Legends Of The Multiverse #17 - Beneath A Starless Sky
The end began in 678 A.D., as Constantinople came under siege and the Byzantines burned the Muslim fleet to ashes at Sillyon. It would not be noticed until 1,340 years later, on a cold winter night in Resolute, Canada. It would not be understood until several centuries after that.
2018
Gerald Hightower was one of the first to see it, although the dubious honor is likely shared by thousands around the world. But Gerald was certainly the first observer with the means and clout to disseminate the message.
It was his 35th birthday and Gerald was very drunk. He rarely drank to begin with, so several rounds of shots brought him steadily to the brink. Inside the bar, stiflingly hot and claustrophobic, Gerald nearly fall asleep. But a friend helped him up and the cutting edge of the cold North Canadian wind hit Gerald like a shot of adrenaline to the chest.
One of his friends drove him home, and left him half awake on the couch. Time during the winter this far North was a technicality more than a physical reality. 24 hours of darkness for several weeks.
Gerald awoke alone on the floor of his kitchen. He needed to puke, badly. Without thinking he got up and raced outside into the cold, barely making it to a patch of last night's snow before heaving his guts out in front of him.
When the wrenching was done, Gerald allowed himself to fall back and bask in the cleansing iciness. The storm clouds were gone and the sun hid it's face on the opposite side of the World. Through the freezing air Gerald could see the stars, those truest of his friends, with whom he spent his life conversing most honestly.
Gerald found his companions one by one as he so often did. Cassiopeia in her chains. Hydra with it's many heads. Pheonix and Scorpius. The Ursas and Gemini. Gerard found each and let the chill air calm the pounding in his head.
Gerard's eye fell on mighty Orion, his immense sword, ready to strike a killing blow, and his heavy belt cinched tight around the waist.
As Gerard watched through red, stuporous eyes, Alnilam, the middle and farthest of the three stars in Orions belt, winked out of existence.
Gerard blinked and searched, but it could not be found.
2442
Louisa pressed on the horn and held it down.
I'm coming!
The non-verbal message was communicated directly to Louisa's auditory nerve via comjack. She did not let up on the horn.
Yes, OK! I'm coming!
Anne came racing out the front door of the building lobby and jumped into the passenger's seat of the red convertible. Louisa didn't wait for her to buckle up but set off at speed, the only sound being the barely audible high pitched humm of the electric engines.
"Whats the rush El? You have a date with Professor Radich or something?" Anne hastily clicked her seatbelt into place, a knee jerk response with little basis in reality. Louisa had only a modicum of control over the vehicle - start, stop, speed up or down - but the car's A.I. was watching every move. An accident was nearly impossible.
Louisa was distracted. She urged the car forward at the top speed the law would allow and tapped her fingers nervously on the steering wheel.
Anne took notice. "El?"
Louisa looked at the street as she spoke. The car weaved seamlessly through traffic, interfacing with the other A.I. navigators with ant-hill proficiency. "Have you logged on yet?"
"I haven't logged on for three days, I'm trying to disconnect for awhile." The meta-net was always on and always available. On demand information, wireless and everywhere - a direct loop from the cloud to your senses and back again. It could get overwhelming. "What happened?"
Louisa put her face into her hands and said nothing. When she looked up, her eyes were red-rimmed and wet. "Hargrove...he was right."
The enormity of those four words struck deep at Anne's core. Immediately she logged in and accessed the primary global debrief. The summary headline implanted itself in her brain.
QT Event Confirmed. Mintaka Gone. Alnitak Within A Century. UN Emergency Announcement Expected.
As astro-physicists, both Louisa and Anne understood the chaos inherent in the Universe. They knew, in time, everything died. They also knew neither they, nor their children's children, would experience the end which now assuredly awaited the planet Earth.
Yet somehow, the knowledge that everything would be gone 916 years from today was still a personal blow.
They both cried quietly to themselves on the way to the campus, as the car threaded them through traffic.
3358
Al-nok gnawed greedily on the bones of a dead dog. The crumbling remnants of a fire flickered gently in the dusty night, flaring up now and again when it caught an oxygenating breeze.
Al-nok was alone, as were most Homo sapiens var. radiosis. The remnants of the species once coloquially known as "humans" lived on in small pockets of life. The once communal nature of human culture did not apply to H.sapiens var. radiosis. They lived like snow leopards, alone and violent but for a few months of each year when they fought to reproduce.
There was much lost when H.sapien passed from the Earth. Al-nok could not know the name of the ancient skeleton of Chicago in which he hunted. Al-nok knew only violence and hunger and the simple machines which enabled him to trap and kill and cook.
When Al-nok caught a glimpse of the night sky and saw the all encompassing blackness, devoid of any light beyond the sliver of the moon, he did not miss starlight. For Al-nok, the sky was always a void, a thing to be feared, and hated and, most importantly, ignored.
Al'nok did not know humanity committed suicide, nor could he understand the motivations of a species faced with the mounting pressure of a ticking doom they could not avert.
No one on the face of the Earth remembered the stars. No sage or elder could recount the oral history of the darkening night sky. Alniham, Mintaka, Alnitak - the names and lives and deaths of every sun but Sol itself - were lost in time and space.
And perhaps this was for the best. There would be no solace for Al-nok to know absolute forces of destruction/creation would consume him in a matter of days. What good would it do poor Al-nok to be forewarned that the very particles of his being would soon be obliterated/transformed in ways no sentience could possibly comprehend?
No. Far better to be ignorant. The end of the end would come nonetheless.
Al-nok sat stooped over his dying fire, under the obsidian sky, gnashing his teeth on the last traces of all life in the universe.
[Photo Credit]Own work Authr C m handler, CC-3.0-SA VIA wikimedia, edited by me
Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:
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