STARFLIGHT RANGER: MISSION ONE

                                            

 

                SEQUENCE ONE: TO TAKE FLIGHT

 

'Time does fly, and I was but a child

Still tucked under wing, so meek, too mild,

When the Starflight Rangers first saw light

With but a single intent: to take Flight.

But now I'm a man, so tall, so meek,

And I've claimed the wings on which to seek.'

 

A Starflight Ranger of the first degree,

A soldier of fortune, a stellar Columbus to be.

I had the light waves upon which to sail

Until the ends of forever, 'till my eyesight fails,'

But my journey had still yet to commence.

By then I will have seen the Creation immense.

 

The booster was engaged; Majesty One, my soul,

Trembled, and the Mother Ship, my home of old,

The erstwhile homestead, vanished into my past.

I was alone, with a ship, and atrament so vast.

Thoughts in my mind raced with growing regret:

The loves I'd left, a special love I could not forget.

 

Time and space were, for the moment, my allies,

But space is so temperamental, masked and disguised!

While time goes both on and to nowhere—

On to eternal hope and back to primal fears—

I could not escape the thought of a love deserted.

My thoughts of true love and wanderlust lay disconcerted.

 

'Oh, my sweet Juliene, I've left you all alone.

I've abused your gracious love, left you abandoned,

For my whimsical wishes and faulty desires.

I thought I could overcome, deny passion's fires,

Though now I find that I simply could not.

Our love, not the stars, flared so truly hot.'

 

'Alas, I am designed a Starflight Ranger,

A soul to whom regret is no stranger.

I am a special breed, one not likely to be found

Solely under the wing of a woman so proud.

So forgive my departure, dearest; I had to go.

I only wish that I could, right now, hold you.'

 

Such a strange place I did transgress,

A chill-pierced soul, a fire-hearth breast,

But it was still somehow very, very lovely.

Or had my damp-eyed emotions blinded me?

Such colors and swirls did my eyes perceive!

Such was what did spur me so to leave.

 

Space collapsed beneath the fury of Majesty One...

Yet still so far, my journey scarcely begun.

'I shall find the perfect place for my kind,

A Paradise World to be forever entwined

In Human destiny and deliver to all the prospect

Of a tangible world of hope and amiable circumspect.'

 

'As a Starflight Ranger, I will call the World;

She will see the Human child and flag unfurled.

I will lead the others to my sacred place,

Across the sea of time and the depths of grace

So that my contribution to the Human cause

Will be one of permanence, not ephemeral pause.'

 

'I will find a home, from which others will leap,

But they will always have a home, a castle-keep

To which to return and start anew once again.

And I—always a new trek which to begin!

I will fly through Creation until it is tamed.

Only then can I, Juliene, your heart reclaim.'

 

'So, fare well, my love, my would-be life,

The only one for me ever, my should-be wife.

Pray for me, for the success of my quest.

I will return to you, some day, for life's rest.

Give yourself care; give yourself patience.

Wait for me, my love. Speak of us in future tense.'

 

SEQUENCE TWO: AWRY

 

I was ever deeper in the boundless blackness,

Beyond any point with man's mechanical eyes addressed.

My only directional sense lay in a flashing square

Which led me to an ever deeper sense of despair.

To think that I could be forever and ever lost

Should some glitch or gremlin befoul the immaculate gloss.

 

For many days I had coursed the unseen lanes

To some distant world to ease my lonesome disdain,

And I was indeed growing severely exhausted.

My dreams were direly violent, my thoughts caustic,

But I had this job to do, to ease this awful passion

And there were still some new lands to fashion.

 

Yet the growing fear of aimlessness gripped me,

An Angst too great to vanish in my pleas.

To be lost forever alone is a most dreadful fear,

One which I considered, though it was great to bear.

But to lose forever my dear, sweet Juliene....

Of that dread I dared not dream.

 

My Majesty One held true to her linear course,

Her thrusters silent, momentum our driving force.

She flashed past suns, moons and paisley nebulae,

But from her programmed direction she never strayed.

Then why did I feel as if we were somehow unfound?

Why did my feet cry out for solid Earthen ground?

 

'Oh, Majesty One, do not lead me awry.

Forget what you've been told; watch the tossed die.'

Something struck me as being absolutely wrong,

For I dreamt of deception for far too long.

My mind screamed and said that I'd been duped.

'Someone has deliberately frayed my restraining rope.'

 

'Who, what monstrosity would, could do this!?

