LIGHT UP THE VALLEYS

By Clement Masloff

Tegumen is a planet divided between the Red Hat elite on the mountain peaks and the belowers of the valleys with only two or three hours of sunlight each day. The young Yie Evroe is recruited to study galactic energy dynamics at a mountain claustrum community. He falls in love with Joa, daughter of the Red Hat chieftain. The lovers secretly stud

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Mulberry Books
• Release date: Jul 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781952405716

Clement Masloff

The author has been involved with science fiction and speculative literature since teaching himself to read in 1941-1942. He served in the Army as a linguist and translator in four Balkan Slavic languages. For several decades, he taught sociology in Ohio after graduating research in Russian social history. In his retirement years, he has been writing science fiction, a return to dreams of the early 1940s.

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Copyright © 2020 by Clement Masloff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher and author, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN: 978-1-952405-72-3 [Paperback Edition]

978-1-952405-71-6 [eBook Edition]

Printed and bound in The United States of America.

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Part 1

Chapter I

Yie Evroe was unusually anxious for a young man of eighteen.

A blamus was coming to see him from the claustrum on the peak of the mountains. This was an unusual event in a dorp such as Canara, down in the valley beneath the spiritual community high above it. The purpose of the visit was unclear both to Yie and the aunt and uncle who had been his guardians since he was six.

The conventicle brother would arrive late in the short period of less than an hour of daylight at this time of year on the lower ground zone of planet Tegumen. Of course, up on the mountain tops the members of the elevated order enjoyed twelve or more hours of full light from the sky. How could they have any sense of what life was like in the shadowed lowlands?

Two different spheres of existence. Yie had heard that repeated again and again. Two different levels of understanding and feeling. Everyone on Tegumen know that was so and had to live with the unequal situation as to light exposure and availability.

Yie was a tall, slender youth with straw hair and reddish brown eyes. He had experience tending the flocks of ovines of both his uncle and other dorpers of Canara. As a boy, he had attended the local literacy school. His teacher had been impressed with Yie’s quick intelligence. His mechanical skill and dexterous hands were noticed and talked about. The instructor, a brother from the claustrum, reported on this outstanding pupil to superiors. It appeared that a blamus was descending into the valley in order to make provision for the future of the gifted orphan.

Before full night and the galactic aurora fell over the valleys of Tegumen, the blamus was to present his proposal to Yie and his guardians.

The yellow sky above the ring of towering mountains had turned a brownish yellow shade when the visitor arrived on foot. He knew which cottage to knock at and was immediately admitted.

The blamus, a round figure with a circular face, wore a woolen greatcoat, the traditional casaque of the male clerics in the communities living on the summits. Lively citrine eyes glanced around from under the square black barret on his head. It was flat except for its three peaks, reminding the dorpers that he lived high up on the mountain.

Yie’s uncle summoned the nephew, then he and his wife withdrew to the kitchen. When the young man entered the parlor, he found the heavy blamus sitting in the pine chair of his uncle.

Sit down, my son, said the stranger with a calming grin. We have much to talk about concerning your future years. But first let me introduce myself. My name is Emies Plasq. I am chief dynamist of the Zeviv Claustrum.

Yie gazed at him in silent awe, taking in his every word as the cleric went on.

Young man, reports have come to me of your scholarship and mechanical dexterity. In fact, the indications of your potential talent are spectacular. Therefore, I have decided to attempt something unprecedented. My plan is to bring you up to our claustrum and make you a sort of prentice. You shall learn the crafts in shielding against galactic rays and generating iotic energy from them. There is no need to tell you how innovative and unprecedented would be the acceptance of a dorper for such a post. You will be the first prentice ever taken from the valley below us. Nothing similar has ever been done before.

With a bold spirit, Yie asked a question beginning to consume him.

What is the reason for making such a change, sir? he said slowly.

All of a sudden, Emies beamed at the young man.

"It was my idea and I convinced our Hegumen to make the daring experiment. The truth is that not all potential abilities are possessed by the children born at the summit. I argued for the inclusion of a wider number of candidates for the technical occupations concerned with protection from the aurora and energy generation. You will be the first test of my concept.

So, I am offering to take you back up with me, if we are agreed.

Of course, responded Yie with a smile. I accept what is offered with great joy.

The blamus glanced at the horologium on his wrist. We must start at once, before darkness falls over the valley.

