1. |
Malfunction
04:04
|
|||
Well beyond the Orion Arm
We shut the engines down at the first alarm
And we’re drifting helplessly
The cause of failure yet to be declared
Was it hardware or software, can it be repaired?
Is the mission in jeopardy?
Our forward momentum will persist unimpeded
But there are no maneuvers that we know will be needed for now
There are no stars in the vicinity
Between the arms of the Galaxy
Just a dark and empty void
Before a rescue mission could hope to arrive
We’ll be long gone, no one left alive at all
|
||||
2. |
Anomaly
02:20
|
|||
Our long-range sensors are picking up an anomaly
It’s too far out to identify, save for trajectory
At its course and speed it will intercept us in nineteen hours
The only thing that’s for certain: it’s not one of ours
It’s a welcome distraction from the situation in the engine room
At least a temporary reprieve from all the gloom and doom
Excitement infused with a dash of fear of unknown powers
As we race toward an encounter in less than nineteen hours
There’s no good news in the latest update from the engineers
In their dire report is the confirmation of our worst of fears
The FTL drive malfunction is beyond repair
We can’t escape the encounter and we’re almost there
|
||||
3. |
New Data
02:17
|
|||
We’ve got new data coming in
This inbound object of unknown origin
It seems to be a hollow sphere
Means of propulsion as yet remains unclear
It has its own magnetic field
As it draws nearer more detail is revealed
Its hulk is many times our size
Attempts to hail it have gone without reply
So we’re watching, waiting, speculating
Pacing, bracing, our minds are racing
Some are praying, hoping, barely coping
Guessing, testing, the will to survive
|
||||
4. |
Darkness To Darkness
02:12
|
|||
As our pursuer drew alongside
A gap in its hull was opening wide
We felt a mild vibration begin
Some kind of force was pulling us in
An equatorial recess
It swallowed us whole
Darkness to darkness
The aperture closed
|
||||
5. |
Inside The Sphere
05:55
|
|||
From the darkness of deepest space
Into an even darker place
Deathly silence, emptiness
Stealth of purpose, no egress
What’s out there?
Are we here alone?
Obeisance
Fear of the unknown
Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind
Who brought this here and what’s on their minds?
If we’re ever to understand
Who built this thing and what they’ve planned
We just can’t sit here and hide away
We’ll send a team on EVA
Explorers, well that is what we are
No danger has come to light so far
Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind
Who brought this here and what’s on their minds?
Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind
Who brought this here and what’s on their minds?
|
||||
6. |
Recon Team Away
04:03
|
|||
The lander was loaded up with a five-man crew and gear
The pilot completed pre-flight and then signaled the all clear
We lifted gently up from the hangar floor with ease
Retracted stabilizers and nosed up ten degrees
Cautiously forward, steady she goes
What we might find out there, nobody knows
Recon team away!
All systems A-OK
Recon team away!
We set to the task of mapping and measuring the sphere
Our ship now a point of light steadily fading to the rear
We’d flown more than ten kilometers before we reached the wall
Replete with plethora structures unidentifiable
And bathed in our floodlights, the landscape exposed
Detecting no life forms we advanced unopposed
Recon team away!
On this historic day
Recon team away!
|
||||
7. |
Alien Dream
07:11
|
|||
Cold and dark and inhospitable
So far from home and incompatible
We searched for something to explain it all
Among the structures on the inner wall
Divided into geographic zones
We mapped the surface with surveillance drones
By the seventh orbit of the recon flight
We’d reached consensus on a landing site
Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream
What minds conceived this alien dream?
The sphere’s rotational velocity
Produced an artificial gravity
So once we’d safely set the lander down
We took a rover out to go and look around
Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream
What minds conceived this alien dream?
We sat in silence buckled in our seats
As we drove along what looked like city streets
And tracking us aboard the mother ship
We appeared as just a tiny radar blip
Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream
What minds conceived this alien dream?
Ah, ah – this alien dream
Ah, ah – this alien dream
Light years from home in an alien dream
Structures like buildings in this alien dream
These look like buildings, windowless buildings in an alien city
Can’t find a door, no way to get into these alien buildings
What hides inside behind the walls?
It’s an alien dream
|
||||
8. |
On We Go!
06:29
|
|||
Return to the lander
Called the Commander
There’s something happening
But not near where we were
The opposite hemisphere
A signal, they’ve found a signal
On we go!
The ship was picking up a signal of sorts
Sent us coordinates and data reports
Not much to go on to help us prepare
Except the fact that it’s there
We stowed the rover and laid in the new course
Across the chasm to the signal’s source
Dissimilar buildings to where we’d just been
Maybe this time we’ll get in
One to another
Us and the mother ship
Elation, anticipation
And within an hour
The transmission tower
Came into view, ahead we flew
On we go!
The spire’s base looked like a ziggurat
A most intriguing shape, to us, was that
Big as a football field and ten stories high
No logic we could apply
Ah, ah, on we go!
Ah, ah, on we go!
Ah, ah, on we go!
Ah, ah
We found an airlock on the nearest side
Led to a chamber twenty meters wide
And as we entered we could see some light
Hovering shapes floating into sight
Confronted by a holographic display
Alien symbols in a wide array
Then we saw something we could understand
One of the symbols was a human hand
After some confusion
We reached a conclusion
This was an interface
A starting place
The first mate stepped forward
While raising his palm toward
The hologram
Of a human hand
On we go!
On we go!
