Sun Walker

An energy life form's perspective. A science fiction vignette.

Jhkta rolled, waking from stasis. She moved along the surface of her asteroid bed, dust and pebbles making tiny wisps that tickled as they burst into mist. As the asteroid rolled it pushed and shimmied whispers of gravity against other elements in a rocky soup. Jhkta dispersed throughout the objects, listening to their song, at first, then adding her voice to the fields. A small cluster of particles caught a wave of song and began a shower of collisions in an ultraviolet frenzy, gathering speed and swirling away.

How long Jhkta rolled and played in the asteroid belt was unknown, though soon she became bored with it and allowed herself to be cast away. The asteroids continued their song as she lost momentum, rotating and condensing; flattening and fanning out, enjoying the random residuals.

Soon, she felt herself growing closer to a body of lights; boiling, rolling, flashing, bursting: A dwarf star. She focused herself, heading towards it, gathering speed and excitement as she drew close enough to wade in the tide of the star’s gravity. Jhkta flexed and spread in the bubbling foam of neutronic and gamma strings. She worried a moment when a large cloud suddenly burst in front of her path, but steadied herself. It was not her first hydrogen cloud. Almost a tingling sensation infused her; the first danger of sun walking, she remembered. When was the last time she bathed in a sun? Perhaps too long, since the prickles were intoxicating and joyful.

A sharp undertow grabbed the cloud back towards the sun, making Jhkta sharply aware. She was closer than she thought, lingered long, almost missed the moment. She raised her own density, slowly, and formed a wiry set of tentacles around her as she shaped herself to complement the intensity of this particular sun. Almost glowing as the sun itself, she skipped a tentacle close to the sun’s surface. Liquid gaseous molten rolling energy and light pulled, tossed and tore at her tentacles. She allowed some to be taken, an exquisite exchange of loss and glee and wonder. She allowed some tentacles to form as if the sun had awakened and reached out to caress her with tiny filaments. She also tugged and tore and became part sun, part herself, lightly dancing on the surface. The temptation to immerse herself in the sun was very strong, almost stronger than the heady exchange of energies on the surface. Jhkta had experienced this draw toward oblivion long ago, perhaps when this sun would have been much younger. The desire grew and faded as she continued to frolic across the surface of the sun.

Jhkta formed a wave to collect her tentacles inward. She pushed off the surface, riding a flare that flicked her out and away. Gliding swiftly, energized, she wove into herself the tentacle remnants, her treasures from the sun.

Reviews

[Daniel Seward]

Interesting portrayal of exotic life form. Seemed to lack the traditional buildup of plot and resolution but then maybe you did not wish to be burdened with that. Used imaginative wording.

[Deona]

Thanks for the review. I did have two reasons for a lack of plot. One was, it is a very short story, a sort of snapshot of life from another perspective. The other was that I did not want to taint that alien perspective with human tags.