Chapter Thirty-Seven
It is said that God made the Tulyan Starcloud in the image of heaven.
—From The Book of Tulyan Lore
On an orbital pod station, Eshaz stood at the end of a line of passengers, waiting to board a mottled gray-and-black spacecraft. He was returning to the starcloud for a regularly scheduled session of the Council of Elders, to report to them on his travels and activities … a requirement for all of his people who spent time away from home. The passengers included scores of other Tulyans—web caretakers like himself—along with a colorful assortment of galactic races.
Eshaz touched the side of the large, bulging vessel, felt the slight warmth and barely discernible pulse of living tissue. “Hello, old friend,” he whispered, thinking back to a halcyon time long ago when Tulyans held dominion over this podship and its brethren.
Now, in direct contact with the creature, Eshaz felt his own thoughts trying to penetrate and read the ancient mind of the podship, in a way that Tulyans could do with members of their own race, and with other galactic races. But this podship was not amenable to having its thoughts read. It was under the control of another entity, another galactic race.
The throb on the thick skin quickened just a little, and then slowed as the podship’s tiny but powerful Parvii pilot detected the alien intrusion and warded it off.
Feeling a deep sadness for millions of years past and what could never be recaptured, Eshaz withdrew his hand and moved closer to the stout Huluvian man ahead of him in line. Others joined the queue behind Eshaz. His joints and muscles were aching again, the condition that seemed to run parallel with the decline of Timeweb.
The old Tulyan set his personal discomfort aside. His thoughts drifted off.
Contrary to popular belief, the Mutatis were not the most important shapeshifters in the galaxy. Certainly, they were the most numerous and caused the most trouble, especially for the Humans who were their mortal enemies. But they had a rival in the magical art of appearance modification, a race that was the glue of the galaxy, the podships that provided faster-than-light space travel to everyone at no charge.
Widely considered the greatest mystery in the cosmos, the pods were of uncertain origin and purpose. Even Tulyans, who knew the migration patterns of the whale-like creatures and had the ability to pilot them in ancient times, never discovered the spacefarers’ deepest, most profound secrets. Eshaz’s people were well aware of their shape-shifting abilities, however, the way the living, sentient Aopoddae were all of a similar blimp shape, but morphed the cellular structures of their interior spaces to provide compartments for passengers, complete with portholes, and even destination boards on the outsides of the hulls. The Tulyans knew, as well, how to reach the sectoid chamber at the core of each podship, where Eshaz’s kinsmen used to navigate the spacecraft, but which was now blocked to them by the superior powers of the Parviis.
A hatch opened in the hull of the podship, like a mouth on the side. The line began to move forward, and moments later Eshaz stepped aboard and took a seat on one of the utilitarian dark-gray benches. Looking around, he noted the features of the passenger compartment, the similarities and subtle differences in comparison with other pods … the patterns of gray-and-black streaks and pale yellow veins.
Passengers did not need any form of breathing apparatus, since the interior of the podship had an oxygen and nutrient-rich life support system generated by the mysterious biological workings of the creature—enabling different types of life forms to survive in their confines.
Most of the benches accommodated three passengers, but Eshaz was so large that there was only enough space for one tall, slender Vandurian to sit beside him. The two of them exchanged stiff glances, without words. Strangers usually didn’t talk at all during these voyages, and not just because of the shortness of the trips—only a few minutes to traverse vast distances of space. Instead, they were silent to a great extent because of the sense of awe and infinite, cosmic serenity that the podships inspired in their passengers. Some races revered the podships as godlike creatures, or as messengers of the Supreme Being, or even as incarnations of the Supreme Being.
From his seat Eshaz noticed a slight pulsing of the interior wall beside him, and he touched it gently with a bronze, scaly hand, feeling the warm skin of the sentient creature. Again, the vibration quickened when he touched it, but only for a moment. Eshaz liked to think that the podship was trying to reach out to him, longing for the ancient times as much as he was himself.
“So long, old friend,” the Tulyan said, withdrawing his hand.
Beside him, the Vandurian scowled and blinked his oversized eyes, but said nothing.
According to Tulyan legend, one day the podships would transport their passengers to an ethereal realm, a place so enchanted that it was beyond words. Eshaz had always tried to visualize what that magical province might look like, and how it would engage his seven senses, but always he returned to the same conundrum. How could that ultimate realm be any more impressive that his own solar system, the Tulyan Starcloud? The possibility seemed unimaginable.
He felt the sentient spacecraft engage with one podway and then another in rapid succession, making course changes in seconds and fractions of seconds. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Eshaz had traversed a million star systems, and he stepped off onto the pod station orbiting Tulé, the largest planet in his beloved Tulyan Starcloud.
Far below the pod station he saw the immense Council Chamber, an inverted dome that floated above the planet in a hazy, milky sky, illuminated by a pair of weak suns. From the soft golden glow of the chamber, he knew that the Elders were inside, awaiting him. But the news he brought for them was not good this time.
Timeweb—the connective tissue of the entire galaxy—was showing further, ominous signs of disintegration.