Chapter 3

Luna Brava

Awakening came with the earliest hints of dawn. A gentle Star Song melody echoed through Eddy's dreams like bubbling surges in a sheltered tide pool. He opened his eyes and saw the very top of Erica's head poking from under the blanket. He felt her warmth next to him and looked up to see Star Song standing near them.

"I see you and your body rejoined as you slept," Star Song said in a quiet tone. "The braves are crossing to another canyon in dawn's twilight. It's time to get up and go."

"Are we going with them? What about the pioneer fleet? What about your, um ... is it a spaceship?"

Star Song smiled as Erica's head and wide-eyed face emerged from under the blanket.

"Good morning," he said to her. "I am Star Song." He then nodded yes, to Eddy, who somehow felt better knowing he had been in a real spaceship.

"Good morning," she said to him. "I am Luna Brava, Brave Moon."

She too jumped to her feet, then turned to Eddy, "I'm sorry, I didn't tell you my full battle name as we ran. It's Luna Brava, en español."

"That's okay," said Eddy, turning back to Star Song. "What are we going to do?"

"We will go see the USE President so you can become familiar with the lay of his land."

Eddy looked at Star Song without moving. Utter surprise turned his mind completely blank. He and Erica both waited for what they weren't at all sure they wanted to hear.

"The braves carry ominous news. HUNTA has armed its canons with a secret weapon. Gliding atomic bombs can reach both seas from the top of these mountains. Making matters worse, their fast-deployment canons have already reached the summit. The good news is that almost all the remaining helicopters are guarding the summit, and braves are pouring in from every direction. Every able bodied man, woman, and child seems to have learned how to sling those exploding bolos. The United States is facing mayhem on this front. We have to move, quickly."

"Now?" Eddy turned to Erica.

She glanced downward, not wanting to interfere, yet, deftly, not taking herself out of the equation.

Star Song saw her and understood, so did Eddy.

"I would like Erica Brave Moon, to come with us, if she wants to," Eddy said.

Star Song turned to Erica, "What is your wish? Brave Moon."

"I would be grateful to learn more about those who have twice rescued my people," she replied.

Eddy admired the way Erica stated her hasty thoughts as a defined position rather than a wish. His eyes then moved from her to Star Song.

"Then we will march along with the braves for awhile and speak with her Elders," Star Song's musing was telepathic speech, without spoken words.

"Did you hear the melodian speech inside your head?" Eddy asked, also without spoken words. "And, what name do you prefer?"

Eddy and Star Song studied their new companion. The full complexity of her sweet, melodic reply was clear, inside their heads, telepathic music of the stars. She stood straight and proud as she sang using melodian speech for the first time.

"Call me Brave Moon when we go into battle, though I am always the same Erica, even then. Erica Brave Moon. Luna Brava is Cabrona. Ahtlahn Kahmahkahtzi using ancient language; Fearless before the face of death."

"We must hurry," Star Song said, glancing into Erica's eyes with a twinkle in his own. He then led them at a double paced clip toward the front of the marching braves.

It didn't take them long to catch up with the leadership group at the head of the column. Star Song tramped along at about the center of the stretched out Council of Elders with Erica and Eddy close behind. He didn't say anything until they had passed an area peppered with knee-high volcanic stones which marked the impact zone of a past volcanic eruption. Star Song spoke when walking became slightly easier. Eddy looked around them as he listened, the now silent volcanic peak loomed behind closer mountain tops.

"Brave Moon wants to accompany us and learn more of our ways," Star Song said, using telepathic speech. His melody said little about their brief discussion and decision, instead, he let the rhythmic song of the spheres enter the consciousness of the entire march. His accompanying melody painted a vision of spacetime vastness populated by oases of Life.

The army's rush to safety was paramount, none but the leading scout who had found the path during the night looked up from the rock strewn route across the ridge. Though the Elder's did not break stride or speak aloud, their thoughts rang as a swelling harmonic round. "Will we see her again? We love daughter Brave Moon. Where will you take her? Will she be home soon?"

