Vivi

XVIII

Surveying space from her yacht, Vivi could see glints of light in the distance: new objects, she realised, dreamt up by her subconscious.

Vivi could half remember the moment when she'd done so. She intentionally pushed the memory down, however, keeping the suspense alive.

Now there was a motivation to practise using the solar sail. Vivi looked around, then set her sights on a sparkle in the void to the South. Well, she thought of it as South, because to starboard on the Earth below, a long stretch of ocean was currently giving way to the recognisable shape of Japan. Heh. Starboard.

Vivi looked back and forth from the sail to the sun, angling the sail just so. She double and triple checked the angle was right, and opened it wider, cautiously picking up speed. She kept watching the flight computer and making adjustments as she went.

Now she was moving along at several hundred miles per hour. The sparkle in the void resolved itself into rubble, boulders, and sizable asteroids.

When Vivi could get a handle on the perspective, she realised that the largest of these asteroids was about the size of a village. Peeking from its top was what looked like a run-down complex of ancient Greek temples. (Of course, they were the opposite of ancient, but perhaps they would give some future archeologists a terrible headache one day).

Vivi decelerated her vessel carefully and floated past a great colonnaded building. In the centre of it stood the glory of a massive statue — Artemis, Vivi realised, the Huntress. Artemis grasped a bow and gazed to the South with determination.

Vivi nodded. She was sure that this faux archeological site would provide for many hours of contemplation and exploration. But that would be for another day.

Something spurred her on.

Gazing further South, Vivi made out something tiny and green; about two hundred miles away, according to the computer, needing an adjustment of her path to port and a little upwards.

Vivi glanced back. The Sky Palace looked very small.

Vivi looked at her ship's computer. The Sky Palace was marked in big, comforting letters.

To reassure herself further, she fiddled about with the touch-screen display, rotating the map in three dimensions, becoming pretty certain that she couldn't possibly get lost.

I can wish myself back from the dead and I'm worried about getting lost?

Yeah, said Vivi to herself, appreciating the vastness around her. I am scared. Of course I am. There is so much vastness, so much emptiness. This is not what a human brain is made to understand.

It's exhilarating, came another voice in her.

Vivi steeled herself a little and set her sights on the green object. She opened up the sails and picked up speed, a touch more confidently now.

Vivi looked behind and watched the Sky Palace dwindle. It was just a speck now; if she turned her head, she wouldn't be able to distinguish it from a planet.

Vivi turned her head anyway and looked ahead.

The green object came into focus. It was, Vivi realised, clearly a homage to The Little Prince: three baobab trees wrapped around a tiny round asteroid, roots intertwined.

Vivi grinned and raced past, not even slowing.

From here, she could make out her next stop. It was further South and a little downwards again.

Vivi oriented the sails to bring her down. She sensed that extra rush of speed coming from working with, rather than against, the Earth's gravity – strange of a thought that that was in this weightless place.

Soon, Vivi swung her sails around and opened them to full, decelerating to get a good view. This here was an observatory, sporting a massive but old-timey looking bronze telescope.

Active deceleration still wasn't completely intuitive to Vivi - she zipped past the building faster than she would have wanted. The sun was getting a little low in the sky, though; perhaps it was better not to waste time, anyway.

There was a longer way to the next object on the map — the Castle. Vivi couldn't make it out with her eyes at all yet.

With increasing determination and confidence, Vivi watched the speed reading, opened her sails fully, and let herself gradually, inexorably build up ten times as much speed as she'd allowed herself before.

It didn't seem like she was moving, really, apart from feeling a gentle tug of acceleration. Soon, Vivi was halfway there as far as the map was concerned, but still couldn't see her destination. She swung her sails around and began decelerating.

At last, the Castle became visible as a rapidly growing speck.

The sun set at last. Vivi felt the deceleration cut out. Quickly, she pulled up the yacht's rocket controls. She stared at them, grasping for her instinct on how to use them. After only a moment's hesitation, she fired them off.

The Castle was looming towards her fast – too fast. Vivi had no choice but to brace herself against the hull and brake the yacht at maximum power.

The G-force was harsh. Vivi groaned and strained. The relative velocity readout became one figure shorter, then another, and then...

And then there was stillness.

There with a suddenness as if it had just materialised before her, the Castle was a dramatic and imposing sight. Vivi gazed at it, catching her breath, as it drifted ever so slowly closer.

As with the temples, Vivi's subconscious had dreamt up a ruined masonry aesthetic for this building. It stood on a dramatic wedge shape of rock that Vivi could imagine as the edge of an ocean cliff. Ivy claimed the walls all the way up to the top, and tangled rosebushes choked the remains of what might have once been a garden.

The yacht bumped against the rock with a muffled thud and started drifting away from it again. "Autopilot, brake the yacht," said Vivi. The rockets began firing with careful precision.

With a decisive feeling in her belly, Vivi released the cable securing her suit to the yacht and willed herself up and out into empty space.

Vivi felt a flash of fear in her stomach; she wasn't using a jetpack or anything of the sort, she was just...

Flying, came a clear, determined thought. I can fly.

Vivi willed herself into the space above the rock. Her feet skimmed over rose bushes; petals scattered and span in the void, like a flurry of snowflakes, like a spray of blood.

Vivi touched down gently before the castle entrance. Wood had crumbled long ago in the imaginary past, leaving the empty stone frame of once-mighty gates.

There was a great hall, empty but for a few medieval ornaments, spinning silently in the emptiness.

Vivi had eyes only for the staircase at the far end. She walked to it, willing her feet to stick to the floor. She began up the spiral stairs.

Something was waiting for her at the top.