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Volume 6086


Chapter 28:

 DJ HOWELL

[Log, ON BOARD SHIP {DELETED}, Date {deleted}]
TRANSMISSION CONCLUDED
PERSONAL MEMOIR FROM THE JOURNALS OF THE TERRAN

      It may seem anticlimactic to the adventures of Jer’ok-ta but the Admiral and I were rescued from the desolate planetoid after two Terran months of our isolation.  But the haunting echo of the legend of Jer’ok-ta has refused to be dissipated then and since.  When our mission was completed, I must have hounded the Admiral unmercifully as we were being returned to the shuttle from which we would be conveyed to our respective ships; he bound for the far reaches of the galaxy and I for the Confederation headquarters on Terra.

      On our last evening prior to his disembarkation we spoke again of the son of Ashtar and Chimur.  As was so often the case of those last days, the Admiral was moodily pensive.  Nevertheless he promised to meet with me sometime in the uncertain future to continue the saga of the intrepid beast-man and his lovely mate.  His last words before we parted have haunted me since --

"His life was tragic in a sense -- all those wasted years.  He should have been high king, you know."

 EPILOGUE

      Looking back over the span of years, how often I ponder the intricate paths our lives take.  At times seemingly aimless or caught in the uncertain swerve of an unforeseen and wholly
unwelcome juncture, still my own path is in retrospect as inevitable as it is exclusively my destined life's journey.  It is a journey inextricably bound up in the events I have been
moved to share with you, my Terran readers.

      Are these events I have been sharing with you fact or are they mothing more than the idle fancy of a teller of small tales, not even stuff of legend?

      That is not for me to tell.  Each of you alone must decide for yourself, as from your own mind is released the being within who hears the call.  Evocative yet elusive, it draws you
beyond the mundane to go forth into a wildness that may, after all, dwell within.  This is the heritage of all humankind however advanced we may profess ourselves.

      Our story would have remained lost in the dust-bound obscurity of Gemini's untransliterated lesser myths and legends, had it not been for the failure of our spacecraft just as the
Admiral and I were passing through the Wandering Planetoids of Gemini.  An accident?

      You can so believe, if you will.  But I wonder . . . .

      Now, because the story of Jer’ok-ta is as much yours as my own, the telling of it has become as unavoidable as our personal destinies.  Some see the influence of the Stars, others
call her Fate; I know the directing force as the Providence of the wisest among Terra's ancients.

By the hand of “the Terran”

---

APPENDIX
ARANDA-ENGLISH (Archaic Inglish) EQUIVALENTS*

Alata                                   Leader
Aranda                               Folk (Pseudohomo sylvati, tentative)
Atna                                    Friend (of); friendship

Bufa                                    Water buffalo

Cita                                    Black lion (one of the big cats indigenous to Ashtar; smaller but more intelligent than others; coat deep brown with darker points

Eelut                                   (Comparable to extinct Terran fox)
Eos                                     Small pro-horse

Harr                                    Indigenous leonine species; notable for its coal-black coat, with spots visible only in certain lights; males maned

Jera                                    Fire; lightning; star(s) (masculine)
Jer’anda                                Starfolk
Jer’ok                                  Storm

K’aranda                                Near folk
Keros                                   Giant rhinoceros
Kiwasa                              (Comparable to extinct Terran zebra)
Ko                                      Near
Kuraku                              (I) (will) kill

Lasat                                   No; stop (As prefix renders root negative or opposite)

---

*Courtesy of Diyalan government; compiled by then-Lieutenant Guy Locke

Lasat-pers                              Surrender
Lopus                                   Deer; antelope

Mael                                    Wind (masculine)
Meru                                    (Comparable to extinct Terran lemur)
Muthus                                 Mastodon

Na’lia                                  Fish
Nea                                     Water (feminine)
Nox                                     Bad; evil

Ok                                      Thunder

Pardu                                   Panther; leopard
Pers                                    Conquest; defeat
Pers-Alata                              Rite; celebration
Pers-lasat                              Demand for surrender
Phaco                                   Wild (feral) boar

Raffa                                   (Comparable to extinct Terran giraffe)
Ranar                                   Danger; beware
Rodei                                   Small, long-tailed rodent (unidentified)

San                                     Great; large; good
Sanjera                                 Sun (masculine)
San-k’aranda                            Humankind (Homo sapiens transolari)
Sa’nea-nox                              Ocean (masculine)
Shag                                    Jackal
S’liss                                  Serpent; snake
Solea                                   Moon (feminine)

Ta                                      Son (As suffix: son of)
Ta’el                                   Child (of)
Talpi                                   Small rodent (vermin)
Tel                                     Daughter (of)
Thera                                   Saber-toothed tiger

Zeantha                                 Fruit

Seasons                    One shadow (winter) ·  Shadow death (fall)  ·  Shadow return (spring) ·  Two shadows (summer)
 

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