The Legacy of Veiled Brightness

A strange and warped landscape. Great dream-like pinnacles of rock rise like soaring spires or turrets and shimmer in the harsh light in a delicate array of colours – sea green, maroon red, deep and mysterious purple. They cast sinuously twisting shadows over a rock-strewn wasteland of dust-carved valleys and jagged chasms opening into sightless darkness. Above, the unfamiliar white light of a nearby star ripples into faint patterns, slight blues and greens, in the thin atmosphere. Beyond, the sky is black – smooth, silky, infinite – and strewn with great ribbons of stars which sit cold and white and distant in the void.
Two figures cross the barren landscape, the only sign of life. The footprints from their heavy suits mark the first time this ancient glittering dust has been disturbed in unknown aeons. One goes ahead, finding a route upwards through the scree and rockfaces between the iridescent pinnacles. They move frantically, uncertainly, testing every handhold and foothold, pausing, backtracking, constantly looking over their shoulder. Their movements feel laboured, as if somehow restrained, their feet dragging at every step. The other hangs back. They move gradually but easily, flowing along the path the other has marked out, taking their time but rarely stepping wrong, with a quiet and simple grace. Most of all, they watch.
Finally, the first figure makes it to the top of a large outcrop. They shield their helmet, blinking, in the sudden white glare of a strange sun. Around them, the endless pinnacles of the lifeless planet stretch off like an immense forest in all directions, as far as the eye can see. In the harsh sunlight they gleam garishly in the same strange mix of colours like gems - it’s hard to see clearly in all this vastness and chaos and light.
By the time the second figure has made their gradual way to the top of the outcrop, the glaring sun has sunk slightly at the horizon. The first figure is sat down, recuperating, still shielding their eyes. The second sits beside them and waits.
As the sunlight gradually fades, both are finally able to look up beyond the glaring light to the stars. With the atmosphere so thin, there are so many of them – more than can feasibly be counted. The first figure eagerly points at the ones they know – Rylor, Xiess, DO-LORIS, ARCOL, and of course Brightest of Brightest. The second nods, and says little. Together, basking in the kaleidoscopic light of an alien sunset, they lie back and watch. Above them, a swirling infinity of stars, their brightness finally unveiled.

Same bar, same drinks, same faulty light on the table. This station has gone through so much and some things just stay the same. We’ve been through so much, together, and apart. You’ve changed, but I see the same person I met here. You’ve done great, whilst I’ve forgotten how to do good. Have I changed? Can I bury my mistakes? You seem to think so, and I don’t want to let you go, so I swallow and nod. To moving on.

Oasis

I see its reflection in your eyes when you look at me, but your laugh chases it away. The light is fixed now, a warmth washes over your smile. We joked about complaining; what made this place ours had been taken away, but we know we don’t need it, not any more. You tell me about you, and I tell you about me, and that’s enough to help forget.

Oasis

You’re on leave again, and I’m here waiting. Seeing you is coming home. You tell me about your work and I watch with pride. I tell you about my last journey and we plan to take one together, one more trip with the guild. But we both know a call will come to take you away, so we cherish these moments.

Oasis

Connects us. You take my hand, but I can’t feel it. We don’t breathe the same air, and I can’t hear your voice. You lead me to the bar, and we dance anyway. Limbs flying, following our own rhythm. We may not be touching but we move together.

Oasis

It’s with us as we sit together, sunset bouncing off the water. The calls have stopped, the bar is far away. The people we’ve known, the people we’ve lost, the stories we’ve shared, the stories we’ve made together. I’m done running.

Written by Jack G.

Telling stories has always been the favoured method of passing on knowledge for the followers of the People’s Will. As time passes and they find new homes across the galaxy, the tradition only grows stronger. Under the light of distant stars that can’t even be seen from the Thousand Colours Moon, sailor parents sing to their children the same old songs of half-forgotten ages past, handed down from tentacle to tentacle, the music of a people in harmony.

The sky is an ocean

With currents ever-shifting

The first explorers

Found uneasy paths

…

With thundering tempests

And tangling darkness

Sometimes they were trapped

And sometimes alone

…

Sometimes they sailed bravely

For far-distant stars

To reach them and find

They were back where they started

…

And so they became

Like shifting ammonia

Following the current

Wherever it took them

…

Leaving behind

Whatever they had to,

Flowing through darkness

And freely through light

…

Rest easy, child

Though the sky may be stormy

Trust that the ocean

Will carry you home.