2.13 - Lights of Fridjardin

[Transcript]The Fridjardin Lightway is a cluster of systems about 3 lightyears long. Too short to bother using an Odo Lens or metaphysic diaphragm. Neutrino substrates are frowned on there by the residents. Never met one myself. They’re said to be like comets, long flowing trains of ice and metal dust in their wake.The Lightway is dense with almost 4,000 systems packed into such a small stretch of the Continuum. But for how crowded it can be, it's quiet. A gentle wash flows over the traditional coms. I’m taking a Lamorae to the other side to meet family of theirs. We lay out the hours reclining in the pilot and co-pilot seats, watching the glow of greater things drift by outside.Lamorae says they're nervous about the meeting. Lamorae hatch from egg sacks that grow along the length of a central placental vine. I don’t pretend to understand how that works, but from what I’ve gathered, those closest to them when they emerge are a bit like siblings. My Lamorae friend hadn’t seen theirs in some time. Got stranded in the Lecodran Quadrant during the Cymolgyt Civil War. Made travel difficult and first chance they got they wanted to head back home.I said it would likely be fine. Family should understand if something you can’t control’s got you hold up some place. The Lamorae rubbed their mandibles together. Sure, but you never know. I shrugged. That’s all you can hope for.What about you? The Lamorae asked. Family? Outside at this speed, the accretion disk of a black hole whizzes by. I watch it fade into the distance, remembering how time gets all mangled once you get close to the event horizon. You lose track of how fast things are going. You get separated, cut off even if you didn’t plan it. But gravity, like time, moves us whether we want it or not.We get to the end of the Lightway. Lamorae’s sibling comes out to meet them. They’ve got rows of faded blue baleen instead of the red of my passenger had. They say goodbye and I watch them go, two people together in the whole universe. I look back at the rich stretch of stars in the Fridjardin. I think about how long I’ve been doing this. How long I’ve done it by myself. And I don’t know if I want to keep doing it that way anymore.