Sight
Story excerpt
Excerpt from an ongoing story
"Kate?" said Eli after he'd entered her room.
She was on the far side, hands half raised, her fingertips against the now transparent wall. Beyond her a green sphere swirling with white hung in nothing. The nothing was punctured by a hundred thousand pinpricks of light, every single one brighter and heavier in Kate's mind than they had been before. Each slow breath clouded the wall and then faded long before the next. Eli could feel the wide dilation of her eyes.
"Excuse me," he said again.
It was another full breath before she responded quietly.
"Jaros showed me how to... how to change the wall. So I could see."
Eli walked up next to her, his awareness of the space outside growing with each step until it was larger in his mind than it had been in a long time. He tried to force himself to see it with terrestrial eyes. If you watched long enough you could barely notice the white spiraling in on itself as the clouds rolled above the planet.
"It looks less flat," she said quietly, mostly to herself.
"What does?"
"The stars. Behind the planet. On Earth it looks like a blanket someone rolled across the sky. But from here you can tell they're so far from each other."
They stood, letting their eyes touch the lights.
"That darker spot, through those two big clouds. That's where we're headed."
Her eyes flicked over to the spot but she said nothing.
"I'd like you to come with us when we leave the ship. We're meeting in the cargo bay in a few minutes."
She looked at him with the completely blank expression of someone who has diverted all their energy to a thought and forgotten their body. Then her mind returned and she gave him a nod accompanied by the suggestion of a smile.
"Okay."