The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway
the place where we live
The mood in the daer was light as the people prepared for the Feast that night. Myriam had already sent some of the men out to hunt, and had sent Nydea, on of their Warriors, out with them. At the behest of the daer's head, the crew of Voyager had come to see the daer for themselves. Janeway and Chakotay were given the grand tour by the ever-eager child, Josh. He explained their situation to them.
"It's a long story, you see. Mage live a very, very long time. Myriam is… I don't know, hundreds of years old. Maybe even thousands. I can't remember. I know she's got over a hundred children, and Bryanna's her youngest. So anyway, since the beginning of the Eminence we've always been ruled by Empresses. It's kind of a reversal of your early society, isn't it? Well there were lots of these Empresses, twenty or so I think. Each of them ruled for thousands of years, and the Eminence prospered under them. They made them happy, and the men were contented even in their position of non-privilege. The Empress has this Ring that she wears, it supposedly gives her the power to rule and everyone has to obey whoever wears it. Kes says that the Ring actually chooses who is to be the next Empress, but that's not true, of course, since the current Empress picks her successor.
"Well the third last Empress apparently made a mistake in who she chose as her successor. She picked one of her courtiers, this centauriform woman who was… well, evil, to say in the least." The boy frowned and paused in his speech. "I think she deceived the last Empress- N'hal Maldor her name- into picking her as the new Empress instead of who she'd originally had in mind. So the new Empress gained power, and she put into effect a whole series of events which led to the degradation of Preeminence society. She ruled the people with fear, and she used the Eminent Army to wipe out the Houses which opposed her. She ruled for two thousand years before she died of some horrible disease or the other, and her adopted daughter took her place, the current Empress, Nayrn Maldor. And there are only two Houses left, House Maldor and House Ashkar." His chest puffed up in pride. "I ran away to join the right one."
Janeway took this all in with a detached manner, but inwardly she was staggered. Races who lived thousands of years! Her life would be but a mere flicker to them. At the rate she was going in the Delta Quadrant, expecting to live over a hundred years was a hope too optimistic for her to consider. Yet this child here was cheerfully mapping out the changes House Ashkar would bring over the centuries if they won the civil war. How were they supposed to be able to help them? "And this civil war has been going on for…"
"… thousands of years. Ever since House Maldor came into power. Why do you think there's only one House left? And it isn't even an official, recognized House. It's just a name us rebels thought of for ourselves. Myriam says we're finally going to win the war though, because this Empress is much weaker than her predecessor. Myriam's just gotten into power herself, you know, just slightly before I was born. But she's a very good leader." He smiled. "When we win, she promised she'd make me Warlord, and I'd take command of an elite fleet of ships to stop House Maldor from ever winning again."
"You sound very confident of winning," Janeway told him dryly.
The child looked down for a moment, scuffing his boot of his toe in the sandy soil of the daer. "Well, I didn't use to." The he looked up brightly. "But now I do! Because you came, see… Myriam said you would come, and you did… so she must be right when she said the war would end."
Janeway said nothing at that, instead glancing out across the daer as if in thought. Voyager crewmembers mingled amongst the Mage in the village, accompanied by the Mage or men not involved in helping out with the preparations for the feast. Tuvok and Seven, armed with tricorder, were attempting to locate small changes in the structure of the space-time fabric every time someone Cast a spell. Paris and Torres were enjoying their tour together, while Kim seemed to be enraptured by a young Mage with golden-orange hair. A small worry tugged at her heart. These people expected them to be some sort of messiah, and she wasn't really sure if they could live up to that expectation. After all, what could one small ship do against the mighty forces of an empire spanning sixty-three worlds?
As if he could read her thoughts, Chakotay slipped one hand under her arm and gripped it firmly, as if to reassure her that she wasn't alone in the fight.
Janeway took a deep breath and tried to banish all thoughts of their impending struggle away from her mind. "Could we see some of the living areas of the daer? The common rooms, anything?"
"Sure," said Josh breezily. "Only the men and the older children have common rooms; Mage live separately in those houses up on the trees. Follow me." And he set out on a loping gait across the central clearing of the daer.
The common rooms were large stone structures, ovoid in shape and nearly one-and-a-half times the height of the great war room. Josh paused before them and pointed to the one on the left, made of polished yellow agate and a granite composite. "The men stay there," he said. He then pointed to the one on the left, built of gray slabs of basalt. "That's the children's room. I stay there as well. Women aren't allowed in the men's room, but they can go into the children's room." He glanced at Janeway apologetically. "Daer rules."
"It's alright," Janeway assured the boy. "You can take Chakotay; I'll go into the children's room by myself."
