Narrator, one foot away from Nostromo:

So,
what do they have in common?

Xin, a slave worker on an unnamed off-world colony,
a nameless soldier-terrorist in a castle on a mysterious planet,
a nun in a crowded monastery on a ravaged planet,
a rubbish collector on a dirty planet,
a day-dreaming astronomer on Europa,
an engineer, former war refugee on Europa,
a zen master on a Taoist planet,
an ecology student in roaming, free space,
the spirit of Europa, Jupiter’s satellite, and her volcanic sister Io,

And
Kyniska and Arion, space buccaneers…

Friend. If sailor tales to sailor tunes… quoting from Billy Bones:

“Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight,
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.”

the taoist

informal talking, breathlessly. you may think you know suffering. I am a master of nothing.

in this post-apocalyptic sky-scraping Europa, dolphins are not the only intelligent beings left.
what is the point of such intelligence if the door mat is now aware?
defy me, and you will encounter the wrath of my wife. I have two children, and they have me.
I used to think that you’d make a good student. You once wrote such excellent essays.
I trusted you with the blood of my blood, and this is how you repay me. You no longer
listen to the radio in the morning. You are such a cunt. My father was a soldier, and
my mother – not a saint. I used to be a fisherman. The lonely expanse of water.
You do not have a beginner’s mind. I used to think that you’d make a good student.
I used to think that you’d make a good student. I used to think that you’d make a good student.
Cycle, across the multi-verse, restlessly. Do not ever give up. My words are where my arse is.

Now finally, I see myself as I am. I am not a teacher, I am not a student. If Ch’an is what
you think you seek, then be else. What ends in Hellas, begins in Nihon. Just do it.
Sit still, now – your spine erect. Your hands in a mudra, do not waste my time. I do get angry.
Informally, I still retain my dignity. Formally, I am a man of knowledge. In the cup of tea, ten
ox-herding shadows, provisionally you may have noticed the traces. Drink up, and shut up. I banish
you.

XXIV.

Zot. Chubby pulls the plug. ‘Snap
out of it, Mr John C’. The Borovoe
download has long finished, the left
over files are sql-dumped on this

floppy drive’. In the % identity
that’s left on Titan, the hologram
flickers, and the happenings inside
the black hole take over. Time to

XXV.

Take over the Precision Tower. Medusa
is frightened and angry, she advances
towards Mount Olympus. The length of
her alignment with her stars is unknown.

She runs, as an individual, as a woman,
as a dramatic figure in an advancing
sketch. Now words are falling over into
the abyss. ‘I must confront Zeus – he’s’

XXVI.

‘the devious architect of this injustice.’
A thousand mobile phones appear in the air,
and swipe her to the left. She picks up
where she left off. ‘I must resume my %

identity, losing track of my ideals and
my memory is what chauvinist Zeus wants.
So the king of gods swoops down, ending
her ascent. Medusa shivers, ‘My rage, cold’

XXVI.

‘bloodless. I need strength, yet all I want
is to give up. My knees would rise to rival
pyramids.’ Zeus smiles. ‘My darling, little
woman. There is an ocean between us, and

what you need to do is pause and crouch,
cover your mind with yellow double duvets,
let your heart shit your compassion out,
we in Olympus frown on your little insurgency.’

XXVII.

‘I am most disappointed in you. You should
have died a witch at the hands of my half-breed
son, and be done with it. All this wondrous
name-calling, pow-wow spinning of poetic

narcissism is most unwelcome – you’re just a
voice in the maelstrom of twittering and face
booking. You’ve been swiped. Your % identity
is all spent, you have shed your beauty, hence’

XXVIII.

‘you are no longer part of this world, your
diagram has long been cancelled, because no
one is watching. You’ve been misled. I know
you think you have some sort of power in your

mind and some sort of agility in your legs,
and yet can you see that cloudless sky, that
Acropolis of power, it kisses heaven. You do
not belong there, you belong in the muck.’

XXIX.

