide, Australia where he is a physician. He has had a long association with The University of Adelaide as Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.He lived in the Himalayan foothills training women as health workers, and worked as a consultant on various health projects in South and South East Asia, and in the Western Pacific region. He served as Regional Adviser in Health Information for the World Health Organization in Manila, Philippines.He is the editor of, and a contributor to medical texts published by The Cambridge University Press, Edward Arnold, and McGraw-Hill.His interests include music and cooking. He is a member of the Australian Society of Authors.His works of fiction are:Saradasi-The Prophecy. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VBJWUX4Saradasi-The Search http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZTZPOHKWebsite and Blog address: http://ranjitratnaike.com/

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This edition published in 2015 by Silk Road Publishing Company at Smashwords

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Silk Road Publishing Company Pty. Ltd.

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First published in 2014 by Silk Road Publishing Company Pty. Ltd.

Copyright © Ranjit N. Ratnaike, 2014

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright holders and the above publisher of this book.

ISBN: 978-0-9873097-2-3 (ebook)

ISBN: 978-0-9873097-1-6 (paperback)

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Ratnaike, Ranjit N.

Title: Saradasi : The Search / Ranjit Ratnaike

Dewey Number: A823.4

Cover concept by Racheal Kennedy

Cover design and illustrations by Myke Mollard

eBook preparation by Lighthouse24

Ranjit Ratnaike was born in Sri Lanka and lives in Adelaide, Australia where he is a physician. He has lived in the Himalayan foothills training women as health workers, and worked on various health projects in Asia and the western pacific region.

His interests include music and cooking.

Saradasi-The Search is his second work of fiction and follows the acclaimed Saradasi-The Prophecy.

Blog address: ranjitratnaike.com

For

Arthur Neil Gunasekera

and

Vincent Noel Gunasekera

Two decent, honest and generous gentlemen

from Colombo, Sri Lanka

Books by

Ranjit Ratnaike

Fiction

Saradasi-The Prophecy

Saradasi-The Search

Non-Fiction

A Practical Guide to Geriatric Medicine (2002)

Editor R.N. Ratnaike, McGraw-Hill Australia,

Melbourne, Australia.

Small Bowel Disorders (2000)

Editor R.N. Ratnaike. Edward Arnold London, UK.

Co-published in New York by Oxford University Press.

Diarrhoea and Constipation in Geriatric Practice (1999)

Editor R.N. Ratnaike. Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, UK.

Acknowledgments

On my journey from physician to writer, many friends have been generous with their time, opinions, knowledge and encouragement. They include Rosemary Daller, Will Goh, Aaron McBride, Austin Milton, David Newble, Rosanne and Dharshan Gunasekara, Trevor Kline and Nirmala LaBrooy.

I also thank James Beckingham, astute editor and author and Myke Mollard the illustrator of the cover for their friendship and wise counsel.

Doug Heatherly of Lighthouse24 has, over the years been most helpful and generous with his time, well beyond the call of duty.

I am grateful to my wonderful wife Stephanie, who with great patience and skill helped me with many aspects of Saradasi-The Search.

One

Her ears drummed with a repetitive, ragged harmony. A melancholy companion, whispering her name, prodded her forward with a cold moist hand on her neck. The road they were on ended abruptly at a jagged cliff overhanging dark waters. Here, floating and undulating she saw a splintered image of herself. Another dream was haunting her.

Shanaz shook herself awake.

His face was black as soot, his body a milky white. He sat slumped on a stool, his eyes closed. Wet clothes clung to his body. He raised his arm wiping the perspiration on his face. The four visitors sat at his feet on a high platform above the ground, swaying with the wind gusting from the purple sea behind them.

‘My name is Sae.’ The words rose and fell, like a melodious song. ‘Totale,’ he called out, ‘who are these visitors? They wither like flowers by a fire in this heat.’

An unseen voice, sweet and soothing replied. ‘Sae, they are intruders. By accident they swear.’

