Starfire Ascension

Chapter 10 - Tabby's Star

Cyrus took hold of Holly and Kimberley's hands firmly just as the world began to distort beyond recognition. It was almost beyond explanation. The world stretched forward but he could feel an upwards pull simultaneously. It was like he could feel the draw and see reality moving forward in real-time, but his mind and his consciousness were being shunted to a higher dimension. Cyrus could still see the ship and himself moving forward away from him somehow, but from his rising elevated perspective, he could see every path to every known corner of the galaxy. In his rational mind, he would have seen it as straight lines originating from himself, stretching off to those points.

But up here...He saw it as a reciprocal loop. These destinations like stars or planets were almost infinitely far away, and in the same truth, it was right where he was standing. And as such, he saw it as a colorful thread, a connection. Cyrus saw that arcing loop going out from his feet to a far-off distance and coming back to where he stood, forming a teardrop shape as the loop came back to his feet. He could see many such connections. The loops formed tear-shaped rings all around him and as he looked in every direction he saw the connections as they almost resembled an electron probability field within an atom. Many tear-shaped loops around a single nucleus. Each loop wat a connection to somewhere in the cosmos. He saw nebulae, stars, planets, and unknown wonders he had not the words or colors to describe. Cyrus wept overcome by it. And then he felt he was being pulled away, back down, back to reality, or what he thought was reality?!? All at once, Cyrus felt the chair beneath him and saw stars in front of his face in the glass bridge window. He gasped in a breath of shock. He looked to see Holly and Kimberley next to him, their hands had not parted. They had tears running down their cheeks. Holly was sobbing and Kimberly was crying in silence. Cyrus wiped his eyes. They had seen what he had seen. Only then did he realize he had been hearing a voice in his ear and had forgotten to respond. "...oing on over there? Is everyone ok? What happened?!"

Cyrus breathed in a deep shaky breath. "Aether to Ground Control we have arrived safely. We just...We were not expecting what we saw when we traveled through a higher dimensional plane. It...It transcended words." Tony asked, "Are the girls ok too?" Cyrus looked at them. Kimberly had removed her seat harness and floated in null gravity over into Holly's chair holding Holly to her chest speaking softly to her. "Yeah, we were just in awe of it all. Speaking of which I can now see Tabby's star. We are here but give me a minute to check up on Holly and Kimberley." "Sure thing," said Tony.

Cyrus flipped the mic up to the mute position. Ground control could still see them through video anyway. He undid his harness too and hovered next to Holly and Kimberly as they sat in the chair. Kimberly floated back out of the chair so Holly could see Cyrus. He took Holly's hands looking into her eyes softly. She looked at him her eyes and cheeks red. Her tears instead of running down her cheeks and off her chin now pooled in cohesion near her eyes in null gravity. Some of the liberated drops of tears now floated in the air. Her mouth was half-open as she tried to breathe through sobs. Cyrus reached up with one hand and placed his fingers beneath her chin and with the other hand, he softly brushed her cheeks with a cloth wiping away her tears. "I saw it too," he whispered. Nodding he said again softly, "I saw it too." He helped her out of her harness. She moved out of the chair and wrapped both her arms and legs around him in one of her vice grip hugs. Her head rested on his shoulder as they floated in space Holly's wavy brunette hair flowing out in every direction behind her. Kimberley had managed her voluminous hair into a scrunchie.

Holly choked out, "I have no words to describe or epitomize it." Her sobs now becoming more shallow and controlled. "It was like I could see eternity. Nothing was beyond possibility." She then smiled through her tears. "I think...I think that's how God sees us. Without limitations or parameters." Cyrus held her close to his heart again. He spoke softly and compassionately to her. "If anyone knew the heart of the father it would be you," he said. With one hand holding the chair Cyrus set Holly down softly in her chair and gave her a tender smile. Kimberly looked at Cyrus with a most curious look. "What is it?" he asked seeing the wheels turning in her mind. She smiled at him with a smile so beautiful it made Cyrus feel weak in the knees, or it would if he had been standing in gravity. She then said, "I always had this picture of you like this big tough guy, beating up anyone who messed with Holly. But now I see the reality of it come full circle. Your strength is your passion. You protect that which you love with everything in you. It's two facets of the same stone. The compassionate love and the fierceness to protect it."

