Tides of Acerba: Paradisi Chronicles: Caelestis Series, #4

By Louisa Locke

Two moons, too many demands, too little time. In this action-adventure, science fiction novel, Mei Lin Yu, the future Promise Keeper, is thrust into a position of power and responsibility she never wanted as she struggles to determine who she can trust. Is it Jaxon, a man with his own responsibilities and trust issues, Dr. Eleanor, a scientist in the ruthless pursuit of knowledge, Grandaunt Anne, the most powerful woman in Caelestis, or Daniella, a young widow with a surprising secret?
 

As Mei Lin faces one crisis after another, she will finally discover that the person she needs to learn to trust is herself.

 

Tides of Acerba, the fourth book in Louisa Locke's Caelestis series, comes right after Through Ddaera's Touch, and is part of the Paradisi Chronicles, an open-source, multi-author science fiction universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. Louisa Locke
• Release date: May 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223426486

Book preview

THE FOUNDING FAMILIES OF NEW EDEN

There were ten Founding Families that came through a wormhole from Earth at the end of the twenty-first century to settle New Eden, a planet in the Paradisi solar system. Their descendants were called Founders, and all the rest of the passengers on the ten ships that brought them became New Eden citizens. The people who were already on the planet called themselves Ddaerans and their planet Ddaera.

Each of the Founding Families ruled one of the ten countries of New Eden and developed a particular economic niche, and each had a representative on the world government, the Council of Ten. The Ten Founding Families and the countries and economic sector they control are as follows:

Yu – Caelestis – Energy and Environment

Quinn – Vida – Finance

Nakata – Levana – Transportation

Chandler – Anthemia – Education

Kuttner – Canistro – Agriculture

Thorndike – Tassoni – Military

Abramov – Rasia – Communications and Security

Ganesh – Deropa – Industry

Gunther – Caprinet – Health Science

Huntley – Cosiral – Commerce

YU FOUNDING FAMILY

There were four brothers who led this family to New Eden, and they divided their country of Caelestis into four provinces. The oldest brother, Lewis, ruled the eastern province, where New Hong Kong, the capital of Caelestis and New Eden, is located. The next oldest brother, Harold, ruled the northern province, and the third brother, Chester, ruled the southern province. Mark Yu, the youngest brother, got the western province, where Mynyddamore is located.

Mei Lin, the protagonist of Tides of Acerba, is descended from Mark Yu’s daughter Mabel Yu, and she will inherit the western province of Caelestis at her great-grandmother’s death.

MEI LIN YU’S IMMEDIATE FAMILY

Betsy Kuttner (Hen Nain) - Mei Lin’s great-grandmother

Tadcu Jie - Mei Lin’s grandfather

Dr. Eleanor - Mei Lin’s grandmother

John - Mei Lin’s father

Joanna - Mei Lin’s mother

Albert - Mei Lin’s brother

CHAPTER ONE

Early Monday, November 7, 167 AA (After Arrival)

Mynyddamore, Western Province, Caelestis, New Eden

I swam behind Awelon, the sleek young hen ddynion, as we slid through the cold current of the River Rhrewllyd, bubbles of laughter coming out of my mouth to tickle my face. Caeruleum’s blue light rippled on the surface of the water, while my friend, the golden-furred gwynddoeth Eurig, waited impatiently for me on the shore.

Abruptly, my forward movement met resistance. I reached out to Awelon with a question, receiving nothing in return but a sense of overwhelming terror.

Surfacing, I saw that the erratic, tiny grey moon, Acerba, had decided to challenge blue Caeruleum. The two moons, both full, were riding high in the night sky, and they were pushing the incoming tide in full spate towards us. The harder I swam, the less headway I made. Feeling Awelon falter, I reached out to lend support, but I was too late. The frothing wall of water pushed her under, then slammed into me, sending me tumbling into oblivion.

