Kaw#2 – Seabreeze

Seabreeze

What is the purpose of a man? I was asked that once by one of my teachers. That was a long time ago on a planet so far away that it seems to be a dream now. I never could answer that question. Not until the events of that hot night. Now I know the answer. I was taught the answer by a very special woman. Her name is Seabreeze, and we stand now inside her looking through the glass between us and the stars beyond.

How did this start? It started on that dream planet so long ago. Come sit down, and I will tell you a tale of how I was born.

Are you sitting comfortably?

—

Randal Pendragon was traveling through the deserts of New Mexico. He was one of those rare individuals who truly loved to be alone. The company at which he worked had sent him out here to survey a land parcel they had recently acquired. They planned to build a new test facility, and this god-forsaken place was where they wanted it. Randall could not figure out why they wanted it out here.

He had camping equipment in the back of his jeep and he looked for a good area to set up, so he could explore in the morning.

His recent divorce was still fresh in his mind and the time away would do him some good.

The survey team would be out there in two days. He was supposed to supervise them and determine the best location to build the new facility.

The evening sky was just darkening when he found a quiet spot at the base of a sheer cliff. It took him a little while to set up his tent and inflate his air mattress. Then he built a fire and started cooking his dinner.

As his steak sizzled in the pan, he noticed a dim light above him. There was a cave about a hundred feet up the cliff. He could just make out the entrance of it because of the dim light coming from inside it. He wondered why he had not seen this cave when he pulled up. It was big enough that it should have caught his eye.

He stepped to the other side of the fire so it was behind him and looked up at the cave. There seemed to be a ledge that zig-zagged across the face of the cliff. It looked like he could walk right up to the cave.

He contemplated the cave as he ate. What could be causing that glow? It seemed to get brighter as time passed.

He packed away his food supplies and locked them in the jeep. Then he wondered what kind of fool he was, as he pulled his flashlight out of his gear and started to walk towards the cliff.

At the very base of the cliff he found the ledge. It was wide enough to walk on easily, and meandered back and forth as it went up the face of the cliff. He stepped onto the ledge and then pulled his foot back quickly. There had been a flash of anticipation. It had been the feeling of a long wait nearly being at an end. Why would he feel that way?

Slowly, he extended his foot again and placed it on the path. He did not get that feeling again. He chalked it all up to imagination and started to climb the steep ledge.

He would almost swear the glow was getting brighter as he moved upward. After a couple of switchbacks, he found he was not imagining it. The light was getting brighter. He could now see some detail around the entrance. The cave was about ten feet high and wide. It also looked to be a natural cave.

After about fifteen minutes, he made it to the entrance. He peeked around the edge and looked into the mouth of the cave. The glow was coming from around a bend deeper in the cave.

Randal cursed under his breath. He felt he was being a fool. The light blue glow could not be coming from a lantern or fire. The only thing it could be was a radioactive glow. Then he cursed himself for a fool again. Radioactive glow, where had he come up with that?

He quietly moved into the cave so he could peek around the bend. When he looked, his eyes were greeted by something he could not believe. About a hundred feet further into the cave sat a woman. Her hair was snow white and she looked to be rather tall, maybe six feet. She was sitting on a rock and seemed to be reading a book. Above her head was a glowing blue sphere that seemed to focus its light on the book in her hand.

He watched for a while as she looked at the book, then he stepped out. “Are you alright?”, he asked more to get her attention than anything else. It was not good form to sneak up on people, even a beautiful woman sitting in a desert cave by herself.

The woman lowered her book and looked at him. Then she smiled and spoke. “Good. You are finally here. We can get started now.”

“Excuse me? Do we know each other?”

“We have never met, but I have been waiting on you for a very long time. Please come forward, my husband. We have many things to do and much to talk about.”

“Ma’am, I am afraid you have me confused with someone else. I am not your husband. I was camping below and saw the glow from your… light. I came up to investigate.”

The woman started to walk towards him slowly. He could see the dazzling smile on her face as she approached. “I am sorry. Like I said, I have been waiting on you for a very long time. I sometimes get lost in the temporal pathways. I forget what you were named when we first met. May I introduce myself, please?”

“I am not sure I understand what you are saying. My name is Randal Pendragon.”

“I am known as Seabreeze. I was christened with that name approximately five hundred thousand years from now. I have been waiting for you to arrive so we can fix things that need to be fixed. Please come in. I never bite unless you ask me to.” The woman was now close enough that he could see her eyes. They were sea foam green and an exact match for her dress. The dress was elegant and skin tight from just below her hips upward, with white cuffs and collar. The collar dipped into a deep V that plunged all the way past the belt line to the very top of her nether area. The lower part flared out into a flowing skirt that came just short of touching the ground.

