Congratulations !
You have been awarded points.
Thank you for !
- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Science / Science Fiction
- Published: 02/27/2015
He looked out the viewport one more time. There was nothing to see. Not a thing. This deep space stuff sucked. If you weren't standing on a planet, where the light could come to you...well, everything around you was black. The deepest darkest black you can ever imagine. A cave would look like a searchlight, if you could open a cave in space. Which, as far as Tony knew, wasn't possible.
Maybe this was impossible. Flying out to meet a signal? Even with the Light Drive...an invention that allowed the speed of light, but not any faster than that, going full speed now for more than a dozen years...and he was only a third of the way to the signal. There wasn't even a Star where the signal originated from. In fact, he was so far below the elliptic of the nearest star, that there was no way they would even "see" him down here. As if "down" meant anything, and as if anything was there to see him.
Yet here he was. The signal was clear, it was concise. It gave a precise location for the "meeting." It repeated every single minute of a solid year...people heard it so often, they stopped listening. Many stopped listening after just the first two minutes. I mean really, how hard is it to memorize the message? Here it is, in its entirety:
You must come meet me. Here are the coordinates in reference to the Galactic Plane. We need to talk.
Yep. That's it. Any school child, anywhere on Earth could recite that message by rote. Every minute of the day, for a year, on every single electronic device set to any frequency. It caused quite a stir. They had to ground all planes that flew by wire, there was no TV, no Internet, no phones, not even by old fashioned wire. If there was a frequency, and a receiver, well, all you heard was the message. There was no way to transmit any signal, anywhere. People had to go back to writing letters, or face to face talks. It took weeks to find out how to dead reckon in airplanes and ships. Getting a scientist from another country, to another country...well, it was tough sledding for a bit. But, we did it.
I really think the Light Drive was invented to get TV back on for the masses. Tony thought to himself. I mean for the 63 years it took to invent the Light Drive, there were no means of transmitting any signals. It had it good points. People had to create their own music, and play it live, acoustically. As soon as you hooked up your amp to your electric guitar, you didn't get notes. Nope, out came the message, no matter what you played. So everyone had to learn to play- live. They also had to learn to listen - live. You couldn't record anything. If you tried, all you got was the message. Theater replaced movies. Coffee houses, well, they were the center of most folks lives now. If you were to far away to hear someone, you were to far away to communicate.
Funnily enough, it ended war. It just took to long to get someone, or enough someones anyway, to another country to fight someone. After a decade or so, Governments gave up on war. Especially when someone from another country did show up, they were immediately the local celebrity. Folks would come from miles to see what was up, how it was going, and seeing if they knew any new songs, or poems, or had any painted art to show them. Oh, you could still travel by car. Most folks didn't. Let the caravans take care of that continent covering boredom. No radio, no phones, no Ipads, nope. If you drove for ten days, you - and whomever traveled with you...had to entertain each other. So most folks, at least the ones like the Scientists, who had to travel...used the caravans.
The Caravans were usually made up of six or seven buses, and two cars, and a repair truck. Half the seats were taken up by musicians, artists, and actors, with the occasional speaker. Comedians were rare, but getting better. The local opener was often funnier than the "headliner," from afar, but they were getting the hang of bringing some new "jokes" without pissing off the locals. The musicians were treated much better. Local musicians would always show up to learn the new music, add to the collective knowledge of songs, and - rarely- a musical prodigy would show up. Then the Caravan would carry him back to one of the five hubs in the old USA.
With the invention of the Light Drive, it was hoped that once humans met with whatever sent the signal- things would go back to normal. Although, after the 75 years that had passed since the signal- there weren't all that many people left that had watched TV, or used the Internet. Heck, I have never even seen a TV thought Tony. Looking around the deck of the Light Drive Ship...there were only books, several easels, a flute, a guitar, and a sax. Pianos were to big, and heavy. The books weren't easy reads. For a book to be worth making copies of, and loading onto a Caravan, they had to be really well written, or very, very entertaining. Most, well, most were both.
