2. Jupiter
“Wait, what? Say that again,” said The Magician.
The Scientist chuckled, “Yes! The sun is a star. It’s the only star in our solar system.”
The Magician scratched his head in confusion. The Scientist smiled as she tried to think of a simple explanation.
The portal had placed them about 1 million kilometers away from Jupiter. To kill the time as the ship traveled the rest of the way, the Magician convinced her to give him more astronomy lessons. After getting over the debilitating disbelief of going through a magic portal, The Scientist agreed.
“It’s simple: A star is a celestial object that emits its own light. As you know, the sun lights up the earth and all the other planets in the solar system. Voila! It’s a star.”
“But how can it be the only one in the system? What about all the stars we see in the sky at night? And the stars we see all around us right now?”
“Those are other stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Some of them are a lot like our sun and even have their own planets. But they’re very far away from us, so they appear small. The star that is the closest to the Earth after the Sun is about 4 light-years away! In reality, stars are much bigger than planets.”
The Magician’s eyes widened, and he sank back in his chair. After a while he said, “It’s just so hard to wrap my head around it. I’ve always associated the sun with daytime and stars with the night. To find out that the sun is a star? That they’re the same thing? It’s insane.”
“New discoveries are always shifting our perspective on things. That’s the goal of science!”
Their conversation was interrupted as the ship’s control system beeped, telling them that they were within safe distance of Jupiter. Any further and they would be sucked in by the immense gravity of the giant gas planet. The Scientist looked out and marveled at the sight of the King of Planets, which took up nearly the entire vista, even from this distance. The Scientist felt lucky to be the first human being to be able to witness it directly.
She looked over at The Magician, expecting to see him with his trademark wide-eyed grin. But he was looking down at the floor silently, as if the revelation about the sun had thrown him into some kind of existential crisis.
“Hey! Look out the window. We’re here!”
The Magician finally looked up, but his eyes were full of fear and doubt.
The gravity of their situation dawned on The Scientist as well. The surface of Jupiter was entirely made of gas with nothing to stand on. Not to mention the deadly levels of radiation it gave off. How could they hope to explore it? Even magic had to have its limits.
But to her surprise, she felt more excited than worried. Despite the impossible obstacles that lay ahead of them, she was just happy to be here, where no human had ever been before. For the first time in a long time, a rush of energy lit up her head. It was the same energy that had kept her going through countless all-nighter lab sessions and ginormous research papers: Her insatiable desire for discovery.
The Magician smiled nervously at her, “I’m sorry I brought you all the way here with no concrete plan. I felt so confident that everything would work out somehow. But staring at the planet now, seeing how big it is… I’m not so sure anymore.”
He sank back and braced himself for a merciless barrage of grievances. Instead, the Scientist looked at him and smiled.
“It’s ok! You’ve done enough by bringing us here. Kid-me would have given an arm and a leg to see Jupiter with my own two eyes. It’s a dream come true,” she said.
She saw The Magician’s spirit lift slightly as she mentioned her childhood. “That’s not a dream most kids have. You must have really loved space.”
“Yes, nature and space — those two things defined my childhood. I grew up in a small town, where there wasn’t much light pollution. I remember spending the entire day outdoors, reading my favourite books, playing in the grass, and meeting all sorts of animals. When it got dark I would lie down in the grass and gaze at the stars. A true paradise.”
“Stars and nature. Actually, that’s not too different from my youth... The Order was all about protecting the Earth. Masters of the stars. Servants of nature. That’s what we always said.”
The Scientist looked at him in surprise, it was the first time he had spoken frankly about his origins. A few times, she had tried to ask him about where he was from, and more importantly, where his powers came from. He always gave sarcastic, nonsensical answers like, “It all started with a dream… and a $30 beginner’s magic kit from Party City.” Amusing, but not very helpful.
The Magician looked away from her suddenly, realizing he had let slip something he wasn’t supposed to. She decided that this was not the time to pry and changed the subject.
“When I was young. Maybe twelve or thirteen I’m not sure. Something happened that changed me. Do you want to hear about it?” she asked.
The Magician’s eyes lit up as he nodded rapidly.
“One day, when I was walking home from school, I came across an injured rabbit. He had the most grotesque injury I’d ever seen. One of its eyes was completely… It was completely missing. Maybe it had been gouged out by a predator, maybe a car hit it, I’m still not sure. But it was still breathing. It even twitched slightly as I moved closer to it to inspect it. I felt so bad for it and so scared too. I still remember those feelings like it was yesterday.”
The Magician listened silently. His expression was soft but serious, his limbs frozen in place.
“And it was so cute, even with the horrifying injury. I remember wanting to cuddle it. I cried my eyes out! For the longest time, I just stood there on the side of that road and cried. I was so helpless. It was in such a fragile state, I couldn’t even imagine picking it up. What if I made everything worse? I cried so much. I’m sure the bunny would have been embarrassed for me if he knew what was going on.”
The Scientist chuckled at herself but The Magician stayed silent. A glimmer passed his eyes as she laughed, making her feel a little shy.
