The Price of the Dream

THE PRICE OF THE DREAM

I was so looking forward to seeing the stars. I stood alone and hoped. I was standing all alone, and there was so much misery around me. Distant worlds - that was my dream. There had to be life there. Maybe exokinesis would help me control reality, which frankly was completely screwed up. Even the laws that supported it figuratively speaking. Wasted time on Earth learning the basic lessons I should have learned anyway. An eternity of inaction with the clear knowledge that the end was coming sooner or later. This thought was frightening to some, but to one who wanted to discover the meaning of the journey to Eternal Consciousness, it was paramount. The following thought ran through my mind, "Your flight will go on forever, and your final destination is the dark void of distant space!"

Many of us have been conditioned to believe in beautiful futuristic worlds full of whatever, but I wanted to see the truth that would fill my own existence with meaning.

Jenaya came close to me. She was beautiful. So ethereal - just unreal.

- You would never give up. I'm sure of it. And even knowing that there's just nothing there or it's all the same as here. You want to keep looking.

I did my best to avoid her gaze, but I sensed her claims weren't entirely unfounded.

Many space seekers had reached distant worlds and had sunk into nothingness.

- "How short life is!," exclaimed I. "And we are bound to find answers to so many questions."

- "Somewhere out there you will find the answer to your own," she smiled. "After all, we are but temporary visitors on this Earth. Some will do great deeds, others mediocre, and some - simply will do nothing."

- "Then what is the meaning of life?," I suddenly asked her.

- It's so simple - to follow your dream, but you must be fully aware that even just following it has a price - and a very high one at that. The moment you are not able to pay it, perhaps everything will end immediately.

We both liked each other, and I just wasn't sure if I could find anyone else who would put up with my bullshit.

- "My dream is to discover the secret of Eternal Life," I answered her openly.

- No telling though if it would be your true dream or an eternal curse.

Our eyes met.

I wished these years, full of youthful romance and wasted time, would pass sooner and faster. And that we could finally start living for real. After all, distant worlds beckoned us with their deep secrets that were perhaps vital.

- "How much do you want to succeed?," She whispered to me.

- "I want, if this is the only moment, to live it well," I replied.

Later I entered the cadet school, where after hard training we were ready to fly. To fly beyond Earth - into new and unknown worlds.

Then I understood - the dream was life, and its price was the energy we had left to live it. Because sooner or later a huge part of us would be in the clutches of death. In the impenetrable darkness.