Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 33

The orb of travel again penetrated the mountain, descending through the depths of darkness. Occasionally the wall sparked. Passing through the wall was nothing, it was mostly empty space- but that didn’t mean one electron might be close enough in phase to hit the force field. One could shoot an entire solar system through a galaxy and it not hit another star. Galaxy collided all the time, passing through each other, without star or planet collisions. With the right tech, passing through ‘solid’ earth was as easy as going through clouds. They broke out into the cavern; the size of it was unbelievable. There was light. There was a sea. There was land and plants and animals. There was sea life. The light came from the leaves of trees. The trees were upside down, growing down from the ceiling. They were Sleeper Trees! Root systems had penetrated the depths and populated the ceiling and was a mirror image of what was above. Smaller. The upside down trees were scaled down compared to what grew on the surface.

The most impressive artifact, clearly of intelligent design, was the open temple on the beach, made of marble. The pillars that held the roof were caryatids, in a variety of yoga poses. One held the roof with her head. One female’s knees supported the roof; Scorpion pose. Another with two hands. Another stood on her hands and her feet held the roof. The women were different sizes. One female on hands and knees, back arched in angry cat posture; the curve of her back contacted the ceiling. Directly opposite of her was a female whose stomach arched up to support the ceiling, and one could pass through the arch she made between arms and legs. Her hair drawing also touched the floor. It was if the entire structure had been a solid block and this was what remained after the non-essential had been removed. Girl on the North wall was large, downward dog pose. Coming up the East stairs, one was met by a giantess in the Firefly pose. Her eyes seemed to meet any who approached to pass under her. Cleavage was unbearably impressive. One of the ladies holding the perimeter had her left foot on the roof and the other on the floor, and her femininity exposed. All poses were naturally erotic, but that wasn’t the intent. The intent was to reveal form, strength, flexibility, ideal attributes of love, focus, serenity… Every lingering gaze brought your heart to a new attribute. The flow of the entirety of it brought people into the temple, around the room, spiraling in, and finally to the inner purpose of the temple- travel via gates.

The inner temple held two caryatids, on the east and west sides of the temple. Shen recognized them as portals, moon gates. They connected roof and floor; the female herself was the portal. East side held the one-Legged Wheel Pose, or the Eka pada Chakrasana, a foot touching the roof, other foot on the floor, hands on the floor, head above the floor, hair dangling to the floor. The west portal was a female in the King Pigeon Pose, or Kapotasana, and someone passing though literally walked over enfolded legs and hands, her head touching floor, while her stomach contacted the ceiling.

Stairs were on all four sides. Stairs leading up, with two females at the base of each stairs taking on in Vajrasana pose greeting those who climbed. At the top of the stairs, two sat in the same pose, facing in. Mid way stairs, on either stairs, facing each other, females in the Floating Pretzel, hands in Namaste. Shen felt as if he had seen this before. Shen wanted to leave, feeling overwhelmed by the desire of sex. He wanted to be alone in this temple to explore and touch all the females, all the forms.

His aching didn’t go unnoticed, and TL comforted him. “I, too, am wanting. This is the nature of art and form. It calls us. You are normal.”

“Thank you,” Shen said, tearfully.

“The air is breathable,” TL said. “I would like to land us on the shore.”

“Yeah, okay,” Shen agreed.

TL landed them. The bubble popped off and his feet touched ground. TL manifested herself. She inhaled, twirled and laughed. Humming birds came at her, hovered. She held out her hand and one landed on her finger. “This is the most amazing place I have ever seen.” Her new friend departed back to the trees.

“Yeah,” Shen said.

Pygora type goats were free ranging. Some approached him, unafraid. TL petted one, laughing.

“Hello, Travelers.”

Shen turned to someone behind him. TL was suddenly behind him, clearly assessing threat. For TL to have missed her, she would have had to appear suddenly, like an apparition. Shen held the Torch aimed at the ground. It was pose that suggested weapon, but no threat. Passive warrior.

“She’s real,” TL said- VR stats were now available in his vision. Heartbeat. Respiration. Cell count became available. Human, female. He could spin a virtual model of her and assess her, or see her organs, and even follow a single blood cell round the circulatory system. DNA was human enough. The deviations could be attributed to local adaptation.

“I will not harm you, if you will not harm me,” she said. She brought her hands up to this space. “All of this is me.”

“Matsu?” TL asked.

The Chinese Goddess of the ocean bowed. “I have many names, but I most resonate with this idea you hold.”

“Telepathic,” Shen said.

“With you. I hear TL through you. Her voices resonates on the leaves and I hear all,” Matsu said. “I am one with the Tree of Life.”

“Sleeper Tree?” Shen asked.

“It is not the trees who are asleep, dearest child,” Matsu said. She rose from the earth and resettled. There were foot prints in the sand. “Most people come and go via the gates. You did not. You hold High Tech.”

“I do,” Shen said.

Matsu looked up to the trees, her hands floated up. She smiled up, bowed, coming to one knee. “Ah, it is you. I should have known. I am honored to see your first light, but it not time for us. You are always welcome in this place. Be at peace, travelers.”

Matsu faded away.

“Okay, that’s spooky,” Shen said. “A ghost? A hologram?”

“Tree tulpa!” TL said, shoving him. “Like Alish!”

“That conversation was semi coherent,” Shen said. “My experience with tree ghosts here has not been that lucid.”

TL shrugged. “Maybe you’re coming into focus.”

“Shazam,” Shen chuckled. Shen came to the edge of the water. “Matsu? Come back, please. I have questions.”

Laughter echoed over the water. Shen looked to TL. TL shrugged. “When the Master is ready, the student will come.”

“I thought it was when the student was ready,” Shen said.

“Both are equally true,” TL said.

Goats laughed and play. Kids were seriously human like in play, and their voices were hauntingly human. There was a gathering of stones, and wood planks across and they climbed and jumped, and fell, and pushed each other. Interestingly, they did not climb the stone temple.

“Goat milk might be nice,” Shen said. “Goat and rice and curry sounds really nice.”

“You’re going to kill a goat?” TL asked.

“Fuck no,” Shen said. “Might take some milk, but seriously, now that I have my suit replicator and can do small parlor tricks of magic, I am not going to kill for food again.”

“Pulling carrots out of an empty bag is not a parlor trick,” TL said.

“Yeah, but it’s not big. When I pull a Chicago Pizza out of my bag on demand, I will have arrived,” Shen said.

“That’s your measure?” TL asked.

“I love pizza,” Shen said.

Shen climbed the stairs. The two caryatids at the base were normal size humans. They were so spookily real that he thought they might come to life. In his mind he saw them jumping at him just to scare him. The hair on his arms stood.

“White marble,” TL said.

“The fabric looks like fabric. The hint of human flesh under it is so tantalizing real,” Shen said.

“Better than ‘Undine Rising from the fountain,’ by Chauncey,” TL said.

“Captain Undine? Admiral Garcia’s wife?” Shen asked.

TL laughed. “Undine is a water nymph,” she said.

“I wish I could do this,” Shen said.

“You wish you could create this, or you wish you could fuck this?” TL asked.

“Both,” Shen admitted, reaching out to touch the guardian of the step. He paused. “May I touch you?”