Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

Throughout this period, talma is made the core of a unified science of existence. By 2000 BC, the Sindie had made its first probes into space.

The Story of Dalna, in the Koda Siayvida, is the last of the Sindie books of The Talman.

Pur Sonaan visited to inform Nicole that the solution to her blindness was still outside its talma. "But I am constantly working to move the limits. Joanne Nicole."

"Pur Sonaan, you are called a Jetah, but of the Chirn Kovah."

"Yes."

"But you speak of talma the same as any Talmani."

"I am Talmani. I apply talma toward the goal of health."

"When I was an intelligence officer, I saw recordings of Drac prisoners. Soldiers; Tsien Denvedah. They, too, spoke of talma. One of them called itself a Jetah."

"The soldier and the health master are in the same discipline. Joanne Nicole. They specialize according to the goals they desire and the diseases that stand in the way of those goals."

The first of the Draco books, the Koda Sishada tells first of the division of the Talmani. Almost two hundred years after the death of Dalna, it is proven that Sindie is a dying planet.

A movement begins within the Talmani to escape Sindie and find other planets upon which to live. The larger faction chooses to remain on Sindie, hoping for a solution; or as the ancient Mistan wrote in the Koda Ayvida: "Talma shows each one its path. But, as beings of choice, we can choose not to see the signs."

…Mitzak reading the news to her, and from all she could tell, the war was stalled; going badly for everyone. Military casualties were into the millions; civilian casualties were into the billions…

"Mitzak, what are you going to do after I leave here?"

"My plans are made."

"Are you going back with the Drac Fleet?"

"No. Thanks to my service to Tora Soam, I am being allowed to continue my work at the Talman Kovah. I think I have had enough of this war…"

The Koda Shishada concluded with the Story of Atavu, the Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah, who left with the armada of generation ships toward the unknown. Two hundred and forty years later, Poma writes the Koda Sitheda. Poma is one of the founders of Draco and the Ovjetah of Draco’s Talman Kovah. The stories of Eam, Namvaac, and Ditaar, the last three books of The Talman, tell of the development of Draco and the colonization of many other planets, and the beginning and end of the Thousand Year Rebellion, which saw the formation of the first Dracon Chamber more than a century before the birth of Copernicus.

Until the USE had come into conflict with the Dracon Chamber over the issue of the planet Amadeen, Dracs had seen nothing but hundreds of years of peace…

Talma.

Talma is composed of fundamental rules of situation assessment, goal definition, and goal achievement; methods for finding out where one is, where one wants to go, and how to get from the former to the latter; individually and/or collectively. It is the foundation for all activity, from individual conduct and social relationships to science, business, and law…

The Jetai, masters of the Talman, are the ones who study, invent, experiment with, and apply these fundamental rules. The Talman Kovah is their institution; as much laboratory as it is library and philosophers' hall. The Ovjetah is the First Master of the Talman Kovah. And Tora Soam was the current Ovjetah: the overseer of talma.

Tora Soam was the Drac equivalent of a chief economist political theorist, attorney-general, first military strategist, the board of the USE Academy of Sciences-and too many other things-all rolled into one person.

And if the war ever paused long enough for a truce, Tora Soam or some subsequent Ovjetah would advise the negotiations for peace. And Nicole felt that peace would have to come, or there would be no human race. The Dracs had fought an Interplanetary war for a thousand years without a moment of shaken resolve. Tokyo Rose had said that the war would not last forever. But the Dracs were prepared to fight for all of the forever that belonged to Joanne Nicole.

Then came the day she was to leave the Chirn Kovah.

On her feet were open sandals. Everyone who cared to had wished her well; and Pur Sonaan had promised to keep her informed of any progress in its research efforts. Pur had also added a cryptic sentiment:

"Joanne Nicole, if things go well in the future, you will have great cause to hate me. When that time comes, I ask you to remember this moment. The things I have done…" Pur searched for words. "This I should not say. May the many mornings find you well."

Nicole sat on the edge of her bed, feeling the softness of her new robe, slightly apprehensive about leaving the known of the room for the unknown on the other side of the walls.

There were strange footsteps. They halted and there was a moment of silence. "I am Tora Kia. I have been sent to bring you to my parent’s estate."

She stood up. "My name is Joanne Nicole."

Hard footsteps crossed the room and a rough hand grasped her left arm. "We must go now."

There was the sharp odor of happy paste. Nicole reached for the arm that was holding hers and touched the cuff of a sleeve. Drac civilians wear robes.

"Who are you?"

"I said my name is Tora Kia. I am the firstborn of Tora Soam."

"This sleeve says you are wearing a military uniform."

"I am-was-Tsien Denvedah." There was a laugh; an almost hysterical laugh. "You will find the other sleeve empty, human."

As Nicole was being hurried from the Chirn Kovah into Tora Kia’s waiting vehicle, a strange thought crept into her mind: she was curious about these creatures, and what would happen to her; but, if she could have seen, she would have been terrified. Terrified of everything.

The loathing fairly radiated from Tora Kia, but it could easily have been human hate. The strangeness-the alien unknown-of everything was made almost familiar because the images from her eyes were prevented from overpowering her other senses and her ability to think.

Nicole was seated upon plush upholstery, a door slammed, and she inhaled the eternal smell of new car. More doors slamming, a weight depressed the upholstery to her left, a whine, then a gentle pressure against her back as the vehicle accelerated. The sounds of other traffic came dimly through the vehicle’s sound insulation.

Tora Kia barked out an order: "To the estate, Baadek."

"Your parent asked me to deliver these notes -"

"Then return to the city and deliver them- after you have delivered this… guest to the estate!"

Both of the other occupants of the vehicle remained silent as the sounds of traffic died and the change in pressure on Nicole’s eardrums said that they were climbing in altitude. Still there were the sounds of the road. They were moving up into some mountains.