A Small and Distant Galaxy: The Third Quadrant

By Susannah Israel

Book 2 follows a science survey into the Third Quadrant, a desolate wasteland left by ancient asteroids. Scenes of friends and family back on the crew’s home planets are woven through the story. New characters join with major and minor characters we met in the first book to crew the expedition. They explore a desert planet and intervene in the shunning of a young cave dweller, who joins them on the ship. While surveying an unexpected gas giant, they lose a crew member to its toxic gas cloud. The expedition crew moves on, not knowing he survived, and we follow his healing and acceptance into the planet’s forest culture. The third planet the crew finds is too massive to approach, but the debris orbiting it proves to hold important clues. The different threads of narrative in the book come together as a shift in the currents of time and space, leaving people with very different memories of shared reality. The crew return home, but there are several surprises on the way. They find their lost crew member again, mourning for the love he left behind. Back on their home planets, there is still one more mystery to resolve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889100478

Susannah Israel

Susannah Israel is an art critic and a renowned sculptor with a lifelong love of science fiction. Her art works are allegorical narratives filled with fantastical people and animals which appear in public and private collections around the world. Five years ago, she began writing about an unknown galaxy, bringing together her love of storytelling and her passion for science fiction in the series, A Small and Distant Galaxy. Israel lives and works in her studio in Oakland, California.

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About the Author

Susannah Israel is an art critic and a renowned sculptor with a lifelong love of science fiction. Her art works are allegorical narratives filled with fantastical people and animals which appear in public and private collections around the world. Five years ago, she began writing about an unknown galaxy, bringing together her love of storytelling and her passion for science fiction in the series, A Small and Distant Galaxy. Israel lives and works in her studio in Oakland, California.

Dedication

Dedication

Ted King and Bill Lassell

Copyright Information ©

Susannah Israel 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Israel, Susannah

A Small and Distant Galaxy: The Third Quadrant

ISBN 9798889100461 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798889100478 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921797

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Introduction

Far from planet Earth is a small galaxy, set apart by a great distance from any other galaxies, and composed of four roughly equal quadrants in a simple rectangular shape. Travel from planet to planet was made possible by the discovery of a magnetic drive that powered their ships. The quadrants were sparsely populated, with a live-and-let-live attitude. In the remote and peaceful Fourth Quadrant of this distant galaxy was a flourishing enterprise called the Stellar Associates of the Suns.

The splendidly named trade group exchanged goods among the seven planets of its few minor systems and exported their goods outside the quadrant through the Trade Consortium. The large, verdant world of Arobi was home to the prosperous founders of the Stellar Associates, where the InterPlanetary Institute offered free education to anyone in the galaxy. Arobi’s partners were Mindus and Salamandra, on the edge of an ancient asteroid field, the binary planets Blue and Stone, and the remote planet Joxine. These different worlds were each home to the descendants of human settlers.

After more than half a millennium in the backwater of the quadrant, humans were still relative newcomers to the galaxy. Their colony ship had lost its way in a cosmic storm on its way to Tau Ceti. The damaged ship had sailed on and on through uncharted, empty space, following its obsolete navigation program, while automatic systems on the ship had maintained essential functions. For almost six generations, the crew had lived out their lives protected by the ship’s controls but unable to access them. They had light and warmth, food and water, books and personal computers, and they built a community and traditions of their own. Three-quarters of the population of the ship were genetically modified passengers in stasis. These had been given enhancements intended to prepare them for safely exploring new planets for settlement.

The stasis system was maintained by the ship’s automatic controls, but the crew had faithfully continued to monitor them, for that was their job. They passed on this duty through five generations. Others of the crew set up schools, and kitchens and gardens on the ship. Families were raised. Five generations had grown up in space, and almost all the original colonists had died, when the ship came into orbit around an enormous, lifeless planet on the very edge of the Fourth Quadrant. The ship’s systems came back online, and the humans began to look for a new home.

