Wings of Saturn

Part 3

Jenny danced high above a city, spinning and twirling with her fellow performers on the rotating stage. Below, civilization appeared to crumble in their wake. A symphony of destruction providing music for their performance. This was certainly the grandest stage of them all, and she knew she should consider herself to be blessed to be a part of it. Why had she fought against this for so long? What would she have accomplished in the end? Nothing. But now, she got to take part in the greatest show of all time, dancing through the end of the world and putting on the performance of a lifetime...

"Jenny!"

The sound of her name dragged Jenny partially back to consciousness, but it failed to rouse her fully out of her sleep. However, the sharp pang of hunger that twisted her insides a second later finished the job. Someone that she truly hoped was Terri shook her by the shoulder. "Hey, wake up already! We've got a big problem!"

Moaning, Jenny opened her eyes and squinted. Though her vision was still blurry, and her mind clouded by fog, she could see enough to confirm that yes, they were still floating on a canoe. However, the world seemed to be considerably dimmer than before. Not as dark as a storm, but enough to tell her that clear skies were a thing of the past.

Jenny tried to roll over only to wince as another pang of hunger shot through her. "What the hell?" she complained mentally. It seemed like since she had fallen asleep, her intestines had started devouring themselves.

"Terri," she muttered as she pushed herself onto her knees, one arm holding her stomach. "How long was I out?"

"Only a couple hours. Are you okay? You don't look so good." Terri responded without breaking her paddling stride.

Jenny didn't answer. "Only a couple hours?" But it felt like she had been in a coma without food for days. Furthermore, her nap didn't seem to have done her any good. If anything, she now felt even more exhausted. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she lied. She forced herself to drop her arm and sit upright. "Where the heck are we?"

"I have no idea," Terri said. She pointed. "But it really doesn't look very friendly."

Jenny looked. They were nearing a small island. It was little more than a bunch of rocks jutting out of the water, with a worn down wooden dock extending from one side. A tall lighthouse, apparently weathered smooth by the dome's artificial weather, stood high at the island's center. Overhead, green and glowing clouds rotated around the lighthouse's apex in a slow spiral. It wasn't the strangeness of the patterns you would sometimes see in Saturn's atmosphere, but it was still eerie. A quick glance confirmed that the cloud disc didn't extend much more than about a quarter mile beyond the rocks, and past there it appeared the artificial sun continued to shine just as brightly as before. It all seemed authentic enough to seem badly out of place in a dome circling a planet far from Earth.

Despite the odd feel of the place, it didn't seem to be abandoned. Lights shone through the thin windows and the long arm of the lighthouse's beam swept around and around, warning any passersby of the island's presence.

"What could that be for?" Jenny mused out loud. "Were those clouds here first, and they put the lighthouse here so people wouldn't hit the island? Or did they make the lighthouse first, and call up the clouds to give it something to do?" She shrugged. "Ah, the hell with it. Not like it matters." Even so, Jenny's brain continued to muse about what possible purpose such a construction could have here. Perhaps the whole thing was designed to give the owner a bit of privacy. Jenny suspected her "other" self was trying to break through and analyze the situation. Knowing that irritated her quite a bit.

As a minor distraction, Jenny worked with Terri to direct the canoe toward the dock.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Terri asked. "This place seems to just ooze bad feelings. Why not just go around it and make for the other side of the dome?