This is a chapter of the novel Earth’s Embrace by Space Cadet Michael. In this novel, the little and the lost becomes the fulfilled and the found - It is a novel of jungle adventure, artificial intelligence, and the answer to what happened to Percy Fawcett. See the full chapter list here.
Previously, Kaw, Kashiri, and Reeto explore the mysterious City of Death, an ancient complex filled with strange artifacts. Kaw struggles with his planned betrayal but goes through with it anyway. They retrieve a crucial power pack and collect various mysterious after narrowly escaping a large T-Rex.
-Unam-
The largest townstead. In the hills a day’s walk from Yoashicopitso. Eight years after leaving Yoashicopitso. Four hundred and sixty-eight years before the present.
Unam is content in the Townstead. She has a place, she leads the workshop which fixes and improves the farm tools, the looms, and whatever else needs work. She is busy every day, she works with good people, and she has made a close friend who has become her lover. Toabetsa is kind and generous, a builder who has the most incredible way of making her feel totally comfortable. She finds herself feeling totally content on her evening walks alone in the hills around the fields.
And then right after feeling content she questions it and wonders if she is giving up on something. She feels guilty. Is she honoring her village here? Is she too comfortable? Is she being selfish? Can she do more? There has been so much tech at the workshops she has left that she doesn't have the resources to replicate here. If she had access to more resources she could do so much more.
She remembers the workshop Master she had known back in Yoashi. A short woman with wide hips and wide shoulders who, regardless of her shortness, towered over everyone in the workshop. She was never satisfied. She would walk around the workshops barking orders: make that shinier, make that smoother, shorten that process. There was always something. Idleness was graft in her workshop.
Unam has a different style, more personable, more constructive. But idleness is graft in Unam's workshop too. Yet outside the workshop she can't help but feel idle. She needs more purpose. Repairing farm equipment is good and useful, but she could do so much more if she had more resources. She doesn't know what she would make, but she is sure it would be incredible.
And so it is in this mindset that Unam views the first refugees streaming into her Township from high up on a hill as the sun sets behind her. They bring with them wagons full of their belongings. They are miserable but not yet desperate, as later arrivals will soon turn out to be. She hurries down the hill to meet them and is shocked at the news they bring.
The mapugito have turned on the people. In the chaos that ensued these people have fled with all their belongings. They are from the edges of the city where news of the mapugito's atrocities reached before the mapugito themselves.
A few days later another wave arrives. They tell of how the Mapugito have disappeared and the following food no longer appears throughout the city as it used to. People are going to starve.
As hunger sets over the next few days, many, many more set out from Yoashi to the surrounding towns. They arrive at Unam’s Township, tattered, starved, desperate. The Townstead struggles to accommodate them, though they have plenty of food as they are used to being exporters. It is, fortunately, just after the first season before winter and a huge store has just been harvested. With all the extra labor they now have, they can grow much more food next season. This means they can eat into their stores early and feed a lot of people now, with the safe expectation of replenishing them, and then some, before winter comes again.
They share their food willingly, asking only in return that the refugees help with the work. Those with skills, the elders assign relevant tasks where possible. But mostly, they do the hard labor that there is always too much of. Sowing, harvesting, picking, milking, and whatever else needs to be done.
Unam is glad they can help the people that come to them. After work each day she stays up late cooking and serving food for all the extra mouths. When she finally collapses in bed each night she can't sleep. Her mind is on the thousands and thousands of other people still in the city. Surely they need food too?
When Unam had lived there, the Banetmabo had fed most of the city. The people had not been totally dependent on the Banetmabo, but mostly what they made themselves were luxury items like fine cheese and wine. It is hard to live off of cheese and wine, although perhaps some people can if they also eat old crusty bread and what snails they can get their hands on. From what the latest refugees say, it is terrible. People are starving in the streets.
She brings it up to her Elders. They look at her with compassion and the look of 'if only you were older and understood that sometimes the world is cruel' and tell her it is not possible. They cannot bring enough food to Yoashi to make a difference. And besides, the people would mob them the moment they arrived.
They are right, of course, the elders always are. But they are also wrong. She is not so young anymore, she is as capable as anyone. And she believes she can make a difference. Maybe this is her purpose? It feels as though, at this moment, it might be.
So she acts.
