Vivi

XIII

Vivi wandered the palace, feeling her feet, letting her mind run in the background.

She came upon a dance hall, draped with crystal chandeliers like frozen waterfalls, scattering rainbows all over the floor and walls. There was a bubble machine and a DJ station decorated like a fairy kingdom throne.

Glowing mushrooms and crystals seasoned one wall, contoured to look like the wall of a dripstone cave. The other side of the room opened into a wide, sweeping, wooden balcony. It was made to look like there was nothing to separate you from the naked cosmos.

Am I going to have parties in space? Vivi asked herself. Well... sounds like me. Kind of. A notch too grandiose. Sounds like me if I'm not worried about how people are going to react when they hear about it.

Ugh, people...

The room next door was familiar to Vivi, as she liked to make something like it for every community she built for. The cuddle room. Every square inch of floor was soft and springy, like an endless bed. Yellow, gold, red, royal purple. The air smelled vaguely of roses.

Vivi swan-dived into the mountain of duvets and pillows in the middle of the room. She hugged a body pillow. More flower scents.

Vivi stretched out and closed her eyes. She put her hand on her heart, then her other hand on her belly. That was comfortable.

Vivi had so many memories in rooms such as this. In the cuddle room in Trust, she'd first met Peter. Started cuddling, and just not wanted to stop.

Heck, Vivi was pretty sure there were children who would not have been born if it weren't for that room.

So comfortable...

A little lonely, a little happy, Vivi started dreaming. She wasn't sure if she quite fell asleep or just skimmed the edge of the dreamworld, like dipping her toes at the beach...

Slowly, a creative impulse came to Vivi. She knew it when the moment hit. Now. She opened her eyes and slowly got to her feet.

Vivi knew to be gentle with herself now. It was best if she didn't fully wake up. She knew what to do.

A door appeared in the wall. The room beyond wove itself into existence out of nothing even as she entered.

An irregular spiral staircase of translucent white quartz grew in the centre of the room. It stretched wide and wound upward at a gentle incline. A channel with a little running stream ran down its edge. White quartz pebbles in the stream played with the flow of the water. The tiniest of silver fishes flitted amongst a few little water plants.

Vivi followed the staircase upwards. A room above materialised and adorned itself with racks of silvery space suits.

Vivi reached out to touch one. It moved of its own accord, moulding to her body. Fresh air escaped a hole in her collar, and Vivi knew that this air would stay confined to an invisible sphere. Just to be sure, she lifted her fingers and felt the force field, like a thick soap bubble.

Climbing further upwards, Vivi encountered a kind of glass trapdoor. It opened easily with just a touch. Beyond, the stairs wove haphazardly through a simple room to another glass trapdoor, showing stars beyond. There was a significant-looking lever in the wall. It was an airlock.

Vivi pulled the lever. One door closed and the other opened. Air rushed out. Vivi touched her invisible helmet again. She was fine. She followed the staircase up and out.

Vivi's steps became springier, as if the artificial gravity was petering out gradually. And suddenly, there was nothing but stars.

"Oh, my goodness," gasped Vivi. She'd never seen anything like this.

The universe was alive, blazing with light. The stars were brighter than she'd ever seen them by far, their colours and sizes obvious. Previously unseen details gave depth and personality to the constellations, and the Milky Way shimmered like living silk.

Vivi noticed a kind of cloud; she blinked in confusion before realising that she was staring at the Andromeda galaxy. Dull but taking up as much space in the sky as the moon, it humbly admitted to its unthinkable vastness.

"Wow," gasped Vivi. She could taste the joy and meaning in all of it. The cosmos didn't feel cold and empty, it felt like one immense being, one life, one purpose, one truth.Vivi laughed and waved around her. The white floor engraved itself with a huge mandala of the twelve symbols of the zodiac. Café tables and chairs and sun loungers appeared out of nowhere. A palm tree sprung up.

A palm tree in space?

Please, is that what you find hard to believe about all this?

Vivi imagined a pier of white stone, running out into the void like it was a sea. And there, at the end of it, already fully formed, just as she'd dreamed it, was her yacht.

It was white and sleek and had the silhouette of an old fashioned wooden sailing ship. It ended in a small figurehead – a seagull with outstretched wings. Forward of the centre a mast shot upwards, very, very tall.

Vivi noticed then that the dark Earth beneath began to be edged with a blue glow. Ah. Sunrise again. How frequently are we orbiting?

Vivi bounced along the pier. Gradually, as she did so, the gravity faded out.

Vivi found a hook on her suit that she could attach to a suitable contraption on the pier. A fine silver cord issued out, tethering her loosely. Vivi tested it; at the press of a button it went taut, and it appeared to be very strong. A little reassured, Vivi took the last steps out into zero gravity and floated into her yacht.

The sun grew brighter as Vivi admired some of the fey, curving workmanship of the boat. Even the computer screen fit the theme, parchment yellow and covered with quill-and-inkpot calligraphy. Vivi ran her hands admiringly up the smooth mast (the silver spacesuit gloves almost didn't feel like they were there). By then it was already day again, for what that was worth.

Vivi suddenly knew what that was worth. Sunlight glinted on silver sails. With a flick of a rope, the mast blossomed with myriad silver parabolas, shimmering like fish scales. One rope opened and closed them like flowers, another swung them around to catch the sunlight. Vivi pulled on the first rope more and more, and a vast triangular sail revealed itself, much wider than the boat and high as a skyscraper.

Wow, thought Vivi. A solar sail.

The boat was already tugging at its mooring, so Vivi wound back the rope a bit to make the sail smaller again. Then she gathered up some courage.

Vivi took a cola from a mini fridge (it seemed as if she could drink it through her soap-bubble helmet), tethered herself tightly to the boat, untethered her suit from the pier, and released the moorings.