Birthing the Lucifer star
Page 39
*****
Shirley crouched naked, hovering near the floor, clasping an electric cord to a machine in her hands, feeling the effects of the loss of gravity. She looked so soft and vulnerable bathed in the solar luminescence streaming from the window. Cast in the sunlight, her nude form seemed so fragile and delicate.
The medicine man broke the silence, saying, “Let’s not throw in the towel yet. We have several hours of oxygen left, and I shut the rocket propellers off. We are only about 130 miles or so from the earth’s atmosphere.”
They stared out the window of the capsule and watched the long, serpentine strand of light weave and snake its way in the darkness. It was a dazzling display as it shot through space at some ungodly speed.
Up ahead, in the darkness of space, Shirley spied a very large, metallic-looking machine. “Hey, look. What the hell could that be?” She pointed curiously.
“I think that’s the space station.” The medicine man became excited. “Perhaps there is a way to turn this capsule in that direction! I have an idea. I need your help.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.” Shirley saluted the medicine man.
His look reproved her, and she grew silent. “We need to take all of this equipment and move it to the east end of the capsule, in the direction of the space station.”
The two of them worked feverishly to push all of the equipment to that side of the capsule, which made the capsule dive, buckle, and soar through weightless space. Eagle Flying By used the electric cords from the equipment to batten down the various panels and electronic surveillance equipment.
Shirley looked out the tiny window. “I don’t think we are any closer to the space station, but we seemed to have gotten closer to the earth,” she surmised.
As the planet Earth loomed larger ahead, she felt the pulse of life in her arteries. Their arms around each other’s waists, they gazed ahead at the milky blue marble adrift in the ancient and vast cosmos. The medicine man looked into her eyes as she looked ahead; there was a mystery there that he would never fathom or try to circumscribe. It was as boundless as the infinite sea in which they had set sail.
“We might get close enough to jump,” suggested the medicine man …
“I no longer have the ability to change … I can’t jump.” Shirley looked into the medicine man’s face. “Go—save yourself. I already figured I would be the sacrifice—the proverbial virgin, so to speak, jumping into the mouth of the volcano. This was supposed to be my destiny.”
“No, I believe we both can make it.” His voice trailed off as he watched the stream of light head straight toward the sun. “We all must go home.”
Shirley watched the stream of light reveal its knowledge through thought forms as it seemed to be sucked into the sun. The stream of light blinked and glittered, revealing its light as it gravitated toward the luminous orb. Thoughts poured forth, one after another, running on and on: a run-on …