With a start, I woke up, safe in bed on the fourth floor of Mynyddamore, the old stone roundhouse that was my home. I sought out Awelon and received an image of her drowsing peacefully on Candle Rock, snuggled up against her mother and father.

Through the room’s western-facing window, I could see that Caeruleum had already set, leaving the November sky cold and empty of all but the stars and tiny Acerba, on this night, only a sliver of grey.

It was only a dream. Yet the terror remained.

I sent out a reassuring thought to Eurig, my gwynddoeth friend, who had clearly been disturbed by my panic. Normally, he would have been sleeping curled up beside me, but he was down in the clinic, watching over a sick child. I told him I was fine.

Only a dream. But I couldn’t get back to sleep.

Putting on my quilted jacket, I slipped out of my room, turned right, and went along the outside circular walkway to my great-grandmother’s bedroom. The cold of the stone floor radiated up through my wool socks, and the stiff breeze crossing the open courtyard whipped strands of my long black hair into my face.

I should have taken the time to re-braid it.

When I got to her door, I hesitated and leaned my cheek against its wood surface, scarred by over a hundred and fifty years of exposure to the weather in this part of the western province of Caelestis.

Not wishing to disturb her, I crept silently into my great-grandmother’s room and saw that she was fast asleep. I nodded to Eurig’s daughter Eilwen, who raised her head from where she lay curled at the foot of the bed. The young gwynddoeth watched over my great-grandmother each night. Telepathic, like all gwynddoeths, Eilwen would summon help if she sensed any change in the old woman’s breathing.

I silently reassured her that I was all right but wished to spend some time with my great-grandmother.

Ddaerans called her Hen Nain, but she had been born Betsy Kuttner, the illegitimate daughter of a Ddaeran and a member of the Kuttner Founding Family. She came to Mynyddamore over ninety years ago to work with Mabel Yu, my great-great-grandmother. She was the ancestor who built Mynyddamore and became the first Ceidwad Addewid, the Promise Keeper, vowing to protect the Ddaerans and their way of life from predators, including other members of the ten Founding Families.

When young Betsy arrived at Mynyddamore, she fell in love…with the land, the Ddaerans, Mabel, and Mabel’s youngest son Michael. After Michael died, as his widow, Betsy decided to stay on at Mynyddamore. Eventually, she inherited Mynyddamore from Mabel, becoming the next Promise Keeper, a position she had now held for over fifty years.

From her, I had inherited my green eyes, so different from the rest of the Yus, plus the reddish tint to my black hair. Most importantly, I had also inherited my psychic abilities. Because of those abilities, and my great-grandmother’s surprising decision to declare me her heir, I would become the next Promise Keeper to the Ddaerans of the western province.

Looking down at my great-grandmother, seeing how old and frail she’d become, my greatest worry was that this inheritance would come all too soon, and I wouldn’t be ready.

Sitting down in the chair next to her bed, I calmed my fears. I had no healing abilities, but I was a strong telepath, and I had discovered over these past few months that I could sink into my great-grandmother’s dreams and bring her a more restful sleep.

Tonight, my great-grandmother was dreaming about her beloved Mynyddeira Mountains, their snow-capped peaks pink from the rays of a setting sun. Becoming part of the dream, I handed her the cane with the red tassel, and we climbed up through the trees on the lower slopes, the soft bells of the meddalwyn herds drawing us ever upwards.

Together, we found some momentary peace.

My time sitting watch with Hen Nain had settled me, but I never did get back to sleep. That meant a few hours later, as I made my way out the western gates of Mynyddamore, to head down to the heliopad, I was having difficulty stifling a yawn. Maybe I could get a few hours’ sleep on the way to Dayang camp.

My Ddaeran friend Tesni looked at me askance and said, Rough night, Mei Lin?

Dreamed I got caught in one of those high tides when both Acerba and Caeruleum are full. I hope I didn’t wake you?

Tesni assisted her aunt Ceri in Mynyddamore’s clinic, often taking the night shift. She said, No, I was already up sitting with young Bryony to give her mother a little rest. I only got the vague impression of something from you. Eurig told me you were all right.

