Vestige
Chapter 20

“They went where?!” Councilor Tyra Housenn Sohill, at that point, was being grandma Tyra. It had been nearly two weeks since she and synthetic laborer Number Four had gone to, what was by then officially called, Lake Thuall. Now, what she had feared had already happened.

All three of her middle-age children were at her mastaba-hut; none of their children nor their grandchildren were at the councilor’s home. On that day, it was not a social gathering! Even Tyra’s portable stayed out of the family argument!

Janneca and Charl were both seated at a couple of Tyra’s cMaj-wicker chair; made from one of the planet’s few arboreal species. The population of said-tree exploded after the Vestige colonists migrated to the Plateau region. The two younger siblings of Mirana Housenn Thuall usually let their older sister take the lead in battling their mother when contention had arisen within the family.

“In case you haven’t noticed, mom, this is a very small town, so news tends to run the circuit on cMaj,” Miriana sardonically put to her mother, whom was standing across the communal area. Her hands were held out as if begging to understand. Her daughter continued. “What did you think was going to happen when you tried keeping Lake Thuall’s sand a secret from the rest of us in the settlement? Just because the Thualls’ progenitor is a geologist and lets his children and grandkids play along when he conducts experiments does not mean they’re the only ones that should have access to the lake!”

“I knew it,” Tyra shot back. “You could never get over that the majority of the villagers voted to name it after Fillip and Lanay’s family! Well, young lady, even on cMaj there are unwritten rules…they found it; it gets named after—”

“—and whose idea was it to re-settle the Three Tribes all those years ago; here, on the plateaus? It was you, mom! If we hadn’t moved in the first place, the Natsome Thuall clan wouldn’t have stumbled across the lake!”

Tyra’s eyes focused on Miriana, whom was virtually an identical twin of her mother! Just younger, and with much shorter hair. “You almost seem to forget you’re talking about your common-law husband’s father, Miri!”

Miriana glanced at her sister and brother as she rolled her eyes, but Tyra kept going. “I honestly am not sure I understand what it is you want, Miri…you think the lake should be named after us—as a family? I appreciate what you’re saying about me in all this, Miri. I really do. Why, I even remember from all those years ago that you didn’t even want to relocate the Tribes! You voted that we should’ve competed for the old Ship’s ruins against the rogue synths!” Tyra said this as she shot her eyes toward Janneca and Charl; as if to remind them and get them to not back Miriana on the issue.

Miriana went silent but shook her head as she sighed. “Totally a different issue, mom, and you know it…Look, all this is too late anyway. The majority of the town’s adolescent citizens have learned about it and have been taking portion-cups of the sand and making them into pets, mom…” Here, Miriana actually smirked. “Maybe we were a little too efficient in how we taught them about the old Colony’s animal populations!”

Despite themselves, everyone in the councilor’s abode began to laugh at Miriana’s observation!

“You realize this will make using the sand for direct-solarvoltaic materials impossible, now,” Charl said after the laughter died in the hut. Like everyone else in Vestige 2 during the current windy season, he was swaddled in thin clothing made from cMaj’s sturdy vegetative materials that blocked much of the planet’s course dust in the air.

“Why should that matter,” Miriana rebutted. “It’s a technology the Settlement needs…we can’t have something like a novelty such as moving sand get in the way of that.”

Everyone else in the mastaba’s communal room glanced at one another.

“You can’t be serious, Miri,” Janneca finally voiced from her seat; swathed in her drab, thin body-wrap clothing. “They’re sentient, Miriana…synthetic or not!”

“What’s next,” Charl input, “our computerables?”

Tyra shook her head in disappointment as she subconsciously glanced at her old friend the portable! Whom deliberately remained silent during the whole exchange.

“Don’t take me out of context,” Miriana replied; pointing an accusatory finger at her siblings. “Even during mom and dad’s time in the old Ship when they were young, there used to be hundreds of thousands of Colonists that ate animal flesh—and those species were closer to humans than some synthetic sub-species in an elemental form!”

The councilor, Janneca, and Charl all reluctantly gave intimated looks…indeed, Tyra had to admit to herself, Miriana was right about that!

“So,” Charl said with a heavy sigh after a long silence within the hut, “what do we do now?”

“We continue as we always do,” Councilor Housenn Sohill shot back with no hint of doubt. “I’ll schedule a tribal meeting so we can all get the same information from the Natsome Thuall clan’s research into the sand…plus, I’ll have something very important to present to you all…”

All three of the Housenn Sohill adult children looked toward their mother and tribal leader. She nodded in response.

“It’ll be the biggest proposition I’ll have done for us all since the Move!”

The three offspring gave uneasy glances.

“And, yes, it has a lot to do with Lake Thuall’s discovery. But for now, I’ll make us all some dinner…”

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