Eddy quixotically remembered a school play he had once been in, he had sung, "Row, row, row, your boat. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream." Cascading questions from the marching braves reminded him of his singing classmates. He glanced at Erica and saw tears glistening in her eyes.

"I will guard your young warrior," Star Song's melody continued. "Yet these are dangerous times. Who will be left standing at the end of our battle with greed cannot be known. Luna Brava will see no greater danger with us than staying here with you and fighting atomic bomb canons with those bolo gizmos you carry in your backpacks."

'Star Song's assurance is slightly humorous, but not overly assuring,' thought Eddy, who also was heard in the melodic mix.

The Leadership Council of Elders, none of whom were particularly old, suddenly made up its collective mind and called a brief halt to the march. Word was passed along the line of resting braves, "Brave Moon leaves us here." Then three hundred braves hurried forward once again. Their goal of safety was near, as was the fast approaching light of the morning sun.

Star Song, Eddy, and Erica stood to the side and watched the silent braves marching toward their next battle, everyone waved their good cheer. Eddy stole a glance at Erica and saw tears still streaming down her cheeks. Then the three companions turned and climbed to the top of a small sandstone bluff protruding from an otherwise bare and windswept ridge.

They sat down atop the bluff in a line, facing the rising sun. Star Song was in the middle. He took one of their hands in each of his. Erica stretched and leaned forward to look around Star Song and catch a glimpse of Eddy, he was sitting with his eyes closed, watching the playful morning sunlight inside his eyelids. She followed his example and was immediately awash in the rhythms of the singing spheres. Star Song and then Eddy joined them with melodian song. Erica then sang her praise for the welcoming beauty of creation as it gently surrounded them.

Eddy noticed a flash that seemed to be the inside of Star Song's spaceship, it momentarily contained the rising sun. Then he felt Star Song pull him to his feet. He and Erica opened their eyes and saw they were standing on a lawn, inside fences and barriers. A surrounding line of armed soldiers stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their backs to them. The soldiers were looking outward, beyond the fence, guns at ready.

"They cannot see us," said Star Song. "We come in peace."

"Wow," Eddy whispered even though he was using telepathic melodian speech. "I've seen this place in news pictures."

"Now the exact location is part of you," Star Song replied. "Come. Let's go inside and find out what the USE President is doing."

"How can you say we come in peace when we are spies?" Erica asked Star Song.

"We are only here to take their measure and discover if this truly is greed’s capital of evil intent. USE follows two completely senseless patterns; it seeks to grow faster and faster, forever, on a finite planet, and, secondly, wealth is also being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. These goals are both as absurd as using atomic bombs which vaporize the ozone layer and spread radioactive fallout in every nook and cranny."

"I see the idiocy of growing faster and faster, toward infinity, on one planet," Eddy responded. "But concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands seems more like injustice than foolish absurdity."

Star Song laughed out loud. "A culture which guides wealth to fewer and fewer hands is equally absurd as one that tries to grow forever on a finite planet. It cuts itself off from the distributed intelligence of cosmic powered biology expressed as human. It truly would be a joke if it weren't what they are actually doing. The United States of Earth will soon be too stupid to exist.

“The absurd part is following this concentration of wealth path leads to fewer and fewer owning more and more until the day arrives when the few become nobody and Nobody owns Everything. It's a logical absurdity and is the second absurd way of capitalism. The United States of Earth will of course collapse before that, but what kind of life greets anyone born into such a stupid system? How can nobody own everything?"

"That's absurd, all right,” Erica said solemnly, "no doubt about it."

Star Song smiled as they turned and walked up the front steps and past more guards. He was still chuckling to himself as they made their way into the entry way.

"He really thinks Mr. Nobody owning Everything is funny," Erica said, rolling her eyes toward Star Song.

"I still don't get the joke," Eddy admitted as he stopped and waved his hand in front of a guard's face, she didn't blink. "Why don't they see us?" He asked.

"Wait a minute!" Erica demanded. "Before we go one more step, what was that rainbow bubble that surrounded the sun? Did anyone else see it on the way here?"

