The Beaded Tapestry

Black, utterly lightless! The form floating above in the night sky returns no reflection or glow to announce it existence. The extended feathery appendixes appear blacker than the space surrounding it, totally devoid of enlightenment. This is impossible, but cannot be denied as the evidence is there before the eye. The form seems to absorb all the darkness around it, creating the illusion that the void contains an inner glow, but this is not reality. The apparition slowly draws nearer, increasing its darkness until it blocks the entire sky. The outstretched limbs slowly fold to encircle the solitary form watching from the planet below, encircling her with ebony arm and blocking out the night. Everything else ceases to exist.

A bright light forces its way into the eye of Annalis and she reflectively tries to knock it away. Something resists her movement and she realizes her body is restrained. Gentle hands clasp her straining arm and a soft voice speaks, breaking the silence. “Please be calm miss. We are just checking your pupil response.” The light is removed and Annalis blinks moisture away as she is allowed to close her lids. She is lying in a recovery cubicle, encircled by all types of medical monitoring equipment. “Where am I?’ She croaks, using vocal cords long out of use. A woman dressed in the green fatigues of a space medic, moves into Annalis’s line of sight. She still holds the offending eye exam device in her hand as she gives Annalis an appraising look. “Please give yourself time to adjust Annalis. You have been out of commission for quite some time.” She says, reaching out a comforting hand to give a reassuring pat to Annalisa’s hand before releasing the restraints from her arms and waist. “You did not handle the stasis very well.” She continues. “This is sometimes the case with recent recipients of regenerated limbs. You were placed in a medical comma after your revival from the initial stage of your journey to speed up your recovery.” The woman explained as she moved to check on the various monitors. “Luckily this was a successful choice and you have retained full functionality of your body. How is your arm now? Do you have full mobility and sensory function?” Annalis looked down at her left arm and saw that it was wrapped in protective webbing. She tentatively lifted it from the bed, as it felt like it did not belong to her. Tiny pricks of pain traveled from her shoulder to her finger tips as blood rush back to her arm causing her to gasp in discomfort. She saw the look of relief on the medics face since the response from Annalis assured her that the arm was indeed sending signals to Annalis’s sensory system. “I can feel it, but obviously there is some pain and an irritating tingling.” The woman reached out to check the pulse in her wards wrist. “That is reassuring. We only discovered late yesterday where the blockage was. Sometimes the stasis process caused this type of circulatory problem in newly grown appendices. If not controlled it could possibly have led to an embolism and even your death is we had not kept you immobile during the diagnosis and treatment.”

Now that her vision was completely restored, Annalis could have a good look around her surroundings. “This does not look like the stasis unit I was placed in before the Gambol jump to New London.” She murmured, voicing her confusion out loud. “No, you were moved from the Infinity three months ago.” The woman answered, giving Annalis a look of sympathy. “The space liner needed to continue the approach to New London, so before the shuttle window closed it was decided to move you for the continuation of your treatment and recovery. There are no advanced medical facilities on the Infinity to handle your prolonged adaptation problems and by the time they would reach New London it might have been too late to help you.” As she relayed this alarming news she made her way to the far wall of the medical facility and worked some controls located on the wall just outside of Annalis’s view. “Then where am I?” Annalis asked again as she strained her prone form to see what the woman was doing. The medic stepped back from the wall as a large panel began to slide to the right revealing an observation window covering the entire side of the bay. Annalis stared out at the view in amazement. There floating in an ebony sea, displaying all its glorious brilliance was the object of her obsession. “The Anomaly,” whispered Annalis, as she began to breathe again. “Welcome to the Phycodurus 8 professor.” The woman exclaimed as she moved back to the side of her patience bed to remove the remaining monitors attached to Annalis’s head and chest. Annalis stared out at the sight she had waited all her life to see with a mixture of amazement and confusion. ‘But what had happened to the other ship and the dark entity that haunted her over the past months?’ Annalis asked herself. “What about my kidnapping and the months aboard the industrial transport?” She asked out loud, deciding these were less alarming questions. “You were transferred directly here from the Infinity.” The medic answered with a look of concern. “The only other transport you have been on was the shuttle between.”