‘Totale, an accident is an unexpected event without a deliberate plan or cause. Is that what they mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘Totale, is this accident a misfortune, or a mishap? Each word has a precise and different meaning.’

‘A misfortune.’

Sae breathed in the fumes from the container cupped in his hand. ‘Is their misfortune our good fortune? Who are they?’

Totale’s voice rose above the wind howling around them. ‘They are from a planet in the Nereima Galaxy.’

‘You sound angry. Why?’

‘Your inner ears work well despite this heat. Mine falter. They are Saradasi from a small planet also called Saradasi, who harshly rule billions on the planets Astharia, Asurat, Califra and Merr. Their Saradasi Empire consists of Saradasi and these four planets.’

‘Totale, are the inhabitants slaves?’

‘They live in terror of their Saradasi rulers.’

‘It is sad to loose one’s freedom.’

‘Sad? It is repulsive.’

‘Totale, I have a question,’ Sae said. ‘You have heard of this Saradasi Empire. Why have we not visited their empire?’

‘Our former business partner who ruled Thanton spoke of the Saradasi Empire. You should remember him. We gave him weapons to crush his starving people who rebelled after we excavated their fields and they went hungry.’ He paused while a roaring wind from the east buffeted the platform, and then continued, ‘We distract ourselves, Sae. These intruders wear the blue uniform of the dreaded Saradasi Military.

‘The beautiful young female with green eyes and long hair is Shanaz, the High Chancellor of the Saradasi Empire. The female with short dark hair who is as beautiful, is not her sister. She is her cousin Fariyal, a commander in the Saradasi Military. The older plump balding male is Lord Rasalis, the Chancellor of Security. The handsome young male who seems unconcerned and preoccupied is a general. There are also five other unimportant non-Saradasi who I confined on their decrepit spacecraft the Wave.’

‘Have they names?’

‘Sae, you know, too many names will confuse you. When you were a child reading a story, you foolishly burdened your memory with every name you read. You must remember only the important characters.’

‘Totale,’ Sae said, wiping his arms, ‘the temperature rises as we speak. Our uninvited visitors will die in hours.’ He thrust a clenched fist at Shanaz. ‘Are you the High Chancellor of your evil Empire?’

‘Yes.’

‘High Chancellor, when the whistle blows and our workday ends, you will tell us why you are here. The truth will decide your future.’

***

Later in the day, standing on the highest platform, Shanaz spoke to the people dressed in black uniforms with silver collars, seated on the platforms below her.

‘To explain why we are here I want to tell you about The Prophecy. My home is Saradasi a cold, beautiful planet in the Nereima Galaxy. About four hundred years ago, the unseen cosmic forces of good and evil fought themselves to a standstill, battling to control the Nereima Galaxy and its inhabitants.

‘The divine Astral Lord Gaima, who leads the Forces of Good, and his opponent Prince Vira rested their exhausted armies. Each agreed to field a small team of champions to decide who will control the Galaxy. The battle would start in three hundred and seventy seven years, a number they selected from the Fibonacci number sequence which some called the golden numbers of the universe. You may know the sequence of the numbers, their progression and pattern, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, and 144. Have you recognized the sequence?

‘The evil Prince Vira selected two brothers as his team. He offered Lord Gaima a larger team of five, provided he, Vira, chooses them. Lord Gaima agreed. Looking into the future when the battle will begin, Prince Vira selected Lord Gaima’s team from the Saradasi race. Each team’s only weapon is their goodness.’

Standing next to her, Sae signaled Shanaz to pause.

‘Goodness? Why goodness?’

‘Because Prince Vira knew Saradasi have no goodness.’

‘And Lord Gaima accepted the challenge?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘Because Prince Vira taunted Lord Gaima, challenging him to change his team from evil to good.’

‘How would he do that? Sae asked. ‘You said Lord Gaima is an Astral Lord. Can even an Astral Lord transform evil people? Is such a miracle possible?’

‘Since the battle would start in the future, in three hundred and seventy seven years, perhaps Lord Gaima thought he could flux goodness into the genes of his team during their many cycles of birth, death and rebirth before the battle.’

