02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
"You have many thoughts which trouble you, Lord Quetzal. I will show you
more."
Kane was learning not to hurry things. A certain pace applied when dealing
with the Master of Dreams. Urartu always deliberated before he spoke and then
spaced his words as if he had a lifetime to express one sentence. Kane wondered how
old he actually was, he restrained the thought, it might have been improper to ask. The
old man chuckled.
"There were those who say that the Wraith Master is ten days old, but then
they think that it might be an extravagance. They say that it is impossible for one to be
that old! As always with the young, they exaggerate. I will not achieve that age - I will
fall short. I am born of one who came to Jubal from that which was the home of the
People of the Ship. You have realised that we are not of this world. Those who gave
me life, travelled to this planet in a ship of the sky.
They were great travellers, who fulfilled the will of the Masters of Psi. It was
their plan for us to journey between the stars and to seed races on the worlds we
visited. So you see, Kane Ashford, it is possible that my ancestors are your ancestors!
The Commander of the vessel which carried my parents and their
contemporaries to this planet, was attracted by the possibility of observing something
which is rarely seen. Two stars drawing close to each other. In their mutual attraction
they nearly tore the bowels out of the other. They staggered in their course but there
was not a mutual destruction. Eventually, they drew apart, as if repelled, and
continued their circling of each other at a great distance.
The red star had a planet and those who guided the vessel decided to attempt a
landing. The ship was disabled in the execution of that manoeuvre. Much strife
occurred between the inhabitants of the ship and prevented the enabling of the Ship.
All this happened nine days ago. I am not ten days old, but nearly so. I will not
see ten days, for the Dwarf draws near. This time, Jubal will not survive!"
In the ensuing silence, Kane assembled the facts. The giant red was one half of
a spectroscopic binary system with a white dwarf. It was a fairly common
combination. The unusual factor was the inclusion of a planet in a system where two
stars came so close to each other that they almost tore each other apart. It was a highly
dangerous - and temporary situation. The planet would be highly unstable, susceptible
to staggering forces. The white dwarf composition of collapsed and impacted matter,
would eventually tear the planet apart.
If Urartu was correct, it would not survive another brush with the white dwarf.
The critical point in the cycle was approximately twenty thousand earth years. The
respective stellar orbits would be exaggerated ellipses and the orbital speeds so
irregular, that only once in twenty thousand years, would the proximity of the two
stars pose a threat one to the other and to the luckless planet which would be in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
Another incredible fact was that the planet still retained an atmosphere. By all
the laws of stellar physics, it should have been stripped off aeons earlier, together with
the oceans. Urartu spoke again.
"This world turns very slowly. On one side, the temperature is so hot, that it is
not possible to survive in the lands directly under the red star. The other side is
unspeakably cold, so much so, that the very air is frozen into a wasteland. The slow
movement unlocks what is frozen and great winds scour the surface where the night
meets the day. Every time the Dwarf visits, the atmosphere is depleted."
Kane waited an appropriate length of time before asking:
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