#40

Mark is surprised that it only took them a few moments to cruise this far across the ocean. Already Canada can be seen, with its vast cities independent of the Empire. Their flight on this strange disc will likely be nothing more than another UFO sighting on the Canadian radar.

The disc is unshielded against the spray of the ocean, a product of the low level of flight; but the ride itself is not uncomfortable. Rather, there is something about the weird disc that relaxes Mark. He has been relaxed now for some time, his mind getting accustomed to hearing nothing but the roar of the wind, and the sound of the occasional bird.

He begins to drift off to sleep.

His rest is peaceful, and he doesn't awake. Not even as there is a large and loud twinkle visible to the south, on the continent's Eastern shore, that makes both Madame Levingt and the Old Man cry out in horror.

He doesn't wake up even as the scream of this eruption grows louder and louder, and the brightness of it becomes all the more powerful. Even as the ocean boils and thousands of people and animals cry out as they are turned to ashes, and even as space itself gives a primal screech, he doesn't wake up. To his left, to the south, there is a rainbow of other planets seen within, alongside many other sights that would have destroyed his sanity if he had been awake to see them. He would have seen monsters beyond the Old Man's private zoo, and creatures that gazed out of the abyss to scream as they saw their observers also.

Mark sleeps through all of this, and he begins to dream.

He dreams that he is powerful. He dreams that he has everything that he's ever wanted in life, and no one, not even his dead brethren, can mock him now. He has a little bit of fear in this dream, but he laughs it off, realizing that he is merely experiencing everything that is human before he moves onto something much greater. The dream is flawless and perfect, because to the dreamer, all of life is just a game.

And the dream stirs like the ocean froth around the now-lost city, the bubbles reaching deep below, into the blue, and then the black. The horrible whiteness above is fading to black.

Our view now slips to black as well. Because for now, there will be a brief intermission.