The joy kindled by the view of the Anomaly outside faded as Annalis’s distress increased. “What was going on?” she voiced shaking her head in disbelief. Was this reality or was she still aboard the freighter circling the dead satellite? Was this a new tactic being used by her kidnappers? She closed her eyes on the amazing vision of the Anomaly, concentrating on what she knew would be present so close to her research subject. Blocking out the concerned questions being voiced from her attendant, Annalis began the meditating mantra taught to her by her sister, slowing her breath and bringing her thoughts under control. As her panic calmed, she realized how easy it was. The ease of her ability to bring about this state convinced her that she was indeed in close proximity to the Anomaly. Still the uncertainty lingered. How could she know what was real and what might be the final step into insanity? Pulling herself back into the present, she opened her eyes to the concerned face of the medic who was still trying to get a response to her questions.

Annalis open her mouth to try and give an explanation to the woman when over the attendants left shoulder she saw two people enter the bay. Immediately she closed her mouth on the works and turned away, hiding her recognition. These were her kidnappers! Her confusion increased, but her doubts of her sanity were gone. Someone was manipulating her thoughts. She just needed now to figure out exactly where she was and the purpose of this manipulation. Whether she was on a ship around an unknown satellite or aboard the Phycodurus 8 was not clear, but one thing was. She was in close proximity to the Anomaly and it was helping her against her enemies.

Looking again at the creature floating outside, she knew where to find her answers.

Took a short trip back into prehistoric times to visit the hunebedden ( giant beds) built by the funnel beaker culture. Amazing sight in the north of the Netherlands. There are 52 in this area.

There, in the corner! A shadow traverses the wall. It looks like a puff of smoke, gray and vague. There are emanations of a certain watchfulness and curiosity. It is the first time I have not felt alone during my captivity. The shadow’s appearance is alarming but also comforting. A feeling of companionship washes over me and I sit back on my bunk taking up my reading material once more, reassuring the embryotic specter with my description of the anatomy of dragons. As I read the words, a transformation takes place within the darkling form. Violet lights appear, flashing on and off to the rhythm of my words, echoing the cadence of my reading back to me in color. I cannot describe what I see or compare it to any known entity I have ever encountered. Not even the strange sea creatures inhabiting the deepest oceans of Earth are a match to the uniqueness of this vison. I only call it a violet shadow for lack of any other description.

Dear Victoria,

First I must apologize for my rant in the previous conversation. I had temporarily lost the struggle to remain grounded and I fear my letter to you was the result of that temporary lack of control. I will try my best to remain stable for our brief correspondence since this must send alarms back to you.

I began this letter with a short excerpt from my daily musings. Please be assured I am perfectly sane and lucid, although my words may not seem so. I wanted to give you an idea of how the presence has manifested itself to me. I realize it is hard for you to imagine what is occurring with me, but I know this is real. There is still the question of my ability to grasp reality to answer, but I have described to you exactly what I am experiencing. Whether it is in my mind or an actual encounter, I cannot determine, but as I said in my journal entry, I am finding a strange comfort from it. I have even learned to enjoy our reading sessions: taking pleasure from the response to certain passages of my favorites stories and gauging the emotions emanating from my visitor; like sharing a story with a child for the first time, imitating the voices of the different characters in the story and receiving the delight from my audience when an exceptional occurrence is related in the tale.

For one thing, it has helped pass the long hours alone in my quarters, but it also has set me mind on the correct track of my study of our research subject. We have always thought it was a unique manifestation. Whether sentient or not, this debate must remain open until our research has progressed, but is it a singular manifestation? Might there be others?

This strange apparition that visits me on occasion seems familiar. Like an echo of the music I heard during my episode in New Zeeland, and the other in the wilderness of Northern Scotland. Even the unidentified signals I received from the dark mater detector. What is signaling from that location of space? I know, I know!! I can hear your arguments in my head even as I write these words. Father is also there speaking of my focus on the current project and my obligations to the Louvre. But I am stuck here in this unknown location without any hope of furthering my work for the Louvre, so I will work with what has been given to me.

