Dying of the Light - A Sci-Fi Story about the Heat Death

[KAL 9000]

I'm working on a Sci-Fi story about the Heat Death of the Universe. I call it "Dying of the Light" after that poem that was made famous by Interstellar. 

Setting: 100 Trillion years from now, in a wide orbit around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. Ever since the last stars started dying, the sentient species of the Milky Way banded together, and now huddle around the supermassive black hole, harnessing its Hawking radiation for the energy they need for their self-sufficient orbital habitats. The specific setting is Habitat #15,345,279, the home for humanity's distant descendants. The best scientists in this collection of habitats have come up with a plan to save everyone: escape to a new universe, still in its prime. The problem is, opening up a wormhole large enough and stable enough will take almost all the energy the dying Local Group has left...

Chapter 1 will come out soon!

[Spaceception]

Interesting! It looks like a great idea!

[KAL 9000]

7 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Interesting! It looks like a great idea!

Thank you, O Sci-Fi Boss Of The Forums (No, not sarcasm)

[Spaceception]

Just now, KAL 9000 said:

Thank you, O Sci-Fi Boss Of The Forums (No, not sarcasm)

Thanks, but I doubt I'm the SciFi boss here

[The Raging Sandwich]

1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

Thanks, but I doubt I'm the SciFi boss here

I am!

No, just kidding...

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 1: Do not go gentle into that good night 

J'Louver looked out the window of the habitat and sighed. The stars were by now a distant memory in the memory banks, and the view outside was pure, utter blackness, penetrated by only the dim, blinking lights of other habitats in visual range, which, without any air to block the view, was billions of miles. One light, however, was brighter than the rest, and stayed constant, without blinking. Alas, this was no star, but the power station for this sector of the orbit. Huge panels, millions of miles across, captured the feeble Hawking radiation from the black hole and beamed it, via microwaves, to all habitats in range. The habitat carrying the remnants of humanity carefully fired its EM thrusters, coming in for docking at the station for repairs. Not the habitat's repairs, mind you, one of the converters on the station had failed and needed repair. Habitat #15,345,279, being the closest to the station when the failure happened, had been asked to assist. J'Louver, being the most competent engineer in the hab, was assigned to repair duty. As they closed in on the station, J'Louver grabbed their toolkit and went to the airlock. When they heard the resounding click of the docking ports connecting, they opened the door and went through.

After the repair was done and J'Louver was back on board, the habitat undocked and returned to its assigned orbit. J'Louver had a thought: Why should everyone stay in a dying universe, when there could be another, just born, that would be better?

[electricpants]

You should definitely make the chapters longer.

[KAL 9000]

1 minute ago, electricpants said:

You should definitely make the chapters longer.

This is Chapter 1 Part 1.

[electricpants]

Just now, KAL 9000 said:

This is Chapter 1 Part 1.

Oh, I thought that was the whole chapter one, because it just says "Chapter 1".

[KAL 9000]

15 hours ago, electricpants said:

Oh, I thought that was the whole chapter one, because it just says "Chapter 1".

Sorry, the next installment will say Chapter 1 Part 2. Each chapter will have 3 parts. The conclusion will have 4 parts. It's not a very long story.

Edited October 26, 2016 by KAL 9000

[electricpants]

On 10/24/2016 at 0:59 PM, Spaceception said:

I doubt I'm the SciFi boss here

Uh, yeah you are!

Only you write the best, most high quality stories, after all! (Seriously)

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 1 Part 2: Old age should burn and rave at close of day

J'Louver had presented his idea to the Council of Species, and it had been approved for a design study. However, there had been a few objections. Lû'tœ, the representative of the Kråx species, had pointed out, "Lælæ r'løū gßãkôę". After a second while the translator did its work, a speaker played out, "Yes, we do know wormhole theory inside and out, but the energy requirements are huge." Another representative said, "And how do we know the new universe will have the same physical laws as ours?" After some heated discussion, a scientist pointed out, "If we compress a 'nugget' of spacetime to the Planck length, a new Big Bang happens to that "nugget", and it starts expanding outside of our universe. If we keep a microscopic wormhole open in between the rest of the universe and the "nugget", we can expand the wormhole later and go to the new universe. Because the new universe was originally part of our own, it will have the same physical laws and parameters." 

"But that would be an even greater energy requirem-"

"But it would save everyone." 

"True. If we can find the energy, we can save everyone!"

