Envoy to Eidolon

By Gary L. Ward

Tamsyn Lyman’s day can’t get any worse—or can it? It would seem so when her car breaks down along the interstate during a thunderstorm with her grandmother’s dead cat Guido inside. Thankfully, middle-aged tow truck driver Daniel Stevens is there to assist.

In the rain, both Tamsyn and Daniel are struck by another vehicle. Instead of waking up in the hospital—or worse, not waking up at all—they find themselves on the alien planet of Eidolon, both of them young, healthy, and alive, including Guido. Only Tamsyn’s sapphire necklace, a gift from her grandmother, remains to remind them of Earth and home.

On this new planet, these confused explorers must evolve quickly to survive. They meet strange creatures and discover that it was the mysterious Heart of Eidolon that beckoned them there. Tamsyn and Daniel represent some sort of change, but what does this far-off planet need, and will these novice space explorers ever get home?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665714358

Gary L. Ward

Adventurer, world-traveler, poet, and dreamer Gary L. Ward has lived all over the United States as an expert in retirement planning. He worked at a private research university in the Middle East, enabling him to travel and give his children exposure to a multitude of cultures. Gary has a bachelor’s with honors in English literature from the University of Cincinnati and a certificate in creative writing and poetry. He currently lives in Cincinnati.

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Copyright © 2021 Gary L. Ward.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-6657-1434-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1435-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021921697

Archway Publishing rev. date: 11/16/2021

Contents

Chapter 1 Oxus

Chapter 2 Madukani

Chapter 3 Raki

Chapter 4 Teuthida

Chapter 5 Sriventrogan

Chapter 6 Blood Dawn

Chapter 7 Klakzomeni

Chapter 8 Farrosh

Chapter 9 Gravity

Chapter 10 Nashal

Chapter 11 Power

Chapter 12 Rasha Kul

Chapter 13 Wreckage

For Cheryl, Fiona, Donovan,

and Alaina.

Those who in ancient times called up in verse

The age of gold and sang its happy state

Dreamed on Parnassus of perhaps this very place.

Here the root of humankind was innocent,

Here it is always spring, with every fruit in season.

This is the nectar of which the ancients tell.

—Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio

Chapter 1

OXUS

I traveled many miles with him and learned what it means to be happy. I fought beside him and learned what it means to be brave. I lived under the countless stars with him and learned what it means to be human. It was an education I sorely needed, and it all began on a hot day during a thunderstorm.

Drowning in my own misery, I stood on the shoulder of the highway in the warm summer rain, suffering the abuse of the passing traffic.

It was better than waiting in the car with the dead cat.

It’s not that I minded death all that much. I wasn’t even sure if the cat was totally dead. And it wasn’t even the thought of getting back into the car now that I was already wet and watching the windows steam up or soaking the car seats. It just didn’t matter anymore.

Behind me the drainage ditch was a small brown river. I thought I should jump in and let the runoff wash over me. I would lie there for a moment, unnoticed by the rest of the world before I’d let the positively rancid waters fill my lungs.

How long would it take for anyone to retrieve my body from the mud? Would I have the strength to resist the urge to pull my face up out of the water and breathe? How long would it take for me to die?

Too much effort. Stepping into traffic would be easier.

The spray from the semis was like a fire hose, and the car rocked as each one passed. None of them even honked at me, and no one stopped to help.

Look at the poor, helpless girl stuck by the side of the road in the rain.

I felt invisible.

Perhaps I could just walk away, climb the wet, grassy bank, and slip silently into a new life. With my luck, I’d stumble, fall in the ditch, and drown anyway. I’d survive, of course, make the local news, and become the latest joke at the office. The trucker who saved me would be a hero.

Beyond the little brown river and the grassy bank was a rusty barbed-wire fence and a green pasture. A solitary black horse stood under a big oak thirty yards away. He was beautiful and unperturbed by the rain.

What’re you looking at? I asked.

He shook his head and stomped the ground as if he’d heard me over the noise of the traffic. The rain was so thick I could barely see beyond him. For a moment, I thought a tall figure stood behind the tree, taller than the horse, and gray among the gray curtain of rain. I blinked and wiped the water from my eyes, and it was gone.

Just a trick of the rain, I said, or Gram’s alien abductor coming to collect on an old debt. That would serve me right.

My phone buzzed. It was Brad, the king of bad timing. I answered, covering my other ear and turning my back to the traffic.

Hey, Tam, he said.

I can’t talk right now! I shouted. My car broke down, and I’m stuck in the rain!

That sucks. Did you call for help?

No, you dumbass. I’m a stupid woman, and I’m just going to stand here in the downpour like a helpless idiot. Of course, I didn’t say that.

