Across the Void

No one can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But that’s based on many assumptions.

For instance, the assumption that “scream” refers to a vocalization, vibrations typically created by human vocal cords. These, indeed, do not travel without the medium of matter.

However, there are other types of screams. An inward scream, for example. A mental scream, or sort of scream of the soul.

A scream such as this transcends the physical realm of space and operates on a higher plane. Like a cellphone signal that reaches a satellite and beams back down to earth, the will of our soul often reverberates through the higher dimension, restructuring destiny, subverting space and time, before it ripples back down to our own dimension.

Humans, of course, are generally unaware of this.

And so, when Pila’s inward scream was heard, neither she nor the recipient of that urgent communication quite understood what had transpired. To them, a sense of deep knowing nudged at their cores and they recognized the feeling as something other, something beyond.

This steadiness was lost quickly for Pila. Which was understandable. The scream of her soul had in fact been accompanied by an audible, physical, low-dimension scream. Which, owing to the previously stated law of sound waves requiring matter, was heard only by her.

Pila was floating alone, restrained, but awake, connected to a 2000-year reserve of life support, in a sterile Lispar prison. She hurled through the largest void known to her universe. Vast enough, she was sure to never encounter a living or non-living thing. This was the sentence she received for crimes that had been necessary. The large window that loomed ever before her showed only the most lonesome blackness imaginable and she felt like a disembodied thing.

Pila thought of earth stories she had been told as a child. Criminals that were buried alive. It seemed so gentle now. Just an instance of panic. Just a moment of struggle. The certainty of near death.

Maybe 2000 years would pass faster than she thought. If she could keep the hope of death alive in her mind, she might avoid the feeling of constant despair.

Then, like a beautiful flame, another thought arose, perhaps the life support would fail! Oh, the sweetness of that idea.

It certainly will, she told herself, Before I know it…I won’t know anything at all. Bliss.

Pila wasn’t sure if her eyes were open or closed, so, she pretended to her self that she was drifting off to sleep.

Far away, very far away, Lex stared too into a deep and empty blackness. But only the blackness of his room.

He had been lying awake wondering what the meaning of life was. Something he often did--though he never got anywhere-- when he had felt the deep, urgent pull at his soul.

What was it? He felt almost as if someone had called to him, and he ought to answer. And yet he was sure that there had been no voice. No sound at all.

Something beyond him had reached him, of that, he was sure. And though the feeling made him uneasy, restless, like he had a need to do something, it also made him happy. Perhaps, he told himself, it is the feeling of meaning.

Perhaps this, whatever this is, is the purpose of life.

Eventually, Lex forgot that moment and that feeling. But it drove him. Unaware, he had been pulled to the academy by the quiet nudge. Through his hardest nights of grueling study and continual rounds of self-doubt, it had pushed him on.

During his graduation, his days as a Jr. Sailor, and promotion to Captain, it quietly lingered.

Until finally, he remembered.

After 6 years of seasoning, he received the unlikely promotion to High Officer. He had his own ship and would make his own plans. While he sat, alone in his quarters, considering the intergalactic map before him, he felt the tug.

He remembered then the darkness in his old room and the feeling he experienced that night.

The Purpose.

His eyes fell (from his perspective—In truth, they were directed by that scream that had been uttered before he was born, but that had reached him as a young adult) on The Void.

Three times the size of the Bootes void, it was best to avoid it. With no celestial bodies to use as landmarks navigating it was extremely dangerous. It had been done by a few but was better known for the vast numbers of travelers that had gone in and never come out.

Because of warps, it was possible to travel--not ruled out due to its size as it once had been. Talk had begun amongst the champions of progress as to whether technology was nearly sufficient for void exploration. Still, it regarded by all explorers of the universe as a wilderness.

But there is something there. He felt. My purpose…lies in The Void.