For One Nen Page 13

  “But that never happened,” Mathis said.

  “No, it didn’t. They also had a daughter. The Emissaries wouldn’t even allow her to go to the regular school when she turned twelve because they had tried so hard to have their son become part of the regular population of the Egress. Not long after their son turned sixteen they woke a young Hoth about the same age and gave the stasis section to their daughter. They wanted their son to mate and carry on the line of caretakers. They knew there would need to be a long line of caretakers before the Egress would land and they could wake the sleepers. And they always wanted their care takers to be Hoth. So their son and his wife had a baby,” the Maven said.

  “My great-great-great grandfather,” Mathis said with a wide grin, much too large for his tiny face.

  “Yes,” the Maven slightly laughed. “I think you’ve heard this story before.”

  “I used to be scared at bedtime so mother would tell stories. She had the most wonderful way to tell stories. And it didn’t matter if the stories were of the wars before boarding the Egress, or the stories of when my parents met and fell in love; her voice always had a way of making my fear just…go…away.”

  “She was a lovely woman,” the Maven said as she gazed into the deepest part of the Hoth sector.

  “Most lovely person I’ve ever known,” Mathis said gazing downward. He snapped his head toward the Maven and added, “You’re lovely to Maven. Very!” He looked back at what was once his home and said, “But mother…” His emotions over took him and tears began to stream down his face.

  The Maven drew him near and they sat together for a long while.

  “Did your parents ever tell you of how they met?” asked Maven Sharla.

  Mathis wiped his eyes and said, “Just that Mother was in stasis and Father saw that she was very beautiful.”

  “Yes, your grandfather had another girl all picked out for your father. But your father was so smitten with the sight of your mother, Marla, that in the middle of the night he woke her.”

  Mathis gasped. “Father woke her on his own?”

  “Sure did,” she said.

  “I bet grandmother was sparsed,” Mathis said with a laugh.

  “Let’s not use that word,” Maven Sharla said. “Not many even know where it came from. It’s really an evil word. And your grandmother was never evil.”

  “But was she angry, I mean at father?” Mathis asked.

  “Oh! She was angry indeed, but not at your father; rather at your grandfather.”

  “Grandfather? I don’t think I ever remember her being angry with Grandfather Shep or anyone being angry with him.” Mathis’ eyebrows closed into small creases on his forehead.

  “Well, it turns out that your grandmother reminded him that he’d done the very same thing. Shep had turned sixteen and wanted to wake your grandmother but his parents had another picked out. Oh! Shep begged and moped. He used to sit with me and ask how to convince his parents to wake this beautiful Hoth named Penny. I try to stay out of such matters but when you live as long as I do you know things. I just told him to talk to his parents. They were reasonable people. Their only concern was that Penny was not full Hoth. She didn’t even have chin tentacles. Their concern was that she might not want to be a care taker. She might want to be with more of the Denizen; like her father was. But in the end Shep got his way and she was a wonderful mate for him. Wonderful people,” she added.

  “I wish I would have known my grandmother more,” Mathis said.

  “I wish…Oh! I wish a thousand wishes,” the Maven fell silent.

  Mathis’ sadness always felt held at bay when the Maven was with him. He sat a moment in this comfort.

  “Some of the early care takers had a recording device that some Denizen had given to them. It was something some of the Denizen had brought from Earth. They used to record all sorts of things. Once they even recorded me talking to them. I was little. It was great fun. Then they would play it back on this screen thing they had. I played with all the tribes. I even played with the care takers but when I was a child the first caretakers had a son and we liked to play. One of my wishes is that we still had some of those recordings. I would love to see Arvin’s little face once more. I watched him grow into adulthood and marry, and have children, and grow old, and breathe his last. Yet when I think of him I see the face of a little child – the child I used to play with.”

  By habit Mathis pulled on the tentacles of his chin as they sat in silence.

  “I don’t think those recordings were ever uploaded on the central computers. I’ve checked. They didn’t allow things like that from the Hoth, and they didn’t like the Denizen recording the Hoth either,” she said.

  Mathis pulled off his small back pack and opened it. Out he pulled a small metal box that had wires on two sides. He handed it to the Maven.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “It’s the main hard drive of the Hoth central computers. Maybe the videos you speak of are on here,” Mathis said.

  “Oh, could it be possible?” she gasped. “But our computers now have been upgraded so much I don’t think this would interface with anything we have now.”

  Mathis pointed down below.

  “Ah! I see,” the Maven said with a growing smile. “Do you have any more of these?”

  “This was the only one Henry gave me,” Mathis said. He then pulled out a picture from his back pack, of his family, “and this.”

  She smiled and held the picture. She patted Mathis’ back and said, “I’m glad you are alive, little one. You hold an entire race of people within you.”

  She gave back the picture and said. “I’ll see what we can do about getting that device down there so we can see what’s on your hard drive. I think I’ll speak to Henry.”

  She stood to her feet, “Are you coming along?”

  Mathis pressed both of his small hands on the glass a moment before he rose and joined Maven Sharla on her quest to find Henry.

  The elevator opened on the quarter sectors floor where Teltel stepped on and crossed his arms in silence.

