i awake in hospital, my feet and hands are bandaged up. i have two intravenous feeds going into each arm. a nurse sits by my side, she looks happy to see me.
'mission you're awake.'
'where the fuck am i?'
'your in mona vale hospital, you were brought in saturday morning. five days ago.'
'am i dead?'
'no mission. your not. it was close though. you had a very bad infection through your body. everything okay now. you just need some time to heal and for your body to repair.'
'i recall being in a dream, the future, another place.'
'mmm, you are on a lot of morphine, that can sometimes effect dreams. makes them very vivid.'
'yeah vivid.'

so old captain mission is in hospital, well now discharged and enjoying being at home. the nurses come twice a day to change my dressings and bandages, they stick thermometers under my tongue and take my blood pressure. then they hook up an iv feed to my indoor plant and me and about 500 mls of antibiotic goes up my arm. i fade in and out of sleep, i read alister reynolds book. 'the house of suns' blows my mind. i can feel the atoms being repelled away from one another, traveling like a super collider shooting them in all directions, apart, its quite an experience. 'house of suns' is gigantic in scope, it's brilliant and satisfying.
then i start 'pushing ice' again reynolds takes you there, another amazing story this time closer to home, although as i turn the pages im traveling further and further away, he takes me into the unknown, he is space travel.