Cyrus had never thought of it that way. "I suppose your right," He said with a smile as he turned to face Kimberley. "I'd never let anything happen to Holly." As he said it Holly reached out of the chair and wove her arms and legs around his chest from behind while he stood, well floated more or less. She grinned with a cheerful smile as her chin rested near his shoulder. Cyrus smiled reaching out for Kimberley for a hug. Pushing off her chair she joined the hug sandwich. Smiling he said, "The same is true about how I feel of you," Cyrus said softly holding her, as her head tucked over his left shoulder and Holly's tucked over his right. Then he felt Holly stir and before Cyrus could say anything she took her phone out raising it over the trio and said, "Scrapbook-ortunity! The camera made the shutter sound." As they all laughed she took two more. When she showed them the photo Cyrus realized he could see Tabby's Star in the background. "Wow, he said, that one is a keeper! Speaking of which we should all put our phones in the faraday cage type box over here, as we are close to a star. Who knows what kind of radiation could affect it. Yeah, we're shielded, but I'm not taking any chances with my phone." Kimberley said, "Yeah! I'm not wreaking my phone!" Holly nodded in agreement. So they all put their phones in the electromagnetically shielded box. They then turned their attention to the spanning viewing windows of the bridge.

Tabby's Star was massive. It was truly a sight to behold. Cyrus pulled his mic back down unmuting it. "Are you seeing what we are seeing uncle Tony?" Tony responded, "Yes, I can see it! It's marvelous." The star had what looked like a large golden and orange field of debris in a perfect disk around it. From their perspective, it had a slight slant so they could see the entire disk tilted at an angle. The closer material appeared bright and yellow near the star, and the further away material appeared dark orange giving the field gradient ring-like qualities of varying degrees of light and darkness. Holly's eyes were wide with awe. The three moved closer to the windows of the command bridge. Holly hovered next to Cyrus her eyes near to the glass, the stars reflecting off her brown eyes making them sparkle with beauty. She reached over to hold Cyrus's hand, tears forming in her eyes again. "I knew they were beautiful, I just never knew they were this beautiful," she said. Cyrus looked outside the glass. He could see the stars like never before. The heavens arrayed in such splendor stretching forth in every direction. Looking in every direction he saw stars as far as the naked eye could see. The stars clustered thickly as they followed the edges of the galaxy's spiral arms in a graded slant as they were still within the milky way galaxy. Each star was twinkling uniquely like a faceted gemstone. It took his breath away.

"What do you think?" asked Tony." "It's beautiful," Cyrus said speechless. Then he realized he meant the dust ring disk. "Right..." Cyrus said moving back to the console. "It's hard to say for sure. It could be an exoplanet pulled out of orbit. It's definitely possible one was torn up and had its remnants scattered around the sun, gradually over time spreading out into a debris field. Whatever it is though it's a sight to behold."

Tony said, "I actually have a star less than two light-years away I want you to check out. It is a red giant and we have never been able to observe one up close. I have been getting readings from it using the gate." "Sounds excellent let's check it out," Cyrus said. "You girls ready for a 'quick' hop in the neighborhood?" They both nodded with smiles. "I am sending you the heading now." Cyrus saw it pop up on one of the consoles. "I've got it, Uncle Tony," He said. Cyrus forwarded the navigational data to the nav-computer and it gave them a course heading. "Let's buckle up!" Everyone took their positions and got ready. "Everyone ready?" Cyrus asked. He got thumbs up and a yes. He reached over to lift the clear red safety cover from the red button. "Jump in three, two, one." He pressed the red button surrounded by the stripped yellow caution tape."

The nuclear fusion engines began to fire causing the craft to move forward very quickly. The computer began to speak. "Path of trajectory clear. Rendering path in real-time." The warp drives began to form the blue field around the ship on the stern and the bow. The blue somehow looked different this time. It was somehow darker and the color was slightly more purple. The field got stronger and then Cyrus felt the pull, the galaxy stretching out in front of him and behind him. Then he started to feel the draw on his mind and his body like it was departing from the path of the ship. But just as quickly as the feeling had started it was over and he was back in his seat. "Short trip girls," he said smiling. They smiled back. Up ahead was the new star.