It was the sheer speed that transfixed Nara. The terrain slid under the ship, endless terrain and so fast. No one could do that above Orefall; its escape velocity was too low—the jagged land crawled away gradually until it disappeared altogether. Until it lay only in the past. The Planet rose, expanded, burst toward their ship in a torrent of treasured rock, of soil itself, more valuable to the miners than all their ore combined. Whatever remained of the outside Universe—a foreign place whose people had forgotten their origins as children at the teat of a sole nuturing world—fell into the shadows behind Nara as she watched and felt the embrace of the future. She still rode the prophetic thrill of a vision she had dreamed the night before; the corners of her mouth turned up at the thought of it.
She had lived and then re-lived the landing of the Plenty on this dark, hurtling Rock, and she had tread upon that path too much to remember the detailed agony of an event that only once for the first time. The unfamiliar way they sped gave her a tangible, pleasing resistance, as did the air that bit at the edges of the mining ship in which they now rode. It was her home, the same one her father had used, that her mother had worked hard to keep. Nara had forgotten its name, but that did not matter: this was its last flight.
Choron's voice rose above the great clamor of their entry into the atmosphere. “My love! Are you all right?” He was turned away from the pilot's console; his new pilot, Fus, worked the controls for the moment.
“You know I am,” said Nara.
Either he already knew, or the way she responded convinced him, because he returned his attention to landing. Just behind Choron, a pale clergywoman gripped the arm rests on her seat. The Church seemed silly to her now, all its authority temporarily vested in this scrawny, robe-clad woman whose eyes flicked across the instrument panels every second, expecting disaster where none existed. The reversal of roles was a welcome change to Nara, who had feared Tisuld's fist for years. She sat to the clergywoman's left, behind Fus. The four were in better health and spirits than Miro and Choron had been in when they had set down on the Great Rock; the ship's artificial gravity kept them ready for the Planet—this was the second reason why they had chosen to abandon the Plenty on Orefall.
The first reason was because neither Choron nor Nara would wish to leave the Planet after they set foot there. As with the miners waiting patiently in orbit, their home followed them, no matter where they came to rest. Old stories, immortalized in the Book of the Planet, recounted the original settlement of the Orefall system as a similar process. Stray seeds blew in from the solar winds, it said, and dug their roots into Orefall.
“Here we go,” Fus warned. “We have to brake soon. Double-check your harnesses now, or never.”
Nara didn't move; she noticed the clergwoyman fumbling with her straps for the eighth time since they had begun the landing.
And then there was a violent jerk; the hull of the ship groaned from its sudden stress. Another jolt, and another, as Choron and Fus fired thrusters to bleed away their momentum. At last all was quiet, and the horizon through the viewport stayed still. “Well, God damn!” cried Fus. “We made it!” He, Nara, and Choron cheered so loudly that even the shaken priestess joined them.
Minutes later, Choron had helped them all into their suits and had donned his own. He indicated for the party to activate the radios in their helmets, and for the first time Nara heard the low murmurs of prayers coming from the radio that Miro still clutched to his breast. “Here's how it goes, your Holiness,” Nara heard him say to the clergywoman. “We keep the original sample on the ship; I take you to Miro's grave, where you collect a new bit of soil; we do a comparative chemical analysis when we get back. No tricks, because the people in orbit can hear us. You have the final word on the results. Understood?”
She gave an exaggerated nod so that Choron would see the movement through the environment suit.
They filed through the airlock and down a clattering lift. None could speak—they were filled with too much awe to do anything but follow Choron. Their lights shone on the ground that had see only starlight for ages uncounted. As Choron led them across the bare, promising ground, Nara relished the feel of the dirt swishing and crunching beneath her feet. Choron took her gloved hand in his, following the radio signal that still relayed through the receiver that Miro held nearby.
When they found his lonely corpse, its environment suit covered in a thin layer of dust, the entire world changed. The priestess was the first to speak into the expectant miners' ears. “This is priestess Mele speaking.” She noticed the quaver in her voice and cleared her throat. “We have survived on the face of God, with no retaliation from Him or any of His powers. I stand now before the body of the dead man Miro, whom Choron laid to rest some time ago in this very place.” She took a deep breath, and Nara knew from last night's dream what came next. “Acting as the temporary authority on the Planet, with the power vested in my by High Priestess Tisuld and by the Lord Himself, I declare the holy ground of this Planet habitable by those who believe in Him and in His presence on the Great Rock. I forego the need to verify the soil that Master Or brought back: my own eyes, and my continued existence under the auspices of God, have confirmed that his account is true. I abdicate my power to the next person to speak and claim this land.”
While the miners. criscrossing the skies above the Planet, fell silent and expected Choron to take hold of the greatest stake any prospector could ever want; and before the hasty cry for the destruction of the four explorers made its way at the speed of light from the sanctum of High Priestess Tisuld, Nara opened her mind to the world around her and the following words issued from her lips:
“I, Nara Misyne, heiress to a Power passed to me from God, claim this Planet and all human influence over it. I shall be the voice of the Lord so long as I live, and so long as I fulfill His wishes. The first and most important edict He gave was witnessed by my husband-to-be Choron Or; through his ears I heard the words, and from my mouth they vibrate the our air for the first time. Make God your home. Live on Him. Take from Him. He is alone and wants to rejoice in His creation. In Him you will find a new destiny. The Planet is yours. Those who would follow my command may begin here anew. The rest must leave at once, or risk the wrath of God.”