Just Survive- Su24, Sept 4:25pm
Music=
- Ground Zero
-Night Flowers
"As the wind blows, so must the grass bend."
-Confucius in Book XII
UFOtext=
I. Christmas Island
Astira hiked along the southern shore. Her space boots marked a vapor trail of infrared footsteps in the perma-night. Occasionally, the surf washed over her boots, & she could feel the shifting black sand pulling her out to sea. But she resisted, easily holding her course along the black strip of shoreline hugging the abrupt rise of dense overgrowth climbing all the way up to the high mountain.
Then she stopped. She could make out the infrared outline of the rock steps. She drew her laser pistol & cleared a path through the dense overgrowth. Step by step she climbed- periodically pausing to clear the way with her laser pistol. She climbed for about 100 steps. Then she stopped. Through the hanging ivy she could see the outline of an ancient patio. Hiding beyond in perma-dark she could see the island palace. Long before the millennium of the Foundation, she could imagine Princess Leizu standing like a regal statue, a flower of stone, but now animate & gazing out to sea. Then she thought of Joshua seeking the origin of the Mule. He couldn't be too far away.....