Titans of Chaos

The air around my head flared up with strange light, and I saw I was leaving a contrail ofmulticolored smoke and swirls of glitter behind me. Some of the air molecules, granted theirfreedom, were deciding to turn into light or diamonds or notes of music or Cherenkov radiation. Ihad a tail like the aurora borealis shining behind.

But my speed increased, and the friction dropped. I also noticed that the thickness of hyperspacefell off much more quickly than the air pressure dropped. The difference between aninverse-square and an inverse-cube law, I suppose.

Higher and higher. Vast, so vast, this wide world: at fifty-five thousand meters, eight hundredkilometers of ocean were in one glance beneath my feet. It might have been a floor of rippledbluish marble, only inches from my pointed toes. Below, the sea was dark purple, its color madebluish by the intervening masses of air. The horizon was curved, and seemed to have a glowingblue swath of light following its bow. And above! Above the sky was black, the freedom ofunobstructed outer space. I could see the dim, un-twinkling lights of brighter stars, the coloredpoints of planets.

Here, only my earthly eyes were useful. I could not pick up the internal natures of the distantworlds and suns, and their utility to me was nothing, so far out of reach; I could sense nocontrolling principles, no degrees of variation or freedom, no bonds of moral obligations.

Whatever dwelt among the stars had nothing to do with earthly concerns. I wonder if you willunderstand me if I said, staring at the indifference of the cold heavens, that I never felt lessreligious than in that moment, but staring at their majesty, the grandeur, I never felt more. CruelSaturn's created world was worthy of awe.

Lapsing space was easier this far from the Earth. The friction of hyperspace had dropped nearlyto nothing, so that I could put more of my fourth-dimensional limbs into the act, grab widersections of the fabric of space, and bend them more pliantly.

The air was too thin, and I was ready to attempt speeds more immense than an atmosphere wouldpermit. I was about to assume a shape something more like a dolphin made of light: It was across-section of mine I suspected might be spaceworthy. Vacuum and hard radiation form anenvironment more welcoming than hyperspace, and my body could adapt.