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.