‘Where is the battleground?’

‘If Lord Gaima’s team has enough goodness, they can enter and overcome Vira’s team in a locus of evil called The Place. If not, Vira will destroy the Nereima Galaxy. What I have related is called The Prophecy in the Nereima Galaxy.’

‘Who is on Lord Gaima’s team?’

‘The four of us here. Lord Rasalis, the younger male, Lord Medaris, my cousin Fariyal and I. Unfortunately, Lord Wynan, one of our team is not here.’

‘Why?’

‘We suspect he fled with evil forces. Unless we find him we will lose the battle.’

‘Why would his absence concern you? There are four of you.’

‘The Prophecy states all five of us must enter The Place, each with sufficient goodness. But we have a second problem. We have not found The Place.’

‘Where is The Place?’

‘We do not know its location.’

Sae set aside the container in his hand. ‘You have four. You have to find Lord Wynan. His has probably no goodness because he fled with evil forces. If you find him you must increase his goodness. When this happens, your team must find The Place.’

‘Yes.’

Sae leaned forwards watching the perspiration trickle from his arms. ‘Have you four enough goodness?’

‘I and my cousin, Fariyal are not certain of our goodness. My two companions, Lord Rasalis and Lord Medaris have traveled the path to goodness for many years.’

‘Why have evil forces taken Wynan?’

‘To thwart us,’ Shanaz said.

‘Have you seen him fleeing? Are there witnesses?’

‘No. It is a supposition.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Perhaps in a parallel universe,’ Shanaz said.

Sae laughed. ‘A parallel universe! Where is this parallel universe? Your conversation is a flood of assumptions. I suggest Lord Wynan is asleep under a tree somewhere in your vast and evil empire.’

Midi78, a passenger on their spacecraft, Shanaz continued, could see into the future. He saw Wynan living in a land with mountains and rolling plains where the ground shone with pools of bubbling liquid, some large, others small, half-hidden in the mist. Beyond the plains a scalloped beach ran across a tongue shaped bay. He heard the sound of waves, the howl of the wind and the screech of angry seabirds. Islands like white beads stretched across the bay, appearing and disappearing in the fog.’

‘What else did he say?’

‘He said he smelled death. He corrected himself saying he could not recognize the foul smell that seeped from a few cracks in the ground. From others, flames leaped skywards.’

Sae raised his curly eyebrows and stared at Shanaz. ‘Totale,’ he said raising his voice, ‘can you hear her?’

‘Yes.’

Sae tipped his head back, pouring the fuming liquid in the container into his mouth and wiped his swollen lips. ‘If Lord Wynan is hiding where Midi78 says he is, how will you go there?’

Shanaz wiped the perspiration trickling down her face. ‘We have another female on board the Wave with unusual powers. She can travel to other worlds and take us with her. She will take us to Wynan.’

Sae laughed and Totale joined him. Sae’s tone was harsh when he said, ‘Why has this female with unusual powers brought you here? Why are you here, disturbing us? Is this the place Midi described? Look around you.’

‘No. She brought us here by mistake.’

‘Who else is on your ship?’

‘Four others.’

‘What are their names and where are they from?’

‘Master Glance and his son Breve are from Droha Major, a planet in the Western Galaxy. They work for the Saradasi. Sirrah is a colonel in the Saradasi Military. Seelawathie-Ap is from Califra a planet in the Saradasi Empire.’

‘And Midi?’

‘Midi78 is from Astharia.’

‘Why is he Midi78? Is he the seventy eighth descendant?’

‘Yes.’

‘Many names and many places,’ Sae sighed.

‘Sae,’ Totale said from a distance, ‘avoid taxing yourself with these names and places. Let your mind capture what is important.’

‘Have you more to say? Sae asked Shanaz.

‘Yes. Before coming here, we searched for The Place for many weeks, and the journey altered our lives. My cousin Fariyal and I learned many lessons. We had valued the Saradasi Empire more than the lives of its inhabitants. Fariyal and I are guilty of not preventing the loss of life. We regret our past and see no purpose in the Empire.’

