Collision! (Cosmic Connections Cruise #3)

Prologue

In the woven knot of yarn hung from the ceiling of the Starlit Salon, the shadowlight sphere of the resonark waited.

Its prismatic fractal fringe continued its never-ending unraveling into distant reaches of spacetime.

As the energy radiating into those infinitely attenuating lines crossed into the abstract depths of quantum mathematics, delicate rainbows of light arced outward.

The lovers’ song that had finally brought it into focus still whispered faintly around the threads of plasilk and alpaca wool.

After the transcendent catharsis where the crew and passengers of the Love Boat I had collectively manifested the elemental expression of love—and maybe had a few too many synthequer cocktails—they’d dispersed to their staterooms and duty roster assignments, all of them profoundly moved by the experience.

Still connected by their lingering awe, the resonark’s energy touched them in different ways.

Some responded by joining physically, but only if they’d already been so inclined; such a quantum manifestation contained infinite variables, and for such a bonding to occur, particular conditions—much like intimate body parts—had to be aligned.

Some indulged in a bit of late-night, carbohydrate-focused nibbling, emptied their species-specific excretory system, and slept the most peaceful sleep.

But a few…dreamed.

And those dreams couldn’t be contained by mere plasteel bulkheads or even the bony prisons of cranial skeletal configurations. They spiraled out into the night along the eternal vibrations between stars.

And out there, something awoke.