“Hey, man, nice
to meet you. Are you cool?”
“Uh, yeah,
absolutely. I'm cool.”
“Cool. Do you
mind if I just sit here on the steps? I shouldn't really leave the
ship but, holy crap, I've been in there too long.”
“Sure.”
“Sit down, keep
me company. Oh wow, it's so quiet here. This is really nice.”
“Yeah, it's
usually pretty quiet. Why did y...”
“So nice. I could
settle down in a place like this, you know? Is anybody selling their
farm? Just kidding. I don't know anything about farming. I suppose
it's a lot more complicated than it looks, right?”
“Yeah, it can be.
So... is everything okay?”
“Oh, man, you
have no idea. It's getting weird out there. Like, really
weird. Some crazy shit is happening. Manifestations, recursive
harbingers, fractal entanglement... well, I can't get into the
details, but believe me, you should be glad you're down here and not
up there.”
“If you say so.
Are y...”
“What was that?”
“What w...”
“Shhh... Okay, it
was nothing. Look at me, jumping at every sound. I'm losing it, man.”
“It's going to be
okay. Nothing ever happens around here. Well, up until now.”
“I guess I just
needed someone to talk to. This mission has messed me up. It's good
to get a little perspective before I head out.”
“Cool. Are you
going back to your home planet?”
“What do you
mean? This is my planet.”
“What?”
“Sorry, PSYOP
training kicking in. Forget I said that. Well, I should be going.
Nice meeting you. I have to, uh, retract the stairs now. So I can take off. There you go.
You might want to step back a little further. That's it. Have a good
night! Thanks for being cool! Don't believe anything you hear!”
