To the confusion of the colonists, and the amusement of his shipmates, Saxon elected to remain aboard the Highlander as the group set off down the shallow cut roadway into the valley below. Sanctity was one of three villages the colonists had constructed along the length of the valley. The valley itself had once been an allevial flood plain, but a clever system of dykes and berms had tamed the river that cut through the center of it so that the fields could be flooded in the spring to replenish the soil with silt from upstream, without washing away the dwellings. The tradeoff was that a starship as heavy as the Highlander couldn't land on the soft, loamy soil of the village without sinking its struts to the hull. The rocky shoulder of the valley was a better landing, and probably helped to keep curious villagers far from the corrupting influence of their infrequent interstellar visitors. The system of ditches and banks reminded Sayeeda of the native hillforts on Kashkeesh in a way that made her skin crawl. Sanctity itself was a small place two dozen small stone and timber houses with sod covered roofs which doubled as additional gardens. Its dominant feature was a great cathedral in the center of town. At first it boggled Sayeeda's mind that so few people could have constructed the fifty meter long four story structure, but as she pulled down her googles to get a closer look she realized the truth. The cathedral wasn't something the colonists had built. It was the original colony ship itself grounded forever where it had touched down and then lovingly facaded to look like a church.  

"The Light of Hope," Gerome said proudly as he feel into step beside her, frowning with slight disapproval at her goggles. Sayeeda ignored the look.

"The original colony ship I assume," Sayeeda said, more for something to say than because she had any real doubt. Gerome nodded.

"We felt it might deter pirates if she were obviously non-flyable," Gerome expounded with a wave to the ship/cathedral. Sayeeda had no doubt that the ship would never lift again, half sunk into the soil and burdened with stone besides. She was less certain that the fact the ship couldn't lift would deter those set on loot and the joy of indiscriminate destruction. Sayeeda was not a religious person. On Celandine it was conventional to pray to The God and Goddess at seasonal festivals, but it was tacitly understood to be symbolic by most. That early faith was kept alive only in occasional curses. Sayeeda had seen the random hand of death too often to believe the universe had a plan, though some part of her mind stubbornly clung to the notion that things would work out for her personally, even though she had nothing to base such an absurd notion upon.

"You have seen much violence in your life I think," Gerome said in a quiet voice he probably meant to be compassionate. Sayeeda glanced at him sidelong and arched an eyebrow. The skin on her arms and hands was speckled with the slight mismatch of synthetic skin sealant which had been used to treat a variety of burn and cuts over the course of her career. Did this man recognize that, or place her tattoos. She shook her head. A lamb could probably recognize a wolf when it saw one, even if that wolf were currently selling coffee. Or maybe it was simpler than that, the captain of a heavily armed freighter out in the back of beyond could be expected to have stomped a head or two in her time.

"Sure," Sayeeda responded noncommittally. 

"There is peace to be found here, even if only for a little while," he said gently. 

"I'll try to keep my insatiable bloodlust in check," Junebug replied as they reached the outskirts of the village. A few of the colonists stood watching. Some open mouthed and hiding the eyes of their children. So many children. Every matronly mother seemed to have a brood of five or more of the brats running around, with older siblings obviously helping with the work of their large tracts of farm land. Sayeeda was no agriculturalist, but she could recognise corn, potatoes, zaphroot and half a dozen other galactic staples growing in neat rows. Cows and horses were also much in evidence, walled away behind fences of woven mono crystal wire wrapped around posts of local wood.

"The act of killing damages..."

"Gerry, lets just take it as a given that I know more about the 'act of killing' than the whole population of this planet combined right?" she snapped, her irritation sharper than it might have been if she hadn't spent the past 11 days in the RIP.

"You're right, occupational hazard I'm afraid," he said with a good natured laugh.

"Yeah well some occupations are more hazardous than others," Junebug responded. As predicted women's clothing on Ateran was of a conservative cut, high collars and long skirts of greyish homespun. There was something of an irony that they produced beautiful shimmercloth textiles and insisted on clothing themselves in bland monotonous grey. That wasn't to say that shimmer cloth wasn't in evidence. Whatever Rejuvenation Day was it obviously involved alot of decoration. Ribbons of glittering fabric seemed to hang from every house, netting the roofs together in a complex spiderwebs that gave the streets a kind of canopy. The effect grew more pronounced nearer the cathedral where spiral designs and been created by wrapping the shimmercloth around frames of wire and some kind of native bamboo. Long tables were laid out and pilled with food that had been covered with gauzy cloth to keep insects away from it, and fires were prepared if not yet lit at every intersection. Mothers gave Sayeeda and Taya reproachful glances, obviously disapproving of the baring of so much skin. Taya more diplomatic than Junebug uncoiled the scarf from her hair and draped it over her shoulders. A number of young men, dressed in bleached tunics and brown homespun pants gave them looks that weren't quite so reproachful, but liable to be more trouble. A number of the younger women cast similar looks at Neil, whispering behind their hands to one and other and giggling.

"Well be at peace among us, perhaps the Light will reveal to you that you have found a home," Gerome said with an avuncular grin.