They believed they would never see home again. They were lucky to survive the crash, but it was little more than an asteroid, and time was running out, with their air toxifying by the hour.
They were rescued by a strange looking being. She took them to their planet, just a day away in her craft. They were welcomed as heroes…
They watched the planet at distance for a few orbits. Eventually they decided against visiting. Just like others had before them. They wanted to visit (at least covertly), they could see it was inhabited, but there was simply too much debris in orbit. They could probably pick a path through it, but it was hardly worth it.
As their people travelled throughout the Galaxy, they started to truly understand how gravitational waves affected spacetime and those caught in it. When messages first came to their home planet from other experiencing such a wave, they noticed how it seemed distorted in playback, sounding slower or faster than normal. The images were distorted.
They met at the oasis at the centre of the largest land mass.
“I am glad to see you”, he said, a gust whipping sand across his face.
Her dry lips smiled back. “It’s a relief to see someone, something, recognizable. It has been too long.”
The Apples of Tau Scorpii VI are famous throughout the Galaxy. Those who have eaten them say nothing else can taste as good after, but that taste comes at great price.
Travel to the planet takes decades, but it is said to be the most beautiful planet. Poetry speaks of the moon’s light dancing upon the organic silver running…
The wind from the star drove shards of the crumbled planet everywhere. Nothing remained that its former inhabitants could have recognized. Some fell toward oblivion in the star, more became an orbiting belt. One massive chunk became the moon of another planet.
The shadow cast by the second moon distracted him. Farhan took the moment to look at it with pride. Then concern took hold. It was 2.45pm, but it wasn’t due until 3.30. It looked like the orbit was deteriorating again.
The idea was perfect — offshore data storage for Earth built with silicon from the moon. The execution was……
It was to be “the Stairway to the Universe.” Farhan reckoned he had finally worked all the possible kinks out after nearly two decades of painstaking calculations.
He’d covered how to power it, how to shield it, what materials to use, and where to put it. He figured how to construct it without it shattering. He subsequently…