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Beyond Chaos Ch 1: Chaos
In Greek myth, Chaos was the start of all and the end of all, everything came from Chaos, and eventually, everything also returned to it. Was there a name more fitting for the thing that would end life, end earth, our solar system and everything in its path, something that would lay waste to all we are and all we've known. One event that will snuff out all we could have been, to twist and turn every single molecule that shows our existence into a vast display of emptiness, dark, cold, black.. Nothing.
No one had noticed Chaos approaching until Pluto suddenly vanished, the Kuiper belt and Eris along with it, at 10am they were there, but to one lazy astronomers shock, as he batted his old telescope like a cat with a piece of string, yawning, barely awake he placed an eye to the lense, he sat steering in disbelief through his refracting lenses at exactly 8.07pm, they were gone, the astronomer on a panicked whim booked himself on the first flight to Washington DC and forced his way into NASA’s HQ, a labyrinth of rooms, stairs and hallways, he stumbled his way around following sparsely placed signs before, puffed and wheezing, he burst into ISS control, curly hair in knots dampened with sweat, a jacket inside out and torn, 3 day old stubble dotted his face in a pubescent way despite his age dwelling in the mid 40s, the astronomer was demanding to be listened to, his efforts saw him caught in the grasp of two security guards, his arms twisted behind his back and face pressed to a concrete wall, he pleaded his case to a room of experts, they reclined in custom chairs, laughing at a lone man's desperate claims, mocking him while questioning his sanity, the chairman amused and wanting to belittle the loon even more turned on a monitor, a live stream of the solar system, used to track near earth objects, they all steered in horror, a feeble attempt to embarrass the man further had turned into the grimmest discovery in written history, perhaps in all of history, Pluto was missing, not a single trace was visible, just a darker shade black presented itself, thick, unbreakable and menacing, stretching across all that was observable, plucking stars from the night sky, one by one, a pop of blue, the dull red of a fire dying down, then black, the curtain being drawn on existence.
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Frank lay on an old tin roof, nails digging into his skin, he raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of a street lights rays flickering between branches that danced in the wind, squinting he watched the stars above him, flecks of light that could have seized to exist before the dawn of man and something out there was sucking the lingering spark of their existence away, he watched and counted the live stars, 32 in the last hour, they stood out, their light didn't fade out like the remains of dead stars, it burst like a spark jumping from a live wire before fading to black, how many worlds he wondered, how many planets were meeting the fate of those stars, were other civilizations falling into that black as well, or was this a fate Earth would experience alone, he lowered his hand and let it sit across his stomach feeling the rise and fall match the steam from his mouth in the brisk fall air, breathing felt like a luxury, one he wasn't sure would last much longer, people seemed far to calm in the face of the end, no riots, no protests, no demands for more to be done, there were only small pockets of panic, churches and temples were deserted, grocery stores remained stocked and the national guard had left their posts and returned home to their families, humanity it seemed had come to terms with extinction, finally united as one species, realizing how insignificant they were in the unimaginable vastness beyond a little blue dot, differences no longer separated mankind but united them, perhaps this was a unified last ditch effort at redemption, if humans weren't trying to destroy themselves perhaps, somehow, they would be spared from the fate that was sucking the stars from the sky.
“Frank?” a shrill croaky voice startled Frank from his trance, tensing as he felt a loose piece of tin scratch down his back as he shifted his weight to peer over the side of the roofs guttering “Yes, Nan?” he inquired letting his eyes meet hers, a deep cobalt blue, her eyes seemed to shine brighter at night, almost luminescent, and for a moment he found himself lost in their sea of depth and mystery “dinners ready, they are about to update us on the event horizon, come inside please” Frank let a half hearted smile dance across his lips and nodded, letting his gaze leave hers, he glanced towards the moon, behind the rock in the sky was nothing but black, no stars remained, a grim reminder as he tilted his head back letting his eyes pass back over the stars above him, that the event horizon...
No one had noticed Chaos approaching until Pluto suddenly vanished, the Kuiper belt and Eris along with it, at 10am they were there, but to one lazy astronomers shock, as he batted his old telescope like a cat with a piece of string, yawning, barely awake he placed an eye to the lense, he sat steering in disbelief through his refracting lenses at exactly 8.07pm, they were gone, the astronomer on a panicked whim booked himself on the first flight to Washington DC and forced his way into NASA’s HQ, a labyrinth of rooms, stairs and hallways, he stumbled his way around following sparsely placed signs before, puffed and wheezing, he burst into ISS control, curly hair in knots dampened with sweat, a jacket inside out and torn, 3 day old stubble dotted his face in a pubescent way despite his age dwelling in the mid 40s, the astronomer was demanding to be listened to, his efforts saw him caught in the grasp of two security guards, his arms twisted behind his back and face pressed to a concrete wall, he pleaded his case to a room of experts, they reclined in custom chairs, laughing at a lone man's desperate claims, mocking him while questioning his sanity, the chairman amused and wanting to belittle the loon even more turned on a monitor, a live stream of the solar system, used to track near earth objects, they all steered in horror, a feeble attempt to embarrass the man further had turned into the grimmest discovery in written history, perhaps in all of history, Pluto was missing, not a single trace was visible, just a darker shade black presented itself, thick, unbreakable and menacing, stretching across all that was observable, plucking stars from the night sky, one by one, a pop of blue, the dull red of a fire dying down, then black, the curtain being drawn on existence.
********************************************************************************************
Frank lay on an old tin roof, nails digging into his skin, he raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of a street lights rays flickering between branches that danced in the wind, squinting he watched the stars above him, flecks of light that could have seized to exist before the dawn of man and something out there was sucking the lingering spark of their existence away, he watched and counted the live stars, 32 in the last hour, they stood out, their light didn't fade out like the remains of dead stars, it burst like a spark jumping from a live wire before fading to black, how many worlds he wondered, how many planets were meeting the fate of those stars, were other civilizations falling into that black as well, or was this a fate Earth would experience alone, he lowered his hand and let it sit across his stomach feeling the rise and fall match the steam from his mouth in the brisk fall air, breathing felt like a luxury, one he wasn't sure would last much longer, people seemed far to calm in the face of the end, no riots, no protests, no demands for more to be done, there were only small pockets of panic, churches and temples were deserted, grocery stores remained stocked and the national guard had left their posts and returned home to their families, humanity it seemed had come to terms with extinction, finally united as one species, realizing how insignificant they were in the unimaginable vastness beyond a little blue dot, differences no longer separated mankind but united them, perhaps this was a unified last ditch effort at redemption, if humans weren't trying to destroy themselves perhaps, somehow, they would be spared from the fate that was sucking the stars from the sky.
“Frank?” a shrill croaky voice startled Frank from his trance, tensing as he felt a loose piece of tin scratch down his back as he shifted his weight to peer over the side of the roofs guttering “Yes, Nan?” he inquired letting his eyes meet hers, a deep cobalt blue, her eyes seemed to shine brighter at night, almost luminescent, and for a moment he found himself lost in their sea of depth and mystery “dinners ready, they are about to update us on the event horizon, come inside please” Frank let a half hearted smile dance across his lips and nodded, letting his gaze leave hers, he glanced towards the moon, behind the rock in the sky was nothing but black, no stars remained, a grim reminder as he tilted his head back letting his eyes pass back over the stars above him, that the event horizon...