There has never been any report of this type of contact with the Anomaly from the Earth sources. I remember vaguely some mention of this in a colonial report from New London during the first decades of occupation. I believe it was mixed in with an agricultural report, but I have scoured by database and cannot locate this incident. I can still remember something of the report. It was from a second generation native and they were discussing their relationship with the apparition that shared their solar system. We both questioned if this was some type of new spiritual uprising among the native as so often happens during the difficult years of a new civilization, but we thought this doubtful since the report came from the scientific community. If I remember correctly there was mention of visions and premonitions. These we did dismiss as part of the rituals always prevalent among new spiritual practices since these were only discussion recorded with one of the agriculturalists crew. I see now we should have delved deeper into these reports. If indeed there is a psychic connection between the exposed inhabitant and the Anomaly, are you also experiencing the same as I? Is it not only the emotional and creative influence that is shared by the Anomaly?

Why all of the sudden is it making its presence known to me? And why me? I keep asking myself these questions. I cannot answer them, but the feeling, impression, or whatever this is that I am receiving from the visitation is somehow related to the Anomaly. It is darker and more embryonic to be certain, but similar none the less. I so wish more than ever that I could consult with you. I fear I may be drifting further into this delusion just to maintain my overall sanity during this tedious situation. Alas! You are not here to reassure or condemn my ideas. The fact that this entity has totally different aspects encourages me to believe its manifestation is real and not a figment of my insanity. What if it is an echo of the Anomalies energy across space? Does that mean I am near or actually in the Alpha Centauri system? How I wish I had another view of the space outside other than the satellite below. We did discuss the possibility of an energy echo during the first days of our study after we found that report.

Ahhh!! Not having you here as a sounding board is becoming more and more frustrating as I write. I will stop for now and dip into our past records again. That agricultural record must be somewhere in there. Maybe then I can review it and answer a few of my own questions.

Love in Spirit

Annalis

Dark branches fan out above her head, creating patterns to encircle the stars above. The tree creates a tapestry of spirals and stars, mimicking natures Fibonacci sequence. The vision covers her immediate line of site as she lies upon the grass, welcoming the night. A light breeze caresses her face, bringing the scent of burning embers to haunt her with memories of Earth. A blink of the eye brings her back to reality, realizing she is only gazing at a sensory program displayed on the screen embedded in the ceiling of her cubicle. A sign of resignation escapes her as she turns from the vision and returns her gaze to the white walls of her cell. For this is the prison she knows, with no escape.

Dear sister,

Another seven day cycle has passed in this place and I have tried to fill the empty hours by starting a narrative of my daily thoughts. It seems to help with the odd feelings I have been experiencing and also to ground myself in the here and now, no matter how tedious that is. If my circumstances do not change, I will include excerpts from this meditation at the beginning of my conversation with you to indicate where my state of mind is at the moment. It may only be random thoughts or meditative insights, but I might be able to push myself into some meaningful study by doing this exercise. It also seems to keep the strange presence at bay, allowing me once in a while to record some independent thought on the nature of the Anomaly. Even delving into our research subject within my own thoughts seems to call the odd presence to the foreground. This muddles my chain of deduction until I have lose the original starting point completely. I am hoping if I start my process with a short narrative about what I am thinking and what I want to accomplish, then the progress follows a more logical path without the added interference from the unknown source. I also found a way to continue my leisure reading using a similar method. I found if I give a short response to the inquiry, it seems to satisfy the questioner to the point where I can continue the story. This seems like I am giving into the madness, but it is working. I also found if I remain calm, no matter what is happening in the story, this seems also to reflect on the response of the invading personality.

I have seen little of my captors in the last period and the interrogations have not continued.  This is a welcome absence since the questioning created the greatest disturbance to the presence I feel.  It was impossible to stay calm during these sessions, so the reaction from my mental guest was reciprocated. When or if the inquisitions recommence, I will try and use some of the meditative methods you taught me to keep my emotions at bay.  An added benefit to this will be the aggravations that it is bound to cause my captors. 