‘How have you and your cousin Shanaz changed?’ Sae asked Fariyal

‘We are compassionate.’

‘I learned goodness and selflessness from the two child monks in a monastery,’ Shanaz added. ‘On the day I left, they gave me the last of their food saying they had eaten earlier that morning.’

‘What is the most valuable lesson you learned?’ Sae asked Shanaz.

‘Compassion.’

‘We too must change,’ Sae said. ‘We can return home to our planet if we change. You called Lord Gaima an Astral Lord. Who is an Astral Lord?’

‘We think Astral Lords are spiritual beings of great goodness helping others in their after life. Some say there are eight ranks of Astral Lords depending on their spirituality and stage of evolution in the astral world. ’

‘Has an Astral Lord helped you?’ Sae asked.

The wind fanned waves of heat towards them. Running her tongue over her lips, her mouth and throat dry, struggling to speak, Shanaz said, ‘Astral Lords will not interfere with our destiny which I think is pre-determined.’

‘Who decides this destiny?’

‘None of us know. While searching for The Place we experienced both suffering and many blessings that changed our beliefs and lives. Our journey began in a hot, desolate, place that changed overnight to a cool shelter with streams, beautiful plants and shrubs. After we crossed a dangerous desert, I lost my way and on a mountain found shelter in a monastery with two child monks. Fariyal was seriously injured but nursed back to health in a mountain village by the descendants of a race banished by the Saradasi as a punishment for seeking freedom.’

The temperature soared and the platforms swayed with a northerly wind. In the distance, they heard the roar of the purple sea.

The sun set. The Wave sat on a secluded triangular platform as if on fire.

Sae touched a bracelet on his waist. Hundreds of platforms shone with hidden lights.

‘Are those on board the Wave safe?’ Shanaz asked.

‘They are as safe as you are here. Come with me.’ Sae struggled to his feet and stood at the edge of the platform they were on.

‘Your ship looks old and dangerous,’ he said shading his eyes, watching the Wave move in the wind, straining at the chains anchoring it to the platform.

Shanaz nodded, thinking of how Saradasi engineers regularly camouflaged the Wave, one of most sophisticated and fastest space ships in the Nereima Galaxy, with fearsome destructive power, to seem as if in disrepair. She missed the soothing murmur of its new F-Mercury engine, another marvel of Saradasi engineering, small enough for a single person to replace in an hour.

Her nose and upper respiratory passages burned when she took a breath. Her chest ached and her head throbbed. She watched Lord Rasalis, the oldest among them sitting with his eyes closed, his chest heaving. She went to him and wiped his face with her cloak, wondering how long they would survive in the rising temperature. Lord Rasalis coughed, rubbing his chest.

‘It is the future that matters not the present,’ she said and winked at him when he smiled.

She placed her hand on the hilt of her force-sword and pictured the devastating destruction their weapons could wreak in a few minutes. Shanaz withdrew her hand. She had noticed Sae glance at the force-swords and firing-belts around their waists. Why, she asked herself were they not disarmed?

She watched Sae cross a long sky bridge to the Wave and speak to a guard. Master Glance, Breve, Seelawathie-Ap, Midi78 and Sirrah stepped out briefly and were ordered back onto the Wave.

‘They are safe,’ Sae said when he returned to the platform. He stared at the flames spurting with a hiss from cracks in the ground beyond their encampment. His white teeth shone when he smiled at Fariyal.

‘You show no reaction to this terrible heat. Why?’

‘I have lowered my body temperature.’

Shanaz related how when they crossed the desert on their journey looking for The Place, Fariyal taught her to lower her body temperature by visualizing she was in a cold place.

‘If she has lowered her body temperature and taught you how to lower yours, why are you perspiring?’ Sae asked Shanaz.

‘Fariyal’s imagination and powers of visualization are superior to mine. She is a brilliant holograph engineer with more skills than I can ever have.’

‘What skills have you High Chancellor?’

‘I am determined and stubborn,’ Shanaz laughed.

