Prophet the chronicles o.., p.1
Prophet (The Chronicles of Daan 2), page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1: PROSPERITY
CHAPTER 2: REVOCATION
CHAPTER 3: BOARDS
CHAPTER 4: DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 5: CATASTROPHE
CHAPTER 6: RECOVERY
CHAPTER 7: RECRUITMENT
CHAPTER 8: SPACESHIP
CHAPTER 9: ARRIVAL
CHAPTER 10: BREAKTHROUGH
CHAPTER 11: SIGHTING
CHAPTER 12: TEST FLIGHT
CHAPTER 13: FTL
CHAPTER 14: MASS PRODUCTION
CHAPTER 15: MISSION LAUNCH
CHAPTER 16: FIRST ENCOUNTER
CHAPTER 17: CASUALTY
CHAPTER 18: TWO FRONTS
CHAPTER 19: BETRAYAL
CHAPTER 20: STRIKE
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
104 Years Ago...
ELDERS CHAMBERS, JARAMOR
“Cedrick...” Senior Elder Mirella Padilla speaks the name compassionately. “We’ve probed to the south. Unfortunately, the only fertile land we’ve found is in forbidden areas where we will be exposed. That is why we search to the east.”
Cedrick bows his head in respect, then lifts his eyes to the Senior Elder. “It’s not for me to question your wisdom, or your ability to divine. But if not from the south, where did the soil come from?”
Mirella exhales sadly, shaking her head the way the teacher of a slow student might.
“Cedrick, the predominant winds come from the west. Yes, the soil on the southwest side of the sea is difficult to explain, but it is far enough north of the equator that the winds still come from the west.”
Cedrick gives the senior elder, the protector of the mystery, a sad look. “If your theory were true, then there would be soil on the east side of the sea as well. But there isn’t. And at this point we know the winds come from the east at the south end of the sea!”
In an instant, Cedrick knows his strident tone has done him in. He bows low. “I’m sorry Ma’am. That didn’t come out the way it was intended.”
There are several moments of silence, then the Senior Elder says, “I’m sorry Cedrick. Your application for a grant to explore down the west coast of the sea to the south is denied. Everything to the southwest of the sea has been forbidden to us by our founder.”
In a fit of anger, Cedrick shouts. “That cannot be true. We are west of the sea. And he...” Cedrick points to Second Elder Julian, Marilla’s grandson. “...has ventured there. That’s why we know there is soil!”
“Enough!” Marilla snaps back. “The application is denied.”
As Cedrick starts to protest, guards appear to escort him out. As he is dragged away from the petitioner’s podium, he shouts, “Then I will go on my own!”
...
Cedrick is on his second ale when the familiar voice of his friend asks, “May I join you?”
Cedrick turns to the voice then looks away.
“I’ll have what he’s having,” Julian says to the bar keep.
“Cedrick,” Julian exhales heavily. “I told you I would get funding for your expedition. Why did you have to go against my grandmother? She lives in the mystery. She’s rarely wrong. Why fight it?”
“Has she really probed the south!” The question Cedrick intended to ask, comes out as a shout.
“That’s your problem Cedrick. Instead of working your case slowly through the system, you demand immediate action from the highest levels without documenting the evidence that supports your claim.”
Cedrick takes another sip of his ale, appearing to ignore Julian. After a full minute of silence, he whispers, “You are my evidence Julian, but you never support me.”
More silence, then Julian says, “I’ll get you half funding in three days. Trust me on this, Cedrick. But say nothing about it to anyone. If word gets back to my grandmother, you will face banishment.
“I have personal funds sufficient to get you south of the sea. Meet me on the shore, thirty kilometers south of town. I’ll have supplies waiting.”
101 Years Ago...
JARAMOR
“I believe that completes the business scheduled for today. Do we agree to adjourn?” Senior Elder Mirella Padilla asks.
One-by-one, she meets the eyes of each of the elders, then says, “Meeting adjourned.”
Everyone stands, then Mirella heads for the exit at the far corner of the room. Elder Aston Jardim calls after her, “A word if I may?”
She nods and says, “Walk with me.”
He catches up, then the two of them, already locked in conversation, make their way toward the exit.
From the opposite corner, Julian’s aide, Edson Jardim (Aston’s son), slips quickly into the room and comes up to Julian. He whispers softly, “Julian, you must come.”
Marella, who is almost to her exit, stops in her tracks, locked in a trance the way the elders sometimes do.
Without a word, she turns and looks at Julian, then says in full voice. “Cedrick Frazer has returned. He has made a great discovery but is near death.”
She comes back to herself and shouts, “Julian, you must find him and bring him back!”
...
As the two younger men exit the building, Edson takes off running. “This way, Julian.”
Two of the rangers stationed at town hall, Andre and Clark, see the Second Elder and his assistant run by. They mount their horses to follow. Andre, the one in the lead, shouts, “Can we help you, Second Elder?”
Julian stops, as does Edson. Then Edson says, “There’s a stranger about a quarter kilometer south of town, walking alone by the shoreline. He’s clearly out of his mind. He appears to be possessed, shouting nonsense, and periodically calling Julian’s name. But he swings his case at anyone that approaches.”
