Personal Log - 22 December 3306
22 Dec 2020Quriosyty
“Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can't always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know it’s easy to want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith, a modicum of belief. There is magic out there in the universe, but you won’t find it unless you are prepared to go and look for it, or hope to find it.
On Earth, an ancient people known as the Norse believed that the Norns; female beings who controlled the destiny of gods and men, wove the skein of your life at birth. According to legend, when a new child was born, the Norns would appear at its birth to decide how long the newborn should be allowed to live. While observing the child, the Norns measured the child’s lifespan, its fate, both good and bad, and wove it into a thread of life, a skein. From that moment on the child’s fate was fixed. “Go and hide in a hole if you wish,” the Norse would say to someone attempting to deny their fate, “but you won't live one instant longer. Your fate is fixed. Fear profits a man nothing.”
My parents hid in a hole, or rather were entombed in one. It didn’t change their fate. I only hope they were not afraid at the end. Though it pains me to say it, I hope they accepted their fate. I hope they believed. At the end.
Do you believe? In fate, in magic in ... anything?
I do. I have done since I was a child, when everything is believable and nothing is truly magical; at least not in that way which people use the word ‘magic’ to dismiss that which they refuse to understand or are unwilling to accept without proof.
When I was young, my parents would read to me every day, and two books in particular struck a chord with me. I still have copies of them to this day, next to the Rubaiyat by my bedside: ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’ and ‘Princess Astrophel and the Spiralling Stars’.
Don’t look at me like that! They’re good stories. And like all good stories they have their origins in fact.
So how do all of these seemingly unconnected musings connect? And what does any of this have to do with fate? With belief? With magic? I’m sure you’ve probably guessed already. Raxxla.
The earliest documented reference to Raxxla dates from 2296 and originates from an entry in the personal journal of Art Tornqvist – a Norse name if ever I heard one! Tornqvist was a shipboard mechanic based out of Tau Ceti. The entry does not describe Raxxla or its possible whereabouts, but it shows that the Raxxla legend was already in the public consciousness by that time.
Now some have postulated that, given the limited range of spacefaring in those days, the maximum distance that humanity could have travelled out into the black at that time means that Raxxla, if it had been discovered, must lie somewhere inside the region of space we now refer to as The Bubble. I disagree. You see the Norse sailors from ancient Earth had discovered far more of the planet than anyone gave them credit for. Their seafaring and navigational skills were unparalleled in their time. I believe the same to be true of our spacefaring ancestors. Raxxla could be anywhere, but it’s definitely out there.
Am I searching for Raxxla? Yes. But I hope to find it in the same way as the eponymous princes of Serendip found so many wonderful things. That is, after all, how we get the word serendipity. So whilst I look for Baker, I keep an open mind about other things. Who knows what magic awaits us amongst the stars if we only retain a little faith, a willing suspension of disbelief. A hope.
Now before you roll your eyes at me let me just say this. The search for Raxxla is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, I’ve none to give. I’m prepared to take a few things on faith. The question is, are you?