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The Long Reach

Three hundred and fifty miles of open gray, and the fastest trip on Aerun.

The Caravan Guild's marked shipping lane across the silt, between the quays on top of Balic and Raam's shelf.

No signal on the Reach. The Aura network stops at the Rim Wall, so from the moment your skimmer leaves the quays until you reach the far terminal, your guide is offline. Read this page before you board!

At a glance

• The math: five or six days by skimmer convoy, against two to three tendays hauling the same load the long way round the Ring Road. Anything urgent goes this way and pays for the privilege.
• The traffic: silt skimmers and the Guild's long haulers, the passenger-and-parcel workhorses of the lane. People, post, Spice, and light cargo ride the Reach. Bulk freight goes round the ring, because nothing heavy floats on dust.
• The markers: the lane is staked end to end with bone-and-obsidian channel markers, mekillot ribs standing upright in the dust and capped with black glass that catches the sun. On a clear day the next one is always in sight.
• The waystations: three towers on the firmest shoals: First Mark, Midreach, and Saltbone.
• Who runs it: the Guild, start to finish. Both terminals, the markers, the schedule, and the rates.

Lane law

Five simple rules, and everyone aboard follows them:

1. Stay between the markers.
2. Pay the rate.
3. Right of way to the loaded vessel.
4. Answer a beacon.
5. Stop for nothing that hails you from the gray.

The traveler's beacon

Every waystation and Guild terminal sells the traveler's beacon: a single-use bone-and-glass flare for about fifty ceramic. Strike it and it burns Guild-blue, the same color as the channel markers and the waystation lights, visible for miles for about six hours.

Your fifty ceramic buys the flare and a line in the Guild's book, and the line is what you're really paying for. Each beacon is registered to its buyer, and any Guild vessel that sees a registered beacon is bound to answer it. Lighting one falsely, or lighting one that isn't in the book, is a serious crime here, so don't.

Guild hands learn one saying by heart, and it's a good one to know before you cross:

A beacon is light; it never speaks. If it speaks, it is not a beacon.

A real beacon burns blue and stays quiet. If something out on the gray calls or waves at you, it isn't a beacon: see rule five, and sail on by.

Good to know

• Buy passage at either end: the silt quays on top of Balic, or Raam's shelf. It isn't cheap and it isn't negotiable; the Guild's rate is the rate.
• The lane never bends northwest. It sticks to the eastern and southern reaches. Ask a pilot why and you'll get a shrug.
• Stick together. Book with a reputable skimmer convoy, and do a quick headcount at each waystation.