The Lantern

[Music] you [Music] the lantern I was working long shifts on a waypoint station the station was orbiting a publish green world called Sun dansk who knows how many people live down there billions perhaps it was not my job to care most nights I was so tired from work that I didn't even clean off just got into bed covered in oil or glue or gunk one night I couldn't sleep though I watched the planet below for a long time but that lady made me feel small and fleeting I watched a little nude action on the streams and that didn't help things much either so I went wandering around the station it was the middle of the night Standard Time and everything was mostly deserted it didn't take me long to come upon a bar on one of the poorer decks the bartender was organic and I was thankful for that said his name was Bayliss something-something he fetched my drink without a fuss strange tingling when I went to pay he said no need really I said and offered the money really he echoed this one's already paid for he noted over my shoulder I followed the knot at the very back of the bar so next to the window was a lantern I'd never seen one before but I'd heard enough stories to be certain what it was it looked to be about eight feet high if stirred the skin was a gentle blue those scaled like a reptile the mouth was a small red rimmed pakka hole that opened and shut every few seconds and the eyes great dinner plates the width for man's head with emerald green irises bedded around the center the thing appeared to glance at us and I turned back to the barman quickly what do you mean already paid for I said with just that the thing already paid for your tab in advance what I said of just that the barman lent him best you go and see what it wants no I think I might just drink up and go I said I think that's what I'll do the bartender leant even closer I've been working here twenty years or thereabouts not once as one of those things ever come down to the deck let alone into the bar go and see what it wants I threw back my drink and the barman poured another and gave a nod when I reached the table the creature didn't look up hello I said I believe you paid for my drinks the thing had his eyes set on something out the window and didn't speak just kicked a chair up for me with a great metal leg the other leg appeared to be organic and there wasn't a shred of clothing on the body so for a strip of blue silk across the mutters about his neck hung a pendant and as it's Hwang had appeared to fall back through extra dimensions hyper geometric jewelry he know how expensive that is but it was the smell that really rankled the tang of ozone the reek of iron and a few spices and you know named for I sat down the creature kept his gaze out the window and perhaps a minute passed between us without a thing being said then in a voice that sounded like goggled barbed wire him owned that planet has 89 names in the common tongue it is San dansk that others call it a co-op and others call it no more five and others call it by other names I followed his gaze and sure enough there was the purplish or below us minding its own business the creature continued but none of those 89 designations are its true name all objects in the universe have a true name the name the universe recognizes that thing by it turned to me then and it's burning irises boring like lasers you have a true name and said do I I said very quietly yes if a planet or an acid have one why not a person huh I said would you like to hear it ah not just now thank you it raised the quivering tentacle to the bartender and he rushed over with another drink and set it down in front of me and raced off again a things true name is not just its designation the monster said but it contains all the information one might want to know about an object its age for example its form and the time when it would die the thing nodded slowly to the barman his true name is shat in the Senate and from this we know he's a good man and that a heart attack will get him three years one month and thirteen days from now it blinks slowly I wondered to myself if the monster had a true name ah it said yes of course I do my blood ran cold ER it waved a tentacle widely and turned back to the window to Sundance below but let's not talk about that now he said I'm sorry I said in a mouse's voice but what do you want with me the mouth opened and shot taking snaps of breath the eyes blinked dreadfully slowly do you know what I am the creature rasps I'm I'm not sure I said what do they call a thing like me a lantern I think I said and do you know why I shook my head it nodded to a doc - I'd skipper perhaps a half mile away the ship looks like a nimble blackfish I suppose you don't know how your voice chips reach the stars so said no I don't well and continued it's a complicated process it's made even more complicated by the fact that when a ship enters ether space computers don't function and humans don't function either any complicated machinery must be switched off and humans must be put into transit sleep packed away like sardines the mouth made some strange imitation of a smile then corrected failure to do this will result in broken machinery and broken humans the only process is left online during the trip a very simple life support and very simple piloting equipment when I say very simple and mean it the control yoke is linked to the motion fins by wire wire traveling to the Stars by thread and pulley well that can't be true I said the thing fixed me with a glare I'm sorry I I mean I I didn't know that well now you do it pert man will solve all of his problems one day the starships will always travel by threat that never changes talk of the future with such certainty would normally have signaled extreme but instead I just hope prickles spreading up my head the lantern said if you knew Times true name he would understand the time is a bread loaf already baked it gave me a moment to think about this watching all the while with those green burning irises then continued as I said ships and to ether spaced across great distances since computers and the majority of humans can't take the stress of the journey special mines were engineered by scientists back on earth these mines would stay awake and pilot the ship through impossible geometries writing at the very front of the ship in a little out bubble a single beacon leading 10,000 human capital of the safety a London Eye said the London nodded have raised the scaled tentacles the process comes with something of costs however we watched a void skipper undocking from one of the civilian ports it backed away from the station and hung like a dog waiting for permission to go bounding then he swung around pointing his nose to some invisible destination ahead and set off I spied a little bubble protruding from the front of the craft there is no time and no duration in ether space the lantern said watching the void skipper all events occur one it is the privilege of one awake during that journey to see events ahead and events behind we learn the