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Ch 63: DEFINING REALITY
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Images swam before her.
Indistinct, fuzzy and fluid.
And with them a sense of recognition.
A sense of familiarity.
She relaxed her mind and the images quickly solidified and sharpened.
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She was flying a small, two-seat fixed-wing plane with her father as copilot.
She was sixteen – and having the time of her life.
They soared above the countryside on a day made for flying.
Clear skies and light winds.
She glanced over at her father and he sent her a smile and a waggle of his eyebrows before turning his gaze back to the vista below.
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Wormholes, black holes, time-warps, sunspots… three-dimensional images danced slowly around her. She moved them and transformed them with her very thoughts. Pondering the laws of physics, the dimensions of space-time, and the mathematical equations. And with that thought space itself became her chalkboard as she worked through the equations necessary to describe the astronomical phenomena she'd encountered over the years. Numbers, symbols and equations floated above and behind her multi-dimensional models and images.
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SG-1 was strung out in a line. Trekking through a forest on a newly discovered planet. One more of the gate addresses that they were methodically exploring. Teal'c had point, Colonel O'Neill was second in line and Daniel was third. She was bringing up the rear… covering their sixes.
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She flew amongst the asteroids. Dipping, dodging, diving, twisting and spinning. The laws of physics were no longer a fatal concern. If she 'hit' an asteroid, she'd just fly through it. No harm, no foul… at least not in this space-time. Wherever this was.
The Earth's Moon appeared on the X-302's control panel and she flew straight towards it. Swooping down over its dry, barren surface, she skimmed over the craters of the lunar highlands. Slowing to watch the scattered light sparkle off of the broken lunar regolith. Searching for landmarks, she identified the flood basalts of Mare Imbrium and then Kepler Crater and Copernicus Crater. Circling she flew over them lazily and then headed over to Mare Tranquilitatus, the Sea of Tranquility, where Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed.
Next, she looped around to the far-side of the moon. That side that was never seen from earth-based telescopes. She studied the classic shapes of the countless impact craters. The typical crater rims, the impact rays and the small raised areas in the centers of the crater floors.
She imagined bouncing over the powdery, shattered lunar surface.
And then she was there.
In a suit not unlike that of the Apollo astronauts.
She couldn't restrain a full-blown smile at the freedom of one-sixth gravity. She bounced and strode in long lazy strides that floated above the ground. She traversed a crater floor and inspected the central peak, and then bounced slowly over to the other side of the crater. Climbing up the loose lunar detritus, she worked up a sweat and she could hear her deep breaths echoing inside her helmet.
And then she reached the rim. The view was breathtaking. The stark, grey lunar surface sparkled with scattered and reflected light. The stars above shone brilliantly against the deep black of space.
She sat on the edge of the crater rim and allowed the sheer splendor to engulf her.
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TBC
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