>>
|
587951.jpg
Wild Evening Cake
587951
Onboard the Third Vessel, Nameless
Freya stirs to life, hibernation stasis ending. She hangs in the centre of the chamber, gravity more a suggestion than a requirement.
With a thought, the craft's automatic report flashes before her eyes. The universal nexus point, as expected. A smaller vessel, swarming in golden forms like bees around a hive. A vessel smaller still. Neither of them familiar. But the nexus point, that universal singleton, that shining focus. She's never seen it before and it feels like she's staring at the face of an old friend.
Her ship is the smallest of all the vessels, and it was only pure luck that brought her to the nexus point. Of course, she channeled the archetype of the hunter, the seeker, the quester. The protagonist. A straightforward tale, now reaching the end of the journey and a way back home. She made sure to let all she could know her tale, and she knows how the story goes now. Obstacles. Deterrents. At the very last moment, it will seem that all hope has been lost, but she will triumph, as the hero always does.
She chides herself. Aligning to narrative does her no favours when alone. Only in the presence of an audience. She is a bubble in the ocean, the cold, harsh reality of this universe's physics threatening to burst the thin film protecting her. Only her own conviction keeps her safe in the bubble of her remnant, original physical laws. Only her refusal to accept this reality keeps her safe. Other creatures. Thinkers. Witnesses. They threaten the bubble.
And so, she must play to the roles. Play to the narrative structures they understand. If they anticipate her actions, they make them easier to perform. If she loses their understanding, they begin to doubt. Loathe. Against strong enough will, her bubble will collapse, and Freya, a thing that should not be within this universe, will succumb to the forceful interaction of a set of physical laws hostile to her very existence.
She has to get to the nexus. She has to get out of this universe and back home. She can't keep living like this forever. She needs the nexus, and to hell if some maniac built a ship around it. She's the hero. She's at the end of her journey. She has to succeed. She has to.
|