CHAPTER 12 – THE PLANET OF BOUNTY

One simply could not imagine the divine lushness and exquisiteness of the Planet of Bounty. The immense verdant bright green fields. Overflowing in abundance with plump fruits and vegetables. A tapestry of bright and well hued colors which danced like notes of a song as the ultraviolet rays of the blue sun sparkled down. We beg of you to journey with us to this spectacular land. Such a glorious sight to behold, one that is truly otherworldly. A land in which the heavens look to for inspiration. We endeavor to try to speak its glory into mere words.

Envision bountiful varieties of squash, colors of burnt orange, muddy green and tan with stripes of grey-brown, growing in the lush emerald fields nestled tightly together like babes in an infirmary. A cornucopia of delight. Invoking one to imagine a day of Thanksgiving, a day to be grateful. For to partake of this image one must bow in appreciation.

Behold the blindingly bright bloodshot red apples glistening in the sun, while dancing on the tree and swaying in the warm breeze. Apples waiting for Winter White to bite into their flesh, these apples desiring nothing more than to reside in her eternal fantasy world, in which they are endlessly consumed.

Focus your eyes on the royal dark purple swollen eggplants. Pulsating in size, increasing in girth and length. Growing larger, as if they were soon to burst. Far too big for one to partake of the full mass of which it has grown. Though excitedly they await, desperately seeking relief, as the blue ball of the sun expands.

Now avert your eyes! To the melons of all sizes and colors: dark green, mint, bright canary, pale brown all luxuriating in the fields, tendrils connected and communicating like synapses of a human brain. Their flesh marked with geometrical lines denoting that they are ripe and ready for harvest. While their bright yellow bellies yearn to be sliced to relieve the sugars that have pooled and settled like a blister waiting to be drained. One would be cruel to look away and not provide relief to these poor beings as they plead for the pressure that has swollen inside of them to be released.

Stop and behold the enormous deep dark purple figs, ripe on the branches of the tree. Packed tightly together on the twigs of which they reside, shapes appearing as if they were plump mammary glands. All varieties and forms suited for your desires, fat figs bouncing up and down the tree, deliciously erect as the wind breezes against their smooth areola. Firm and perky figs pointed towards the apex of the sky like missiles ready to launch. Misshapen and deformed figs resembling mangled breasts out of a science fiction movie, their fit and form in no way prime. While resting precariously on the soil are dried and rock-hard figs, that is of course if you’re into that kind of thing.

Wait! Do you hear the sound of the caramel cardamom chocolate seed pods singing tick-tock, tick-tock as they touch while swaying from the tree in unison. The vision and sound a divine musical event, one in which your eyes and ears are delighted and enthralled. While your nose encounters the divine essence that they emit, a supernatural scent fit for a god.

And in the distance, we see a rainbow! A colorful kaleidoscope of brilliant red, bright green, golden yellow and deep violet, colors of which radiate in the rays of the blue sun. Though as we draw near, we see our rainbow is but a vine which has stretched far into the sky forming a powerful statuesque archway. A vine filled with various colorful varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Pristine and plump, gloriously encircling the tendrils like that of a dress fit for a queen.

Shortly ahead, we encounter endless shrubs of blueberries and raspberries. Shrubs massive in size, begging one to journey through its hedges and partake of its delights. For these blueberries and raspberries are but the size of large pieces of candy, fat and juicy, with water droplets dripping off of them. Illuminated by the blue sun, rendering them all the more luscious and delectable. While the shrubs are a candy store, waiting to fulfill the needs of any sweet tooth.

Nearby are luscious golden pomegranates which have ruptured open. Pomegranates desperately desiring relief from the succulent seeds enthralled in their bosom. Seeds of which are slowly dropping from their core, one by one, like red rubies as they lay twinkling on the ground. Reflecting back a red sea, invoking desire, lust and fury. Turning the beholder of the scene into a raging bull, incensed and tempestuous, one forced to witness an intoxicating spectacle of colors. Colors leaving them desiring to impale their hunger on the forbidden foods all around them.

Oh! Feast your eyes on the corpulent ripe juicy peaches. Hanging low on a tree, too low, like bowling balls. Torturing this poor innocent tree, she gravid with abundance, soon to give birth to multiple babes, swelling on her leaves. Fully dilated. Water broke. Juices oozing and dripping from the flesh. One can only imagine the relief the tree will feel once someone, anyone comes and devours these delectable gems.

But they will not come. For no one will eat of the fruit of this tree, nor any tree or vine in the land of the Planet of Bounty. Enchanting and unsettling. An epiphany that would cause you to wish you never laid eyes on such a bewitching sight. We are saddened to have brought you here, for you will never partake of this lusciousness that you have witnessed. A thought as unnerving as what appears to be a prickly pear cactus tree, gargantuan in size, encircling the south side of the planet like a maze, with thorns so large and sharp that it could impel anyone who found themselves airborne in the dizzying labyrinth of misfortune.

Yes, one should not come to the Planet of Bounty – especially if they have been welcomed. But alas our facilitators have already arrived, their spacecraft the S.A.G.E. circling the planet repeatedly, while Patch is anxiously seeking the access point to finalize the landing. The access point of which had been implanted in her mind during the induction. But the sight she beheld was far too powerful to redirect her thoughts. All their thoughts for that matter. Their eyes engorged with the flood of lavishness and abundance which lay before them. And while the planet was not large in size and the access point clearly visible by the naked human eye, this fact mattered not, for the inexhaustible fruitfulness of the lands carried an immense powerful presence that stretched to all ends of the Planet of Bounty. A presence that enabled the planet to appear larger than it truly is.

The Planet of Bounty let us meditate on the name. A fitting epithet, divinely ordained. A land blessed by the gods of magnificence. Lush vibrant vegetation blanketed the land like a plague, it cursed by a multitude of fruits and vegetables brimming with excess, juices dripping from the root. All of which plead for consumption. The only area of the lands which did not suffer this fate are that of the caves. Caves covered in dusty-grey charcoal sands, twinkling with diamond dust. An area of the planet suitable for landing and adheres to Ministry Modus 13.

The S.A.G.E command system comes online:

“Sensing loss of direction. Commandeering controls. Destination access point.”

Patch is lured out of her trance “What? What happened?”

“Landing commencing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,”

The descent into the atmosphere of which is unnerving, forcing the team to awaken from the bewitching spell.

“Oh galaxy,” mutters Patch, while removing her aviator cap and rubbing her head, her fingers following along the cyclical lines buzzed into her ornate crew cut, “I must have been in a daze.”

“I think we all were,” notes Crown. “I honestly didn’t think the images they showed us during the induction were real. If anything, the images pale in comparison to what we witnessed.”

The S.A.G.E. command system remaining online, still attempting to refocus their attention:

“First line of order – setup force field boundaries.”

Marking the force field boundaries was one of the key landing requirements. This required the facilitator....