Yie excused himself so he could go into the kitchen to inform his aunt and uncle of his immediate departure with Emies. Only a minute or so was needed for him to go into his own room and fill a duffel with his few pieces of clothing.

In a heavy windbreaker, Yie kissed his relatives good-bye and followed his new mentor outside, where the heliac had set behind the peaks of the neighboring mountains. Darkness was falling through the sky over the dorp named Canara. The blamus led the way along the upward trail, toward the snow boundary far above. Yie had never before felt such a flood of excitement.

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Trudging through the white drifts of snow, the pair could see the galactic aurora gradually become visible as nightfall advanced up Zeviv. Flares of red, orange, yellow, and green danced high above them. Screen-like membranes of light appeared and disappeared, replaced by new ones, on and on without pause. Many legends found throughout the single continent of Tegumen linked the history and fate of the planet to this eternal show of changing radiation. Iotic rays from above their world, clear and visible, reminded its inhabitants of the enveloping cosmos. The sky of night glowed with great waves of energy particles.

The blamus and his new prentice followed the rising trail toward the towering peak where the lights within the claustrum glittered forth. Their climb was long and difficult, as were most paths leading up to the high elevations of the oddly configured planet. The distance from mountain top to lower valley was measured in terms of leagues. Steep angles characterized the shapes in the landscape everywhere on Tegumen. Incline or decline meant enormous labor in rising upward or descending downward. It was no wonder that few individuals ever made the arduous journey. Lowlanders rarely saw how those above them on the sunny summits lived.

They were like two different worlds.

Onward the pair climbed in exhaustion, until they reached the stone walls and the quercine gate into the settlement. Not a monastery, it included men, women, and the children of those who married. A watchman identified Emies and admitted him and his companion. Soon the two were warming themselves in the apartment of the head of energy dynamics for the mountain claustrum.

Emies placed a handful of coals in the room brasier and set them afire with a lucifer match. He invited Yie to take a stool and sit down beside the warm flames. You can stay with me till a place is ready for you. Since you are literate, all my folios shall be available to you. My plan is that first you acquire general knowledge before entering the induction and storage units. That can wait a time.

The prentice was soon sound asleep on a woolen pallete in one corner of the chamber of the blamus who had chosen him for special education.

Chapter II

All the next morning, after the two shared breakfast and Emies left for the duties of his post, Yie read in a manual on energy dynamics. New, unfamiliar concepts flooded his imagination.

•  The ultimate elements of the universe are its centers of energy, the corpuscula. As the final location of all forces, they possess neither parts, extension, nor shape of any sort. They are metaphysical points, spirit beings whose nature is to move through all time.

•  The fundamental corpuscula pass naturally and are always passing into action, without any outside aid except the absence of opposition.

•  Corpuscula do not act upon each other. The action of each excludes that of every other corpusculum.

•  The activity of each corpusculum is the result of its own past states. Each corpusculum is the determiner of its own future and that of no other.

•  Corpuscula have no windows or doors by which anything may go in or out.

•  Every corpusculum is a microcosm, the universe on a small scale. The distinctive individuality of its representation of the universe varies according to the nature of its activity.

•  The corpuscula exist without position or distance between them.

•  All of nature is dynamic, not mechanical, because the corpuscula that form it have but one basic ingredient, their energy.

•  The galactic aurora is the purest form of energy, because its corpuscula consist of nothing beyond absolute iotic radiation.

•  Corpuscular energy is the groundwork of the material cosmos. It is the factor found everywhere, through all of time. There is nothing that can be compared to that element, the basis of all existents. The most common form taken by these corpuscula is light, which can penetrate to the farthest reaches and corners of space and time.

•  understand the nature of light is the first step to comprehending the universe inhabited by the human species.

Yie, as if waking from a trance, heard a rapping at the door of the apartment. He shook himself, closed the folio he had been studying, and rose. Moving with speed, he reached the pinaceous door and opened it.

The gracile, delicate-looking girl standing there appeared to possess a willowy vulnerability. Glaucous blue eyes peered at Yie in astonishment.

Oh! You must be the prentice brought up here from below. I am sorry to disturb you, but I must find Brother Emies at once. My father needs to see him immediately, as soon as humanly possible.

Your father? audaciously inquired the newcomer to the claustrum.

