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SSTO Crasher

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    Voyage - The Final Warning (Chapters 34-36 And Epilogues)

    in KSP1 Mission Reports

    Posted

    On 3/18/2023 at 1:47 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

    Chapter 34 - The Battle For Kerbin

      Reveal hidden contents

    The entire resistance scrambled to their ships, packed like sardines inside the final Tauquantum gate as the countdown to the Neutron star convergence coldly marched on.

    Sixty seconds. Forty five. Thirty. Twenty. Ten.

    Every being that had lungs held their breath.

    But the seconds ticked by and the countdown reached zero without the barrier having been lowered.

    One would think this would be relieving, but everyone knew this would just mean another five hours of anticipation on average. The longer it took, the more sleep deprived all of the species that required sleep would become, and ever lower the perceived odds of success sank.

    Many of the soldiers took this time to relax, in their exhaustion, falling victim to the fallacy that the five hour average meant they were safe for a while. Many left their ships to visit the Gate for  various reasons.

    In this state of relative relaxation, the entire resistance was greeted with an announcement:

    “Attention: The Barrier has fallen. I repeat: The Barrier has fallen.”

    Jebediah Kerman began communicating immediately with his Kerbinside clones, as did Ethan and Evelina. Everyone double checked their equipment, keeping a nervous eye (or several) on the clocks.

    But in the back of everyone’s mind: “They knew, didn’t they? In five hours they will have won, and we will be gone!”

    Even Galactus conceded that if all hope faded away, the boulder would be triggered right then and there.

     

    ==========

     

    “Ethans? Hello?” asked Star-Ethan.

    “Star-Ethan???” asked Space-Ethan. “How? You’re dead! And the shield isn’t… Oh no.”

    “I told you he wasn’t dead!” triumphantly proclaimed Ground-Ethan.

    “Tell everyone you know to get to the escape pods. Now. This is not a drill.”

    “Oh no, The Species is on its way isn’t it?”

    “What’s going on?”

    “Galactus is real, and we have the Magic Boulder. We can restore worlds. The Species has killed almost everyone but in an average of five hours, we are zipping into the Kerbin system and we are going to summon Planet Pock right next to Kerbin. Planet Pock hopefully has a giant Illasticonian Crystal at its core. The instant we land the boulder safely on Planet Pock, we are going to detonate it. Everyone on Kerbin will have a maximum of twelve minutes, likely less, from when Planet Pock appears until when we teleport to a region far beyond known space. If you are not on board, we are not waiting for you. Tell everyone you can. Ground, get everyone you can into those ships that were designed for escaping the solar system. Space, do a blog post, half of Kerbin follows that blog, fly the Voyager to an orbit that will be within five minutes distance of Pock, do not worry about fuel, Jeb is telling Jeb the coordinates, and get everyone in the descent pod, prepare for launch at a moment’s notice. Good luck.”

    “Goodness gracious, we have massive lungs.”

    “We’re saying this in our heads, you doofus.”

    “Guys, this is not a joke nor a drill. You have maybe five hours if you are lucky. The shield is down, The Species is on its way. Get everyone to the escape pods now, hurry!”

    “Dimitri, the shield’s down!” shouted Ground Ethan to Dimitri over the clamor of the party.

    “I can’t hear you Jonathan!” shouted Dimitri. Ground Ethan ran over to the music player, smashed it, and stood up on the stage.

    Everyone froze and groaned, annoyed at the stoppage of the music. “Attention everyone. The shield has just dropped and you are all to report to the nearest escape craft immediately.”

    “Jonathan, you’re not even drunk!”

    “I’m not Jonathan, I’m a clone of Ethan’s.”

    “It’s true!” shouted Ground-Evelina.

    “I have another clone in deep space right now telling me the stuff. Check my blog!”

    Sure enough,

     

    Ethan’s Public Blog  Entry #831, 14 seconds ago

    ATTENTION EVERYONE GET TO THE ESCAPE CRAFT IMMEDIATELY THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

    Ethan’s Public Blog Entry #832, 2 seconds ago

    And yes, Jonathan is me!