Solitude was necessary to read well, or to write well, or to perfect your art, or playing. Communities even pitched in to make places for real artists of any genre to work on their own. That is how Tony got selected. After all, he was the one who figured out how to find folks who needed decades to perfect their art, and had no need of other people most of the time. Not hermits, exactly, because they did need people around them for input, ideas, and occasionally companionship...but people who weren't afraid of solitude. People, like , well, Tony. He had Meagan, Tryst, and Belville along...but they were all off duty. Everyone was off for three weeks, and every fifth week, they all stayed up for a week, to mingle, bounce ideas off of each other, and be companions. It worked.
Now though, something strange has happened. Tony wasn't sure if he should wake every body up. They were getting a new signal. They only had the one receiver, and it only picked up things slower than light, other wise, at the speed of light, all time was now. Don't ask me to explain it, I don't have the math for it, but the Brainiacs assure me, it is true. The first signal came from all sources up to, and including Light. So, that is what they watched for.
Now, the alert and alarms were growing in all spectra. Micro waves, to X rays... every band was transmitting. Tony didn't have to wake everyone after all...they came running into the command module, breathless, disheveled, but alert. Tryst, as always, went right to the heart of the matter. She tuned the receiver to sound waves- and out came the message. A new message:
"Thanks for coming: Tryst, Tony, Meagan, Bellville. You have accomplished so much, I couldn't wait to meet you. So I rushed to your ship. "
All four of them looked at each other in total, utter, mind halting confusion.
What had they accomplished? Who rushed to the ship? How in the world do we communicate with them, when we have no transmitter?
"Oh, that. I hear you all fine. I know you hear me too. It isn't telepathy, for my mind would burn yours out. It is simply that the frequencies you think at, I can match. So you "hear me", either through your receiver, or if you like, just turn it off, and you will "hear me," in your mind. My voice will sound like music to you, but you will understand the words. "
Tryst didn't even hesitate...she switched off the receiver. They all heard not only whomever, or whatever was speaking, but each other.Smiles abounded.
"Good. I am so glad you could come. My name is Star. I like that name. It is from your planet. Of course you use it as a singular, and I use it as all of me."
Tryst spoke up,or out...err...in...whatever, she thought loud and clear:
"You lost me. (she could hear the other three humans agreeing with her in her head) Who are you? Where are you? What are you?"
"Why I am as close as I can get without moving your atoms out of this Universe, and their current configuration as humans."
Now all four minds reeled as one:
"What in the world are you talking about?
Star smiled. They all swore later, back on earth, that you can, and they did, hear smiles.
"look out your viewport. "
They lifted the shields, and well, there are no words. Color, sound, light, matter, time, all shifting in ripples of feathery love. Yes, emotions were clearly delineated in that formless, but shaped, beauty. All of them burst into tears.
Star smiled, bigger.
"I shall back off just a bit. I thought I might be to close."
As Star moved away... their hears were torn from their chests, their souls ached, they felt a loss so powerful, they wanted to tear through the ship walls to get back to Star.
"Don't worry, those feeling will pass in a few moments, when I get far enough away for you to resume thinking. "
And that is exactly what happened.
"What are you?" asked Tryst
"Oh, I am a Star. One of many, but I was assigned to your planet eons ago, and found a way to harvest your love...by moving you so far forward with the Light Drive, and my signal, that you got rid of all the things that were stopping you from loving. Love , as you may have noticed, is what it is all about. I don't shine because of your puny physics...I shine because I am love, loving, and loved. It is what makes you live. "
"This is to much, I mean, are you really just a bunch of condensed love?"
Tryst, as usual, didn't beat around the bush. All of the crew waited for the answer from Star.
"Yes. "
"So, a bunch of condensed love makes a Star?"
"Oh, no. ( Star laughed, and if orgasm's had humor, that is what the humans all felt when Star laughed)
"Star is what I call me, because I like that name. A bunch of condensed love is not a Star. A bunch of condensed love, is God."
They were dumbfounded.
"Are you God?"
Star smiled. They all felt it.
"Are you?" Star said to them.
Then Star was gone. When they looked out the viewport, they saw...Earth.
Kevin Hughes
Star(Kevin Hughes)
He looked out the viewport one more time. There was nothing to see. Not a thing. This deep space stuff sucked. If you weren't standing on a planet, where the light could come to you...well, everything around you was black. The deepest darkest black you can ever imagine. A cave would look like a searchlight, if you could open a cave in space. Which, as far as Tony knew, wasn't possible.
