ganymede rising
by Jonathan Shepherd
EPISODE 3
She was swimming in clouds that swirled like the dust of a million star
systems. Before her, an eternity away, was a great glowing orb... a star. It was
infinitely large, yet it was contained within her soul. Warmth surrounding cold. Time
surrounding the ageless. Peace and chaos touching and dancing and becoming lovers under
the tapestry of reality.
Her body was light. Her breathing the only sound in the universe. Power
unrefined coursed through her veins and connected in that moment with all things, all
moments. In this singularity she was at once the Goddess Creator, and the created. Not the
puppet, or the master, but the strings...
And distant, unrefined, was a voice. Like crystal chimes miles away,
tinkling words of hope that danced up and whispered softly in her brain.
We’re with you... You’re the link... Trust... Hope... and
understand beloved...
A smile crossed her face. Tears welled in her eyes. She was receiving
the wisdom she came here for.
Do not want for reasons... In all things there is purpose...
There was safety here. A calm that made the ignorance of the world seem
to have just as much clarity as the enlightenment she sought. To know that even in that
which seemed purposeless... there was divine inspiration.
And then the star winked out.
And the voice chimed away silent... and the clouds began to swirl.
Her lips moved to the mantras she knew would keep her focus. She
struggled for a moment to regain the light, to feel the hope, before she remembered that
struggle was the way to sorrow. To find purpose even in that which seems astray... she
would relax her muscles, allow her breathing to deepen... and face this turmoil.
Out of the swirling clouds there came a crackling feel like the buzzing
intrusion of insanity. The balance was shifting from the middle path. The light would not
cast shadow... only now was darkness.
Her breathing remained calm. And before her clouds of vapor escaped her
mouth and were snatched up by the darkness. Her skin felt cold and unreal, but she allowed
it to become one with her surroundings and felt what internal warmth she could muster.
Finally, she opened her eyes once again.
Standing on the deck of some kind of space freighter. There were robots
working all around her in a huge, well lit cargo bay. Beeping noises from machinery
punctuated the silence as crates were prepared for unloading.
She passed unoticed through the walls of the freighter and looked in on
passengers sitting in comfort as they waited to arrive. So many peaceful looks on the
faces of people who were waking from the sleep of jump-gate travel...
At the end of the narrow passenger deck, she saw the figure waiting.
Standing tall and powerful over the waking travelers it tilted its head when it saw her.
She knew what she was staring at... and in that moment of acknowledgment, it fled. She
tried to follow but in a flash of silver and flesh it faded into the shadows to perform
its work.
The alarm for red-alert pierced the artificial environment of the
freighter, and the people who were waking began to look about themselves, panic-stricken.
Something was happening so quickly... there was no time...
She passed again through the walls and allowed the freighter to plummet
away from her. From the outside it looked like a great silver cylinder spinning madly and
falling toward Ganymede. The explosion was soundless in the void, but the flash was
bright, and the cloud of ice and water sprayed out into the depths and hung there like
some slow motion mockery of the death of innocence.
They are returning... she thought while fear gripped her heart. She
tried to fight it, but the struggle only made the terror colder and more real.
They are returning...
The alarm chimed out and yanked her from her slumber. Tanya had this
dream almost every night now... and she couldn’t figure it out. Who was the figure in
the freighter? Who is returning? Why did she go from such a place of peace and
understanding to such a place of fear?
She would simply have to let the pieces fall into place. She lay in
bed, the sheets knotted around her where she had fought them in her sleep, and
contemplated the meaningful behind the purposeless. Her mind only kept going back to the
figure in the passenger hold, and wondered why she could never see what it looked like.
“Well, girl,” she thought, “you can’t let this
nightmare ruin the rest of your life.”
She would send a message to Edward first thing, to make sure everything
was OK. She would meditate and try again to see these images more consciously. But for
now, Tanya rolled over and tried to drift back into sleep. Quiet sleep.
