Fool's Errand, Part Two (The Nine Galaxies)

Note: The text seems to be stuck this way. Oh well.

               "I know why we're here," someone whispered.

               Sanar went alert and opened the scent receptors along the sides of his body. He tried to twist his head around, but once again ended up propelling himself across the room. Letting out his species' equivalent of a sigh, he tried to identify the visitor's smell.

               "Yes. Zarannan. What are you doing here?"

               Zarannan was a male with a slightly lighter exoskeleton than Sanar, patterned with breadthwise darker stripes. He had been a friend of Sanar's back when they were both larvae, but they had long since gone their separate ways- Sanar into trading, and Zarannan into real estate. Being one of the most wealthy and influential members of the colony, he was invited, as was customary.

               “I know why we are here,” Zarannan whispered again.

               The ship's owner tried to smell what the other was feeling. Excitement, perhaps, but maybe a whiff of apprehension? The air was hard to read. He answered carefully.

               “Everyone here does. We are on a tour.”

               “No, no, that is not it. I know the truth!”, declared the visitor.

Sanar was really beginning to get confused.

               “What is this fictional truth you claim to know?”

               “Remember the Tales From The Singularity¹?”, asked Zarannan.

               The fresh scent of surprise flooded the room. Somehow or other, Zarannan had found out Sanar's plans, or at least guessed at them. How, he couldn't imagine. He hadn't told anybody, and he prided himself on how well he had concealed his motives from scent.

               “How did you find out?”

               The visitor began to explain. “I was visiting the library- ”

               “The library! What were you doing THERE?”, interjected Sanar.

               Reading was not a very popular activity in Zocronnan culture (except for larvae, which were required to read as part of their education), and the only reason Sanar had had books brought onto the ship was because of a request from one of the passengers prior to leaving Zocron. There was one book he would've brought along anyway, though, a favorite of his when he was a larva, and a major source of inspiration. He began to form an inkling of where Zarannan had gotten his information.

               “I was visiting the library,” the visitor was saying, “and I spotted the book! The book that fascinated me when I was a larva. Tales From The Singularity. Silly book, but I always wondered if it had any fact at its core. You must have wondered the same, I can think of no other reason you would bring us here. Now I know- you have found evidence, and are here to take the power of the Singularity for our Colony!”

               Excitement was growing unbearably strong in the air, and Sanar half-shut his scent receptors.

               “Exactly,” he lied. He had guessed that there was some truth to it, after a few visits to neighboring planets revealed that the myth of the black hole was not confined to his own species. He hadn't, however, found any evidence even beginning to suggest it was based on a historical account. The visitor showed no signs of smelling his deception.

               “Good, good. What will we do to get this ship plunged into the black hole?”

               “Errr...”, said Sanar, “I do not know. I planned for us to get dragged in by a cloud of gas. Or to order the Zephyrian to fly us there,” he admitted.

               “I see. You did not read the Spaceflight Code when organizing the trip, did you? Of course not.”

               Sanar smelled uncomfortable. “It was faster just to click 'Agree'.”

               Back in the common room, the passengers had begun to lose interest in the black hole. It had ceased to be a novel sight, and there was no appreciable change in it to catch their interest again. Now they were occupying their time talking about Sanar and his apparent goal to get them all killed.

               “Very disturbing!”, a male named Acnar was deliberating, “very disturbing that he, an honored member of our colony is seemingly insane! Has half a thought to murder us, too!”

               “Yes. And I thought he was promising. For your generation,” grumpily said one of the three Colony elders who had been invited.

               “I don't think he's insane. Well, maybe insane, but not murderous. I think he's after something,” said Osara, Sanar's niece.

               The elder and Acnar looked at her and let let out a quizzical scent.

               “I remember him telling me once about a book he used to love when he was a larva. Something about this black hole containing a magical realm, controlled by beings who could alter reality. He must be after that power. I don't know what made him think it actually exists, but it is the best explanation I can think of.”

               “You think he's doing this all because of an old larva's tale?”, said the elder, accompanied by a doubtful scent, who didn't think much more of Osara's generation than Sanar's.

               “It does make more sense than anything else I've heard. He is insane, after all,” said Acnar.

               “Eh, I suppose you're-”

               Sanar and Zarannan glided into the room, and silence fell over the other passengers, along with a general scent of mingled embarrassment and distrust. Sanar was rather surprised, but the passengers had already been losing interest in the black hole by the time Zarannan left, and he had a plan.

It was an uncomfortably long time before the silence was broken. One of the other two elders moved forward.

               “We have been discussing your actions, Sanar,” she said, “and are in agreement that you attempted to have this ship fall into the black hole. Can you explain your actions?”

               The elder Osara and Acnar had been talking with came forward as well. “Anything short of pleading insanity, and I'd be surprised!,” he hissed.

               It seemed that there was about to be another uncomfortable silence, but then Zarannan suddenly spoke.

               “This has all been a misunderstanding! Sanar isn't trying to get us killed. The Zephyrian lied! There was no gas cloud!”, yelled Zarannan. He produced a smell of conviction.

               The room erupted into chaos as arguments began and angry scents filled the air. Most of the passengers had believed Zarannan, mostly because of the scent. Anti-Zephyrian sentiment was strikingly high among Sanar's generation, and with the apparent goodwill of the pilot explained away, it ran raw. Despite clear visual evidence that there was a gas cloud, and attempts at logical explanation by all three elders, the general opinion turned from the ship's owner being insane to the ship's pilot being a liar bent on ruining a perfectly good vacation.

               As the accusations against the Zephyrian became more outrageous and baseless, the elders, Sanar's niece, Acnar, and two others formed their own group in the corner opposite the others, absolutely mortified by this revelation about their society.

               “Told you. That generation is defective,” grumbled the male elder. For once, the other two didn't argue.

. . .

1Tales from the singularity, by Sakaran III of Akt Colony. Three Burrows Publishing, Z.Y. 779,063. Still reprinted millenia later during Sanar's lifetime because of its wide appeal as a larvae's fantasy tale.