"It looked like the inside of Star Song's spaceship," said Eddy.

"That it was," said Star Song, continuing where Eddy left off. "We went the long way around and made contact with the ship so Erica could change her base location. Now we are all centered on the ship, we're fully linked as a team."

"Why don't they see us?" Eddy and Erica both wanted to know.

Star Song patted one of the metal discs that were arranged in a line on his bandoleer, which angled from his left shoulder to a right hip belt-ring. Eddy and Erica flashed between visible and invisible with a barely audible swish of air when he tapped the disc. He winked at his startled companions.

"Melodian science has been studying conscious spacetime for a long time. Some early experiments allowed one to see and hear in this space dimension but not quite touch. Other experiments allowed one to touch but were so jerky it made everyone who tried it sick. All the failures were very frustrating for those early scientists, many of whom became lost in timespace and were never seen again."

Star Song looked down at his bandolier and rubbed his hand along it. "I am wearing a melodian war sash. These discs contain updated and much safer versions of those old experiments. Each disc utilizes one of the effects that were at one time considered disappointing failures. You've already seen the modern version of the jerky problem, when I was throwing rocks at the helicopters. We have quite a few timespace tools here with us, the ship is their power source."

Erica stepped closer to Star Song and inspected the metal discs on his bandoleer. "I am surprised that so much is in thin discs which would fit in the palm of my hand."

Star Song smiled down at her. "If they were any smaller my fingers would be too large for the sensor controls. There's not much in them at all, actually. Some melodians make a point of learning to do all these things without a war sash, I believe such people are called zen masters here on Earth."

"I'm not so sure flashing in and out of visibility is a great idea while we're here," Eddy interjected with a worried tone and a nod toward the guards, who were now at a more comfortable distance, further away. Star Song had led them deeper into the main corridor as he was describing his bandoleer.

"I had the same thought," Star Song replied. "What brought it to your mind?"

"I think the guard recognized me," Eddy said with another worried glance over his shoulder. "It was brief, but he was looking me straight in the eyes. His surprised expression was real, I'm almost certain he recognized me, probably from that TV show we did at Earth Base One."

"Uh-oh," Erica mused. "He's still looking our way, trying to figure out what he saw."

"Let's go in here for awhile," Star Song said, pointing to a set of polished wood doors. He tapped another of his discs and stepped through, beckoning Erica and Eddy to follow him.

They stepped through the door into a small movie theater where one person sat watching the show. They stared transfixed at the man's silhouette against the screen. He was mechanically stuffing some kind of snack food into his mouth while watching the screen, they could hear rapid and incessant crunching as he chewed the snacks.

"That's President Bushleeg!" Eddy exclaimed.

"He's watching the Mousketeers!" Erica laughed so hard she cried, though the president couldn't hear her. "I saw an exhibit of that at the Municipal Library, in Albuquerque. That show is over two hundred years old!" The sight of the president filling his mouth with pig in a blanket mini nitrate dogs slathered in melted american cheese wrapped in bacon and cooling grease made her laugh all over again.

"Wow!" Said Eddy. "This is bazaar." The mini hot dogs made him a bit queazy, along with embarrassment for the entire male half of humanity as he listened to Erica's continuing laughter. "The cartoon looks newer, though," he said lamely, not knowing what to think about a president munching snacks like a robot while watching patriotic war cartoons. "This really is bazaar," he repeated.

"I think there's more here than first meets the eye," Star Song said, reaching to his chest and tapping another disc. The screen instantly switched to slow motion.

"That's better," he talked quietly as he studied the screen. "This is another of the old inventions, it could never stay synchronized with the time side of timespace," he said it with a grin, motioning to the screen, where written messages could now be clearly seen.

"Someone's using subliminal mind control advertisements on President Bushleeg," Erica gasped, becoming more serious.

"The National Monopolies must be controlling The President," Eddy said, knocking himself in the side of the head for emphasis. "He's a victim of advertising and he doesn't even know it."