Maybe this was impossible. Flying out to meet a signal? Even with the Light Drive...an invention that allowed the speed of light, but not any faster than that, going full speed now for more than a dozen years...and he was only a third of the way to the signal. There wasn't even a Star where the signal originated from. In fact, he was so far below the elliptic of the nearest star, that there was no way they would even "see" him down here. As if "down" meant anything, and as if anything was there to see him.
Yet here he was. The signal was clear, it was concise. It gave a precise location for the "meeting." It repeated every single minute of a solid year...people heard it so often, they stopped listening. Many stopped listening after just the first two minutes. I mean really, how hard is it to memorize the message? Here it is, in its entirety:
You must come meet me. Here are the coordinates in reference to the Galactic Plane. We need to talk.
Yep. That's it. Any school child, anywhere on Earth could recite that message by rote. Every minute of the day, for a year, on every single electronic device set to any frequency. It caused quite a stir. They had to ground all planes that flew by wire, there was no TV, no Internet, no phones, not even by old fashioned wire. If there was a frequency, and a receiver, well, all you heard was the message. There was no way to transmit any signal, anywhere. People had to go back to writing letters, or face to face talks. It took weeks to find out how to dead reckon in airplanes and ships. Getting a scientist from another country, to another country...well, it was tough sledding for a bit. But, we did it.
I really think the Light Drive was invented to get TV back on for the masses. Tony thought to himself. I mean for the 63 years it took to invent the Light Drive, there were no means of transmitting any signals. It had it good points. People had to create their own music, and play it live, acoustically. As soon as you hooked up your amp to your electric guitar, you didn't get notes. Nope, out came the message, no matter what you played. So everyone had to learn to play- live. They also had to learn to listen - live. You couldn't record anything. If you tried, all you got was the message. Theater replaced movies. Coffee houses, well, they were the center of most folks lives now. If you were to far away to hear someone, you were to far away to communicate.
Funnily enough, it ended war. It just took to long to get someone, or enough someones anyway, to another country to fight someone. After a decade or so, Governments gave up on war. Especially when someone from another country did show up, they were immediately the local celebrity. Folks would come from miles to see what was up, how it was going, and seeing if they knew any new songs, or poems, or had any painted art to show them. Oh, you could still travel by car. Most folks didn't. Let the caravans take care of that continent covering boredom. No radio, no phones, no Ipads, nope. If you drove for ten days, you - and whomever traveled with you...had to entertain each other. So most folks, at least the ones like the Scientists, who had to travel...used the caravans.
The Caravans were usually made up of six or seven buses, and two cars, and a repair truck. Half the seats were taken up by musicians, artists, and actors, with the occasional speaker. Comedians were rare, but getting better. The local opener was often funnier than the "headliner," from afar, but they were getting the hang of bringing some new "jokes" without pissing off the locals. The musicians were treated much better. Local musicians would always show up to learn the new music, add to the collective knowledge of songs, and - rarely- a musical prodigy would show up. Then the Caravan would carry him back to one of the five hubs in the old USA.
With the invention of the Light Drive, it was hoped that once humans met with whatever sent the signal- things would go back to normal. Although, after the 75 years that had passed since the signal- there weren't all that many people left that had watched TV, or used the Internet. Heck, I have never even seen a TV thought Tony. Looking around the deck of the Light Drive Ship...there were only books, several easels, a flute, a guitar, and a sax. Pianos were to big, and heavy. The books weren't easy reads. For a book to be worth making copies of, and loading onto a Caravan, they had to be really well written, or very, very entertaining. Most, well, most were both.
Solitude was necessary to read well, or to write well, or to perfect your art, or playing. Communities even pitched in to make places for real artists of any genre to work on their own. That is how Tony got selected. After all, he was the one who figured out how to find folks who needed decades to perfect their art, and had no need of other people most of the time. Not hermits, exactly, because they did need people around them for input, ideas, and occasionally companionship...but people who weren't afraid of solitude. People, like , well, Tony. He had Meagan, Tryst, and Belville along...but they were all off duty. Everyone was off for three weeks, and every fifth week, they all stayed up for a week, to mingle, bounce ideas off of each other, and be companions. It worked.