I sighed. I’d only begun to understand my telepathy two years ago when I first arrived at Mynyddamore at the age of sixteen, and I had been working hard to control it. I found it supremely humbling to live in a place with hundreds of Ddaerans, who I occasionally wakened with my dreams. Bryony, at age four, had better control over her own telepathic abilities than I did.

I asked how the child, an engaging little imp, was doing, and Tesni assured me she would be fine, just a minor childhood complaint.

Then, thinking that Tesni looked more than tired, I said, I haven’t seen Tegwyn since I’ve been back. Is he out hunting?

No, Tesni said with palpable coolness. I believe he’s up in the mountains helping his brothers bring down the family meddalwyn herd for the winter.

There was a painful pause.

For the past year, Tegwyn, a shy man and one of Mynyddamore’s most skilled hunters, had been accompanying Tesni and me when we traveled to the far-flung mountain villages in the eastern Mynyddeira Mountains. I was delighted when Tesni was finally able to accept that the poor young man was in love with her and admit she returned the sentiment. However, as far as I could tell, this hadn’t resulted in quite the happily-ever-after I had expected.

Then again, I didn’t have extensive experience with Ddaeran relationships, so I could be misreading the situation. Whatever was up, Tesni clearly didn’t want to discuss it with me. We were close friends, but for a variety of reasons, we both kept our feelings about the men in our lives private.

Tesni abruptly said, You don’t mind if I run ahead and check to make sure Khulan has all the medical supplies safely stowed? He’ll want to take off as soon as you get there.

At my nod, she sped away down the path, still illuminated by solar lights until Serenhardd, New Eden’s sun, which the Founders called Paradisi, climbed up past the Mynyddeira Mountains to the east. Tiny Acerba had long ago dipped below the horizon and even the stars had disappeared in the slight mist of early morning.

The Ddaerans had named the two concentric circular stone buildings I called home, Mynyddamore, because it sat between the Sapphire Sea and the snow-capped Mynyddeira Mountains. On fall mornings like this, it could be a very cold place, and I appreciated the warmth of Eurig, who was wrapped around my shoulders for my walk to the helio.

He chittered softly in my ear.

Oh, Eurig, of course I wish you could come with me, but I’m only going to be at the Dayang camp for a couple of hours before heading on to New Hong Kong.

I stroked the golden fur along his back, saying, This will be a quick trip, only five days. Anyway, Grandfather will be joining me for the last two days, in time for the MynyEnergy board meeting, so I won’t be by myself the whole time.

Ever since my great-grandmother announced to the world that I was now her heir, I had been forced to travel east to New Hong Kong every couple of months to serve as my great-grandmother’s proxy on the board of trustees for MynyEnergy, the main source of our branch of the Yu family’s wealth.

I hated the politics of running the company, hated returning to a city I loathed, and hated that I couldn’t bring Eurig with me to help me cope.

For some reason, most of the Founding Families and their descendants had an inexplicable fear of animals, especially those native to the planet. As a result, there were strict regulations against them in the urban areas like New Hong Kong City. This meant that a gwynddoeth like Eurig, who was arguably my best friend in the whole world, had to stay at Mynyddamore when I went there.

He clutched my collar with his tiny hands so he could lean back in my arms to better see my face in the pale morning light. He twitched the two round ears that framed the triangle of black fur surrounding his widely spaced brown eyes, wrinkled his short muzzle, and chittered again, sending me a strange emotional mix of affection and concern.

I don’t know what has you all in a bother, Eurig. Both the weather satellite and my weather sense say there aren’t any storms sweeping down from the Mynyddeira peaks. And I can assure you that Khulan could set the helio down at Dayang with his eyes closed.

Eurig had an uncanny ability to sense when something unexpected and problematic was going to happen to me. Unfortunately, his premonitions could herald anything from me dropping a pot of stew onto the floor when I worked in Mynyddamore’s community kitchen to me being kidnapped in the midst of a snowstorm, which had actually happened last spring.

