zur could envision the twisting orbits their timeline traced, and it was dizzying. so they tried –unsuccessfully– not to.

a lot of folks have theirs orbiting that nice, big, and ever-present, focus on the distance. just being perturbed here and there when a particularly will bending folk whooshes by. each a unique orbit yet all ellipsing around the ecliptic. a nice, wide, and dense, belt. just moving about on the graces of inertia, null energy expenditures.

zur zipped around unmarked yet really remarkable attractors. from afar, or almost –but never really– touching. just a passing glance, or uncounted –but finite, really– tag-along periods. frenzied lunges, or leisure –entranced, really– approaches. the reality, here, is that zul burns. a real draw on reserves that are hard to reload.

zur knew this. they did. yet, zur couldn’t stop. the idea scared them breathless. zur felt out of phase with the whole setup. once and again, zur would try to just let inertia take the reins. the result? zur just zapped straight out. not a single deviance.

once, zur went so far out before managing to change course again, the light had almost vanished from sight. it got cold, and the trek back was a long, long one.

so zur keeps flighting around. hoping to find a center, to rest about.

notes

prompted by Blackle Mori’s tweet

basically I’m suggesting we use complex numbers to represent time so that everything can be nice and continuous

but honorable mention go to loren schmidt’s recent body of work on generating explorable planetary systems.