[The Lone Gunslinger, Chapter 21, The Clattering] "I just don't get it, Jaco." "But it's so easy, look here." Jaco points back at the interior of the satellite sitting up on a frame. The satellite is a new communications satellite the Pyrans purchased and will be deployed by the Jackdaws when we arrive. The Jackdaws also have the contract to perform maintenance on all the Pyran's existing satellites; it's a big payday for the Jackdaws; the contract is worth billions. "Just stop, I don't understand anything you're saying." Jaco sighs. "I'm sorry, I just want you to be a Jackdaw." A Jackdaw Technician working on the satellite looks up and interrupts Jaco, "How can he be a Jackdaw if he's never heard The Clattering?" "That's a great idea," says Jaco. "Take him up to Deck 9 and see Laenai," suggests the Technician. Jaco grabs my arm and off we go, again. Jaco's been dragging me all over the ship and we are both getting more frustrated by the second. Everything is just too far over my head and I don't understand anything, but I want to understand, I'm trying. "Who's Laenai?" I ask Jaco while we run through the corridors. "Don't know, probably a teacher, I can't know everyone, there's easily twenty-thousand people onboard. Anyway, Deck 9 is the school deck," replies Jaco. We have to run up the ramps, the elevator lifts are for official ship duties only. The ramps are as wide as a road and we have to stay to the side inside the yellow painted safety lines. Small flat trucks, fork lifts, and robotic vehicles are driving up and down the ramps; the yellow safety lines are for people to walk inside of so they don't get run over. At each switch-back on the ramps is a large curved mirror up on the wall and you have to keep an eye on it so you can see if something is coming around the corner. Deck 9 is different from the other decks and it takes me a minute to absorb the oddity of the school deck. Instead of the sterile white walls like the rest of the ship I've seen so far, Deck 9 is painted in bright colors with fanciful murals of trees and birds. This deck is obviously intended for their hatchlings onboard. Jaco stops at a glass window and points. "Look there." Inside the room Jaco is pointing are hundreds of cradles with an egg carefully nuzzled between blankets. And Demonians! There are Demonians walking around among the eggs. "I thought Commander Keat said only Jackdaws were onboard?" "Huh? Oh, that's different, those are Demonians, we wouldn't even trust ourselves with our eggs, only Demonians can be trusted to care for eggs. A Demonian would die to protect an egg, not even the Daraian hatching parents would do that." I stare in shock at Jaco, the Daraians are an odd species. "How could you just turn your babies over to aliens from another world?" Jaco glances sideways at me as if to say, 'how could you ask such a silly question' and then lays his hand on my arm. "What? I don't mean anything bad, I just want to understand." "I know you don't," replies Jaco. "Is my hand cold?" "Your hands are always freezing, so?" "Watch, I'll show you why we trust the Demonians," says Jaco. Jaco glances around and then heads towards a Demonian just coming out of a hatchway. I follow Jaco but he doesn't stop at the Demonian and starts to walk past as if he doesn't even see the massive horned being. "Hold it right there, child," orders the Demonian. Jaco stops and turns around. "Yes, Tarlock?" The Demonian steps up to Jaco and places it's hand against Jaco's forehead. I think it's hand could wrap all the way around Jaco's head. "How long has it been, child?" asks the Demonian. "Over a year, almost two," replies Jaco. "You are still too young to neglect yourself like that," says the Demonian, and then grabs Jaco up like a hatchling and hugs him tight. I watch Jaco's face, his eyes close and an expression of pure contentment spreads across his face. The Demonian sets Jaco down and then Jaco reaches out and places his hand on my arm again; his hand is warm, almost hot to the touch. "I'm an avian," says Jaco. "I can't regulate my body temperature as easily as you can, but I'll be warm again now for a long time." "Promise you will seek out a Tarlock in six months or I will place you on the at-risk list," says the Demonian. "It wasn't my fault," pouts Jaco. "But, I promise." "Very good," says the Demonian. "I think my partner is cold too," says Jaco grinning. I shake my head no but the Demonian reaches out and places it's hand on my forehead. "This must be the Human Jackdaw we have heard about," says the Demonian. "No, he is a mammal and not cold, but there is a problem with his well-being." The Demonian grabs me and pulls me into a hug. I try to struggle and push away but it's like trying to push against a brick wall. And then… I feel… warm… I'm floating, and my arms and legs relax and I don't want to push away. I feel… something else, something so complete and perfect, and I look up into the Demonian's face. I no longer see the terrifying thing that