Prior parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

I hope you enjoy.

—

Harvey and Cave hurriedly walked back to the observatory, of which they were not far from and arrived within a matter minutes they were there. However, people were already being asked to leave and their encounter was the same.

“What happened?”

“Something broke and we’re closing for the day to assess for repairs.”

“Oh. Can we help?”

“Thank you, but we can’t have public on site.”

“Why not?”

“Can’t risk having public injured.”

They left, of which Harvey was fine with, though Cave felt defeated.

“It would’ve been interesting to see what was going on”

“You heard what that person said. That’s pretty much it.”

“Are you sure?”

“What else could it be?”

“I don’t know. Weren’t you curious?”

“well yes, but what were we going to do? What can we do? It’s not like we could do anything about what had just happened, whatever it was.”

“Maybe it’s something gone wrong.”

“That’s exactly what it is, but it’s not for the public. I’m sure we’ll hear about what happened later.”

“But we should know now. eE should know what they’re trying to hide.”

“Cave, look; what if there’s some serious damage in there and we went in and one of us got hurt? You really think they’re trying to hide something? Are you set on believing that an observatory full of scientists is trying to hide something from the public? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, they would prefer not risking people who don’t know the facility getting hurt and also not deal with additional distraction when they’re trying to work something out?”

“I don’t think it’s fair that you assume what I do and don’t believe. I’m just curious is all.”

“Yeah you always fucking are just “curious” and then it descends into some sort of crap.”

“Maybe I just like riling you up a bit too.”

“Yeah well maybe you should spend more time shutting the fuck up and realising that your shit’s not appreciated.”

Cave was silent for the rest of the walk home, as was Harvey, and for a moment Harvey felt bliss wash over them. It was just a nice feeling to not have to worry about being drawn into something that they held no interest in, nor desire to discuss, and so they appreciated whatever time they had before Cave would start up again, assuming Cave would start up again at all. Maybe this time Cave would stop crapping on and actually think about something and consider the information presented, though to be fair there was little presented.

They got home and Cave disappeared to their room. Harvey knew that Cave would be trying to find things out still, though to what extent that would be, they had no idea. Maybe Cave would actually do some real research instead of just reinforcing beliefs with no evidence-sourced backing.

Harvey decided to loll about for a while, just to kill a bit more time. The silence they were getting was great and they wanted to revel in it for at least a brief period of time. There was no telling when it would change and so all of the moment needed to be savored.

They fixed themselves an easy lunch, sat on the couch and read for a short while; just long enough to get something out of their book, but not so long that their fatigue would overtake. They finished eating and took a nap, and woke from it feeling just refreshed enough.

They called the person working on their interface but couldn’t get through, so they decided they’d walk the few blocks away the shop was and go from there.

There still was a sense of crispness in the air, and the day seemed to drift on by as Harvey walked along. There was almost an obscene sense of space as all seemed quiet, though there were a few cars about. Just not enough for them to blur into the background and so they would cut into the silence and the sense of space in a way that was not appreciated. Still, it was preferable to constant traffic. At the very least it made getting to where they were heading much more easily. It was not long before Harvey arrived and found themselves inside the shop. The person they were after was there, behind the counter, tinkering away on something.

“Hey, just thought I’d pop in. Tried to call earlier but got no response.”

“I left a message on your phone earlier today. Didn’t you listen to it?”

“I didn’t get notification.”

“Huh. Maybe shit does fail when Mercury’s in retrograde.”

“Maybe.”

“Alright, so it’s not ready yet. Will be tomorrow. Need to replace some of the wiring. Parts only arrived this morning.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Rather frustrating as the delivery took it’s time to get here and it’s held up a lot of jobs and almost lost me a bit of work, but they’re here now and I’m getting through the jobs and yours will be good tomorrow. Fine in the morning.”

“Well, I’ll aim for around midday.”

“Yeah, that’s easy enough. See you later.”

“See you.”

