Warmth by J.H. Siegal

Asatta fussed over her warmth-membrane and scanned the flat horizon of the little planet, searching for a spark of orange light. Blue wisps of ice and dust curled about the skyline. Anjett was late returning. Soon she would have to enter the dwelling and close it off, leaving him to the intractable cold of the planet’s night.

Anjett had been distracted by something in the sky on the far side of the little planet, something so beautiful it had held him fast: a spasm of colors in the sky that pulsed into brilliant radiating spears. One of the faraway energy-gathering creatures had expired, leaving glimmering streaks in the firmament.

It would leave a hole that must be filled.

Feeling the distant sun retreat, Anjett turned away from the sky and pushed hard for the dwelling, pulling his body into a streamline shape, throwing light against the ground. Asatta would need to shut him out if he were late. Worse, if he froze to death, his reinvigoration would delay the repair of the energy-gathering net.

He estimated he would make it, but barely.

#

Asatta stiffened her form when she spied the spark of orange light, blue-grey plumes of ice fanning out behind it. The spark slammed into her, Anjett returning home, and they tumbled into the dwelling together, their forms intertwining, the door tight behind them.

They shed their warmth-membranes in the orange glow of the dwelling, grateful to be home together. Anjett slurped at the energy provision, whose stem glowed yellow and burbling, feeding life into his form.

Asatta teased him for staying out so long. She would have closed the dwelling.

Anjett told her how he witnessed a gatherer grace the sky with its gorgeous death, how it transfixed him on the cold plain, how it had left a hole in the energy-gathering web.

Asatta burbled in the fuzz of her dwelling seat, while Anjett sent forth an arm to rest upon her.

They would have work to do, they both knew, and soon.

#

When the sun next arose, a dot far away and bleak, Asatta and Anjett grew warmth-membranes and raced along the bare surface of the little planet.

Anjett guided them to the proper spot, and Asatta turned to face the sky.

She saw twinkling strands trailing the edges of the horizon, the diffusion of the deceased gatherer into space.

Asatta flared her body out from under her warmth-membrane, let the planet’s cold seep into her form. It felt appropriate, a solemn response to the death of the energy gatherer, their faraway child.

Anjett sprouted an arm and reached to touch her, to share in the cold.

Together, they watched a black place in the sky, now empty of their young.

#

Their dwelling, a squat dome anchored to the dark little planet, resonated inside with a suffusive orange light. The home was adorned with comforts and necessities for their indefinite stay: sitting places sprouted downy tendrils that soothed and stimulated, the walls and floor swirled with entrancing patterns of red and orange, and the energy provision hummed happily, fed by the energy-gathering nets far away in the sky.

Since ages of the faraway star, since before Asatta and Anjett had volunteered for this post, the energy provision had never faltered. By this, they knew that the gathering nets were still out there, that the others of their kind, remote beyond measure, were well.

Asatta sat by the energy provision, gorging herself.

Across the reaches of space, millions of pairs of volunteers lived long existences staked to remote outposts, tending and replenishing the great web of gatherers soaking energy, feeding their civilization.

It was the most noble life, and they had been well prepared for it, their bodies remade for this special purpose, their minds remolded for the long, long stay.

Asatta detached from the energy provision and lay on the resting place. Pleasant waves of shapes flowed about the wall. She had a low feeling, almost like she wanted to abandon their safe and cozy nest, but she knew this was not her own feeling exactly.

The door of the dwelling flashed open and closed, and Anjett appeared within.

She told him of this foreign-seeming longing to leave.

“It’s our child within you who wants to leave,” he said.

#

Carefully, Anjett and Asatta moved out onto the surface of the planet. They faced one another and embraced for a long time, gathering resolve.

Anjett moved aside and produced an arm that intertwined with Asatta’s form. He poured an energy toward her, as if a breath, and she thinned the membrane of her body, expanding, sending aloft a silvery unspooling from within her.

The filament rose and began to spread, billowing out into a translucent blanket across the sky, rippling iridescent color flowing along it. The gauzy new being caught the meager atmosphere and hung above them, its tail flowing still from within Asatta, its upper edges floating over them to tease the little planet’s horizon.

Then it loosed itself from Asatta’s form, and Anjett watched it unfurl across the expanse of the sky, shimmering, rising into space, a lilt of light catching it here and there as it receded, wavering, disappearing into the dark, to take its place in the web of the gatherers.

#

Anjett watched the sky for some time, until its bleakness had erased the image of the gatherer. He turned and took up Asatta’s empty form. With his remaining energy, he carried her back to the little dwelling.

There, he laid her on the resting place. Its tendrils began to work their way into her. After many turns around the faraway star, Asatta would be replenished. After ages wafting through the cold sky, their young gatherer would join the great web.

The energy provision bubbled, unfaltering.

Anjett prepared himself for the long lonely wait in the warm little dwelling.

J.H. Siegal

Image: A view of the cosmos in red and grey from Pixabay.com