Microstory 685: Salvation From the Quantum Darkness

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After every star in the galaxy disappeared all at the same time, we were forced to think about how life might continue without them. The Book of Light predicted that it would last for weeks in its current form, and even longer in some unexplained capacity. We assumed this meant that some stars would be returned to us in full force—hopefully the most important ones; the central worlds—while other remained shrouded, but we didn’t really know. Panic spread across every planet in Fostea like a virus. Even those who were traveling, or even living, in artificial interstellar vessels were feeling the pressure of having to change their way of life. As said before, most plants require sunlight in order to survive. Though there are forms of life that require less light, or sometimes even none, every utilitarian plant needs it greatly. Over the course of the next couple of days, these plants began to die off, starting with the smallest. Large trees promised to survive for much longer, but they provide us with relatively few resources, so that was little comfort to us. The entire food chain on each planet relies on this plant life to survive as well. Even animals that feed only on meat either feed on animals that feed on planets, or they feed on animals that feed on animals that feed on plants. In the end, the only species that had any hope of adapting were humans, and even we weren’t doing so well. How could we get through this for weeks? If it wasn’t lack of food, it was war. If it wasn’t war, it was darkness-induced insanity. If it wasn’t insanity, it would be something else. With the quantum darkness could come completely unknown threats. What else would this hell in mithgarther have for us that we couldn’t even begin to fathom? Then something we still don’t understand happened. The darkness was abated. In only a few standard days, the quantum darkness that had overcome every star was somehow destroyed. It did not happen all at once, but it did happen shockingly rapidly. Suns blinked back into their full glory several at a time. Not only that, but scientists studying this phenomenon have begun to notice an odd unnatural pattern in which the stars returned. One might even be able to trace a path between them, as if a force were moving in one general direction, swallowing the darkness little by little. We still don’t have all the data analyzed, but we suspect that the metaphor of a Light of Life may be not so abstract a concept as we once believed. When asked about the time discrepancy from the Book of Light prediction and reality, the resurrected Sacred Savior smiled, and said, “I told you it would take weeks to abate the Darkness. But time is relative, you should know that by now. We don’t all perceive it the same way. I wasn’t wrong, you just mistook my words.”