I supposed, given all the positive events that resulted from that kidnapping, I couldn’t even classify that event as problematic, although it certainly had been very unexpected.

Without that kidnapping, I never would have met the band of Reachers who were, unbeknownst to anyone, living in a remote area of the eastern slopes of the Mynyddeira Mountains, hiding from the military arm of the Council of Ten. That discovery had turned out to be fortuitous for everyone involved, and I was stopping by this morning at their Dayang base camp to drop off medical supplies.

As Eurig clung to me, I caught some images from him. The first was of the Reachers’ leader, Jaxon McCaffrey, who they called Red, his long hair tied back in an uncharacteristically neat ponytail. The second image was of Jaxon’s companion, the sentient snowcat Silence, who appeared to be hunting in the forest that surrounded the Dayang camp. Then I gasped, seeing the glowering face of my brother, Albert, which provoked a similar emotion of fear and loathing from my gwynddoeth friend.

I rubbed my cheek against Eurig’s dear face and said, Please don’t worry about me. Even if my brother is in town, he can’t hurt me. Really, I feel better when I’ve had a chance to sample his thoughts, make sure he isn’t up to some new scheme.

Last spring, I had discovered that my older brother Albert was involved in some highly illegal shenanigans. He’d been stymied in that plan, but for a variety of reasons that I understood but deplored, he’d not been charged with anything and had retained a position with the company. His actions, however, are what forced my great-grandmother to announce that she had chosen me as her heir, a position that Albert had assumed would eventually come to him once our grandfather and our father were deceased.

If thoughts could kill, I would have died at Albert’s hands long ago. I could hear his thoughts, but he, not being telepathic himself, didn’t know that fact. While this made any contact with him highly unpleasant, it did give me an advantage, and I owed it to Hen Nain and all the people under my great-grandmother’s protection, to hear enough of what Albert was thinking to guard against whatever nasty plan he had going forward.

Tesni walked back up from the helio and reached out her arms for Eurig, saying, Mei Lin, Khulan is ready to take off. Be sure to tell the camp medic, Serena, that I included several tubs of cream for frostbite now that the nights are getting so cold.

Tesni not only possessed a modern degree from New Beijing University, she combined the most up-to-date medical therapies with the traditional holistic methods of her own people, adding her own strong psychic abilities to the mix. The people of Mynyddamore were fortunate to have her services, and I was fortunate to have her as a friend.

I noticed that, like Eurig, Tesni was radiating a steady stream of worry.

Tesni, what’s the matter? I said sharply. Is it Great-Grandmother? I thought you said it was safe for me to be gone this week, that she seemed a little better. She was resting quietly when I left her this morning.

Tesni had been doing everything in her considerable powers to ease the gallant old woman’s pain without subjecting her to strong drugs that would dull her sharp mind. But I knew that my great-grandmother’s heart was not holding up well and that death could come for her at any time.

If I thought you shouldn’t go, I would have told you. I said the same thing to your grandfather when he left for New Seattle.

But you’re worried about something. So is Eurig.

We always worry when you have to go to New Hong Kong, but usually your grandfather is with you. Tadcu Jie has had a lifetime shielding himself from the damage the constant assault of the unfiltered thoughts of others can cause. Eurig and I both remember the state you were in when you first came to us. And we don’t want that brother of yours hurting you any further, and that’s why we’re concerned.

Was that why I’d had that awful dream this morning? Fear that my brother Albert’s hatred might overwhelm me, like the strong tides of Acerba?

Tesni and Eurig leaned towards me, touching my cheeks. Physical contact strengthened telepathic communications among Ddaerans, and I felt enveloped in the love of my friends.

I took a deep breath, letting that love seep into every molecule of my being, admitting how frightened I was about taking this trip on my own, understanding now that Eurig and Tesni were simply responding to my emotions.