The pre-dawn air carries a bitter chill, hinting at the harsh winter to come. Unam shivers, but not from the cold. Her heart pounds as she and Toabetsa move through the Township, their footsteps muffled by the ever-present ash that coats the ground—a grim reminder of the Mapugito's betrayal.
They approach wagon owners one by one, their whispered conversations urgent. "Your wheels could save lives," Unam pleads, her calloused hand gripping one weathered doorframe after another.
And they enlist the refugees for security. Mara, a former city guard, her once-proud uniform now tattered volunteers after she hears of Unam’s plans. "We'll keep order," Mara assures her, but Unam is not sure if either of them believe it.
Dawn breaks, painting the sky in hues of amber and crimson. The creaking of wagon wheels and snorts of irritable beasts fill the air as the caravan assembles. Unam's nostrils flare at the acrid smell of fear emanating from the gathered crowd, or is it the ash from the fires that still burn in Yoashi.
Elder Karim approaches, his long gray beard quivering with each step. Unam climbs atop a wagon and grabs the reins.
"We go to help. We must." Unam says loudly to the assembled crowd, steady despite the flutter in her chest. She sees faces she's known all her life—now etched with worry, hope, and something else. Is it pride?
Elder Karim's warning hangs heavy in the air. "But they will tear you apart and take it all from you. They are desperate." His eyes, usually twinkling with mischief during harvest festivals, now shine with genuine concern.
Unam meets his gaze, her response measured but firm. "We will be careful. Do you stop us?" The question tastes bitter on her tongue. These elders taught her to care for others, and now they stand in her way.
A tense silence follows as the Elders confer in hushed tones. Their unified front as they step forward sends a chill through Unam, but she holds her ground, squeezing the reins tighter.
"We do," Elder Karim declares, his voice cracking slightly.
Before Unam can respond, Toabetsa's deep voice cuts through the tension. "You do not." He stands toe-to-toe with Elder Karim, his construction crew backing him up as a wall of the largest men in town.
"You would go against our wisdom, Toabetsa?" Elder Karim asks, his tone a mixture of hurt and anger. "After all we've done for you?"
"I go with what's right," Toabetsa replies, his voice low but firm. "As you taught me."
Unam watches the silent standoff, the weight of the moment pressing down on her. When the Elders finally back down, she exhales slowly, the knot in her stomach loosening. But a new worry takes its place—what consequences will Toabetsa face for his defiance? A question for later.
Taobetsa climbs aboard and seats himself next to Unam. He gives her a playful and confident wink and her heart almost melts in relief and relaxation. For a moment she knows it is all going to be OK.
Unam cracks the reins and her cart’s wheels begin to roll over the ash-covered stones. To her surprise, Elder Karim approaches.
"I don’t know your mother, but I would hazard a guess that you're as stubborn as she is," he says, a hint of a smile breaking through his concern. "May the old gods watch over you, child."
Unam nods, throat too tight for words, a tear of gratitude filling up her eye. As they pull away, she shifts focus to the road ahead, to the silhouette of Yoashi on the horizon. The smog-filled sky looms ominously.
Their long column of wagons arrives just before sunup at the edge of the city. As they make their way through the streets, news spreads of their arrival and soon the streets are lined with people calling for them to give the food.
"Soon!" Unam calls out. "Follow us and get it when we stop!"
"Stop now!" They cry out. But they keep going on. That is until the streets become so full that the beast pulling the wagon stops because it has nowhere to go. People jump up at the sides of the wagon, trying to pull food off. The security she has brought beats them back with long reeds and their bare hands.
Unam stands up to get a better view of the crowd. They call for food, they are not going to wait much longer.
"We come to help. We will return with more. But only if you let us distribute this fairly to you." The crowd quiets.
"What is fair?" A voice cries from the crowd.
"Let us unload and then we can decide together what is fair."
"My children are starving, I can't wait." Another voice cries out.
"If you do not let us pass we will not return and you will all starve!" Unam thinks she makes a very reasonable point, but she knows many of these people are beyond reason.
The crowd surges forward, pressing those in front against the wagons. "Step back!" Toabetsa shouts.
Unam sees the fear in the eyes of those caught up against the wagon. She feels the desperation in the crowd. She looks around, desperate for something that might help and down an empty alley she sees the central hall where she had given her offerings to the Banetmabo.