They all stood quietly reading. Little flashing signs were cleverly worked into the background in ways that didn't disturb the main action scenes. "Blast all aliens out of our sky," was disguised as fancy woodwork around a door. "Cetaceans are terrorists!" flashed on the door as it opened and closed, smashing a cartoon character's fingers, to the sound of recorded laughter. Another sign proclaimed, "United States of Earth, homeland of the good guys, the world's only super power." "Good guys" and "superpower" were lettered boldly.

Did you see the one that said, "Indian Braves are bamboozled?" Erica giggled.

The next message urged The President to buy stock in a completely crazy gold mining scheme. They all watched wide-eyed as "Puke on Pioneers" splattered across the bottom of the screen when one of the enemy cartoon characters became sea sick on the way to do battle with the good-guys.

"This is gross," Eddy said. "What kind of people would do this to their own president?"

"It looks as though we are about to find out," Star Song said pulling Eddy and Erica up against the wall, he crouched under the lower ceiling height along the wall as he tapped on the time distorter and refocused their surroundings to normal speed.

The outer doors opened slowly and a shaft of light from the corridor spread down the theater aisle. Two young aides stuck their heads through the doorway just as the show ended.

"Time for your morning briefing, Sir," one of them announced.

President Bushleeg sighed and stood up. He made a half-hearted attempt to clean up the snack crumbs in his seat, shrugged his shoulders, and followed them out of the theater.

"That guy's in charge of the world's only super power?" Said Erica, incredulously.

"Our job is to find out who is playing what role in this gig," Star Song's voice tapered off as he indicated they should follow President Bushleeg and his aides.

"Gig?" said Erica and Eddy with one voice.

Star Song smiled as they strode along the corridor behind the president. "It's been over two thousand years since Melodians have been involved with Humans," he said a little sheepishly. "Listening to you and the braves has made me realize my language might be slightly old-fashioned." He raised his eyebrows, a thicker and darker version of the very short brown hair covering his entire body, except under his light blue tunic, where fine white fur covered his stomach.

Eddy gave Erica a look of mock wonder. "Amazing," he said. "The first guy has techno gizmos on top of mystic gizmos. The second guy is a TV zombie in charge of starting a nuclear war. I mean ... What's the haps, Sister?" Eddy stopped walking and spread his arms wide, palms up.

Erica stopped, too. She cocked her head to one side and looked up at Star Song.

"Gig's a good word," she said to him with a wink, pushing Eddy onward, toward the president. "Move it ... um ... Buster," she said, laughing merrily at Star Song's wash of facial expressions.

"I think you found the key to understanding the haps around here," Star Song said excitedly, as he caught up with them.

"You still think you need to modernize your speech?" Erica asked, her remaining smile showed a hint of surprise.

"No-no. It was Eddy's use of the word 'zombie' that made me see we are not dealing with the purest form of evil here."

"Huh?" Eddy and Erica both exclaimed.

"There is hesitation here. No single person wants to start an atomic bomb war, but as a group they've decided there is no other choice. So ...."

"So?"

"So, hive mentality is running these humans. They've decided to train a zombie to do what no one else has the heart to do. Only a zombie would hurl atomic bombs at innocent cities and Mother Earth."

"Evil is not in full control until the zombie goes into action," Star Song concluded. "We cannot simply sanitize the area and make room for normal life forms, as many melodians advocate. There is yet hope for these poor souls."

The three companions looked up from their circled powwow in the hall and realized the president had gone through another set of ornately decorated wooden doors.

"We shouldn't let him too far out of our sight, especially now that we have a better idea of what's going on around here," Erica mused, examining the highly polished finish on the doors.

Star Song tapped his belt disc again, then they stepped through the closed doors and into the presidents 'situation room,' where the everyday hustle of presidential aides hurrying about was in full swing. They were in a classroom-sized entry area crammed with desks and filing cabinets. The ceiling was lower and Star Song had to duck his head and hunch his shoulders.

"Let's move to the auditorium in back," Eddy suggested, "that's where President Bushleeg is."

