Author's Note: I am sorry for the extremely long delay since I last posted. Due to school schedules and health problems, I have had more limited time to work on my stories. My muse has also been temperamental lately.


The 13th of Ihom - Day 2:

Daniel woke early the next morning, but he found that Sujanha had already departed when he went downstairs for food. He was glad that Ruarc was going to fix the clock that afternoon so that he could finally have an idea of the time on Uslisgas and on what schedule the Furlings functioned. He ate the same thing for breakfast that he had the previous morning. From the contents of the fridge, Sujanha did not seem to be one for variety.

Returning to his room, Daniel spent most of the morning catching up, in great detail, on his journals that he had been neglecting since, until yesterday, he had no good writing materials. Once he was about half-way caught up and his hand was starting to cramp from writing so much, he abandoned his journals for a time and wandered back downstairs, deciding to take Sujanha up on her offer to examine her library at his leisure.

Sujanha's library was a medium sized room that took up the whole back section of the house on the lower floor. There were no windows, and the walls were covered with tall bookshelves that Daniel would need a step-ladder to reach the top shelves of. On top of the bookshelves were set different collectables: large and colorful shells, carvings of various animals made from wood, a few small stone statues, and various other knick-knacks. There was a desk near the far end of the room on which what appeared to be a lamp along with several large tomes were sitting. Three large, stuffed chairs were also present.

Not knowing the languages in which the books were written or the manner in which the library was organized, Daniel settled for pulling a book off one of the shelves at random. The book he picked was a large book, several hundred pages long at least, that was finely bound. Taking a seat in one of the comfy chairs, he carefully started to flip through it. The label on the front cover (a title, perhaps) was written in Asgardian runes, and the rest of the book except for select spots (perhaps quotations from other sources) seemed to be written in the same script. From the copious number of diagrams of what looked like battle plans from the layout and a handful of pictures of spaceships (some similar to the Biliskner, others of a different design), Daniel guessed that it might be a book of military tactics or perhaps a book of military history.

Returning that book to its shelf, Daniel picked up another book at random from a separate shelf. This book was also carefully bound and had what appeared to be gilt edges. It was written in the spiky, curved script—a combination of Tolkien's Elvish and Urdu—that the Furlings used. There were no pictures or diagrams to give him a clue as to the book's contents, so he used the chance to study the orthography instead. After slowly studying this book and another book also in Furling that he grabbed off the shelf, Daniel was able to conclude that Furling had no obvious punctuation marks, might be an inflected language, and might be made up of bound groups similar to Coptic.

Hunger eventually drove him from his study and contemplation. After putting the books away, Daniel ambled out to the kitchen and fixed himself a plate of food. He ate quickly but absentmindedly, his mind still on Sujanha's books and the different languages the texts were written in. After cleaning his dishes and putting them away, he returned to the library and to the hundreds of books to be explored! He lost himself in them until the 'auto pilot' that ran the house suddenly spoke.

"Doctor Jackson, Ruarc arrives," the voice surprisingly spoke in English (Sujanha had not mentioned making the adjustments to the program yet) that was slightly stilted and not quite right, but still close.

"Thank you," Daniel replied automatically, putting the book he had been examining away and then making his way out into the hallway.

Ruarc, with a large box tucked under one arm, had just entered.

"Good afternoon, Ruarc," Daniel said in greeting.

"Greetings, Daniel! I have brought extra food. My lady is not known for her varied taste."

"I already ate, but thank you."

"The food will keep. Just let me put it away, and then we can get to work."

"What do I need to bring down?"

"The clock and the other small stone."

By the time Daniel had returned from his room with the two stones that Ruarc wanted, Ruarc was already in the living room. A hologram that looked somewhat like a giant spreadsheet was open in front of him. As soon as Daniel entered, Ruarc swiped a hand across the hologram, shrinking it to a much smaller size, and pushed it out of his way.

"Which do you want first?" Daniel asked.

"The other small stone," Ruarc replied. This stone, the function of which Daniel did not know but which Ruarc had promised to explain, just fit inside Daniel's open hand. It was the color of black onyx and was finely polished till it was almost reflective. Straight down the center of the stone was a long notch less than an eighth of an inch thick and less than half-an-inch deep.

Motioning for Daniel to place the small stone on the table between their chairs, Ruarc said, "I had you get this stone because I noticed you touching a spot over your heart from time to time."

"I keep a photo of my wife in my pocket. It's the only one I have left of her that is with me."

"May I have it for a moment?"

Daniel pulled the photo carefully from his pocket and handed it to Ruarc, who took it with exquisite care. The wolf rested the photo inside the notch in the stone and then tapped twice on the part of the stone in front of the notch. A blue line sprang up suddenly and scanned across the photo. When it was finished, Ruarc carefully returned the picture to Daniel and then double-tapped the stone again. From it, a hologram—a perfect duplicate of Daniel's picture—sprang up.

"We commonly use these stones in our holograms, because they are quite common and very hard to destroy, much harder than a fragile picture."

Daniel had a lump in his throat as he gazed at the projected picture. "Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me."

"You can add more pictures to the projector in the same manner and then sweep through them."

"Swipe through them, not sweep."

"Thank you."

With the high-tech photo album complete for the moment, the two set to work on the clock next. Ruarc took the clock-stone over to a desk on the other side of the room (which Daniel had not noticed before) and set it on top of some sort of panel. A holographic screen immediately appeared in front of where Ruarc had been sitting.