Yeah, a tow is on the way! Can I call you back?

A large green snake slithered between my feet. I jumped backward, almost onto the highway. It swam across the rushing water in the ditch with surprising agility and then continued up the slope toward the horse.

Fuck me, I whispered.

At the base of the fence, it turned its head and looked at me with bright red eyes, as if beckoning me to follow.

Good job on that, Brad said. On calling the tow, I mean. Is there anything I can do to help?

I’m having a hard time hearing you, Brad. What’s up? I asked.

How’d the presentation go? Did you get the promotion?

No, and I don’t want to talk about it right now.

Okay, he said.

Is that all you called for?

No. I … I wanted to let you know that I need to cancel our dinner tonight.

What’s that?

Dinner tonight! he yelled. I can’t do it!

Is something wrong?

We can talk about it later.

I didn’t have time for his shit. I don’t understand!

Well, I might as well just say it then, he said. I can’t do this anymore.

What do you mean?

You keep me at a distance. Okay? I don’t think anyone can get close. You need to let people—

I hung up.

As I stared across the multiple lanes of vehicles screaming by in misty clouds of spray, the colors became a blur—black, silver, white, and blue.

What a shit day.

I clutched at my grandmother’s hippie crystal good-luck charm. It felt warm in my hand but wasn’t working at all. She tried to convince me that the tall gray alien who had abducted her forty-some years ago had given it to her, saying, It will take you on a special trip.

I looked back at the tree beyond the horse but could see nothing in the gray wall of water.

Yeah, like to the funny farm, I said.

Of course, I didn’t tell Grams that or that the presentation had already happened when she gave me the necklace and the carrier with the dead cat.

Poor old Guido. Perhaps I should check on him.

An ambulance rushed by at high speed, lights flashing and sirens blasting.

I bowed my head and waited.

Lightning struck nearby. I didn’t even flinch. Rain poured down the back of my neck. My clothes and hair were stuck to me. My white blouse, now joyfully see-through, had a big brown coffee stain on it like a bib of stupidity. My new heels were ruined. At least no one could see me crying in this shit.

I figured the best that could happen was I’d get struck by lightning and turned to ash. The cat would live, of course.

Thunder rolled over me in waves.

Miss Lyman?

I nearly jumped out of my soggy shoes. A tow truck had pulled over in front of my car. The yellow lights were flashing. The driver, an old guy in a dark green rain slicker and floppy black hat, had a gray goatee and gentle blue eyes.

Yes, I said. I’m Tamsyn Lyman.

Daniel Stevens.

We shook hands in the heavy rain. His palm was rough and warm. Mine was pitifully small and ice-cold.

Yes, Danny’s Towing. Of course.

You should get out of the rain. I got this.

I’m fine. Thank you.

Okay, miss, he said. Why don’t you look after this stuff for me while I check out your car?

He took off his rain slicker and draped it around my shoulders. I held it closed at my throat. He set his floppy hat on my head and knelt to examine the flat right-front tire. The rain quickly soaked his thin red T-shirt. He was bald and slim. An old black military-style tattoo was barely visible on his darkly tanned arm, something like crossed sabers with the number 7.

Rim’s not bent, he said. That’s good. He ran his hands over the treads. The tire seems fine. You got a spare?

I don’t know, I admitted.

Can you pop the trunk for me?

I dug my keys out of my soggy skirt pocket and pressed the trunk release. He moved around to the back of the car, rain splashing off his shiny scalp and running off his goatee. I hurried to get behind him, feeling kind of silly in his big coat and hat.

Can’t you just give me a tow? I asked, leaning close so we didn’t have to shout at each other.

It’ll be cheaper for you if I can get you going again, he said. It won’t take long.

He lifted the floor of the trunk, and there was a skinny spare tire.

Of course, I said. I should’ve thought of that. You learn something new every day.

This is only a temporary tire. It will get you home or to a tire store. The tire might have something in it I can’t see, so you should get that checked out. I think you just popped the seal on it. If they find a leak, have them prove it so you don’t get screwed into buying a new one.

I can handle myself, I said.

I’m sure you can, miss.

He began turning a large wing nut that held the tire in the trunk.

I did hit a big pothole as I was getting on the interstate, I said. I couldn’t see it in the rain.

Yeah, I’ve been making a lot of money off that one.

He smiled, and for the first time all day, I felt that everything was going to be all right.

Then why are you helping me? I’d think you’d make more money on a tow.

You look like you’re having a bad day, he said. And I like helping people. It’s more satisfying than the money.

A loud car horn sounded on the highway behind us, urgent and angry. I heard screeching tires and the crunch of metal.

Darkness enveloped me like a cool, rushing stream.



