The Flint Knappers - Chapter 6

Well, it's good to have that done. It's been a long day but I completed the beacon this afternoon and I'm exhausted. I'm sitting comfortably in bed and wanted to get my thoughts on the day onto paper before I fall asleep. An eventful day, a long time coming and tonight I can raise a glass of wine to celebrate my progress. I feel kind of like that guy in the movie that gets stranded on a deserted island. I haven't started talking to coconuts yet! It's a funny thought.

After four, nearly five months here I had no shortage of things to report. Trying to boil it down to the format we needed for the beacon meant I needed to be a wordsmith as well as a blacksmith. The need to tell them so much weighed against the reality of how much time I can dedicate to throwing messages in a bottle out to sea. I'll find time to send more in the future but for now I think it's time for me to settle in to the first day of the rest of my life. The new home I have built is much better than that first crude hutch. One of my favorite inventions is the bed/sofa. It's like a Papa-Son chair but bigger. Being suspended from the ceiling is great to keep crawling critters at bay. I made it deep enough that you can prop up inside it. Filled with down pillows and the softest pelts it is an oasis of luxury. The wine came out great and has a little kick to it. I'll be asleep in no time. For posterity here is the verbatim copy of what I sent in the beacon;

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I hope everyone there is well. As you have no doubt surmised by finding this message I survived the jump. Quite happy about that really.

I have landed in a beautiful world that is rather idyllic. I have encountered several other forms of sentient life and have had a range of interactions with them. Some good, some bad. More on that in a bit.

I must thank Vijay at the start. All of the magnificent conversations we had about the vedic histories has proven to be incredibly important. The short version of it is that I have found some direct correlations here with the local life and those ancient tales. There is much more to be discovered in that area. I will provide more details as I proceed.

The general characteristics of the planet are very Earth-like with a slightly smaller diameter and a shorter day. The atmosphere is also similar with perhaps a slightly higher oxygen ratio. I have charted several constellations but none of them have been recognizable. I have encoded the data along with this message in hopes that you may be able to find a match.

I have encountered three distinct sentient life forms so far. One of them has turned out to be friendly. One group are indifferent and the third are extremely hostile. I will describe them in the order in which I encountered them over the period of the last four months.

-The Vanara- A large bipedal mammal that seems to belong to the family of great apes. These are the same Vanara discussed in the Vedic literature. They are quite friendly and rather intelligent. They have provided immeasurable assistance in forging the beacon and also in helping me to understand the surrounding areas. I had a bit of a scare with these guys before I realized they meant me no harm. Once I got past that they were very easy to get to know and I have grown very fond of them. They seemed primitive at first but they have a certain type of intelligence that is like a highly evolved compassion. They are extremely communal by nature and have welcomed me in as an ally.

When I first arrived I was puzzled by the lack of natural predators. When I encountered the Vanara my primal fight or flight instinct kicked in. They seemed to have no concern with me at all. Nor did any of the other creatures. It was really quite odd. After spending time with the Vanara I learned that it was because a super-predator had created a spontaneous natural alliance.

-The Rakshasa- is the most feared creature anywhere and a sort of natural awareness among the wildlife seems to have evolved. A primal alliance of sorts against the mutual threat. The Rakshasa are every bit as nasty as they are described in the ancient texts. The smell alone is enough to cause a panic. And they kill everything. They kill you and then they eat you. Sometimes they kill you by eating you. And if that's not bad enough it turns out they have an ability to cause you to hallucinate. It's like they can read your mind and present themselves to you as whatever they want.

The first time I saw one of these beasts it was busy eating one of my Vanara friends. He had just died a painful death executing a rear guard protective action that allowed his family to escape. I was hiding in the bushes horrified watching this and suddenly the Rakshasa turns in my direction. It was like it could smell my fear. It sniffed the air for a moment and then stood upright. What a grisly sight, talons and fangs covered in blood...the glisten of it on it's leathery skin. For an instant it seemed to morph into a human form. It was like a thick black smoke that got sucked in on itself. This seemed to condense down into what for a moment looked like, well...Astrid. But it wasn't really her and there was a very clear juxtaposition between the horrible scene and my fond memories. As if this awareness was a beam of light shining into a dark room the figure of a woman dissolved and reverted back to the original grotesque form.

That is how I found out the Rakshasa can be a real threat and I understood why everything else had come to form the alliance against them.

The next group I met were the -Naga-. A humanoid reptilian species. They are also mentioned in the ancient texts and are something of a mixed bag when it comes to allies. They have a trading alliance with the Vanara and will occasionally assist against the Rakshasa. I am still trying to convince them to accept a meeting but they have little use for outsiders, especially a human. Their architecture is similar to the Chinese Qing dynasty and I think there may be ties to earth that they still maintain.

The Vanara have a system of tribute with the Rakshasa. Most of the time a life is lost it's because the Rakshasa were somehow displeased with a delivery. I think I may be able to exploit this detail in the future but I have to ask myself what will happen to the natural order if I remove the apex predator. Will I then become the next great threat?

In conclusion I would say congratulations to everyone. We did it. Diving into the unknown we have emerged into a bright new future. I will continue to post the beacons as my time permits. I must now prepare myself mentally to survive whatever may happen. For what it's worth I prefer the challenges here to those of modern society and have never felt a twinge of regret.

I wish you all the best,
Newman Shepard Smith
Mission date d+128

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I drain the last of the wine from my cup and smile at how comfortable my bed feels. I may never see another human again but I have survived and for some reason have never felt worried about the future. There is still so much of this world to explore and I know that the universe really is a place of endless possibilities. Nah...not worried at all. On the contrary, I'm still excited with the possibility of what lies around the next corner.

To be continued...
Read Chapter 1
Read Chapter 2
Read Chapter 3
Read Chapter 4
Read Chapter 5

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Title image provided by pixabay user: smarkov2