Waking Up Out There

A lesson in cosmic orientation

Waking Up Out There

It is 95 degrees in Miami right now. It is funny because I just this minute woke up and I am freezing cold. It is 8:00 am. The sun should be blazing in the sky filling the world up and down with glowing light. All of a sudden I find myself in a deep ravine that runs for miles on this speeding asteroid around Tallus 4 which is 30 million light year miles from anywhere near Florida.

I'm already in my pressure suit blasting away at a granite wall face with heavy laser equipment, in total darkness with a team of 12 miners by my side. We are mining for the rare element trillium which is in high demand in Del Rey Beach and Boca Raton.

After my first coffee I become fully awake. I blink my eyes for a split second and all of a sudden I find myself 80 million more light years out in deep space riding in a silver orange long pontoon on a giant water world called War House 7. It is somewhere in the southern Vega quadrant.

The 5 small red suns fill the pure pastel white sky with bright light. Though the suns are farther away from this planet than our sun is from us here on Earth, collectively they radiate enough energy to keep the planet warm and livable. I am with 2 young men and 2 women speeding along on the vast silver white ocean at about 90 mph. There are no waves. There are millions of swirling surface whirl pools, shallow vortexes that make the trip bumpy and problematic. These circular water anomalies are caused by an intermittent gravitational flux in the core of the planet creating a wobble in the rotational orientation or should we say disorientation in an erratic orbit. The 5 suns also seem to be part of the equation in the stretching of the planet to create these tidal peculiarities.

We are out fishing for the small pink fish called origg. I'm not sure if that is with one “g” or two but they taste delicious so that is all that matters. Once you remove the thin pink scales you find a tender white spongy meat with very few bones. It is similar to salmon or sword fish found on the home world.

I think my travel companions are from the local university, which is in reality a brewery. No one on the planet speaks English. I can not for the life of me figure out why.

I'm still trying to figure out how I woke up this morning in Miami to find myself out here in the first place. It is my understanding that the 80 million light years are a “short 80” not a “long 80.”

In any event they are hard to travel to and from when you only have access to a bike or car and if you are lucky, public transportation in the form of a bus or rail service.

I'm going back to sleep. Maybe I can get back in time to watch the Price Is Right and maybe get it right next time.