‘Wake up, from your hateful fantasises, all
the bones of the slain surround you, the
authority lies in the sky and you may never
reach it, my power spreads idly below, your

blood may be hot, and coming out of your skin
now, but soon, with time, it will be dried
like painted hair on your perished skull.
The snakes in your heart will be fed with my’

XXX.

‘landmark thunderbolts… you see Medusita,
you are a gargantuan failture, you have built
a fortress in your heart to guard yourself
against the sweeping machismo of the world.

what a fool you have been, your place is
not in this room, or another room, your place
has been erased from the floppy drive, the
precision Tower is multi-threshering your’

XXXI.

‘time, your ideas, your shadow. I rob you now
of your shadow, because I can, because I am
mighty, because I am king of heaven, and because
you do not deserve a waking life. I condemn

you to a comatose existence at the bottom
of yonder garden, in a shallow grave, unheard,
speechless, robotic, wiped clean from the
board of wild-life, from the natural world.’

XXXII.

‘Your memory will be erased, the memory of you
shall also be spent, and in a thousand years,
while your sleepless haunting continues, I shall
review the best way forward, whether to let you

arise from your purple tomb and let you crawl
at my feet, or to unlock the wrath of all whirl fucking
winds, and spin you to crash onto a volcano, or a
half-decent man, who – I will ensure – will subdue you.’

XXXIII.

‘Wake me up, John C, from this nightmare.’ Chubby
is stunned to hear of The Nation’s authoritarian
wars against the spirit and the flesh. A gigantic
bomb has wiped out a section of the multi-verse.

John C is only half-human now, the wires have taken
over him. And while the computer wires take over
his mind, Chubby drinks tea, alone in her consciousness
that in the real world outside that Titan window

XXXIV.

The debate between Ahura Mazda and herself is still
raging, and the Griffinese ships are readying themselves
for yet another plunder and sack, and pirates of the
multiverse are roaming in search of treasure to hoard.

In the darkness, she weeps at the sight of the methane
boils bursting from the lake below, and she knows that
dying in the snow a long time ago may have been a good
choice. And yet, looking at the mountains she is somehow

XXXV.

reassured. In the black hole, the legend continues.
The multi-verse spins and seems to burn and spear the
reflections of atoms into a ghost of purpose. Will you
sit with me on the Acropolis of Corinth, looking past

the ridge, to the advancing waters, lapping now here,
now there – until the winged horse will fly once more,
and the dolphins may once more rescue guitar players?
Aphrodite, come back and continue wandering bright.

XVIII.

Enter Dolos. D “I am not just making copies, I sell
the Truth, or not at all. I am a spirit of the evening.
I deal in information, extracting sunbeams out of
cucumbers, straight out of the University of Laputa.

Believe you me, things are predetermined. The illusion
of history is a grand illusion. My master Prometheus
taught me the tricks of the trade. Where there is fire,
… there’s a lot of smoke. What doesn’t kill you, makes”

XIX.

“you a liar. So Perseus is secretely plotting to kill,
to see the real version of himself. He must have
run out of clay. His friend in polyamory knows better.”

Enter Gorgon, deep in confusion and despair.
G “My schizo mind goes faster, and faster.
Let time slide on. What do I do with this lump
of meat [ holds a severed, bleeding penis ] ?”

XX.

“Is it evening, now? So soon? The clouds have
not parted ways. My ego fades at the sight of
interior doom. I have castrated Perseus, the liar.
He tried to kill me, the fool. I have seen worse

in my stub of life. I am amazed at the similarity
between the man I loved and this deceitful monster.
[ sees the spirit of guile ] Dolos, what are you doing here?”
D “Nothing, my friend, I am just painting a picture of”

XXI.

“the moon in a garden run by the slow burning energy
of Numinous Selene, her wavy kisses and crafty spells.”
G “I fantasized about a youth – languid-eyed and loving.
This forest is haunted. Athena cast me aside. Poisedon

raped me. I summoned my wits. I embraced a hero.
This is my reward [ shows the penis to Delos ].
I entered this wood alone. Alone, I must proceed.
Delos, tell me the truth. Are wild animals sleeping now?”