is the very origin of human nightmares. I see… pure unconditional love, for no other reason than I am a living creature. "You are afraid," says the Demonian. I nod my head. I live in a brutal uncaring civilization that sells its children into slavery, that abandons it's young, that can murder a child's mother and steal him away from his father. A civilization that a father can throw his son out onto a prairie of vicious Beastie-Cats to live or die only for the purpose of determining if the child is strong enough to be permitted to live… yes, I am afraid. "You have never forgiven him for what happened to you," whispers the Demonian. I am floating in a place of pure love, pure acceptance, I am safe. "No, I've never really forgiven." The Demonian holds me tighter and whispers again. "The Dragon knows of your suffering and all will be made whole again, let go of your fear." I step back and the Demonian lets me go. I feel warm, as if I have been cold my entire life and am experiencing warmth for the first time. The Demonian smiles kindly at me and then walks off leaving me standing there in my euphoria. "Do you understand now?" asks Jaco. "Who was that?" I ask. "That was a Tarlock Priest," says Jaco. "What's a Dragon?" I ask. "I don't know, never heard of a Dragon before," says Jaco. "He said the Dragon knows of my suffering." "You probably misheard, it's hard to concentrate on anything when they are passing warmth to you," explains Jaco. "Yea, probably," I admit. "I misheard, where to now?" Jaco finds a Jackdaw teacher and asks about Laenai, and we are directed to a classroom at the end of the corridor. When we get there and look inside the room I'm fairly certain we are in the wrong place. The room is full of very tiny little hatchlings sitting at tables coloring, or playing with various toys. I can't believe Daraians are so small at this age, the tallest one barely comes up to my knees. The teacher sees us standing in the door and comes over to find out what we want. "Sorry to interrupt your class," says Jaco. "We were looking for Laenai." "You found her," says the teacher. "What can I help you boys with?" "Oh, there must be a mistake," says Jaco. "I'm trying to teach Keal here what it is to be a Jackdaw but he's having a hard time understanding and someone suggested he needed to hear The Clattering." "I see, well, we all know who Keal is," says Laenai. "He's been on all the Ship News-Vids for the last two days. I'm honored you came to me. Come on in, Keal, lets get you a proper foundation." The teacher grabs my hand and pulls me into the classroom. Jaco starts to follow but Laenai holds her hand up and stops him. "Not you, just Keal," says Laenai. "Run along now, you can come get him later." The teacher pulls me along with her while Jaco backs out the door. "Class, we have a guest student with us today, say hello to Keal." "Hello, Keal," the hatchlings repeat. "You're not a Jackdaw," one of the hatchlings call out. "He's a giant," says another hatchling. "He might try to eat us. "Behave yourselves," Laenai scolds the hatchlings. "Keal, take a seat at that table." I look at the table the teacher is pointing at, it can't be more than foot tall and the chair isn't big enough for one of those dolls I saw on the shelf in Gunslinger Elias' cabin. I try to imagine what Jaco might have looked like at this age. "Umm…" I look at the teacher and raise a brow. "Just sit on the floor, Keal," says Laenai. The hatchlings scramble away as I sit down on the floor and scoot up to the table and pick the end of the table up and pull it onto my lap. I get a few laughs from the hatchlings and then pick up the tiny chair and try to take a bite out of it and the hatchlings are sufficiently satisfied that I eat chairs and not hatchlings. The teacher, Laenai, brings a box over an sets it down in front of me. The box has an assortment of parts to build something and a piece of paper I assume are the instructions. "Just follow the instructions, and if you need an example look at the ones the hatchlings made over on that shelf." Laenai points at a bookshelf with the completed projects, each one with a little white card and a name printed on the card proudly displayed. I pull the parts out of the box and line them up on the table; a wooden board, bottle of glue, copper wire, nail, cardboard tube, pipe, small piece of metal, and a tiny pair of headphones. The instructions say to start with the cardboard tube. A hatchling pokes it's head around from behind me and tips it's head sideways to look up at me. "Use the nail to poke holes," says the hatchling. Another hatchling peeks around the other side of me. "Teacher marked where to make the holes." The hatchling points at the tube. There are four little dots made with a marker on the tube. "Move back, giants need lotsa room," a slightly larger hatchling shoos the others back with an air of authority, it has a set of adorable miniature wings on. The other hatchlings move away, the winged hatchling must