Andre extends his hand down toward Julian.
“Let me give you a lift, sir. We can get you there in a few minutes.”
Julian extends his hand and is hoisted up onto the horse. Andre’s partner, Clark, does the same for Edson, then the four of them take off at a gallop.
...
As they get close, Julian points. “There he is. Stop here. I want to approach on foot.”
Only fifteen meters away, they hear the man’s cracked voice say, “Away beasts... ...no steal...” He waves an arm, then falls over, clinging to an old leather map case.
Julian slides off the horse and approaches slowly. The old man, agitated, but too weak to offer any serious resistance, glares at Julian.
Julian continues his slow approach. As he gets closer, the man’s expression softens.
“Julian, is that you?”
“Cedrick?”
With great effort, Cedrick pushes the map case towards Julian.
“This is... It has...” Cedrick’s voice trails away, then he goes limp.
Julian runs over and takes Cedrick’s emaciated hand, then checks for a pulse.
“Come help me!” Julian shouts out. “He’s still alive.”
Julian looks up at the rangers and sees Andre in a trance. “He must have taken a little of the profecia aumentar, so he could call for help.”
A moment later, Andre is back, and the horses trot over. Edson, and the rangers, dismount. Clark goes immediately for Cedrick. As he lifts him, Clark shakes his head.
“This guy can’t weigh over 45 kilos. There’s nothing to him.”
Andre comes out of his trance and shouts, “Jackson and three others are on their way to help, maybe five minutes out.”
“I don’t want to wait,” Julian replies. “We need to get Cedric to the hospital.”
Andre and Clark eye each other, then Andre says. “We can take him, but only one of you.”
Edson is quick to reply. “Julian, you go. I’ll start walking back. It won’t take long, but I’ll take a ride with Jackson and his team if they come.” He points down. “Bad shoes for walking on the shore.”
Clark mounts his horse, then Andre passes Cedrick’s limp body up. They professionally strap him in place in front of Clark.
“Secure,” Clark announces. Moments later they trot away toward the hospital with Cedrick’s map case over Julian’s shoulder.
...
Edson wheels himself into the Conference Room on the hospital’s top floor. Through the windows, he sees the sea, its gentle waves periodically splashing up against the rocks along the shoreline.
Julian is hunched over papers laid out on the table. Having heard the door open, he straightens and turns.
“What happened to you?” Julian asks in surprise.
“The rangers found me, but another crisis came up. Jackson offered to have one of his men bring me back anyway, but I volunteered to walk so they could deal with their other problem.”
Julian points at the wheelchair.
“Did you fall down or something?”
“Shoes,” Edson says with embarrassment. “They were new. They got totally trashed on the walk through the muddy area, so the guards at the entrance made me take them off.
“When I did, there was blood everywhere. I mean, my feet hurt like crazy, but I didn’t realize they were rubbed so raw they were bloody.
“You can probably guess from there. They wheeled me to emergency, cleaned up my feet, wrapped them, then brought me up.”
“I was wondering what took you so long.”
“Any word on Cedrick?” Edson asks.
“He’s in a bad way. The doctors say it’s less than 50-50 he’ll m
“Sad to hear that.” Edson pauses. “How are you taking it, Julian?”
“He was assumed to be dead. There’s a five year wait, so he hadn’t been declared yet. But no one here thought we’d see him again. His parting was less than cordial, and he never checked in, despite the tin of profecia aumentar I gave him.
“Now he’s back, but he’s not expected to survive.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Edson says with the compassion of a good friend. He points to the table. “What are you looking at.”
Julian lets out a chuckle. “Did you know Cedrick at all? You were young when he left.”
Edson shakes his head no. “I knew of him, of course. He was already a legend because of his discoveries in the north. He was included in the list of explorers we learned about in school.
“But, no, I never knew him personally. Just the legend and an occasional glimpse of him entering the pub the year before he left.”
“Cedrick was a master surveyor. Come look at what was in his case. It’s a map. It shows a southern river.”
“He speculated there would be one, didn’t he?”
Julian chuckles. “Yes, He made a big deal about his theory that there was one. Apparently, he found it.
“It runs over 300 kilometers down to Mount Jaramor, as he speculated. But look at the detail in the map. He has the locations of all the peaks and ridgelines. There’s a second tall peak that we can’t see from here. He’s taken the liberty of naming it for himself, Mount Frazer.
“And check this out, the river meanders north from its headwaters near Mount Jaramor all the way to the great sea, detouring around this massive ridgeline that runs east from his self-named mountain.
“And check out the detail. Fields of something he’s marked ‘bitter fruit.’ And this, a cave he’s marked as Scale Cave. The annotation says it’s filled with huge scales and thick bones.”
Edson shudders. “Sounds like the aliens.”
Julian chuckles, “That’s a good one.”
“You know...” Edson starts. “We should name this for him.”
“Name what?”
“The river and valley. Call it the Frazer River and the Frazer River Valley.”