‘No,’ Fariyal said. ‘She is determined and persistent. She relishes challenges. She is not stubborn because she is flexible.’

‘Fariyal is a wonderful teacher. She can teach you to lower your body temperature.’

‘She cannot help me. Those who exiled us here chemically altered the thermoregulatory centre in our brain to acutely experience the heat and suffer. We are in torment day after day.’

Sae saw Shanaz looking at the Wave. ‘Your friends on the Wave are comfortable though the heat is oppressing you. Your discomfort will increase with time.’

‘May we go on board the Wave?’ Shanaz asked.

‘No.’

He led them on a stairway to a smaller platform and leaned over the railing, rubbing his bloodshot eyes.

‘Sit with me and catch the breeze. In our culture, we consider our bodies similar to our planet. Our head is the sun. Our blood vessels are the rivers and streams, and our nerves the roadways. In our body, unlike yours, we have joints equal in number to the planets in our solar system. We need lubricants to move our many joints. Most living beings have a membrane in each joint secreting the lubricating fluid. Not us.

‘We are different. Vessels similar to blood vessels supply each joint with the lubricant, released from a single organ in our body. In the intense heat here, this organ is shrinking. As time passes, with fewer lubricants, our joints will not move and we will die as cripples. This shrinking organ also supplies lubricants for swallowing, breathing, digestion and waste evacuation. We die each day.’

The platform wobbled in the wind.

‘We will die here before you die,’ Shanaz said.

‘No. Sensors are scanning your body. If the alarm whistle sounds, medical attendants will take you to the Cold Cell where we can regulate your body temperature.’

‘Why are you not using the Cold Cell?’

‘We use it only if we develop a condition called Temperature Induced Body Failure. If this happens thrice, the Panchayat will retrieve the patient.’

‘Who is the Panchayat?’ Fariyal asked.

Sae turned his head away.

‘Where are we?’ she asked moistening her lips.

‘We are on a searing hot asteroid on which the Panchayat has confined us. The heat prevents us exploring what is beyond.’ He pointed to the foaming purple sea a few hundred yards beyond them. ‘Look, the waves are rising, pounding against those razor sharp cliffs. Without warning the waves rise hundreds of feet. We see sea serpents with monstrous teeth and hideous horns, writhe and thrash around in the water. We fear a wave will reach us with these creatures. We have no weapons to protect ourselves and we live on these raised platforms. It is also cooler.’

‘Where is your food from?’ Shanaz said.

‘The Panchayat sent us here with food supplies and water which we ration.’

Shanaz lowered her eyes to the fuming container in Sae’s hand.

‘This is special liquid we drink. It helps lubricate our joints.’

‘The Wave can convert sea water to fresh drinkable water.’

‘No. The Panchayat forbids us receiving help.’

‘Why are you here?’

‘We were the wealthiest citizens on our planet, owners of a vast interplanetary business exploring for lubricants. We controlled entire countries, and even planets, but we exploited the poor. When we returned home after a long absence, the new Panchayat sent for us. Panch means five. They accused us of our continuing dishonesty and warned, they will exile us if we could not correctly answer the question they asked’

Shanaz saw the weariness on Sae’s face, his speech loosing its clarity and musicality, the pitch faltering.

‘We could not answer the question,’ he said with a sigh. He stood, towering over the Saradasi and showed them the liquid in the container.

‘What is it?’ Shanaz asked moving her head back and placing her hand over her nose and mouth trying to not retch.

‘When we arrived here the Panchayat directed us to drink a liquid they supplied to lubricate our joints. After a month they said we will not receive the liquid. They suggested, since our business was lubricants, we should search for our own lubricant for survival, as diligently as we searched lubricants for profit.’

‘How long have you lived here?’ Shanaz said. ‘And have you found the lubricant?’

‘For a long time,’ Sae replied. ‘We found a lubricant.’

‘What is it?’

‘I am ashamed. I cannot tell you.’

A whistle sounded shrilly from the bracelet on his arm. ‘The alarm whistle! Come with me. We must hurry to the Cold Cell.’