"And the ceiling is higher," Erica pointed out.

They worked their way through swarming aides working on various presidential missions until they finally stood next to the president himself.

"Why do you use your timespace belt to walk through doors?" Eddy asked as one of the aides walked right through him. "Yuck, this is more than a little weird," he commented.

"That's exactly why we use the spacetime tool for doors; one begins to feel ghostly strange walking through walls and closed doors. A person can become sidetracked and lost in spacetime by feeling too much strangeness. Nobody knows exactly why, it's one of the things our scientists haven't figured out, though I'm sure they will, someday."

They gathered around President Bushleeg, looking over his shoulder at what he was doing.

"It's like a multiple choice pop quiz in school," Erica murmured quietly, next to the president's ear, which he suddenly reached up and scratched.

Erica jumped back, thinking President Bushleeg had heard her, before realizing he was puzzling over an answer. "What are his choices?" she asked, leaning forward for a closer look.

"China is cashing in all its government bonds," Eddy exclaimed. "The President is choosing whether to: 1) Nuke the typhoon relief convoys carrying food and medicine from Pacifica, 2) Lob a few atomic bombs on Beijing and set up a commission to find out how such a calamity could happen, or, 3) Declare national emergency bankruptcy."

"That's a no brainer," Erica whispered, taking care to stand up first, further away from the president's ear, which she eyed somewhat suspiciously. "He should declare bankruptcy, quick as he can."

"That's what I thought, too," Eddy answered. "But look further down the list of questions. Number eleven: Can a superpower be bankrupt and still be a superpower?"

"Hmm ...." Erica stood back, wrapped in thought, one arm across her waist and the other resting on it, supporting her chin. "I'm glad I'm not taking this multiple choice quiz," she said.

President Bushleeg apparently decided he'd had enough and quickly finished the list of multiple choice questions. He whizzed down the answers, checking the bankruptcy choice, and leaving the superpower question blank. He then signed his name at the bottom with a flourish and handed the paper to a waiting aide.

The President then stood and strode importantly to a huge electronic map of the world which covered most of the back wall. He poked an island lit with a bright yellow-green light. "Have we heard from that alien-loving admiral yet?" He asked, twitching one leg to illustrate his irritated impatience.

A five-star general was reviewing proposed battle options at a computer station next to the wall map, he looked up at the president, "Not yet, Sir. A conference call is scheduled but I don't know the time."

"Look! They've found our island base location!" Eddy was shocked. "We should hurry back to Planet Pacifica and help ready the fleet. Pronto!"

"There's plenty of time, we'll know when the pioneer fleet is ready for you," Star Song said, pointing at the general, who had just picked up the phone.

The general listened intently to whomever was speaking on the other end of the line. All they could hear from him was an occasional grunt of understanding. Eddy, Erica, and Star Song waited as anxiously as the president.

"What's happening?" The President snapped as soon as the general hung up the phone.

"HUNTA's fast-deploy unit made it to the top of the Rocky Mountains. They need more helicopters. There's thousands of redskins out there throwing those exploding frisbees. More than half of the bigger canons are tangled up. HUNTA needs help."

"Baloney," President Bushleeg hollered. "HUNTA doesn't need help. Tell them to nuke the indians. They've all been bamboozled by cetacean terrorists, anyway. Blow'em up. Now!"

"NO!" Screamed Erica with emotion so strong her voice was heard from one end of the room to the other. The three companions were suddenly visible, as well as audible.

President Bushleeg's eyes went round and wide as he looked up at Star Song towering above him. Nothing in the room moved but the pendulum on an incongruous antique grandfather clock next to the general's computer station.

"Did I do that?" Erica asked, turning to Star Song as if they were alone in the room, or still invisible.

"Strong emotion can do that," Star Song sighed.

"Who are you, young lady?" President Bushleeg spluttered. "What are you doing in my Situation Room? HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?" He shouted, even louder.

"Those are the ones I saw at the main entrance!" A guard shouted from the entry area.

