1. The Cosmic Garden
The Scientist studied the control panel of the ship. Tapping into her deep reservoir of knowledge, she slowly made sense of all the symbols and buttons laid out before her. Fortunately, the Pegasus 3000 was a modern ship, with a streamlined UI to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It even came with guided instructions on a touch screen. Still, it was no task for a layman.
The Magician stood behind her and watched on with an expression of wondrous excitement, like a child waiting for a scoop of ice cream. The Scientist couldn’t help but smirk when she looked back and saw his silly, wide-eyed expression. She quickly shook it off and returned to work, putting the function of the ship together in her head like pieces of a puzzle.
Before long, she was ready to launch the ship. “We’re ready to go. You should sit down and buckle up,” she told her enthusiastic companion.
The Magician nodded and immediately took the seat next to her. With shaky hands, he fastened the seatbelt and took a deep breath. The Scientist stared at him and thought that for a crazy person, he at least listens pretty well.
She recalled their first conversation after he had appeared at her door and announced his mission to find this “Cosmic Garden”. She explained to him all the reasons why his journey would be impossible and how no human had ever even gone beyond Mars. To her surprise, he listened patiently as she mercilessly punctured holes in his grand plan: The lack of resources, the immense amount of time it would take, and the deadly conditions of the planets. He nodded intently, studied her expressions, and even asked somewhat sensible questions like, “Okay, so how much more fuel do we need?”
But when she had finally finished going over all her grievances, he had simply stood up and said, “Well, you let me worry about those small details.” Then with a wink he snapped his fingers and conjured a small fireball in his hand, which he juggled like a rubber toy.
From that moment, The Scientist was convinced that she was either dreaming or experiencing a psychotic break — a perfectly reasonable reaction to the end of the world. She decided not to beat herself up. Instead, she would go with the flow while trying to retain as much of her rationality as possible.
But this was different. Going to outer space with a complete stranger? Not to mention, they barely had enough fuel to make it to the moon and back, let alone to travel through the entire solar system. What’s worse, The Magician had somehow convinced her to forgo drafting out a route in advance, repeatedly telling her that he would be able to “feel the Garden’s energy” and figure out the way once they were in space.
She looked over at The Magician. As if he had heard her entire internal monologue, he offered her a careful, worried smile. She felt a strange feeling rising in her chest. It had been so long since she’d interacted with another human being: Everyone she knew was dead.
A thousand thoughts raced through The Scientist’s mind. They gnawed at her in complete futility as her fingers reached for the launch button, seemingly possessed by a higher (and far less intelligent) power. She pressed down, and the countdown started:
“Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Liftoff.”
Pegasus 3000 leapt off her platform and soared through the sky. The speed of the ship sent both The Scientist and The Magician into the backs of their seats as they held on tight and closed their eyes. The world went into a blur before them as the duo struggled against the power of the acceleration. But being a modern, high-end ship, the shock was manageable and they reached the low orbit of earth within minutes.
And just like that, they were in space.
The Scientist adjusted her glasses and observed the view through the front window of the ship. The endless array of shining stars was a welcome contrast to the dull badlands of Earth. It wasn’t anything new to her though: She had been to space many times before, on research missions with her old team. Of course, all their work ended up being completely meaningless.
The Scientist shook off these thoughts, realizing that now was not the time to reminisce. She looked over at The Magician and noticed that he was in a trance, his eyes competing to shine brighter than the stars they observed. It was his first time in space.
She decided to let him appreciate the moment. Leaning back in her chair, she tried desperately to ignore the question clawing at the back of her head: “What now?”
After a while, The Magician seemed to lose interest in the scenery. He fidgeted with his seat belts, stood up, and started stretching his muscles happily — twenty minutes of sitting still had been a great disservice to his restless limbs. Suddenly, he looked over at The Scientist and said, “I wonder if this ship has a kitchen.”
“How can you think about eating right now? We don’t even know where we’re going yet, ” she responded.
“Well, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
The Scientist sighed and started walking towards the back of the cockpit. Beyond the door was the main section of the ship which had a small dining area. She supposed it wasn’t a bad idea to sit down, catch their breath, and plan out their next move.