‘May we return to the Wave?’ Shanaz asked again.

‘No.’

They walked with Sae across a slim lurching bridge to an isolated platform.

‘Do you want to know the question the Panchayat asked us?’ Sae asked Shanaz.

‘Yes.’

‘I will ask you the same question when you return from the Cold Cell. If you answer correctly you can leave this place. In your answer lies your freedom.’

Fariyal looked behind her and stopped, clutching Shanaz’s hand. ‘Shanaz, look! The Wave is not on the platform.’

Cupping her hands around her mouth Shanaz called out to Sae striding ahead of them. ‘Where is the Wave? Have you stolen our ship?’

‘They will escape from here on the Wave,’ Fariyal said her voice breaking. ‘We will die here.’

Two

Twilight spread over the encampment as the sun faded in a cloud free sky. A murmur of voices reached them from the towers as they followed Sae along the sky bridge arching above the ground, Fariyal close to Shanaz.

‘It is as hot as before the sun sank,’ Sae said. ‘This is the curse upon us. Come with me.’

‘My mouth is dry, and my chest hurts when I breathe. Where is the Wave?’ Fariyal whispered hoarsely to Shanaz.

‘The Wave is safe, Fariyal. Worrying will not help us.’ Shanaz closed her eyes when the wind rose and hot dust billowed around them.

‘I am afraid,’ Fariyal said.

Shanaz held Fariyal’s hand. ‘Saradasi frightened? We were not afraid when water poured into the canyon, gushing above our heads. You were calm and you saved me. Are Saradasi ever afraid? If fear paralyses us we can’t react to danger.’

‘Why is Sae hurrying when he knows we are breathless from the heat?’

‘He is taking us to the Cold Cell.’

‘No, Shanaz. I see lust and deceit in his eyes.’

‘Fariyal, fear and the heat are playing with your mind. You are a commander in the Saradasi Military. Though I am the High Chancellor, in Saradasi Military I am only a colonel, probably struck off the Military Promotion List for arguing with my superiors. Being afraid is not a weakness but fear must not control us.’

Fariyal smiled in the thinning light. ‘It is not only fear I feel, Shanaz. It is a feeling of hopelessness about a search with no end.’

‘If we find Wynan and The Place we will save billions living in the Nereima Galaxy.’

Around them the lights strung on the railings of the sky bridges, flickered, dimmed and faded.

A white arm signaled.

‘Come,’ Sae said with a new harshness. ‘We will descend three hundred and seventy seven steps. When I open the Cold Cell, enter quickly’

The steps ended at a barrier.

‘Has anyone followed you here?’ Sae asked. ‘We do not want intruders here.’

‘Why?’ Shanaz asked.

‘I will explain why, when you leave the Cold Cell.’

‘When can we leave?’

‘You will leave when I decide you should leave.’

The barrier rose when Sae moved his hand over a recessed area. Stooping they entered a bright chamber with smooth circular walls. The barrier slammed shut behind them.

She stood slouched at the center of the chamber, staring at a console over which her long fingers floated.

‘I am Katsa. Sae should have sent you to me much earlier. My readings show your physical condition is serious. Perhaps it is terminal.’

A portion of the wall on her right opened. A machine with blinking lights moved forwards suffusing them with a green glow.

Katsa frowned at Lord Rasalis. ‘You are in grave danger. I must lower your core body temperature at once.’

She sat at the console manipulating the machine. ‘This clever mobile machine has two roles. It evaluates personality without physical contact through face reading and capturing brain waves. It will grade your personality on a scale from zero to three hundred and seventy seven. If the score is between two hundred and fifty-five and three hundred and seventy seven it will automatically treat the patient. If not, its circuits close and I cannot intervene. The patient will die of heat intolerance. The machine is using the golden numbers of another universe.’

Katsa pressed a switch on the console. ‘Stand on the square platform,’ she ordered Lord Rasalis. ‘Insert your arms into the openings in the green section of the machine. Place your head under the white circle and close your eyes.’