The first planet, huge, cold and lifeless, was not suitable. The second planet had a dying sun. But by then, tensions had divided the passengers and crew, and many of the crew disembarked on the second planet, which they called Joxine. They were tired of serving others, and sick of space travel. The elite passengers, once they were awakened from stasis, had claimed two planets for themselves. Called the Hidden Worlds because they were cloaked by a magnetic dust cloud, these planets suited the xenophobic elites perfectly. The remaining members of the crew wanted to farm, and they had moved on to choose the Binaries, twin planets that rotated around each other as they orbited their yellow sun.

The genetically enhanced humans had continued on from the Binaries in the colony ship. There were three groups of modified people: one with genomes enhanced by chromosomes from green anole lizards, one from salamanders, and one from river frogs. These modifications provided humans with the ability to work in an aqueous environment and to regenerate limbs. The lizard-line humans chose Arobi, the salamander-line humans chose Salamandra, and the frog-line humans chose Mindus. After more than five hundred years in the galaxy, with no idea where they had come from or how to get back if they wanted to, the human settlers considered themselves to be home.

The Fourth Quadrant lived by trade, and the InterPlanetary Institute attracted teachers and students to Arobi. Free traders came to Mindus from the First Quadrant. Scholars came to the Institute on Arobi from the ancient world of the Aspiri Fallut in the Second Quadrant. The Third Quadrant, known as the silent quadrant, was evidently bereft of any known inhabitants. Its few large planets had been thrown together, long ago, in a catastrophic collision that had destroyed them. The ancient asteroid field that bordered Arobi was said to be all that was left.

Survey Expedition IPI-203

Planet Arobi was made for comfortable living. Its two continents were on the equator, surrounded by a placid blue ocean. The smaller continent was divided by a river that ran north to south; the other longer, larger continent had a wider river flowing east to west from the flat swamps to the tall trees and low hills of the main city. The warm climate, the rivers and ocean, and the verdant terrain had appealed to the lizard-line human colonists. They had settled there, built the InterPlanetary Institute, and developed a peaceful and prosperous trade business for themselves. The luxury-loving Arobins were amiable by temperament, even sluggish according to some. Their frog-line cousins, called Killicks, had settled on Mindus, where the spaceport handled all the cargo and much of the passenger traffic for the quadrant. The Killicks excelled at computer programming, and the Arobins depended upon their skills.

The salamander-line was drawn to settle a large planetoid near Arobi because of its misty climate. Salamandrans emulated the Arobins in style, dress and culture, and worked for them as managers, business assistants, and attaches, sharing in their prosperity. The InterPlanetary Institute welcomed students from the Fourth Quadrant and beyond, but most of the students and almost all of the teachers were Arobin. There was one satellite campus, an experimental school on Stone planet.

One of the teachers at the School on Stone was Mosten Farna, the driving force who made the first Third Quadrant survey happen. She had proposed the idea and applied to the InterPlanetary Institute on Arobi to approve and fund the research project, since this was an expedition for scientific purposes. Often called the Silent Quadrant because no signals ever came from it, the lower right quarter of the galaxy was assumed to be uninhabited.

Accepted theory among sciencers said that eons ago, the area had experienced a series of massive planetary collisions, creating cataclysmic explosions of such magnitude that most stellar matter was flung out of the quadrant completely. The ancient, stable asteroid cluster in the adjoining Fourth Quadrant was all that was thought to remain of the Third Quadrant’s former planets. But in her usual mild way, this small person made her case for exploring the galaxy’s unknown sector by asking whether it wouldn’t be better to know more than that about it? Objections collapsed and fell before her simple query, and the project was approved.

Almost forty Arobin revolutions ago, Mosten Farna’s own people had arrived from the general direction of the Third Quadrant in a dilapidated spaceship which was forfeited when they made it to Mindus port. All that the refugees had to say was, Our world is gone. Their ship would have crashed on impact, had it not been guided to safety in a common-sense action preventing accident or damage to the port as well. According to the stories, none of the systems on the ship had been functional except atmosphere, and there had been nothing worth salvaging. The rescued passengers were expected to work off their considerable debt at the port, but notions of work and pay were evidently unknown to them.

