Prologue

Through the parabolic spinning of the mechanisms and under dusky haze of thorough Reintox, my mind drifted to an earlier time before the jump to post-wake. It crept on like a sort of paralysis, a lucid dream but of memory. The onset was subtle enough, the paralysis every bit as frightening as the shadowy figures that sometimes loom, hover and dash about at onset. Even in absolute dark, it managed to be sharp and stinging, bright and painful.

Back there I was -- wandering through the desert, at night, the faintest light to guide me. I came to the fork where the hooded stranger approached and said: "Brother, blow out your candle so that you may find your way more clearly." It took a moment to realize my ability to speak had returned so I shakily (and in retrospect, haphazardly) replied, "it does no harm to the romance of the night sky to know a little about it, I need the light to guide me" and continued the walk toward Alexandrous; his gaze stabbing into my back, like  Pilate's dagger. The brutish nature of this desert seeped into every pore and choked every breath. This would be a night (was this memory?) to remember...

The UAC chimmed with its usual precision, at exactly 21:13 it communicated to all members on board "Serenity is our virtue, through our depths of understanding, we will overcome. Pleasant stasis and dogspeed." The ship went cold and continued its drift towards Titan. In it's cold embrace, I, in stasis, in theatre (in memory?), continued West, to the great city; lost but not without compass.

 

In the machine.