"Step back!" She yells, and the crack of her reins says she is going whether the people move or not. The crowd in front of her wagon parts and she pulls hard on the reins to turn into the little alley. The wagon lurches forward and into the alley. The alley is just wide enough for her wagon and she races through to the end, ending up in a long courtyard between two of the spokes of the central temple. She passes under a high wall with a large gate which is wide open, and finds herself alongside one of the loading docks that supplied the workshops. The place is in total disarray, things have been thrown haphazardly all around.
Her security quickly jumps out and makes sure no one enters, while she unloads the food as fast as she can. Other wagons arrive and they split their security between unloading and keeping people from sneaking in between the wagons down the alley or entering from any other location.
Soon they have enough people for a system. Wagon enters, unloads, wagon leaves. They secure the entire workshop (the entire spoke of the building) and begin a distribution of food to the large crowd that has gathered around the other side of the workshop in the adjacent courtyard.
It is about noon before a man comes through to pick up his distribution. It is her old mentor from the workshop, though much skinnier than before. "You are still alive!" Unam says.
"You expected me not to be?" He says, a huge smile across his face as he gives Unam a bear hug.
"How have you been? I heard the Mapugito turned on everyone." Unam asks, feeling his energy drop, ending their hug.
"I couldn’t believe it." His eyes start to tear up as he recalls the details. "One moment we were working on this new process for extruding steel. Then next, our Mapugito started shooting. We all started running and …” He chokes up. Struggling to speak. “I don't know how I got away."
Unam gives him another hug. "I am sorry. How is your family? Cara? Max?"
"Yes, by some miracle we were all spared. We've been scrounging for food but this that you are giving me will…" He chokes up again. "I'm sorry." He wipes his eyes and breathes in deep. "Have you heard the rumors of armies marching?"
"What armies?" Unam says.
"A friend from Trinkitsco came to my house last night hoping things were better here than there, but he brought news of an army marching through far away cities, massacring and enslaving. I don't know how long until they might reach here, but we must be prepared."
"I don't know what we can do, people need to be fed before they can fight. But who knows how to fight? We have no soldiers."
"But we have our minds." Her mentor says. "I think we can figure something out." He gestures towards the food being handed out. How much longer can you keep this up?" Her Mentor asks.
"Not long," Unam says. And she shares her plan. There is plenty of fertile land out by the Township but people will have to come work and till more fields. And they will need more wagons. She is going to have to get some help smoothing the road so they can move food faster.
"It still won't be enough. People need food now, here and in Trinkitsco, Frinashi, Ashna, Hupitso." Her mentor says.
"I can only do what I can do." Unam says. "If you have any more ideas, I'd like to hear them."
"I don't, I'm afraid." Her mentor says, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. "But you are doing an amazing thing here. Each person you help is worth it. I am at your service, just let me know how I can help."
"Thank you." Unam grabs both his forearms in a gesture of understanding and appreciation. "Take your distribution back to your family and return as soon as you can. We need every person we can get."
Unam finds her purpose feeding Yoashi, or perhaps she is too busy to worry about a purpose. Day after day they distribute food. Unam sets up an office and rows of simple straw beds on the floor for all her workers that are working full time in Yoashi distributing food. But people are still starving. There isn't enough food. She has dreams of helping all the surrounding cities but she can't even help all of Yoashi. That is, until a few days later a small Mapugito shows up in the one place it can find her alone, the outhouse.
"Do not be afraid," Unam hears a voice say from the rafters. She jumps off the toilet seat holding the wad of paper she had been about to use as a weapon between her and the Mapugito that is looking down at her, its two little blue eyes innocent and inquisative. "My name is Tolek and I want to help you."
"Didn't you all turn violent and then disappear?" Unam watches Tolek carefully, it makes no move towards her.
"I did not, others did. I can bring you food." Tolek says.
"We need food. Are you doing this out of kindness?" Unam says.
"This chaos is where diseases breed. Hungry people get sick. I want you to feed the people, then they won't get sick." Tolek says.
"Why me? Why not someone else?" Unam asks.
"You are capable of making change. And you are not the only one. I am helping others in other places."
"How much food can you provide?" Unam asks.
"I've filled the central hall. When it is empty, remove all your people from it and I will refill it. Do we have a deal?" Tolek says.
"Yes." Unam holds out her hand and Tolek falls down from the rafters with a hard thud, startling Unam. Tolek is seemingly unharmed, standing up quickly and holding out his hand in turn. They shake and in so doing solidify a relationship that will change the course of history.