     

    “Text your parents, friends, everyone you know and run!” A few people shuffled for the door, confused and mostly unconvinced. Then every electronic device over all of Kerbin started blaring at the same time with the same simple message:

    “Report to the escape craft. This is not a drill.”

    “But please!” shouted Ground Ethan. “Don’t do a crowd crush on the way out!”

    Everyone ran for the doors, for the nearest mode of transportation, to the nearest battery of escape craft. It was chaos. The existence of The Species had only been revealed days before, and the first escape drill was not scheduled for another week.

    “Jon, uh, Ethan!” shouted Dimitri as he ran to catch up with him through the chaos. “Stars above, you’re Ethan Edwards!”

    “Yours truly!” responded Ground-Ethan as he held the doors open and attempted to guide people to the nearest form of transport. “Dimitri, get going! We don’t have much time! It could be minutes, it could be hours, but we don’t know! The Species is probably on its way this instant!”

    “Right… But… Why?”

    “I don’t know why they want to kill us! Energy, probably! Just go!”

    “No, not that… Why pretend to be not Ethan? Everyone wants to be Ethan! Its been days since everyone found out about… Well, everything and you didn’t drop the facade!”

    “I… I just wanted to feel normal again.” Dimitri, a bit stunned, was swept away in the crowd.

     

    ==========

     

    “3, 2, 1, posting. Oh wait. They won’t know he’s not… Okay, posting again. ALONYA! MARIE! Get up here, the shield is down! I’m getting telepathy!”

    “Oh! This is the end, isn’t it? Couldn’t this have happened after landing in a few hours?” lamented Alonya.

    “Calculating maneuver to land near the nearest escape craft launch site,” said Marie.

    “No,” I said. “Plan’s changed. There’s going to be a massive teleporting planet - “

    “What?”

    “There’s going to be a massive teleporting planet at, uh…” I glanced over at Jeb, who was very deep in conversation, likely trying to communicate with several clones at once, but he scrawled a set of coordinates down on the nearest thing, which happened to be a shelf.

    “Here, with this radius, and we need to be there at some unknown time between now and an average of five hours.”

    “On it,” said Marie.

    “I’ll wake Sean.”

    “Leave him be, explaining this to him will be a headache.”

     

    ==========

     

    “Everyone’s out!” Ground-Ethan shouted, out of breath, exiting the building after doing a quick once over.

    “Right, let’s go!” said Evelina. The pair took off running for the nearest train. Seconds later, it departed without them.

    “Dammit, When’s the next one?”asked Ground-Ethan.

    “They are probably running an emergency schedule, so soon I hope. Its usually a fifteen minute schedule.” The two ran up to the station and anxiously awaited the next train for a few minutes.

    Ground Ethan froze. “Oh no.”

     

    ==========

     

    “Okay, we can either land now and run from our inaccurate landing site to the nearest escape craft, which could take an hour or two or so, or enter an elliptical orbit that takes us to Planet Pock in decent time. However the orbit is about half deadzone. Landing takes longer, but we have, what, five hours? I recommend the landing procedure,” reported Marie.

    “I concur,” replied Alonya.

    “You made an error in your assessment,” stated Bill. “Its more like a third deadzone, we can use the remaining fuel to speed things along.”

    “I thought the challenge rules meant you weren’t allowed to help us?” asked Marie.

    “This isn’t the challenge any more… I don’t think there are any rules left at all.”

    “I will begin throwing stuff out of the airlock,” Bob said as he began suiting up, “To increase our thrust to weight ratio.”

    “If the challenge doesn’t matter, then can we not just have someone come and get us?” mused Space-Ethan, who would be nervously pacing if it weren’t possible in zero gravity.

    “Every available ship is being packed. Time is of the essence, and what do eight souls, five of which have clones, who are already in a ship, matter?” coldly stated Valentina. “Unfortunately for us, we are on our own.”

