Nest Among The Stars

Visions - Part 4

Sleep came easily but did not last. Sometime after the deepest rest was past, tenebrous visions began to torment Michael's mind, jerking him into wakefulness.

While the shuttle remained secure, Gabe using satellites to watch it from above, the lone occupant began to dream. At first the dreams were random, disconnected, rapid flashes of reality and fantasy. Even so, they did not disturb and Michael's subconscious drifted into a welcomed nothingness. This timeless period gave over to an awareness of pleasant feelings; the presence of his wife coming to comfort him after being absent for so long. She had not yet entered his world of dreams but she soon would and the anticipation was overwhelming.

He stood at the side of an unpaved road, light brown dirt powdering his polished boots. A warm wind caressed his face bringing with it the honeyed scent of clover. It was summer, the middle part of the day with the sun only slightly beyond the zenith. Looking off to his left, down the length of the country road by which he stood, he saw it divided deep green fields in front of a small forested area.

Purple, pink and white flowers, the purveyors of the honeyed scent, swayed in all directions among the field grass, moved by the touch of undecided wind currents, a waving ocean of color, some moving left, some right, with other parts gently swirling in place. The warmth on his forehead encouraged him to look upwards towards the sky, light blue without imperfection, clean white clouds slowly moving across the canopy.

Then it was that she appeared, displaying fully the truth of her beauty, her eyes telling Michael she even now remained in love with him. Standing in the field just beyond arms reach, Michael wanted to go to her, but found he could not. Though no force acted against him, something prevented him from moving. He was empty inside, hollow and lonely without strength. As if drained of the will to do the very thing he most wanted, defeated before an effort could even be made, he looked longingly at her, his heart not understanding its pain.

Unwillingly held in place Michael watched as she began to recede, a golden light in the distance drawing her into itself. There was no source, no point of origin for the light. Michael knew there was intelligence within it, although he wasn't sure why he knew this. He had a sense of well-being, calmness, freedom from all concern, a healing presence. It held knowledge of love given in a way and to a degree impossible to understand. A love absent any fear. He would give everything to become part of it, to find his purpose joined to it.

But he couldn't move in that direction. He could move unhindered in any other direction he might want, even to jump up or bend down, but he knew he couldn't move to attain the light or the love of his wife which was being drawn to it. He'd learned to live alone by accepting what his life was and, having accepted his loneliness, he lacked the will to choose otherwise. He could no longer bring himself to where the very thing he desired most would be his.

In the distance beyond the light sat the small German village, the steeple of the church rising above the other buildings. Without turning to look, he knew the shuttle was in place behind him and there would be no difficulty in returning to it, but he also knew that he wouldn't do so as long as he still held his wife in sight.

There was no shaking of the ground, no rending sounds or other forewarning as the field began to split apart. Down the length of the earthen road a chasm appeared, Michael on one side, his wife and the light on the other. Wisps of sulfurous smoke rose from the opening in the ground.

The strange lack of will that had painfully prevented him from moving towards his wife suddenly left him. He could move in her direction, but was now prevented from doing so by the widening divide, its presence a new cause of hurt to him. Approaching the very edge, he peered down into its red darkness. Faint sounds arose from the depths, horrible utterances anguished and tormented. Fear gripped Michael as his training failed to assist in taking control. He felt coldness on his skin. His heart raced and his defenses fell.