I stepped through a smoky black veil, clingy and cold. On the other side, I confronted a vision so vivid I knew instantly it wasn’t a dream. It had substance, sound, texture, and scent.

The air tasted salty, like the sea, and smelled like raspberries. The familiar sound of crashing waves tickled my ears, and I felt the expected concussion through the damp beach sand, cool and soft beneath bare feet. All of this swept over me like a warm, sunlit break in the clouds after weeks of cold, dreary rain. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths.

Welcome, a high, clear voice said.

I opened my eyes, and the vision remained, a familiar but alien view. The beach was cinnamon brown. Small round stones, the same size and color as lemon drops, formed a serpentine wave along the beach as if they’d been pushed there by the tide. The beach sloped gently down to a cobalt-blue ocean under a cloudless salmon-pink sky. Small waves, no more than two feet high and flecked with blue foam, crashed slowly on the cinnamon sand.

Welcome, the voice said again. I will guide you through the orientation process. I will give you time to adjust. Please inform me when you are sufficiently curious to continue.

I closed and opened my eyes slowly several times. The scene didn’t change. I looked around for the source of the voice and saw someone several yards in front of me who I swore wasn’t there a moment ago—a cyan-blue creature with a vaguely female shape.

She was nearly nine feet tall and had long, straight silvery hair that swayed in the light breeze from the sea. Her skin had a pearly iridescence about it, shot through with veins of sparkly white and gold. For a moment, she seemed to waver in and out of focus. Her hands, each with a long thumb and only three fingers, were thin with no visible joints. She held them clasped in front of her as if she were waiting for me to speak.

Who are you? I asked.

I am called Oxus, she said. Her mouth was wide and thin-lipped above a pointy chin. Please know that all you perceive is substantial and not imaginative.

What? I asked.

She had two eyes, large and dark, like the sea. The whites gleamed like pearly quartz. They were set wide on a flat face with no visible nose. She blinked at me, as patient as a waitress waiting to take my order.

I am Oxus, she said again.

Oxus?

Yes.

Is this heaven?

If you are inquiring if this is a transitive reality, I can assure you it is not.

I took two small steps toward her. The sand was fine-grained. I looked down and found that I was completely naked, except for Grandmother’s necklace. I let out a small shriek, covered myself, and looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. The beach was empty except for the blue woman in front of me.

Oxus blinked and held out a blue hand. A large white cloth appeared in it from nowhere.

We did not consider that your natural state would make you uncomfortable, she said. Please accept this clothing.

I took it and unfolded a white robe. It was thin and made of a fabric I didn’t recognize. I put it on. It was knee-length with sleeves that flared at the cuff just below my elbows and tied around my waist with a thin white cord.

I pulled my hair out from under the robe after tying it around my waist. It was my natural medium brown color and almost a foot longer than normal. Not a hint of my blonde highlights remained.

This is not right, I said. I tried to calculate how long it would take my hair to grow that long. What day is it?

Your system of timekeeping has no corresponding value in this stellar system.

What does that even mean?

I do not understand the question, Oxus said.

A cat suddenly passed through my legs from behind me, rubbing his calico cheek on my shin.

Hey, Guido! You’re not dead, I said. I think.

He looked thinner, and his mottled fur had a healthy sheen.

We assume this small predator entity is your personal companion, Oxus said. We are aware of such things on your world and brought it with you so you may be comforted by its presence.

Brought?

Guido sniffed one of the yellow stones and then growled at it. The stone appeared to vibrate.

You have been requisitioned, Oxus said.

The old cat held himself in pounce mode on the sand, watching the yellow stone. His tail twitched and then swept back and forth.

Where am I? I asked. "Who’s we?"

This world has innumerable names. Most beings refer to it as Eidolon, though you may call it by any name you find pleasing. Its true name is as unpronounceable as giving a voice to the sea and, like many worlds, has the same meaning as soil, stone, or ocean, depending on the primary characteristic of each planet.

Oxus either had no feet or they were buried in the sand. She stood perfectly still, only her silver hair moving in the breeze.

"That doesn’t help much. I mean, my planet is mostly water, but we call it Earth, or Terra, which means land, I guess."

It occurred to me that I was talking to a tall blue alien on a planet that was not my own. Somehow, I’d stepped—or had been abducted—into my grandmother’s acid trip. At least Oxus wasn’t gray.

"The original name of this world means peaceful rain, she said. In its youth, a light rain fell frequently in the early inhabited places."

"Great. I’ve had enough rain, thank you. What does Eidolon mean?"

Shadow.

Of course. That’s why we’re standing on a beach.

Everything looked real—the air, the sand, the sea—but was so different from what I knew; it couldn’t be real. Maybe I was in a coma somewhere, and I was dreaming, seeing myself as I truly was, like an out-of-body experience.

