Balada : When From My Square Of Window Pane I Draw The Curtain To One Side Page 2

  Grand Scholar and Great War Expert Djanus Todomari

  Imperium Archives

  378th Heavy Fleet Flagship.

  Metternich was on the exterior hull of the ship, gazing at the stars in front of him, he could have done the same from within the safety of the bridge or from within his room, since being in the vacuum of space was a very dangerous place to be.

  Even with the protective energy shield enveloping the outer hull of the sip and him wearing his armor, which was also designed for zero G combat, his safety was not guaranteed.

  They would soon be passing through a radiation belt and a small asteroid field, the belt was not strong enough to breach the energy shield, and the rocks not big enough to damage the metal hull, but they would poses a danger for Metternich and his relatively thin protection.

  But for the Commodore, the risk was worth it. He still had plenty of time to get back inside before they passed through the danger zones and for the wondrous sight before him, any peril was worth it.

  It’s not something you can put into words, but the view of the star filed black sky of the universe, seen on a monitor, can never compare with being in the vacuum of space itself and witnessing it with your own eyes.

  From his perch on what could be considered the top side of the ship, Metternich took in that small fragment of the vast visual wonder of the universe.

  He could see the light of countless stars, that where so old they exploded hundreds of millions of millennia ago, yet continued to shine brightly in the pitch black eternity of space, the endless clouds of nebulas that from this distance, seemed no bigger that a speck of dust, the great planets of the system he was passing, all where shining brightly from the light of their sun, each with their own unique beauty, but every one of them a sight to behold.

  The gas giants, whose immense gravitational pull could shatter any comet or other heavenly body that threatened its smaller brethren, all had moons larger than planets that could sustain life.

  There where celestial bodies, that where so close to the sun that no water exited on them, instead there where rains made out of mercury encasing them and oceans of melted iron, that flowed throughout their surface, keeping company to the pitch red continents and peninsulas.

  The distant bodies of the outer edge planets, who during their countless millennia long orbit, moved so far away from the sun, that their atmospheres would freeze, encasing them in giant shields of ice, giving the impression that some Ancient Titan had been here and created these wondrous sculptures for all mortals to gaze at in wonder.

  And this was just one small speck, of one tiny fragment, of a single flake, that was part the great field of snow that was the great beauty of the galaxy and of the universe. Far beyond this system, he knew that there laid other things of wonder and beauty, to great to have ever been imaging by mere mortals, but where the creation of something grander than themselves.

  He gazed into infinity and although he could not see them directly, he knew that before him lay things like diamonds the size of planets, systems with multiple suns that graced them with eternal protection from the darkness of night.

  Worlds that left their stars and where now wondering the vastness of space, galaxies than seemed to be forever stationary, but where forever moving, some were on a collision course with each other, one’s that took thousands of years for it to begin, millions of years for them to finally meet, and a billion trillion years for the offspring of such a union to be born and live out their lives, until it they too would eventually become cosmic vagabonds and wander infinity, until they would also find their own pairs.

  There where ice planets than burned hotter than any fire, stars that where colder than any winter, gas giants than rained diamonds, vast bodies of spacedust clouds that stretched for light years and tasted like raspberries.

  Oceans that could encompass whole star systems, a cluster of stars and mass so great that the laws of physics’ denied its existence, yet there it had been for countless eons, ever present, ever defiant!

  Beyond that, there where Titanic black holes, that generated massive thunderstorms, which could engulf anything. Somewhere out there was stars bigger than any sun, as a sun is bigger than a grain of sand. There would be a great field of gas and matter, which existed from the very first moment of creation and would no doubt trumpet the final rally, when the twilight of all would come.

  There would be countless bubbles of space and time always being born into existence, growing, expanding, popping, and from their remains new ones would emerge, each one of them was a universe that was new and young one moment and a whisper latter, it would be old and then dying, only to be replaced by the next one.

  Nothing but a passing moment in the infinity of space, but an eternity among eternities for mere mortals!

  And despite all these wonders, the gaze of the young Commodore always shifted back towards the rear of his fleet, where the mighty Volunian host was chasing him.

  A fleet that was at least 15.000 ships strong moved through this system, with a speed many times that of light, and as a result of that, they actually outran their own image. Also, the distance between them where about 20 light hours now, so what Metternich was seeing was almost a full standard day old, and the ships where far long gone from where he saw them, and because of the speed with which they travelled, what he saw was more like a blur or a gigantic silvery-shining fog, rather than the real image of the enemy ships.

  But even if that was not where the enemy really was, he could still appreciate the beauty of it, they where arrayed in what could be considered a tight formation, even though in reality there was at least 5 light minute distance between each ship.

  They where so many and the distance was so great, that it looked like some massive creature, ripped out of heaven, formed entirely out of light was trying to reach him, and despite the danger of either death or worse, Metternich was not despairing over this fact, the prospect of death maybe, but not that of its size or of its beauty.

  The vastness of space, the greatness of the universe, the sheer difference in size between the enemy and the infinity of stars surrounding him, all reminded the commodore of his own pettiness and insignificance when compared to that of even the smallest of solar flares, the most demure of heavenly bodies, and the shortest bursts of twinkling starlight.

  So, he laid there on his back, arms outstretched, eyes ever wandering across the heavens, his mind basking in its glory and his souls finding a strange comfort, in knowing just how small and insignificant he was.

  “When I dream of the stars, do they dream of me……………….of anything?”

  “Are dreams truly real, is reality a dream? Sometimes I wonder if anything I dream could be real somewhere out there, in this infinity, or if infinity can ever comprehend the dream?” he thought as he reached with his hand upwards, towards the mass of white ships, the light of countless stars and the dark infinity before him, not in any attempt to grasp anyone of them, but rather just to check if it was real, if anything truly was.

  “Dreams, reality, which one is the other and if you could know, would really want to? After all, does it really matter?”

  “Sir, I suggest you come back inside, we will be passing through the radiation belt soon.” the voice of Butz was heard trough the comm crystals in Metternich’s helmet and he reluctantly complied.

  “I suppose it doesn’t really matter which is which, in the end they always end up as nightmares.”