But it wasn’t apprehension about Albert that consumed me. It was my fear that if…no…when my great-grandmother died…I wouldn’t be strong and wise enough to fulfill the promises my family had made with all those who lived in our province, including the hen ddynions like Awelon and the Reachers like Jaxon McCaffrey, whether they wanted my protection or not.

CHAPTER TWO

Monday morning, November 7, 167 AA

Mynyddeira Mountains

As the helio headed northeast to skirt the higher peaks of the Mynyddeiras, I thought more about the hundred or so Reachers living in the Dayang camp and why I, as a member of a Founding Family, felt I owed them protection.

Back on old Earth, they had been employees of the Reach Corporation, and the Founders of the Paradisi Project had promised them a place in New Eden, if they could retrofit the old SS Challenge spaceship and make the journey here.

Unfortunately, when the SS Challenge made its transit through the wormhole, the ship was thrown forward 150 years in time, and, instead of being welcomed with open arms, the ten Founding Family members serving on the Council of Ten responded by covering up the very existence of this ship. The members of the Council might not agree on everything, but they always seemed to agree it was in their best interests to withhold any upsetting news from the general populace. And this was what they did seventeen years ago. They certainly hadn’t wanted New Eden citizens thinking about the people their ancestors had left behind on old Earth or the capabilities of wormholes to explore other galaxies.

As a historian writing a thesis on the early decades of settlement, I saw case after case of this attitude at work. Whether data on problems from cryostasis during the journey, the death rates among the Ddaerans who were wiped out by old Earth diseases, or the terrible excesses of genetic manipulation on two of the other Paradisi planets, the Council of Ten swept everything under a planet-wide carpet.

Therefore, I wasn’t at all surprised that the Council decided that wiping out all traces of the SS Challenge was their safest move. They did give some loyal crew members and the Founding Family members among the passengers a place in New Eden society, in exchange for these individuals keeping the existence of the ship a secret. Then they sent the rest of the ship’s innocent passengers to prisons located in the southern continent of Atra. Finally, they blew up the Challenge, claiming it had been a stray asteroid.

Many of the Reachers, as well as the Jakes who were employed by the private security contractor called Janus Corp, or JCorp, learned of this plan ahead of time. At the last minute, they launched shuttles from the Challenge to escape this fate. Some made it, some didn’t, and those who survived what they called Operation PlanetFall had been hiding from the military for the past seventeen years. One band of them had settled in the eastern mountains of Mynyddeira.

These were the people I met as result of my kidnapping, including their leader, Jaxon McCaffrey.

As I remembered that first meeting, I fingered the small leather bag around my neck that held my most precious possessions, the heart stone Eurig gave me and the ring that had held my ancestor Mabel’s diary. This ring, the duplicate of one that Jaxon McCaffrey wore around his own neck, had been made by him as a boy, back on the old Earth Nautilus space station, and he gave it to his friend Mabel Yu on the eve of her departure for the long perilous journey to New Eden.

The rings had held small mini-disks, and his plan was for them each to record a daily journal that they would exchange when he arrived on the Challenge a few years later.

The only problem was that when he arrived through the wormhole, a century and a half had passed. Mabel had married, built Mynyddamore, had six children, grown old, and died, while Jaxon aged only a few years.

But from her diary, I knew that Mabel never forgot him, the boy with red hair she left behind, the boy who had grown into the man other Reachers called their leader. The man I fell in love with, almost from the first moment I met him. The man who I believed loved me in return.

A little more than an hour later, the helio swung up over one of the ridges that cradled the meadow that held the Dayang camp, a ragged circle of multiple small buildings and tents. Leaning forward to get a better view, I said, Oh, Khulan, they’ve had a snowfall since I was here last. The white buildings really blend in. If I didn’t know better, I would think they’d pulled up stakes and moved out.