“I really think you have me confused with someone else, ma’am. Do you need a ride back into town?”

Her laughter sounded like the singing of a thousand angels. It was a light tinkling thing that struck deep into the very bottom of his soul. “I think you are confused, Randal. I don’t need a ride. I am not trapped here. I am only waiting for you. Please, will you at least come and sit with me and let me answer some questions?”

Randal started to move forward. As he drew closer to her he could see that she was very pale, almost alabaster in color. “Ma’am, I am not sure who you think I am…”

“You are Randal Pendragon, you were born August twenty-fifth, nineteen-ninety. Your parents were killed in a car accident when you were nineteen years old. You have no living relatives and your wife of two years walked out on you. You have been granted a quick divorce do to your prenuptial agreement. You work for AXL Aerospace as a land management engineer. On your last birthday, you were so lonely you sought the solace of a prostitute for the first time in your life. She sold you her wares for half price in honor of your birthday. Shall I go on?”

Randal paled, who was this woman and how did she know so much about him? “I have to admit you do know about me at least. I am sure we have not met though. I would remember someone as beautiful as you are.”

“Thank you, my husband. Now could we please go to the rock and sit down? I have much to discuss with you and we have lots of plans to make.”

“Why do you keep calling me your husband?”

“I will explain all I can, if you will come with me and sit down. It is really a bit confusing. I do have some really fine Martian Brandy we can sip as we talk.”

“Ma’am, are you trying to tell me you are an alien?”

That delightful laughter rang out again. “I am not exactly an alien. I am not from the earth but my roots are laid down here. The man who designed me was born here. Please tell me how I can get you to come and sit with me. I have so much I need to talk about with you.”

Randal thought he must be losing his mind. This woman was obviously crazy, but somehow he was not afraid of her. He walked the rest of the way towards her. As he arrived she offered her arm to him and he wrapped his in hers. Then she led him back into the cave and to the rock where she had been sitting.

Once they were seated, she motioned with her hand and a glass appeared in it. Then she reached out and seemed to pluck a crystal decanter out of the air. From it she poured a snifter of brandy. Then she offered it to him.

Randal held the glass up to his nose and smelled it. The scent was reminiscent of spring wildflowers and spice. Caution made him set the glass aside and turn to look at her.

Seabreeze looked at him with a slight frown on her face. “I really will not poison you. I have no reason to do so. If I wanted to force you to stay, I could just reseal the cave. What I ask now must be voluntary. I can not force you to rewrite the future.”

“Ma’am, the things you are saying are very confusing to me. I think I need to keep a clear head while we talk.”

“You always will be stubborn. I think that is one of the reasons we fall in love. I will begin by filling you in with a little of my history. I was built in the year five-hundred, one thousand and six. I was the hope for the human race in the endless war with the Kalimar. I was armed with the latest in weapons technology and armor. During my maiden voyage a temporal anomaly occurred. Something had changed the past and the temporal wave crashed through our time like a tsunami. I was tossed into the time stream and washed up on the shores of Earth approximately three-hundred thousand of your years ago.”

Randal now reappraised his opinion of this woman. She was as loony as a shit-house rat.

“After I landed, I performed temporal scans and backed them with known human history. I discovered a few things that befuddled me for a long time. I had been named after a ship from legend. The legend spoke of a man that traveled the starways in a ship named Seabreeze. They were on a mission to protect the human race from their own folly. I know what might help you understand. Would you like to see the rest of my body?”

Randal couldn’t help it. He began to blush. Was she offering to get naked in front of him?

“Come with me. I will show you.” With that she stood up and started to walk further back into the cave.

Randal stood up and followed her. As they rounded a bend in the tunnel, lights came on. There in front of him was something for which he truly was not prepared. It was a spacecraft. It was most definitely a spacecraft.

It was about two hundred and fifty feet long. The body style was sleek and sexy. That is the only way to describe it. It had gentle flowing curves along its length that swept from its pointed nose all the way back to the rear. The bottom of the craft was about twenty feet off the ground as it stood on three legs. It had stubby wings near the back, with four huge engine nacelles hanging under them. Above the rear stood two tail fins that swept up and back at an angle. Near the front of the craft was a semi-circle of windows. The surface of the craft was polished to a mirror finish.

“There I am.” The woman said as she spread her arms out to encompass the ship in front of us.

She was definitely crazy. Randal didn’t know how she had discovered this ship, but she was definitely men in white coats material. He said the only thing he could think of, “Beautiful.”

The woman actually looked down and blushed. “Thank you. A woman always wants to be attractive to her husband.”

“As beautiful as you are, I was actually talking about the spaceship.” He did not want to mislead her.

“I think I see the confusion now. You do not understand. That ship and I are the same being. I am the brain for the ship and it is my body.