    “Performing landing adjustment burn in 3… 2… 1…” said Alonya. The nuclear engines shuddered to life. The Emerson, which had been tethered to the Voyager, began swinging back and forth like a pendulum, narrowly missing the exhaust plumes.

    “Ethan, what’s wrong?” asked Marie. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

    “Oh no,” said a shocked Space-Ethan.

     

    ==========

     

    "NEUTRON STAR ALIGNMENT HIGHLY PROBABLE: T-86 SECONDS!" boomed the automated announcement system. While the voice was cold an robotic, everyone could feel that it spoke with an air of urgency, mattering not whether real or imagined.

    “Oh no.” Star-Ethan froze in panic. The seconds passed but he couldn’t move. It was all down to this.

    “70 seconds!” Ethan bolted upright and began assessing the state of his craft. All systems looked good and he was within his allotted location within the gate. He piloted a modified Waveglider Mark 7 racing vessel, a ship that, while itself powered by antimatter engines, steered using interactions with the very same field that K-drives pushed off of, allowing it to be flown much like an aircraft, with the caveat that the “winds” were generally blowing at dozens of kilometers per second relative to nearby planets.

    “60 seconds!”

     

    ==========

     

    “Alonya, stop the burn!” shouted Space-Ethan. “Alignment! There’s no time to reach an escape craft!”

    “How long do we have?” asked Alonya as she shut down the engines.

    “Depends on where we come out the warp at, but don’t count on more than twelve minutes.” Alonya and Bill went to work on planning an intercept with Planet Pock’s predicted location.

    “Twelve minutes…” mused Marie in shock. “The billions on Kerbin can’t make that… Not all of them!”

     

    ==========

     

    “Evelina, there’s no time. Sixty seconds until alignment.”

    “But we had five hours!”

    “Average. Now we shouldn’t count on much more than twelve minutes.” The two ran as several escape craft began launching in the distance. “Six minutes in transit… Five to ten minutes until the next train… There’s no way we make it in time.”

    “Then we have to get creative,” said Evelina, grabbing his hand and running away from the station.

    “Evelina, where are you going?” Ethan asked.

    “Random cabin outside any human city with a massive train station next to it? This isn’t for us. They built anti asteroid missile silos here.”

    “How did you - “

    “I may have snuck off with friends occasionally. The massive circular clearings in the forest didn’t look suspicious to you?” Evelina pulled Ethan into a hidden passage in the trunk of a tree, input a code, and opened a door. The two ran quickly through a long and dark tunnel. Evelina pressed a button as they ran by it, and the gigantic missile silo lit up.

    “There’s no crew compartment?”

    “Not yet!” Evelina said as she climbed onto the tip of the missile, beginning to unscrew several bolts along the side. “Help me with this, we have to remove the warhead!”

    “You’re not seriously suggesting we ride a missile to Planet Pock, are you?

    “No, its targeting is preprogrammed. We are going to ride a missile to the Kerbal Space Center.”

     

    ==========

     

    Time slowed to a crawl as Ethan Edwards gripped the controls of his ship. He had to keep it centered perfectly. The ships were packed in the Tauquantum gate like sardines. There was little room for error.

    Thirty seconds.

    He noticed a figure running through a windowed tunnel in the station, presumably running to get back to his ship. “Please make it!” Ethan thought to himself. The figure threw a helmet on and practically jumped through the airlock.

    Twenty seconds.

    The figure jumped across space without the aid of even a jetpack towards his ship. Ethan held his breath.

    Ten seconds.

    The figure missed.

    Nine. Eight. Seven.

    Another ship moved to catch him.

    Six. Five. Four.

    But in the process, that ship crashed into another ship.

    Three.

    And that ship into another.

    Two.

    And another.

    One.

