Endless Horizons Sagas - Season One - World Without End

episode five - Flight of Science

- Janali -

Six bright golden spears of daylight pierced the air from the skylights straight down to the polished wooden floor. Volumes of herb and churned soil scented fresh ocean air pumped through the room from the gardens just outside Janali's open window. Janali's eyes focused on the most recently added series of numbers on the mechanical diagram spread out before her, looking like a complex map through a warren of circular walls. Her mind raced through the calculations, confirming each in sequence. The numbers right, she carefully added the next set of gear-size requirements needed to provide the new instrument's delicate adjustments to the design sheets.

Finishing the next line of specifications, she leaned back and rubbed her head. She wished it was a couple of years before. Then, she would have been filled with joy at the privilege of sitting in her apartment, working for the Empress. This work was what Janali had always wished for. Just a few days before, she would have happily lost whole weeks to designing a new instrument, especially one as precise as this particular theodolite.

That was the past; she needed to deal with the present. She tried to relax into the numbers, to let herself ignore the worries that came with her new responsibilities. Still, the knot in her stomach wouldn't relent. The anxiety cramps were making her second guess every idea. The knot had formed the moment the Empress had told her she got exactly what she had gone to Nacitas to ask for. She had unlimited funding to build her instrument, go to the islands, and conduct her experiments. The knot gave her stomach a little rumble as if saying 'you should have been more careful in what you asked for.' Worrying over failure was eating at her from the inside out.

Massaging her stomach, she regarded the six pillars of light from the skylights representing the six Star Empresses. Empresses, I need you as I've never needed you before. Can I be right? Sixty lives stand on a balance, and I'm the fulcrum. It was all too clear now. If she took one misstep, not only would she be burned as a heretic so would everyone involved and very likely their families along with them.

She didn't expect a reaction, and alone in her apartment, nothing miraculously happened. The silence was a bit distracting. She thought again about the Empress's offer to stay in the palace. At least there would be other people around.

I used to like the isolation of working alone. Why is it bothering me now? Again, the silence had no answer. Massaging her shoulders a moment, she wondered if Metallo was more awake today. The Empress had not given him a choice; he'd been swept in her wake to the Crelna palace.

Maybe he'd like to stay here. I have the room, and I bet he'd feel less out of place. Poor Metallo had no means of his own, plus he was still recovering. He'd been very nervous when she'd seen him last. He had no idea how to conduct himself in the imperial residence, a place few people ever saw.

Being close to the ocean and docks, her apartment would be far more familiar territory for his recuperation. She nodded to herself as she made the decision to invite him; if anything, he'd give her the suddenly much needed company she craved.

She went and looked out her window to the balcony one floor down where Potentate Balius normally was this time of day. He had annoyingly rented a small, one room apartment in her building. Aside from a courteous hello and goodnight, he hadn't spoken at all to Janali, Metallo, or anyone else she knew of. She had seen him meditating on the balcony, his head raised up to the sky dominions. She'd discovered he did morning and evening devotions on the balcony. The knot in her stomach did a flip every time she thought of the fact that he remained conspicuously close and yet, didn't intrude or even seem to be watching over her shoulder.

With the window open wider, the breeze pushed past her. The sound of her papers rustling made her leap back to the table. The designs and notes were neatly organized on the wide table she used as a desk. Slapping her arm down on the more active paper stacks before papers flew free she moved a book to rest across two of the stacks. Her wood pencil box took care of another stack of papers. Out of weights on the table she stretched, grabbing a few more books from the bookcase, adding them strategically between the stacks of papers to weigh down their corners, too.