Cult Cargo

Light shone through the window and into the cathedral, softly illuminating the backs of a thousand heads. From the altar, a harsher, flickering light outshone the sunlight, dancing across the faces of the many faithful who had gathered for the enlightening. Young and old alike sat transfixed at the 40-foot screen, emblazoned against a windowless cement backdrop. The walls beside the crowd had little on them; in fact, almost all of the main room was bare, save for a few tall candles that lined the space between the pews, to accomodate seating at nighttime rituals. The cathedral, like most other establishments in Odelay, had recently been forced to stay open 24 hours. Convenience is one of the four pillars of Earth Worship, followed by Comfort, Entitlement, and Self-Trust.

Yechua, a young man of average stature, with sharp green eyes and flowing brown hair, was on his way to college. He was thinking to himself about how much things had changed since his childhood. His farmstead childhood home, lay four moons walk outside of town, and this upbringing accounted for the rougher edges of his personality. Growing up farming had been hard, he thought, suffering the harsh climate of Odelay. With so little sun, it was amazing anything managed to grow at all. But it did. What a bounty a good season could bring, if only once every three cycles. It was tough, subsisting off such naked, inconstant land. Yet he had survived the unabated winters of Odelay. Here in Omesal, Yechua's life was far different, although not always better. Odelay's most clement weather centred in Omesal, and it seemed to bring out the best in people's minds. The past 70 years had seen remarkable leaps forward in theology, art, and science. Yechua was part of this Renaissance: one of the few hundred people in the city dedicated to the quest for higher learning, deciphering the Earth-tongue, and reading into its messages.

A presence at his side had become apparent. Yechua slowly rose out of his thoughts as the meek young man who appeared next to him waited for his presence to be recognized. "Have you read Antosh's latest paper? Its a rationale for adopting the Earth's 'money' idea, instead of trading. He puts forward some very interesting views on individuality, and what this miserable rock could be if only we began to adopt the more civilized ideas of the original Earth-visions."
Yes, Yechua had seen the "Earth-visions", everyone on Odelay had. It was impossible to talk about anything academic without some sort of reference to Earth. Since their ship had crashed on Odelay, 100 years ago, almost everything had changed. At first, nobody could make sense of what had happened, although many different stories were told. After a few years, a very small group of curious people, mystified by the immensity of the shipwreck's presence in their steppe and quite sure of its quietude, together overcame the collective fear of the gigantic cargo ship which had fallen from the sky, and set up camp on the steppe where it lay immobile, with the intention to study the contents of the ship, down to every last bolt. 15 years passed, and saw a small camp of grass huts spring up beside the ship, filled with a few people whose wonder in the mysticism of this gargantuan shell of human ingenuity was insatiable. Simple things, of which the ship carried in abundance, became more and more familiar to those who inhabited the camp. The tiny brown rocks that turned water into a flavourful brown liquid was seen as a mystical cure for tiredness, and was used often, as the ship had such an abundance of it.