CYGNUS X1
1
To totally understand the situation better, we must understand how Jamas felt on that night. Yes, Jamas Youngby who once operated a first class starship called the Rocinante. He never will again, but not because he’s afraid of the starship itself. He had a bad experience when commanding it once His crew was Spike Keaner and Josiah Stevenson. Well, you see, it’s like this. Jamas, Spike and Josiah were getting drunk on the starship Rocinantae one night, when they thought:
"Wow man!" said Jamas, "Remember that planet called Traes One of the Northern Galaxy Tip?"
"Yeah," burped Spike, "The one next to the Constellation Cygnus, right?"
"Right," said Jamas as he leaned closer, "Let’s go there tonight and let’s check it out. It’s supposed to have been completely uninhabited for ten years."
"Ten years?" gestured Josiah as he turned to face Jamas, while knocking over some marble cylinder shaped mugs from which you drink beer out of, "Ten years! Shit! Why so long? I heard that planet’s got the perfect air-breathing level anywhere on any constellation."
"I don’t know. Maybe there’s something weird about it. I mean, why is it always uninhabited? Planets like that usually go for about fifteen-million dollars these days. That ain’t shit. What gets me, is that there’s not one single form of moving life. Bullshit. Let’s go check it out."
"Yeah," added Spike, "and let’s mellow out on the beer for a while. Let’s just take it easy. Now let’s drink 200 proof Rock whiskey and let’s eat twenty-three tablets of one-hundred percent LSD 25, OK?"
"OK," said Josiah, "and let’s some find some life on Traes One. Wow, what a trip, man."
Some half-malnutrated hours later, the ship passed into the ionospheric layers of Traes One’s atmosphere. They spun through the planets and stars, listening to their stereo play Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon. The speakers cranked so fucking loud you just wouldn’t believe it. Their stereo takes a 650,000 volt battery to be able to get enough power to play. When they were some four miles above the planet’s surface, a weird feeling came upon Spike and Jamas. Traes One was once inhabited by the gods, or so people say they were gods, by the gods of music. Some say they still do, but then why is there no life there man? What the fuck is that planet’s problem?
Anyway, Josiah got out his life scan module with the visual screen. He probed into Traes One’s position in the universe and waited to pick up any sign of life. The planet is approximately 985 miles round in diameter, so it is obviously a small planet, a very small planet. I mean, it was so small that it was really small. OK?
Spike suddenly said, "Man, I feel weird, but I don’t know why."
"I know man," said Jamas. "Me, too! I feel like I...oh shit, I can’t explain it, it’s so weird."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, man," said Josiah, " I feel really weird too. It’s like I...oh fuck, I don’t know, I just feel weird..."
"Yeah man," they all said at the same time, "We feel really weird!"
Jamas said, "Let’s go down there a little closer, but let’s don’t land yet."
Just as they started to descend, Josiah saw a red shape appear on his visual screen. He smiled, put his hands into the pockets of his gravity control jacket then said, "Guess what guys?"
"What’s up?" said Jamas.
"I got a life form reading on my screen," said Josiah.
"No shit?"
"No shit. I can’t tell what the hell it is, though, it’s got a weird shape, I mean really shaped weird."
"Man, let’s stop saying weird so much dammit! That bugs me. Okay, Spike, let’s land and check it out!"
"Why man? What if there’s something big and frightening down there?"
"Then, oh shit, I don’t know. I’ll think about that, later. So let’s land."
"Okay," said Spike, and as they were exactly fourteen point six feet from the surface of the planet, Josiah spoke up.
"Hey guys, that blip, that life form, it’s gone. Now, there’s nothing. Oh - wait! Another life form came on the screen. It is approximately twenty-three feet tall."
And as Spike landed the Rocinantae, Josiah said, "And now the life form is exactly 558 yards southeast from our present location."
Everything was silent. Finally Jamas said, "Let’s go check it out, man."
"Wow man, just wait a minute! Here we are totally spaced out on chemicals, and you want to go check out that life form? Have you forgotten? This place is supposed to have no life on it for ten years. Then suddenly something’s here. Maybe it was all along! Maybe it’s the reason why life stays away from this place! Have you ever thought of that?" said Spike and he nearly died from exhaustion.
Jamas burped, scratched his head, then said, "Shut-up you little shit. Let’s go check it out, now!"
The three finally got outside their spaceship, but turned on the outside speakers and turned it up to 50,000 watts of full power thrust and listened to a musical unit from a planet called Earth. This musical unit was called Led Zeppelin, a band that would be born some twenty-thousand years into the future. A song called Stairway to Heaven cranked to it’s maximum sound. Josiah, Jamas and Spike liked Led Zeppelin. The song gave the three a very eerie feeling. The song gave the surroundings a mysterious, wondering feeling to Josiah, Jamas and Spike. They stood in front of their starship, motionless. They didn’t know what to think. They did not need to bring any lung equipment because the air was perfect, according to them. In fact, the air was the best that they had ever in- and exhaled.