be in charge. I have the strangest urge to scoop the hatchling up and cuddle it. "Poke holes where the dots are," says the in-charge hatchling. I obey and poke holes with the nails; two holes to one end of the tube and two holes to the other end. "Put the wire down one hole and back up the other," instructs the hatchling. I have a bit of trouble with that, the wire doesn't want to cooperate. The hatchling cocks it's head to one side and looks up at me. "You're not very smart," says the hatchling. I've watched Jaco and Josh enough times to know the proper response for this and bare my teeth and hiss at the hatchling; it doesn't even flinch. The hatchling bares it's teeth back and hisses at me while fluttering it's adorable wings. I hold the wire up and the hatchling bends the end of the wire slightly to make it easier to thread through the hole--okay, I should have thought of that. "Wrap it now," instructs the hatchling. The instructions are fairly clear and I can see how it's done. I start wrapping and the hatchling scolds me again. "Tighter, it has to be one-hundred twenty loops." I have to wonder if the hatchling can really count that high. At it's age I was lucky if I could hold up the right amount of fingers for how old I was. I finish wrapping the copper wires around the tube but the hatchling scolds me again. "That was only one-hundred seventeen loops, three more." Holy frozen ancestors but the hatchlings are smart little devils, now I'm really impressed. There is something to be said for natural selection, intelligence has been bred into the Daraians for countless eons, or maybe I'm just looking at the cream of the crop and that's why they are living on the House Flagship. "This is the… " the hatchling looks at the teacher. "Aerial," says the teacher. "Yea, aerial, and this is the ground," the hatchling points at the two ends of the coil of wire wrapped around the cardboard tube. "Wrap this end around the pipe." I wrap the ground wire and then connect the two ends to a piece of metal with something gray on the tips, and then wrap that around the nail. The two ends are now dangling down and I check the diagram. "Those go to the headset," says the hatchling, and I twist the wires together. "Now use the glue and put it all on the board." "I think you've done this before," I tell the hatchling, and get a look like I'm the dumbest person in the galaxy. "The teacher told you our radios are over there on the shelf, didn't you hear her?" "Maybe he doesn't speak Daraian very well," suggests another hatchling. "You have to be patient with humans." "It…is…a…radio…ours…are…on…that…shelf," the hatchling says each word slowly. I have to keep from laughing at the misunderstanding, I can speak Daraian well enough for most occasions now. But… "Umm… what's a radio? I ask. "The Jackdaws invented the first radio many thousands of years ago, it is a receiver, just like the Ear-bug Com-device in your ear," explains Laenai. "The radio is the foundation of all Jackdaw technology." "How's it work?" I ask. "Put the headphones on," says the hatchling impatiently. The headphones are far too small for me, but I hold one side up to my ear. "I don't hear anything, maybe it needs batteries?" "Take the nail you wrapped the wire around and touch it to the coil," instructs Laenai. I don't hear anything right away and the teacher tells me to move it back and forth on the coil until I hear something. I almost knock the little hatchling over when I hear voices and jump back startled. I touch the coil again and listen to all the voices, they are all talking at the same time. "I hear a lot of voices," I say amazed. "Yes, to separate the voices you would need a capacitor," says Laenai. "What's that?" I ask. "This is a capacitor." Laenai shows me a small black round thing with wires at each end. "The capacitor sets the resonance frequency, or simpler said, it separates the frequencies and tunes the radio receiver." I shrug my shoulders. "Each voice is a frequency, riding through the air, through the walls, through space," explains Laenai. "Right now your radio is listening to every frequency at the same time. The capacitor separates the voices so you hear only one frequency at a time. When you move the nail along the coil, you would be able to hear each voice by itself." "Oh my gosh!" I almost shout with excitement. "I get it, this is what Jaco was trying to tell me what the satellite does." "That is correct. We start all Jackdaws with our first invention, the radio--the foundation. From there we build their knowledge forward." "Are all those voices The Clattering?" I ask. "No, what you are hearing is just the Jackdaw Clattering," replies Laenai clapping her hands together twice. "Hatchlings, would you like to hear 'The Clattering'." The hatchlings jump up and run, pushing and jostling each other, towards a rug at the far end of the room where they all sit and stare expectantly at their teacher. I get up and follow them over to the rug and they make me