Now though, something strange has happened. Tony wasn't sure if he should wake every body up. They were getting a new signal. They only had the one receiver, and it only picked up things slower than light, other wise, at the speed of light, all time was now. Don't ask me to explain it, I don't have the math for it, but the Brainiacs assure me, it is true. The first signal came from all sources up to, and including Light. So, that is what they watched for.
Now, the alert and alarms were growing in all spectra. Micro waves, to X rays... every band was transmitting. Tony didn't have to wake everyone after all...they came running into the command module, breathless, disheveled, but alert. Tryst, as always, went right to the heart of the matter. She tuned the receiver to sound waves- and out came the message. A new message:
"Thanks for coming: Tryst, Tony, Meagan, Bellville. You have accomplished so much, I couldn't wait to meet you. So I rushed to your ship. "
All four of them looked at each other in total, utter, mind halting confusion.
What had they accomplished? Who rushed to the ship? How in the world do we communicate with them, when we have no transmitter?
"Oh, that. I hear you all fine. I know you hear me too. It isn't telepathy, for my mind would burn yours out. It is simply that the frequencies you think at, I can match. So you "hear me", either through your receiver, or if you like, just turn it off, and you will "hear me," in your mind. My voice will sound like music to you, but you will understand the words. "
Tryst didn't even hesitate...she switched off the receiver. They all heard not only whomever, or whatever was speaking, but each other.Smiles abounded.
"Good. I am so glad you could come. My name is Star. I like that name. It is from your planet. Of course you use it as a singular, and I use it as all of me."
Tryst spoke up,or out...err...in...whatever, she thought loud and clear:
"You lost me. (she could hear the other three humans agreeing with her in her head) Who are you? Where are you? What are you?"
"Why I am as close as I can get without moving your atoms out of this Universe, and their current configuration as humans."
Now all four minds reeled as one:
"What in the world are you talking about?
Star smiled. They all swore later, back on earth, that you can, and they did, hear smiles.
"look out your viewport. "
They lifted the shields, and well, there are no words. Color, sound, light, matter, time, all shifting in ripples of feathery love. Yes, emotions were clearly delineated in that formless, but shaped, beauty. All of them burst into tears.
Star smiled, bigger.
"I shall back off just a bit. I thought I might be to close."
As Star moved away... their hears were torn from their chests, their souls ached, they felt a loss so powerful, they wanted to tear through the ship walls to get back to Star.
"Don't worry, those feeling will pass in a few moments, when I get far enough away for you to resume thinking. "
And that is exactly what happened.
"What are you?" asked Tryst
"Oh, I am a Star. One of many, but I was assigned to your planet eons ago, and found a way to harvest your love...by moving you so far forward with the Light Drive, and my signal, that you got rid of all the things that were stopping you from loving. Love , as you may have noticed, is what it is all about. I don't shine because of your puny physics...I shine because I am love, loving, and loved. It is what makes you live. "
"This is to much, I mean, are you really just a bunch of condensed love?"
Tryst, as usual, didn't beat around the bush. All of the crew waited for the answer from Star.
"Yes. "
"So, a bunch of condensed love makes a Star?"
"Oh, no. ( Star laughed, and if orgasm's had humor, that is what the humans all felt when Star laughed)
"Star is what I call me, because I like that name. A bunch of condensed love is not a Star. A bunch of condensed love, is God."
They were dumbfounded.
"Are you God?"
Star smiled. They all felt it.
"Are you?" Star said to them.
Then Star was gone. When they looked out the viewport, they saw...Earth.
Kevin Hughes
Radrook
01/26/2023This reminds me of this sci fi novel The Whipping Star where stars are described as being manifestations of other dimensional entities. Whipping a representation of a star affects the ehtity. Also reminds me of the opening and closing scenes of the film It's a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart where two galaxies are shown conversing with one another about a human life as if they were entities or representations or secondary manifestations of heanly beings. Your story delves deeper and from a different angle into the concept and is unique because of it.
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
Kevin Hughes
01/26/2023Thanks Radrook,
You have a wide ranging reading background. I think most Writers are avid readers...and it shows in your comments.
Smiles, Kevin
COMMENTS (1)