There is no temporal urgency, Oxus said. Please observe and ask any questions that come to your mind.

Guido relaxed and folded his forepaws under his body. He was obviously comfortable with his surroundings. He closed his eyes and sniffed the air. I noticed that he had two shadows, as did I.

I looked behind me. The beach sloped upward to long, rusty dunes that stretched in both directions as far as I could see. In the sky above were two large circles, not one, both bright and giving off heat like two suns. One was large and had an orange tint. The other was half its size, higher in the sky, and brighter. It gave off a pale blue light. I blocked the bright suns with my hands.

What is this place? I asked. I couldn’t dream this stuff up if I wanted to.

It is Eidolon. It is home to people from all over the galaxy, people similar to you and others who are significantly different in appearance, manner, and design.

Galaxy?

This is a binary star system, Oxus said. The larger primary is called Sard. Your people have not named it but have observed it and refer to it only by a number. The smaller companion is unknown to your scientists and is called Kolla. This planet is in orbit around Kolla. Eidolon is the only nonstellar body in this system.

In the sand before me, I counted only three of my footprints and several of Guido’s tracks. They originated from nothing, as if I had appeared on this beach from nowhere. Did I materialize just like the robe? I wondered.

Of course. And what do their names mean? I asked. My voice sounded far away.

"In the language of the original visitors, Sard means knowledge, and Kolla is life."

The strangeness of the beach, of Oxus, of the two suns, of everything suddenly hit me like a crashing wave. My heart was pounding in my ears, much faster than the cadence of the sea.

This isn’t real, I said. I held my hands to my chest and felt the solid warmth of the blue stone on Grandmother’s necklace. I clutched at it. It grew warmer.

I assure you this experience is real, Oxus said. Please stay. Her voice was soft, confident, and soothing.

How did I get here? I asked.

My vision was shrinking, becoming dark around the edges. I wanted to go home but had no idea how to get there. I had no concept of direction, no safe place to go, and no shelter in which to hide from the light of the suns or the gentle crashing of the sea, only the dark blue stone clutched in my hand.

Long ago you were requisitioned, Oxus said. When you finally opened the door, we reached for you.

You don’t want me, I said. Trust me. I fail at everything. Send me back.

That is not within my power.

Now, I demanded. Send me back now. Please.

A man suddenly appeared before me, stepping through nothingness, vague at first, like Oxus had been when I first saw her, and then quickly becoming fully substantial.

What the …

He wore a white robe like mine. His shoulders were broad. His light brown hair hung past his shoulders. He wore a full reddish-brown beard and had pale blue eyes. I put his age in the midtwenties, about the same as mine. He looked vaguely familiar, and I focused on that, observing the muscles on his arms, neck, and legs and his ten fingers and ten toes.

It has been previously observed, Oxus said, that acquiring a companion of your own species can increase the acceptance of this reality. The strength of this male may also aid you on your journey.

I looked at him carefully. He looked strong, like an athlete or a laborer, not like anyone in my office. I poked him in the chest. He was real.

Previously observed by whom? I asked.

By those who have requisitioned you.

Ugh! Were those people you observed human like us? I asked.

I rested my hand on the fabric covering his upper arm. He looked at me like someone lost in a daydream.

Yes, Oxus said.

The man’s eyes widened, and his mouth slowly opened. What the hell? he said. He stared beyond me to the sea.

I don’t know this man, I said.

He is here.

Guido rubbed up against his leg. The man absently picked up the cat with one large hand and scratched him between the ears while his eyes moved left and right over the landscape. He glanced at Oxus, or right through her. I couldn’t tell.

Who are you? he asked me. His eyes slowly gained focus. He blinked several times like he’d just awakened. Where am I? How did I get here?

Someplace called Eidolon, I said. It’s a different planet, I think. If you can believe that. It’s real. You’re not dreaming. We were apparently brought here by … someone, I don’t know. My name is Tamsyn, Tamsyn Lyman.

Oh, yeah, he said. He raised the cat to his cheek. He suddenly moved the cat away and put a hand to his face, touching his beard as if it were strange to him. I could hear Guido purring. Yeah, the half-drowned woman with the flat tire.

You’re Danny? I asked. The tow-truck guy?

Daniel, please. He chuckled and set the cat down. Danny was my dad. Yeah, I’m the tow-truck guy. He touched his face with both hands. Damn. It’s been a long time since I had a full beard.

You can’t be. He was at least fifty. You have to be in your twenties.

Really? He looked down at his feet, wiggled his toes in the sand, and then put both hands to his chest. I bulked up. Awesome.

Guido ran toward the nearest pile of yellow stones. They scattered in front of him like sandpipers with no legs. He