From: synergistic_apathy <synergistic_apathy@my-deja.com> Newsgroups: talk.bizarre Subject: FTSD: The Solarians Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 15:47:51 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 190 Message-ID: <908h74$b22$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Article-Creation-Date: Fri Dec 01 15:47:51 2000 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.73 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x53.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 192.31.86.34 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDsynergistic_apathy The Solarians Holly Childress stepped off the curb and kept falling. It wasn't until she fell through her clothes and the pavement did she utter, "Oh!" Passersby were only mildly surprised to see a pile of clothes in the street. A kid on a bicycle swooped down and snatched up a little silver Orthodox Cross. Holly wouldn't need it anymore. It had been over three years since Holly applied for Solari status and quite frankly she'd forgotten all about it until her little utterance. She wondered who'd feed her cat. The Solari had been deliberately evasive when describing what occurred at the calling. Falling through the crust of the Earth would be hard for most applicants to believe. The Church made up the story that one just shot straight to heaven. It was the news media that led credence to the myth with daily pictures of piles of clothes and lots of eyewitnesses. So Holly found herself sinking through topsoil, sand, clay and bedrock. She knew she was only partly decorporealized because she had a real hard time passing through solid rock. Every piece of grit that passed through her did so with resistance. Oddly enough she had smelled the dankness of the soil. After a while (time felt irrelevant) she felt as if she were picking up mass and felt it easier to pass if she turned sideways to her downward travel. She picked up speed again and noticed that it was getting a lot hotter. It wasn't uncomfortable, in fact she was only lightly amused at the viscous nature of the molten lava stream that passed. Holly started having regrets when she thought of the fire and brimstone/religious angle as she continued her steady downward departure. Only a few times had she gotten a whiff of sulfur, but the brimstone was now everywhere. She lingered occasionally in veins of silica and then alumina, soaking up the richness. It felt good, too. Pretty soon she noticed she could feel no sensation of movement. She was getting rather impatient with the whole affair when the thought of a biscuit cooking in an oven crossed her mind. Somehow this was reassuring in an offbeat kind of way. That's when she became a victim of her surroundings. Violent surgings got her moving again and this time it was definitely up. Caught in a stream of magma she raced up a lava shoot and was expelled into the air. Holly actually felt her body squeak as if it were metal contracting in the cold air. Gravity never had a chance to grab her and she left the atmosphere into the blackness of inner space. Earth, the sphere, slowly receded and she turned toward the Sun. With her forward arm she instinctively reached and it took her in its pull. As she passed the L1 point, her relative speed picked up considerably. To her right se saw what looked like a silver sail slowly spin and come up beside her. A buzzing sound startled her; it was the first sound she'd heard since her fall. She had to concentrate and then realized the Sail was talking to her. "Welcome, my Sun." It came to her on a sibilant, warm wave. "What's that? Listen, you probably can't tell but I'm no one's son." "You misunderstand, little one, We are all Sun." "Oh jeez, this isn't going to be easy, is it?" "You are of the Solari and we are of the Sun" "Gotcha, big guy. Ok, give it to me straight; what's going to happen next? So far it's been one big leap of faith and to tell you the truth, I'm a bit short on that." "You will ride the solar winds and gain the strength and mass needed to pass through the corona to join us in the inner core." "You mean I'm going to melt into the Sun?" "No, little one. You will join the multitude of those like you. Later you will join with another and give birth to a living star, far from the one that gave you birth." "And until then I get to play solar surfer? Too cool! So how long does this go on?" "Until you are ready." "Who decides when I'm ready for the big dive?" "No one can, only yourself." "And how many are out here with me? "You may see when you approach the Sun." "Come again?" "Just as we are not seen from earth, you cannot yet see them. We turn wide to the sun to catch the warm winds and aside to fall back. From Earth's view there is nothing to see; we either reflect the Sun's rays back or show Earth our narrow side." With that he turned and showed Holly his side view. "Damn that's a neat trick! Looks like Mylar with a little mass. When will I be able to do that?" "You already can and you already do, little one" That's when she noticed her reflection. She thought it was but an imperfection of his albedo, when in fact it was her own. The Big Shiny Sail must have mistaken her moment of self-reflection as tacit approval for his departure. As quick as a wink he was sunbound and Holly was alone. She surfed the solar winds and dipped down (but not too far) towards the corona, seeking solar flares to cast her planetward again. Not once did she pass Mercury, even the Earth had no call on her anymore. Planets spun around the sun marking time, all of which Holly barely noticed. She was getting pretty good at the whole surfing scene when loneliness struck. At first the shear oddity of the feeling left her agape. But it was a real feeling and Holly couldn't shake it. She went on a mission looking for the Big Shiny Sail -or any being like him. Down near the corona she turned and looked outward to the planets, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sail. Nothing could be seen but the few near-sun planets. Why had the big sail lied to her about seeing others? Only once did she consider a romp past the Earth. Knowing that she'd probably be earthbound if she entered its gravitational pull helped with that decision. All pull and no push was not experience had taught her. All that was left was the Sun's corona. At first she only flirted with it. Dipping down sampling the heat and then popping back up when she couldn't see anything. Next she probed the outer layer, feeling the thickness of the plasma. Pulling out was not so hard and she wondered if she did go through if she could sail out. Big Shiny Sail never really got to that part. He did insinuate that it was final, none the less. Holly felt it was only natural to develop some other sense as vision alone didn't work so well so close to the light source. On the very next sweep she got the feeling of nearby mass, much different from the gaseous expanse beyond. This was it, the next step, and she went for it. Through the corona she passed and then pulled up to check out the mass she'd felt. There it was, not just an object but a construct. Giant sails were linked together to form a mansion with a single high- arched entry. Sliding down to the entrance she heard/felt the singing of angels. She recognized the voices; they were quite like Big Shiny Sail and she realized it was he that she was looking for. At the end of a sail lined hall she found a single being. It too was a giant sail, not BSS, but evidently the one in charge. "I have arrived." She said in her best majestic entonement. "And you have been expected. Take your place on the wall and await instruction." It said in total indifference. "I kinda figured you had something important for me. I mean holding up a wall is probably very important in the big picture but Big Shiny Sail told me I'd be a mother or some such rot." "Your destiny has been written, now take your place." It was with a gravity push he made himself fully clear where she was to go. Holly obeyed and took her place on the wall. As soon as she touched her two neighbors there was linkage. With a snap she understood the singing as being the din of a million beings communicating. Holly joined in and was welcomed into the fold. Soon she could discern her neighbors from the rest. They shared their past lives and it seemed they all had remarkably similar journeys. They didn't question the end and didn't seem to care. Bathing in the light of the Sun and waiting for the next calling was their only charge. "Holly?" asked a familiar voice. "Big Shiny Sail, is that you? Are you close?" "All is relative, little one." "Yep that's you, Big Guy. So do you have any insight on what's going on next?" "Holly, all is as I told you before." "So that schpiel about being a grand mother and all is still happening?" "Yes, Holly." "Then why was the head honcho so evasive?" "He isn't head of anything, Holly. Think of him as an administrator. His job is to fill the halls with more of us. When his job is done, ours begins." "That mother of all mothers stuff, right?" "Yes." "So how do you fit in with the big picture around here?" "Well Holly, someone has to be the father." "Ooh Big Guy, you've been keeping secrets!" __________--------oooooooooo00000oooooooooo----------____________ -humbly submitted to the group for FTSD. A pisser of an ending, but it leaves room for round 2 Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.