The sky looked like it was just getting ready to get dark. Jamas remembered long ago that in the first year of his planet that he remembered someone saying something about Traes One. That’s why he wanted to come here. He heard long ago that a planet called Traes One has three suns orbiting around itself. The planet stays perfectly still, not moving at all, except for the fact that it does rotate on it’s axis at a normal speed. But it does not move any way forward or backwards or anything. It just rotates! GOT IT? Good. Anyway, Jamas once heard that the suns orbit around Traes One in such a pattern that when the planet was born, the suns will orbit around Traes One all aligned up in one straight line as cold, dead stars, then Traes One is born and the cold stars heat up, but keep generating, as these stars were suns once before. They rotated around Traes One, getting slowly and slowly hotter and hotter. During this time, light slowly came to Traes One. All in all, it seemed like a very long morning. As the suns get hotter and brighter, the morning turns to day, and then it is said that the suns will lose their dominance. Why? OK I’ll tell you why. Because the inhabited lives on the planet made the owners of the planet very mad. Nobody knows what made the owners mad, and possibly nobody ever will........... But! As the suns lose their power, the day on Traes One turns to night, and the death of the planet as well. But! But But But! Traes One is the oldest known planet in existence. It is said that Traes One is the Alpha and the Omega. That means, that the whole planet’s life is one huge long day - from birth to death! The planet is just one day long. But what a day! The day was divided up into years. But these years alone last for so damned long that you just wouldn’t believe it. There is a certain part of the planet that occasionally experiences mornings, days and night on a routine basis, but that is approximately fourteen percent of the planet only. That place is mostly cold, because the suns do not always pass over it.. The weird thing about this is that this section of Traes One is directly on the top of the planet. No one knows why, and nobody cares and who gives a shit? Now back to Josiah, Jamas and Spike.
It took The Three Travelers exactly three point three hours to get to Traes One. They had somewhat sobered up. They were now just realizing what they had done, coming to this planet.
"OOOHHH SHEEIIT!" said Jamas, Spike and Josiah at the same time, then Jamas continued: "Hey, uh, guys...what are we doing here? WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE WE DOING HERE?!"
"Looking for life-forms, sir," said Spike, "But I don’t know why...I feel like throwing up..."
"I know now, I remember," said Jamas, "We got wasted and decided to come here and look for life forms. SHIT! And I gotta’ work tomorrow morning."
"Hey," said Spike, "let me ask you something."
"What?"
"How come we can talk and hear over the sound of our speakers?"
"The hell if I know."
Suddenly, Josiah said, "Hey man, you wouldn’t believe what I found!"
"What?"
"I found some shrooms. And wow, I only ate two fucking mushrooms, and I feel like...oh fuck man, I don’t know what I feel like man, oh shit, oh fuck, that tree wants me. Hey my hand just turned bright orange!"
Jamas’ and Spike’s eyes just about popped out of their sockets.
"Wow! Where did you get those!?" screamed Jamas.
"Does the moon wear feet?"" asked Josiah.
It was no use; Josiah was totally fucked up. Nevertheless, Jamas and Spike did find the mushrooms.
"Let’s take three a piece," said Jamas.
"Okay," said Spike, and with that, they each ate three and were fried five seconds later, and I mean really fried.
"Man!" screamed Spike," I could make a fortune.! I have never, ever had such good mushrooms in my whole entire 2,500 years of life!"
"No shit," screamed Jamas, "We could sell a few thousand to the planet called Sheek, man, a lot of people are due for some good shrooms."
"Hey," screamed Spike, "Why are we screaming?"
"Because we’re pretty wasted."
Yes! They were pretty wasted, and because of that, their conversation went something like this:
"Why do nine?"
"Oh...oh...I ate the weird kind, duck."
"Maple-uh no metal, though?"
"What green are you?"
"Why is things so low?"
"Piece of milk, please."
"I think I’m capable of electric heart breath."
Get the idea, folks? OK, they were walking around for about five hours, doing nothing, when a sound was heard. It wasn’t their stereo, which was still on, but the sound was so loud, that it covered the sound of the stereo. Josiah, Jamas and Spike stopped walking around then cupped their hands over their ears for they couldn’t stand it, man. That’s just the way it was! The sound that they now heard, was a static-buzzing sound that was so fucking loud that it would make ya sick. It almost shattered the three travelers’ eardrums, when suddenly it stopped. Josiah, Jamas and Spike looked at each other, and since now they were partially aware of what they were doing and where they were, they wondered what the hell was going on. Now we’re getting somewhere. They took their hands off their ears, which hurt like shit (not their hands, their ears). But! Not even the sound of their stereo was heard.
"What happened just now?" asked Jamas, "I feel weird and I don’t even know why!"