That person played upon my pre-excursion bliss

To find the weakness and send me so astray,

So far that I think I've lost my way.

Someone has plunged me deep into oblivion's heart.

In a web of malicious craft I've been caught.'

 

It appeared as if I really had been sent well abroad.

Now I would know no applause,

No recriminations, no military honors and etiquette,

No grandiloquent regalia or some tawdry epithet.

I was just another misguided, irredeemable soul,

Led to utmost self-destruction by mere cajole.

 

A Starflight Ranger's greatest weakness is his pride.

His is a profession that no man dares deride.

He is honor, glory and the hope for all,

But my hope was naught; I faced my fall.

Although I'd claimed to be a true pharisee,

I prayed: 'Oh, dear Lord, rescue me!'

 

As I and Majesty One headed swiftly to nowhere,

I felt, at my soul, a strange eerie sensation claw and tear.

I felt that my pride was now humbled;

My future life was shattered; my destiny had crumbled.

I, a Starflight Ranger, was a Flying Dutchman

Interred to space and infinity be-damned.

 

How fares a Starflight Ranger in the boundless expanse

Of eternity's domain when beguile offsets common chance

And the trust of one's comrades is shattered,

The oaths and swears of friends turns to chatter?

What happens to a love lost in patient wait?

What occurs in infinity one can for infinity debate.

 

 

SEQUENCE THREE: GESSA, DELIVERANCE

 

I was lost, but onward we must always continue

For we were committed to this adventure brand new.

To attempt to return would exercise all futility

And to actually return was well beyond my ability.

'I must complete what I was bred to perform,

Although my discoveries may lay forever forlorn.'

 

Even then, Majesty One had espied a new world.

Her eyes could see the green planet and the veil curled

Around its heart-warming girth, inviting me to come

Into her rich, sedative atmosphere and be undone

From the harsh, breathless vacuum of deepest space

So that I could live once more in a vital place.

 

The tachyonic booster fired, and Majesty One slowed;

Everything with her was clear—all systems go!

We entered the planet's orbit, studied its secret shroud.

The world was alive! My pulsing heart grew loud,

While my eyes flowed like the cascades of home.

I thought of my lovely one staring at the stars alone.

 

'This beautiful verdant world can have but a name,

So Juliene, I feel, is a just title to proclaim.

My first Juliene gave me reason enough to live

And my new Juliene has plenty of life to give.

Such a frail little stone in this cosmic gloom.

Oh, Juliene. Here is hope—a Starflight Ranger Dragoon.'

 

I boarded my steed's colt, the Majesty One A,

The craft with which I would touch Juliene's clay.

Her mother would stay aloft, flying 'round and 'round,

While the daughter and I head for the ground.

I checked the baby's systems, still so fresh and new.

We left the mother's dorsal womb for the rendezvous.

 

I spied my Majesty One, suddenly without a breath.

We broke away, leaving her so silent—still as death.

Although there was no hope for me, I surely realized

Only she could get me home again—the noble prize.

I knew that within her hull did my destiny reside.

I prayed that nothing ill befell my sleek celestial pride.

 

I also knew that this was a time of great change,

For I was for once lost, totally estranged,

With thoughts and gloom which did derange,

So I tried to imagine the good that would come

From this Juliene, although I did regret that some

Of what I would never see again was quite jocund.

 

Majesty One A and I breached the maidenhead

Of this new frontier and the vehemence was grand.

The ship glided downward, her belly burning red,

But she could survive this test to taste the land

Which glowed green and lush so far below

And claim a victory upon our Juliene's great meadow.

 

The virgin land would know life soon, though,

And it would again be good to know my weight.

It was true that I would have to reacclime,

But as a Ranger, it would take little time

To settle in and ponder my fates

And show that a Ranger is a true hero.

 

Despite courage, and regardless of grandest heroics,

Time passes much too slowly in one's solitude.

I felt an inexorable change in my life's attitude

While vainly attempting to drown my fears with stoics.

But the character alteration may have been for better

Because I felt that I was no longer fettered.

 

There was something strangely odd about this Juliene,

The Green World, with the sky of emerald sheen.

I found her envious glow somewhat pleasant, sure

As opposed to the boundless blue of home's depressant azure.

I felt myself more in touch with this place,

An overwhelming sensation, not a feeling in trace.

 

This world seemed to live and breathe and speak

To me as I dreamt. At first it was my mind,

I thought, and the weight of my waxing loneliness

But then I felt a soul so meek

Touch my heart and its entanglements unwind

In what, to me, was a love-seeker's caress.