“My grandmother will make us wait until he dies before she’ll even consider it,” Julian cautions. “But I think you’re right. He discovered it. He surveyed it.”
After a moment’s reflection, Edson asks, “Why didn’t we know about this? Surely it can be seen from the space station.
“My grandfather forbade it. There’s a large area that runs from about 200 kilometers north of the great sea to 400 kilometers south of it, down past Mt. Jaramor. And from ten kilometers east of the sea to 500 kilometers west. He built interlocks into the space station’s scanners that prevent that area from being scanned. He even made it a crime to bypass them. This is a restriction that the elders in Jaredstown have strictly enforced.”
“Why?”
“In time, my friend. In time. There are many secrets the elders keep, and good reasons why we do. You will eventually find out. The mystery runs strong in you.”
CHAPTER 1: PROSPERITY
I’m standing atop a short hill with my business partner, Evelyn Fontes. The hill is located at the northwest corner of Eastern Agricultural’s property. From here we have a view of our entire domain, east to the great sea and south to the foothills of Mount Jaramor. Immediately in front of us is our new wheat field, planted several months back. It’s not to the amber-waves-of-grain stage, but it will be in a month or so. It’s the first time Evelyn’s been over to see this particular field.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I ask.
Evelyn nods her head. “Agreed. Millions of stalks swaying in the gentle breeze. You’ve done an incredible job with this Jared. I’m really impressed.”
“Thanks, but most of the credit goes to Declan and Vera.”
“I know. It’s all Declan’s talked about for weeks.” Evelyn sighs. “But you, Jared, are the force behind this.” She spreads her arms indicating the entire field.
...
Five years ago, Evelyn and I launched this joint venture to solve a problem. Our world was under quarantine, and it didn’t produce enough food to feed everyone.
At that time, I was the assistant warden at our planet’s only real prison—a sugar cane plantation operated as a prison camp. Evelyn was, and still is, the president of the largest agricultural concern on our world. Between us, we controlled most of our world’s arable land. The crisis was that we didn’t have enough land to grow enough food.
We live on a desert world, one that was believed to be devoid of life when first colonized. Over the previous hundred years, our founders terraformed enough land to significantly reduce our dependence on imported food. But when the disease and quarantine hit, we were in trouble.
About the same time the quarantine hit, I found another settlement on our world, one our founder had set up in secret. They had enough arable land to feed themselves and knew of arable land to the south. That’s where Evelyn and I set up our joint venture.
...
Evelyn motions at the broad swath of land in front of us.
“I’m still surprised how fertile this land is. Have you been able to determine how deep the soil goes?”
“It varies.” I point to the left, toward the sea. “In the east, closer to the sea, it’s less than a meter.” I turn and point toward the mountains in the distance to our right. “About ten km in, it’s all regolith. No soil at all, just dust and rock.
“But here where the wheat is, there’s at least two meters. In some places a lot more. It’s perfect for growing wheat.”
“But where did it come from? This much soil couldn’t have been carried here by the wind from our properties in just 100 years.”
I smile. “A few of our geologists disagree on that assessment. But I’m with you. There’s too much soil here to have come just from our fields.” I point south toward Mount Frazer. “In the Frazer River Valley, there’s even more. In some places more than 20 meters deep. My hypothesis is that the soil came from there.”
“What?”
“You haven’t read the background data we sent you on the Frazer River Valley?”
“Apparently not.”
“The Jaramor Elders added it to their version of the official planetary survey about 100 years ago.” I explain. “As part of our expansions south, we did our own survey about four years ago.
“We now know that extensive plant life has thrived in this valley for a long time. We don’t know its origin. But some of this plant life does not exist in the Confederation’s database of known plant DNA.
“Three years ago, we commissioned the development of orchards and vineyards in the Frazer River Valley. The leader of our survey team, Aldo Peres, whom I’ve not met in person yet, is now the chief horticulturist for our operations there.”
EASTERN REGION AGRICULTURAL
On returning from the brief trip to the wheat field, we pull into the parking lot at headquarters and see Ayla, the headquarters receptionist, walking toward the building. She sees us and comes over toward the jeep we borrowed.
“Sorry I wasn’t here to greet you when you arrived this morning. Declan had me out running errands. He’s so excited about the peaches.” She stretches out the ‘so’ in emphasis. “Thanks for coming by so he can tell you about it in person.”
Declan Fontes is the General Manager of Eastern Region Agriculture. He’s Evelyn’s second son. He married Ayla the year before I met Evelyn. I didn’t know Declan prior to the establishment of the joint venture. In truth, I was less than impressed the first time we met. But Evelyn insisted he was the right person for the job, so I went with it and am happy I did. He’s done a fabulous job and built our world’s largest, by head count, business in only five years.
The headquarters building is beautiful. It’s a two-story timber frame log building constructed from Jaramor eucalyptus. The interior and exterior are made of squared off logs with natural wood finishes. I love it.
Ayla shows us to the conference room, which has already been prepped with water, Jaramor coffee, and some baked goods. As she’s about to exit, she turns to us. “Declan will be with you in a minute.”
I help myself to a cup of coffee as Evelyn takes a seat.