I have done some troubleshooting on my wrist activation tattoo, so I can now access the music in my files. This repair has allowed me to continue my daily meditation mantra that is embedded in the program cube. It was only linked to my activation tattoo, so up to now I was not able to access it. It is amazing how much more effective this internal signal source is when sent directly into by brains sensory system. Since my captors are supplying me with visual entertainment not of my choosing during my forced stay here, I can at lease supply my own sound track. The sound and music included with the onboard programs are not to my taste and the quality is also poor, so it was ideal that you taught me enough about embedded application to repair my own internal system. It only required a hard reset of the embedded tattoo on my wrist and a reconnection to the external wrist unit, but I would never have known the correct order of this sequence without your knowledge. It is now working perfectly! I only wish the rest of my life was working as well. I so wish I could utilize my running program. It can be assured there are no exercise facilities on this industrial monstrosity. This unchanging daily routine will be the death of my ambition and sanity.

At times my brain actually welcomes the thought of a disastrous occurrence, just to break up the tedium.  I do not welcome the chance of crashing head on into the satellite spinning below, but at least that would be something new.

I could say I will write to you when something exciting happens, but the chance of that seems to be negligible.

Love always,

Annalis

New project in the works. Only black and white. Want to direct the focus on the center bead when it is done.

Dear Victoria,

How I miss the ability to scribe you a letter using pen and paper. My wrist unit is a practical alternative, but I miss the feel of ink sliding across paper, embedding forever thoughts onto white paper. I will acquire dozens of blank books upon my return to civilization and never correspond with you again by electronic means. Oh course this means you will have to wait until I send you my physical musings to hear from me, but I feel the emotions are lost when using only ones and zeros to converse.

There is little for me to do in the ling lonely days I spend in my small quarters aboard the mysterious industrial transport. After spending a few hours in the bare interrogation room, I was finally moved here and here I have remained. A small portal gives me a view of the satellite I first spied on my trip to the control room, so I can deduce that we have moved into an orbit around this body. The vibrations of the ship have also altered to indicate we are in a holding pattern around something. I can see nothing more of the surrounding system since my window into the outer world always faces in the direction of the moon and never alters. For now it seems to be some type of natural satellite with nothing on the surface, but the scars of encounters from space. I have seen no lights or signs of occupancy from my perspective and the space around us are free of any other traffic. I know there is a solar body in proximity for I can see the reflected light off one hemisphere of the moon, but the orb fills the entire range of my site and I can see nothing beyond it. During the infrequent visits of my two fellow travelers, I have gained no more information. They take turns bringing my meals and asking me questions, but nothing can I gleam from them. Not even their names or the nature of the ship we are traveling on: only the constant bombardment of questions about the Anomaly and the nature of our project for the Louvre. I only wish I could deduce what objective these people have and what has become of the secret charges I was given for safe keeping. I hesitate to mention the strange creatures since in all their questions the man and woman have not mentioned them: only the hints about a second purpose for my trip to the Alpha Centauri system. Hopefully the sleeping creatures have remained aboard the Infinity and can be taken charge of by the members of Simona’s team once they arrive in New London. Unfortunately that will mean that my part in their exposure to the Anomaly aboard the space station Phycodurus 8 have to be postponed, but at least they will arrive intact on the planet surface. As I have heard nothing and seen no sign of their containment units in the original area I woke up in, I hope this to be true. It gives me some hope that at least a part of the plan will come to pass. At the least I know that decades have not pasted as I slept. The woman who came to retrieve me seemed of the same age as when I encountered her on the Infinity. She also seemed relaxed in the environment of the ship and the use of the electronics in the control room. The glimpse I caught on my way through of the units did not put them out of context with the equipment I am familiar with.

