The Twin Suns of Gugga Nol

From the vastness of the oceans to the vastness of space, my travels continued to bring me to astounding places. You recall my account of the little flyers that act not only as submersibles and ground vehicles, but also as engines of flight and even space exploration. My guide hoped to show me a wonder of the heavens the next day. So off we went on an expedition that would leave me speechless yet again with another amazing sight.

Out through the water, we burst like a flying fish. Though egg-like in shape, the little flying pods are very quick and deft with their two powerful rocket engines. In the hands of a trained expert, they can be made to perform daredevil feats of wonder that would bring rousing applause at any air and space show.

Through the atmosphere, we barreled. All around me were the beautiful curved electronic flat screens that showed off our view as if we were actually there! I saw the planet fall beneath me like some enormous colored marble flicked from my fingers in a boyish gamble of a game. And so too I felt the risk. Yet, my guide assured me that there was nothing to fear as his fingers and hands piloted our vehicle into untold speeds I have rarely traveled without some sort of trepidation - I assure you. Yet this fine little craft cut smoothly through space without so much as a shudder. Instead of the roar of engines, the sound of local music blared from his inside speakers to entertain him with a twangy local aria by some popular - and no doubt, quite temporarily so - singer from his native city. A strange reproduction of a keypad in plush and fuzzy pink fur dangled from the interior front of the vehicle. I asked him what it was and he said that it was to bring him luck - the keypads being a popular gambling pastime down below.

Onward we headed, though there really is no front of up or down in space, we were bound to a destination. Far beyond the colonies around the planet. After a few hours, we left the solar system altogether and entered the real void of space. There is no more nothingness here than anywhere else - except maybe for the nothingness that separates whole galaxies instead of just solar systems. After an hour of this blackness, I decided to sleep. So, curling up in the back of the cockpit, my guide turning down the music somewhat for my comfort, I fell into a deep rest.

I awoke to silence. No music, no sound. Not even the cockpit light was on. Instead, all the screens were lit up with the view of beyond. An effect which, I am quite sure, my guide had well planned for me to feel as if I was actually floating with no shell to protect me from the great sight I now enjoyed.

A mosaic of stars glittered around me. We floated in the drifts of stardust. And there it was: The Twin Suns of Gugga Nol. Spiraling around each other, these two hugely massive stars suck each other's flames in a constant swirling motion that can only be described as one of the most awesome sights of raw power in nature that I have ever, up to this point, observed. Here was a legendary twin star system with no mere medium orange stars dancing about, but ones of gargantuan power and proportion. The star furthest from us looked very small, but I knew very well that they were close to exactly the same size.

Everyone knows, of course, that the great massive stars have various effects upon the gasses that create these humungous balls of flame, the colors usually representing the span of life they are to enjoy and the phase upon which they are in. Yet rarely are two huge superstars such as these confined in a closed system. Then, the effects take on truly spectacular forms. An enormous tunnel of super hot gas and flame shot out from one star towards another from a shell that seemed to glide far over the actual flame surface of the suns themselves. This surrounding skin of gas was repelled by the incredible bright heat of the surface of the star, yet it was attracted by the imposing force of it's gravity. And, sitting in close proximity from each other, the stars attracted and repelled from each other in constant motion, sharing the primordial substance that gave them life.

I was informed by my guide that the stars, long ago, were separate from one another. They traveled for millions of years before meeting in this place - two suns almost exactly alike, meeting here at last like some lost twins. Normally, this would have been a spectacular show enough yet...here was the thing that made this place and event almost unique: we, and the suns, were floating in an enormous nebula of starstuff. The gasses were instantly attracted to the huge shift in power, each star sucking in almost the same amount as they passed each other and started to spin and revolve around one another for the rest of time. The effects were...breathtaking.

There were no planets here. Only a few rocky asteroids, far away, floated around the stars in erratic patterns. We settled on one and donned our suits to step outside. The surface glittered like the stars and a glistening red dust seemed to have been sprinkled on the finely powdered rock. Strangely, I felt an almost usual amount of gravity here. Through my helmet radio, my guide explained to me that the nebula is rife with heavy particles as well as light ones. The glinting dust was a covering from gold to iron and magnesium and other kinds of metals that made this asteroid particularly dense. Not all were so - this one had been discovered to have been of a unique proportion of gravity amongst the countless other small fragmentary rocks that floated around us in the vastness of space, and hence it was used by many tourists as a "stopping off point". And, indeed, I later saw a small amount of tracks that confirmed this story.

I sat here for a while, staring in complete silent admiration of this sight. There was no sound, no. But one could feel the universal rumbling of the motions of these two behemoths. And yet, in the starry sky above and around me, they were but two little pinpricks...just like all the other stars that would, no doubt, astound me just as much. And I....I was but a mere passing fleck in the star splattered inky softness that passed by my face.

- Traveling Uncle Nat. :)

09/01/00