Transfer

Yareij stared out looking towards the small planet below. It was smaller than her home planet had been, but it had an interesting type of atmosphere that drew her in; it wasn’t typical for the atmosphere to be absolutely crystal clear. She peered down studying the planet with its mountains jutting towards the sky, oceans casting their waves to the shores scattering their sands as if they were stars in the cosmos that surrounded her.

She let a long sigh escape her, her silk-like skin drooping around her shoulders. The shining banister she was leaning against reflected her dark black eyes staring back at her. Looking on, she watched the creatures that inhabited the planet, pondering for a moment what it would be like to be one of them. To be surrounded by them, their noises and sounds, what smells they enjoyed, what they felt and dreamed of. Sometimes, she imagined she could hear the whispers of their conversations float up through layers of the atmosphere.

There was a way she could experience it, but it would only last 60 seconds. She’d tried to do it before but was talked out of it, told it was frivolous and wasteful of an entire gruma battery. Yet tonight, she didn’t care. She’d spent too many nights on the observation deck just watching them, being perplexed and intrigued without learning anything from them. She would have to be quick, and make sure no one saw her. Her long fingers entered the code for the gated door to open, housing the gruma batteries and their stock of tulpev. Finding the battery wasn’t difficult, the true obstacle was getting to the transfer room.

She crossed the hall, its glass ceiling showcasing a shooting star speeding brightly across the way. Her third heart skipped a beat at its beauty. Despite having spent most of her life on a spaceship, she still found hidden treasures in the deep emptiness of space.

To her surprise, there was no monitor keeping charge over the entrances, allowing her to easily and quickly walk directly into the transfer room.

She plugged the gruma battery into the socket, covered her head and body in the sticky snaps, pressed the “Transfer” button, and wondered how long it would take to kick in.

And then she was gone.

Her eyes wouldn’t focus, and her body felt heavy as if weighed down by an unknown force. She groaned as she straightened herself up, and then all at once it hit her. She felt nauseous and claustrophobic, feelings she had never experienced before as she normally was surrounded by the boundless ends of space. Her eyes were seeing everything from above, yet also below as if she were amidst the creatures in their cities. Walking their streets, witnessing their movements, behaviors, and words. She felt their emotions all at once, their joy, their excitement, their pain, and their sorrow.

A mother in one part was yelling at her child enraged that he had left a door open. A distressed father in another area was asking how long before his child could breathe on her own again. A pair of lovers celebrated, while another pair quarreled. An old man lovingly fed the last of his crumbs to a flock of birds, while another man desperately begged.

Yareij could hear every conversation in every city, every word muttered from these creatures’ lips. She could feel their rage, their love, their motives, their greed, their desires, and their needs. Their gratitude and love becoming ensconced by anger and jealousy, but then, a bitter heart is softened by a kind word. Pride snatches hold of the planet as kindness and generosity grasp onto strands, attempting to redeem the scorched relationships. She wanted to yell out; to clear everything and let it settle again with balance. The mixture of the tsunami of emotions and conversations blended with the myriads of smells and sounds of busy city streets, assaulting her nose and ears, filling them with so many sensations she thought her mind might explode. It was all so much, too much. She wasn’t sure what she had imagined it to be, but she didn’t think it would be like this.

Before she could finish that thought, within the next moment she was swept away to another area, being shown the animals of every kind wandering the lands, air, and sea, existing to their best abilities. She noticed a bird, flitting from one colorful flower to another, greeting each one as it dipped its beak into the sweet, delicious nectar. Yareij could feel the bird's heart humming so fast, she doubted she’d felt anything move at such a pace before. She could hear the bird’s thoughts, its only motivations that bounced around its head were to keep flying, gathering, and mating. She laughed at her realization that the bird had nearly identical motivations as the creatures in the cities.

Again, the scenery changed around her, the land and sky blurred into one vast smear of green and blue. However, this time when it steadied, she was alone at the top of a mountain reaching towards the sky, its valleys stretching out as far as she could see. A waterfall echoed in the distance, and nearby trees rustled, inviting her to stay and enjoy the view. She knew she didn’t have much time, seconds at the most, yet she wanted to use every moment to soak it all in. She had never been able to see a true sunset before, and she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. The sky, which normally seemed as deep as an ocean below her, was endlessly above her now, changing like a kaleidoscope from shades of blue to bright pinks and purples. The air here was much more breathable than where she’d been before, she wasn’t sure what those smells had been, but she was glad to be here away from it. The deep scent of pines and grass brought her back to the moment. She giggled at the clouds gently passing by, changing shapes and colors right in front of her eyes. Stars began to speckle against the last slivers of light, a reminder of home in such an alien place.

There were no creatures or animals here, just Yareij and the Earth, bonding and listening. She let herself lay down on the grass watching everything she could with the last of her moments. She could feel her silken strands rustling against the wind, and the brush of the grass graze along the bottoms of her thighs. Taking one last gulp of air, she closed her eyes as she began to feel the transfer bringing her back.

Then just as quickly as she had left, she returned. It had only been 60 seconds since she’d pressed “Transfer”, but she was sure that the experience would stay with her for millennia.