A fine pale blue spray covered him.

‘The machine uses a mathematical model which assesses the dehydration and controls treatment. Using a bioheat equation, it calculates a thermal value for each of you, based on the volume of your head, thorax, abdomen, arms and legs, hands and feet. It also measures the quantity and temperature of blood flowing through your body. The machine will first force fluid and minerals you lost when you perspired, through the pores in your skin and drizzle a cold fluid over the blood vessels nearest your skin which will decrease the core body temperature.’

Katsa hummed a tune, glancing at the flashing console and at each Saradasi. The machine sped from Lord Rasalis to Fariyal, to Lord Medaris and Shanaz, and glided to Katsa.

She left her seat frowning. ‘The machine has a problem in its calculations with one of you.’ She hurried to Lord Medaris, the machine following her. Murmuring she placed a hand on his head.

‘What is it?’ Shanaz said.

‘It is nothing,’ Katsa answered. ‘Your clothes saved your lives. I have never seen such excellent insulating material.’

After measuring their core body temperature and administering fluids and minerals, the machine entered the opening in the wall that closed after it.

‘All four of you should sleep,’ Katsa said.

‘I cannot, I am hungry,’ Shanaz replied. ‘We are all hungry and thirsty.’

‘You will have food after the machine sprays more fluid over you.’

‘Where are our companions on the Wave?’ Fariyal asked. ‘Are they in a cold cell?’

Katsa stroked her stiff green hair. ‘Sae and the others never share information with me. I am not one of them. I am from a planet in another solar system. I work here in the Cold Cell on a contract.’

‘Who are these people?’ Fariyal said.

‘Though they vaguely resemble us physically, they are different. We have a sophisticated thermoregulatory centre in our brain controlling our body temperature. They have a less advanced heat regulating system, which cannot deal with extreme heat or cold. Because the Panchayat chemically altered their primitive heat regulatory mechanism they are more heat sensitive.

‘Has the Panchayat exiled them for not answering a question?’ Shanaz asked.

Katsa tugged at her hair. ‘Is that what Sae said? Their exile puzzles me. They are intelligent and crave only wealth. I suspect they are guarding a secret here.’

‘What can you tell us about this place?’ Shanaz said.

‘I hate this place. I have never been outside this Cold Cell. If I leave it, I will die in the heat in half an hour. On my planet the temperature is much colder.’

‘There is nothing to see outside,’ Shanaz said, ‘except the purple sea and swaying platforms and long sky bridges stretching for miles.’

‘I heard you speaking of The Prophecy and The Place, and of the divine Lord Gaima and the evil Prince Vira. Remind me, why are you searching for Lord Wynan?’

Shanaz explained why they must find Wynan.

‘Are you certain you are here by accident?’

A whistle sounded twice.

‘Sleep,’ Katsa told them, dimming the lights.

‘Before we sleep, please tell us why Sae, Totale and the others have not escaped from here,’ Shanaz said.

‘They could not leave. They had no vehicle to escape. They can now travel anywhere on your ship.’

‘When the Wave landed here on a platform we were all asleep and when we awoke, they insisted we four Saradasi must leave our ship. Five others are on the Wave.’

‘Can they operate the Wave?’ Katsa asked.

‘Only the ship’s master or his son can fly the Wave.’

‘Where are we?’ Fariyal asked. ‘Which galaxy are we in?’

‘I too am puzzled. Is it difficult flying the Wave?’

‘Yes.’

‘You might think,’ Katsa said, ‘I plan stealing your ship. Unfortunately I cannot leave this place. I have a contract. My wage feeds my family and my village.’

Katsa’s eyes flitted to the closed barrier of the Cold Cell. ‘I cannot leave on your ship. Who commands the Wave?’

‘His name is Master Glance,’ Shanaz said. ‘Master, not only because he commands the ship. He is a Sound Master from Droha Major in the Western Galaxy. He and his race are experts on sound. ’

‘What is their association with you?’

‘We employ the Sound Masters. They collect information using miniature audiovisual recorders, some no larger than a grain