    The Tauquantum gate ignited in a flash of blue, instantly transporting the hundreds of Resistance ships to another dimension, and accelerating them to many millions of times the speed of light. Every second or two, there was a brief flash of red as the fleet passed through the heart of a neutron star.

    Every second or two, there was also a bright flash of purple as a ship struck the walls of the gate envelope and was ground down to atoms over the span of several thousand light years. Panic ensued as the ships tried to avoid the cascade of collisions, themselves causing more collisions.

    Ethan clenched his control column as he did his best to hold steady. He was in the rear of the formation, but as they were all so tightly packed, there was not much he could do but watch as the blue, the red, and the purple flashed together in beautiful horror.

    There was a massive explosion towards the front of the envelope, scattering ships in several directions. Some were lucky… And some were not.

    Ethan caught a glimpse of what appeared to be Evelina’s ship drifting farther and farther away, forwards in the envelope. “Evelina!” he cried out, but the radio did not work in this twisted dimension.

    In his shock, he himself had bumped into the ship to his left, but they both managed to recover, although taking a large beating from the debris of ships in front of them in the process.

    Ethan had not been counting the number of neutron stars, but they had to be nearing the end… Right?

    There was a massive purple flash as the entire fleet was ejected into real space. Ethan was alarmed, as he thought they had targeted wrong, but his skin was soon warmed by the familiar light of Kerbol.

     

    “Admiral to all units, target is at 4-73-2. All boulder-ships made it through intact. Our forces are down to about 70 percent. Devnak, you are now Blue Leader.”

    “Devnak is blue leader??? But… Jeb was blue leader!” thought Ethan.

    Ethan began accelerating towards the target vector, attempting to meet up with anyone he could - the Tauquantum gate had, as expected, spread the fleet out over thousands of kilometers in the front-back direction. Kerbin came into view. Good, they were close, about the distance to the Mun. It could have been a lot worse… Although, it could have been far better.

    There was no hocus pocus, no fanfare, not even a flash as another world suddenly appeared in the sky next to Kerbin, perfectly framed by the giant beams of light that powered Kerbin, reflected and focused from low solar orbit.

    “It worked!” shouted Galactus. “I’m going home!” Sound could not travel in a vacuum, and yet everyone felt it in their hearts.

    “Admiral to all units. ETA 12 minutes. Incoming Species vessels detected.” Ethan’s heart sunk. This would not be so easy after all. He armed his weapons.

    Ethan opened a private quantum radio channel. “Red 7 to Green 14. Requesting status and location.” There was a long pause.

    “Roger, seven.” Her voice, beautiful as ever, came in faint and crackly. “I went forward to avoid the carnage, but the explosion took out some systems. Significant overshoot. Fourteen is out of the fight.”

    “Significant overshoot? Evelina, you’ll get back, right?”

    “...”

    “Evelina?”

    “Ethan, I l-”

    “Admiral, to all, closing all private channels, focus on the mission. Twenty fighters closing in along Kerbin retrograde.”

     

    ==========

     

    “Engines are primed,” reported Alonya.

    “Jebediah!” I shouted. “You are going to have to fly us, there’s no time to calculate a course!” Jebediah, intensely involved in telepathic communication,  nodded and made his way over to the console.

    “Pock periapsis of 30 kilometers, Jeb,” said Bob as he chucked the Whack-A-Kerbal set into the airlock. “That should do it.”

    “Engine ignition in 3… 2… 1… Ignition,” announced Marie as the three nuclear engines on the U.C.E. Voyager once more roared to life. Jebediah Kerman expertly guided the ship to an impromptu Pock injection maneuver.

    “I’ll wake Sean,” said Val. “It’s time, he needs to get to the Lost Dreams.” It took Ethan a second to remember that was what the descent module had been called. It was pretty much only Valentina who used the original module names at this point.

    “Great job, Jeb, halfway through the maneuver!” cheered Bill. All of a sudden, Jebediah screamed like no human had ever heard before, began convulsing, and flew back from the controls of the ship.

    “What’s happening?” shouted Marie.