She rehydrated two oatmeal rations for her and her companion and brewed a pot of coffee. Years of surviving off emergency rations had made her detest them, but she had to admit that watching The Magician ravenously devour his oatmeal brought some flavour back into it for her as well.
“This sure beats living off of elixirs! I’ll tell you that much,” said The Magician, as he sprinkled a mountain of brown sugar over his meal*.
The Scientist stared at him and nodded silently, imagining that “elixirs” was code-word for some sort of strong liquor. She fiddled nervously with her spoon and took a sip of black coffee.
Noticing her uneasiness, The Magician took the last bite from his bowl and asked, “Yes, I know I’m supposed to figure out where to go now. I was thinking… Maybe you could tell me a little more about each of the planets. Might help me decide.”
The Scientist rubbed her forehead wearily. Of course, he had no idea where they were going. She got up and rummaged through the cabinet in the common area of the ship. Inside, she found a touch-screen map of the solar system, standard issue on all modern spaceships. With the map in her hand, she sat back down and started to give The Magician a crash course on the planets.
Despite the bizarre and terrifying situation she was in, The Scientist couldn’t help feeling excited to talk about astronomy — a childhood passion of hers. What’s more, The Magician really was a wonderful listener. He looked at her with vivid interest as she told him about the rings of Saturn, the extreme temperature variation of Mercury, and the gigantic volcanoes of Mars. His foolish heart beat rapidly, imagining the great adventure that lay before them.
His interest peaked when she started to talk about Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system. In passing, she mentioned an interesting fact she had heard a long time ago, “Some astronomers called Jupiter the protector of Earth. Because of its immense size and the force of gravity, it is believed to have stopped comets and asteroids from reaching us…”
“Woah, that is awesome!”
“Well yes… but the idea was challenged in later research. You see, it might actually be the force of grav-.”
“I stopped listening after you said Protector of Earth. I know where we need to go first.”
The Scientist chuckled, “Well, that’s ridiculous. Jupiter is one of the outer planets. It will take years just to get there. Not to mention, it's completely uninhabitable. We wouldn’t last a minute there, even with the advanced spacesuits on this ship.”
But The Magician wasn’t listening. He was already half-running back to the cockpit. The Scientist rushed behind him, trying in vain to talk him down.
Realizing that it was no use to explain it in words, she sat back down on the pilot’s chair and activated the ship’s UI. She mocked up a route to Jupiter, and the computer calculated the expected duration of the trip: 1,463 days. She turned the monitor to The Magician, “See this? That’s over 4 years. We barely have enough rations to last a couple of months. Probably less with your appetite. I’m sorry, but it’s a no-go.”
“Don’t worry, I have just the thing.”
The Magician took a deep breath. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object. The Scientist barely caught a glimpse of it before he clutched the mystery object tightly in his hand. Some kind of amulet maybe? Then, with his free hand, he started to make intricate hand signs, almost as if he was making shadow puppets.
Suddenly, he opened his hand and made a grand sweeping motion in front of him. As he did that, he chanted in a foreign language that The Scientist did not understand.
A barrage of light flooded into the ship. The Scientist looked out the front window and saw a brilliant oval of light sitting in the middle of space. It shined in brilliant shades of opal, topaz, and aquamarine. Sparks flew off of its edges like wishing stars. She recognized it immediately as a portal. The craziest thing was that she could hear sounds coming from the other side: Children laughing, birds chirping, bees flying by. But she knew that this was impossible because audible sound could not travel through the vacuum of space. Was it just her imagination?
She turned to The Magician, her eyes full of wonder, fear, hope, curiosity, and a million other emotions she could not define.
The Magicians winked at her.
She drove the ship forward.
LYRICS
The cosmic garden
Is calling us
Into the mysterious light
The tree of life
Will give us another chance
The eternal seed
A rekindled flame
You know how to commandeer the ship
I know the secret words
You know the depths
I know the rhythm
If you keep your faith
I will keep my sanity
Hand in hand
We will become
A nebula of dreams
And passion
The past and the future
Together at last
The cosmic garden is calling us
Into the endless void
The black rose of death
Seduces the knight of wands