A soldier rushed in with his gun ready, he aimed it toward the intruders, and President Bushleeg.

"No!" Yelled the the guard, who lunged at the soldier and knocked the gun barrel upward, just as the soldier pulled the trigger.

Wham! At least twenty bullets roared from the assault rifle and slammed into the ceiling above President Bushleeg and the general, who flung himself unceremoniously to the floor.

Falling plaster, dust, and bedlam instantly filled the room.

"I've been hit," someone screamed. "Somebody tried to assassinate the president," another voice cried out.

The lights went out as Star Song grabbed Erica and Eddy. They groped their way behind the general's computer station and crouched low on their haunches, backs against the wall.

"I think we've seen enough," Star Song said, verbally, through clenched teeth. He tapped his bandoleer and Cosmos rang with song around them. "That's better," he nodded appreciatively, savoring with his eyes closed, waiting calmly.

"Vamos," he said, as mayhem slowly subsided to silence.

A golden light gradually surrounded them. It stretched into a cylinder that fit exactly from floor to ceiling. Each sang their own melodic accompaniment with the creation song. The surrounding light transformed into a globe of solid gold, it paused for an instant, flaunting floor to ceiling golden wealth, then vanished from the face of Earth.

The three companions experienced a similar instantaneous change in vision as those they left behind. The difference being that one blink later they were looking at the inside of Star Songs space ship, yet, somehow, much more happened along the way than simple disappearance.

The globe around them had become immense. Below their feet it was jet black dark. The huge half dome above above contained a curtain of steady patterned light. The entire half sphere beneath their feet was featureless smooth black. They stood on a perfectly flat, see-through membrane of solid. A floor cutting the globe into halves. It shimmered just enough to be visible. A gradient of fading lackness extended halfway up the upper dome wall.

"It's hugely empty in here," Erica noted. "We've traveled across what I'm guessing was conscious spacetime. We met literally hundreds of stars along the way, and listened to the cosmos sing. Where did the time go?"

Neither Star Song nor Eddy said a word.

"We passed through populated timespace and now stand in a hugely empty spaceship, alone." Erica suddenly quit talking or thinking, "Even Brave Moon is a touch taken aback by what just happened?" She smiled to herself.

"It's not exactly empty," Eddy replied, pointing with one hand. "There's that huge round slab of stone, and ..." his eyes widened, "the general's computer station and library."

"Wow!" Erica exclaimed. "Star Song! You stole all the general's war room stuff. Great job."

"I didn't exactly steal it. We were in full-power, emergency escape mode. Did you see their lights go off? We were using every bit of power their lines could carry, plus all our own."

"He sounds and looks just like a neighbor kid my mom caught reaching into in the cookie jar," the vision made Eddy smile. His eyes twinkled with his mom memory.

"Well," Star Song continued, "there was a fleet moment when I could have ejected it. Melodians use heavy slabs of stone so they don't drag things along like this control panel and library."

"Erica is right," Eddy said. "This computer station was a good thing to bring back."

"I know," Star Song's voice became more serious. "Exact copies, furniture included, will be sent to the Admiral and Fleet Commander Walker. This was a lucky break, it could not have been planned."

"We have President Bushleeg's entire central military control system," Erica said in awe, lightly sliding her hand along a polished wooden book shelf.

"The original will be sent to our social science library, where it will be catalogued and made available to any curious melodian."

"What about the copies?" Erica and Eddy both wanted to know about the copies.

"Copies don't take long," Star Song said. "As soon as the war monitor and its library are confirmed as accurately reconstituted on Melodia, this one will vanish like an echo. Technical paths to reconstitution are saved to make duplicates, which are expensive, though easily sent almost anywhere."

Star Song touched the smooth, wooden desk appreciatively. "Many interesting thing have been sent home for study in this manner. The computer station and library are taking a little longer than most forwarded items, perhaps the constitutor on Melodia is set for very high resolution."

Eddy hurried to the desk and felt the fine wood, moments before it vanished.

