Prologue
Colemeno
Second Wave
It was beautiful, in the way that orderly things are beautiful. More, it would save lives.
They had lost so many lives.
It had taken them too long to understand that the atmosphere of this planet, their new home, was active. It had taken even longer to realize that it acted upon everyone differently: Some were untroubled—those were the core of their colony, strong and steady. Others were illuminated, uplifted, perhaps confused, but amenable to direction.
Still others were ignited—they burned hot, fast—and died.
It was for those, their most vulnerable, that they had undertaken this work, directed by their strong, unwavering core, built by those emboldened and strengthened by the brilliant new conditions under which they labored, calibrated by those whose lives depended upon success.
The project had required them not only to work as a team, but to learn as a team, feeling out the strange energies, understanding both the properties and the limits of possibility. Linked heart-to-heart, they undertook to create a shield under which the vulnerable might take shelter.
The forces with which they interfaced specifically rejected that intention. It was then that they understood that the scintillating ambient was a partner in their labor, and negotiation as important as either tenacity or skill.
So it was not a shield that they finally wove, but a latticework, that did not impede the energizing ambient, but slowed the rate of its benediction, from a downpour to a gentle drizzle.
There had been some doubt among them, that this open-work would suffice, yet they withdrew, knowing it the best—and the most—they could do, and the gods alone knew what they might try next, if it proved insufficient.
Improbably, it was enough. Those who had been stricken, their Gifts burning them to ash, recovered. Better, they thrived. Some of the stronger were able to join the subsequent work teams, that expanded the reach of the life-saving weaving.
At last the work was declared done; the Grid complete.
Those who required intervention began to build. Those who found that the Grid annoyed went out from under it, to make their own peace with ambient conditions.
Those who were affected by neither Grid nor the ambient conditions lived and worked and loved where they pleased.
And so, the world was brought into harmony.