He only nodded, concentrating on negotiating the unpredictable updrafts that surrounded what was, in fact, the remnants of a long extinct volcano’s caldera. These very updrafts and the high mountains that surrounded the Dayang camp were what kept them safe from observation by outsiders. Only a fool would risk any sort of aircraft, much less a light helio, by flying directly through the Mynyddeira Mountains. A fool, or an exceptionally skillful pilot like Khulan.

Ironically, Khulan had been the very pilot who had kidnapped me last spring. He was a descendant of one of the many poor Mongolian workers the Yus brought on our ship, the SS Nightingale, over a century and a half ago. Like the other Founders, the Yus promised the passengers they brought to help them set up their new society that they and their descendants would never want for anything. They were told that they would have full employment, decent housing, modern medical care, and educational opportunities for their children. This sounded like a virtual paradise compared to old Earth, with its constant warfare, environmental disasters, endemic starvation, and wave-after-wave of deadly pandemics.

However, once people like Khulan’s ancestors arrived in the so-called paradise of New Eden, many found only backbreaking work and a high mortality rate, while their descendants faced dead-end jobs, deteriorating housing, mediocre healthcare, limited opportunities for higher education, and no political power over their fates at all. The Ten Founding Families owned everything on the planet, keeping power exclusively in their own hands.

But not every New Eden citizen accepted their fate, and Khulan was one of those who chose to resist by helping the Reachers escape discovery. Last spring, it was his mistaken belief that I, as a member of a Founding Family, was a threat to the Reachers that had prompted him to kidnap me.

He’d been wrong and given how everything turned out, I was grateful for his mistake. Khulan now was one of the three pilots who worked for Mynyddamore, often carrying Tesni and me as we visited the Dayang camp and some of the Ddaeran villages on this side of the mountains.

As he carefully lowered the helio to the ground, he said, I’ll go ahead and recharge the battery while we are in camp. That will give me enough juice to make it all the way back to Mynyddamore after I drop you off in New Hong Kong. Strange, there was a time when I would have missed the action of a big city. Not anymore. I’ve even begun to understand why my son Nergui finds living at Mynyddamore so peaceful. He’s like a different boy, and I have you to thank for that.

Before I could reply, Khulan shut off the engine and said, Mind how you go; snow’s likely to be slippery.

Ford, the white-haired, stiff-backed woman waiting for me on the edge of the heliopad, was a former Jake who’d joined the Reachers on their escape from the Challenge, and she was Jaxon’s second in command in the camp. She was an older woman, maybe her late fifties, her hair in a tight bun, weathered skin like old soft leather, and piercing blue eyes, and there was no mistaking Ford’s power or authority.

As she came up to me, she gave a short nod of greeting. Good to see you, Mei Lin. I understand you want to be off as soon as possible. Come into my quarters, out of the cold. I’ll give you a hot cup of tea while the helio is being unloaded.

Walking to her winterized tent, I mentioned how empty the camp looked, and she gave me some vague answer about the cold keeping people inside. This seemed downright odd, given the fact that usually the arrival of the helio brought out at least those Reachers I had become friends with, people like Clive, their communications specialist, and Mags McCaffrey, Jaxon’s aunt. Perhaps Mags and some of the others were up in the cavern that held the Vanguard shuttle from the Challenge. The Reachers’ plan was to repair this shuttle so they could use it to liberate the rest of the Reachers who were imprisoned in the maximum security prison on Atra where Mags had been held for fifteen years.

If that was the case, why didn’t Ford just say so? I sent out a tentative tendril of awareness, searching for Jaxon, to ask him what was upsetting Ford. I got nothing. Either he was doing a good job of hiding his thoughts or he wasn’t in the camp. I next searched for Silence and was even more puzzled.

Silence was a large snowcat, the granddaughter of Bell, the old Earth cat that had come down to the planet with Jaxon and the Reachers. Bell’s developing sentience, which her granddaughter Silence had inherited, and their ability to communicate with Jaxon, had been a complete surprise, to me and everyone else at Mynyddamore.

