Page 78 - Demo

Suddenly there was a dark spot on the horizon. It grew and grew, the stars blinking out one at a time as it devoured all the light. Great giant bands of durasteel, sullen lights dotting the surface of something incomprehensible. I felt a tear fall down my cheek. I hoped they would forgive me for missing our anniversary dinner.
He began to sing, as the end drew nigh. What little light remained guttered and fled long ago. “Though human nature, red in tooth and claw, with ravine, shriek'd against her creed—Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, who battled for the True, the Just, be blown about the desert dust, or seal'd within the iron hills? (Tennyson 1850, c56) I didn’t know you very long, Saul Jedidiah Black. Not very long at all. Yet we shall remain together for all time. Thank you.”
We hit Achlys at some unreadable multiple of light. The world, no, the universe was black. And then in an instant, for one flickering brief moment before it ended, I saw it. That caged star. Baleful and weak, caged in steel and hidden from sight. I felt pain, in my eyes, in my heart, as we crossed through into it, the world bubbling white prominences and furious plasma. But it was beautiful. We were free. It was beau-