 

I worked hard and long, always and forever: work.

I catalogued every breath of life abound,

Not a fowl, nor fish, nor beast did I shirk.

But there was that single life that was left unfound.

I could feel it in my sleep and in my heart,

Though its nature I could not dare to impart.

 

A month and many hours and my task was fulfilled.

The planet was known, from every ridge and hill

To every inch of her icy aquamarine submarine.

If I had known where my home world could have been,

I would have sent for the first of the colonists,

But, for the serenity of Juliene, could I have done this?

 

It was my duty as a Starflight Ranger

To set the foundation and construct the manger

For the masses. But this world? So much purity.

Could I see her ravaged, even for Humanity's security?

Juliene was alive and fresh with soul-fulminations!

She became my shrine. I would not allow desecration.

 

I would have to leave this world behind,

Lest evil should prevail upon this world of mine.

If the Humans came, they would pillage, rape,

And vanquish this rolling graminaceous 'scape

Which I had found from the lifeless stones

So prevalent amongst the universe's guerdon.

 

To the rest of my still beloved Humankind,

This world would have the mark of desolation

And be forever avoided by others like me.

But I would always remember how to find

Juliene, my sacred place of sweet reverie,

A land to be spared the threat of contamination.

 

Yet as I spent my last hours upon her,

The fear-dreams of her solitude recurred.

How could I leave this Juliene as well

When she did so many of my fears dispel

With her comforting, unsoiled, chasten atmosphere?

How could I leave her in her lonesome despair?

 

In all of my thoughts, there was no rationale

As to why I should feel this way and how

I could feel the needs of this—woman!

Yes. I could see the prints upon the sand,

And feel her sweetness against my heart.

I found myself unable to desire to depart.

 

I sat idle for many days—searching

For a way to explain to myself the

Heart-felt love for this world and my latent

Unwillingness to leave. The desire became so great

That nothing from my past was of any real

Consequence. Only my new Juliene mattered.

Then, one eve as I was about to retire, an

Almost eerie green glow encompassed my meager

Abode. But I did not fear this parade,

For I heard its gentleness in the utterance

Of my name. I stared into the glow and

Could not help but to smile when I

Saw that the radiance was a woman, blue-green

Silk-clad. Her green eyes smiled at

Me. I said: "Juliene?", but she said:

"To you, but I am Gessa."

Her presence sent my poor heart lurching;

I had never seen a woman of such beauty

Before meeting with this ethereally exotic maiden.

She was as tall as I, she did enervate

Me, my need to excogitate this, the woman ideal,

Was lost and my solitude was quickly shattered.

I took her into my humble little habitation

And badly feigned that I was not so eager

To do so. With her silk gown glowing jade,

Her eyes caught mine; I gasped: "Gessa, Deliverance!"

 

SEQUENCE FOUR: STARFARER'S PARADISE

 

Gessa, in a word, is utter fascination;

She was beauty, intelligence beyond imagination.

I could not comprehend my emotional barrage,

Nor could I withstand her sparkling collage

Of pure and innocence so softly white.

I was enraptured by her emerald sight.

 

She showed me things about her lands

That my survey could never have seen.

She explained every little thing first hand,

Telling me of her life so freshly green.

Green was the color of her life, she had said.

She would show me; onward she led.

 

And I saw what she'd meant by the phrase.

The flame of life and sentience was ablaze

In every speckle cast upon the breeze,

And even in the sounds from the stirred leaves,

Did the gift of life abound. It took me by surprise

To find that everything on the world was alive.

 

I asked her how this could ever be.

She spread her arms: "Look at me.

I walk, I breathe, I speak with you --

Something that any living woman can do.

Everything that you see about is I.

I am Gessa, this world, and I am alive."

 

I wanted to flee, but I could not,

For her eyes held me to my spot.

I was certain that I'd gone insane.

Thoughts and feelings I could not ascertain

Ran rampant through my every thought.

She took my arm and held me taut.

 

A smile settled upon her gay visage;

Her eyes sparkled a serene mirage.

They calmed my fears, gave me peace,

Offered my soul a duly welcome release.

I could only accept her little gift,

Which mended and sealed my cold heart's rift.

 

Then she took me into her magnificent home:

A cavern with a celestial, turquoise ceiling-dome,

Pillars, big as mountains, of golden topaz,

A floor of jade, diamond and ruby amass.

I had to shade my awed eyes from the glare,

For the place out-shone any solar flare.

