Chapter 20:
THE SCHOOL OF NORTHERN LIGHT
Akkri put the birthday cake in his room then went to the lounge where the others were assembling. The seat next to Vonn was empty so he went and sat beside her. It seemed that Viney was going to take the meeting.
“We’re all here now, so let’s get started. I really think we need to compare notes, particularly about how this expedition is affecting us. I’ve never felt so disturbed in my life and I don’t like it. I don’t know why we’re here, I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing, and the more I find out about Earth people, the less I understand them.”
“I’m relieved to hear that, Viney. It’s what I’ve been feeling, too,” said Annilex. “Tamor and Korriott and I spent the morning in a library. We skimmed through dozens of different books, trying to get an idea of what was in them. I have never felt so confused. Confused and overwhelmed. Earth people seem to have complicated thoughts about absolutely everything and they are always trying to find out more. We know what our food looks like and what it tastes like, but they want to know what its tiniest particles are made of.”
“Why?” Toln asked.
“I simply don’t know,” said Tamor. “It’s like a sort of hunger that never gets satisfied. The more knowledge they get, the more they want.”
“I’ve been feeling strange all afternoon,” said Ky. “Viney and I went to look at the river. We almost decided to come straight back again; there was so much noise and the air smelled horrible. We sat on a bench where we could look at the water. We were close to a road with vehicles roaring past just behind where we were sitting. Some of the horrible smell seemed to come from the vehicles themselves.”
“There were boats on the river,” said Viney. “They were making a noise, too. I knew we were safe but I started to feel frightened. It’s all part of the strangeness of being here, I suppose. We decided to stay where we were and try to find out what was happening, but it seemed impossible to work out what all the activity was about. Hundreds of vehicles were going past our bench, but there were just as many going in the opposite direction on the other side of the road.”
“We thought they must be going to some important place and then coming back again,” said Ky. “One huge red one stopped near our bench and several people got out of it.”
“It’s called a bus,” said Akkri. “I had a ride on one this evening.”
“Wow!” said Toln. He liked this Earth word he had picked up.
“We’ll have to hear about that!” said Eedo.
“One of the people came and sat on the bench next to us,” Ky went on. “It was an old lady. Viney spoke to her.”
“She had a strange sour smell,” said Viney, “but she looked kind, I thought. There was a hole in one of her shoes and the sleeve of her coat was torn. I asked her about the noise the vehicles were making. She said they have engines which drive them along and the engines make the noise.”
“We’re getting quite a collection of words we can’t translate into Vikan,” said Yask. “That’s another one – ‘engines’.”
“Like ‘buy’,” said Sumar.
“And ‘food aid’,” said Vonn.
“And ‘money’ and ‘homework’,” said Akkri.
“I found something about engines in the library,” said Korriott. “This part of Earth is a large island. It’s called Britain, and it was people on this island who first found out how to make engines.”
“But why?” Vill asked. “We don’t need engines.”
“Earth people don’t seem to realise that,” said Korriott. “Their whole history has been different from ours. We have learnt to trust life to supply our needs. That is something they have never learnt. Instead, they have made huge efforts to do everything themselves, just as Vortinn and everyone else did before the great moment of change.”
“And they have been like this for century after century,” said Tamor. “They have learnt to do amazing things, but things that to us seem quite unnecessary.”
“Their arts have developed, too, though,” said Ky. “After we spoke to that lady we went into a big white building, a beautiful building with big wide steps. Inside, the rooms were full of paintings in many different styles, much more varied than anything produced by our Vikan artists. Some of them were ugly and horrible, but others were amazing – strange and beautiful and unexpected. Maybe struggling with difficulties all the time and trying to solve problems has helped them to be more creative than we are.”
“I’d like to see those paintings,” said Sumar.
“Why not? Let’s all have a look,” said Eedo.
And so, as the group allowed the experiences of Ky and Viney to be their experience too, the Vikans mingled with the other visitors, walking through the galleries beside the Thames.
“It’s in line with everything else we’ve seen, though,” said Bavilan as the vision faded. “It’s as if the artists are in competition with one another, each one trying to do something new and different, each thinking of themselves as separate from everyone else.”
