Halloween

 

xx

Billy Goat

Music=

1. Rhythm Of Love- Yes
2. Billie Bossa Nova- Billie Eilish

UFOtext= Mountain Outpost  🏕

“The Mule is a strong Medicine Man. His lyrics are peyote- they enflame all who listen.”

Pale Horse opened his arms wide as the sky.

Astira  frowned.

“I’ld rather be a Billy Goat than a Lemming.”

Chateau D'If

 

*

Music=
1. Ecailles de lune- Alcest  Lyrics
2. Knock Knock Knock- Spoon

UFOtext=
“Astira- are you alright?”
Taryn reached across the deep void.
Astira huddled by the fire. Traces of the dream still bothered her. She felt tenuous connections*  reaching for her across a cosmic light cone. A face in the stars gradually faded. She held Taryn’s hand & felt a sigh of relief. 

* Jessica Gomes "Sports Illustrated"

Autumn Wind

 

Music=
1. Roundabout- Yes

UFOtext=
I. Mountain Outpost ⛩
Pale Horse pointed to the peak. The last golden rays sketched the mountain.

“Eagle Eye. The clouds run to safety, the mountain stands in honor. Against the autumn wind, eagle wings whisper this truth.”

In her mind the Dragonfly smiled. The golden rays gave way to a face of stars.

Later that night-
The dream vaporized. Astira looked up at the visible stars. The night wind rose slowly in delicate whispers across the mute forest. She put on her soft jacket & stirred the embers of the fire. Never had she felt so close to the Earth- if it ever existed….

Burning Hut

 

Music=
1. 1020 Am- Spoon
2. Mistero- Deep Forest & Gaudi
3. Should've Been Us- Tori Kelly

UFOtext=
I. Mountain Outpost  ⛩

The Dragonfly paused. Pale Horse stared deeply into her eyes. She felt him walk the winding trail of her life. He continued.

“You are the messenger spoken of by the wise men of generations past. They told us you would eventually arrive. The hiding moon is now silver. Now you arrive. Your Cheyenne name is Eagle Eye. You fly. You see far. The wise men told me this.”

Pale Horse beckoned to a brave.

“Show her the NeXT.”

Later that night.

The clown smiled, but it only saddened his beaked face, & when he spoke it was with the soft elaborate phrasing of the Central Sectors.

“If I were to use the wits the good spirits gave me,” he said “then I would say this lady cannot exist- for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather I would not be sane & lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes.”*

Astira drowned in a chilled sea. She swam in her mind’s dream. Where did it come from- her, or from a face in the stars? She shuddered. She felt the floor of the mountain. The curtain of night lay open in the moon’s silver crescent. Deep red embers smoldered in Taryn’s fire….

*”Foundation & Empire” by Isaac Asimov.

A Face In The Stars

 

Music=

1. Coffee- Tori Kelly

2. A Face In The Crowd (Live)- Spoon

UFOtext=

I. Mountain Outpost  ⛩

Indian summer soothed the high mountains. Warm waves spread across a planet devoid of ocean. A golden arc- then the sun fell down.

“It’s like Gobi” thought Astira, “but only a hurricane of mountain & desert- ancient blue oceans vanished like a Shakespearean dream…”

“If the Mule vanished, what’s the point of being here?” asked Taryn.

“Good question.” answered Astira. 

The Mule controlled everything including the first foundation. The Mule invalidated the psychohistory of the second foundation.

And there was no help- the Dragon & Ozymandias remained on Gobi- now the Mule’s territory. 

“I think the quantum hard key has something to do with the mythical black diamond.”

Astira continued.

“The black diamond & the Crescent Lake has something to do with the Mule’s power- but I’m not sure what… so we can start with the quantum hard key.”

“No you can’t.” said Utkarsh. 

He sat coiled on a woven mat by the fire.

“The Mule took the key- that crypto-space is now off limits.”

“Nothing is off limits.” said Astira.

She frowned & thought to herself-

“Ozymandias spoke of a higher foundation- as if the second foundation couldn’t be trusted to secretly watch everything…”

 The face of the Dragonfly broke into everyone’s thoughts. Quiet as the night she had entered their camp.

“I just spoke with the Cheyenne.”

Prelude

Music=
1. Heat Waves- Glass Animals
2. Text Later- Spoon

UFOtext=

I. Mountain Outpost

The summer passed off grid. The Empire & Mule didn’t exist. There was no history- only the prehistoric forest below the tree line. Then, at night, the band of the Milky Way ran across the sky & dipped below the mountains. Every now & then Taryn hopped into the Trader Star & hovered into town to gather supplies. With this precaution he avoided interstellar space & detection by the forces of the Mule. Utkarsh showed Astira & the Dragonfly how to cook local food. High in the mountains the campers lived outdoors in days of moderate heat, & nights of relaxing cool. Only the sun, moon & stars marked time. A handful of freedom loving planets wandered in the alien sky. 

