literature

Regeneration, Pt. 7 of 8.

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         Nadine held onto the strong line tightly secured to the yellow-glowing pedestal and pulled as hard as possible downward.  She felt G-forces press her to the now-glowing floor to the point that even breathing was difficult, but they were still greatly diminuated to preserve life as a last self-preservation measure by the power pylon.  Only the build-up of lactic acid in her fixed arm muscles forced her to relax the desperate grip and constant effort she exerted on the cord, and the top half of the cone became fully upright again.  The speed of her ascent also became static, and by then, she was inside the edge of the infinite realm of space some three hundred miles above the Earth.  The condensed ectoplasmic cloud, swirling and glimmering around the external force field, correspondingly thinned and evolved into plasma bands that continued to whirl about the exterior of the new vessel; they also prevented her from feeling the effects of zero gravity and helped sustain the necessary atmosphere within it.

         The stars shone above her between the fast-rippling pale yellow-green bands with a brilliance and clarity she had never seen before.  When she could stand again with care and a sense of caution, the hulk of the Earth was looming below with at least an equal degree of magnificence.  Just as she had previously seen the luminous specks of the numerous minute glowing flakes on the slimy ground of the ri's sanctuary core area, yellowish dots and patches of lights from large cities and forest fires glittered on the planet's night side.  Tiny blue-white flashes of lightning in scattered thunderstorms flickered randomly, and the eerie irregular smear of a blue-green and red-topped aurora moved as if alive across the sub-polar regions to fascinate her the most link.  

         Ever-present fear intensified and quickly displaced her surprise as she rose higher, and she yearned more and more to go back somehow to some other place.  She did not know exactly where the strange living spacecraft was going but discovered two important factors upon experimentally yanking on the nylon line.  The life-sustaining confinement moved faster in the OPPOSITE direction, more into the night side of the Earth, and she remembered a line overheard earlier in a conversation: "destroy the sanctuary, and you may destroy the ri."  The revelation echoed in her mind -- both were dependent on the other, and SHE was the one in control of something very significant and of incredible power.  However, where did the ri go?

         Nadine saw the fulgent Sun descend below the blue-bordered limb of the Earth and steered the pylon like a kind of throttle to move across the planet's night sky unseen like a kind of mythical celestial goddess.  She approached the sparkling central structure, and for a brief time, pulled on the line from an upward angle to decrease her distance from the top of the very faintly glowing and dynamic atmosphere.  Then, she was blinded for a few seconds by a flash all around and screamed in response.  "My God!  What was that?" she whispered loudly.  "A meteor?"

         She ceased her gradual descent and looked behind to see her wondrous enclosure shedding white glittering sparks like a comet and repeatedly voiced the words "Oh, god" for another half minute.  Her fearful mind urgently wanted to know what happened and whether or not the transformed sanctuary could remain intact without its true mistress either.  Needless to say, there was no answer to the question.

         The uncanny rippling yellow-green bands moved across her field of view more slowly, and the floor vibrated to the point of shaking frequently -- miniature quakes; questions flashed in her mind almost as fast. "Is this thing recognizing my presence and trying to reject me?  Can the ri still control it from anywhere?  How long can I last in here?"  Actually, the confinement was dragging onto the slightly thicker atmosphere.  

         Amidst the receding pretty wake of sparks, she saw a white star appear against the vault of space from the sunlit limb of the Earth.  It was not in the normal background with the numerous others and grew brighter than any of them.  It rose into better view, and she thought it was the planet Jupiter or Venus, until it showed a scintillating corona of many changing colors, acted variable, and remained visible within the distant terminator of the planet.  She glanced ahead at the more vigorously sparkling material within the sphere, remembered how the transformed ri shot through it as an energy bolt, and noticed the star to the rear grow still brighter again.  The two were related and she breathed, "That's it!  Dear god, it's coming . . . after me!"  

         The platform shook at her feet again, and she wondered if the conspicuous star and the pylon, or something inside both, was communicating mutually in some way to affect or assume control of the other the closer they got.  She pulled the line straight hard to go faster and stepped to the right to speed in one direction and moved to the left to move in another -- a temporary zigzag.  However, the star kept pace with her evasive movements, and closer to the Earth, she realized that an ultimate terminal measure had to be taken.  If there was any chance of destroying the following ri, she would have to evade it long enough and NOT return to the living world below, where it would just re-impregnate itself.  Instead, another more suitable planet for BOTH of them to fight or die was needed, and while contemplating where to sacrifice her life with it, she saw the mottled gray and white orb of the Moon rise in splendor over the Earth's limb ahead and began to shed tears from her gazing eyes.  "There you are, dear," she whimpered.  "That's where I will take you -- to your death."  