"Many of our stones, whatever their use, are based upon the control stones that the Asgard use in much of their technology. Simpler ones like the photo screen have very simple controls. More complicated ones like the clocks require a more complex control set, because of the variation between written scripts between races and between day lengths between planets."

"How many hours are in a day here?"

"There are approximately 25 of your hours in a day, and there are 400 days in a year."

Ruarc begin to work through a maze of screens, and Daniel asked, "What schedule do you run on?"

"The day begins at the 1st hour and ends on the 25th hour. Right now the sun rises about the 6th hour and sets about the 18th hour. Most Furlings retire to rest about the 24th hour and get up about the 5th or 6th hour. In the military, works begins exactly at the 8th hour and ends at the 20th hour, with time for meals of course. Furlings, as a rule, require much less sleep than most other races, so we do not expect others to conform exactly to our schedules."

Ruarc paused and spun a holographic screen, looking again somewhat like a spreadsheet, so it was facing Daniel, and then zoomed it in so that there only two columns of text visible. The column on the left had a row of Furling characters, probably numerals, since they were dealing with a clock. The right-hand column was blank.

"In the blank column, I need you to enter your numerical symbols from smallest to largest for the full 25 hour period."

"With what?" Daniel asked, unsure of how to work with these holographic screens.

Ruarc picked up what seemed to be a stylus off the small table and handed it to Daniel. The stylus looked much different than the styli Daniel was used to working with in the context of ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform texts. This stylus bore more of a resemblance to an extra thick pencil, though it felt like it was made of metal. It was perfectly cylindrical and was flat on one end and rounded on the other. After a few moments of fumbling, Daniel realized if he held it like a piece of chalk, then he could 'write' or 'draw' on the holograms like on a chalkboard. His handwriting was a little shaky, but the computer running the house or something else seemed to be standardizing his numbers. His straight lines became straighter, and his curves more curvy.

Even after Daniel had entered the numbers in the spreadsheet and turned the screen back to Ruarc, it was about half-an-hour before Ruarc finished his work updating his clock. Ruarc explained, as he worked, "It always takes much more time the first time updating a clock or the language matrix in the auto-pilots for a new language. The lands of our people span almost the entirety of this galaxy. Within our lands are many cultures with their own systems of writings, some of which are extremely different from our own. It is a time-consuming, though not extremely complicated, task to enter their writing systems into the matrices and update the equivalences."

Daniel nodded. He understood the gist of what Ruarc was saying, though some of the more technical elements went over his head. Daniel was more interested in the snippets Ruarc mentioned about the Furling system of government. "So does the king rule all these lands then?"

"Yes and no," Ruarc said. He was either good at multi-tasking or had done this work before, as he seemed to have no trouble talking and paging through screens at a quick pace while he talked. "Our king's exact title does not translate well into English but is close to 'High King' or 'Great King.' Under him are other kings or councils who rule the territories themselves. Furling control over these other territories varies by place from what you would call an 'empire' to a 'confederation.' For the sake of ease, the whole territory under Furling control would be called, in English, an 'empire,' though that is not a perfectly accurate translation. No territory is forced to come under our rule, and no territory is coerced into staying by violence or threat of violence if they wish to leave, although all the territories under our rule have certain obligations towards the High King."

"Like?"

"Military support, trading rights, forwarding of some criminal cases to our law courts, use of a standardized system of coins, and the like. And in return, we have certain important obligations toward our client kingdoms: military support, supplies and aids after disasters or famines, fair treatment at all times, and the like."

"So is the king the law then? Why do you have a High Council?" Daniel was in his element now, parsing through all he was learning about the culture and government of the Furlings. It was nice to be able to sit and learn and ask questions without fear of being prodded into hurrying up.

"To your first question, the answer is both yes and no. The High King's word is law and cannot be overruled, except in extreme circumstances. However, he must act and is bound to act within the confines of the already established laws, both religious and political. It has never been necessary in our history, but the King can be overruled by a united vote of the High Council."

"As to the High Council," Ruarc continued, "it is the main governing body for the empire, as I said before. Its power is greater than the courts', usually, and less than the king's, usually. It exists because the matters of state are too great for one man to handle. Our empire spans almost the entire galaxy and in years past spanned almost two galaxies. There are now ten other major races in Asteria, and numerous other less advanced peoples. The King is only one man. He must have aid to do justice to his people."

"Makes sense," replied Daniel, making some mental comparisons between the Furling system of government and monarchies on earth.

After a few more minutes, Ruarc paged out of the complicated screens and retrieved the clock stone from where it was sitting on the desk. He brought it back to where they were sitting and placed it on the table. He tapped it twice with one claw, and immediately a holographic projection appeared. Their labors had been successful, for in front of them appeared in Arabic numerals the current time: 16:37. It was later than Daniel had realized, glancing down at his watch and seeing how far off it actually was.

"Thank you," said Daniel, "It has been difficult without a working clock. This will be very helpful."

"I'm very glad to be of assistance," Ruarc replied with a nod of his great head. "My lady said that the language matrix for the house needed some more upgrades since its updates are rather wooden right now. Are you weary of this type of work, or do you feel like helping me a while longer?"

"I'd be glad to help, if you'll try to explain what these language matrices are and what you are doing."

"With pleasure, though you will need to explain aspects of your language for me to make the adjustments.

Thus the two started back to work, English lessons and all, and the remaining hours of the afternoon slipped away.