On we go!
|
||||
9. |
Interface
02:43
|
|||
As the mate held up his hand
He didn’t know but he was scanned
By machinery of alien design
When it confirmed he was a man
An information dump began
He turned and told us their intentions were benign
He couldn’t tell us how he knew
But he was certain it was true
And very soon we would all understand
And no sooner had he spoken
As if they’d been awoken
The chamber walls began to expand
We could do no more than guess
As we attempted to assess
What this mechanical activity implies
And then slowly lights came on
Like an artificial dawn
And we watched the scene unfold before our eyes
|
||||
10. |
The Key
06:06
|
|||
In the ziggurat we’d found the key
One simple gesture with the right anatomy
Those other symbols we came to agree
Were meant for other species from around the galaxy
Human identity matched
(Authentication code received)
Sentient systems dispatched
(Accordant data banks retrieved)
Detecting oxygen, breathable air
When we first got here it simply wasn’t there
A transformation, right before our eyes
We found food and water and basic supplies
Human environment matched
(Using advanced technology)
Sentient systems dispatched
(Initiated by the key)
In the mother ship instruments show
Power and life support all running low
Evacuation, must now begin
Down to the ziggurat, welcome them in
Human invention surpassed
(By an intelligence unknown)
Sentient systems amassed
(The key unlocked this human zone)
|
||||
11. |
||||
Layers of symbols
A language base
Learning to navigate the interface
A simulacrum
At our command
The more we see the more we understand
On the verge of discovery the answers are near
What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear
On the verge of discovery no longer concealed
The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed
Exquisite science
Nano machines
Performing primary and sub routines
Interrogation
Responsiveness
An open door to unrestricted access
On the verge of discovery the answers are near
What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear
On the verge of discovery no longer concealed
The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed to us all
With rapid progress
The data flows
It’s like we’re drinking from a fire hose
An ancient wisdom
Projecting through
Explaining everything we ask it to
On the verge of discovery the answers are near
What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear
On the verge of discovery no longer concealed
The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed to us all
|
||||
12. |
Hold On
04:12
|
|||
Struggling to adapt to this reality
Hold on, hold on
The crew has sunk into a state of melancholy
Hold on, hold on
In the base camp, a somber mood
Low expectations
Unaware of our breakthrough
Wait ‘til we tell them what we know!
‘Cause we can tell them everything will be OK
Hold on, hold on
And we were actually rescued from a far worse fate
Hold on, hold on
Nothing to do with the breakdown
Coincidental
The sphere was already inbound
A programmed reactive response
Had we continued our original course
We'd have come to a violent end
The sphere came to block us from the danger beyond
Like a paladin prepared to defend
And now the team has found a holographic orrery
Mmm
A three dimensional projection of the galaxy
Mmm
It might reveal where we’re going
Hold on, hold on
There’d be some comfort in knowing
Hold on, hold on
|
||||
13. |
Altered Course
05:02
|
|||
The sphere has altered course since yesterday
The star alignment vector is not the same
We see a different sky, recalibrate
The view from forward sensors on our display
The sphere is a lifeboat, one of a fleet
Deployment all over the galaxy
They traveled the stars for thousands of years
Without encountering any peers
It seems that spacefaring species are extremely rare
They never found any anywhere, until now
And even now they’re not here, not in the sphere, yet somehow
We have a feeling they know, will they come say hello, could it be
We’re being taken to them, a place in their memory
Recorded in their prime, preserved for all time
They discovered Earth during the critical stage
When mankind was entering the industrial age
Their prime directive not to interfere
They left us alone until we came out here on our own
The farthest we’ve yet to roam
And then ready or not we find that we’re not alone
An alien race in deepest space, the unknown
But when we get here there’s no one home
They witnessed many wonders and phenomena
From the Milky Way to Andromeda
They came this way a long time ago
If they’re still out there somewhere we may never know, but we see
Enough to get the gist, a glimpse of their history
But what could have unfolded in the time untold, maybe
An extinction event that they could not prevent, or foresee
Or did they simply move on and now they’re too long gone
The sphere has altered course since yesterday
The star alignment vector is not the same
We see a different sky, recalibrate
The view from forward sensors on our display
|
||||
14. |
Going Home
09:39
|
|||
Back inside the Orion Spur
Familiar stars on the monitor
We calculate the sphere’s trajectory
Back along the way we came it seems to be
Taking us back
The engineers aboard our mother ship
Have devised a plan for a return trip
They’ve restored full power to the thrusters now
They can limp us home if we get out somehow
Taking us back
Going home, going home, going home
We’ve replenished all supplies and life support
Completing our flight readiness report
We’ll break the base camp and bring back the crew
There’ll be some issues but we’ll work them through
Taking us back
Going home, going home, going home
At well below the speed of light it’s going to be a long, long flight
No FTL drive, but we’ll get there alive, we just have to get the ship outside
All at once, around the circumference of the sphere
There appeared a bright ring of light
A small section of which pulsed rhythmically for a while
Before blinking out of sight
An adjacent section began to do exactly the same
And that’s when we realized
This is a pattern, a warning of some kind
A counting down of time
At the same time, all of the monitors were displaying
An animation of the sphere as seen from outside
It showed the gap in its hull slowly opening
And the sequence repeated over and over again
It’s time to get everyone back onboard - now!
Now!
When the landing party was safely onboard
And everybody was settling in
We could see the sphere’s hull opening up
And felt that strange vibration again
That mysterious force tugging on our ship
Pulled us toward the wall
And without a sound we were outward bound
No complications at all
Our inherited speed, that of the sphere
Much faster than we thought
This is just what we needed, to get home from here
We’ve got a decent shot
The sphere released us and then veered away
Receding deep into the Milky Way
Its makers’ whereabouts a mystery
The missing chapters of their history
Sending us back
Going home, going home, going home
|
Rene Young Abbotsford, British Columbia
Progressive Rock independent artist & multi-instrumentalist Rene Young is from BC Canada. The latest release is titled "Alien Dream".
Streaming and Download help
Rene Young recommends:
If you like Rene Young, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp