Knowledge. Power. Freedom.
I can remember the first time that the night sky made sense to me.
When space no longer seemed like pinpricks against a shroud, but
as the emptiness that it is, dotted irregularly by powerhouses and
masses. It was never the starlight, twinkling, asking for
attention, that caught my eye - it was the feeling of freefall,
the fragility of gravity, and the endlessness of space in all
directions above me.
I drew strangth from, literally, nothing.
My parents, my friends, my teachers - everyone was surprised by
my "intelligence", my "natural ability". I saw them merely as the
dust motes that they were. What surprised them was my age, but I
knew that even that was a lie.
I was born before the universe.
Not before long, I was able to enter the Science Academy, It was
there that I was able to place names for the instincts, label each
swimming gut feeling, call each feeling of wonderment by the
accepted standard.
It felt as though they had dissected my body, stuck their lasers
and lights, and particle rays, and their BARBARIC PINS AND NEEDLES
into every nook and cranny
I hated science. I hated the Academy, and even then, I wanted to
take it all away.
That was when I heard her.
I was when my subcutaneous chronometer signalled the first hour of
my resting cycle when I had stumbled upon the faculty area. I had
been taking notes of the area, been outlining the trouble spots,
and the trouble personnel and their cycles, determining when the
time to strike would be, when I heard her.
It was strange to hear her, as the chambers were fitted with
vibratory dampeners, and, still, the melody of her voice travelled
straight into my skin, contrapuntal to my breathing, slow and
controlled as it was. At first it was hard to locate the source of
her voice, as it seemed to come from all around, with no perceptible
change with each step.
It was by luck, then (and I call it luck, as I know that calling it
destiny would ruin the dramatic build-up) that I saw her, through a
transparent window into her chambers. She, on the other hand, had
not noticed me as I stared at her, giving new life.
I stood transfixed as she molded, she twisted, she turned and
contorted, moaned, screeched, bleated, swooned... all with the
symphonic accompaniment of what I had first assumed to be her voice -
yet no being within the cosmos could hold chorus in the majesty of
the universe's most prestigious occupation. Indeed, it seemed
impossible for the room to contain the entirety of the spectacle,
and so it had bled into the hallway and had the gifted audience of
one.
She turned her on.
At that moment, I had seen my future stretch, not into infinity, but
into the distant horizon, into the blanket of night sky. All the
majesty of science paled in the sheer wonderment of creation. I had
to learn - no, to achieve - creation, even if it meant to take each
object down into components. Even if I had to become owner and ruler
of all.
I had learned my song.
*****
Finally, over the ages, my journey is to end. Whether I will be able
to handle the enormity of this, last, secret, or not my life is to
end soon.
And yet, I am able to commit my final days to music, to eerie strains
of life... resonating within the entirety of space, my coldest lover.
My only true vocation, to learn her every secret, to become...
Hush. The puzzle tightens and soon the key approaches.
*****
Meanwhile, the Light Hawk Wings enfold Tenchi, only covered from
darkness by Azaka and Kamidake, as Ayeka and Ryoko face me. I draw
my life's sonata to a haunting close and turn to face them.
"Welcome to my chapel, ladies..."
*****
Switch
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