(Nebula Awards Mass Autographing tonight 8pm Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago)

[[ From Bones of Starlight: The Enfolding Abyss, book 2 – Prologue ]]

This Vedani transport was familiar enough in form that Soleil could stand on it correctly by guessing.  A handle-grip platform encased with an interactive field.

The gloves they gave her to control the machine were wearable without modification.  They explained that she would lack certain degrees of interface, but she had enough inherent skin conductivity to enable control.  They showed her how to make settings for her human accomodations.

And it moved.  She was in space, with others in space.  Soleil thought she knew all about space, before.  Standing in it, fielded, with the rest standing somewhere nearby while they rotated the stars around their solid footings, felt like something she’d wanted for a long time but didn’t know existed.

[[ From Bones of Starlight: The Enfolding Abyss, Book 2 – Prologue ]]

“We can bring you things you don’t know, that you’ve never seen,” they’d said to her in more words than that.  “But you have to ask.”  So the Princess had thought of something to ask them about before they released her streamview from their program loop.  Something simple and inconsequential that was a genuine curiosity.  She chose to tell them about the book she never found in the Great Library at home, with the word “movements” in the title, in her memory’s sparse detail.  The three individuals accepted her request as reasonable, and they agreed to meet up again later.

Now a later moment had arrived while Soleil was at a stream viewer, the common equipment that allowed her interface connectivity as a human to the Vedani networks.  Their uncanny similarities as people meant that some of the things they made for their own use enabled Alisandrian human capabilities as well.

With her gained skills, Soleil had created an inviting shell that was set to house unusual occurrences without rearranging other virtual furniture, as she had noticed environmental effects from her previous encounter with the Kao-Sidhe, as they suggested they be called.  It wasn’t a matter of either of them waiting for the other.  They intended to collide, at which moment she would set up The Gazebo.  A place to meet with a nice view.

It was designed almost like a trap, in fact, the way it sprang up around them upon mutual recognition at their next encounter.  It was amenable to them both, with a stability that would allow Soleil to remain mentally grounded, and enough flexibilities that would allow the Kao-Sidhe to exist comfortably.  Their embodiment was still characterized by phenomena to Soleil, because they had essentially only met on a computer.  But this time, they made an effort to actually appear.

They chose to present expressions that the Princess could relate to without stress-loading the system.  They were a jumble of humanoid and other puzzling features that represented them to the degree of a quick knife-and-woodblock carving.  Each was nevertheless iconically distinguishable, and the encounter again felt a little more real.

“We’ve brought you a page.”

“A book-style page!”

“We believe it’s exactly what you are looking for.”  Soleil was looking from one icon-being to another.  One resembled a bright vegetable and was mostly silent.  The second embellished with details and flourished with what might have been an excess of color.  The other usually stepped forth with presentation and drew a lot of interest.  Garlic, Rosy Glow and Dragon Food didn’t bother to reintroduce themselves, but their attributes were distinct enough for Princess Soleil to assign them.

She was then shown a painstakingly crafted page.  There was a graininess indicating that it was an artistic virtual replica of something real.  It looked to be from the right age of her life, and the title included the word “movements,” but the page was covered in dance diagrams.  Soleil really didn’t think that was from the book she’d chosen as a youngster, but it was interesting, or at least difficult-looking and similar to a martial art that she knew.

She accepted the page graciously from Dragon Food.  The stream transfer took unusually long, and their virtual sprites were winking for some reason the entire time.

[[ From Bones of Starlight: The Enfolding Abyss – Prologue ]]

After gaining a sense of what they were and believing that they did, in fact, exist – couldn’t deny it with them speaking at her from all angles amid the singular effect they created in her virtual environment – the Princess asked if they’d ever encountered people of the Pan-Galactic Imperium.

A silence fell that was larger than the space they were in and longer than the time it took.  When it was broken, the speakers remained at low positions in front of Soleil.  “Again and again, those that would see us, did.”

“Even hear us.”

“Visit us.”

“But we were never… important enough.”

“When they were to understand us more, it was generally to destroy us, or drive us out.”

“Yet we exist.”

“We want that to be clear.”

“Especially to those who deny it.”

This time the silence came from Soleil.  “Is that why you found me?”

The points of emanation released their low positions.  “No, it was you-”

“It was you.”

“-who saw us.”  Another silence marked that this had been unexpected.  “So we are treating you as though you exist.”

“As though you have importance.”

“And we attend you now as one who does.”  It was then she recalled a memory from that dream-sending, of people (not creatures, really) who didn’t appear as any one thing in particular, but perhaps a number of related things, or the relation between things themselves.  These weren’t glitches in the system, or Vedani kids playing a prank.  This wasn’t exactly a courtly introduction, but Princess Soleil could recognize an emissarial encounter.  Maybe this was indeed their policy of introductory etiquette.  Maybe it was a unique situation.  Maybe both.

“You may speak with us.”

“We will treat with you.”

“We will show you the nature of our characters as though-”

“-as though!”

“-we were not at war.”  The Princess knew they were on opposing sides of a conflict, and that it was yet nothing between any of them.  She accepted this precarious position.

“You may visit or call us, it’s a same difference.  This is ‘may’ not as in permission, but as acknowledgment of possibility.  To be with us is to be with us, it’s a matter of creating a way from you to us, or us to you.”

“We have our own homes next door to yours.”  Soleil could only think this was an error of translation, because she could sense that homes, and next, and door, all meant something else.  She felt sure.

“There may be a way to make a way.”

“You must recognize when it may be there.”

“Only then would it be.”

“This way leads to us three, and that may never be true again.”

“There has to be a key, to a door, to a path.  These are human things that you can remember, right?”

Soleil blinked and thought.  “Anytime.”

“Anytime, she says!  Well, I say anytime too.”

“Anytime.”

“Anytime.”

“Let’s have a round of names.  Beginning with the human.”

“Soleil.”

“Rosy Glow.”

“Garlic.”

“Dragon Food.”