a spot to sit down. I'm rather enjoying this, I wish my school had been like this. The teacher picks up a control tablet and taps out a few commands and the lights in the room dim and then... Wow! The room becomes superimposed with a hologram. I can still see the classroom, and the furniture, and walls... dimly, but also it is as if I'm sitting on a tall cliff looking up at the sky. "Nearly two million years ago when the sky fell, the tribes of Darai were separated from each other as we hid deep in the mountain caves under our world." I listen to the teachers story just as raptly as all the hatchings, mesmerized by the story-time. "Each tribe found their own way of surviving the falling of the sky. Hatchlings, can you tell me some of the survival skills the different tribes discovered?" asks Laenai. "Hawks got strong and fast!" "Ravens were clever!" "Falcons could see better than anyone!" "Sparrows built the pyramids!" "Grackles were loud!" "That is correct, hatchlings," praises Laenai. "The Grackles invented the megaphone and could pass news of where rocks were falling to other Grackle tribes so they could hunt safely." The teacher rolls a piece a paper up and shouts into it. "Hello, beware rocks falling to the west!" The hatchlings giggle and laugh. "And the Hawks were strong enough and fast enough to out-run meteorite showers," Laenai continues. "And Ravens were very clever, they timed when the rocks fell and knew when it was safe to come out of the shadows of their caves. The Sparrows built many small pyramids, most of which were only big enough for their hunting parties to hide in when they were away from their caves and rocks fell. The Falcons eyesight became so good they could see the falling meteorites and their tribes were safe. And the Jackdaws, how did we survive?" "OUR EARS!!" shouts the hatchlings. "That is correct, we developed hearing so good we could hear the rocks coming and avoid them," says Laenai. I understand exactly what Laenai is saying. She's talking about selective breeding, each tribe bred for a different trait that they thought would help them survive. I... oh my ancestors... there... I raise my hand. "Yes, Keal?" "There's not really thousands of different Daraian Races, are there?" I ask. The teacher smiles kindly at me. "That is a discussion for a different class, but you are on the right track of thinking, very good. Keep that question for the sixth grade class." I raise my hand again. "Yes, Keal?" "Were you named after the birds, or the birds after you?" I ask. "You are clever, Keal," says Laenai. "We named ourselves after the birds many thousands of years after the birds began to repopulate the planet. Daraian Tribes discovered that different birds shared the traits we cherished and we adopted their names. At one time there where many Tribes that called themselves the Falcon Tribe or the Raven Tribe, and many wars were fought over those names until the Tribes solidified into what would later become known as House Falcon, and House Raven, and House Jackdaw, and so on." "How did you start using House governments, that's a Kitsune form of government?" "You are jumping ahead of yourself," says Laenai. "How that happened is a sore spot in our history and you should save that question for the ninth-grade class." "I'm sorry." "Don't be sorry for showing that you have a brain, but lets get back on track," says Laenai. "Shush, Keal, we want to hear The Clattering," scolds the little hatchling with the wings. Laenai holds up a finger to quiet the impatient class. "Keal, have heard Jackdaws called 'Senseless Jackdaws' before?" I blush and nod. I've called Jaco that before. "As our hearing grew better we started to hear a whisper," explains Laenai. "Our ancient ancestors would sit in the trees for hours listening to the whisper, and we were called senseless for it, no other Daraians could hear it. But it wasn't until we invented the radio that we discovered what we were hearing." Laenai picks up the radio I built and holds it up. "We built better and better receivers and pointed them out into space, and then we heard this." Laenai pushes a button on her control tablet and a sound fills the room. The sound is like a static sound, but more. "The Clattering... The Clattering..." whispers the hatchlings in awe. "Keal, you are hearing the background noise left over from the creation of the universe. The Jackdaws first heard this long before any other Daraian, or even before the human species had crawled out of the primordial pond--This is 'The Clattering'." I look up at the hologram of the Universe, out through the vast reaches of space. I look around at the hatchlings and a shiver runs down my spine and for the first time I realize I am sitting with an alien species so different from me it's nearly incomprehensible. Then the hatchlings start singing, they are singing to the static sound. I listen to their song for awhile and then I join my voice to theirs. And I sing The Song of Creation--The Clattering.