"Man," said, "said Spike, "I feel really weird. How do you feel, Josiah?"
"Oh, I think I’m all right," said Josiah, "But I get this feeling that the ground wants to attack me."
"Let’s go check out the stereo and see what happened. Did you guys hear that buzzing noise?"
"Did we hear it! Yes, you asshole! If we were deaf we could’ve heard that noise."
Jamas and Spike went inside the starship to see what was wrong with the stereo. Josiah just stayed outside and walked around, trying to clear his head up. What Spike and Jamas found, confused them...OH THEY WERE SOOOOooooo CONFUSED!!! The stereo was on, everything was hooked up right, but no sound was coming out of the speakers!
"WHY! DAMMIT WHY!" whispered Spike.
Then suddenly there came sound out of the speakers. It was a song. It was a Led Zeppelin song, called How Many More Times.
"Where did that song come from?" said Jamas, "We don’t have it in the ship’s supply."
"No shit?" said Spike as he turned down the volume, "Well, it must be in the supply because it’s playing on this stereo."
"Wait a minute," and Jamas turned the volume all the way off. "Something funny’s going on." Jamas didn’t say any more because the song How Many More Times started playing again, but not on the stereo. Spike tried the volume controls, but now they didn’t even move. Where was that sound coming from? The two went outside and found out that the song was coming from everywhere, and it was very loud. Then it turned down a little to just the perfect volume. The three looked at each other and wondered what the fuck was going.
"Where’s that sound coming from?" asked Spike, as he explained the situation to Josiah.
"It’s like the whole sky and everything is a speaker. The song is coming from everywhere."
Josiah, Jamas and Spike started walking again, and they found that no matter where they were at, the volume remained the same. The planet had a very luscious, bright atmosphere. There were rivers and mountains and many odd-shaped plant life scattered everywhere.
"Now, why doesn’t anybody live here? I sure would love it."
"Me too! Just think of those mushrooms! I wonder if this place has some excellent marijuana growing on it?"
How Many More Times ended, a song called Halo of Flies took it’s place.
"Let’s split up," said Jamas, "and see if any of us can get ahold of that life form," and with that, Josiah walked in one direction, Jamas in another and Spike sat down to roll a joint. When Spike finished rolling it, he found that the others had already walked away, and he was alone. He got up and turned in a different direction, when he suddenly stopped short. He was now facing the weirdest thing he had ever seen. The top of this thing that he was looking at was round, completely round. Supporting the top part was a rubber-like tube that moved and slithered about. It was some kind of a monster or something . . .
. . . Man! You’d have to see it to believe it, and it was all dull red, and sometimes splotches of green would appear on its round top, then disappear. It didn’t do anything but move back and forth, as if it were studying Spike. Spike shot at it with his electric telepathy gun, but that didn’t do anything. He yelled for Josiah and Jamas.
"Hey Josiah and Jamas!" he yelled, "Come over here and look what I found!" He kept yelling and yelling, until finally Jamas ran up, then so did Josiah.
"What the hell is that, man?" said Jamas.
"I don’t know, but it don’t show up on my life-detector scan. But why? It’s moving, and it don’t look dead."
"Hmmm. Hmmmm. This is absolutely a hmmm subject."
"I wonder if my boss’ll be mad if I’m late tomorrow," said Jamas. "Let’s leave guys, I gotta go to work."
"You work?" asked Spike.
"Yeah, so?"
"Where at?"
"I manufacture shimpian blorks."
"I used to work there, then I used to work at an exration bewee slee-station."
"Have you ever worked at Nornz Plake zix?"
While these two were bullshitting around, that weird looking thing started to crawl towards them.
"Watch out you assholes!" screamed Josiah. Jamas and Spike suddenly realized what was happening.
"Never fear, Spike is here," and Spike took out his inflatable missile launcher, blew it up, and shot the fuck out of that round-headed thing that was crawling around. Since it was about as tall as Spike, the thing’s head was pretty big. The three expected brains and guts and blue blood to go flying everywhere, but all they saw after the missile hit it was the head on the ground in four different pieces. It was like a shell.
"Well son of a bitch," said Spike as he walked to what was the thing’s head, and looked at it.
"What’s it look like?" asked Jamas.
"Well son of a bitch!" repeated Spike.
"Shut-up and tell me what it looks like."
"Well son of a bitch!"
"Shit! Fuck it. I’ll look at it myself." Jamas took one look at it, then said, "Well son of a bitch!"
Josiah, who was sleeping against a nearby tree for absolutely no reason at all, woke up and also took a look at those four pieces and saw that the head was like an egg-shell. It was about as thin as an egg-shell, too. But no folks! It wasn’t an egg. I’ll bet you were thinking it was an egg, weren’t you? WELL IT WASN’T, DAMMIT...so just mellow out. Anyway, the travelers (ta-da) saw that the inside of this shell-like head had wires, connecting from each broken piece of the head to a nine-volt Eveready battery. Now this is definitely another thing to hmm about. On the head’s outside, it was dull red, and hard, but on the inside it was black and slimy.