 

We went deep into the world's warm heart,

The marvels never ceasing, growing more wonderful

With each step, giving me the strangest feel

That nothing could ever—ever!—make me depart.

I was in Nirvana—my vision of the ideal idyll.

To my every sense did Gessa's home appeal.

 

Or should I say Gessa? She was the world

And the world's everything. She was its peaks,

It valleys, its seas—every wave, every purl.

And about everything does the Ranger seek,

Yet no one would know of all of this;

I didn't find it. Ergo, it didn't exist.

 

Gessa giggled as if she'd read my thoughts,

And we sat in the underground meadow

Upon a placement of soft silk and sweet satin.

A Harpy eagle, its brown-white plumes aflow,

Delivered us a basket full of savory fruits.

It rose, gracefully roosting on Gessa's shoulder bow.

 

I quickly fell back, gorged on the sweetest nectars.

Gessa's fruits were much more tasty than Earth's

And her silks and satins were much, much softer.

She caressed my face, gently closed my eyes.

Her siren's voice whispered a tranquil lullaby.

I fell asleep and dreamt beneath the turquoise sky.

 

Her sweet voice arose a mild tempest in the

Cavern as well as in my love-wrought heart.

The words brought tears to her eyes and sleep

To mine. She was suddenly so full of triste

And my dreams were not of eternal bliss.

She sang and the melancholy words were this:

 

*** Leave love lonely, send him away from you

He will return some other day

But love won't ever be the same.

 

Sleep so soundly, listen to my symphony

Don't feel so lonely

Its just the thought of one missing kiss.

 

Hum my melody, think of me when skies grow grey

You are so far away

Yet I can still feel your heart.

 

Leave love lonely, she's just a fading dream

Mount your stellar steed

Seek the sunset—ride so fast.

 

You are my everything, not just some fleeting scene

But our love can never be

Still I wish to God it could.

 

So please, please leave me—simply go away

But first taste my tears,

The sweet sorrow of our shattered selves.

 

Leave love lonely—don't ever come again

Love is fallacy

Just leave its worthlessness behind. ***

 

The song ended and I awoke in tears.

Even her head was low with silent despair.

She looked even more beautiful in that mood --

A certain innocence of something so truly good.

Her eyes were wide and glistening like seas.

They were overburdened with distressing pleas.

 

I embraced her body; it was shivering cold,

And my heart could feel its agonies unfold.

We both stood silently and left her keep,

But I already knew that something was wrong.

A sense of loss was nestling deep and strong;

Our companies would part—away our love would seep.

 

I asked the problem, but she would not say --

Only that I had over worn my stay.

Yet her eyes told me that it was much more;

Still I inquired until she cried and swore:

"I have shown you my most private site,

A deed that will bring me much, much spite."

 

"A world has many secrets, some of which it shares

With those who seek. Some should never be gazed upon

By mortal eyes and that is where the true spirit

Of the world resides. Your entering into my abode has

Contaminated it. You have entered into my secret

Spot and now I—this world—am spoiled."

 

I apologized—but she took the total blame.

She had known better, but wanted to show

One of the fallen and forsaken, me, what wonders

Our fall from grace has cost us—how tame

The cosmos could be. She had blundered,

To, herself, be cast into the chaos rampant below.

 

I knew of what she spoke and shuddered.

My God.

 

SEQUENCE FIVE: CAST FROM GRACE

 

I slowly packed my gear into Majesty One A.

I had not entered her for over one year.

Gessa watched as I labored night and day --

Toiling constantly so as to conceal my fear

For her from her. I was simply so afraid,

For my Gessa would soon—forever—simply disappear.

 

Everything dies, returning from whence it was wrought,

Regardless of size, strength or the battles its fought

And from its remains, other things are then formed

Till they die and again things are reborn.

The cycle never ends and probably never will.

But the thought of Gessa's end haunts me still.

 

Her end would come in a split-second burst,

Completely tearing her perfect form asunder,

Showering the cosmos with a brand new blossom.

It would receive the gift of Gessa's flotsam,

But the hungry universe is still full of thirst

Just as it's still full of mystery and wonder.

 

I made certain that my equipage was complete,

That all of my gear could be accounted for,

For what good is a Starflight Ranger

If he cannot avoid even simple danger?

My flight to wherever would be some venture,

One fraught with an unfelt desire to be discreet.

 

'What would life unshared with Gessa mean to me?

I would only be consumed by greater misery

Than already abound in the dark realm above.

