Microstory 1491: Power Failure

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The alarmists who feared that the destruction of The Abyss meant the ultimate destruction of all time powers found some validation years later when it became apparent that no more paramounts were being born. A child with time powers will generally discover their abilities by the time they reach adulthood. Depending on what it is, they may demonstrate it during infancy, or it may not happen until puberty, but rarely does it wait until their twenties. The last known paramount was born sixteen years ago, just before Durus finally managed to reach its destination in the 70 Ophiuchi star system. It would seem that these suns were having a greater impact on the perception and usage of time than just the Abyss. That was apparently only the first noticeable change. As of now, the birth of no new people with time powers was the only other thing that had changed about their world, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way forever. Some people worried that this was only the beginning, that they would eventually lose all time-based privileges. After all, what exactly was the difference between a person with time powers, and a machine that could manipulate time? Biology? Yeah, maybe. But the sunlight had already had an effect on something nonbiological, so there was a strong chance that all nonlinear time, and temporal manipulation, would go away eventually. On Earth, that would be totally okay. Time powers were a perk, but not essential. They were literally vital to the people of Durus, however. They kept a stable atmosphere, and a rotating planet, and they allowed it to orbit the suns in a particular pattern. Even if the scientists hadn’t chosen to use an unnatural figure eight pattern, they would have needed these powers and technologies in order to enter an orbit at all. Otherwise, they would have either passed the stars on by, or collided with one of them. If a celestial body isn’t on the right path to orbit a different celestial body of greater mass, then it won’t. Things were really getting serious now, and it was time to truly focus on finding regular technological solutions to terrible eventualities. It wasn’t impossible, but it would be immensely difficult. They could survive on a rogue world, likely by retreating underground, but they would have to progress in a way that they never had before. And the real problem was they didn’t know if they had time to develop enough to accomplish this. They had already gotten started, but knowing what they knew now about the lack of young paramounts, the eleventh hour would forever be their resting state.