"Pretty fucking strange," said Jamas, as he felt himself becoming faint, so he quickly ate some acid, and he felt better. Jamas put his finger in the black slimy film, then said, "I wonder if you can smoke this?" Then he touched his finger on the outer part of the piece of head. It was a mistake. It burned his finger so bad that he was now the proud owner of a huge blister. Suddenly! (and get this) there was a humming, thumping noise heard everywhere. It was like the music of those songs, coming from everywhere, but the noise now was definitely not a song. When the sound ended, it echoed throughout the whole planet.
"Wow, what a space, man," said Josiah, who was always spacing out about something or other. But! The other two were spacing out, too!
"What the hell was that noise?" asked Spike. Now, I don’t care what anybody says, but if there was ever anything to hmm about, this definitely was. The three noticed that they could not find the rubber-like-tub-like-thing that held the thing’s head in the air. Where was that other piece of the body? Well fucking A man!
Another sound was heard behind the three, but this sound was soft and sounded like a Tyrannosaurus Rex having a baby. Josiah, Spike and Jamas turned around and saw a man in a blue, furry bathrobe, staring at them. He opened his mouth and out came a buzzing-static sound, which would sound at four point one, eight, three, four second intervals. Then he made other sounds which didn’t make any sense, such as: someone eating cottage-cheese, a burp from a whale, three sacks of crushed door-knobs being dragged across a bunch of eggs.
The three travelers were freaking out, but Jamas said, "This is pretty damned weird."
"Who the hell are you?" Josiah asked the man in the fuzzy blue bathrobe.
The man stopped making make weird noises, then said, "I’ll ask the questions around here. Who the hell are you?"
The three just about shit their pants!
"Wha...wha...who...wha..." said Jamas in a definite voice. The three travelers were stunned, not so much at the man or whatever it was, but at the fact that they all of a sudden just met this really strange guy on this planet that is supposed to be uninhabited. The three noticed that they had been on the planet for about ten hours, but the sky had not even changed. It always maintained a light-gray color, as if it was early evening, as if that means something.
The man or whatever scratched his head, and suddenly his hair started to grow and grow like you wouldn’t believe. His hair was short and black, but as it lengthened, it turned blonde. Jamas, Josiah and uh...uh...oh yeah, Spike, just stared in amazement.
"Hey you weirdo," said Jamas, "I don’t mean to sound strange, but, what the hell is happening?"
The man, who now stopped scratching his head, and his hair stopped growing, said, "You three are from the Galaxy commonly known as the Milky Way Galaxy and come here on destructive terms." Jamas was going to say something, but the man put up his hand and continued to speak: "You have destroyed a sprex on this planet."
"We destroyed a what?" asked Josiah.
"I said you destroyed a sprex," said the man and he pointed to the mechanical round-headed thing that Spike shot with his inflatable missile launcher.
"So that’s what that thing was called," said Josiah, "A sprex?"
"Yes," said the man.
"How did you know where we were from?"
"I know everything about you three. You come from a planet called Willowdale and your names are Josiah Stevenson, Jamas Youngby and Spike Keaner. That sprex that you shot is what brought me here. I mean, OK, you guys shot it and that’s all right, I don’t care. You can shoot all the sprexes that you want. But! Since you tried to take it with you after you killed it, you’re gonna have to pay the consequences."
"What do you mean, man?" said Jamas, "We didn’t want to take it with us, we just shot it!"
"Shut-up, man of Willowdale! Remember that loud humming sound that you heard after you touched the sprex? Well, that was a message to me from the sprex, telling me that someone or something was attempting to take the sprex."
"We weren’t trying to take it with us, man! I just touched it! I just wanted to see what it felt like! Really, that’s the truth. I wouldn’t want to take it with me. I mean, what would I do with one of those things, anyway? And what do you mean, ’Pay the consequences?’" said Spike while he quickly smoked two grams of hash in nothing flat.
The man introduced himself, completely ignoring Spike. "My name is Banth . . . King Banth. Let me explain why I was making different sounds. You noticed that different noises came out of my mouth? Well, those sounds were different languages from different parts of the universe. I was trying to talk to you in your language, trying to figure out what you would understand. I finally figured it out when you, Josiah, asked me who the hell I was. You speak a primitive language, but so does most of the life in the universe. Anyway, now that I heard you talk, I know now how to speak your language. Also! This is not what I really look like. I am in your form, your body composition, because I didn’t want to freak you guys out if you saw something weird again."
"You mean," said Josiah, "that you really are something else, and not human, and you don’t speak our language?"
"Precisely," answered King Banth.
"Then," continued Josiah, "what do you really look like and what kind of language do you speak?"
