Beyond the Veil

Pana relished the cool, soothing flow of heavy rainfall upon her waxy skin. The increased tempo of drops, growing from a constant misting to intense deluge over the course of the morning, was most welcome. Silky streams ran all over her body, releasing tension and calming her mind under its familiar, glistening comfort. It also sharpened the curtain of falling water that marked the edge of the known world. Time spent gazing across the border into an alien landscape, festered the lingering anxiety within her chest. No amount of rain could wash away that trepidation. In a last attempt to banish the feeling, Pana raised her face to the forest canopy, allowing water to wash over her transparent inner eyelids and centred herself in what was comfortable and normal.

Beyond the veil of cascading rain lay open and clear skies. The blinding blue expanse topped a dry, dirt plain of low grasses that butted harshly up against a lush wall of trees. Those ancient giants, standing like guardians, protected Pana and all she had ever known. Her expedition team had ventured further than any had previously dared, and as a result, had discovered more than even she had bargained for. The abrupt end to the landscape was unprecedented. It had always been assumed that the forest carpeted the entire world. Tall, buttressed trees with enormous waxy leaves supported innumerable species of vine, flowering plants and parasitic life. At ground level, dark loving ferns, mosses and scrub thrived. The sun broke through the layers upon layers of vegetation sporadically and all of it was accompanied by the constant, indisputable falling rain. It was simply, how things were supposed to be. Pana and her teams journey had already thrown that assumption to the wind.

“Good Morning Dr. Meya!” Rifer called, dragging her back from her quiet musings. No matter how she tried to escape and find solitude, her faithful assistant always managed to track her down, “Big day today! Are you ready to move forward? The team is waiting and we are all equal parts excited and nervous!”

“Morning Rifer,” she replied, politely, as the young man fought his way through the undergrowth to reach her, “Yes, we are to move forward. We must gather as much data as we can before we are forced to return home. There can be no delays.”

As he stumbled across the last stretch of uneven ground and clambered up the small rise, Rifer held forward his hand. Despite the weeks they had spent clambering through uncharted forest, he still insisted on the formality of scholars. She took his hand in greeting, as she had every morning. The green of his upper arms was brighter than usual under the heavier downpour, the yellow below equally glistening from the run off. She felt the rubbery pattern of bumps that covered his palms against her own and was impressed with the grip he maintained despite the weather. He had a more common colouring, but beneath it hid a sharp intellect that was not to be underestimated, regardless of his strict adherence to propriety. Her own, uninterrupted, golden hue was more unique and celebrated, much to Pana’s horror. She would have preferred to emerge from the juvenile pools less noticeable and more able to concentrate on her studies, without all the expectation of the public life that accompanied her apparent beauty.

“I just wanted to say, Dr. Meya, that no matter how today’s tests go, you have been an inspiration, and I am honoured to have been part of your expedition.”

“Jeez, Rifer. You talk as if I’m not coming back. It doesn’t look so different over there. Don’t fret. All will be well. Come, lets rejoin the others and get underway.” Pana replied, attempting to comfort herself as much as the young man.

As they arrived back at base camp on long strides, Dr. Pana Meya, head of exploratory research at the ecological institute, rounded up her team and made ready for the greatest leap into the unknown ever attempted by modern science. She knew it was a risk, she knew she should have returned to the institute for approval, but she also knew that this might be her only chance to be the first one on the ground. In the wilds she was in charge. There were no committees, no risk assessments, no young military body to send ahead of her. This was her discovery, and she was determined that it would be her name in the histories, as the first feet to touch ground outside of the rain forests.

Finally ready, her stomach a cacophony of insects, Pana stood before the curtain to a new world of clear skies. She had a myriad of moisture sensors attached to her body, the most uncomfortable of which strapped across the webbing of her toes. The biggest fear of all being her drying out under the harsh conditions. A bank of field researchers stood with data pads, ready to record her every movement and Rifer was of course, beside her.

“Good luck, Pana.” He whispered, solemn. His fear radiating from him like a bad smell. She place her hand upon his shoulder and squeezed.

“All will be well, my friend. This will be a short test and at any sign of danger I will return.” She smiled and he offered a weak replica back. She nodded past him at the rest of the team, locked her eyes forward and stepped up so that her nose almost broke free of the sheeting rainfall. She took a deep breath and a single stride, taking her beyond the reach of the rain for the first time in her life.

The first thing to hit her was the blinding light. She had to stagger to a stop and squint her eyes to slits under the harsh gaze of the intense sunlight. Never had she appreciated the protective cover of the trees so much.

“Dr. Meya! Are you alright!?” Rifer yelled, “Come back! The sunlight is too strong!”

She waved her hand frantically back at him, shaking her head. Forcing her eyes open against the assault, they began to adjust and she could see once more.

“It’s alright. I’m okay! It just took a moment to acclimatise. The light is intense but bearable. The air is breathable. It feels inhospitable, but not lethal.”

Once she began it was easy to remind herself to vocalise everything she was seeing and feeling. The radio headset she wore would make her words audible to the whole team, who could document her experiences for future endeavours. She went on to describe the tickling blades of multiple short grasses that stroked at her feet, the dry stone that littered the landscape and how the air was abrasive against her skin. She could feel it drying her out quickly and the instruments attached to her limbs confirmed it. Intent on seeing beyond the immediate ridge line, she hastily proclaimed the statement she had prepared,

“For all amphibious life I step forward, into the light, so that many generations may follow, turning the unknown into the understood.”