“But anyways… after a long time someone passed by. An adult! He asked me what was wrong, and I showed him the rabbit. He was kind and listened patiently through my sobbing. Then he took out his phone and called a local vet. Two people in a white van arrived a couple of minutes later, gently lifted up the poor rabbit and put him in a cage. They were going to help him. I couldn’t believe it! That’s the last I saw of him. But I like to think that he lived a long, healthy life and had a big bunny family.”
She looked over at The Magician. He nodded thoughtfully, with just a hint of a smile on his lips. She was expecting a bigger reaction but also understood that it wasn’t a particularly exciting story, just one that was very meaningful to her.
She continued, “That day opened my eyes. It showed me that we have the power and the responsibility to protect other living things. That’s why I decided to become a scientist. So that I could study and protect all life on earth...”
Her voice trailed off as she remembered the dead planet she had just left behind. The Magician gave her a sympathetic smile. He understood her aspirations all too well: They were made of the same feelings that powered his magic.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to respond right away. After a while, he chose his words carefully and spoke slowly, “It’s a very beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
The Scientist looked down and smiled.
“You know, rabbits are a sign of good luck in a lot of cultures. I’m sure that bunny is watching over you now.”
“Oh! I think I’ve heard that before. That whole thing with the rabbit’s foot.”
“Yes, well that one’s a little gruesome. It’s also believed that if you say the word “rabbit” three times in a row on the first day of each month, you get good luck for the rest of it.”
The two looked at each other excitedly before turning to the calendar (Earth time) on the ship’s monitor. It was April 1, 2097.
“Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” they said in perfect unison. They turned to each other, called jinx, and burst into laughter.
As they laughed, something crazy happened: The world started to spin around them. The Scientist jumped out of her seat as The Magician stood up calmly.
“What’s going on? Is this you? Are you doing this?” she asked.
He simply gave her a reassuring smile and offered her his hand to hold onto. The spinning became faster and faster until she could barely make out her surroundings. She tried to find the ship's monitor to see what was going on. Was Jupiter’s gravity causing them to lose control? But the monitor (and the entire control panel for that matter) was impossible to make out: The whole cockpit was being distorted into a grayish blur of motion.
Before she could ask any more questions, things got even wilder. The colours around them started to change into shades of orange, brown, yellow, and white. But that was only the beginning. The Scientist watched in wonder as flowers started to manifest in the chaos of motion. Orange day lilies, tiger lilies, marigolds, and Mexican sunflowers spun around them like a gentle whirlwind of fire.
“We’re almost there. Hold on tight!” said The Magician. She nodded and drew closer to him, finally taking hold of his hand.
Suddenly the spinning stopped. The environment around them settled into an atmosphere of dark, brownish clouds. They were on Jupiter.
The flowers were still there, blowing in the clouds like leaves falling from trees. Tears formed in the Scientist’s eyes as she took in this sight of cosmic wonder. One of the deadliest planets in the solar system, made into a picture book.
The Magician noticed her staring at the flowers and said, “They’re protecting us from the radiation and the heat. They’re also producing oxygen. I thought that would be pretty important. You know… to keep us alive.”
This shook The Scientist out of her trance as she remembered where she really was. She looked down at her feet. There was nothing there except bits of brown clouds. Her whole body twitched like she had just woken up from a dream where she was falling.
The Magician chuckled when he noticed her shock and said, “Don’t worry about it. Just walk normally.”
He started walking through thin air, laughing as The Scientist stared on in disbelief. He started running and jumping, just to show her that she was completely safe.
The Scientist took a deep breath and took a step. Her foot touched nothing, yet it did not fall through. She was flying and walking all at once. She took another step, and slowly gaining her courage, started to jog around, giggling as the orange flowers softly pelted her skin.
The two laughed and ran through the clouds, side by side. For a while they forgot about their mission and simply enjoyed the moment, exploring this mysterious new world of orange and brown. The Scientist didn’t even worry about how they would get back to their ship, which was several hundred thousand kilometers away. Deep in her heart, she must have trusted that The Magician would have a solution.
After a while, he turned to her and asked, “How big did you say Jupiter was again?”
“About 1000 times bigger than Earth in volume.”
“Well, we better get searching then!”
Flâner
We will stroll aimlessly,
To save the world,
We will stroll aimlessly,
Towards salvation,
We will dream endlessly,
To honour the stars,
We will dream endlessly,
To honour the sun.
A weed is a flower
Waiting for love,
Darkness is light,
Biding it’s time,
Imagination is reality,
Still in the oven.
Do you see me as a hunter,
Or a healer?
I see you as a bunny,
Silly and free,
I see you my guide,
Wise and collected.
The infinite possibilities,
Between two faces.
We will stroll aimlessly,
To save the world,
We will find peace,
In the eye of the storm,
We will find love,
In shame,
We will find hope,
In hell.
I see you as a bunny,
Wise and collected,
I see you my guide,
Silly and free!