  “Are you going to the dining hall?” Maven Sharla asked.

  “Yes, Maven,” was the extent of his response.

  However, after catching sight of the hard drive in Mathis’ hands Teltel pointed and raised his voice, “Hey, that’s mine.”

  Mathis held the small metal box tightly in his fists with the tiny wires sticking out between his fingers.

  “It can’t be yours,” the Maven exclaimed. “It came from the Hoth sector.”

  “No,” Teltel said angrily. “They came from the crate.”

  “They?” the Maven questioned.

  “Yes, they came from a crate with books and scrolls,” Teltel said. “He must’ve stolen it.”

  Maven Sharla stepped between the boys with Mathis at her back. The elevator gave a ding to say it had come to the appropriate floor but Maven Sharla reached out her long arm and held her finger on a button so as not to let the door open.

  “Teltel if you know where there are others I’d like you to tell me. This one came from the Hoth sector. Henry retrieved it for Mathis.”

  “Well,” Teltel began. “Some of us have been reading stories of history. We meet in the garden and hear stories that were found in a big crate. Tala found the crate in a storage room in the library. We don’t think anyone has read these stories since they brought the crate on the Egress. I found those little metal boxes in that crate.”

  The Maven began to laugh.

  “It’s not funny, Maven. We’ve gotten in trouble for reading. But we all want to know. And Deni stands up for us.”

  “Who was so upset with you reading these stories?” asked Maven Sharla.

  “Tanik,” Teltel answered.

  “Our teacher?” asked Mathis.

  The Maven laughed again. “I’m not surprised. That one is so concerned with keeping her own set of rules and beliefs that she’d stop at nothing to see that others become as zealous as she
is. Well if she gives you a hard time, you let me know.”

  The boys both smiled.

  “Now let’s see about finding a device that can run these hard drives.”

  “Oh! Is that what they are?” Teltel said with excitement. “But the ones in the crate are mine!” he added defensively.

  “I guess finders are keepers,” the Maven said in a riddle. “But the keepers should share also.”

  “What do you mean, Maven?” Mathis asked.

  “She wants me to give you what I find,” Teltel said in anger.

  “No, that’s not it at all. You should keep what you find. You were brave enough to search for it. And it found you as much as you found it. You should keep its truth with you always. It should become a part of you. But with the honor that bestows comes the responsibility to share it with those that want to hear your heart. The keepers do not keep rules or doctrine, they’re not hoarders of things or knowledge, and they don’t keep out any honest curious soul. They are sharers – of the bounty they have – sometimes the bounty comes by working hard, sometimes by fortunate circumstance and sometimes as a gift from other sharers, and sometimes you find a small metal box in a large white crate stuffed in a storage room and forgotten.”

  “Maven?” Teltel asked with quick concern. “I never said the crate was white, only that it was big.”

  “I loved books when I was a child. I watched as the Goweli brought several tall white crates into the library. I knew it would be my favorite place. I’ve spent many happy hours there. But I never realized there was a crate that no one bothered to unpack. What a tragedy.”

  Teltel had no words. He simply smiled.

  “Wow,” Mathis said in his small voice. “You watched them load the crates. That must’ve been something wonderful to see.”

  “I’ll talk to Henry and see what we can do about using these old hard drives,” the Maven said.

  “But don’t tell anyone else,” Teltel said.

  Maven Sharla pulled back her finger from the elevator button that was holding the door closed.

  Another ding signaled the opening of the elevator door. Mathis walked out with a smile.

  Teltel was about to exit when Maven Sharla held her hand over his chest to gently stop him.

  “He’s lost most everything dear to him. Don’t let him lose you too.” She said softly.

  “I’m not dear to him,” Teltel argued.

  “Those boxes could hold the only connection to his past; to his people. You may be the dearest heart he has left.”

  Teltel pushed her hand aside and stepped off of the elevator. He proceeded in the opposite direction than Mathis had gone.

  The Maven leaned back into the elevator and pushed the down button. In seconds she was in the control station. She stepped out as an engineer crashed into her.

  “Oh Sorry, Maven. I didn’t see you there.

  “Quite alright. Carry on,” she said and then she added. “Have you seen, Henry?”

  “Engine room,” the man called out.

  Back on the elevator the Maven continued down.

  Even before the door opened she could hear screaming.

  “No! If you look right here it shows a different coupling. We don’t have that,” the man screamed.

  “Then we need to make it,” Henry screamed back.

  “Make it! Are you out of your mind!” the man continued to scream.

  All at once Henry’s back straightened and he said, “Good day, Maven.”

  “Is it?” she answered him with a question.

  Henry rubbed the sweat from his head roughly with his fist and said, “It’s just…we can’t fix the problem. We know the problem,” he began but was cut off.

  “We only think we know the problem. That sparsing gamma wave did things to this ship that we can’t begin to understand, let alone fix,” Turk said.

  “I think I know the problem, it’s just that we don’t have the part to fix it. We’re going to have to find something that will work in its place,” Henry said. “It will take too long to make another.”

