Bodies of Light by Lisabet Sarai Read Free Book Online

froze. Most plant and animal species became extinct. We retreated into underground burrows and tried to tap the heat at the planet’s molten core. Instead we triggered huge earthquakes that buried most of our subterranean settlements.”
    Zed’s fluid baritone cracked. He seemed unable to go on. Alyn reached across Christine’s body to squeeze Zed’s hand. Christine could hardly bear to look at the bronzed god’s pain-racked face.
    The silver-haired alien resumed the tale where Zed had left off. “We realised our mistakes far too late. We had developed interstellar travel, but pushing matter through hyperspace requires vast amounts of energy. Our supplies of the mineral we used for fuel had dwindled. The quakes destroyed the few mines that remained. Our star ships offered no hope of escape. Finally, we had no choice but to slough off our material bodies and become pure energy ourselves.”
    “What? What are you talking about?” Christine swivelled her seat around to face Alyn. But it was Zed who answered, after sliding off of his chair to sit cross-legged at her feet. He gazed up at her, gauging her reactions to the fantastic tale.
    “Intelligent beings are an amalgam of matter and energy. Consciousness, spirit, soul, astral body—there are many terms—is the energic component. Normally that component is tightly bound to the material body. But it’s possible to set the spirit-energy free. Earth’s mystics have always known of this. Meditation, drugs, sex—there are various techniques for loosening the bonds that trap the astral self in the physical body.”
    “Sex?” Christine’s pussy dampened as she recalled the strange, unending bliss of her last orgasm.
    Alyn nodded. “Deep emotion, intense concentration, great pain or great pleasure all have the potential to temporarily release the energic self from its material bonds.”
    “But those effects are only temporary,” added Zed. “In our case, we had to permanently leave our bodies behind. Our material selves perished with our poor, abused planet. Now we are bodies of light, free to travel the universe at will.”
    There was a tinge of irony in his voice that Christine didn’t completely understand. “So, you can fold space?” she asked, not even trying to hide her eagerness. “You can move faster than light?”
    “We are light. But yes, as your people have hypothesised, the venerable constant c is not the fixed limit it seems to be. And the equations that permit faster-than-light travel simplify dramatically when there is no matter involved.”
    “Show me,” she demanded, starting to rise. “Teach me.”
    Zed caught her hand and pulled her back down into her seat. “Patience, darling. You said you wanted the whole story. We’re not quite done.”
    “Okay, okay. So all the inhabitants of your planet turned themselves into beings of pure energy and flew away?”
    “There weren’t all that many of us remaining. And we couldn’t bear to leave, not at first. We watched from space as our planet tore itself apart. Our meddling at the core had started a chain reaction. In a matter of a few months, our home was transformed into a vast belt of rubble orbiting our star.”
    “It was terrible,” whispered Alyn.
    “After that—well, the death of the planet killed something in our spirits, too.” Zed released a deep sigh, as though it was difficult for him to go on. “Shame and grief ripped us apart as thoroughly as our world. We all dispersed in different directions, fleeing to the far ends of the universe. Now each of us wanders the reaches of space, eternally alone, haunted by the loss of our home. Free, yes. Alive, in a sense. But broken.”
    “But you and Alyn…”
    “A stroke of blind luck that we found each other.” Zed leant back to smile up at his lithe companion. “Somehow our mutual loneliness drew us together. He has done much to heal my spirit. We’ve been travelling together since.”
    “Then we emerged from hyperspace at the