One of the most beautiful pure fractals Apophysis 2.09 has ever yielded to my efforts...
When heading out to Ventana 5 for the first time, ever, I turned my ship around, went all the way back to Earth, and picked up my wife and children to bring them to see it.
I had completely forgotten in my enthusiasm that my wife was a whole entire full fleet admiral. Vlarian Triefield Kirk had not seen it all because that was not possible in a galaxy so large that it will be another 1,000 years at least before humanity can get across it, but approaching Ventana 5 from Spica's viewpoint was her heritage because she had grown up on Spica 5, so the star cluster BGS110001 was part of her night sky with a telescope.
Of course, this beautiful star cluster had another name: The Womb of the Night, so named because of the cooler red, orange, and yellow supergiants near the gravitational center of the cluster – they formed an image familiar to many of human and humanoid life in the womb.
My five children had all the questions early humanoid explorers through the centuries had, and my son eight-year-old son Marcus Valerian had the same thing to say that many of them had concluded.
“It's a good thing that star cluster is not going to give birth for real – that's a really big baby to find diapers for.”
“That's not the problem -- it's the changing part!” five-year-old Laura Telluria said.
Our baby Laurence stayed rooted to the window along with the rest, and my wife entered into our wonder with us.
“If you are called to it, the wonder never goes away,” she said. “I grew up seeing the Womb of the Night in the telescope, and it is one of the reasons I went to the Academy. I wanted to see it up close for myself, and I had the honor of being on several exploratory journeys within it.”
Well, we all wanted to hear about that, and V.T. told us many stories of exploration and of the cultures that lived near and within the cluster, many of whom, because of the make of the cluster, still have pilgrimages of pregnant women there to give birth.
“To many of the surrounding cultures, the Womb of the Night is known as the Star Mother,” V.T. said, “and although she will never give birth, it was thought that she or the energy of the arrangement of the stars there would assist in child-bearing.”
I put a pin there mentally for later on, as my wife passed on to one of the less common stories.
“From inside the cluster, of course, you don't see all that, but there is a Looking community in there that lives on a planet with a high water table. A thousand years ago, the planet's rulers decided to begin disposing of the bodies of the citizens by sending them to the system's ruling star. The Looking community generally wishes to be buried to await the Resurrection, so this was very distressing to them. The question was eventually referred all the way to the iMaru of the Uppaaimar!
“The opinion of the iMaru was as follows: the Redeemer will not have a problem finding the atoms of His own in the core of a star, or of any dust around it, for the soul and the body that once knew each other still do, no matter where they are. As for the pollution and bad stewardship, the Uppaaimar knew that giant and supergiant stars burn carbon at a stage of their long lives, and most humanoid life is carbon-based – so, burial on a star is more likely to extend its life, just a little.”
“So, why don't we do that on Earth, though?” our eleven-year-old daughter Valerie said.
“Human development in terms of space travel is recent, compared to recorded history, and we don't have a high water table average on land, although Earth has a lot of water,” V.T. said. “Also, our Sun is too small to ever go into a carbon burning stage, so we can't help it by adding carbon.”
“This birth and death stuff is way more complicated than anybody ever thought,” our eldest child 14-year-old Marcia said.
“Not really,” I said. “The iMaru were right – no matter where you are, in the heavens and earth, the Redeemer knows so there's really no need to worry about that.”
My wife looked at me strangely, and only later did she tell me why.
“Few are the man in any age who believe what the iMaru, and you, believe. Both of us are Christians, and all of us who have made a life in space have adjusted to the fact that our bodies may never be able to be brought back to our families and what we consider home, but because I am a mild telepath, I know that wasn't something you just said.”
I went back in my mind through my own family history, four centuries back.
“Sgt. Augustus Kirk served under my other well-known ancestor of that time, Ulysses S. Grant, during the Civil War,” I said, “and both men were from Ohio, fighting at the battle of Vicksburg. That was a long siege, and the chances of being being killed or captured and sent to languish and die in one of those horrible Confederate prison camps were high at the beginning because the Confederacy put up a tremendous fight. Sgt. Kirk was awarded for his bravery there, and other men asked him how he could do it. He said, 'God know where I am. If I die here or anywhere, my soul goin' to Him, and He'll pick up the rest of me later.'
“We've sort of passed that idea on among the Christians of the family, especially those that branched out to the sea – Capt. Horatio Hornblower is another ancestor – and into the other wild spaces of the earth and Solar System and now, out here. The fear of death, and of being lost, is always there – but it's just another area in which we just have to apply our faith, and keep going.”
“Faith on the frontier is just a family thing, eh?” my wife said.
“For four hundred years and counting,” I said. “But speaking of counting, I was thinking of the other traditional things that people do in these parts – I mean, we're not actually going into the cluster, but I thought that since we're out here, and married, would you like to have the experience of being able to soak up all that womb energy while pregnant? I'd like to help you have that experience, right now.”
V.T. took my pillow and her pillow and just started hauling off, as only an admiral could, and because she is a quarter-Vulcan, there was no tiring her of chasing me around the room and both of us cracking up because –.
“How are you going to go from talking about five centuries of serious practical theology around death to that?”
“Well, there's gotta be birth before there can be death, and we males of the galaxy have to keep up our duties in that!”
We did not add a sixth child on that occasion – but not for lack of my doing my duty that night!