  “So…no chance I could get you to make a spacewalk any time soon?” asked the Maven.

  “Well flag me down. We’re all staffed and you’re asking the best engineer we’ve got to take a sparsing free float. Holy Shit! Maven. Don’t you understand this whole sparsed ship is counting on us?” the angry man shouted. He glared at the Maven a moment then stomped off to look at schematics lying on a table on the other side of the small room.

  “I know it’s a lot to ask,” the Maven said to Henry.

  Henry couldn’t face the Maven. He strained to speak in his usual respectful manner.

  “I will focus on bringing the shields online until my last breath. Even that might not be enough.” With those last words he joined the other engineer across the room.

  Maven Sharla turned around and with every step she took back to the elevator she tried her best to keep hope alive in her heart.

  She found Mathis in the dining hall finishing his tray of food.

  “I’m sorry,” she said with a heavy heart. Henry can’t get the device to use those hard drives. I wish there was something else I could do to help.”

  “It’s okay, Maven. Thank you for trying.”

  The Maven sat across the table from him as if she were spent.

  “We’ll just have to make something,” Mathis said.

  The Maven smiled. “That’s just what Henry said about his problem.”

  “I wonder if we found the manual about our old computers if that might help us?” Mathis said.

  Maven Sharla watched him tug at his chin tentacles as he thought through the problem.

  “That would be a good start,” the Maven said.

  “Now we just have to find the manuals.” Mathis said.

  “Maven,” a whispering voice called out.

  The Maven looked around to see Teltel quickly approaching with Benai following close behind.

  “Hello boys,” Maven Sharla said.

  Teltel slid into a seat next to the Maven.

  “Hey there,” Benai said to Mathis as he sat down next to him and leaned forward for a whispered conversation with the Maven.

  “You should have seen it, Maven,” Teltel said with a smile.

  Tanik went totally sparse.

  “That’s not a nice word, Teltel,” Maven Sharla said.

  “Let me tell you what happened and then you can find a word for her,” Teltel laughed.

  Mathis scrunched his lips together into a smile that held in his laughter.

  “Out with it, boys. What happened?” the Maven said.

  “We were coming from our quarters when Tanik showed up outside our door. She demanded the ‘book of lies’ that we had been reading from. And she said it just like that too.” Teltel stuck up his nose and repeated with a high voice. “Book of lies,” but his changing voice broke and Benai began to laugh at him. He slapped Benai’s arm with the back of his hand.

  “Anyway,” Teltel began again. “She demanded a book. I told her I didn’t know what she was talking about. But she started screaming. I’m surprised you couldn’t hear her all over this ship. I don’t know, Maven. Sparse seems the right word.”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is simply, crazy,” the Maven said.

  “That’s what I meant,” Teltel said.

  “Continue,” the Maven said.

  “So she got all…crazy…and I didn’t know what to do. So I pulled out a book and handed it to her. She didn’t even look at it because she was so mad. Then she just marched off as if she’d won some big showdown.”

  “I’m sorry you lost your book,” the Maven said.

  Teltel began to laugh again.

  “It was just some book of poetry,” Benai revealed. “It wasn’t any of the books Tala’s been reading to us.”

  Teltel’s eyebrows slammed together as he frowned at Benai then nodded toward Mathis.

  Mathis ducked his head and held his cup tighter.
<
br />   “I couldn’t get Henry to go into the Hoth sector to get the computer to play the hard drives you have. Mathis thinks that finding the manual for the computer would help. Have you seen anything like that?” asked the Maven.

  “There are still some books and things at the bottom of the crate. Some look like manuals. We should check there.”

  The boys jumped up and hurried off when Teltel called back to Mathis, “Well, hurry up.”

  Mathis looked a moment at his tray and cup.

  “I’ll see to these,” the Maven said with a smile. “Better hurry along.”

  Maven Sharla watched Mathis catch up to the bigger boys when she caught someone’s eye at the next table.

  Merari dropped her head as if she’d been caught, which she had. She had been eaves dropping.

  The Maven watched her for a moment, but Merari never lifted her eyes again. Even when Merari left, she never looked at the Maven.

  Maven Sharla did see something of interest, though. When Merari left the dining hall Tanik met up with her. They talked a moment and Tanik stormed off toward the elevator.

  The Maven waited a moment then she followed them. Teacher and student hurried round the hall as it curved toward the gardens. But Tanik didn’t stop at the gardens. She continued on around the long circular hallway to the next door. She turned the knob and with a hand on Merari’s back pushed her into the emissaries’ offices and lounge.

  The Maven wasn’t used to spying. She knew though, that if the Emissaries ever got word about Teltel they would have no hope of making the hard drives work.

  She hurried back to the gardens where she found Deni.

  “Oh! Hello there, Maven,” Deni said as she slid her knife back into her boot. On the table in front of her was a sliced tomato.

  Maven Sharla turned her head slowly as she looked at the tables of vegetables and vines of berries and rows of flowers. It always delighted Maven Sharla to see the vastness of the room with so much growth.

  “It has been too long since I was in here.” She strolled over to a table. Deni remained quiet as the Maven ran her fingers lightly through the dirt.