Wisdom in the Dark

Jak knelt outside Wodniki Village, trowel in one hand, a small glass vial filled with seeds in the other. Though constantly growing Ganymede’s ecosystem was everyone’s job, during this wake period he did so as an attempt to calm his anxiety at his impending marriage. This wasn’t just any marriage. Yes, the woman he would marry was genetically unrelated to him going back to before the time their people came to Jupiter and its moons. And it helped that Jak’s bride to be was stunningly beautiful – reinforced by every man (and some women) in the village. The problem Jak continued to mull over in his head was that Myra Pyc wasn’t just any other woman, she was the head of Pyc Village. Jak frowned as he drove his trowel past the thick grasses and into the soft Ganymedian soil. “By Wotuos, you’re lucky,” Jak’s best friend Ivan had exclaimed when he heard the news. “Don’t use Wotuos’ name in vain,” Jak had replied. “And how? She would be the dominant one.” Ivan had just smiled. “I’d let a beauty like Myra Pyc dominate me any time.” Jak let out a deep sigh and shook the small glass bottle carefully, ensuring just enough arctic willow seeds dropped into the hole he made. It was fitting he planted this wake period – a new start for a plant, a new start for him. He pressed the disturbed soil over the seeds and intoned, “Wotuos, you created order from chaos and created life. Help create life here that our world may thrive.” Then Jak touched his forehead and the center of his chest, ending his prayer. Normally meditation followed by a ritual planting would have calmed Jak. Now, though, it seemed Jak was more anxious than ever before. Myra Pyc would expect Jak to be strong, confident, and accomplished. Jak wondered when she would discover him for the fraud he was because Jak was none of those things, not in his mind. Could he ever truly be her husband, her man, not just some male mating with her to ensure their children weren’t the malformed result of i****t? Jak shook his head, sealing the cap back on the glass vial, and turned back to the domed Wodniki Village. The collection of ancient dwellings were huddled tight together beneath the honeycombed glass dome on the Ganymedian surface like so many sheep in a snow storm. At the center of the village was the Ting, the seat of the village and Family leadership, flanked on all sides by businesses, homes, and the temple to Wotuos. To the North and East were greenhouse domes where livestock were tended and crops grown, and domes for wild animals. All of the buildings were ancient, block prefabs which had been spruced up over the cycles with designs of knotted dragons, bears, and other beasts. To the West and South were the industrial sector where equipment was repaired, weapons of war stored, and where the village’s shuttles sat. Jak’s father, Jan, told Jak stories of the factories building things when the village was first built all those cycles ago, but how that knowledge had been lost. As he approached the village Jak saw his father waiting for him. “What are you doing out here?” Jan asked. “One last offering to Wotuos and Ganymede before I leave,” Jak replied. “And are you prepared to leave?” Not at all. “I’m ready,” he lied. “I’m sure this is difficult for you,” Jan said as he turned to walk with Jak, through air lock doors that no longer worked and were no longer needed, deeper into Wodniki Village. “I can do my duty for our family and ensure we continue to propagate clean genetics.” Jan scoffed. “Hardly a duty marrying such a beautiful woman like Myra Pyc. If I was a younger man and not married to your mother. . .” Jan’s voice trailed off. Jak grinned at his father. “I don’t think mother would have let you stay single much longer back then, from what I hear.” “Your uncle’s been telling you stories again,” Jan replied with a huff. Jak and Jan strode through the village, past domed houses and oblong box buildings where businesses set up shop. From a distance through the glass of the dome the village looked a uniform gray, but closer up the patchwork of recent repairs in different shades of tan, brown, and off-white were apparent. Jak halted at the temple to Wotuos and popped into the building’s dark interior to place the vial of arctic willow seeds back in repository which lined the temple’s walls. He found the slim, empty slot in the metal receptacle along the wall which at one point held hundreds of vials. Now only a few dozen filled the metal slots. The duo of metal eggs that were the Wodniki Family’s shuttles grew larger as Jak and Jan continued through the village and into the industrial area. Blocky repair facilities gave way to the hangars for the Wodniki Family Silfs. Jak noticed only four of the machines of war were in their hangars. The other three Silfs were loaded onto one of the shuttles. Jak could see one hangar where a Silf was laid out on the ground, its body and appendages in different states of disrepair as it was cannibalized for equipment and parts. Jak’s mother, Ata, waited for Jak and Jan as the two men walked through another decrepit airlock and across the hard cement tarmac toward the shuttles. To the right of the tarmac sat the metal silos, nearly as tall as the shuttles themselves, that slowly transformed carbon dioxide in the air and Ganymedian water in the soil into methane and oxygen for fuel for the shuttles and Silfs. “Having second thoughts?” Ata asked Jak as she reached out and caressed Jan’s arm. “You can always turn back.” “Ata,” Jan said, gripping Ata’s had in his. Jak knew by his father’s tone that Jan was annoyed with this topic. “I spent over a hundred rotations of Ganymede around Jupiter working to set up this marriage. I don’t need you ending it before it’s even begun.” “It’s alright, mother,” Jak assured Ata. “I’m ready to go.” Ata shook her head and turned toward the ramp extending from the bottom third of the nearest egg-shaped shuttle - The Pride of Wodniki – releasing Jan’s hand. “I follow your lead as always, my love,” she said to Jan. “I just never thought I’d see the day a Wodniki stooped so low to marry a Pyc.” Jan stopped to allow his wife to ascend the ramp ahead of him, and Jak saw his father clench his fists. “I just have to get her through the next few wake periods,” Jan whispered. Then Jan followed Ata into the depths of the shuttle. Not only would Jak have to deal with his bride to be, he would have to watch his snake-tongued mother. Jak wanted to believe Ata meant well, but knew she could cause more trouble than good. Just be confident, Jak told himself. Jak released a heavy sigh before he, too, trudged up the ramp into the shuttle.