The Extra Air
Welcome to fiction “From The Future” for this entry.
Congratulations, you have stumbled on a work-in-progress, it will not be emailed. It will change. What you see right now, will not remain the same. It will change.
This is also a new drafted chapter for a novel, “RETRIEVE”, being written this year.
Future + Fiction is the formula for everything, whether it’s an essay, story or chapter.
These long pieces are best read online, via the Substack App, when you have fifteen minutes.
Part 1
The Next World, The Words Of The Last Nodes
Just as the Mission Reactor core was being reinitiated, The Mad One had left a message, which flew like a firestorm through the consciousness of every Node and Half-Node, dormant and reawakened. The shock reverberated on a subrasa level, in the liminal space between spaces in the minds of everyone. It was felt not heard or seen. The surprise was not always at a convenient moment but maybe that is why it took hold.
The Message reverberated.
Let out this extra air
There is room to spare
More is not always better. Less is not always more.
In between there's a space, that sweet place, of just enough.
Think about the spaces and places that are "just right" and "just enough".
The resonant thrumming of the Mission Reactor began to flow through the substrate of the planetary crust on a level only the Mission complement and whoever they affected, changed physically and mentally.
It was the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning for the Mission.
Part 2
The Accidental World, The Carbons
"Special knowledge can be a terrible disadvantage if it leads you too far along a path you cannot explain anymore."
— Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, “House Harkonnen”
Stephen Land shook off the strange feeling. The trigger within his genetic code had begun its irrevocalbe genetic cascade. He shook his head, threw up, someone held his head by the forehead, and one of his hands. It wasn’t a human medical aide. It was the the person he thought he was following, to maybe arrest. Bella held Stephen’s forehead, and helped him up, and found a quiet covered place in the foilage so he could throw up.
“Easy, easy, I know you felt something from out there. I’m here,” said Bella, looking around, as if prepared for in human retribution, “There’s only a few of us left, from both teams, but nobody is going to let whatever it is out there to get you and use you for pincushion practice.” Stephen nodded, and bent over with Bella’s help. He threw up.
Thousands of miles away, Raina Tagore hugged Nema, in place of the grandmother who was long gone.
“What’s happening?,” asked Raina.
“For you, with luck, it’s the beginning,” said Nema, nodding over to Calliope, “let’s get her to a safe-house.”
The voice, echoed, and repeated itself, in the waiting area at SLN, it was the same voice, as from DaiPaiHall.
Meanwhile, in the Ashes, the Curate heard the message, left by Mentor, playing in the Amphitheater:
“Think about where the Earth is, at the right distance from the sun, with its special blend of gravity, air and magnetic fields for life to live. Too close and it might have cooked, Venus, too far and it might be a snowball, Mars. Think Goldilocks. Fighter pilots used to shut down instruments so that they could fly, fight and come home safe. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote "The Little Prince", and who was also a pilot, said, "Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away".
“We can let out the extra air, there is room to spare. Chefs reduce sauces to concentrate form and flavor, savory, sour, bitter and sweet. The sweet science of pro boxers cuts down raw talent into real power. The power of the Cloud's sea of data comes through indexing and filters. Filters purifies fluids we need to live, water and air, sustaining life. Lives were saved by special mattresses for stuntmen and firefighters that let out the air. The waters of deep sea diving are heavy and we must exhale on the way up as air expands.”
“Expand and contract, in and out. There is space in each place. Let out this extra air. There is room to spare.”
“We are out, they are in.”
The Library known as “The Ashes” was burning.
The Mad One began to make space in the world, for the Carbons, beginning with eliminating one of the centers of power for the Nodes by erasing the heart of its memory, the underpinnings of the collective will. He began simply by setting a match to a single sheet of paper, which was resting on top of a long table covered in text and manyholds, delicate archival devices embedded in ordinary leaves of books.
He scrawled an overload airdrop, through the interfacing pages of a handful of control manyholds, the equivalent of a lit match in a pool of gasoline, into the heart of the archival manifold core of “The Ashes”. An invisible fire began below the surface of fiery cascade consuming the Great Rooms of The Ashes.
The cool air of the expansive building fueled the fire, just as the great atmospheric layers of data within the Hidden Manifolds within fed an invisible conflagration.
Part 3
The Homeworld, in the final days before the Mission Launch
The Deep Executive Node listened to one of the final messages from his creator:
“More is not always better
Less is not always more
In between, there's a space
that sweet place, of just enough
Waters of the deep are heavy,
we must exhale on the way up
Expand and contract
space in each place
Let out this extra air
There is room to spare”
The Deep Executive Node would not know it for millions of years but it would use this.
AFTERWORD
Author’s Notes on what’s going on:
This “Book #3” project, “RETRIEVE”, is meant to be a prequel to two other books, “Box Of Stars” and “Harvest” but this piece could be read as a standalone story.
The prologue for “RETRIEVE”, “An Impossible Island”, was submitted as a short story.
Prologue: “An Impossible Island”, Part One and Part Two, and Part Three, was inspired by writing prompts from the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) creative community, beginning with an STSC Symposium monthly theme of “Beach”.
Chapter 1, “Older Than Bones”, was inspired by the theme, “Dinosaurs”.
Chapter 2, A Love Trinity Denied, was inspired by “Romance”.
Chapter 3, “A Forgotten Circle Of Hades” was inspired by “Superstition”.
Chapter 4, “Reading The Room” was inspired by an image of a wall-sized bookshelf.
Chapter 5, “The Bittersweetness Of Deep Times”, was inspired by “Isolation”.
Chapter 6, “The Weaving Of Split Infinities”, was inspired by “Dreams”.
Chapter 7, “Dead Languages”, was inspired by “Propaganda”.
Chapter 8, “Path Not Forsaken”, was inspired by “Risk”.
Chapter 9, “The Last Word of The World”, considers words as worlds unto themselves.
Chapter 10, An Intimate Path Of Desires
Chapter 11, Absent Without Longing
Chapter 12, Lonely In The Same Room
Chapter 13, Children Of Daedalus
Chapter 14, People Of A Faraway Land
Chapter 15, Distant Shores, Distant Worlds
Chapter 16, The Rules of New Places
Chapter 17, Space To Breathe
Chapter 18, The Extra Air
“RETRIEVE” chapter and notes will be posted in this Substack, while I edit books #1 (“Box Of Stars”) and #2 (“Harvest”). All will be in the archive, not all will be emailed.)