"That is not important!" said Banth, "What is important is that Jamas tried to steal the sprex...."
"I said I didn’t want to steal it, I just touched it...and what do you mean, steal it? What if I did take it away from here? How could that be stealing?"
"Nothing leaves Traes One unless someone approves it." The three travelers suddenly said nothing and stood still. The mention of Traes One made them feel strange, and frightened.
Then, Jamas had the courage to speak up. He said, "But I only touched it...."
"I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!" screamed King Banth, "You see, I operate this part of Traes One and the sprex was my creation. How would you feel if I took something that was yours? And now you have a choice. You can stay here and go through a trial, so we can decide what to do with you. If you stay, you can only leave when I say."
"Bullshit!" said Spike, as he burped up a huge amount of pot smoke that had been in his stomach for quite a long time, "What’s the other choice?"
"The other choice," continued Banth, "is that you can leave."
"What?"
"I said that you can leave."
"Leave?" said Spike. "Good-bye Mr. Banth."
Josiah, Jamas and Spike started to walk back to their starship Rocinantae, but stopped short when King Banth said, "If you leave, though, there’s one catch. And believe me, you won’t like it."
"What do you mean?" said Josiah, "What’s the catch?"
"You will go into the black hole of Cygnus X-1."
"What are you talking about?"
"I said that you will go through the black hole of Cygnus X-1. I went through it myself once before. But I survived."
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" said Spike, who decided to repeat what was already asked and said, therefore making himself look like a complete ass.
"You heard me. You have a choice." And with that, King Banth disappeared. There was no sound, no warning, no anything. He just vanished from sight.
Josiah finally spoke up. "What the fuck just happened? Where did that Banth guy go to?"
"Something pretty weird is going on," said Spike. "That guy must have been a wizard or something. He just disappeared!"
"Right!" said Jamas. "And what did he mean about that black hole? I think he was just fucking with our heads. Come on guys, let’s get out of here. Besides, I gotta work pretty soon."
The three travelers stared at each other, talked it over, then came to the conclusion that they should leave pretty soon.. After all, they thought, how are they going to go through a black hole? They weren’t even going anywhere near it.
Josiah, Jamas and Spike walked back to their starship and entered it. They all sat down and stared at each other for the longest time. Finally, Jamas said, "You guys, this is very fucking unusual. After all this has happened to us, I think I know now what we must do."
"Yes, I know what we must do, too," said Spike.
"Me too," added Josiah, "I know too! We must now get completely fucking wasted!"
"Exactly."
"Precisely," said Jamas. He reached down and pulled an ounce of Afghanistan Red Hair out of his sock. "You guys," he continued, "I’m sorry, but we’re going to smoke all of this, right now."
"Well," said Josiah and Spike, "If you insist. But only if we also east five more mushrooms. We stuck them in our pockets. We got a whole bunch. About forty or so, oh, what the hell? Let’s eat them all!"
"OK," said Jamas, "But let’s start the starship up first before we forget how." And with that, Jamas pushed the start button to the Rocinantae. Nothing happened. The engine did not turn on. "Now what’s wrong?" yelled Jamas.
With no warning whatsoever, the starship suddenly jolted and raced away into the atmosphere. Jamas, Josiah and Spike were thrown against the wall with tremendous force. But! They didn’t get hurt, man, so don’t get worry your pretty little head.
"What is going on?" screamed Jamas at the top of his kidneys. Suddenly his kidneys flew into a no, which means nothing but that’s what happened, I swear.
Josiah rushed over to the console which showed everything about the ship that you would ever possibly want to know.
"Wow man!" said Josiah in his usual Wow Man voice. "Wow everybody, guess what? Here’s the story!"
Jamas and Spike listened to Josiah. Man, if they ever listened, they listened now.
"We are stuck on a course," continued Josiah in his usual We are stuck on a course voice, "And I don’t know what course we are stuck on. It’s weird. I can’t explain it. It’s like the ship has a life of its own. Its just going somewhere at warp four which is a normal speed."
The three talked it over and they all agreed that it was a normal speed.
"Also it’s direction viewer says that we are headed for east of the constellation Lyra and northwest of Pegasus, while flying into the light of Deneb, and all after we sail across the Milky Way. You guys! That’s where the Black Hole of Cygnus X-1 is. Holy shit! But! As I look out the back window here I see that the black hole is way behind us, so don’t worry, man. And also! We are getting farther and farther away from it. We’re going the opposite way, so shit! What do you guys think?"
Suddenly Spike threw up.
"FUCK!" screamed Jamas at the top of his stomach because his kidneys flew into a no and couldn’t be screamed at the top of right now if it was the end of the world, "Spike you dick. Why the hell did you throw up? Fuck you puked all up!"
"Man, I’m sorry," said Spike.
"Shit I don’t believe that you puked, just all of a sudden like, with no warning at all."
