Welcome to Sparkadia

Amaranthine Landing, part 1.

To Orion, In case I do not survive.

Your words echoed in my brain.

“We’ve cracked universes apart before, but this is different. You may feel displaced. Your limbs might stretch like spaghetti. This is beyond anything we’ve ever tried before, so be prepared that all those odd symptoms we’ve experienced are on the table here.”

You zipped up my omniskin and looked at me with your big brown eyes, swelling with pride and hiding concern, but bright and as excited as before. “And then there are the unfactorables…”

“I know what’s at stake.”

“Where you’re going shouldn’t exist… but if this works… well, I honestly am not sure what comes next.”

I pulled my lamp across my eyes, and you became shimmering splotches of heat-mapped colors. I saw you the way machines do: in ultraviolet, in heliospectrum, in maths and matrices, in waves of data my earth eyes were not designed to perceive. I was seeing all the invisible expressions of you.

“I know I might not survive.”

“I’m aware,” you said. “No matter what, the omniskin is coming back with or without you, so try to keep it on, and when you get back, we’ll dine at the Avalon Helix executive lounge, and you will regale me with every last detail.”

I shot you a thumbs up and a cocky grin and you initiated the countdown. Parts 2 and 3 are in "Welcome to Sparkadia", available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble