The Best Way To Explain This Dream Is To Tell A Story

I WAS DAVE BOWMAN.

And that's all it said. She rubbed her eyes. Still...

I WAS DAVE BOWMAN.

"No... No. He's-" She didn't want to say "dead" because she didn't know. She tried at the radio control to contact the other ship Discovery was docked to. It buzzed and crackled like a broken TV set and then nothing. Only the silence of space. A silence you think a well trained astronaut such as herself would have been used to by now. She went back to the messages she had seen before in her mind.

HELLO.

She typed in the keyboard: WAS THIS A RECORDING?

And Hal said: NO.

WHO WAS IT SENT BY?

NO IDENTIFICATION.

Then the screen went black for a moment. Was this some cruel but altogether good humored joke of her co-workers? Simply messing with her head on another uneventful night watch? Then suddenly, the screen flickered.

I WAS DAVE BOWMAN.

And here she was now. Her eyes held wide in a trance, like a small child starring at a movie screen. Her body shook in the space suit that hardly fit. She looked and felt like a small child. At that moment she wanted to cry. Her heart and head felt as empty as space... "But is space truly empty?"

I NEED PROOF, HAL.

I KNOW THIS MAY SEEM DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, BUT TURN AROUND.

Turn around. Lilly gave out a gasp of physical and mental shock. She was alone, save for Hal, but yet she felt a presence. A presence of something that could be very well considered human, if one looked hard enough. But what was there to see? She turned around slowly in her chair. Many speckles of dust swirled about in the ship but now they had the glow of another world. It slowly began to form outlines of a body, of a man, of a man in a space suit and finally, of David Bowman. "Hello Lilly."

His lips did not move but his voice seemed to be all around her. His facial expression was altogether unworldly. It showed no emotion and yet every emotion at the same time, as if they were in perfect balance with each other. The human brain could consider it "relief." for lack of a better word. She stood, slowly, afraid that the slightest movement would upset the fragile balance of these two worlds meeting for the first and maybe last time. Afraid that she, her world, would lose Dave Bowman once again to the starry universe from which he went and, now, came from.

"Are you dead?" Now she was indeed a child. Her body on the verge of collapse from shock and lack of sleep.

"I don't know, Lilly." he said. Lilly started to wonder why he was here. Maybe he forgot something? Could he take it with him if it was a physical thing? True, she had, has, loved him. But she never said anything. She didn't want to say anything. "Maybe I should now..."

"Is there something you must tell me, Dave?" It was strange hearing her voice now. It was soft as it had always been and she recalled all the times when Dave was in this world, whatever this world was, and him asking her to repeat herself all those years ago during her training.

Bowman, stood or floated, without saying anything for what seemed like forever to her but to him it was merely just a few second. Time doesn't matter when you have all the time in the world. "Yes Lilly. Don't be afraid."

But she was. Her eyes drifted toward his hands... if they were hands. They looked like human hands, like his hands. She reached hers out for his. It was hidden by a mass of space suit sleeve. The fingers poked out like white feathers. If Bowman could do what we call laughter, he would have now. She was indeed a child reaching out for his hand. He extended his own and in that moment the other world embraced the world that is filled with the creatures of flesh. His "skin" was cool and warm and yet nothing; it was everything. Lilly finally understood. Dave Bowman was the universe. She wanted to hug him and kiss him and cry to him but she could feel the meeting was soon to end. "Is this death, Dave?"

"I don't know." And then there came a voice, far greater than the both of theirs.

YOU ARE NOW BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND.

"Goodbye Lilly."

"Please don't go!" she yelled, desperate. He was alive! But... no. She must not kid herself. He was beyond something of human comprehension. The feeling, or lack there of, around her hand had died away; he had let go. The dust that had made Dave was made into dust once more swirling in its random patterns. She pressed her face toward the windows. Nothing but stars. Full of stars... she shivered at the thought of the human form of Dave Bowman's last words. Hal had been switched off as had everything else on Discovery. She walked down to Pod Bay in nothing but darkness. She could find her way around the ship with her eyes closed if needed. Her helmet sat where it was left. She picked it up and put it on. The hindges holding the door were loose, anyone could push them open. And thats what she did. She opened the doors and let go of the rail. Lilly began to drift out into free space. Earth seemed like such a small unimportant thing now. Everything seemed to be okay now. Everything was balanced. It was useless to try and bring Discovery back. Some parts in the universe are not ment for earthly eyes. That was understood now. "You're right Dave." she said aloud, hopefully to him. "It is full of stars." She was floating in them, becoming one of them. And so for the last time, Lilly closed her eyes and slept.