She made a sour face. Excuse me, but I forgot that you are still a stranger to us. Hegemen Nomb Aacn, that is the person I refer to. He is the head of our community and I am his daughter. My name is Joa.

I cannot help you, apologized Yie. All that my blamus said to me when he left was that daily duty was calling him. Where he is and what he is doing is wholly unknown to me. That is all I can tell you, Miss.

Joa’s tiny mouth twisted into an unconcealed scowl.

I should have known that you have no knowledge of the layout of the claustrum. You arrived only last night, I believe.

Yes, smiled Yie. We ascended from my home dorp in the valley, Canara.

She averted her eyes from him. I have never been anywhere below, so I do not know where that is. Only a few of us ever go down there. And, of course, no one is allowed to come up, except someone like you with serious business or work of some sort to complete for us here.

All of a sudden, curiosity seized the innermost mind of Yie.

Tell me, have you ever in your life met a dorper from below?

Never, she curtly informed him, then reverted to the purpose of her presence there. Brother Emeies must go to the hegumenia at once. My father has an urgent need to confer with him.

It will be my pleasure…

At that exact moment, the chief of dynamics appeared at the turn of the outer corridor. Both young persons heard his footsteps and turned in the direction of the sound. When Emeies was near enough to hear her, Joa told him that the Hegumen was waiting to talk with him.

The blamus turned to Yie. Come along. He will be glad to meet and talk to you, my boy.

Emeies started to walk further down the corridor. Joa followed, with the prentice in the rear of the procession.

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The hegumenia was a high flagstone structure at the center of the claustrum. The trio entered a large vestibule, then a working office with colorful woolen tapestries on all four walls. A bald, bearded man with baby blue eyes looked up from the pine desk at which he sat with a number of opened notebooks.

Emeies, I’ve been waiting patiently to talk with you.

Sorry, I was outside at the condensator. We had a minor problem there this morning, but now it is solved.

The Hegumen, noticing the third figure, gave him a cold, stiff stare.

This is the lad you brought us from the valley?

Emies nodded, motioning to Yie to step forward. The baby blue eyes brazenly examined him from head to toe.

Yie wished he were wearing newer, more colorful clothing.

Nomb Aacn spoke to the blamus as if the prentice was absent.

I hope that your plans are not ruined through bringing up a young dorper. Remember the old folk saying: born a dorper, always a dorper. But I will be patient and see what you can produce out of a young belower. What is your name, young man? he asked, turning to the prentice.

Yie told him that, his voice full and loud, almost near to song-singing.

Suddenly impressed, the Hegumen looked at him with close, observant attention.

Is it your ambition, then, to become one of us in this claustrum? Is that the dream hidden in your innermost heart?

The prentice answered back as if fully prepared for the question.

I have not thought ahead to any distant point, sir. My aim, for now, is to learn all I can about the technical system that shields our world from the dangers out of space and allows the harnessing of cosmic radiation for human purposes. That is all that I have in my heart, nothing more.

In anger, the Hegumen turned away and spoke to the blamus.

Keep me informed about the progress this boy makes, he ordered. Now, I wish to discuss with you some plans I have for energy use in the months ahead. He then looked at his daughter. Joa, show our new resident back to his tutor’s apartment. Then, return to the hegumenia, for it will then be about time for noon repast. He then addressed Yie directly, staring at him. That is all for now, young man. I wish you luck and success. You are now dismissed.

Yie followed Joa out of the office chamber, through the vestibule, out into the open air. Overhead, the heliac glowed with a radiance that the dorper had never seen or felt before. Direct rays of bright yellow were reflected off the pure alabaster snow surface on the ground. A sudden sense of whirling struck the brain of the new prentice, unused to such direct radiation from the sky.

All of a sudden, both Yie and his guide stopped in their tracks.

What is it? she asked him with concern. Don’t you feel well?

He used his hand to shield his eyes from the brilliant yellow glare.

I am unused to so much heliac light. Our day is so much shorter than it is up here. We receive less than one hour of direct light rays, depending on the season of the year. Our daylight lasts only minutes. It lasts much longer on this mountain summit, and the light appears much clearer and stronger. I marvel at the brightness.

You have never experienced anything like our average day, then?

No, he admitted with a grin. There is so much around me that is new. I hope you will help me learn how to live up here, Joa.

With a face of flint, she made no reply, but continued to lead