Of the four people rescued from their defunct ship, three had simply disappeared. Mosten had been born in an open mud flat on Mindus, to the fourth person who was young, terrified and completely without resources. She too had disappeared. Mosten Farna had no memory of how she had come to live in the cramped quarters above one of the bai houses in Mindus, but she had been lucky. Her adoptive mother had found service with a Salamandran family who housed them, and later Mosten Farna was able to attend the InterPlanetary Institute, which was free to all. But although all she knew of her part of the galaxy was that her world was gone, she wanted to explore that silent quadrant.

For the survey expedition, the InterPlanetary Institute provided a suitable science vessel, equipped and provisioned for the journey. The expedition ship was medium-sized, outfitted for a maximum crew of twenty and a trip of maximum of four revolutions in length. Arobin revolutions were the standard calculation, for naturally each planet had its own specific revolution, based on its orbit around its own star. This project timeframe was calculated for the two Arobin revolutions it would take to get to the edge of the quadrant and back.

The project was officially designated as InterPlanetary Institute Survey Expedition Number 203. It had full scanning and remote data collection capacity, three shuttlecraft, environmental suits and apparatus, capacious crew quarters, a refectory, gymnasium, kitchen, library and several research and meeting rooms. The ship’s appearance was intentionally modest, and it was capable of surface landings and planetary navigation. Survey Expedition IPI-203 lifted off from the busy spaceport on Arobi without fanfare.

Inside the unassuming spaceship, however, was a very excited crew indeed. For her research team and crew, Mosten Farna had chosen Kubil Llee as her Research Assistant and Sunny, the Prima heir of the First Citizen of Arobi, as her second. An Aspiri Fallut student named Pasira was her personal assistant. Nallem, the ship navigator and Rillam, Mir, and Nillick, the crew members responsible for ship functions, were Killicks from Mindus port. The ship’s cook was Lutu, a human from Stone planet in the Binary system who doubled as a fourth crew member.

Kubil Llee was from the planet Salamandra, on her first space voyage. Her human genome was enhanced with amphibian genes, like all Salamandrans. A recent graduate of the InterPlanetary Institute, she had also studied with Mosten Farna at the experimental school on Stone planet, in the binary system. Kubil was an excellent researcher, and had dug up some useful information in the libraries. She also located a rough map of the quadrant, and reviewed all the obscure ideas she could find about the mysterious quadrant.

In its earliest formation, the cataclysmic collisions were of such massive scale that the exploded matter had traveled too fast to form more than two star systems. The first system they would investigate was fourteen rotations’ distance from Mindus. It had been surveyed briefly, from orbit. There was only one planet, with four moons and a hostile environment, probably incapable of supporting life. The second star in the quadrant had only been observed from afar, by examining its lightband emissions. It was almost at the far edge of the quadrant, and far below the home world of the Aspiri Fallut in the Second Quadrant. It would take a half a revolution to get so far away. In between, there was no record of any stars or planets at all.

True to the map Kubil had obtained, they traveled for fourteen revolutions from Arobi, seeing nothing but empty space. There they came to the small planet with four moons. The expedition ship made several circles around the planet, which was the protocol that sciencers recommended for survey teams. According to their meager information, this was very likely to be a lifeless planet. It was called a drifting planet, which had lost water, surface soil and atmosphere in the upheaval of the asteroid collisions. It had been speculated that underground dwellers could possibly have used the gigantic, fossilized trees that had adapted for a long period by growing deep below the surface, for access to a survivable habitat. But there was no actual evidence to support that theory.

Despite the unpromising nature of the place, the crew were all excited to be making their first full survey. Diligently they examined the tiny sun and its one small planet, according to the guidelines for space survey missions. On visual examination, the planet appeared very old and very dusty-looking, gray with some greenish areas that contained small, irregular yellow blotches, all composed of inert substances. Some kind of minuscule creatures had occasional burrows just underneath the surface, perhaps insects. Nothing was directly visible. The monitors reported slim, vertical hollows in three regions, probably the remnants of the giant subterranean trees, also very old. The planet’s surface temperature changed drastically with each rotation. Except for the period just after the sun rose, or just before it sank, the surface would always be too hot or too cold for any exploration without protective gear.

