Stars

B’litk can not resist the appeal of the observatory. All that shining equipment, some even designed for beings with multiple appendages like itself. After some time just playing around with all of it, B’litk moves on to the star charts and astronomy books.

As it was expecting, the tomes have much more than simple sky coordinates. They describe the lore and mythos of whatever societies gazed upon their stars.

A long time goes by until B’litk comes across a small leather-bound book, with a rusted padlock on it. A quick drop onto the marble floor is enough to break it and allow B’litk to read its words. The book describes a unique telescope that has the power to “transport one into other realities.” B’litk realizes it should be “to other realities” and simply ignores the typo.

But it does not ignore the content of the book. It goes around the observatory, looking for the telescope described in the secret book. It takes a while, but B’litk finally finds it inside a wooden box, which was also locked. 

After some creative pounding, B’litk manages to open the box. Inside it lies a platinum-laced telescope, with stars, comets, and planets embossed all over it in golden lines. B’litk sets the telescope up and points it to the red sky.

It takes a few trials for B’litk to figure out how to focus it, and to point it at the coordinates shown in the forbidden book, but once he does it, the view is marvelous.

B’litk can’t believe how the nebulas and galaxies look through the eyepiece. How close the stars shine. How deep the darkness of space and the desolation of the vacuum touches its mind … touches its soul. B’litk keeps gazing into the infinite, drifting further and further into the unknown.

One of its last self-conscious thoughts is that part of the sky it is gazing at feels too empty, too starless. And that B’litk should go there and fix it. Fulfill it.