All songs
copyrighted
by David Rood
except as noted.
Adventure 101
Story
This is a sequel to Five Full Moons of Formalhaut Four. The lyrics are not final. For details on the process of writing this song look here.
Lyrics
Where do they go when they never return?What heart still burns inside a dead sun?
Now we had joined the 100 club
There was only one thing we’d never done
A Jumper’s final resting place
Is on the neck of a Vanishing Point
Where did old Hot-Hand Harry
Go after Number 104?
In the Cantina at Formalhaut a drunken pilot
Said she’d discovered old Harry’s secret
Though he went in and never came out
They could still hear his ship’s beacon
We picked up the signal from the singularity
The first probe showed nothing there
The second and third showed it empty but safe
Moxie’s patience was out and so we went in
We felt the tingle as the warp and the woof
Of our bodies was played like the strings of a harp
There’s no feeling like it, and no other could share it
We made sure we were safe, then we made love
I checked the logs; she checked the stars
We double-checked and then searched for the probes
The truth settled on us heavy and slow
Just a touch of horror; we’d been lost before
Black is (white) and Day is (night)
And everything you see is out of sight
Fast is (slow) and Young is (old)
When you dip into the gravity well
After is (before) and Under is (over)
When you fall into a Rabbit Hole
On, off, dead, alive, doesn’t matter, can’t tell
If we’ll ever make to Heaven or Hell
We found the probes numbered 2 and 3
There was no sign of number 1
We were out in the deep; there was nothing around
I said, "This one’s a bust, honey, let’s go back home."
It’s less of a thrill when you’re coming back empty
With nothing to show for the trip
We had plenty of time, and there were plenty of leads
We’d get back and head right out again
We always assume it’s a two-way path
We think we’ll come back the same way we went
But the stars were all wrong; we hadn’t gone home
Somehow the path through the singularity had bent
We didn’t have time to puzzle it out
We were right in the path of a stellar flare
We dove in, not knowing where we would emerge
We didn’t expect the answer to be Nowhere
(chorus)
There were no stars in this corner of space
I looked at Moxie; her mouth formed an "O"
We’d heard of this, but nobody ever
Returned from falling down a Rabbit Hole
The only way out would lead right back in
Space had become a Moebius strip
We feared we’d finally met our end
‘til we caught a glimpse of the derelict ship
It was hard to see it clearly
But Moxie made out Harry’s totem outside
That mystery solved, we turned our minds
To how we were going to escape this time
Harry’s ship would never fly him out
His body was nowhere to be found
We set his jump engines to overload
Ripped a hole in this hole outside space and we were homeward bound
That was the roughest ride of them all
I doubt we ever came closer to death
Now we were out, but lost and alone
And our poor old ship was on its last legs
One look between, and we both agreed
No way in Hell we were going back in
A bit of a haul, at the edge of our range
There was a mapped singularity
(chorus)
Our flight recorder told them the tale
We were too busy getting drunker than lords
They counted it up, then loudly proclaimed
We held the new record and won Harry’s reward
Maybe it’s time for us to retire
Live out our days on some beautiful world
Maybe the two of us should become three
(pause)
Or maybe keep going and secure our record!
(chorus)
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