Ausgeflippt (Energy)
by Lex Marburger
I fueled up my rocket ship (sturdily constructed from the severed heads of doll babies), and blasted into the inky sky one night. I needed some tunes for the ride, so I decided to put on Hänzel Und Gretyl. They’re the best thing for this sort of joyride. I figured Ausgeflippt (Energy) would have the auditory visualization needed to make this trip a trip. I headed for “Star System Wolf 424” supplied with the power of surging electronic beats and guitars. The atmosphere ripped as I approached the edge of the sky. The stars, after they stopped shaking, turned a gleaming white, multiplying exponentially. Finally I had escaped the tyranny of gravity, and passed over the horizon to see the Sun, its brilliance commanding my attention. Free fall was as comforting as an amniotic bath, the void outside a universal womb, gently urging me to sleep.
A subtle beeping warned me that an asteroid field was charging its way at me. The automatic defense system activated, and straps like tentacles pulled me down into the webchair as the ship dodged in and out of the hurtling chunks of rock and debris. Soft pings echoed through the hull as the smaller bits of stone collided. Turning off the engines, gentle voices in different languages drifted in and out of my consciousness, the effects of the CD starting to sink in. French, German, Greek, Rumanian and English blended in my head, filling it with wondrous thoughts and alien landscapes. The whispered glory of the Crab Nebulae appeared outside my window and darkly shone and glimmered against a backdrop of emptiness. I kicked the rockets on, and sped toward a distant moon of somewhere, using the gravity well to push me up to dizzying speeds. Rounding the apex of the planet’s curve, I launched back towards home, and killed the engines again. The remaining velocity would carry me back in silence, as the violent musical attacks of Ausgeflippt gave way to a soft ambience and took me back in a blissful state of semiconsciousness, overwhelmed by seeing the entire galaxy in a single night.