"Let me show you why we have come here," Star Song said, turning toward the huge stone pedastal. "Climb up on top of this stone.

Eddy led Erica to the center of the round, stage-like stone stage. He showed her how to lay with her head at the edge of the central bowl, feet pointing outward.

They lay on the stone, leaning on one elbow, and watched Star Song jump down from the slab and start over. He placed his hands in the polished holes at the stone platform edge then climbed back up the step and twisted to a kneeling position at the top, arms crossed from his twist to facing outward. Then he uncrossed his arms, stood, and raised his hands skyward toward the distant spaceship dome.

An ink black spark appeared with a loud crack between his hands. It imploded and disappeared into itself as quickly as lightning flashes outward. Tremendous weight was evidenced by a rapid sag and rebound of Star Song's body. He turned and strode halfway to the center before noticing concern on two very attentive young faces. "It doesn't hurt," he assured them. "If we survive the coming battles, you will learn more about the unseen forces of what some call dark energy."

"Is it Fertile Field," Eddy asked.

"That's what I think," Star Song said as he lay down with his head to the center, looking upward. Now three lay on their backs like spokes in a wheel.

The uppermost center of the spaceship's skyward dome was aimed at the exact center of a vast, delicately patterned glow. It filled the upper half of the dome surface, then it gradually moved inside. Blackness equal to Star Song's spark surrounded the central glow and stretched down the more vertical aspect of the dome wall and disappeared from sight behind and below, it appeared to surround the ship entirely.

Eddy turned his head sideways, the inky darkness seemed indeed to be uniform and unbroken toward the rear, but it was the intricately filigreed light above which drew his eyes. "It looks like the inside of a Luffa Sponge", he said in quite wonderment.

"Or a microscopic slide of a human brain," Erica speculated. "No place in that beautiful light is the same, it's different everywhere I look."

"What are we seeing?" Eddy asked.

Why are there no stars in the surrounding darkness of space?" Erica wanted to know.

"We have traveled very far into Fertile Field", Star Song responded, "perhaps further than anyone ever has. The glowing patterns of dust are made by uncountable billions of galaxies. What we normally refer to as 'Space' is the darker areas inside the swirling glow."

"But it looks like a ... a something," Erica blurted out, dismayed before overwhelming beauty.

"It is a something," sang Star Song, using his gentlest melody. "Behold Conscious Timespace. We have traveled far enough to see the whole. I am fortunate to have seen it twice."

"And the surrounding blackness is what you are calling 'Fertile Field'?" Erica asked.

"Precisely," Star Song replied. "That is the proper scientific term, by the way."

Eddy and Erica wanted very much to know what Fertile Field was, though they were both somehow aware that its simple name described the sum total of melodian knowledge about it. Advanced as they were, Melodians remained as mystified by Fertile Field as they were the moment they discovered it.

Star Song reversed their course and then rotated the stone platform to view the darkness behind them. "We are traveling backwards now, our backs are aimed at the glow of conscious timespace."

"Fertile Field is totally smooth and black. Fertile Field is everywhere, forever."

"So it seems," said Star Song. "One of our robot probes has traveled full-speed into Fertile Field for over a century, it's sensor data has not varied in all that time. Many scientists have concluded that even the concept of distance does not yet exist in Fertile Field. According to the prevailing theory, we bring actualized distance with us from conscious timespace, where infinite possibilities are busy being born, like this trip we are returning from."

"Is it okay to stand up?" Erica asked. "On the stone stage?"

"Of course," Star Song replied. "But would you be interested first to see how we look as we are?" He raised his arms toward the dome above after she nodded her agreement and then stretched them upward. A black bolt of lightning appeared above them and then collapsed into itself the instant after Erica said, "Yes."

The black spark took its own thunder with it, leaving a larger-than-life holographic reflection of themselves floating above. A brilliant silver fog swirled in the hole surrounded by the tops of their heads, which were partially obscured within the swirl. Their bodies felt like appendages of a silver tornado that twisted upward and joined with the ships outer skin, where it spread thin and flowed in brilliant sheets, all the way, behind them. Their conscious minds were creating the ship that carried them.