Cimmaron District

 

Music=
Cinnamon Girl- Neil Young

UFOtext=
Mountain Outpost 
“You left Terminus?”
Taran tried to read the mind of John Atoms.
“Yes- unfortunately the Mule controls everything in the galaxy. But I escaped.”
John Atoms stirred his tea. It swirled in a silver cup.
“Where’s Toran & Beta?”
“Who knows…”
He sipped his tea.
Taran lowered his eyes. Astira held his hand.
“The Far Star picked up the Mule. A cosmic hitch hiker. That I know for sure.”
Taran looked for a reaction.
“Probably the quantum hard key- & maybe the cimmaron trade. As I said, the Mule controls everything.”
The Dragonfly spooned cimmaron & chaga on her yogurt & berries- the magic powders elevated her oneness with the universe.

Spring Chronicle

 

Music=
1. Hope- Smashing Pumpkins

UFOtext=
1. Mountain Outpost
"There's a ship!"
Taron adjusted the holographic display.
"It's landing on the peak."
Astira turned around in her seat. She watched the fuzzy blue icon approach the luminous peak.
"OMG"
Taron froze.
"What," said Astira.
"Unbelievable. It's the Far Star..."
Taron sat incredulous.
"Who's that?" asked Astira.
"That infrared figure...It's the Mule. I can match the image."
"We must be dreaming. The Mule controls our minds."
Astira rose from her seat.
"This is impossible." 
"No- it's real." said Taron.
"It's the Far Star. Picking up the Mule?"
"Taron- wake up. We are dreaming..."
Astira started thinking- the First Foundation fell to the Mule. The Mule
got the Zeta hard key. No hope for the galaxy....No hope for the Second Foundation...
"The Far Star picked up the Mule. Hyperspace shock waves indicate destination Terminus."
Taron looked at Astira as if she might know something.
But Astira told nobody about the Second Foundation- not even Taron. 

Rip In The Sky

 

Music=
1. Aeons- The Presets

UFOtext=
I. Mountain Outpost
The Mule melted into the forest. Astira knew well his rip in psychohistory- the tidal distortion of a trillion Lilliputian events strewn across the galaxy of stars...

"It's too late. The Mule is gone. He has the hard key."
Utkarsh frowned again.
"Maybe." said Astira.
She gazed at the ramparts in the sky, looking for any ray of hope...

Reality Trip

 

Music=
1. Flags- Coldplay

UFOtext=
I. Garden Of The Gods 🔑

Astira recognized the spindly figure. A slanting shadow, he weaved & darted through the tree line. She stopped & motioned to her companions.

“Shh... be calm. Meditate like a Buddha. The Mule will sense your waves of emotion- your emotions are music only he can hear, only he can control.”

The Dragonfly closed her eyes & bowed to the mountain wind, a bamboo blade of grass hiding in the spring snow. 

“He has the quantum hard key- I would bet my life on that.”

Utkarsh frowned.

“Shh...be calm.” Astira repeated.

Twisted snowflakes fell from the sky.

Mountain Keys

Music=
1. Pink Up- Spoon
2. Night Train- Night Flowers

UFOtext=
I. Garden Of The Gods 🔑
Utkarsh led the train of travelers. The winding mountain path hypnotically snaked higher & higher. Veils of falling snow covered their faces. A young blue star evanesced into a mountainous rim of pink twilight fire. Utkarsh stopped dead in his tracks. 

“The Mule’s outpost is about 2 kilometers higher up. We won’t make it before night.”

Astira stared at their mountain guide.

“But- the keys are there. You know this one?”

“The hardware keys are hidden there. I’m sure of that. That’s why the Mule is here. Paper keys are useless against the quantum speed of positronic computers. No human scale passwords. Even the idiot savant Mule knows that.”

The Dragonfly lit a torch. The sleepless garden of stars fell from the sky.

Fortunate Moon

 

Music=
1. Stay Don't Go- Spoon
2. Lotta Love- Night Flowers

UFOtext=
I. Garden Of The Gods 🔑
Flowers in the night, torch fires quenched the biting chill. Tattered ghosts of snow melted in their warm golden glow. Cool white blankets of snow stretched out toward the sleeping horizon of mountains & stars.

“Yes- Magnifico is hiding. Somewhere in town. The locals told me of a mysterious musician. Part of a small traveler band on a Christmas tour.”

The Dragonfly paused. She played with a sprig of fire from a torch. A fresh gentle breeze flowed in the night. A silent cloud passed over the moon.

“So the Mule departs the deserts of Gobi & the Lotus of Civilization. Why?”

Astira asked a rhetorical question. It hung unanswered in the night air. She thought of Ozymandias wandering alone on Gobi for thousands & thousands of years. A witness of galactic history. Somewhere in the night howled a solitary wolf.

“I got bad news. I just heard.”

Taran stood in the moonlight. He left behind a silver trail of footprints winding back to the Trader Star.

“The Foundation is officially history. It’s done. It’s over. It’s one more conquered world in the Mule’s Union of Worlds. The great reset.”

Astira looked away. The Mule disrupted way more than just the psychohistory of the Silk Path. The Milky Way glittered in a bridge across the night.