That was the most words Harvey had heard this person speak in a brief conversational setting. They were an ornery type, rather gruff and curt. Didn’t seem to want to spend much time talking and preferred doing. Harvey couldn’t fault it if that was indeed the case, but Harvey preferred a mix of both.

They left and walked away and decided to go on a slight detour, just in Case Cave was going to be talking again. It was a nice walk, but after a few blocks Harvey decided it was better to head on home.

Rounding a few corners and Harvey saw someone driving erratically and screaming. They couldn’t make out what the driver was saying or if they were saying anything at all. However, they could clearly see that they had to get out of the way quickly as they were in the car’s erratic path. Nearly getting hit but just getting out of the way, Harvey was alright, save for the shock that they just got. They gave it a few minutes before hurrying back home as quickly as they could.

When home Harvey started banging on Cave’s door. Cave came out, stared blankly at Harvey, then spoke.

“What?”

“That’s a little less you than usual.”

“Well, I’m looking into the observatory.”

“Look, Cave, you gotta understand, I don’t want to be roped into these conversations of paranoia and falsehood beliefs. If you actually looked at both sides rather than doubling down all the t-”

“Yeah yeah, I get it. As said, just like riling you up sometimes, but point taken. But I still like looking into it, and some of it is real, and you just gotta feel it.”

“Alright, fine, which part is real?”

“Mercury affecting stuff.”

“That’s not. That’s not real at all.”

“Maybe. But who is to say?”

“Look, I’m not getting dragged into this. I just almost got run over.”

“Well, that sucks, but you’re alright aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s a pretty intense thing to deal with.”

“Yeah, but you’re okay. You’re fine. Why was it so important to tell me now? Couldn’t you have told me later?”

“There’s probably something to that. I guess I could have. Just a bit shocked is all. Felt the need to tell someone.”

“Well, you’ve told me now. No need to worry about it anymore, eh?”

“Maybe.”

“Alright. Well, whilst you’ve been gone what happened at the observatory already hit the media. Telescope broke. No one injured though, which is good.”

“Yeah, I guess that is.”

“That’s all that’s being released. No one knows anything about when it’ll be back or if it will even be back. Just that the idea is to have it fixed if possible, though more likely replaced and the space it was in repaired within a month or so, depending on how extensive the damage is,. I’m sure the scientists will be fine though. They always are.”

“Supposedly.”

“Alright, well I’m getting back to digging through stuff. Do you want anything else?”

“No, I’m good. Just lay off the riling. Not appreciated.”

“Yeah alright.”

And with that being said, Cave disappeared back into their room. Harvey began to wonder if there were any connections to the telescope breaking and the car. It all seemed odd. Maybe Mercury Retrograde meant something after all. Maybe it could affect technology. Harvey believed they knew better, but they weren’t so sure, considering what they saw. But the scientist they described what they saw seemed mostly fine about it. Taken aback a bit, but mostly fine, so surely there was no connection, was there?

Be that as it may, now Harvey had time to kill and wasn’t sure about how to go about killing it, but at this point it was less than a day before they would have their interface, and roughly a day when they’d be recording once more and working on their music. This was something to look forward to. They just needed to kill some time.

Harvey decided to plonk themselves in front of the TV for a few hours, just see what was on. Maybe find some afternoon movie. When they turned it on, however, the TV didn’t respond. Maybe the remote was dead, so Harvey got up and tried to turn the TV on via its side buttons. When they attempted, they got a sharp, short and painful shock.

Harvey quickly pulled their hand away. Maybe the TV was breaking down. It wasn’t the oldest, but it wasn’t the newest either. They switched it off at the power point but the TV’s red light stayed on, if only for a while. It seemed to linger there and it seemed to be looking at Harvey somehow, but it didn’t move. It didn’t change shape, and eventually it faded out.

Harvey wasn’t sure what to make of it, but they knew it was something that they didn’t feel either good or comfortable about, but maybe they were just still tired and it was just their imagination. Maybe that’s all it was; that is, at least what Harvey hoped.