“Life is short, the Art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult.” - Hippocrates1
She stepped out of her family’s vehicle into the towering shadows of the immense metropolis. She placed the strap of her smallest traveling case over her shoulder and gripped the protective shell around her musical instrument. Her parent and sibling each lifted out a large traveling case with wheels. Together, they left the secured vehicle and moved along the cement pathway to the quay.
In a clear sided shelter, they waited in controlled temperatures for the isle ferry. She glanced at the other waiting humans, uniformly wearing sleek suits and pulling compact rolling cases. Her simple garments and large traveling cases were conspicuous. The airship post on the isle was favoured by merchants and financiers. To her, this was the beginning of a long journey across the sea. To the suited humans, it was a brief commercial excursion.
The ferry, sleek and compact, approached swiftly over the lake and quietly stopped. The doors slid open and another group of suited humans exited. She stepped on with the others. The doors slid closed and the ferry rapidly crossed to the isle. The doors opened again and they stepped from the ferry into the airship post. She confirmed her passage with an attendant and her parent and sibling placed the large cases onto a moving belt. They walked with her as far as the secure portal, embraced her, and said affectionate farewells. Alone, she entered the secure portal with her small shoulder case and musical instrument.
She had before journeyed by airship, but never across the sea. Movement through the air made her ill when she was lacking food or rest, and now she must travel more than a day in length. At the first transfer post, she passed through the intercontinental gateway where guardians examined the little booklet that declared her identity and nation. The next airship carried her across the vast cold sea which her ancestors had crossed in wooden vessels over two centuries before.
She waited a quarter day at the next transfer station. Humans moved around her, journeying from nearly every earthly place to another earthly place. Once, a male in a black brimmed headpiece and dark garments asked if she was one of the pilgrims going to the holy city. She shook her head. When she entered the final airship, the male seated beside her was a cleric returning from pilgrimage to the holy city but not of the same creed as the first.
She looked out the round window as the airship glided south. A narrow strait of sea and a great wasteland passed far below. The airship descended first over a green landscape. Just before it reached earth, the airship passed over small shelters clustered by the transfer post and she saw the faces of the humans who lived there. As the airship portals opened, steaming hot air poured in. Some travelers exited, and labourers entered to sanitize the emptied places. The airship lifted again to glide briefly northwest to the costal metropolis nearest her journey’s end.
In the metropolis, she showed her identity booklet at the portal of entry and a guardian imprinted it with ink. As she exited the airship post, two of her new companions greeted her. They took her to a place to eat, then to a refuge to sleep. The next day they helped her gather the food supplies she would need for the coming weeks. Supplies were limited in the place where she was going.
Two days later, one of her companions drove her to the metropolis quay. Their worn vehicle could not control the temperature, so they waited in the heating daylight for the ferry. She watched as humans arrived on foot or in vehicles of every size and purpose. Soon the quay overflowed with humans, goods, and vehicles. Over the wide river running into the sea, the corroded hulk of the ferry crept toward them. As it inched toward the gateway, it halted, reversed, and approached again. At last, the great gangplank swung down, hitting the earth with a metallic thud.
Humans streamed off the ferry. Females, some with infants strapped to their backs, carried stacked goods on their heads. Males carried large bundles over their shoulders or, with long staves, drove herds of four legged creatures. Some were old, others were young, some wore brightly decorated garments, others plain long robes, some were bareheaded, others wore cylindrical caps or strips of textile wound round their heads. All were speaking in rhythmic sounds she could not understand.
As the flow of humans from the ferry slowed, the vehicles began to move. The two wheeled ones bolted away first through the walking crowd. Then came small and large four wheeled vehicles, some carrying mostly goods, others carrying mostly humans. One long and high transport vehicle for humans had many goods and a creature used for meat strapped to its top. She and her companion watched as the creature’s head narrowly passed under the gateway.
The ferry emptied, then gradually filled again. Her companion warned, after they drove on, that it might be necessary to drive off again if those directing decided another vehicle should go first. Nearly halfway through the day, the ferry, burdened with vehicles, goods, and humans, began the crossing. The long hand of the clock circled twice before the ferry reached the opposite gateway to empty again.
Her companion drove the vehicle over a packed earth highway, carefully moving around pits where the earth had been washed out. Finally, they reached a scattered cluster of low dwellings separated by narrow paths. They went slowly as humans and creatures wandered at random across their path. Her companion steered the vehicle through a gated entry and stopped in front of a long shelter. She stepped out of the vehicle at the end of her journey.
Hippocrates. Aphorisms. W.H.S. Jones. (2019). Athens: Aiora.