         The two separate entities veered out of Earth orbit next and went into trans-lunar space faster.  When they were almost fifty thousand kilometers from her home planet and emerging from its umbral shadow, the distance between them soon increased.  Nadine did not want it to attain greater control of the pylon, and she peered back to see that the star had become a small pale yellowish disc and had radiant white rays, like the sharp petals of a daisy, around the outside of it to receive the energizing sunlight.  During the fascinating floral transformation, it merely decreased its speed a bit.  Now, the chase was on.

         In just brief tense minutes, their distance from the Earth more than tripled, and in the frontiers of her more panicky mind, she again respected the ri for the sheer amount of power and determination it had to rejoin its source component.  The pursuing disc had grown to twice the apparent diameter of the Sun in her star-spangled sky, while drawing swiftly nearer again.  Its floral rays became lesser in number, longer, and more spindly, as if stretched by the solar wind, and she said, "There, bitch!  You're finally wilting in the sunlight like the vampire you are!  Maybe, I can get back to Earth alive anyway."  

         The feeling of optimism inside her was only brief.  Nadine pulled hard on the line connected to her torso again, and the rugged cratered details of the Moon took on an increasingly 3-D appearance from a closer range.  Craters became more visible within craters, especially in the southern hemisphere, and inside of the large gray maria, and the mountainous areas between and amongst them swelled with greater relief.  The rayed craters of Copernicus and Tycho link stood out like eyesores, and the Jura Mountains became a striking crescent about the hardened lava floor of Sinus Iridum ("Bay of Rainbows")link.  Mare Crisium link, over three hundred miles across, resided in view shortly to her lower left as she was taken a little further to its south above the gaping Petavius crater.

         With the Moon filling well over half her entire sky, another more violent jolt shook her off-balance after the sphere atop the pylon brightly flashed.  She landed flat and hard on her back onto the floor and let out a loud grunt in pain.  The pursuing disc doubled in size again to become a ball, drawing ever closer, and she sat up, turned, and saw that its rays became sinuous tendrils of plasma that reached toward her, writhing and twisting, much like the ri's flukes moved when underwater.  Then, she noticed more fluid leaking onto her platform from where the spears were sticking into the fleshy cone and remarked, "Oh, that hurt?  Wait till I slam you deep into one of those dark hell-pits here."

         Nadine breathed in deep slowly and felt more tired while standing.  The floor was all wet now and the air inside the protective enclosure was stifling.  She proceeded to shift her weight against the line to descend quickly toward the jagged forbidding lunar terrain.  The ball followed as if consciously knowing her intentions, and its long thin tendrils fluttered ahead wildly as if blown in an evil wind; both of them became captured by the dead world's gravity.  The pylon moved from side to side again, around sharp rims, over steep ridges and protruding mountain peaks, and across dorsae, but the approaching sphere did not shoot any beams or pulses of energy captured to prevent her suicide attempt.  Thus, she knew that something, either the cone or her, or both, was needed by it, but she did not know for what and just wanted more to destroy the ri by preventing it from reaching the precious pylon.  Each entity was thus not capable of long journeys in the hostile space environment, but both had to be together.  As she had no idea which one alone would perish first, down she went in final desperation.  

         She cruised beyond the mighty Apeninnes Mountains and over the bleak cratered landscape of the Imbrium Basin at supersonic speed.  Looking back another time, she silently bade the distant Earth farewell as it sank into the and below the bright lunar limb.  Tears continued to stream from her eyes then, and she felt the empty world close by pull her down as the globe atop the cone seemingly lost power fast in succumbing to its gravitational force.  She crossed the Moon's terminator just beyond the Grimaldi impact basin link, and ink-black night engulfed her like the ri's tar-like secretion did to Susan Carvell years ago.  Just before the transfigured ri also entered the cold stark darkness, electromagnetic forces from its sphere made the long plasma tendrils connect to the exterior of her enclosure.  Seconds later, both reunited a mere thousand meters above the invisible surface in a blinding nova-like flash and shot off into deep space in another direction at the speed of light.  The moving spindles had only given Nadine the illusion that they were in some kind of pain or evaporating during the later part of the chase, and the last image she saw before being struck down beside the seized pylon was of something very beautiful, entrancing, and beyond the realm of her imagination.  


Continued to Pt. 8.

         
Girl power to the Moon and beyond (climax).
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