It is the night of the festival, and the skies are the clearest I have ever seen them. If the chronicle and my simulations are to be believed, the tide is going to go out some time in the next three years. It won't be fast, but it will be obvious. That is going to really make things interesting. If the water goes out as far as it came in, I will get some really fascinating additional observations. Our little village will find itself on an ever so small ledge, at the top of a very massive cliff.
The sky has been so clear, and with so few of the other worlds of this system in the sky, I have been able to make observations of objects that lay far beyond this system. Another star has been revealed in this system, the most distant one to date, and you can even see the scar that the Vietza Furie and I fell through, as well as the ancestors of my friends. This system is, as far as I can tell from these observations, far beyond the edges of any galaxy or universe, assuming there are such things. It does make it feel all that much more like a more complex void system. Still, there are the distant clouds that resemble nebula, and other structures. I wonder if this system doesn't orbit the Scar, if everything here orbits that scar.
I enjoyed the parts of the festival that I was allowed to participate in. It would seem that I am now considered an elder, and that comes with some rights, and responsibilities. I will be responsible for adding to the chronicle in a more formal manner than I already have. It seems the elders considered it carefully, consulting with Frydai and his uncle, as well as others. Considering what I have taught them, what I have promised to help them achieve, if I can. I am very honored, and it isn't just because I have provided them new books into which to record things, thanks to my printers. It is one of many reasons I have a lot of thinking to do.
I am up doing observations, and it is nearly time for me to sleep, well past midnight. I just wanted to get this entry in before I did so. Frydai is still not back from the festival and dance. I suspect he may have found something I don't think he knew he was looking for, but I've seen the way he has been looking at Chit'th. What I don't think he knows, but I have sure seen it. Benefit of being taller than they are. She has been looking at him the same way.
That is kinda the point of the dance and the later evening events for the young and single. It is for those that are old enough and looking for mate, those who do not currently have a mate, and those who may be seeking to add a mate or replace a current one.
They're pretty socially advanced in that vein. They keep track of who is whose parents, but otherwise, they're not too concerned. There are two groups of five members that have lasted quite some time, at least a dozen seasons, and who produce children regularly. Others are committed pairings, and others it just doesn't work out, and they break it off and join the next festival to try again.
I've concluded that I'm going to be adding a post script to my log entry titles after this one. I apparently crashed right after the previous festival, by a day or so. As such, using that as my marker makes sense. I was thinking about marking it based on the tide, but those only happen every few hundred or more years. The cycle is too long. They only reason my friends knew it was coming was because of their chronicle, none of them were alive during the previous one. The festival as a marker, makes more sense, and so that is what I'm going to use it for.
Me now being an elder, grants me full access to all of the books they have, which actually is quite a few. The revelations I am learning as I get them scanned in and translated is astonishing. They have well over thirty books, and three other chronicles. The one I have been familiar with contains a summary of events contained in the other three, and then the detailed recording after it was started. It's a smart system, so that, even if one gets damaged, you don't lose everything. The additional three chronicles, as well as the other books, is expanding my knowledge and understanding of my friends, and how they came to be here.
I scanned and recorded the chronicles first, and that revealed a confirmation of what I assumed. The ancestors of my friends were colonists, mostly farmers and other hearty types. They were headed for a newer colony world, and one of the farthest from their home. To get there faster, the ship they were on was using a new drive system. It was so much faster, the trip was only going to be an hour or so, instead of the months their old drive systems would take. They'd been using the drive for a few years without issues. This time, there was an issue, some kind of malfunction that dumped much more power into the drive than it should have received. They came out of the scar, much like I did, drives encased in crystal, and crashed far inland.
It would seem they were doing quite well, despite the crash, the majority of the equipment survived the crash, and they lived for at least a dozen generations around the crash site, growing food and establishing a colony much as they had initially set out to do. They were even trying to make repairs.
The systems of their ship didn't fair quite as well, but they had enough to keep their education systems up and printed as many book as they could. What they have is what this small group was able to salvage when the first tide came in. They were unprepared and hundreds died as they clung in groups to makeshift rafts crafted from the wreckage of their homes. They had managed to keep most of them together at first, until the storms hit, and at least one group was swallowed up by one of the sea monsters.
It is no wonder they're a bit skittish about the sea. I've sat down with the other elders and we have discussed this part of their history. I explained how, were it not for them and their knowledge of the incoming tide, I myself would have been caught unaware. The complexities of this system are more than their ancestors, nor I could fully understand, without knowing they needed to study certain things.
Even then, I still do not fully understand it. I used the new star as a point in that. How it's presences and position answers questions about the behavior of worlds in the system, yet still leaves just as many questions. No one would think that a tide would come in that was like that, to make islands out of the tallest mountains.
It seems they landed here as the tide finally went out. With no way to know how far it was until the next tide, and how far they were from any other group. They decided to make this their home, though they did send out scouts, those who made it back alive reported on the monsters that arose from the aftermath of the tide. That was a pretty catastrophic event for them as a people.
The other books are some manuals for pieces of equipment. They represent whatever it was they were able to hang onto as they were washed away and survived for several months, adrift. They story doesn't say, but it is clear that they fished and were good at it. The instructions on how to lure the fish in the waters here is clear and accurate, matching the techniques I have used.
They were a very advanced people, possibly more advanced than mine when I left. Their ship was meant to carry them to their new world, and then act as their link back home, providing the return of goods from the colony back to the home world, and manufactured items they weren't able to build themselves back to the colony. The ship belonging to the colony as a whole. It was a good setup, or would have been.
An interesting thing. The language of the manuals is a match for one that I have in my databases from my travels. We might actually be from the same wider universe, which makes me wonder if where we are is not also in the same wider universe, just so far removed that it might as well be different. If I could pick up on the signal from the Speaker and my telescope, i could confirm that. Wouldn't that be something...
Well, I've got the automated systems set to continue observations and will review the results in the morning. Frydai is still not back, and if the music is any indication, they're still going strong. I wonder if he'll even make it back until the very early morning. They clearly do not have the same hang-ups my people did, so I don't think he'll be doing any sort of walk of shame.