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.