The Galaxy And The Ground Within Novels & Stories

​The Ghost of the Gutter ​Kaelen stood at the forward view-port, his bronze eyes reflecting the distant, hat-shaped glow of the Sombrero Galaxy. ​"My grandmother spent her life fighting for a single planet," Kaelen whispered, his voice echoing in the quiet bridge. "She thought the Gutter was a place in Tokyo. But look at this, Julian. The whole galaxy is being turned into a Gutter. Someone has put a 'Price-Tag' on the universe."

As I leaned against the railing looking out across the land. ‘I am here, Rayna.’ ‘You would not believe the sight I am looking at right now.’ ‘Describe it to me.’ Galen said. ‘There is a warm breeze in the air and the color of the night sky here looks like an earth’s golden sunset with a large planet with rings around it in the sky instead of a moon. And the ground all around has a soft glow to it.’ I looked up towards the night sky and continued, ‘And the stars, there are so many in different shapes and sizes. It is breathtaking.’

My fingers wrapped around the cool handle, and I turned it gently, slowly pushing the door open. The moment I stepped inside, my breath caught in my throat. The room unfolded before me like something out of a dream I didn’t dare voice. The walls were scattered with glowing galaxy decals—planets and constellations orbiting in a symphony of soft color. Stars clung to every corner, like whispers of light against the darkness. It was as if the night sky had been gathered in this room and laid out just for him.

Clara gasped and staggered upright and froze. She was standing on a vast surface of glass. Beneath her, a galaxy rotated in slow spirals clouds of starlight drifting under her feet as if painted on fluid mirrors. Above her, the sky was a dome of shifting geometry, prisms sliding over prisms, refracting light into infinite corridors. A circular platform rose in the distance the same shape as the ring that had hovered above the river, now enlarged into a structure the size of a cathedral. It thrummed.

My heartbeat sped up the closer I got to Huston. Sam faded with each passing sign. I didn’t look back, not once. Pain still sat in my chest, heavy and uninvited, but I didn’t let it weigh me down. I had somewhere to be. Someone to become. By the time the towering white buildings of NASA filed my view, my stomach was in nuts. I parked. Turned off the engine. And stepped out of the car. The glass doors reflected on my face. I looked tired,my make up was smudged, hair a mess.

Severin looked at the galaxy where he could see the moon, sun, planets, and stars. He took a deep breath to enjoy the power of the galaxy. It helped to energize him and increased the amount of power of heaven and earth in his body. He mumbled, "Is this the Starry Sky Battle? The power of the galaxy is so thick here."

He spoke with a gentle reassurance, "And hey, there aren't that many big hospitals in town. We'll check them one by one until we find what we're looking for." Usually, his touch and tender words were enough to soothe her. However, not this time. Before he could finish, Hannah jerked her hand away and stepped back. "Fine, we'll do it your way and start searching now." She offered a weak smile. "I'm sorry, you're ill and still have to deal with all this… I always jump headfirst into things, messing up my own stuff, and now the home front too…" Seeing her like that, Jack's worry deepened.

He looked at the founding ground. One hundred and sixty-three people who had all, in some version or another, been ignoring themselves because the system told them to. All of them here now. All of them finding out. He looked at the silver lines in the grass. He looked at the cold moon. He thought: Rael said the founding ground has a place for people who are finding the answer. He thought: this is the place. He thought: I am finding the answer. He thought: who am I without the ceiling.

She looked up at the winter sky. The specific clarity of cold nights. The stars precise and distant. The territory between the stars and the ground. All the work happening in that territory. All the people. All the roots. All the connections running beneath the surface. The template being dismantled. One territory at a time. One person at a time. One root at a time. The lamp burning on the garden wall. Small. Real. Enough. Always enough.

"But the circumstance activated something. Something that was there to be activated." "Yes," I said. "That's what the records say." "And Luna's is the other direction," she said. "Mine inward, hers outward. Mine keeps me stable, hers stabilizes others." "Yes." "That's why they're a pair," she said. "The Grounding and the Resonance. One doesn't function without the other at full capacity. You can't hold frequency for others if your own frequency is unstable." She looked up. "Luna needs me not just as her mother. She needs the specific thing I am, the Grounding, to understand and develop the Resonance correctly." She paused. "And I need her to understand what the capacity is for. What the poin