There was no indication that a landing would be useful, or even safe. But just as they were completing the last of their scans, Mosten Farna said that she felt as if someone down there was looking up at them. A sudden quick feeling, she commented, gone almost as fast as it came. Kubil and Rillam checked and doublechecked the monitors, but there was nothing to see.

Quite excited now, the crew conferred about whether to investigate. It would be a shame to overlook any inhabitants. Mosten Farna was a teacher of Spirit on the school on Stone planet. She practiced and taught Listening, which was a way of extending perceptions far beyond the ordinary sensorium. If anyone could receive communication from complete strangers, they all agreed, she would be the one. Everyone was convinced that her sensation of being observed was a valid fact, and they all wanted to investigate. After all, this was the whole reason for their explorations. They were in complete accord. Mosten Farna would lead the team, with Kubil and Rillam. Rillam would pilot the shuttlecraft and make the landing.

Arruina

At the kitchen door, Nomo greeted Naven the cook, picked up her net and homing pole, and called for her hunting companion Kaht. The cook wished her luck as she began climbing up the rungs of the tall shaft leading up to the surface, ninety lengths above. The shaft, called a lighttree, gave access to the surface and illuminated the Dwelling. Kaht squawked, beating his leathery wings, and flew past her, up to the top of the lighttree. He was a pterodal, a predator bird well adapted to the harsh climate of Arruina, and he was bonded to her for life. Nomo climbed up behind him. As always, she was excited to be Foraging. She loved going out onto the surface.

Nomo paused at the top of the lighttree, fastening her wrap more securely before going outside. Kaht complained loudly, squawking about the delay. He could feel the warmth.

Hush-hush, foolish one, Nomo calmed him, though she was equally impatient for the light on her skin.

She pulled open the three locks and pushed gently up against the weighted lid that sealed the great tube of the lighttree from the surface atmosphere. It lifted smoothly on its massive hinges. Good, she thought. The Fourth Moon were taking excellent care of things, even on the off-season. She kept Kaht’s leg bindings wound three times around one arm as they crawled through the opening, and let the cover fall closed again. Testing, she pulled up on the handle to be sure it would reopen. Every detail counted, for if she made any mistakes, nobody would ever know.

They climbed out of the low depression around the lighttree. Nomo cleared the windblown debris used to hide the opening, pushing it aside while Kaht helpfully tossed away desiccated branches with his powerful beak. It was safely past the nightwind time now, and the bone-chilling cold had been banished by the rising lifestar.

Nomo released Kaht’s leg bindings and he flapped higher and higher into the gray sky. She stood and looked around carefully. At the horizon was the lifestar, and the four moons arced across the eastern sky. It was still cool and first starlight was slanting across the ground. Everything was quiet on the great flat green-gray expanse, dotted with small hunks of tan rocks. The landscape was empty, as always.

There had once been four other Dwellings, long before her mother was born. Now, there were only two, and no Travelers had come from them since Nomo’s mother had disappeared, four Turns ago. The surface was merciless. Automatically, she extended her arms, checking to see that her skin was mimicking the colors of the ground. Then she drove the slim, pointed homing stick into the ground, several paces away from the lighttree, and tossed the debris back into the shallow pit, hiding the opening into the Dwelling below.

Nomo was a First Moon child, a gatherer and forager by birth. At nearly ten Turns, she was a skilled veteran of many solitary Foragings, and she took pride in her abilities. She had fed the Dwelling many, many times. Above all she loved Kaht. But whenever she came up to the surface, she dreamed that that someday, she might be able to become a Traveler, and make journeys to the other dwellings. Only Fourth Moon birth guaranteed that, but in times of need, a highly skilled and experienced Forager could also serve by making such journeys. Kaht would love it too.

Zaaahaat! cried her companion, as if he were reading her mind.

Nomo laughed and wrapped her face and head, tying the cloths tightly with Zaht’s leg cords. The light was already moving, shadows changing; the tan dots on her skin were turning into circles as the lifestar rose overhead. Time for Zaht to find something for the hunt.

#

Alashaga naventa! The Second Moon toddler touched her chest with her fingertips, greeting the cook respectfully, if inaccurately, as she ran into the kitchen.

Aventalasha, ngalin aventa, responded Naven, preparing the early meal, light come, water flow, touching three fingers to his chest.

