Tuesday 4 October 2022

Shrunken Universe


The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER EIGHT.

Outside the light battleship Zeta Sagittaria:

old stars enclosing everything in radiance;
Milky Way glowing phantom-bright;
nebulae and galaxies glimmering mysteriously;
hurtling ships, dancing gracefully.

What Ensign Kittredge sees, hears, smells and feels within the battleship:

steel;
meters;
readouts;
manual controls;
commands;
reeking ozone;
shuddering hull.

And there she dies. The contrast is complete between the boundless universe and the narrow confines of human conflict.

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