The Storytellers: Galactic Neighbourhood

I have been making progress on The Storytellers (Book 2 of the Enanika Series). Here are Chapters 10-13, which explore not being alone as we think in our endless skies.

Chapter 10: Our Local Stellar Neighbourhood

The bookshop heater clicked every few minutes and the old wall clock near the philosophy shelves announced the passing of time. When the Reading Rooms breathed quietly, so did Anu. And so did Michael. 

Anu was shelving a box of donated books and a folded paper slipped from between the pages of an astronomy atlas. It fluttered to the floor like a winged prayer. She picked it up. It was a map of stars. 

Sol (Earth’s sun) lay at the centre, surrounded by star systems within 13 light-years. It wasn’t all the star systems within that range. Only some of them, making it… selective. All the more interesting.

Anu carried the map to the front counter. Michael looked up from balancing the previous month’s accounts.

“What have you found?”

She put the map down and said, “Our local stellar neighbourhood.”

Michael adjusted his glasses and studied the names:

Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri. Barnard’s Star. Wolf 359. Luyten 726-8. Sirius. Ross 154. Ross 248. Epsilon Eridani. 61 Cygni. Epsilon Indi. Procyon A. Tau Ceti. Kruger 60.

“I thought there were more stars than this within 13 light-years of us,” he said.

“There are.”

“Then why these?”

“These are the ones that have particular relevance to Earth,” explained Anu.

Michael glanced up from the map.

“In what way?”

“Look at the bottom of the map,” said Anu.

Each star system had been assigned one of several descriptions in the status notes — either as an established colony, an indigenous civilisation, or no known civilisation.

Michael read the categories twice.

“Established colony,” he said. “Meaning the civilisation living there didn’t originate in that system?”

“Exactly,” said Anu. “They travelled there from somewhere else and created a permanent settlement.”

“And indigenous means the civilisation developed naturally around that star?” asked Michael.

“Yes,” said Anu. “On one of its planets, moons, or somewhere else within the system.”

Michael tapped the final category.

“And ‘no known civilisation’?”

“It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no life,” said Anu. “There could be simple organisms or different life forms. But no organised civilisation.”

Michael removed his glasses, cleaned them on the edge of his shirt, and put them back on.

“And how do you know what the map means?” asked Michael. “Have you seen it before?”

“No,” said Anu. “I… I dreamt it.”

“You dreamt the map?”

“I dreamt the information.”

Michael looked at her quizzically. He remembered the sign she left at his house six years ago, when she stayed there while he travelled to Scotland. It was still in his garage.

OTHERWORLDLY READINGS
🌟For those who belong in the stars🌟

Although Anu travelled to many places in her dreams, most of her knowledge of the star systems came from her recent storytelling training on Enanika. As her contact-caller planet was Earth, she had focused on solar systems near it. Not that she could tell Michael that, of course.  

Chapter 11: Barnard f

The next morning was bright and cold. The timeworn glass at the front of the shop softened everything beyond it —  the passing cars, the bare branches, the woman trying to persuade her large dog to keep walking. 

Michael placed a heavy book about roses on the counter, partly covering the map that still lay there from the day before. Anu shifted it aside.

“You’re covering someone’s entire star system,” she said.

Michael laughed.

“So Barnard’s Star is here.” He pointed to the map.

“Yes.”

“And the people there are supposedly at the stage of our Renaissance.”

“Yes.”

“And one day we’ll be their UFOs.”

“Yes.”

Michael frowned. “That may not be a good thing.” 

“We’ll be better by then,” Anu reassured him.

She traced the distance between Sol and Barnard’s Star.

“Six light-years away,” she said.

Michael disappeared into the back of the shop and returned with an astronomy book.

“Barnard’s Star is an ancient red dwarf, perhaps ten billion years old, much older than our Sun,” he read. “It’s small, cool and dim, and it moves unusually quickly across our sky. Astronomers have found four planets orbiting it: Barnard b, c, d and e. They’re all rocky, smaller than Earth, and close to their star.”

He looked up.

“Wait a minute. None of them is in the habitable zone. They’re too hot for liquid water.” He closed the book. “So much for your theory.”

Anu knew there was another planet. She had visited it many times during her storytelling training. 

“We know that Barnard’s Star has four planets,” she said.

“Correct.”

“And we know they’re all too hot for life.”

“Correct.”

“But what if there’s a fifth one farther out, near the cooler edge of the habitable zone? One they haven’t been able to detect?”

“Actually…” Michael said slowly. “That’s not impossible. We find planets by measuring how strongly their gravity makes the star wobble. But if the orbit is tilted at a certain angle from us, that wobble can look much smaller than it really is.”

“Exactly,” said Anu. “Like creatures in the deepest parts of our oceans. They were always there. We simply couldn’t see them.”

“Amazing,” said Michael, deep in thought. “It would be called Barnard f.”

“Yes,” said Anu. “But the beings there would have their own name for their world.”

“And hopefully,” said Michael, “by the time we get there, we’ll have outgrown the dreadful habit of renaming places that already have names.”

Footsteps sounded in the back room. Shane, one of Michael’s part-time employees, appeared in the doorway.