It made him smile just to see her. Somehow, even in constrained spaces, children always found some way to run, Naven thought. He stirred the mash, which was ready to eat, noticing how the child seated herself properly at the children’s table and waited for the cook to serve her. This Second Moon baby was a lover. Much of her early view of the Dwelling was from the vantage point of one of the adults’ arms, and now she climbed confidently into any available lap, patting and chuckling. These were the ideal qualities in an Omon child, harbingers of a kind and healthy nurturer who would produce excellent children.

Oni, mido bo, he said, serving the little one a bowl of sweetened mash.

Naven, mido bo! she answered happily, gripping her spoon tightly with her fist and digging into the bowl.

The Sai-Omon came into the kitchen behind the toddler. But the Second Moonkeeper did not acknowledge the child.

Naven, mido bo, he greeted the cook, accepting his usual bowl of hot mash flavored with herbs and broth.

Ilan, mido bo, responded Naven.

He and Ilan were peers in the Dwelling, for a cook’s knowledge was important in all decisions about resources. And Naven had been a Traveler, until his advancing age made the service too risky, and had gathered much knowledge from other Dwellings. The Moonkeepers often sought his counsel, all except for the Second Moonkeeper whose duty was Family. Naven watched Ilan choose a seat alone at a small table and close his eyes. It was customary to begin with silence at the early meal, of course. But the cook knew that he was deliberately ignoring the child.

How any keeper of Family could fail to appreciate a child like little Oni was a mystery. Somehow the Sai-Omon had taken the responsibility of his service and turned it into a miserable stewardship. He was sour about all the children, often commenting about how much they ate. The Third Moonkeeper said that although he examined the children’s lessons dutifully, he only pointed out their mistakes. The Second Moon were used to him, evidently, for they and their children seemed cheerful and undisturbed by their Sai-Omon’s critical eye. After being constantly shooed away, even little Oni had stopped trying to climb into his lap, Naven thought. And of course, Ilan never acknowledged that his bowl of breakfast mash was always prepared in just the way he liked it.

There was a gentle touch at his knee. Oni had eaten her mash and carried her bowl to the sink, which was much too high for her to reach. He took the bowl from her with a nod and the child ran back out of the kitchen to her household. Ilan remained stubbornly silent, eating his mash, and Naven sat down to wait for the rest of the households.

Traveling had been the best part of his life, in many ways, Naven thought now. It was not good for people to live shut up together, Turn after Turn. Movement and light, even the risks of surface crossings, kept the mind alive and the body healthy. Even after his injury, he had mended well enough to Travel, though his broken leg was shorter after it healed. He glanced at Ilan, and the rush of frustration he had been holding back swept over him again. He got up and went down to the storeroom, to keep himself from arguing, pointlessly, with the Sai-Omon.

The lighttree was the center of the Dwelling, its enormous shaft rising ninety lengths up to the surface, and almost two lengths across. The kitchen and gardens made a ring around it, receiving the fullest light. Mirrored tubes guided the light away from the shaft, into each household of the four moons. Deep under the surface, the people in the Dwellings were well-protected from the extreme temperature changes above. A dozen lengths beneath each household were deep dry, empty caves formed by the roots of the lighttrees, reaching many hundreds of lengths below, used for sanitary disposal. The storerooms, Record room and schoolroom ringed the lighttree at its lower level. They were accessible by stairs from the kitchen and the gardens directly above them.

Naven paused at the door to the schoolroom, where he knew that Shan-si the Third Moonkeeper, was preparing the children’s lessons. He decided not to disturb her with his troubles, went into the storeroom and closed the door. The peppery, dry smells of the spices were pleasing, and the dark room was calming. He sat on one of the barrels, propping his chin on his hands, and allowed himself to consider an action that was forbidden even to mention.

In the early days, when the Dwellings were just being adapted, they seemed to offer a miraculous solution to the people of Arruina. Safe from the deadly conditions of the surface, communities could live and thrive underground. In this part of the continent alone, there had been eight Dwellings, more in the southern continent, and more in the east. But there had also been hidden costs. There was not enough room for all the people still on the surface. So many elders had sacrificed themselves in the lethal cold at night, because they knew resources would need to be rationed. The rigid social structure of the Dwellings was also necessary, for without forethought there would not be enough of the right workers, child-producers, and other service positions for everyone to survive. Some people could not adapt and they were forced out.

