The Station, Part 38

I’m in the dream state. Or sleep lesson perhaps. I don’t know just yet. Let’s see where it takes me. This is much more…engaging now that I have a semblance of control. Or rather, just a preconceived awareness of my state of mind. So where am I? This is definitely not a natural place, artificial or not. It’s the smallest place I have ever been as yet, but a dramatically huge place still. I stand in what looks to be near to the center of an oblate spheroid. The curved walls showcase a variety of images, most of which are of places that I have no way of comparing to the whole of my experience. Utterly alien. Other images I recognize. Places where I have been. The dark cavern of non-trees, the beach where I witnessed the rebirth, the ritualized place full of immense mushrooms that weren’t mushrooms at all. But now I see there’s so much more. It is only now that I grasp the true size of this leviathan, this whale that has seemingly swallowed worlds. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of artificial environments that are now home of a multitude of species that must range in the millions. I am momentarily overwhelmed.

I pull my eyes away from the vast cacophony of images and focus my attention on the holographic display on the floor just a few meters away. It is much taller than myself, and much wider. An oblate spheroid as well. Within it, I see much smaller shapes, undoubtedly representations of the myriad of environment chambers that are housed within. In contrast to the blues that represent the chambers, there is an array of red lines that snake throughout the whole of the object. They travel upward and downward slopes and some are horizontal. None are vertical, yet each connects from chamber to chamber. One could travel these lines from chamber to chamber and always have a path to any other chamber. It’s the ultimate in accessibility. These are the tunnels. I have found the roadmap I have needed.

I think of where I really am, near the mountains on the far side of the Earth-like savannah, and as if in response, one of the environments in the hologram glows brightly. The walls of displays morph into one gigantic single display. I see the stream flowing with its cold water. The lush vegetation and on the ground near it, what used to be a human being, sleeping peacefully. He is dressed in the white undergarment of an excursion suit. His body is almost too tall for the suit, as his suits leggings are stretched to their limits, the sleeves exposed skin that should otherwise be covered. The overall body is so thing. The long hands have six fingers. But it’s the head that is the most unfamiliar. The hair white, where it should be nearly black. The face is sunken, but not to the point of emaciation. The lips have thinned almost to the point of nonexistence. The nose is smaller as well, wider, with nostrils that are practically invisible. I don’t recognize this person at all anymore. But I know this creature is supposed to be me. But that person in the oversized image is no longer Robert Bradley. That person has gradually faded away, buried inside a new being that is only now showing itself to my former self. I can only hope that this relationship is to be a peaceful coexistence. I only have hope as there is no control.

I think of Frontier 2, my only means of salvation, now just a distant hope. I wonder how, if I ever did find her again, what voice would my rescuers hear. I hear no change, but then most of my changes have most likely occurred within. The outside alterations are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg I suspect.

And with the thought, the holographic display glows in another place, and the image around me remolds itself once again.