One bright point has surfaced in the last few days of my solitude. Embedded in the memory of my wrist unit I found the majority of my notes and findings over the last year of my research. It seems they survived whatever trauma I have experienced along with several hundred books from my library downloaded into the external control unit. These later items I thought would keep me company on the long quiet evenings aboard the space station, but now I find them more useful than ever. I had encrypted my research along with the digital dialog between us before I was placed into stasis for the Gambol leg of my trip, just as a precaution, but I left the entertainment portion untouched. This was fortunate as one of the first things the man did during the first interrogation, was to confiscate my external wrist unit for several hours. When he returned I could see the disappointment on his face as he handed it back. He had no idea of the embedded unit in my regenerated arm. I think he believed it was only an entertainment module because, of course, all he could find were the books I had included and several hundred gigabytes of music. He did not detect the communication program that connects my embedded unit with the external controls. Thank goodness for your encryption process. I do not know of anyone who could break that.

So now I can enjoy my evening’s entertainment in a situation I never imagined I would be in: stuck in space with nothing to research but the barren surface of a moon.  If only the ship would rotate once in a while.  I am dying to see what is in the other direction and where exactly I am.  It might be the case then that they would move me to other quarters without even a portal.

I will keep a record of whatever is to come. Unfortunately I have nothing much to relay to you , but it will help keep my sanity. Maybe it is time to return to Middle Earth. That always helps me pass the time and gives my hope rejuvenation.

Love Annalis

Dear sister,

At least some answers after long hours of complete confusion.  I cannot determine how long I lingered in the limbo of timelessness before the main doors of the medical hold finally parted and I was joined by another coherent being.  I immediately recognized the woman who had so disturbed my first days aboard the Infinity.  This same person entered through the now open doors and made her way to where I sat in the break area having my morning meal.

She made no explanation for my current situation, only indicated that I was to follow her out of the hold and into the wide corridor of the main area of the ship. For as I discovered as I followed her, we were indeed on another ship, traveling through space. As we made our way through the corridors I could catch glimpses through the small round portals lining the right side of out path. Faint stars blinked at us as we past and a distant sun illuminated the system we were traversing. I could not catch enough information to determine if I recognized anything, but I could tell from my surrounding that we were indeed on some type of industrial vessel. The corridors were stark and the size of the viewing portals were not intended for recreational viewing. Everything was very utilitarian, similar to the Earth space station I awaited the departure of the Infinity on. There was not a sign of non-essential features what so ever.

After walking through empty corridors for several minutes, I finally got a glimpse of something outside the ship. As we rounded a corner a large viewing port appeared to my right, giving an expanded view of the space outside. From what I could determine by our route through the corridors we were now on the other side of the vessel. Hanging in the black void was a small satellite. Bare and sterile, it appeared to be a small moon of some type, scarred by craters from what I assume was a millennium of impacts from space debris. I slowed as we passed, trying to get a better look and to determine if the small orb contained signs of occupancy. The woman hissed at me to continue our progress through the ship, and I hurried after her, sneaking a last look back outside. I can say that the moon, if that was what it was, was illuminated by a light source, but I did not have time to search the scene for the solar body I know to be present. The sun I saw earlier was too distant to have caused this type of effect on the satellite.

There were no further enlightened views before we finally made our way into a huge control room. There were no viewing portals visible and the walls were covered from floor to ceiling by banks of electronics and monitoring equipment. I recognized a few for weather and metrology study, but the rest were unfamiliar to me. Maybe if you could have had a look your knowledge would have identified a few more. All displayed the unknown language I had seen on the control panels in the medical bay. A second person stood up from across the room where he had been sitting at a large monitor that was displaying the satellite I had seen through the portal earlier. I could see information scrolling across the screen in the strange characters with some occasionally blinking red. The sound of the strange clicking sounds were louder here, and seemed to be originating from one of the equipment units, or broadcast from it.