“And what about ‘money’?” said Vill. “It seems to be very important to them but I don’t understand it at all. Has anyone found out about that?”
“It’s paper rectangles and metal discs,” said Akkri. “They give them when someone hands them something, but I don’t know why. A way of saying ‘Thank you,’ perhaps.”
“Sometimes it’s a small shiny card, but then the other person hands it back again,” said Viney. She was feeling calmer now, since it was clear that everyone else was as puzzled by Earth ways as she was.
“I learnt something about money in the library,” said Korriott. “They give these discs or papers or cards in exchange for things like food or clothes.”
“In places called supermarkets,” said Akkri.
“But why don’t they just give people the food and clothes? Why do they need the cards or the paper or the metal?” Vonn asked.
“I think I’m beginning to understand the first part,” said Tamor. “We know that life provides our needs. We have learnt to trust life more and more, but the people of Earth have never learnt to do this. Instead, they believe they have to keep things for themselves to make sure they have enough. It’s hard for us to understand the way they think about it.”
“The cards and discs and so on are just tokens,” said Korriott. “If someone wants shoes they have to give money to get them. Then the person who gave them the shoes can take the money and hand it to another person to get something else, like food or a coat. They call it buying and selling.”
“My head’s spinning,” said Eedo. “Why don’t they grow things and make things and give them to whoever wants them? If everyone did that there would be plenty for everybody.”
“The trouble is that they have found that if they store up money, or things people need, they can become powerful at other people’s expense. They can become what they call ‘rich’ while other people stay ‘poor’. Some people on this island called Britain,” Korriott went on, “even make money by selling weapons that are used for killing people.”
There was a shocked silence. They remembered that terrible scene in the landscape of smoke and blood.
“I don’t think we’ve come to a nice place at all,” said Yask.
“There are worse things than that,” said Korriott. “We have found it hard enough already with the glimpses we have seen, but they are only a tiny part of a history of greed and cruelty that has gone on through century after century.”
“So why have we come here?” asked Bavilan.
“I think our journey is not just a journey to another planet,” said Annilex, “but something much more important, a journey into a deeper understanding of life itself.”
“But how do we get that understanding?” asked Tamor. “Our researches at the library have only made us more confused.”
“I think we need to give up trying,” said S
umar. “I think we are being affected by the way Earth people do things, always having an aim and making an effort.”
“So let’s just sit here for a while and see what happens,” said Vill.
It was a relief to let go of the effort to understand. Vonn gave a little sigh. Even her body had been feeling tense in a way she had never experienced before. Perhaps Earth people feel like that, she thought. Perhaps some of them feel like that all the time. Perhaps they are so used to it that they do not even notice. She relaxed into the curve of her chair and enjoyed the peaceful feeling that was returning to the room. And we Vikans hardly notice the peaceful feeling that we normally have, she thought. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we have come here, to appreciate just how good our life is.
Vill broke the silence. She seemed to echo Vonn’s thoughts. “We’ll be so happy back on Vika,” she said. “After being here, we’ll know just how lucky we are.”
“Are any of them aware of what we’re doing? Back on Vika, I mean,” said Bavilan.
“Perhaps we can find out,” Viney replied.
They looked down, or so it seemed, on a golden building, a circular building surrounded by a ring of sparkling water.
“It’s the School of Northern Light,” said Korriott. “I studied there for five years. It’s at the northernmost point of our planet, the North Pole. There is a sister school at the South Pole. I’ve been there, too, once or twice. As you probably know, the people who live in the polar regions enjoy perpetual sunshine. The sky is always pale orange in colour. It’s as though it is always late afternoon, but evening never comes and night never falls.”
As the vision grew clearer, or as they drew nearer, they could see there were islands in the lake that encircled the building, islands linked by brightly painted wooden bridges. Then suddenly they were inside the building, in a great hall where six green-robed elders, three men and three women, were deep in discussion, but it was not possible to hear what they were saying. It was as though this vision was at the very limit of their capacity and afterwards, when they compared notes, it was like comparing different versions of the same dream.
For a few moments only were they able to hold together this shared experience. One man had just started to speak but strain as they would, they could not hear a word. “Don’t make an effort to hear him,” said Korriott. “We’re not actually on Vika, remember. Just relax and see what happens.”
