PART 5

By the time Danny and Belinda arrived, Jackie was still gabbing with Theresa.
    "Well, gotta get going. Give Chris my love."
    "Will do. 'Bye."
    "Hey mates!" greeted Jackie with gusto.
    "Hello Jackie." responded Danny automatically, still in a daze. Belinda, who was a close friend of Ed Colby, said nothing.
    "So the device has been completely destroyed?" asked Danny.
    "No. Ivan managed to put it back together again, but we can't seem to get the damn thing to work."
    "By the way, were is Ivan?" queried Belinda.
    "Huh?" Jackie, who had been so wrapped up in his conversation with his girlfriend, hadn't realized that Ivan had left.
    "Why that little... I bet he's gone off to consult his holiness."
    Both Danny and Belinda were incensed by Jackie's spitefulremark.
    "And just what is that supposed to mean!" snapped Belinda, knowing perfectly well what he meant.
    At that moment, Carolyn entered the room.
    "Nevermind." cowed Jackie, not wanting the stormy Irishwoman to get involved.
    "Well, I know that everything's all set with the lasers. I'll be able to test my modifications in a couple of days. According to my calculations, it ought to increase their accuracy by 60%." Carolyn stated matter-of-factly.
    "Good. Let's hope we don't have to use them too much." Jackie was obviously looking forward to using them, which made Danny wonder just how Ed Colby had died. He found himself wishing it was an accident, but according to his people, the Yolngu tribe of northern Australia, no-one's death was ever accidental.
    Belinda knew what Danny was thinking, and was already quite certain that Jackie had broken his vow of non-violence.

In the room referred to by several crewmembers as the rectory, Ivan sat in front of a desk identical to Indrani's. Unlike Indrani's plain white office, however, this one was painted a soft blue with wood-toned trim. A large collection of books was set upon the built-in shelves, the subjects ranging from medieval Arabian theology to UFO's. On the walls were several religious objects, one of which was an ornately decorated Orthodox cross.
    Behind the desk sat Dmitri Nebosin, the 33-year-old crew-appointed religious advisor. His fine brown hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, with bangs brushed off to the side. He sported a neatly trimmed goatee which only added to his mystical aura. He was a bit taller than Ivan, and though he wasn't overweight, his thick bone structure gave him a bit of substance.
    "And so that's the situation. I thought you ought to know before tonight's meeting.
    "Dmitri?" Ivan noticed that Dmitri's troubled dark blue eyes were focused on the holographic cube on his desk.
    The cube contained a image of 3 young people bundled up against the cold, standing in front of the Peter-Paul Cathedral in Sankt Petersburg, Russia. One of the people in the picture was himself when he was 21, the other two were his best friends -- one a young woman with black curly hair, and the other a young man with straight blonde hair. They all looked quite happy at the time.
    Dmitri longed to be in that moment again. Especially in the fleeting months that followed -- immersed in the quietude of loving her. To be in any moment in time before that accursed day in January -- the day everything changed in him forever.
    Ivan watched him forlornly, not knowing what to say to his friend.
Dmitri broke the uncomfortable silence by murmuring, "Another death. I wonder how many more lives this damn mission will cost us," while he continued to stare at the cube.
    Ivan, even more ill at ease, stood up. "Well, I've got to get back to the others. I'll see you later."
    "Uh-huh."

Outside Dmitri's office, Ivan walked away looking very distraught.
    'Great. That's all we need now, on top of everything else. I don't think he realizes how much he holds us together, and now he's lost again. Maybe this time for good."
    Back inside the room, Dmitri considered the news and found it a bit ironic. Allowing Jackie come along on the journey had been a bad idea, but letting himself be put in the position he was in wasn't too good of an idea either. After all, he was no theologian -- just a simple stargazer who got a little too wrapped up in parapsychology and cosmology.
    Then there were the dreams. He could never escape that fact. Sometimes with the dreams, everything almost made sense -- a cosmic John the Baptist leading his followers through the wilderness of deep space. Even the Kosmos Doctrine, something he had spun together as a common thread between them, seemed like a good idea at times -- a sense of spiritual unity amidst the desolation of deep space.
    But lately, Dmitri has found himself filled with self-doubts, wondering if the vision that has taken them this far was nothing but a cruel joke.
Not finding the answers in the present, Dmitri retreated into the past, but has so far found nothing but isolation as black and lifeless as the gulf they are traversing.
    The thread that is holding the 'transplants' together is slowly fraying and their destination is very far away indeed.

"You cannot be lost unless you have a destination."

- J. Green, 26 June, 1992

Let me know what you think.

[Return to what? homepage]