Short Fiction · Chapter
Epilogue explained
Arnsen recounts his escape from the asteroid and his return to Earth, but he is haunted by his experience and the loss of Doug.
What happens
Arnsen recounts his escape from the asteroid and his return to Earth, but he is haunted by his experience and the loss of Doug. He carries the cursed jewel, Circe, and plans to leave Earth again, destined to flee into the unknown depths of space with the jewel until his death.
Themes in this chapter
Forbidden Knowledge and Curses
Arnsen's encounter with the crystals and his possession of Circe represent a cursed knowledge that has left him empty and doomed to wander space.
Obsession and Madness
Arnsen's obsessive grip on the jewel and his inability to find peace on Earth reflect his madness and fixation on the alien artifact.
Characters to notice
- Steve Arnsen
Returns to Earth but is emotionally empty, haunted by the crystals and Circe. He plans to leave Earth again, taking the jewel into the void.
- Vail
The narrator who listens to Arnsen's story and witnesses his departure.
- Circe
The jewel that Arnsen carries; it has taken his soul and he will not release it, even in death.
- Douglas O'Brien
Mentioned as still being on the asteroid with the others, left behind.
Key passages
“Circe took the soul out of my body, and I’m empty now. There’s no peace for me on Earth, or in the spaceways.”
Arnsen feels that the jewel has drained his spirit, leaving him without solace anywhere.
Expresses the profound emptiness and curse Arnsen carries.
“I think that beyond Pluto, beyond the farthest limits of the system, a little cruiser may be fleeing into the void, controls set, racing, perhaps, for the darkness of the Coal Sack.”
Vail imagines Arnsen's ship speeding endlessly into deep space, beyond the solar system.
Foreshadows Arnsen's eternal flight into the unknown.