Before then, the assumption was that only animals and people born on New Eden, like the Ddaerans and gwynddoeths, or people like me, Hen Nain, and Grandfather, who were part Ddaeran, had this telepathic ability.

While no one had completely figured out how this had happened, or why only some Reachers, like Jaxon, had developed this ability, it had strengthened the bond between Jaxon and me. And Eurig, often accompanying me when I visited the camp, had struck up an unusual friendship with the telepathic Silence.

When together, the small gwynddoeth rode on the large snowcat’s back, his clever prehensile fingers clinging to the scruff of fur at her neck. As Silence patrolled the perimeter of the Reachers’ camp, ever watchful for any unwanted intruders, the two exchanged gossip about both Mynyddamore and the camp. Eurig would then tell me all he learned, giving me a much clearer idea of what was going on than I could ever get from the taciturn Jaxon.

That’s why I hoped that if Jaxon was closing me out for some reason, Silence wouldn’t. I could feel the cat’s presence, but Silence didn’t respond when I sent out a query about where she and Jaxon were.

She had never hidden her thoughts from me before, even when out hunting, and I always sensed she was genuinely glad to see me.

Feeling a resurgence of the terror from last night’s dream, I reached out one more time and got nothing.

CHAPTER THREE

Monday morning, November 7, 167 AA

Dayang Base Camp, Mynyddeira Mountains

I put up with Ford’s noncommittal answers to my questions for only a few more minutes and then said, Tesni wants me to talk to the medic, something about cream for frostbite. Can I assume Serena’s in the clinic?

Yes, I…

No need to come with me; I know which one it is, and you must be busy.

I wanted to get away from Ford as quickly as possible before I said something I would regret. The woman was probably happy to see me go because she was obviously following some order Jaxon had given her and was just as obviously unhappy about it.

I thought we had gotten past that, that he trusted me.

Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed away from the camp, and Jaxon, for three weeks, not so early in our relationship. But I worried about squandering precious time with Hen Nain every time I left Mynyddamore. In October, in addition to a board meeting, there had been a request from one of the eastern villages for a medical visit before the winter snows started. That’s why I had skipped visiting the Dayang camp. At the time, when I sent a message to Jaxon, he’d said he understood. He said it was more important for me to visit the Ddaeran village, and he would see me on the next visit.

By the two moons! Had he wanted me to skip the visit because he’d already be off on some mission that he didn’t want me to know about?

Once I reached the path that led to the medical building, I stood and took a moment to appreciate the beauty that surrounded me. The snow on the Dayang Peak, which loomed above the camp to the west, glittered as if sprinkled with diamonds now that the sun had escaped the confines of the range of mountains directly to the east. Expanding my lungs to take in the cold tang of snow and pine, I turned up the collar of my wool jacket, glad for its warmth.

I had debated even bringing this coat, given that New Hong Kong was in the extreme southeastern corner of Caelestis and would still be enjoying the moderate temperatures that came with being closer to the equator. But the coat sure felt good this morning, and I always felt comforted snuggling into wool made from Mynyddamore’s own meddalwyn herds, spun and woven by people I knew and loved.

Feeling calmer, I went towards the slightly larger tent that held the camp clinic. Serena Wong, the chief medic for the camp, had been one of the medical techs who had worked on the SS Challenge and had sided with the Reachers in their battle to stay on the ship at the beginning of the journey. For that reason, despite being a crew member, she’d been told about the plans to take the ship’s Vanguard shuttles down to the planet. I gathered that without the woman’s expertise, this band of Reachers would have lost even more people in those first years when they were on the run.

The woman’s name intrigued me. In Mabel’s diary, I’d read that her mother was a Wong and that Mabel had lived with her Wong grandmother in a community back on old Earth. The roundhouses that made up that village became the model for Mynyddamore. I figured that, given that her last name was Wong, if Serena had been on the Nautilus space station for any length of time, she might have known Mabel. These past relationships tended to unsettled me.

Here was Serena, a mature woman living in the here