Then, living her proclamation, she strode forward at speed.

Pana could hear the protests over her headset, but unless they were willing to join her, they could do nothing to halt her advance. Her moisture monitors were already reading into the red, but she had time. Marching up to the ridge line and enjoying the extended walk, she eventually stood proudly upon its edge and gazed down onto another grassy plain below. Her breath caught in her throat, speechless and wasting valuable seconds, until she could bring herself to describe what she saw.

“A wide river cuts the plain below. Water…fresh water.”

Gasps sounded over the radio, but only one voice put words to the discovery.

“We could exist apart from the rainfall. If large bodies of fresh water exist beyond the trees!? This is remarkable! What a discovery! True exploration could be a real option! You were right Dr. Meya, this was worth finding now, it will inform the next expedition far more readily!” Rifer exclaimed.

“Wait. Quiet. There’s more,” she commanded, “Against the river sits a settlement. Rudimentary buildings, some incorporate timber, I see shadows of beings, walking upright as we do. There is intelligent life here! This is…incredible! I…I struggle to put words to the magnitude of this discovery.” Pana said, breathless and gazing out in wonder at the tiny outlines of the creatures below.

“Dr. Meya…Pana! Get back here! Right now! Please. We are not equipped for first contact with an indigenous people. You could be in real danger!” Rifer’s voice, tinged with panic, rang through the headset. Shaking her head, she saw the wisdom in her faithful assistant’s words. She had risked enough. Deciding to turn away did not come without disappointment though. As she took a wise step back toward the cover and safety of the rain forest, movement caught her eye, dragging her vision back to the settlement below. Their body language, pointing and raised voices could not be mistaken, the unknown creatures had seen her. Several were mounting what looked like beasts of burden and moving at speed to intercept her. At the same moment, an alarm on her wrist began ringing out, signalling a dangerously low moisture level in her skin. Time was up.

Fear striking true for the first time, she ran. Pana took long strides, as fast as she was able, back towards the towering trees. She had always been an academic, never excelling in sport and now she suffered for the narrow lifestyle she had chosen. Still she ran with everything she had and as she did so, the moisture levels shown on her monitors plummeted. She did not need them to tell her what was happening. Her skin was growing tight, dry and uncomfortable. Her breath came in gasps, her eyes and mouth felt like sandpaper. She would make it, the water was close enough, but it would be cutting it fine. The life-giving rains would provide, as they always had before, she just had to reach out to their embrace before it was too late. Her pace slowed under the duress; but she forced her legs onward. Fire burned in her underused muscles. The sounds of alien creatures grew louder behind her. After an eternity, she was within reach of the forest. A few more seconds and she would have been safe. It was soul crushing, after the long slog across the foreign landscape, to be cut off by a strange being riding an even more unusual animal on that final push. She stopped dead, noting the long spears the riders held aloft and raised her hands, so close to an unreachable safety.

Despite being accosted by an alien species, Pana could not help but absorb every facet of their appearance for later recording. Each of the beings were of a same colour. It was bizarre. Light brown as an almond and evenly smooth all over. They had sporadic protrusions of hair that was much like the kind that covered small mammals in the forest. Decorated with bird's feathers, for she did not think they grew from their bodies, and wearing little more than enough to cover their genitalia, these people were as foreign as she must appear to them. They rode four legged beasts of a kind she could not compare, larger than any tree cat or bush pig and they held their master's high above Pana’s head height. The rudimentary sharp weapons they carried were menacing and there were four of them, all heavily muscled, which was more than enough to hold her academic body frozen in place. She longed to communicate all she saw to those just beyond the cover of leaves and falling water, the wall of which was so agonisingly within reach, but she dared not startle the local species, for fear of their retaliation.

“Monstruo!” One grunted at her.

“Tlaloque!” Another yelled in annoyance at the first.

Her instruments were flashing and beeping increasingly quickly and a pain like she had never felt began creeping across her skin. Never had she gone beyond a few moments without water cascading over her body. Her eyes felt as if they were shrinking in their sockets and her throat was beginning to close. She had to do something, she could not just stand there waiting for them or the sun to finish her. So, she attempted to communicate. Not knowing what they had said, she had intended to introduce herself, to greet them with arms open and initiate first contact on behalf of her entire people. Instead, her throat was so dry, so constricted that all it could do was erupt a hoarse and sudden croaking, followed by a squealing intake of breath.

Clearly alarmed, they did not speak. They did not understand. They did not wait. Something simply thudded into her back between her shoulder blades with a force that knocked her to her knees. She could feel the weight of the spear sticking into the dry air. She did not need to see it. They had assumed her a danger, before she could even present anything different. Shock overtook her body, disbelief and denial rampant through her mind. Only one thing cut through the fog and that was her lifelong pursuit to preserve knowledge. It summoned in her the strength to clear her throat and whisper to her team,

“RUN! WARN ATLANTIS!”

With the words travelling through her headset and to the ears of her fellows, she accepted that she had protected them. Her fate would not become theirs, or any other of her kind, thanks to the data she had gathered that day. With that, she closed her eyes, raised her face to the sky and imagined the comforting cascade of raindrops against her skin. Pana Meya let go of any regret her hubris had brought and chose to revel in the discoveries that would bear her name.