It is perfectly normal for a human being to be able to lift a fifty pound
rock. They have the fingers and hands to grasp onto it, the arms to attach
them to the body, the muscles to make it all move, and the brain to exert
its will upon everything. Every time this person lifts that rock, however,
it will require energy. That energy has to come from somewhere, and it does
in this example through respiration, and nutritional consumption. As much
work as one wants to get done must be completed with the exact amount of
corresponding energy. There are different forms of energy, of course—some
more efficient than others—but there is no such thing as magic. Temporal
powers operate the same way; without magic. A paramount, or whathaveyou,
will be capable of performing amazing feats by manipulating time and space,
and they will do this by tapping into a kind of physics that most people
don’t even know about. But these abilities only account for the talent, not
for the energy required to complete any given task. Having the intelligence
and skill to lift a rock is not the same thing as actually lifting it.
Regular humans use adenosine triphosphate to do work, and empowered people
use temporal energy...and also ATP, because they too are alive. No one knows
where temporal energy comes from, but scientists assume that it replenishes
itself by the passage of time. They don’t know why it would do this, or why
certain people are able to harness it; it just always seems to be there, and
available. For centuries, the people of Durus took temporal energy for
granted, and allowed it to run their lives. It was the basis for their
spiritual beliefs, their sociopolitical organization, and their technology.
So when this energy stopped replenishing itself as it normally always did,
people didn’t know what to do. They knew things needed to change, but how.
Why was the temporal energy disappearing? Were they using too much of it too
quickly, or were they only ever allotted a certain amount, and they were now
approaching that limit? Everyone hoped that the first hypothesis was the
truth. If they never got their powers back, who knew how the world would end
up. If they could lessen or stop their dependency on it, however, perhaps
they would eventually get back to normal levels, and then they would start
being smarter about how they used it. They had already started working on
ways to lower their expenditure, by heavily regulating powers and tech,
using them only in the most dire of circumstances. The biggest drain on this
energy, however, came from their solar orbit. Keeping a planet on a very
unnatural path through space, as you can imagine, takes a lot of work.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to just stop doing this. If they simply let
go, they would be shot off into space, or worse, collide with another
celestial object. No, they had to wait for the perfect time, and this came
in the year 2226, as they were entering their third eleven-year full orbit.
They needed to make one last push to alter their course. They would abandon
their figure-eight, and begin a regular orbit around Ophiuchi A. It wasn’t
beautiful, magical, or poetic, but there was nothing wrong with a circle.
Every planet in the universe that orbits a host star or stars does so in a
circular manner, be it highly elliptical, or otherwise. The job was the most
difficult thing they had ever done, because the last time they entered an
orbit, they had a lot more energy. Now, they not only had less, but they had
to hold onto at least a little bit in order to maintain their atmosphere
afterwards. That was one thing that they weren’t sure they would ever be
able to fix without powers or time tech. They were victorious in their
latest battle against annihilation, but that didn’t mean the war was over.
It would turn out to be too little too late, and kind of like shutting the
stable door after the horse had escaped, found a new home in a new city,
foaled offspring, and died peacefully on a Tuesday.
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