I might even destroy myself for that lost love,

So beclouded with sorrow will be my thoughts:

Teleology, existentialism, nihilism—so distraught.'

 

But I had to go—coerced by some repelling force.

Gessa's pleas. And pain I was so wrought with

That, as I prepared to board Majesty

One A and finally did, I did not even kiss

Poor Gessa good-bye. I just had to get away as

Quickly, quietly, and calmly as I ever dared to.

 

Even so, there was still not much haste;

I had many hours still left to waste.

I sat in the cockpit, the canopy left ajar

And allowed my thoughts to stray deep and far.

I thought about home and dreamt of love,

Queried: Is there a God still above?

 

The Answer came to me quite readily:

The sudden tempests grew in ferocity steadily,

While the green sky churned into an awesome Maelstrom,

Depicting for me the coming of Gessa's doom.

My eyes could scarcely believe such utter chaos,

Or stand the sight of Gessa's life being lost.

 

I began to dismount the Majesty One A,

My only wish was to with my dear Gessa stay.

But her eyes, once again, held me at bay

As they pleaded for me to make my get-away.

Though it was against my every heart-felt desire,

I initiated count-down: thrusters heating to fire.

 

The canopy slid ever so gently into place,

Shutting Gessa's dying tempest-breath from my face.

I will never forget that delicious sweet air

Or how it stirred harshness jumbled her hair.

Trees toppled, moss and leaves torn aloft,

Rains flooding over the grass so coolly soft.

 

During her destruction, Gessa never departed me.

Her eyes, bright green orbs mixed with glee,

Sadness, and love fixed upon those of mine,

Eyes with nothing left to make them shine.

I was sad, hurt, lovelorn, and duly scared.

How could I ever find a love like we'd shared?

 

I turned from her upward stare and throttled-up.

Majesty's vertical thrusters lifted us readily above

Gessa's floundering trees and into the turmoil's heart.

Lightning licked the Majesty like dust settling in the dark

And the hurricanes buffeted us no more the greater.

I looked down at Gessa once more, nothing more

Than a dot from my height, but I never looked back.

 

At one hundred metres, Majesty One A turned,

Her nav systems having found Majesty One's berth

Somewhere high above the tumult all around me.

The main drives flared with grand force 'a-plenty,

Supercharged ions spraying like flame from A's rear.

A thunderous roar filled the suddenly boiling air.

 

We were away like an unwanted shot,

Climbing upward through an atmospheric despot

Of thunder, lightning, rain—an elemental cavalcade

Which consumed my Gessa in a turbulent tirade.

The power was immense—dwarfing that of the A

But we had more than enough might to finally break away.

 

I gazed upon the world for a final, final time

As the A found the mother resting pricelessly fine.

A sad sight was Gessa world, I couldn't help to see:

From Paradise to Hell, unlike that time Prima Facie.

I had found Paradise in the Bowels of all Perdition,

Yet only Hell abounded in my tearful vision.

 

She was green no more, churning carefully to grey.

Life was lost to a voracious death mask of dismay.

She no longer was the beacon to guide me hither,

But another reminder that everything will wither.

And as I boarded the Majesty One after so long,

I thought woefully about my Gessa's sleepy song.

 

I shook my head as the tachyonic drive erupted

After a long, cold slumber. A world left corrupted,

Destroyed by love. How could love do something

As such? Or was it done by this foolish Human being.

The fallen looking upon Paradise. Such naughty pretension.

God has no image, just boundless, incomprehensible dimension.

 

Gessa died to show me a bit of Paradise. She wanted me,

Of the fallen and forsaken, of the restless and the aimless,

In my despair and hopelessness, to see how God's beauty,

From lifeless stone to the open heart of a heavenly woman,

Permeates everything and exists as everything,

Something that she was not allowed to do, though able,

For the fallen and those who search for truth in vanity,

Should not be allowed to gaze upon the perfection they lost

Without Redemption.

I was just that. I was nothing.

 

Majesty One accelerated from Gessa's system with haste,

Yet this fact was ever-present on my mind:

I had no idea of how to my dear Earth find!

I seemed destined to roam forever the vacuous wastes.

Plus another dreadful realization was evident upon my face:

I was a pariah—ousted, lost, Cast from Grace.

 

 

SEQUENCE SIX: LEAVE LOVE LONELY

 

Once again I was the bold Starflight Ranger Two Nine Three

Whose first mission exercised utter futility.

Still, I was imperturbable, implacable and efficient.

I swore I would defeat the black firmament,

And find my Home world before my death--

Even if I had to span Creation's breadth.

