HYPERBOLIC TRAJECTORIES

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[[Laika->Roo]] by Roo [["Who here can fix a rocket?"->Blast Off!]] by A. Bigmouse [[INYOURGRASP]] by Lynn [[Float]] by Brigid [[Diorama Shuttle->Diorama]] by Madelin Miyun [[Sailing Meteors]] by Ganon [[Iridium]] by Malcolm [[Credits]] by A. Bigmouse

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#Float //by Brigid Nemeton// Her voice buzzed in the comms: “Are you comfortable?” “It’s warm in here, and wet.” He bumped the edge of the tank briefly, before pushing off it ever-so-gently. “Yes. The float tank really helps for this kind of initial awareness training. I’m going to go quiet now, but remember what we talked about. Also, remember I can still hear you in there–say the word, and the lights go on and we pop you out, no problem.” “Sure. I don’t think I am gonna panic or anything, though. It’s less cramped and more like… like I am in a huge, empty space.” “Well, yeah. We made this tank from a converted cargo capsule, so it is pretty big. Even so, we parked the ship in a local lagrange to keep as still as we can; you shouldn’t bump against the tank too much.” A moment passed in silence. Then he inhaled, and his breath was the loudest thing in the tank. Beneath it, he heard his heart beat, slowing with his deepening breaths. He relaxed, letting himself float in the salty water. It was funny, he thought, to go through all this trouble to feel weightless in space, just because it was a huge pain to powercycle the autograv. He floated for a while, trying to remember her instructions. Allow himself to lose track of where his skin was, of where he ended and the water and air began. Listen for her, but not with his ears full of warm water. [[Dissolve.->float2]]

[[…->float3]]

[[…->float4]]

... (text-style:"blurrier","fade-in-out")[[[you there.->float5]]]

//(text-style:"blurrier")[you there] (text-style:"blur")[you there] (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[yes] hey nice (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[i feel you by the tank but also some others] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[crew] yes (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[and farther out] other [[minds->float6]] //

// (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[so many like stars] yes (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[too far to reach] no well for now this is the first step (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[to what] to reaching them for now just reach out to [[me->float7]]//

// (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[    like this like this] almost (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[what] (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[who said that] we did or well there is someone between us who lives in the ways we connect with one another (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[this is that thing you said the] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[gestalt] [[yes->float8]]//

// (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[who are they what do they want] they are us mostly what they want is (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[what i want] well yes but i mean it is what we (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[ what you two] want (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[want] yes (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[what is that though …] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[ … let’s break i could really use a coffee something salty to eat] (align:"==>")+(box:"X=")[are we done then] yeah sure we did what we (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[i] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[ came here to do] [[...->float9]] //

Fifteen minutes later, he was dried off and wearing pajamas, and they were having breakfast for dinner in the kitchen, as if clocks meant anything in space. “So that was your first time trying telepathy, right?” “Yeah. I thought it was called, uh–” “Phrenics, sure. But I mean, it’s telepathy–before psionics was even discovered, people had a word for this concept. I think people knew it was possible, just not how to do it.” “I mean, on some level, people do it intuitively, right? Like it’s natural, developing it is just about catching it when it happens and learning to encourage that–” “Which means it’s much easier to learn when you have a teacher, yeah. You did really well today! It can take a lot of effort to overcome this initial hurdle. In the words of the friend who taught me: People think there’s this fundamental, invincible barrier between people, or an insurmountable distance, light-years. But it’s not there, not really; if you can talk to someone and they can listen to you, you’re practically touching. Telepathy is about facing this imaginary barrier, which can feel like a steel wall, and running into it at full speed, not knowing that you’ll come out on the other side the same.. or, really, knowing that you won’t. Embracing the fact that connecting with others will change you. Anyway, I don’t mean to be all heavy or whatever. Really this stuff is useful because it makes it easier to communicate across language barriers, and of course related fields of psionics are vital for faster-than-light communications and even travel; we wouldn’t have y-drives without psionics.” He nodded, mouth full of toast. A moment later, [[he spoke:->float10]]