The woman passed me and took a seat at the station the man had just vacated. He then indicated that I was to follow him into the next room which was accessible through another doorway opposite the corridor entry. The next three hours were spent sitting in an uncomfortable chair across from this individual, being grilled about my work with the Anomaly. I repeated multiple times the same story shared with our Louvre sponsors, with never a hint of our true conclusions about the nature of the creature. He seemed to know a great deal about our project already and hints were given about knowledge of the second purpose of my trip. I did not take the bait with these innuendos, recognizing these as well know tactics of interrogation. I tried myself to retrieve some type of information about the nature of my kidnappers, but was unable to even get a name.

At the end of these hours of insidious questions, I was left alone with the man exiting the room and sealing the entry behind him.  I now sit in a bare room waiting on the next stage of this nightmare.  It gives me some encouragement to know that he was also frustrated by his lack of progress with his line of questions. I had hoped to sort out what is going on by explaining it to you here, but it has not helped.  I still remain in the dark as much as the deep ebony of the space outside.

I will keep you aligned with any changes.

Love 

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

After a thorough search of my present environment, I have found no further evidence of where I am or what the future holds for me. The steady hum of my surroundings indicates that we are still traveling, but our destination eludes me. We are not traveling using the Gambol process or I would imagine that functioning normal as I am would be difficult. I feel none of the space fatigue I had heard about after the stasis process, so I think I have been in some type of narcotic induced slumber since I was removed from the Infinity.

There is an exit door leading out of my current confinement, but it is latched from the other side since multiple attempts on my side have not been successful to open it. The small illuminated key pad beside the door is not in any language I recognize, not even the characters, so I am not even sure what it is reporting. Only the red indicator above the door gives me the clue that it is not accessible.

Fortunately there is a small chamber opening off the opposite side of the holding area that contains a type of habitat area. There is a food and liquid dispense system with more variety than the small unit inside the large hold, and a normal sleeping unit away from the vast echoing space of what I assume now is the medical bay of the ship. The dispensary is basic, but a life line for my current predicament. I am not sure what I would have done without it, as the smaller unit only dispensed water and liquid supplements. The assumption is that someone knows I am conscious since the door to the alcove was accessible to me when I placed my hand on the thermal plate for the entrance door. At least that was clear to me even if the instructions scrolling over the plate were not. It gives me some comfort that my current situation has an end, but what that end is I dare not think too much on. It is obviously not what I planned for at the end of my journey. I only hope all is not at an end for our project. For all I know years have passed and you have abandoned our dream in despair at my disappearance. There is a small dread in the back of my mind that this number might be in centuries and you are long gone, but I need to steer away from this train of thought.

The chronometer embedded in my wrist unit is no help. It seems to be scrambled, showing me that it is the year 9999, instead of what I believe should be somewhere in 2248. That was the year I was scheduled to arrive in the Alpha Centauri system if all had gone to plan. The chronometer has also stopped progressing, so I can only assume some type of technical error has occurred. At least the recording function still works. This includes the retention of your messages to me before you went into stasis. It gives me great solace to replay your messages, especially the words about coffee and the art aboard your ship and your enthusiasm for the Anomaly. There is none of our favorite beverage in the dispensary here and I miss it. That seems very superficial of me looking at my present predicament, but since the regeneration of my arm reached a stage where I could add this nectar of the gods back into my diet, I have become obsessed. Even on the Infinity I searched out the onboard dispensaries with the best selections and frequented them often. Now it’s absence is felt since this would at least give me something to look forward to each cycle. I am not even sure how many cycles I have been awake. The lighting never changes and I have no indication other than the call of my own biological needs to inform me that time has passed. The sounds, lights and temperature remain constant, giving me no indication of the passing of time. Even the strange clicking noises have no rhythm and do not seem to follow any type of pattern or come from any particular direction. Along with the cessation of my wrist unit circuit, this gives me the feeling that I am standing at the end of time, never to move past this last second of the universe.

On that most cheerful of notes I will sign off for now.  If something changes, I will continue our one sided conversation.  If not, I will wait here at the end of all things wondering what it was all for, adrift in a cold empty space, void of any other life than a ship full of strangers. 

Love Annalis

A very fun quick project. I am really happy with the tube ends. They finish the bracelet nicely.