Utopia of The Infinite [C]

Mira was the first one to move.

She tilted her head and stood still for a moment. Then she slowly moved to the left two steps. Under her boots, the silver-blue grass flattened out and then shimmered, sending out a slight pulse of light that looked like waves in water.

"Can you hear that?" 

She asked with a half-turn. 

"What is that low thumping sound?"

The others stopped moving and strained to hear. Auri heard it too, but not quite.  A beat in the ground that isn't loud enough to be called a noise. It felt more like a vibe behind her ribs.

"Heartbeat" Lyra said in a whisper. 

"It feels like our heart beating"

The sound was like a thread that only Mira could see, and she had already started to walk. Everyone else looked at each other, but no one said no. 

They moved silently after her, and the bioluminescent ground made their steps sound soft.

As they walked, the ground changed. As the girls walked through, the wide, smooth field turned into a winding road lined with crystal formations that hummed in low tones. 

The sky got a little darker, and there were streaks of glowing clouds that moved way too slowly to be real.

"Where are we going?" Sera spoke softly.

Auri told her.

"Something is calling her" 

"I believe we need to discover what"

They stuck with Mira as she went through a narrowing tunnel rimmed with rocks that looked like smooth glass.  The hum under their feet got stronger. 

Perhaps in response to their presence, the walls gave off a light glow and changed colour from icy blue to soft rose. There was no wind. Not any birds.  Not any bugs. Light, sound, and the strange feeling of being watched by something very old.

The path then became clear. They saw it.

The ship.

It was nestled in a bed of glowing grass and seemed to float just a few inches above the ground. It was long and thin, and it's white-gold hull was curled like a whale's spine. 

Thin, pulsing lines of light ran along it's surface, breathing slowly every so often.  It did not have any windows. There are no doors. Just a beauty that seemed strange and familiar at the same time, like it belonged in every dream they could remember.

Mira stopped at the end of the open space and turned around to face them again.

She said

"I believe this is it"

Wen walked up to the surface and looked at it with her phone. She frowned as the screen filled up with data that she couldn't read. 

"This stuff...  It doesn't look like metal to me. It looks like it, but the data is still living. It's changing what it says”

"What?" 

Izzy got down next to her and reached out to touch the ship. It was almost like she touched the ship. 

"Are you saying it's a mix of biotech and something else?"

"It's not based on any science we've learnt" she said.

A soft hiss cut them off.

There was no squeak or other noise when the side of the ship split open. Just a change. A low, friendly entry opened up, and light poured out like air from a mouth.