The Chronicles of Brendan Earle, Apprentice Mage.

Strange Worlds, Other Worlds

Day Six

I began with this, from interest in the character and the information on warfare.

Memory Accession: Sample 861

Accession justification:  more information is needed on styles of warfare appropriate to this level of technology.

Father didn’t approve of it at all.  He told me, “Umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu.” Which he would, of course, he’s been saying that it’s part of the wisdom of our people since I can remember. “Man becomes human through other humans.” But I went ahead and did it anyway. It wasn’t just for fun. It felt necessary that someone really of our people should be the one to portray the character. So much of what they think they know of us is wrong.

It raised more questions of what they think of me, but also introduced me to more worlds – they separate into groups based on skin colour out there. That does not happen in here. It led me to look further and find this.

Memory Accession: Sample 526

Accession justification:

What are the groups that live on the outside? How do they relate to each other?

Airplane. An old one, cramped and uncomfortable. There was a film, but I slept through it. We were flying for a family holiday, going back to Trinidad, a place I’d never been, to visit people who were just faces in photos. The pilot spoke to us, a Honky voice telling us the time and the temperature when we landed. Then the landing and greeting in the airport. My whole body feeling like it was gripped in one big sweaty handshake.  So many relatives, so much kissing and hugging and saying how big I was. Then taxis to my uncle’s home and the food and the stories.

Rebecca

We spent the morning scouting out sites and found three that were good for our purposes. Dara sent her Alex back to East Gard as a swallow to tell them about our plan. Alex was back by lunch time with word that we could go ahead and with news.

Senior Ferguson sent his praise for how we’d dealt with the ambushes. He said that there had been long range raids by other Gards flying from base to our MSR, so we might not see another supply train for a day, perhaps more. When we did we should observe them carefully as they were likely to be better prepared than our first two. The fly-in raids were harder to launch and less likely to be effective against well-prepared supply trains, so we should move on to phase two of the operation – the book would direct us in that.

We were pleased with ourselves anyway, but when we saw what we were going to start doing next we were all for having a party. This was going to be so cool! We started the seeds for the new houses growing that afternoon.

Phoebe

I did not get enough sleep and I woke up the next morning and wondered why your body does that to you. The waking up thing. It just wasn’t a lol. I wanted to go back to sleep and dream about last night. And I didn’t want to too, ‘cos it should only have been a dream, but it wasn’t now.

I wasn’t like Jinnie. She could really think about going back to her real world and seeing Marcin there too. I couldn’t. Max was only Max here. In my real world he was Mark Calder, who didn’t know me and wouldn’t fancy me. Even here, I wasn’t the one Max was looking at. I was the one he wanted to talk to though. The words might have come out of Malaika’s face, but they were mine, not hers.

We talked for ages, about loads of things. We were mecha awkward at the start, but then he said that and we both laughed and things just sort of relaxed. That just kept happening, we kept laughing at ourselves. And now I wouldn’t see him for a week. And I didn’t want to. And I did. And I didn’t know how you deal with things like this. So I drank chia and ate breakfast and packed for a trip to the other world.