TRAVELER

Preperation

I bubbled to the surface and took a breath of fresh air. It was stagnant down there, with the others, but now it was my turn. I--Garentanda--looked into the eyes of the woman before me and saw my wife there, deep beyond the emerald green eyes of Stephano's girl friend. As we came together her curves and lines felt all wrong, but her moves were familiar, and I knew it was her. Yet I was making love to someone else.

There was a soft psychic link, telepathy, mind meld, transcendence, I could get inside her spirit and hang out; close and intimate. It was the sweet essence of home, slightly reassuring as we were trapped inside these bodies, ten thousand light years from home. Vulnerable was a weak description, but we had chosen to timeshare two bodies, in order to experience the travelers circuit in its entirety.

We we're on the spiritual pilgrimage of a lifetime, seeking answers to age old questions. Enlightenment would be achieved, if we survived. Already it was time to acquiesce and allow the next in line a brief respite of freedom. Of course there was shared consciousness, but private times could be kept separate if one desired. Some were unashamed to the point where it became annoying. Others chose to remain celibate and go without intimacy.

I told her once was enough for now, maybe later but it was time to do some spiritual work. Besides, in my mind at least, it would only be cheating if her personality joined with someone else's. We had an unbreakable trust, but Stephano, the host body was a different story. He had to have a heart of gold and nerves of steel, to allow his girl friends body to be used like this. Or he was psychotic. I can say, I didn't envy him a bit, though his partner was attractive and the later was probably the truth.

There had been four of us that first day on our home world of Fortune, before the launch; well, four couples. We had turned in every credit, sold every possession and had a small party hours before the cryo-stasis was implemented. We had gained passage on the infamous star ship Double Entendre. Only two bodies would be going and six were left behind. Maker I hoped the facility was secure.

Together, with all our money, we had just made the payment for the pilgrimage. I looked at Stephano's dirty cloths, but through the filth and mustiness I could see the designer label screaming to be free. Quantum Boy, those were thousand credit pants and I knew the Astro Glide jacket was a cool two thousand. It was more of a choice to live like homeless people, as seen by our dirty but expensive cloths, and the fact some were able to pay the whole fair by themselves. But they had chose to share the experience of enlightenment. Someone was getting rich, but it didn't bother me, this was a life journey we wanted to take. We were hippies, travelers on a spiritual quest for enlightenment.