Josh nodded, and guided Chakotay towards the men's common room. "This way."
Janeway stepped up to the entrance of the children's room. The bronze double doors towered over her, intricately carved with murals of old Mage legends. She hesitated a little before placing her hand flat on the burnished recognition panel set in the stone wall beside the doors.
The doors swung open silently, streaming sunlight into the interior of the children's room. Janeway stepped through the shaft of light illuminating the dancing motes of dust, and it was like stepping into another world entirely. The doors silently swung shut behind her.
There were children all over this huge room, grouped loosely into girls and boys, each group being more or less subdivided by age. Glowglobes and torches set in the walls of the room filled it with a warm yellow glow, and in the back was a brazier contained within a selectively permeable forcefield barrier. Fragrant herbs and spices burned in it, and the forcefield barrier regulated the scent that was released into the room. The lively murmuring of the children echoed off the curved walls, filling the whole room with a gentle resonance. Janeway felt the beginning of a smile.
All the children looked up as she came in. "It's the Emissary!" chirruped one of the younger girls joyfully. The girls were all seated together in their small groups, listening to the oldest group of girls who were apparently teaching Casting techniques. The oldest girl, an elven girl about sixteen years old with bluish blond hair, motioned her over.
A small girl, no more than six or seven, came over and slipped her hand into Janeway's, tugging her towards the group. "Come and join us," she said. "I'm Bryanna." Janeway could see her marked resemblance to Myriam: the lifted cheekbones, wide expressive green eyes, and reddish blond hair. She acquiesced, letting the child pull her towards the assembled group of forty-odd girls. In the background, she could hear one of the boys chanting his lesson in a bid to memorize it: "Wave, particle, Other. Three sides of a triangle, three natures of reality. Wave, particle, Other…"
Janeway settled on the floor in the middle of the gaggle of girls, and they clustered eagerly around her. "Welcome to our room, Emissary," said the elfin girl. "I'm Celeste."
"Call me Kathryn," said Janeway.
"Alright then, Kathryn," replied Celeste, smiling.
Janeway glanced over at the boys in the other side of the room, who had since lost interest in her and were back to browsing at their school texts or staging mock fights with plastic rods as weapons. "Why don't you sit with the boys? Or is there another rule which prohibits you from making any contact with them?"
One of the younger girls scrunched up her face in disgust. "Boys…. Ewwww. They're disgusting."
The girl seated beside her nodded in agreement. "They stink."
"They're just different from us," protested another girl, slightly older, a slender nymph with dark hair and dark eyes. "They don't like to talk to us."
Celeste nodded wistfully. "We don't talk much with boys. They're… strange to us. Our mothers never teach us much about them, either."
"I see."
Bryanna nudged Janeway with her mind. Want to join our link?
Janeway nodded, then opened her mind cautiously out to the rest of the girls. Immediately she caught on to the current of breathless, youthful exchanges, teasing and cajoling in the spirit of female camaraderie. We mostly talk here so the boys can't hear us, Bryanna told her.
Do you like it here? It's the place where we live. A young Mage, no more than five.
Janeway immersed herself in the threads of conversation, learning the names of all these young Mage. Whilst the younger children were rambunctious, the older ones were more quiet and reserved, trained by years of learning to Cast. Some of the stronger ones were already preparing themselves for a long life as an elite Mage, ruling and protecting the others, like Celeste. Yet there was a certain shyness and hesitance to them as they prodded at Janeway. What do you know about boys?
Boys?
Yes. When I asked my mother about them she said I would understand them when I grew up, and you're a grownup, aren't you? Could you teach us about boys? Some of us girls can't even talk to them without feeling uncomfortable, confessed the nymph, Nadine.
Well, I suppose I could…
There was a brief silence, then Celeste asked shyly, Do you have any… experience with men?
Janeway smiled at the bashful tone in the girl's voice. Not much, I'm afraid.
Well, do tell us. It was Nadine.
Celeste twisted her fingers together. I'll be old enough to join the Warriors when my birthday comes in a few months time, which means I'll have to go through my Union. But my mother won't tell me anything about what to do!
Janeway picked up the subtle overtones in the girl's voice, and smiled inwardly. A few years ago, she might have considered telepathically giving sex education to a group of young witches strange, but she decided that she'd more or less grown inured to such unusual situations. I'll try to teach you as much as I can… but on one condition.
What? Bryanna asked eagerly.
Teach me how to Cast.
Okay. A chorus of agreement.
Somebody prodded her. Want to learn all the naughty spells? I can teach you, said a young voice.
Janeway laughed softly at that. It was like joining a coven.