Three lay on stone as spokes in a wheel, looking up at themselves looking back down. They watched the glistening silver tornado leaving the tops of their heads to become the ship's outer skin. It then flowed down the wall and on behind, like long hair in the wind, collapsing behind as a black tornado swirling centerward, into the back of the stone stage. No-one moved or spoke until Erica stood up, announcing she couldn't see any problem for the ship if she exercised and enjoyed a good stretch.

Their holographic mirror disappeared when she stood up and then stretched to touch her toes. Conscious spacetime could once again be seen. It now filled almost the entire leading half of the spaceship dome.

Eddy then stood up on the stone with Erica. He looked at the intricate glowing filigree and realized they would enter it quite soon.

"We've been traveling at the ship's top speed," Star Song said as he too stood up. "Three are required to reach this velocity. We will slow considerably when we pass into the greater mass of conscious timespace, there the ship skin uses much of our available energy to absorb impacts from space dust and other larger objects. We do pick up some energy when those materials vaporize but it's very inefficient, only slightly superior to using atomic power to make electricity."

Eddy, very interested in the mechanics of spaceships, began to ask about the the energy gleaned from space debris. He was interrupted when the entire outer skin of the spaceship once again began to rainbow-flicker like moving ripples in mother-of-pearl. "We've returned to conscious timespace," he said, feeling a noticeable loss of something intangible.

Star Song noticed the expression of loss sweep across Eddy's face, "May we long remember the peaceful tranquility of Fertile Field," he said with a smile as he took a step to stand directly in front of Eddy.

He then pulled his sash off over his head and held it out. "Take it," he instructed, "with both hands."

Eddy reach up for the sash. Black lightning arced like a net between their four hands, it imploded into itself across the war sash, which now fit Eddy instead of Star Song, who then turned to Erica.

"Brave Moon," he said quietly. "No matter which way you choose, your next step is into battle. Should I return you directly to Earth? You may also travel home with Eddy and the pioneer reinforcements. The choice is yours, though the second route is considerably longer, and quite risky."

Erica hesitated briefly. She glanced downward, thinking of her people, then slowly raised her head, squaring her shoulders and straightening her back as she did so. "I will travel with Eddy. We have learned too much too quickly to be separated. I will help him as long as I am able to. I also believe that is the best help I can give my people."

"My sentiments exactly," said Star Song, leading her to the edge of the stone stage. "Kneel with your arms crossed and put your hands in the two holes and this ship will know you forever."

Erica's hands disappeared into silver swirls that filled the bowls as she did what Star Song had instructed.

"Now, Brave Moon, stand slowly and raise your arms."

Brave Moon's reaching hands were silhouetted against shimmering rainbow patterns, they moved with a dancer's grace as she turned her palms upward. Black lightning thundered between her outstretched arms and suddenly disappeared into itself.

Star Song and Eddy watched her body sag and rebound as the black lightning came and went. Erica Brave Moon felt the weight and looked at them with wide, startled eyes, first at Star Song, then Eddy.

"The weirdest part is when the thunder sucks in rather than rolling out," said Eddy, running his hand across the shiny discs on his new bandolier. He did not know what all the medallions did but the war sash made him feel older, like a seasoned fleet commander in uniform.

"You are both linked to my ship's power and to each other, Star Song said. There is no time to teach you completely about what I have given you, practice will be your teacher. Now you must hurry. Quickly. Lay together again as spokes on the wheel."

They lay on their backs and looked upward. A single galaxy filled the ship's skin. Individual miniature stars began to float inside the ship with them. Erica and Eddy were suddenly alone among the stars. A near-by star roared with rhythmic welcome.

Eddy's melody rang with the singing spheres, he sang of Pacifica and her sun.

"That was like we've became married without intending it," Erica sang her melody to Eddy as well as the beauty of creation.

"Me too," said Eddy. He took her hand and they stepped from the fabric of conscious spacetime onto the sandy beach next to the pier at Pioneer Town.

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