In memory of T Boy, who spiraled (to the left) to the great goldfish bowl in the sky 8/20/15
Flash Meridian was thrilled to have company. He had sought in vain for others on the diminishing planet he had left behind. Now he wanted to know more about these two companions who had joined him. He tried to focus his thoughts into questions. This was difficult because of the stream of communication coming from them. Or rather from the one who arrived second, in the blue cloud.
He attempted to channel questions like “What is your name?”, but it was hard to concentrate. His head started to hurt a bit, and so he diverted his gaze from the pair. His eyes fell upon the Ololian book, and he grabbed it up in the hope that it held some insight.
Unfortunately, the book could not give him a glimpse into the future. It did, however, give details of the history of his new companions. They were refugees, and many of their kind had been killed.
As Flash read from the book, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Some of the sparks lingered, hovering in the dim light of the cockpit. They had begun to move. Not in the way a spark would normally move, shooting up, arching, and then dropping to the ground. The only way he could describe it was that they seemed to be swimming. Some moved together like fish in a school. A few darted about on their own. In time, they became less and less spark-like and more and more fish-like. He was fascinated by their antics, and felt calm watching them. One was white and made tight spirals to the left as it gradually came to rest on the floor. It would settle there for a time before spiraling up again, in tight circles to the left. Another one “swam” behind the ion beam rectifier, and then Flash’s heavy eyelids closed. He drifted off to sleep.
In sleep, he dreamed that he could speak to, and understand the other two creatures that had joined him. It was a happy dream full of love and fishes that swam through the air.
Space flight was fraught with challenges. On his journey, Flash Meridian had encountered mechanical failures, bitter cold, alien attacks, exploding planets, nightmares, and always the threat of the unknown. Crises had to be dealt with, of course. They made up the nuts and bolts of Flash’s reality, and in a way, gave him a purpose for being out here at all. More difficult, were the doldrums, in which he faced his own loneliness and at times even boredom. It could be tedious, looking out on the seemingly changeless enormity of his window on the universe. Or more suffocatingly limited, his view within his tiny cabin. It occurred to him that the problem was one of time. A human life was just too short to outlive the distance he hoped to travel. For this, he would be forever grateful to the Shepherdess of the Stars for pointing him toward the black hole. Without her, he would never have visited Olo.
When Flash felt the darkness growing inside of him, he retreated to the world of dreams. Here was a boundless realm of possibility, encompassing everything he had ever seen and heard, and always full of surprises.
Now, as he drifted off to unconscious adventures, he had companions, one at his side, and another curled in his lap, purring. Sparks were his nightlight, emulating the starry sky as they swam, orbiting the cockpit, and lulling him into restful sleep.
Flash’s eyelids closed, and his mind scampered off, leaving his body behind in the mothership.
He found himself walking through a field of tall, dry grass. Acres of waving gold danced in the wind around him, and it looked a bit like the surface of a yellow lake. As he walked, something stirred, and rose up from within the growth in front of him. A great grey owl rose silently before him, beating its huge wings against the crisp autumn air. He could see the details of its feathers clearly in the bright sunlight, flecks of black in a field of snowy white and soft gray. Up it flew, like a phoenix rising from the flames of the golden grass. Flash watched it as it circled the field, and then went off into the distance becoming a smaller and smaller speck against the cloudless sky, and vanishing from his sight.
He walked on, until he came to a weathered fence with rusted wire, and saw beyond that, the back of a barn. This was the farm where Flash had lived as a child. He wanted to run to it, and jump in the pile of hay that spilled out from the hayloft, but even as he felt this longing, the scene changed.
Flash now found himself straddling the side of an inflatable raft, which was being tossed upon the breakers. He was not alone, but he could not see who was with him. It took all of his concentration to keep from toppling off into the foaming waves. Salt water crashed all around him, thundering and drenching him. He heard the others shouting, some had paddles in their hands and tried to control the rubber boat as it was thrown over the rocky reef. The surf sparkled, and Flash was engulfed in the spray.
Suddenly, he was thrown from the raft into the sea. He pushed against a large rock to get to the surface, and his foot was filled with sea urchin spines.
Opening his eyes, Flash found himself gasping for breath, and was relieved to find that he was safe and dry, in his chair in the familiar cockpit of his spaceship. His feet were buried in the soft fur of the hide he had collected on the snowy planet, and the K. D. Head clicked. Friendly creatures slept next to him, and Flash Meridian felt content.