"Fuck you! It just happened. I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t even feel sick or anything. It just happened."
Jamas suddenly puked-up, and puked again. Spike and Josiah stared at Jamas, as he said, "You guys! Oh shit! Why did I throw up? It just happened."
"See what I mean!" said Spike, "You don’t even know it’s coming, you just puke."
Then, wouldn’t ya know it, Josiah threw up and it sounded pretty gross. Josiah just stared in amazement at nothing in particular.
"You guys," he said, "What is happening? Why did I throw up?"
Well, what do you know? The three travelers suddenly all started throwing up. It sounded like this: "BARF! URP URP...RUMBLE...RETCH! Spttouiii...."
Finally they stopped puking. Josiah, Jamas and Spike stared at each other and then Josiah said, "This is freaking me out! I don’t know when I’m gonna puke next. Why? What is happening?"
A voice boomed across the Rocinantae: "Because I am controlling you!"
"Who said that?" asked Jamas. The three never opened their mouths. Then who was talking? All was silent, until...
"I am causing you to throw up," said the voice again, "You cannot see me. I am projecting my voice through your speakers, and I am speaking your language because you wouldn’t understand mine."
"Are you King Banth?" asked Jamas.
"NO!" boomed the voice for no reason at all, "I am not Banth. I am the creator of Traes One. I do not want to tell you my name. You’re wondering why you’re puking? It’s because I’m making you puke. I’m also controlling your starship."
"What do you mean?" screamed Jamas, who was always screaming about something or other.
"I locked your ship on a course for the black hole of Cygnus X-1."
"But we’re heading the other way!"
"Don’t let that fool you. I also started your ship, too. I might let you guys cruise around in space for a while, first."
And with that, Jamas said, "What do you mean? We’ll die if we go into that Black Hole!"
"How do you know? I might even see you again, sometime."
The voice said no more, and music came out of the speakers instead. It was great music. A song called Hocus Pocus sounded through the speakers.
"What should we do?" said Spike, who was always something or other. The three talked it over, then they came up with a decision.
"Let’s just say fuck it and get wasted!" said Spike, who, as you can see, is saying something.
So . . . fuck it! They were sitting there smoking and eating, when Josiah said he was hungry. So he got up and went to look in the kitchen. What he saw surprised him. They had more than enough food. Everything was stocked up to the maximum. They even had some beer, so they decided to get drunk.
Weeks passed by. Jamas, Josiah and Spike observed that however much food they ate, no matter how much beer was drunk or how many drugs were consumed, the three always had an endless supply. They would eat everything in the kitchen, then the next day there would be more food in the kitchen. The three didn’t know where the food came from or how it got there or where it came from. The dope stash was always full of exciting different things and the beer was always drank, never running out. So everything was going pretty good. Their stereo constantly played excellent music. Jamas, Josiah and Spike listened to a legend called The Wall. Yes! THE WALL! It was a musical tale of Traes One’s about a man’s life, and what he went through. They also heard the story of 2112 which told of Traes One in the year 2112. Other legends that they heard were: The Fountain of Lamneth, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, and Natural Science. The three travelers have never heard these songs before, but when they heard them once, they loved them. The songs brought happiness and excitement to Josiah, Jamas and ol’ Spike buddy. So! Now here are those three guys on a fixed course, cruising around in space with a never-ending supply of food, beer and drugs and a never-ending supply of great music. What more could they ask for?
Well, they had this constant fear because they could not control the starship. No matter what the three did to the ship, it would continue to stay on course for Cygnus X-1’s black hole. This process went on for some time when all they did was eat, listen to music, get high and drunk and sleep. One day, it came to an end.
The three had just smoke eight grams of hash and were staring at the wall when they heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of the creator of Traes One. Well, hey! What do you know? The music stopped playing, and the voice said, "Hi there Spike, Jamas and Josiah, remember me? I’m the creator of Traes One, and as for being the one who makes you puke, I bring to you some bits of information, so listen up you hisps."
"Sheeit!" screamed the three men of Willowdale at their kidneys, except for Jamas, who screamed at the top of his elbows, "Forgot all about you, man! Oh sheeit with chipped beef omelet style. What bits of information do you have for us oh mighty one who causes us to throw up all over the place, getting it everywhere?"
"Listen to me!" continued the powerful voice of the creator. "This is how it is: You three have cruised around in space long enough. Here is some advice to you: I gave you the neverending supply of food, alcohol, drugs and everything else you needed for four months, four weeks, and four days. You abused it. Drugs are, they are not something, men of Willowdale, and that is that they are not satisfying. The food was a habit, and the alcohol was a release. You three have ignored your own minds! You are lacking concentration and self-pity. Put the two together and then maybe you can open your eyes wide enough to understand. Therefore, I must tell that that this could possibly be the last time you hear my voice. In other words...this could possibly be good-by."
"What do you mean good-by?" yelled Jamas.
