Bestial Planet

Chapter 28: Deep Space Dreams

I found my way to the Wing of Solace after wandering around the ship aimlessly for what felt like hours. I decided to avoid the hub room to fully take in the fact that I was in space on a ship, capable of inter-galactic travel. My claws clanked and tapped against the floor, it became oddly soothing after a while. There were other footsteps of patrolling soldiers and I ran into more than a few while wandering but still, it was a nice, peaceful experience.

The Wing of Solace. It was the room Star fell into earlier. There were a few others here amoung the trees and the whispering pond but no one was really speaking in this room, it's more about... introspection I guess. We were in hyperspace which meant the super imposed stars on the windows all around us were replaced by a multi-hued blur which also had a soothing quality.

Suddenly, the blur slowed down and we were next to a dark planet between galaxies. There was basically no light out here but the tech in the windows let me see the features of the planet fairly clear. The lamps in the wing changed hue ever so slightly and most of the soldiers quickly got up and left, a few nodding to me on their way out. I walked over to one of the windows and studied the planet. It's surface was partially smooth, with jagged points dotted along it's surface, almost like the magma was instantly frozen as soon as it erupted, probably eons ago.

"You seem to be enamoured with this planet."

Looking to my right I saw that one of the people who had stayed was also looking at the dead planet.

"It has a name but it's just as boring as a list of coordinates to empty space."

"It reminds me of a dream I had."

"Quite the dark mind."

"Well, the planet I saw in my dream was different but it was surrounded by nothing, just like this one. The one in my dream was bright and there were strange animals and people living there."

"Hmm... was this a recent dream?"

"..." I paused, unsure if I felt comfortable talking to a stranger about my dreams but figured it didn't really matter. "I think I had it after - the Shinimorte crashed into Earth... so I think I was mid-change."

"Metamorphosis."

"What?"

"You experienced metamorphosis, much like some insects."

It was an interesting interpretation of our situation.

"Yeah, I guess, but that's not the point."

"What is the point?"

"This planet, my dream... My dream I mean, did it mean something?"

"Maybe..."

A low toned bell rang and the hues of the lights changed again.

"That's for me."

He turned around and started walking but stopped.

"Maybe the dream was just your mind coming to grips with the fact that your world is larger than you thought."

He picked up his pace as he was the last one out of the Wing of Solace. I turned back to the planet and super imposed the planet from my dream over this dead one in my mind.

"Huh, this one's smaller."