Day 2

Darkness. Pure, blinding darkness.

The boat entered what seemed to be a dark storm cloud, and never came out. It just seemed to drift smoothly towards a horizon of infinite blackness and silence, with the exception of that one little bout of turbulence. By this point I knew where I was going, so I knew what to expect. I just had to wait until I arrived.

"We have been expecting you."

A familiar voice spoke in the darkness. I did not even know that my boat had stopped.

"It's dark in here," I stated the obvious.

"I guess that's why you're here."

"Why am I here?"

The voice hesitated for a while. "I guess you can...um...shed some light on what's been happening around here."

"But...how?"

A little rumble could be heard in the distance. The ground underneath me shook slightly.

"Does this happen often?"

"Much less than before, but it's good that someone's here to have a look."

My conversation was interrupted.

"Step - out - of - the - boat."

I gingerly felt my way out of my little vessel. The floor started to glow ever so slightly with a cyan hue when my foot touched it. The floor was cold, glass-like. Before I could take another step the ground shook violently with a loud clapping sound, like thunder, or like a car crash. I fell to the cold hard floor.

"Are you hurt?" It seemed to come from another voice.

"A little, but I'll recover. We should get moving quickly before the next wave comes."

"That will not be possible. Don't hurry, Little Ming. Haste makes waste. The road to where we must go is long, you must be patient as we make our way up."

Those words stung harder than they probably should have. The words I spoke but a day earlier continued to haunt me.

"What if I never come back? What if I get lost out there?"

I guess I'll be out here a little longer than I expected. We set off, the voices leading the way. A warm balmy breeze brought much needed comfort, but the stillness of the air that followed only became more pronounced. This place is stark.

"We're moving towards a place with very high signal density, you should prepare for some interference on your receiver. You may pick up some stray signals, or worse, you may expose yourself to malignant communications. In other words, from this point forward, don't assume everything that passes through your receiver is from Hugh."

The voice paused again.

"You know where you're going, don't you?"

"Where am I going?"

"To save the universe. To make it right again."

Another voice spoke out. "You know you won't make it back, right?"

Yet another raised his voice. "You don't know that!"

The cacophony of voices was starting to confuse me. I guess I'll figure out who is who and who I can trust in due time.


Keep on keeping on, Little Ming.