true names of everything and we learn to say them and given the complexities of ether space travel we occasionally arrive before we set off you've been to the future I said relatively yet agreed and the past is that a blessing or a curse I thought both depending on the day the London said quietly to itself one day the services the lanterns will not be needed men and women will learn to bear ether space in school as you learned the alphabet that time will not be for another three thousand years however it snapped his tentacles tight then loose her name is Paula Hammond what I said the creature gestured with a tentacle I looked behind a woman had come in perhaps mid-30s she sat alone at the other end of the bar reading she has lived a fairly dull life full of waiting the London said waiting for the right relationship the right career this was all in vain of course as she'll be killed in a welding accident two and a half months from now down on the construction deck the girl glanced over at us and the lantern I suppose then quickly turned her attention back to her book I remembered a bit of temporal physics from school and I said it's not a changeable thing is it the London shook its head of course it said though now you're wondering what your future looks like I am I agreed another silence passed and i snatched a glance at the girl with her book i knew the paradox well enough in trying to change her fate I would only seal it you're tired I'm tired the lantern said quietly let's not anymore it took my drink in his tentacles and necked the thing he wiped his strange snapping mouth it said London's live a very long time but we're not immortal every now and then we have to recruit it isn't a pleasant initiation process but the rewards are way the growing pains in left that hang in the air and stared into me what I said I've told you how it is is that you have the mind for the career you'll be beyond the limits of distance and duration you've seen two things as they are you will learn the true names of the world and in return you need only guide a few starships from Sun to Sun all of eternity in exchange for a little shepherding what I said again you need some work done to you back on earth but it won't hurt so much I'll give you a few moments to think it over I was quiet a little while then gave in to the giggles it watched me without expression or comment I'm sorry I said but my time is short and interrupted I'll save you the trouble you're going to protest about what short notice this is how ridiculous it seems you'll thank me politely but ultimately explained in a roundabout way so it's not to offend that you like your life now and don't feel the need to go jaunting off into the universe at a moment's notice you wouldn't say this of course but there that's the shape of the thing yes I nodded meekly it turned its massive eyes back to the void skipper the ship was barely visible now a smudge among the stars probably powering up its main drive I imagined the interior the crew will frosted in long sleep the ship drones cleaning the corridors and the canteens and the laboratory's and at the front of the ship in a small transparent enclosure I supposed was a hunched monster with enormous Vermillion green eyes and a puckered mouth of frantically opened and shut his tentacles wrapped about the control yoke and its mind already trained on infinity let me make this easier for you the London set in a dark voice its gaze still on the void skipper you haven't recovered from the breakdown of your marriage we never will you're constantly waiting for a promotion to the craftsman's deck and it will come two and a half years from now but the work will be hard and the pay won't be much better and even though you'll regret taking the position you'll remain in it do to your frankly excessive pride you'll die in 30 years 7 months 4 days and 10 hours from now Anna please don't I said in a decompression accident aboard a void skipper bound for Ithaca as your lungs explode and your blood boils you would think very quickly about what a boring life you led and how fear constantly held you back from pursuing your true passions ironically you will not realize your true passions until that very moment the puckered mouth appeared to smile again this is how events will unfold well then I won't board that ship I said yes you will why won't go to Ithaca yes you will god damn it why even tell me this if there's nothing I can do I said it folded his tentacles over on each other business like lanterns see possible futures also your death aboard that void skipper is but there is something you can do about it I'm leaving tomorrow on a void skipper bound for absent come along and what I said and sit up front with me catch your first glimpse of ether space the ship will jump - ribbon - and you'll see what it is that I'm getting at you've got the brain to handle it after that we'll jaunt to earth get you ready for proper training and after that you'll be a lantern and if I don't want to I said the lantern shrugged then I wish you luck with the rest of your life and assure you again that there'll be no reaching Ithaca alive out the window beyond the planet in the black the void skipper activated his ribbon - drive space lens for a moment then the ship was gone I'd offer you another drink but you're about to go to bed the lantern set what I was thinking about it I said it stood loomed over it regarded me again with the green dinner plate eyes and didn't blink my avoid skipper leaves attends more Standard Time and said look I appreciate the invitation but I'm really not interested thank you thing it bound to me and the heir reaped again of ozone then it made for the door i sat back and stared out the window down at Sundance key then to where the void skipper had been there was no trace of it now one could scour the whole universe and find nothing not until it popped back out into regular space where had had gone into ever one into that place between places up to a boundary and beyond it I called out why come and from right behind my ear the lantern said what's that I tried not to jump you've been waiting there you had a final thing to say we'll say it now then I said slowly why did you come to ask me what you asked me you've seen the future he said so and the future doesn't change Why ask me if you knew I'd say no the creature bent down slowly to my ear and I felt the coldness of its skin sucking the warmth out of mine I smelled his breath and it was not unpleasant and not pleasant I heard his mouth snap shut snap open gasp finally it said I lied I came to you because you will think the matter over tonight and seek me out tomorrow and we'll travel together I wouldn't waste my time on you otherwise it puts a tentacle on my shoulder this is one of the few rituals among lanterns we may come to our past selves and make the offer 10 o'clock tomorrow see you there [Music]

Channel: exurb2a

Views: 1,468,097

Keywords: the fifth science, exurb1a, audiobook

Id: um6cGuJ4mNE

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 31 2018