It was a terrible thing, Naven thought, to condemn another person. Why couldn’t the Sai-Omon see that? But it was not the Sai-Omon he was really arguing with, he knew. It was himself he was trying to convince, of course. Losing a capable person like Nomo was a great cost to their Dwelling, both right now and in the future. Her quick mind, and her ability to perform many different tasks well, were exactly what was needed. She was young, with many healthy years to come. If Naven were to leave, she was ready to become the cook for the whole Dwelling. She already knew how to prepare all the dishes, down to the details of the way everyone liked their mash. It was quite clear what he must do. He heard the Second Moon family above, coming into the kitchen, so he stood up and went out the storeroom door. He looked at the door of the schoolroom, wishing he could tell Shan-si of his decision. It which would ease her mind greatly, but it was forbidden to even speak of suicide.

Shan-si heard Naven going in and out of the storeroom while she was setting up. There was not really much schooling required for the five youngest children of the Dwelling. The Fourth Moon baby would not be old enough to join them in the schoolroom for two more Turns. But tradition on Arruina was unbending. Lessons in the schoolroom gave more time to work, talk or relax for the people in their households; it was fulfilling for the Record Moonkeeper to instruct them; the mental and physical discipline in reciting, singing and games of balance gave much delight to the young ones. But had this not been the case, it would not have mattered, because Tradition insisted upon it. Change was lethal and forbidden. Arruina was a world where things were, always had been and always would be done according to the principles of group survival.

These well-established principles were certainly familiar to the Third Moonkeeper, but they were far from Shan-si’s mind as she prepared for the children’s lessons. They had begun to learn counting, and today they would count the people in the Dwelling. She looked in the drawer and selected two story stones for reciting. The one with the fish carving was her favorite, and she stopped and held the smooth, worn piece in her hand, humming to herself. The smell of cooking drifted down from the kitchen, interrupting her reverie. She straightened the five small chairs around the table and went up to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the Sai-Omon had finished and was washing his bowl at the sink. He always made a fuss about cleaning it himself, to the cook’s amusement. Naven had long ago said that he was more than willing to clean the dishes after meals. Fourth Moon-born, he had Traveled for many Turns before becoming the cook. He pointed out that he had observed that shared kitchen work was traditional only in the Dwellings with twenty adults or more. Ilan had dismissed that, arguing that self-sufficiency was a basic duty in an any size Dwelling, and he would not ask another to serve him when he could do his own work. It made no difference to Naven, though he didn’t say so.

The Second Moon family were still eating, and Ombi greeted Shan-si with smiles, spooning her mash alternately into her own mouth and those of her two youngest children. Oni, it appeared, had already eaten and was helpfully trying to feed her brothers.

Shan-si, mido bo, chorused Oni and her mother.

Ombi, Oni, mido bo, she replied.

Naven came over to the table carrying two bowls. Shan-si, mido bo.

Naven, mido bo, she smiled.

He handed her a bowl of hot mash flavored with dried berries and sat down. They ate slowly, enjoying every spoonful, while he told her the events of the morning. Nomo had come first and carried food back for her aunt and young siblings in the First Moon, then she had gone to Forage, before the surface became too hot. The Fourth Moon had also taken their food away, for the baby was still sleeping. The Third Moon had made a sporadic appearance, first the two youths who had taken away bowls for the two sleeping adults, then Venshan, who had returned and washed the bowls, still looking very sleepy, while he conversed with Naven.

I think he’s been studying at night, Naven commented. He’s taking the teachings of the Records very seriously.

Shan-si agreed, savoring the last taste of hot mash and berries. Venshan reads in the Records room every day, later than I do.

Not surprising! Naven teased. After all, he is our son.

Stone

I think I’m going to go up to the river, Kessen told Amani, I want to see the northern settlement before the next School session. With Kubil away on that expedition, the teachers have more work to do.

The teacher and the cook were