“It’s nice, also. To feel close to someone.” “Yes, it’s nice. I keep in touch with friends who haven’t been in the same stellar system as me in decades. That’s one reason I had the tank installed as soon as I got the ship; it makes the longer-distance stuff way easier.” “So you can really contact people that far away?” “Yeah, absolutely. It’s hard to do it without coordinating on the y-net first, but even that tech is based in psionics–it’s basically just having computers do what we just did, using specialized antennae and psionic components.” “How does it work?” “Setting aside that I’m not qualified to explain it, my understanding is we don’t really know, yet. Physics–even post-psi physics–doesn’t have a clear explanation for a mechanism that can transmit information instantaneously across huge distances. But honestly, for me? It’s enough to know it’s there. To know that we’re never that far from one another, even if it feels like there’s an infinite gap between us. To know we are close to one another.” “Yeah.” He took a sip of coffee. “Yeah.” <center>[[Next->Diorama]] </center>

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#Sailing Meteors //by Ganon// When space was first really explained to me, I didn’t really ‘get it’. Of course, I was too wanting to please to pretend otherwise but the vastness of it didn’t really stick to me. A few years later as I took trips outside my home town and understood how ‘far away’ things could be, the vastness hit me. And instead of wonder, I reached a small level of fear about it. There’s so much out there. [[There’s too much->sm2]] out there. <center><img src="https://bigmouse.neocities.org/HYPERBOLIC%20TRAJECTORIES/ganon.png" img style='height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: contain'/> </center>

It repeated in my head whenever I stared up at the black sky. The little white dots reminded me that there was all that out there. Infinite miles, infinite trips, infinite everything. I could live a thousand thousand times and if I somehow got up there, I’d not get through even a percent of it. How could anyone keep going under that, I wondered. I mean just look at it. The way it feels like it stares down at you. Those uncountable eyes, shining down. Were they waiting for me? No, of course not. They weren’t waiting for anything. How could something so big care about something so small? And if it didn’t care, that meant what I was doing didn’t matter really. I wasn’t going to make an [[impact.->sm3]]

I was like a sailing meteor, flying through the void with this realization. Each planet of possibility passing me. I couldn’t know where I was going. I just know I wouldn’t stop. Because nothing dared to care to stop me. That changed in a night however. I grew older, went through a few different experiences. And this night’s was, in retrospect, one of the best. I had a car at this time, and my roommate at the time said we should find somewhere that we could see the meteor shower. Somewhere dark to look up at the stars. I found beauty in the night sky now but no purpose still. Having nothing better to do, I agreed, and we were off. Our journey was meandering, wandering, and with no real location in sight. In that moment, we were truly that meteor, flying through and not knowing if we’d ever make impact. Though eventually, we found somewhere to rest. A little apartment complex, where we sat in the on-site playground. We stared up at the night sky, not a meteor in sight…but we talked. We talked about things important and non-important. We shared a moment under that oppressive sky that I found now pretty but still cold. A deathly beautiful chill of a painting. But as the moment kept going, and our words grew more warm, [[I realized I had been looking at space all wrong.->sm4]]

Each star, each path, everything had made its own impact. Whether it touched somewhere, or I’d ever really understand it, it was still there. It still kept going, despite the supposed uncaring nature of it all. The universe is too big for all of us, but in that same vein, that means we make such a huge change to the small piece within it. I saw the stars now as potentially somewhere else with someone looking back, thinking the same thing. Wondering if they would matter in the scope of it all. I can’t send them a message, at least not for a few million years, but I hope that some way they come to the same conclusion I have after life has had its way with me. The universe is infinite, and your time may be not. But you can grasp pieces of this universe. This world. Your impact is constant and ongoing. You’re no singular meteor, but a storm. Beautiful, awe-inspiring, and once in a lifetime. <center><img src="https://bigmouse.neocities.org/HYPERBOLIC%20TRAJECTORIES/extraw.png" img style='height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: contain'/> [[Next->Iridium]] </center>