Laizafzafiir Port

The spaceport created during Zafiil's ministry on Quapendai.

History

Creation

"We will build them a memorial, so that they will be remembered," Zafiil said at her first formal performance as FireBorn, in the town of Liiza. And later, "A memorial... by the sea. And one day, we will launch gliders from it." Jan replied: "Then one day, we should plan for it be a port. What better way to honor those who discovered the Others?"

"The majority of the ports on Quapendai were the small groundports meant to facilitate travel on the planet. Very few offered ground-to-space transport, with service either to Quafi- irla or the Hearth. The plans Jan had commissioned, and that Zafiil had amended, would see the first new ground-to-space port built in generations; it would also be the largest of its kind, anticipating a future where more Faulfenza worked in space, or traveled there. The engineers had stipulated that such a port would be best placed on the outward face of Quapendai; fortu- nately there were enough coasts to allow Zafiil to realize her hope of having it by the sea. She’d also wanted a place that would support a city, since it was hard to imagine the port not growing one to serve its needs and the opportunities opened by its traffic."

Zafiil and Iiden had their confrontation at the site that would become the port. It was also here and at that time that the Miracle of the Cliff took place.

The port was opened by Zafiil in a ceremony honoring the fallen of the Laizafzafiir. “This port,” Zafiil said finally, “is our gate to the future, and our commitment to accepting the Golden Age’s challenges as well as its gifts. The Faulfenza memorialized here embraced those challenges, and were not found wanting. They live here, and in all our hearts, and when we walk into that realized future at last, they will be with us, and we will know that their sacrifice was part of the preparation that made us capable of the days to come. Return here often, Faulfenza! But do so with lifted hearts and gladness.”

Afterwards

The first Others to reach Zafiil were directed to touch down in this port, and later the treaty between the Faulfenza and the Alliance was signed in its memorial park.

Geography

The site of the memorial for the lost crew of the Laizafzafiir, it is sited on a rocky coast curved around a bay. The cliff is not as high as the one on Akana Ris that inspired the choice of site, but "it overlooked the sea, which Zafiil thought far more beautiful."

• has a plaza with a garden and a path leading down to the port's eastern-most terminal
• has a park "of wandering paths and [...] fountains"
• gliders are flown from a complex that "spanned the cliff all the way around the bay, with walkways along the edge for those who preferred hiking to flying." These are unpowered gliders; Zafiil was the first to use one, when the kite facility opened.

The memorial is in the plaza with the garden, and an arch forms its western anchor, with its feet wide enough apart to allow three shuttles to park. Walking through it leads to the kite rental facility. The names of the fallen are inscribed on a stone wall along the northern edge of the garden. They are placed in order of rank, with Feliiza's name first. Iiden's name is also appended, at the end, as honorary part of the crew. "He had been an Emissary in his own right, despite his ending."

The garden is built around a series of pools at different heights, trickling into one another, with benches curved to mimic the pool they faced. The benches were incised, like the stone pavers and the pools, with images from the lives of the three messiahs.