Suddenly a green blob of mud came from nowhere and ate Spike’s shoe. Then it disintegrated.
"I mean," added the creator, "that I give you back control of your ship, but I don’t think it will do any good."
"Why not?" said Josiah, who hasn’t said anything in a while. "If we get control of our ship, we can go home."
"Because you are caught in the current of the Black Hole of Cygnus X-1, and there is no way for you to escape now. Maybe you will survive, but probably not."
The creator said no more, and no sound came out of the speakers. Then, there was a sound, it was soft at first, but it grew louder. It was the sound of a hovering starship.
"Oh fuck shit you guys! Look out the window! There’s the black hole! Oh my goodness sakes!" said Jamas because he didn’t know what else to say.
It was huge. The black hole swallows planets and everything else that got near it. The Three Travelers watched and saw that they were directly in front of it. They were, in comparison, a pin-point space on a planet the size of Saturn. Outside the Black Hole’s outer barrier, which glowed menacingly, were stars, but the Black Hole was completely Black. It looked like a murderous mouth of death and Jamas, Josiah and Spike were heading straight into it. Just looking at it scared the shit out of them. It seemed as though they were circling into the Black Hole’s mouth, funneling, spiraling. This motion quickened at a slow pace, but it was noticeable. Jamas ran over to the controls of the Rocinanta when suddenly a voice sounded over the speakers. It said: "In the constellation Cygnus, there lurks a mysterious, invisible force: The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1. Six starts of the Northern Cross, in mourning for their sister’s loss, in a final flash of glory, never more to grace the night..."
Then there was the sound of the Rocinantae’s engines as Jamas started them up. He lurched them into gear but nothing happened. All the Rocinantae did was funnel down faster to the Black Hole. They were caught in the current...no! They were under the control of the Black Hole now. No matter how much Jamas raced those engines, the Rocinantae did not move, except closer to the Black Hole of Cygnus X-1. Jamas tried everything but it was hopeless. He was scared, and he showed it. He turned around to face Spike and Josiah.
"You guys," he said, "This is it..."
"Maybe we can survive . . . how do we know what’s in a Black Hole?"
Suddenly a song started up on the speakers: a haunting, wondering sound about Cygnus X-1 and it’s Black Hole. The Three stared at each other and said nothing. Jamas mumbled under his breath, "We’re not going to survive."
2
The Rocinantae raced at an incredible speed. The starship was at the point of breaking up, but something kept it together. The song continued: "Invisible to telescopic eye; infinity - the star that would not die. All who dare to cross her course are swallowed by a fearsome force. Through the void, to be destroyed...or is there something more? Atomized - at the core, or through the Astral Door - To Soar..."
The voice sang loud and clear as it continued singing the song. The three travelers sat at a table and said nothing. They did now know what to do, so they all started chewing on their fingers. They had to stop because it began to hurt. No shit! You think I’m kidding? Check it out and chew on your fingers, man - it hurts!
3
"I set a course just east of Lyra and Northwest of Pegasus, Flew into the light of Deneb, Sailed across the Milky Way...On my ship the Rocinantae, Wheeling through the galaxies, Headed for the heart of Cygnus, Headlong into mystery..."
The Rocinantae picked up speed, and it began to enter inside the black hole . . . swaying and dirty mind, ya know?
"The X-ray is her siren song, My ship cannot resist her long, Nearer to my deadly goal, until the Black Hole gains control......"
Jamas, Josiah and Spike stared at each other. The G-force from their twirling Rocinantae flung them helplessly against the wall. They could not move. The three were literally scared out of their semi-conscious minds. Fear was now in them, more than it ever has been. They were on the verge of unconsciousness.
"Spinning Whirling still descending, like a spiral sea, unending!"
The Rocinantae stopped spinning and flew at a level, forward direction. The three travelers, barely alive, were flung to the back of the starship, bruised and battered for the ship traveled at a quicker than shit speed!
Through what sight the three had left, they were able to make out a small, white light directly in front of them. It was bright and it grew. They had been in the black hole for two minutes. The white spot grew fast. It was bright! And the three were racing straight towards it.
"Sound and Fury Drowns My Heart. Every Nerve is torn apart . . . . . . . ."
The whiteness had completely engulfed the Rocinantae. The ship raced on.
Then it stopped.
It just stopped.
4
The sound of a magical guitar filled the air with it’s last mystic sound as the Black Hole adventure ended. Cygnus X-1 meant well, but only to itself. It was bright. There was complete silence. SILENCE . . . .
Then breathing . . .
It was faintly audible at first, but its intensity increased. It was a man. He opened his eyes wide at first, then squinted because there was an incredible bright light. His head ached as he winced as he looked directly into the light. His head and mind were bleak, and silent.
That light! It looked like, like . . . a sun.
Another sound filled the air, the sound of an enchanting, eerie song. The song gave the man back his memory and thought. Yes, now he remembered who he was, but where is he? He remembered his name.