XXII.

“What am I to do with this bled-out piece of truth?
My eyes are straying, my hands tremble. Some god
of affliction has given me this night to grieve. When
remedy is exhausted, so is grief. I am deathless.”

D “I myself have lost all friends. I have been banned
by all the band of brothers that I used to associate with.
It is so late now, we are all beyond redemption, just
waiting for Nemesis to pluck snakes from our poisoned”

XXIII.

“breasts. I wonder where we’ll be tomorrow. This century
holds true to my work. Trees face long-time tremors.”
G “I will challenge you, Dolos. You are here to trick
me, just as Perseus did. I can see through you.

You are trying to get something from me. But what is it?
Power? Money? Pussy? Predestination? I fear I cannot
tolerate another man’s skullfuckery. I have decided to
turn against all of the male kingdom. Slime-moulds beware.”

XI.

In the play – onwards towards mushrooms and pills.
Enter Mnemnosyne. M “If I were to be born again,
I would be a private investigator. I think Tokyo
would do. But as it stands, I am the Goddess of

memory, Perseus. I have come to remind you of
what truly happened. Do you remember what you
did when you first met the Gorgon? I don’t take
sides. But it would be desirable for you to get”

XII.

“your facts straight. I am so tired of fact-checking
all the liars and tricksters of this world. How many
lies did you tell to get by? Surely you have forgotten.
I am here, I can remind you of all the half-truths,

the full lies, the screaming-your-pants-off type hubris,
and the mostly true but badly spun, Arachnidous lies.
If you are not disgusted with yourself, you will be
after I am done with you. Perseus, do you remember?

XIII.

P “I honestly don’t remember. True, I have spun a few
stories. But surely, I think everyone does. We all
tell a few tall tales in order to survive. Don’t you?
Doesn’t memory have a conscience? I am so tired of this

life, you have no idea. Athena wants one thing, Zeus
wants another. My mother came out of her coffin in the
ocean to nag me all my life. Gorgon has certain expectations,
the other women in my life have others. Have you considered”

XIV.

That it may be a little hard to please Andromeda? She’s
all high and mighty with her princess thing, and she still
has not gotten over the thing that I have slipped into bed
with Medusa. I mean, it’s been so many years since we

fucked. Honestly. And ok, I do still love her. So what
am I supposed to tell her? That I don’t love the Gorgon?
Honestly, I don’t know what is true or false any longer.
So memory, now, indeed. Do tell all about the Truth. I am”

XV.

“Ready.” M “But in this version of the myth, you’re just
a puppet thrown around by bullies. Or are you? The innocent
hero-child? You’ve got some nerve. I have daughters, you
know. And some of them are infatuated with you. You! The

little shit thinks he can get away with anything! Not under
my watch, you’re not! I am so angry with you, I can’t even
speak. I can’t articulate a sentence. I am here to remind
you of your sins. You went to the Gorgon with full intention”

XVI.

“to kill, that is one thing. You never did fall in love with
her, you half-hearted moron. You’ve just been biding your
time for lack of spine. You could not bring yourself to slay
her because you are a coward, not anything else. You know this.”

P “Where’s your evidence? And by the way, your daughters like
me because I have lovely sandals, because I am a hero. I have
a great ride. Granted, not as good a Bellerophon. For some
reason people mix us up. I’ve always preferred flying by myself”

XVII.

“I am not ashamed of my deeds. I have a pretty reflection, any
Pre-Raphaelite will tell you. I am brave, I am honest. I have
fought my way up, like everyone else – despite all odds. I wasn’t
born into a love nest. My life has been suffering and blood

spilling. Have mercy on me, Mnemosyne. Goddamit, your name is
hard to pronounce. I think I might go out with Erato one of these
days. She’s got a cute ass. I am not so very interested in her
lyrics, but she does seem to have a voice. So rare, these days.”