So it was decided that a fleet of Alcubierre drive-equipped spacecraft would scour the remains of the Local Group for anything that could be used for energy. The ships left, crew in hand, and the race was on to find the energy before the universe succumbed to its fate...

Edited November 16, 2016 by KAL 9000

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 1 Part 3: Rage, rage against the dying of the light

The ECS Hope flew through intergalactic space, approaching what was left of the Triangulum Galaxy at a breakneck pace of 1 million c, enabled by its Alcubierre drive. As it entered the galaxy, it dropped out of warp and activated its sensors.

"Sir, we've detected a star system. 3 neutron stars orbiting a barycenter, several planets orbiting the system from far away." 

"Great. Set course for it and prepare the energy collectors and A-Theta device."

The A-Theta device was a way to extract enormous amounts of energy from any celestial body, destroying that celestial body in the process. Using advanced technology, it changed exactly half of all a celestial body's subatomic particles into their antimatter equivalents, causing the celestial body to annihilate itself, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process.

"Energy collectors deployed, we are in position."

"Fire the A-Theta device!"

"Yes sir, device is armed. All systems nominal... Firing!"

The A-Theta device quickly did its work, and the neutron star vaporized. A miniscule fraction of a second later, a huge shockwave hit the ship. But they were prepared. The ship's shielding systems activated, the shockwave only knocking out all equipment on the ship instead of destroying it. Luckily, the energy collectors were very heavily shielded, and still absorbed the energy to be later used for the wormhole and "nugget" compression. As the engineers brought systems back online, the warp drive and reactor were repaired and the ship set a course for home, to come back later after dropping off the energy. A similar scene played out all through the Local Group, and the energy rose and rose...

End of Chapter 1

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 2: Though wise men at their end know dark is right 

"Wormhole status?"

"It's connected to the 'nugget' and stable."

"Begin compression."

"Yessir."

The spacetime 'nugget' shrank, getting smaller and smaller as huge energies were focused on it. It grew smaller than an atom, a proton, a quark, rapidly approaching the Planck length. 

"Permission to begin final compression?"

"Granted."

The technician cranked the lever as far as it would go. The nugget squeezed smaller than the Plank length, and suddenly, it collapsed of its own accord. It rebounded outside of the universe, creating a new Big Bang and a new universe. 

"SUCCESS! Shutting down compression equipment now, wormhole is stable."

The new universe rapidly passed through its very early phases, and when it was detected that the electroweak force split, there were cheers through the control room. If the wormhole held, their descendants would cross it into the new universe as soon as it cooled to allow atoms, 300,000 years later.

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 2 Part 2: Because their words had forked no lightning they 

300,000 years later: 

The end was now. All around what was left of life, of intelligence, entropy and thermodynamics were finally winning the age-old war against order and light. The last stars had long ago died, the very protons and neutrons of the debris succumbing to quantum mechanics and decaying. But intelligence's trump card, its ace of spades, was finally ready. And intelligence, in its last desperate gamble, played the card. 

Ship upon ship, habitat upon habitat, crossed through the wormhole. The last living beings in this universe looked out the habitat window and saw only blackness. It was time.

The last habitat, the last reservoir of intelligence and order in this universe, crossed the boundary, emerging in a newborn universe. The wormhole closed and disappeared behind them. 

Shortly after life had left this dying universe behind, the last black hole, the last piece of order, grew smaller and smaller. Hawking radiation was taking its toll. 

Finally, the black hole exploded in a blinding flash, almost as though it was defying the death of this universe. It was the largest explosion, the brightest light since the Big Bang. 

But alas, the new radiation evenly distributed among this universe. 

Entropy had won. Time itself had ground to a halt. This universe was dead.

[KAL 9000]

Chapter 2 Part 3: Do not go gentle into that good night 

The little fleet set out for the area in space which, according to density and mass scans, would form a medium-sized spiral galaxy in a few billion years to come. 

They parked right outside a collapsing gas cloud to watch the fireworks. 

As the cloud collapsed, conservation of angular momentum meant it began to spin, faster and faster. The central region formed a sphere and began to glow softly from the heat created by the friction from the collapse. 

The remaining material began to fall onto the central sphere, and it glowed brighter and brighter. 

Eventually, it reached the critical density and temperature at its center. Hydrogen atoms smashed into each other at enormous speeds. The sphere grew brighter and brighter, and suddenly, a shockwave shot out from its surface, blowing away the remnants of the cloud and allowing its light to flow unimpeded. 

The first star had been born. 

End of Chapter 2

Edited December 8, 2016 by KAL 9000

[The Minmus Derp]

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