There was only one person left with powers in 2234. Everyone else had
completely lost any ability to manipulate time in any way. Had Durus the
medical technology necessary to study these former paramounts, they
might have learned whether their powers were gone forever, or if they just
didn’t have the temporal energy necessary to use them. The world was
emotionally troubled. Fearing the worst, engineers expanded the bunker
clusters, and moved everyone underground. Though the sun was still shining,
and the wind turbines still turning, trying to remain on the surface was
just not worth the risk. Only a few technicians went out daily to make sure
these perfectly normal power generators were still fully operational. And
only they were left outside when the sun blinked out of existence.
Calluna—named after Missy Calluna Atterberry, who was a historical figure
from the interstellar ship, The Elizabeth Warren—didn’t disappear
completely, but it was no longer useful to the people of Durus. The old
woman who still possessed a modicum of temporal energy used it one last time
to explain what had happened. It was the Time Crevice. When a group of
apporters banished a kilometer wide patch of land from the surface of the
planet to get rid of the crevice, they didn’t give much thought to what was
going to happen to it. It didn’t seem like it was their problem anymore, and
they didn’t think they would have to deal with it ever again. The
instantaneous journey from Durus to outer space took a toll on the land, and
broke it apart. These parts were still on the same trajectory, however, so
they stuck pretty close to each other. Most of it didn’t have any special
temporal properties at all; they just wanted to make sure they got the whole
thing. They ended up calling the central structure the Time Rocks, for they
were the ones responsible for messing with the passage of time inside the
crevice. Evidently, even as a bunch of rocks, they were powerful enough to
place the whole sun into a temporal bubble, and since it was stuck in this
bubble, light could not escape fast enough to shine on Durus anymore. They
were smart to move underground, because they would not have survived for
long above.
It was absurd that something smaller than a house could have any impact on
something as massive as a star. Experts hypothesized that there was more
temporal energy stored in those rocks than anyone realized, or that it was
channeling it from somewhere else. Then it dawned on them. They didn’t know
how, or why, but that was finally the answer they were looking for to the
question about their own time powers and time tech. Somehow, as the Time
Rocks were hurtling through space, they were also absorbing temporal energy
from all of Durus. The rocks were draining people of their powers, and
stripping away everything that allowed the Durune to manipulate spacetime.
All that energy, concentrated into one tiny spot, was like setting an armed
nuclear bomb next to a lamp post. The lamp post never stood a chance. The
energy exploded, overtook Calluna, and trapped it in time. Now remember that
it was still giving off light, but it was doing it at an incredibly slow
pace, and that just wasn’t enough to keep the planet warm. The world didn’t
end, but even if Calluna escaped eventually, it would do the Durune no good.
The resulting explosion sent a gravitational wave towards Durus, which was
strong enough to knock it out of orbit, and cause durusquakes all over, but
not enough to destroy the bunkers, which were designed to withstand heavy
seismic activity. The remains of Aljabara above collapsed, though, as did
most structures still standing after all this time. So now their
relationship with 70 Ophiuchi was all but over. It would seem that Durus, or
some other entity, did not want it to be anything more than a rogue planet.
It would take them a long time to escape interplanetary space, but there was
nothing they could do to stop it. They had no temporal energy, very little
electricity in the reserves, and not a lot of time to repair the turbines.
Fortunately, once they did make those repairs, they were up and running
again. Through all this, Durus lived up to its name, and endured. Some
suggested they change the government back from the Solar Democratic
Republic, but most agreed it didn’t really matter right now. They had to
focus on survival, and hope that something about their situation changed
eventually.
No comments :
Post a Comment