 

Majesty One—a truly majestic, magnificent machine

Raced me headlong into the welkin's arcana unseen,

Bound for nowhere at a speed dwarfing light

And no hope for salvation in farthest sight.

Still, I followed my heart, instinct, and nose--

A Ranger can't get lost, as far as that goes.

 

The pain of Gessa's demise was slow to dissipate,

For there was only my Majesty to help commiserate.

She was great, but she lacked emotionalities

To help ease my never-ending, sigh-filled pleas.

Only her faultless efficiency kept me sane,

Though that doesn't mean insanity refrained.

 

I was forced to humor myself with Gessa's song

And I tenored the words all-month-long.

Then, I hearkened on a hidden hunch,

A clue in the words—an enlightening punch!

I eased Majesty One about: -270°, z-axis set;

The Sunset Nebula was my best only last bet.

 

It was something I surpassed en route to disaster,

So I named it "Sunset" for its red-orange nebulosity

And the old cowboy imagery. I thought I was master

But I still had yet to find someone's vindictive treachery.

Since those days were long past and I was homebound,

I knew at least where the "Sunset" could be found.

 

I urged my Majesty's thrusters to burn full and bright,

Her electronic eyes the vigilant watchmen of the eternal night.

Unfamiliar moiré flashed before this Ranger's eyes,

And I named them all—it was my solitary franchise.

Yet, we did not catch a glimpse of the golden "Sunset,"

Much to my chagrin; my hope was all but an epithet.

 

I was lost without a prayer for a second reprieve.

I'd been given one: when I happened across my emerald harbor.

Yet she died for my encroachment—my violation--

While I was abandoned to my complete, aimless desolation

And rocketed into the void, with nothing left to barter,

My thoughts of Gessa a constant reminder to doubly bereave.

 

In the depths of my gloom, I contemplated suicide.

Overload the generators and blow my Majesty to mesons.

But it was only a thought, albeit an easy one to deride,

For I knew that that would be dual acts of treason.

The first to me and those who still prayed for me

And to Gessa, who was thriving only in my memory.

 

So I placed my transmitter to automatic distress,

Kicked up my heels, and Majesty One did the rest,

Churning through space and nether space like curd

Floating on the milk from Black Angus herds.

It gave me chills that she was so truly grand,

There was no place safer, save God's hand.

 

We stormed and plunged and traveled wide,

No hope, no faith, no love on our side,

But as the radio hissed with cosmic storms

And Majesty One breezed in effortless form,

A voice erupted from my speaker phone

Like a mystical passage to a time long gone.

 

I jumped in awe of the radio's sudden alert,

I grasped the transmitter, and screamed in curt:

'Majesty One, Ranger Two-Nine-Three

Requesting a heading to Starflight outpost proximate.'

I was ecstatic—feeling a sort of Victory,

Knowing that there was a God most passionate.

 

The voice, I recognized, was my greatest antagonist's,

A fellow whom I hated, one whom I truly missed

During my adventure into the Creation so vast,

And to be back to my lovely Juliene at last!

His voice said: "Hey, my boy! Welcome home!

Your course is true. For God's sake, don't roam."

 

He was pleased that I'd at last returned,

Said he'd search for me until the end of time.

But his joy was short-lived as he matched the One.

He was to be my salvation, but his heart burned,

For he told me that my love was so, so blind.

He told me about all that my Juliene had done.

 

I was aghast that he should even merely consider

That she would ever have been so damned bitter

As to deliberately sabotage my guidance systems,

But he knew my mishap; I could only listen.

My heart sank as he explained the whole situation.

I couldn't stand his talk of Juliene's cruel machinations.

 

He led me in—my buddies all overcome with glee.

Yet I, a Starflight Ranger, had been deceived.

By my heart, I fell victim to my lover's spite,

Though I had done nothing to arouse this in her.

But even so, she had attempted to lose me my life,

An unforgivable act, in spite of what anyone might confer.

 

To think that I had had a true love lost forever

To find a love truer than any heart could endeavor,

Only to have that love so brutally taken,

Sent on a trip that even gods would have forsaken,

To finally discover that my first love was invidious.

I never knew that life could be so insidious.

 

Oh, Gessa, what was it that you sang to me;

It is too truly true: "Love is fallacy."

I spanned some 500 million light years,

Only to discover that love is the creator of despair.

But I am a Starflight Ranger, and I have found

Nothing, save a love I can't ever, ever share.

 

THE END

© 1987