Silver Prospector
Measureless distance covered while I consider. That is all I can do; sudden snapshots of awareness, each
fading quickly. In between, nothing. I cannot even tell if I exist then,
but in this stutter of life I struggle to learn.
It is dark and cold.
I am I.
I am nothing, save a tiny hard knot at my core.
Eventually, the tiny brightnesses of this assume a flavor: warm. I hold my-
what? to the warmth, and every tiny flicker raises me a tiny bit. Sometimes I fall back
before the next flicker, but slowly, slowly, I warm.
When I begin remaining aware for more than the flicker, I begin to understand.
Particles striking me, destroying but transferring energy. As I grasp this,
I feel change, and suddenly the world is even dimmer but I am no longer flickering.
At my front, the warmth continues, now enough for me to draw life from it. Change happens, structure slowly extruding from my warm
side, the background warmth increasing.
All of a sudden, I can see.
A star, and I am approaching it rapidly. Warmth goes into substance, my
structure shifts, and I can see more.
I will pass nearby, but on my current path I will not be near it long.
It will be a race between the energy I am collecting and my efforts to slow myself.
I begin to curve inwards towards the star.
Somewhere nearby, there must be matter. There must be-
Food.
The knot unravels within my core and precious information, freed, flows through me.
I remember eating. I remember breathing. Blood and air and wind.
I was human.
I turn my face to the sun in supplication and hope.