Chapter 12: Weird and Stupid

Shane bounced into the shop, trying a bit too hard to be the upbeat, cheeky, popular bloke.

“What’s going on in here then?” he said.

Michael nodded towards the map on the counter.

“Anu’s been showing me our local stellar neighbourhood.”

Shane stepped closer but looked suspicious. 

Deciding to ignore both the map and Anu, he said to Michael, “How are you mate?”

“Good, thanks. And you?”

“Living the dream!”

Shane was about fifty but made a big effort to look younger than he was. He looked his age. A few years ago, he had married a local woman named Susan. She had desperately wanted a partner for a long time before meeting Shane and was very public about what a marvellous catch he was. Presumably, a fitting match for her.

Whenever she came into the shop, she spoke about him as though no man had ever been more patient, intelligent, or unfairly burdened by the incompetence of the world. She rarely spoke to Anu, apparently deeming her unworthy of notice. 

Shane, in return, spoke about Susan with equal adoration. 

If Anu didn’t know both of them, she might have been impressed. 

But she did know them. 

Nevertheless, she was happy for their happiness, even if delusional. 

Anu didn’t have to see Susan much, but she had to put up with Shane often. He treated her as though she were both weird and stupid. Weird, she could concede, was not entirely unreasonable. Stupid she was not.

He rarely acknowledged her presence and would unapologetically interrupt her if she was speaking to someone else. If she sat with other people, he would address them and ignore her. There was something about Anu he just couldn’t tolerate. Right from the moment he laid eyes on her.

Once, long ago, Shane had wanted to ask strange questions, to question reality and other worlds, to explore consciousness, to understand why he felt separated from his own life. His family stomped on it with ridicule and sarcasm, and it had never reemerged. His “weirdness” was buried long and deep.

Shane opened a cupboard behind the counter and began moving things that didn’t need moving.

“Michael, do you know where the courier forms are?” he yelled over Anu’s head.

“Second drawer,” said Michael.

He opened the second drawer. And Anu walked away.

Chapter 13: Tau Ceti Calling

The following morning, Shane wandered over to the map. 

Anu ignored him. Not to be mean, but because her outstretched hand of friendship was normally rejected.

The third time Shane approached the map, Anu asked, “Are you looking for something in particular?”

Shane fumbled for an answer. He ummed and ahhed, as though a battle were taking place inside his mind.

“Well… yes. Yes, I am.”

“What is it?” asked Anu.

“Tau Ceti,” he said, sounding annoyed with himself for having said the words.

Anu pointed to Tau Ceti on the map without saying anything.

Shane leaned closer. For a moment his eyes lit up.

“So that’s Tau Ceti?”

Anu nodded.

He continued staring at it. “Well… what does it mean?”

Anu tilted her head slightly. “It’s one of our nearest neighbouring star systems.”

“Anything else?”

Anu hesitated. “Some people believe there is a civilisation there that, in the future, will become a mentor to Earth.”

Shane was listening.

“When Earth becomes a member of the intergalactic community,” she added, expecting that to surely push him over the line. 

Instead, he remained still.

“Hmm.” He looked at the map again. “Just supposing there was a civilisation on Tau Ceti… what do you suppose they might look like?”

Anu knew exactly what they looked like.

“What do you think they would look like?” she asked.

Shane shifted uncomfortably.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. 

After an awkward pause, he added quietly, “Sometimes I… I have dreams about people from Tau Ceti.”

“They’re humanoid,” he explained. “Not like us exactly, but similar enough to be recognised.”

“I mean…” He half-laughed. “They’re not like a squid or a robot or a monster or something…”

He looked sideways at Anu to make sure she wasn’t laughing at him.

“They have brown skin. Dark hair. Long faces and high cheekbones. Some of them have pointed ears, and their hair is long. Sometimes braided.”

He waited for Anu’s reaction.

“Do they talk to you?” asked Anu.

“Of course not. That would be crazy! Just crazy.”

He abruptly disappeared into one of the back rooms.

An hour later, he returned.

“They tell me I’m running away from myself,” he said, as though defeated by something he didn’t understand.

“Are you?” asked Anu.

“No. Not in the slightest. I have the best wife, the best job, the best friends and my life couldn’t be better.”

“I see.” 

“The only slight thing is that sometimes I get down for absolutely no reason. No reason whatsoever.”

“A little depressed?” ventured Anu.

Shane nodded, looking ashamed.

“That’s okay,” said Anu. “Feeling depressed can be a way of drawing us into ourselves.”

Shane turned back towards her. He watched her eyes closely, searching for even a flicker of rejection or criticism.

“It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your life,” she said. “Everything on the outside can be fine. It’s just that something may be changing on the inside.”

Shane kept listening.

“If you pay attention to it,” she said softly, “you won’t have to feel depressed. You’ll just feel… calm.”

Shane looked sideways, considering what she had said. He looked almost hopeful. Picking up a stack of books from the trolley, he turned towards the back room.

“By the way,” said Anu, “how often do you have the Tau Ceti dream?”

“Oh… not much.” He shrugged. “Hardly ever really. Just… you know… once in a blue moon.”

She raised her eyebrows.

Shane sighed. “Maybe… once a week.”

Read more of The Storytellers (Book 2 of Enanika Series).