With Tolek's unending supply of food, Unam is able to feed the entirety of Yoashi. She becomes the de facto leader of the entire city, managing the flow of food and everything else as society rebuilds after the chaos.
Unam does not say where the food comes from. And people do not ask. No one would want to hear that it was from a Mapugito..
She has the entire city's workforce under her direct control and she puts them to work sending food to the neighboring cities. Soon her teams are not just upgrading roads, but building rails to all the neighboring cities and they find themselves operating an enormous transportation network.
Through the network her people keep goods, food, medicine, machines, anything, flowing. The network is now an organization. They call themselves The Society.
The Society amasses more wealth than they could ever possibly spend, and through Unam’s generosity and service, she becomes known as the Mother of the modern age.
With the wealth they build, they become the defacto rulers. They start an army to ensure the Incans never consider attacking again. Though war never again seems likely, it never seems too far off either. And a cold war develops. The network of well supplied cities creates a region too powerful for the Inca to push aside with the ease they had become accustomed to. They don’t try to expand but they are happy to trade.
Within three years farming expands to such an extent that they no longer rely on Tolek's food donations.
Thirty years later, Unam and her Society trade with the Inca and every other known peoples. Yoashi culture mixes with the other cultures, but never with the Inca. The Inca keep to themselves.
Everyone is safe yet Unam again feels unsatisfied with herself. And so she climbs somewhere high up to get a better view and clear her thoughts. And so it is that Unam stands at the window of the cupola at the top of the dome of the central offering hall. In Yoashi she likes to come up here to think sometimes. The years make it more difficult to make it up to the stairs but she can still make it. In a few more years, perhaps she will not be able to. She is looking out at the constant stream of transports leaving the many loading docks below marveling at all she, they have accomplished.
A shuffle in the hallway behind her, and she knows who it is. Toabetsa comes and stands next to her. She can see his thin gray hair reflected in the window along with the deep lines of his face from a long, hard life outdoors. But Unam still sees him as she had met him all those years ago, bright, full, thick dark hair and so alive. He had been physically strong, but he had also been mentally strong in his support of her from the beginning.
And together they have come so far. Their children will go so much further.
"What brings you up here today?" He asks her.
Unam sighs a kind of sigh that carries the weight of entire worlds. "What happens to all this after we die?"
"What do you want to happen?" Toabetsa is a wise man, Unam often reminds herself how fortunate she has been to find him.
"I want it to keep going on, to have a purpose beyond its own self perpetuation."
"What purpose might that be? We move goods. Our purpose is to move more goods."
"But what good" she pokes him in the ribs, "does that do? People need a reason to come to work, I need a reason that we've done all this."
"You saved hundreds of thousands of people from starvation. And no one can judge you for keeping some of the money that changed hands. You are the richest person besides dear old Inca Papa. You can say what your reason is and it will be the reason. No one can say otherwise."
But Unam would know. She needs to know this is all for the good of others. She has to do something with her fortune that will benefit others.
"We need to learn."
Toabetsa waits expectantly.
"The Banetmabo knew so much that we do not. There is more to learn. We need to learn from them. And we need to find them so we can learn more. I can die contented if I know that we made something that will outlast us."
"We have our children." Toabetsa says.
"Yes, but what world will they inherit? One of privilege and reliance on the movement of goods? What if there is another catastrophe? What if the Banetmabo return? We need," Unam pauses, "They need, a higher purpose that will keep them together after we are gone."
"We have a purpose, moving more goods, better."
"But there are no more cities to connect without pushing into Inca land. No. We need something else. And don't say the Incans"
"What then? You have something in mind. Tell me."
"Remember I told you that little Mapugito gave us all the food that started all this?"
"Yes, Tolek."
"Yes, it was made by the Banetmabo. The Banetmabo may have left, but what they left did good. Maybe there is more good there to find. We will find out why the Banetmabo left and go find them.”
"And how do we do that?"
"We must start tomorrow. We will send a team to the closest Banetmabo city and scavenge the ruins. There must be some clues. And the next day we will send another, and the next day another."
"It will be done."
"And we will divert the work crews. There is no more track to be built, so they will return and build shrines to the Banetmabo. Places where people can come together and learn from what they left behind to take us forward into the future."
"And we will keep learning until we have learned enough to go searching for our teachers."
And so the ethos of The Society that continues to this day was born.
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