Light Ribbons

by sloanranger

Part Three

She had chosen a huge, ancient tree as the landanker; something she'd seen time and again in her dreams.

Landankers (literally, land anchors), were the very oldest current and continuous occupants of time and space on a planet. Early buildings, such as churches or castles were fine. Natural landmarks like mountains, rivers and lakes could all work.

The problem was, rivers could be dammed, lakes dried up and weapons of modern warfare often destroyed huge buildings.

Very ancient trees worked best. Scarcer now, old growth trees were ideal - deeply rooted in the earth and easily allowing terrasect jumps. Longer lived than humans, even if the quadrants were slightly off such trees could give an average time-space-ratio of three-hundred years and more for a jump. Look for a light ribbon, he'd said; always look for a ribbon of light. The term sounded familiar but she had forgotten: what was a light ribbon?

The last scene on the storyboard had the heroine and her mate leaning against the landanker tree. They were beside the bank of a stream.

She began painting the final panel, deftly coloring the female's dress a deep mauve then covering the heroine's black hair with a golden yellow wimple. There, she thought, that's good.

Next she took a different brush and began on the slippers of the male, painting them the color of brown suede.

During most of their dream sequences the two did not verbalize. They communicated mentally, knowing exactingly what the other was saying. Only occasionally did she hear his voice-thought.

The first time it had occurred was when he'd explained terrasects. In simplest terms, a terrasect was a 'section of terra - the Earth. And it was the landankers that made them power sources. Given the right coordinates, they could be used to facilitate travel through time.

Suddenly, for the first time in many years, she heard his voice-thought: "It's about time," he said.

(To be continued).