Page 67 of Collision!
Deep in the cloud nucleus, something stirred.A darkness within the interference waves.
One thread of shadowlight, extended until it was all but invisible even with his visor finely tuned, seemed to bridge the emptiness—though by his quick calculations he would’ve sworn the distance was too far.
The cloud…broke.
Just as the final strands of the knotwork tore free, and the flags at the very end drifted into space.
Love.Love.Love.
The resonark hung suspended against the backdrop of shimmering darkness.One by one, the severed strands disappeared, as if burned out.
In his ear, Mariah’s breath caught on a sob, and he knew what she was thinking.They were too late?Had the last tenuous connection been broken?
He reached for her, wishing they weren’t trapped in their bulky suits, to hold her for real as decoherence claimed the connection they’d followed all the way to the end of the line.
As he wrapped his awkward arms around her, she turned toward him—
And the silent, belling energy wave from the cloud break reached them.
The surge lifted them to the limits of their tethers, and they clung together, helmets tucked against each other’s shoulders, limbs entwined in their own singular knot.
Another perception distortion seized them.
Again, the nothingness before the universebecoming, exploding into the pain and sorrow of separation, the yearning for reconnection, the ecstatic bliss of reunion— But then further along…the dawning consciousness that only in the break was the return, and in that distance between was the experience that mattered.
They would face loss and fear.They would find connection and meaning.Always the shadow would follow the light would follow the shadow would follow… And the task for those who sought such love would be to hold and release like a heartbeat, in balance but always flowing, each stitch linking to the rest…
A prismatic brilliance seared across their sky.
The lingering molecules of drifting filaments around them caught the radiating energy, flaring like a star map, interwoven but distinct.
For a moment, Suvan saw the pattern—not chaos at all but an intricate web of how they were all linked, each soul a bright point, each relationship a shining strand.
And somewhere in that newborn constellation, burning in all the colors of the rainbow: Mariah.
“I remember,” he blurted.“I remember all of it, every moment with you.”
Through the barrier of their visors, she stared into his eyes.“Everything?”
“You taste sweeter than soda pop.”
Bright color bloomed across her face, and her dark eyes sparkled.“Suvan!”
“I fell in love with you.”He pressed his visor to hers.“And then I forgot.And then I fell again.I will love you every time, through all time—and all of space too.”
“We’re not falling anymore,” she whispered.“We found it.”
Framed in the heart of the broken cloud, the resonark’s shadowlight illuminated the dark surges.Fractal threads spiraled out in all directions, a celestial signal fire of elemental joy.
“Chief.”The captain’s urgent voice broke through the static.“Are you there?Answer.”
Suvan toggled his comm.“Sir, I’m having a moment, if you please.”
“A moment?Oh, by all means.But when that expansion wave hits—”
Together, they craned their helmets to see the sparkling ball of prismatic plasma unfurling toward them, like a nebulous polychrome flower.
“I’ve had enough mystical revelations for one day,” Mariah whispered.“I can love you inside the ship too.”
