Saturday, January 17, 2015

Sadness

Stardate: September 1, 3999

My dearest Magdalene,

My heart is heavy whenever I hear of the passing of the techno-mages from our part of the known universe. Perhaps one day there will be a way to commune with them but, ahh! It is a great loss only the Knights of the Northern Star will not understand. Most, as you say, do not care to grasp the significance of this loss. They are too busy with their material lives. What a great sadness.

You are right and so is the honored gentleman who kept you company to say that we knights are only the first guardians outside the gates of knowledge, barely understanding the kernels of truth in the legends and myths of the world we try to keep alive. It is a flickering flame in danger of going out. . What can one do but strive mightily to keep it alive? That is one reason why my men and I have gone on the hunt for the Lathe.

 Once we got going, we rode behind the tail of the Bright Star comet toward the first destination where we were to find a clue to our next port of call, the Blue Station. From there we thought perhaps we'd arrived at the wrong place but one of the men, keen of eye and ear saw in an electrical storm created by the corona loops of the star in that system an image in blue and white light A fleeting image of the lathe it painted in grand auroras of green and blue and within it we saw a fleeting light map of the Trion star system, where our next station lay. We encountered Kristoff's minions, a small company of them and a huge battle ensued as they tried to prevent us from leaving but my knights and I gained the upper hand on them. I do think now that they were sent as a diversion, to slow us down. I captured one of the scoundrels and demanded of him where Kristoff was headed next  and how he planned to try and foil us again. He wouldn't talk but we found a detailed written plan on him on Kristoff's next move. It occurred to me as we left that station that the leaving of the techno-mages and the coming of those who would seize all knowledge from the universe is no an accident. I believe they are behind the complex and brilliantly created entertainment complexes rising up. Get people in these places and distracted and they don't realize that their birthright to the knowledge is being slowly taken away. Then attack and destroy the guardians. Those like Kristoff want to steal the Starry Lathe of Heaven eventually, the very instrument that produces all that we see and know. It is a blasphemy. I fear that they wish to extinguish it. May that never happen!

I am glad he has been banished and I thank the techno-mage for keeping you under his protection for how ever short a time his visit was. Keep to your quarters Magdalene and do not go out at night hours or alone. It is too dangerous. These dark hands of the void are increasing in numbers and their tongues speak of cold, dark and twisted things. I am now on the luminous Crystal Station, that lighthouse, that wondrous place like a great light unto itself in the darkness of space, the last lonely outpost before one gets to the local system. Still a long way but I am making my way back. I have had time to rest and repair my ship. It is a beautiful station but in a lonely and dark part of the last ream of the spiral galactic arm, it makes me feel awed, contemplative and sad. Only a little, but even still. It seems I stare from these view ports out into a thin band of stars and then into the dark. In the far distance I can see the faint, vast web of other galaxies but they are so far away. Like you my love. I am coming. Steadily.

Love,
R. Vaughn