Warning: This chapter contains a scene that's a bit risque. One might even say NSFW. But it doesn't go into too much detail. Reader's discretion is advised.
This is a continuation of my story series "My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole".
To read the previous installments of this series, you can click below.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12
I felt myself slowly drifting up from my chair in the cinema, towards the ceiling, then through it, through the hull of the ship, and outside. I looked down at the ship, with its massive solar sails, and a fat belly full of cargo, and now massive cannons, and as I began to drift away, it suddenly looked so small. It started to look like almost a toy, or ship in a bottle.
I saw the black hole off in the distance. Or rather, I saw a massive space where it should be. Somewhere inside of myself, I could actually see it though. It was tiny, and yet it was massive. It glowed, and it ate light. It was contradiction incarnate. And it was getting bigger.
I was somehow drifting toward it. It was getting so much larger so quickly. I must have been going at insane speeds. And then bursts of light flashed in front of me.
"John, I told you, you can't be here."
"You say that like I have a choice. I don't even know how I got here. I fell asleep, and then I was drifting, and then, I fell into the black hole."
"It's called astral projection. It's supposed to be a myth. The mind is a funny thing though, as is the universe."
"So, where am I? What is this place?" I was on the same beach as before, but I still had no clue where it was.
"I can't tell you that. Just you being here has altered the course of your destiny. Perhaps it was meant to be altered though." Julia looked to my left, behind me, and said "Looks like your time here is already up. Perhaps you're going back...or on to another journey..."
"What do you mean? Another journey?" I looked over my shoulder, and some kind of swirling vortex of light stood there, seemingly eating itself.
"You told me once about visiting me here. I thought it was just a dream. And even now I fight it because I know that even if you're supposed to be here, you can't be here. Your presence is warping space-time. Every second you're here changes things. Even if you were always going to be here. Now it may be your time to visit somewhere else."
"What..." I couldn't even finish my thought. I was suddenly sucked into the vortex.
So many images flashed before my eyes. Moments of life. Running through the hall of my ship. Firing a weapon. Julia. Julia screaming and stretching out her hand. And then I was in bed with her.
"What are you thinking about. You look like you're a million miles away."
"I almost feel like I was. I kinda feel like this is just a dream, and I was just back on the ship."
"Maybe you still are. Maybe you're inside me right now."
She kissed me and climbed on top of me. Her flesh seemed so real. Everything seemed so real. My hand rested on her hips, then slid up under her sheer top, teasing her nipple with the thumb of my right hand. She bit her lip, the pulled off her top. Then she reached back, and I entered her. It was like heaven. The feeling was too much.
And then I was gone. I was again floating, through time and space. I could feel myself floating. I don't know where I was floating through. I kept seeing flashes of my life, and my life to be.
Then suddenly I was in what seemed to be a battle. I was in a trench, with a plasma rifle in my hand. I was breathing heavy. Then I stood up and fired at whoever I was fighting. Then I was back down, cowering in the trench.
Then Julia came walking up, crouched down and her knees bent so as to not get shot. "Heya, Love." She leaned in and kissed me, then pushed against the ground behind my head, and flipped herself up onto the ground, and charged in, shooting with two laser pistols at various enemies.
"Fuck! Julia! Are you fucking insane?" I laughed, and said in a much lower voice, "I fucking love you, bitch!" Then pulled myself out of the trench, and went charging after her.
Then I felt myself being pulled out of my body again, and I was gone.
I don't know where I went next. It was all kind of hazy. There were so many flashes of times throughout my life, but it all felt hazy. Like I wasn't supposed to know, not yet.
Then I woke up with a start. "Julia, how long did I sleep?"
"Six and a half hours, captain."
(source)
I was tempted to think about my dream but tried to push it out of my head. "Good. Got enough hours to live on. For a while at least." Thinking about putting that large radar module back just made me sigh. But I had to do it. "Julia, can I get a breakfast burrito? Potatoes and cheese."
"Yes, captain."
I unstrapped myself from the chair and got out my mag boots to put them on. They seemed to go on easy enough. But then I just ended up drifting into the kitchen to grab my burrito. It was piping hot, and so good. Julia had put some kind of green paste on it, as well as that hot tomato sauce.
I drifted back into the cargo hold, eating my burrito. "Julia, play some orchestral metal."
"Yes, captain."
As the heavy guitar lead played with the backing strings, as well as a loud gong, and various other instruments, I couldn't help but find my mind drifting to that dream. Had I really drifted out of my body, and through space and time? Where was that war? Had I really killed people? Shooting them hadn't even seemed to phase me. No. No, it had to have been just a dream. Too many movies. Yet the parts with Julia seemed so real. I must be going out of my mind.
I took one last bite of my burrito, and left it floating, then moved the radar module into the large airlock for the cargo bay, and went and retrieved my helmet and tools. I had to turn on my mag boots to move the module, but I found myself turning them right back off to drift my way to retrieve my helmet. What was with me and drifting lately? I couldn't do this too much, or my body might start to deteriorate.
The module went in easy enough and powered on perfectly when I plugged it in. Guess I have learned a lot in my time on this ship. Used to be I would have probably had to take it out and check it again.
I closed up the hull section and checked under another plate. Looked like the graviton detector was out, as was it's backup. That would explain why Julia didn't detect that we were headed for the black hole. I doubted it was a high priority though, so I checked under another. Then I found what was likely the cause of this whole mess. The main sensor array had a cascading failure. There were blown out parts all over the place. I'm not sure what exactly caused it, but I wasn't sure I could even fix it.
Scrappy had done a patch job over the top, but I doubted that would last. It was also blocking me from taking out the module. I guess I was taking out the backup module to repair that. At least it was far smaller. Only about the size of a breadbox. A bread box for a really large person. Okay, it wasn't the size of a breadbox. Maybe a bit more than a half meter cube.
I took the backup sensor module out, and sealed the hull plate back up. Then I went over to the side airlock, and depressurized it from outside, and went inside after moving my tether. Robert was waiting for me with the rest of my burrito. Sometimes Julia was so thoughtful.
"Thank you, Robert." I grabbed my burrito and headed to the machine shop with the sensor module.
Working was so difficult. I just couldn't concentrate today. I kept thinking about my dream. More than an hour in I ended up going to the kitchen and grabbing a purple Skuttlebutt. I usually preferred the orange ones, but the purple was alright too. I think it was supposed to be grape, but I don't think it was exactly right. Not like I knew what grape was really supposed to taste like though. I grabbed an energy bar as well, and ate it while I worked.
The work was slow. After more than another hour, I still hadn't gotten anywhere. I replaced more than a few parts, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to work, and I couldn't manage to focus on the work. I ended up just getting an orange Scuttlebutt, and sitting down in the cinema, going through multiple shows, not really settling on anything, and just thinking about my "dream".
Somehow though, I ended up falling asleep. The dreams were filled with images from the night before. At least this time though, I knew they were dreams.
Gonna leave it here for now. While I feel like I didn't cover enough in this chapter, it is where the story led me.
