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"Wait, Ben `Jamin," M`peth qHo interrupted. "What do you mean by Kay?"
"Sorry," he said. "K is kind of a symbol we use when writing. It means one thousand. So if I say five K I really mean five thousand."
"I understand," she said pensively and looked at Liat `del Qha questioningly. The pilot nodded, indicating she had followed the exchange well enough. M`peth qHo looked back to Benjamin who was eating so calmly it was hard to believe they might be talking about the cataclysmic destruction of the island. "When you say the volcano blew its top, you mean the volcano exploded. Correct?"
"Yeah," he said casually. "Blew the top right the fuck off. Saito said it would have thrown dust and ash all the way into the upper atmosphere the first time. Probably would have cooled things off worldwide. Maybe killed a lot of animals. Big mess."
"And you are trying to leave the island because the volcano is about to do this again?" she asked.
"Oh hell no," he laughed and waved a hand. "No, Commander. It's not going to blow its top like that. No."
"Oh? Well, that is a relief," she said, relaxing little bit.
"Yeah," he continued. "It won't be anywhere near that bad. I wouldn't bother making the boat if it was. Better to get it over with quick rather than die from all the toxins something like that would put in the air."
"Wait. What are you saying?" Liat `del Qha asked uncertainly.
"The volcano is going to blow up, but this time it isn't going to be that bad," he said placidly.
"How bad will it be?" she pressed.
"Like I said, this isn't my field. But if I'm reading the data right, it's going to blast the cone off and probably sink the island." Benjamin shrugged fatalistically. "This cave and the ridge might stay above water. More likely they'll slide down the cone to the bottom of the sea. Even if that doesn't happen, what's left of the island will be flooded and that means no more food. No more reeds to build the boat with, either. No more wood or anything else. Grace did some calculations. She said there was nowhere to go so we needed to hang on until we were rescued."
"If there is nowhere to go, why build the boat?" asked M`peth qHo. She had entirely forgotten her food as had the others who quietly waited for a translation.
"Well, I found somewhere to go," he said and grinned not unlike a child pleased with his own cleverness. "Found it with the satellites."
"And what place is it?" M`peth qHo asked, concerned Benjamin might have fallen to a fancy of his mind's making.
"It's an Aiolian island," he said. "A floating island."
"Ben `Jamin, islands do not float," Liat `del Qha said, setting down her food. Her eyes were a little wide with stress and her ears were cocked forward in anticipation of what he might say next. Fear scent began to overlay the more pleasing scent of the food.
"You would be surprised at all the things I've seen, youngster," he replied casually, not realizing the pilot was full grown and old enough to have youngsters of her own. "And you're taking things too literally. An Aiolian island is more like a giant raft. A big matt of organic matter. Reeds and logs and things like that. We knew about these from our orbital survey. They're these really big patches of vegetation that float on the surface. Best I can tell, they're mostly made up of the same reeds I'm building the boat with. They have trees and animals and there is a lot of wood. The one I'm aiming for is going to pass about sixty kilometers to the north of this island. That's why I need the boat to be big enough to take the swells of the open sea. My canoe doesn't have enough room to carry all my junk either. And once I'm on the island, I won't have a source for making spear points. I've stockpiled those. Probably have a couple hundred packed up and ready to go. Need to take the water purifier and some other stuff. I'm going to charge everything before I leave and take all the power cells. Lots and lots to do."
"And when are you planning to leave?" M`peth qHo asked, feeling less unsure of Benjamin's sanity. That increased her unease, though. If he was right, this island was going to disappear. And it sounded as if it would happen soon.
"Haven't checked the data in..." He paused and thought, realizing he could not remember when he had last looked at the satellite images of the Aiolian island. Suddenly he sprang to his feet and darted to the computer. The cats followed unbidden.
"It can't be too late!" Benjamin cried aloud as he began sifting through the menus Liat `del Qha and Tem l`eth tong had left open. "Goddamnit! Don't you people close anything? Fuck!"
His fingers flew over the keyboard. Menus closed like lights winking out in a city. Finally he paused, locking his eyes on the screen. He touched an icon and above the computer a hologram formed. It was a satellite image of the storm wracked planet. Clouds obscured most of the globe, but superimposed on these was a meandering red line and a small green circle. Benjamin reached up. Placing his hand over the small circle he rotated the hologram so that the circle was centered before him. He tapped a few keys on the keyboard and read from the screen.
"It's not too late," he breathed. His shoulders sagged and he all but collapsed on the chair in front of the computer. "Not too late. I've got weeks. Weeks and weeks."
"What does he say, Commander?" asked Ima` Nef`Tn, stepping close to Benjamin and placing her comforting hands upon his shoulders.
"He says he has much time," the commander told her. "I am not sure how much."
*****
*tTriel – 12 Jiq'a Mowl = 230.4288 Meters
**Taq'a – Minutes = 144 Taq' (.9375 Earth Standard minutes).
***Jiq'a – 12 Jiq' = 1.6002 Meters
****Dol`zEa – 1,620 pounds/734.8196 kilos
- COMMENTS
Anonymousover 4 years agoI love the novel, much as I loved "Upon a Savage Shore", however the foreign units make smooth reading impossible.
The first encounter is of course an instant disconnection: it is suddenly necessary to scroll (and possibly change page) to get the translation, and then to find back where one was. Needless to say, the flow of reading is totally interrupted.
The subsequent encounters, though, are nearly as bad. The units are too rare, and too numerous, to be memorized. If it was one or two, coming up regularly, it would maybe work... though with "interrupted" reading (a chapter a day) I would not assume so.
And that is not counting the conversion. Just translating the unit is not enough; one needs to apply maths to convert. I appreciate the realism of going for decimals, but it does not ease the maths.
I see two possibilities:
- An immediate "editor's note" following the quantity and unit, which converts the quantity into a familiar unit. This would considerably reduce the interruption and may be sufficient to preserve the flow of reading.
- Acceptance that, as part of translating from Cat to Human, the quantities and units are translated too, and you do not get to show off your cool unit system.
As a fan of worldbuilding, I'd prefer the former (editor's note) as it allows retaining that foreign feeling and gives more insight into the culture. Other readers may prefer not having to bother, though.
Xentianabout 7 years agoJust checked Rippers bio, should be up on friday or monday!
Anonymousabout 7 years agoI'm loving the way Benjamin keeps zoning out and talking to his girl, almost as if he has some sort of mental connection to the actual girl. Your writing is way better than a lot of authors on this site, although I did see one or two slips that could be SpellCheck's doing, but they did not detract from the read much.
I do have one slight peeve, though, you (or was it the moderators?) changed one of the story tags from "cats" to "cat" (singular), and I didn't find this chapter for a while...I finally looked at the list of chapters at the end of chapter 6 to find it. A consistent tag helps us find the next chapter when it appears.
Tuzolto54about 7 years agoAnother well written story. Waiting for the next installment.
kjohns2001about 7 years agoPlease don't give up on both your writing and this story. I enjoy reading your work very much and I'm sure that many others share that pleasure with me. I can understand that you get frustrated at not being able to post as often as you would wish but rest assured that your fans will bear with you as you work to gift us with decent reads.
