Calan - The Immortality Paradox

Chapter One: Visitors of the Incubus, Part Three

Date: 284, OA19,653

Location: Proximity of Calpurnia, Seven Suns System

Angelic music filtered through the spaceship like a cloud of anaesthesia. A pacifying melody touched on all the emotions. Sorrow turned to yearning, yearning to excitement, excitement to rapture, and, finally, rapture returned to sorrow. The symphony played out in these four stages like a wheel of sensations, each more potent than the last. Once you'd handed your soul to the music, it trapped you there until the final notes disappeared into oblivion. Time and space were nothing but constructs in this ethereal world, a reverie beyond imagination.

Vivienne Granger didn't immediately confess to being lulled by its heavenly embrace. Her holographic eye-lenses were inserted when she unintentionally allowed her ears to wander. Like a siren's song, she fell to its mercy, and it was only when the remaining quarter ended that the motionless form of the Captain materialised in the cockpit, his bare feet propped at an angle on the forward dashboard. Another moment later, she realised that her vocal cords were reverberating too. Let alone listening; she had been humming along to the music. Making no effort to hide her embarrassment, she used her index finger to wipe out the lens covering her cornea and gave a short cough.

'Do you like it?' The Captain said without glancing.

It was pointless to hide her awe. 'C'est magnifique.' She inserted the lens into its container of chlorinated solution and sealed the cap.

Approaching 400 Sylfaenydd-days on their mission to the Incubus, Granger felt that she knew less about the Captain than when they had started their voyage. Despite regular participation in the group activities, such as virtual games: Space Heist and Mining Academy, he kept his opinions concealed and had taken great pains to avoid awkward questions about his past. They were well-informed of his military background, celebrated pilot and loyal servant to the Force, but his rumination on the matter remained unanswered. It took half the journey for Hamilton to finally understand that privilege of rank meant the Captain had no obligation to suffer his thorough questioning. However, Granger's instincts told her that he had been trying to tell them something all along, without words. A masked reality that could change the entire perspective of their expedition in a single heartbeat.

This was the first time the captain had decided to play music. Or at least in her company. It felt like a hypothetical window out of physical existence to take stock and repair psychological damage. Every person has their unique connection: style, personification, and meaning. Everyone seeks different things. Music can provide peace for an anxious soul, happiness for a broken heart and inspiration for a straggling mind. It has all these remarkable powers simultaneously. Granger guessed that the captain was suffering from one of these common ailments and was motivated to finally break the silence. Not with words, but with melody.

Granger felt a twinge in her abdomen as she rose from her reclined position - an indication that she should perhaps revisit the virtual exercise booth at the rear of the ship to maintain her fitness. At least a week had passed since her last session, though it was hard to measure time in the sea of nothingness. She massaged the throbbing muscle and looked up at her captain.

'What do you make of it?'

'The music?' Granger mentally scolded herself; of course, the music! 'It's beautiful. Where is it from?'

The captain turned to face her, and she was shocked to see he was uncharacteristically happy. Chalk-white teeth were visible through the crack in his smile, and his eyes were glimmering - staring at something that Granger couldn't see. A place that evidently brought the captain great enjoyment. 'My wife's work,' he replied, the daydream dwindling on his face, 'she had a fierce love of music.' Aware of the cathartic journey the conversation was taking, the private chose to let the captain continue. 'You might not know this, but she was one of the Disappeared. As were my sons.'