And then they could hear him: “ … Their experiences on what we now know is called Earth are affecting us profoundly. There is not a person on Vika who has not felt disturbed in some way or other.”
“Should they have stayed on Vika, then?” asked one of the women. “Was the whole expedition a mistake?”
“Life is change and development,” the man replied. He paused. It was as though he was searching for the answer deep within himself.
“He’s called Torlann,” said Korriott quietly. “He was one of my teachers.”
“For centuries we have accepted life’s gifts without question,” Torlann went on, “ever since the great moment of change that we have recently learnt about through the researches of our young colleagues.”
“He called us ‘colleagues’,” Akkri whispered to Vonn. She squeezed his hand. She felt as pleased as he did.
“Now life is putting a question to us. Do we want to move on with the ever-changing flow of life or do we want to stay as we are? I think the choice is ours, and perhaps we had already made the choice when the expedition set off from Vika. Now we are experiencing the consequences of that choice in the bewildering new feelings we have inside us which we are finding so hard to understand.”
“I don’t think we’ll even start of understand them until our travellers return,” said another of the women.
“She’s called Istra,” said Korriott.
“I think they’ll be back quite soon now,” said Torlann.
Then, like a black curtain pulled across a brightly lit window, the vision vanished and with a jolt they were back where they had been all the time, in the lounge in The Golden Palace.
“But we’ve hardly started!” said Toln. “We can’t go back yet!”
“It won’t be immediately, I’m sure,” said Tamor.
“When the time is right I expect we’ll feel ready to go,” said Annilex.
“So, have we learnt anything new?” Viney asked.
“Well, we know that what we are doing is not just affecting ourselves but everyone back on Vika, too,” said Vill.
“I suppose we should have expected that,” said Ky. “It’s what we are used to on Vika, but being billions of miles away has made it feel different, as though we were detached from the people back home, not connected with them in the usual way.”
“The people of Earth are affecting us; are we affecting them, I wonder?” said Korriott.
“Most of the time they don’t even seem to notice us,” said Vonn. “And when they do, it’s as if we’re not properly in focus.”
“When I went to the supermarket with Andrew and Mrs Canadine, the other people there didn’t even notice the skimmer that took us back to their home,” said Akkri, “and Mrs Canadine hasn’t noticed anything different about Vonn and me, even though our clothes are not at all like the clothes people wear in London.”
“There was one strange thing that happened when we were in their house,” said Vonn. “Mrs Canadine was listening to some music that came out of a box and it was a piece that some friends and I had composed only a few days before we left Vika. I could hardly believe it. How did our music come to be performed here?”
“Perhaps it’s the other way round,” said Yask. “Maybe the real question is: How did you come to put together some of their music before you had even left Vika?”
“And what about the domes?” said Akkri. “There’s that wonderful building by the Thames, the one with a golden cross on top of it. Did they pick up the idea from us, from our City of Silver and Gold, or did we get it from them?”
Ky laughed. “I’ve already been thinking about that one. It looks just about certain that Pell conceived the idea of dome-shaped huts at the same time as the first domes were being built here on Earth, in a region far to the east of this island of Britain. So it seems as if life provided a need and its solution at the same time on Vika as on Earth.”
“I wonder if it happened in other places, too?” said Viney.
“Other planets, you mean?” Toln asked.
“Yes, other planets we don’t even know about,” Viney replied.
The anxious feeling that had been in the room when the meeting started had now subsided.
“That building you mentioned seems important to you, Akkri,” said Eedo.
“I often think about it,” Akkri replied. “I want to go there but it’s not quite the right time to do so. I don’t know why, but it’s what I feel.”
Korriott had the dreamy look on her face that they now knew so well. “Yes, it is important. I think it will be important for Vonn, too. She’ll find something there that she’s looking for, but I’ve no idea what it is.”
“I’ve no idea, either,” said Vonn, “but I’m looking forward to seeing the place. It was one of the first buildings we really noticed.”
“Shall we stop for now?” Viney asked. “We still don’t really know why we’re here, but I feel much more settled, and ready to accept whatever life brings us, even if we’re not to be here much longer.”
“That’s good,” said Annilex. “I feel more settled and accepting, too.”
* * *