Tak

The Conjuration - Part 3

     "We removed the replacement orb from the ship and placed a selection of lab animals aboard," Saturn told the assembled senior wizards the next day. "When we went back a few hours later all the animals were alive and well, so either the original orb is still functioning or the ship is drifting through a volume of space empty of skydeath." He kept his eye particularly on Seskip as he spoke, savouring what he was sure was a look of disappointment on the unsettlingly reptilian face.

     "Where is the ship now?" asked Natan Crowley.

     "In a high orbit above the planet Rama," replied Saturn. "It was much closer to the planet, examining its innermost moons, when the incident occurred, and Gunther Fugh's last order was to head the ship up and away, fearing that their proximity to the planet might be in some way responsible. I think he may have been right. We know there are regions above our own planet where the skydeath varies in strength. I suspect there is a region close above the cloudtops of Rama where the skydeath reaches such an intensity that the orbs are unable to protect against it."

     Some of the other wizards sat forward in their seats, and Colonel Valeron Hort in particular looked interested. "A natural phenomenon?" he asked, "or a deliberately contrived defensive measure? Could it be that Rama is the world we are looking for? The home of the Shipbuilder civilisation?"

     "I don't believe so," replied Saturn. "All the outer moons are frozen balls of ice. It's too far from the yellow sun. We know that the shipbuilders were nearly enough human to need a world like ours. I believe their world lies on the other side of the transdimensional rift the Felisians came through."

     "What do we know about Rama?" asked the Director.

     "It's a much larger world than Tharia, at least ten times its diameter. It is densely covered with clouds, so much so that no part of its surface is visible. It has winds of several hundred miles an hour and lightning storms rage almost continually. Even if it were warmer, it would not be possible to live under those conditions. No possible civilisation could exist there."

     "Not on the surface, maybe," mused Crandell Way, a grey haired but still spry and active wizard only recently retired and returned to teach the next generation. "What about underground caverns? Our own world has the Underworld, a cavern the size of a continent. Rama may have caverns the size of our whole world. And we know it is warmer underground than on the surface. Those caverns could be quite cosy, no matter how inhospitable the surface is."

     "That is mere speculation," pointed out Saturn. "We should be exploring the worlds on the other side of the transdimensional rift."

     "We don't yet know where the rift is," replied Seskip. "Neither of the Felisians we captured know its location. Their pilot was one of those who escaped."

     "Then we should be searching for it, not sitting here bickering like a lot of old women."

     Maera Goodlun, a grey haired wizardess from Lydia and Janet Tollier, an Ilandian and fierce matriarch of a huge and widely spread family, both looked up and looked at each other with expressions of disdain.

     "You know how vast a volume space encompasses," said Pondar Walton with a little sneer. "How long would you have to search before stumbling across it? Heed my words, Mon-Morchov. Simply searching at random would be a hopeless quest."

     Saturn glowered, knowing the other wizard was right but hating to admit it.

     "The Felisians found it," pointed out the Director. "If they just 'stumbled across it by chance', as you put it, then our position seems hopeless, but it may be that there is a way to detect it from a distance. Transdimensional portals emit fields of randomised magic, don't they?" Several heads nodded around the table. "Then spells to detect magic might be of some use. Master Walton, perhaps you could look into this for us."