Temple in the Stars – Part 6
Felt amazing to have a post yesterday, simultaneously ahead of schedule and on a day when I didn’t need to post. I’ve gone through a lot recently, I’ve had to deal with an incredible amount of personal stresses on all fronts of my life. To be able to find some sense of normalcy, a feeling of continuity and progress in my dreams and ambitions has been beyond fantastic. It has been life affirming.
What I want to continue doing with Temple in the Stars is building a sense of intrigue, mystery, and ultimately with today’s entry I want to have a sense of advancement towards the goal. I’m not entirely certain where the story will be leading, or how Ashley will handle what I do have planned out, but I’m not overtly concerned about that aspect of it. Working in my current format (non-serialized short stories) I don’t mind a lack of overall cohesive plan. It’s more of a chance for me to let my mind play out ideas as they come to me. Given how hard I have to scrounge in my day for time to write, it’s probably for the best that I let each session become it’s own brainstorming session. Can I sustain this long term? Oh Heavens no. Once I find a short story that takes off and becomes the first of several serials I’d like to work on, I’m going to be forced into a situation where I have to take a more long term view. Until then, however, I’m free to pursue writing in the style that I’m comfortable with.
And now for something completely different…
Temple in the Stars – Part 6
Beautiful. Ashley stood transfixed as the rocks in her immediate view shed the heat of the laser she had used to cut through them. That one word was all that she could think, and it slammed through her brain with the casual disregard of a derailed freight train. Beautiful. Ashley didn’t know when she had started crying or why, but her tears came fast and freely. It was like something out of a dream, a painting made real. All of the most idyllic images of a peaceful landscape were surely based on dreams of this place. Beautiful.
The scene that Ashley had revealed truly did live up to it’s billing. A thin bubble pressed up against the entrance she had cut through the rocks, as firm and translucent as the soap bubbles her siblings had loved so very much. Across that barrier was… bliss. Somehow, impossibly, the bubble displayed a skyline of clearest blue, the whole of it drenched in purest yellow light from an unknown source that seemed to shine down from nowhere. There was ground present, as though filling the bottom of some perfectly spherical fish bowl. Upon it, the most healthy and green grass Ashley had ever seen, along with a forest at one end. Shadows lay softly across the grass in that corner, leaves and grass swaying gently in a source-less breeze. A lake lay gently lapping along the edges of the small forest, as perfectly formed as the rest of the scenery. Reeds along one bank swayed lazily in the same breeze which seemed to play endless across the vista.
As beautiful as all of that was, the structure located within the exact middle of the scene is what had lodged itself so firmly in Ashley’s mind. Majestic didn’t cover it. Tall, sweeping columns of purest white, laced with gold and bright azure depicting images of astonishing beauty ran along the exterior of the structure. Even from her vantage point, perhaps 3 kilometers away, Ashley couldn’t help but be awe struck. The building itself resembled a tree, as vibrant as any living tree had ever been, seeming to sway in the same breeze which stirred it’s surroundings. The leaves of the ‘tree’ were a riot of Autumnal colors, beautifully rendered in a material that shifted in the breeze. Surely they couldn’t be natural, but how could any material bend and flex in such a breathtaking fashion.
Ashley wasn’t aware of how long she stood staring, but slowly Everett’s voice managed to pierce her reverie. “Ashley” Everett intoned in what was obvious annoyance at her lack of response. “What is it” Ashley replied distractedly, still not taking her eyes of the scene in front of her. “I believe you’ll find it important to know that your oxygen supply is down to six percent” Everett intoned with false piety. This statement brought Ashley right out of her absorption. She instantly snapped up her suits HUD in her helmet, issue the commands to display all of her suit readouts. Everett was right, she was rapidly dipping towards five percent. She had maybe another hour to cycle through the various locking systems of her Frankendock. She had best get hustling, as it would be tight timing to get through it all and back into her scouting craft.
Ashley slowly climbed hand over hand through the tunnel she had created, and in short order reached the fist locking device. It would take a few minutes for it to successfully pressurize and match the current atmosphere she was operating in. Ashley watched the counter tick down on her helmet display, impatient to begin gathering samples of the scene she had just left behind. When it reached zero, Ashley automatically started moving forward to get through it, distractedly watching the counter begin for the next lock. What she hadn’t been expecting was the sharp smack as her whole body slammed into the firmly shut pressure lock in front of her. What? Ashley didn’t quite believe what had just happened. She called up all the controls for the lock in front of her, and ran through the unlocking sequence once more. Nothing. The door remained irised shut. Fighting off a rising sense of panic, she made her way to the far right side of the door, where the emergency manual crank Everett had the foresight to plan into each of the doors lay waiting. She pulled the flaps up into a position where she could begin the slow process of opening the door under her own power. Putting her weight behind her hands, she turned the reluctant metal as hard as she could. With a scream of twisted metal, the handles came off in her hand. She was suddenly tumbling full force across the small space, once more smacking into a hard surface. Uh-oh.
To be continued…