It was Jamas...Jamas something or other.
Jamas Youngby!
His head ached, and his body did not move. Jamas laid there, thinking and wondering.
The song!
A voice...a strange voice:
"As gray traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow . . . . . . . . ."
5
"BROODING IN HIS TOWER
WATCHING O’ER HIS LAND"
The Necromancer gazed and grasped all things. It’s mind shifted from subject to subject, all meaning something important. He could make out a vague sense of life entering into his land. It made no difference to him, this life. He blinked, then opened his eyes wide as he saw something small in the sky. It was far away, but nevertheless, he knew what it was. It was the life he sensed earlier.
The object in the sky was a ship of fine craftsmanship. Its engine raced blindly and wildly as the ship hit the planet. The explosion was small, but important. The wizard once again opened its eyes wide, then leaned back and smiled. He gazed into his prisms, and he knew that they were near.
6
Head Rush is a city located on a planet many galaxies from planet earth. Head Rush is located on the exact top of a planet called Ainar. Since Head Rush is the biggest city, it is also the most populated.
The king of Ainar lived in Head Rush, in the most grand of all buildings. Well shit, let me get to the point, here. Josiah was walking through the woods in Head Rush City. His mind and head were pieced awkwardly together in a mind full of vague remembrance. His memory was lost - not totally, because he still knew his name, which was Josiah Stevenson, but he could not remember what or where or who or anything at all in his past. All he knew was the present.
"But if I know my name," he said out loud, "I must have a past, and..."
He stopped talking because he heard a noise. Then he heard it again. It came from above. He looked up, then stopped walking. He looked through the oak tree-tops, but he saw nothing. The leaves were all orange and yellow and there were plenty on the ground.
"Fall," said Josiah, then he thought: How can I remember fall? Where did I hear that before?
He heard a noise again and he looked up, and caught a glimpse of something black gliding through the air. It grasped an oak tree and then stayed still. He couldn’t tell what it was, but then, how could he know anything?
But I do, and . . .
Then he saw the, whatever it was, jump from the top of one oak tree, glide through the air and then clasp to another oak tree. It was square, at least Josiah thought it looked square, and at each corner, a set of three claws protruded. The claws grasped the tree while the thing wrapped itself around the trunk.
As it flew, Josiah saw what looked like a single eye on the bottom of it. It stayed about fifty feet up into the tree-tops, and Josiah guessed it to be eight to ten feet wide or long or whatever - you know what I mean? For some strange reason, it didn’t frighten Josiah. Not until he saw that there was more than one of them.
He saw two more. Sometimes they glided two at a time.
Why didn’t I notice them before?
He looked around and noticed lots of them hanging onto the trees.
Where did they come from?
It was as though they were closing in for the kill . . .
Ridiculous! Josiah thought. He tried to cope with the situation, but it was getting to him. He was confused and empty, and scared. Where was he? Why in these woods? Josiah tried to remember something about his past, but all he could remember was the last twenty minutes, walking through these woods. Where to? Josiah had the feeling that he was walking towards something, but what?
His head was in a mess, but through all that haywire confetti spaghetti mucous, he remembered something very important. His pot and his pipe. They were in his coat pocket. He reached in, smiled as he brought it out, then he loaded a bowl of Afghanistan Red Hair. Why Afghani? he thought.
"Where did I get this weed?" he said out loud.
All he knew was that he had it. Never mind. Just get stoned. He smoked a good-sized bowl and was pretty stoned when he looked up at a gliding thing that was only fifteen feet above him. He gasped. He saw that it was not an eye that was on the bottom of the gliding monster - it was a mouth. The white was teeth and the black was mouth. Josiah also noticed that the mouth could open and close. He began to get frightened, and besides, he was on his second bowl and he was pretty fucked-up. Yes he was scared, but he was having a good time.
Josiah looked up at one of those gliding things then looked back down in front of him, and he stopped. There was now a man standing in front of him. He was not a big man, but still he scared the shit out of Josiah.
"Who the hell are you?" Josiah asked the man.
The man said nothing, but rather, just stared at Josiah, as if he were studying him. He wore a white robe and a little wondering smile. Josiah noticed that all those gliding things stopped moving. They were completely still. Then the little man in his majestic white robe faced all the gliding things and said, "Be gone!" while waving his arm in an arc. With a rush that made Josiah jump, the things glided away, all at once it seemed, screeching weird sounds that made Josiah’s flesh creep.
The monsters in the trees flew up and above at an angle, away from Josiah and this little man. Josiah didn’t know what to think, so he thought about sticking his arm in a bathtub full of spaghetti. The little man continued to stare at Josiah with a crazy, curious look on his face. The time was early morning, Josiah figured, because the sunlight was just coming up from the horizon, the dew was everywhere, and it was slightly misty.