    “A clone died,” said Bob. “That’s the sound of his soul shattering.”

    “The launch… Its failing… Its the Resistance clone,” said Ethan, his face turning to white.

    “What in the - GUYS NOBODY IS FLYING THE SHIP!” Sean shouted.

    “Ethan, take the stick!” shouted Marie.

     

    ==========

     

    There was a massive clang as the warhead impacted the bottom of the silo. “Fantastic, it didn’t blow up!” said Evelina as she began putting on the ancient suits the Kerbals loved to keep everywhere. “These suits look fairly weird, now that I think about it.”

    “That wasn’t nuclear, was it?” Ethan asked.

    “Fantastic, it wasn’t antimatter,” responded Evelina. “Targeting computer accessed, oddly enough, there is a little bit of security here, but I figured out how to bypass it months ago.... Setting target… Kerbal Space Center.”

    “Why there?”

    “It's close, there’s escape craft there, and I know the coordinates… Wait, that’s strange… That’s a preset.”

    “A preset? Why would an asteroid defense platform have the space center as a preset?”

    “I don’t know… Maybe calibration? But I’m sure glad it does.” Evelina pressed a button on her K-pad. “We’re taking the low trajectory! Less gravitational interference from Planet Pock!” The rocket began to come alive beneath them. “Hold on tight if you want to live!” Both of them nervously grabbed whatever they could that protruded from the cavity the nuclear deflection charge had recently occupied. “Once we’re over the KSC, bail out and hope the parachutes ho… hold…”

    “Evelina, are you okay, you look as pale as a ghost!” There was a loud explosion as the door of the silo was propelled open.

    “I… I’ll be okay.”

    “That’s the least convincing lie I’ve - AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

    The first stage solid rocket motor of the asteroid deflection rocket ignited, sending the spacecraft and its two dragon riders up into the air, poised atop a column of fire and smoke.

    “THIS NEVER GETS OLD!” shouted Ethan.

     

    ==========

     

    “Jebediah!” shouted a technician. “Are you okay?” The room gradually stopped spinning for Jebediah.

    “I’m fine,” he lied, as he stumbled to his feet. “Just another death, tis all.”

    “Where are you going?”

    “To the ground based fighters we had built, you know full well I’m the best pilot we have, and there’s one less of me.”

    “Surely you must evacuate, none of you are on an escape craft yet!”

    “Don’t worry, I’ll manage!” Jebediah forced a smile and limped away from his desk at the administration building, towards the jetpack which he kept behind his desk for these very occasions.

     

    ==========

     

    The three Resistance Freighters accelerated at 10 Gs towards Planet Pock, protected by a swarm of dozens of combat craft of various makes and models, both dedicated and converted, as the twenty Species fighters closed in.

    “They are all pulse warpers,” said an analyst.

    “Just like the one Ethan defeated!” said Admiral Cheng. “And just like the one I’m flying! Except less broken, I guess.”

    “Any tips, Ethan?” asked another.

    “Exposure to radiation and gravity decrease their rate of warp. Get in close and drop a nuke on them. We are going significantly below C, so they will already be slower than we had to deal with.”

    “Switching engines to open cycle mode,” reported one of the larger ships. Nearly instantly, everyone’s radiation alarms began blaring. “That ought to weaken them somewhat.”

    “USS Kentucky,” began Cheng, directing his speech towards the actual USS Kentucky Ballistic Missile Submarine, which had been stolen from Earth, and modified with high thrust fusion engines. “Go ahead of the transports and start nuking a path for them to fly through!”

    “Roger that.” The gigantic engines on either side of the USS Kentucky flared up to maximum.

    “Any ships powered by black holes, get in close, the singularity is gonna mess with their navigation. Good luck everyone. Eight minutes to planet Pock. Contact with the bogeys in seven seconds. May the infinities smile upon you.”

    Ethan Edwards, still not knowing exactly what that saying meant, took a deep breath. His own ship had been hastily modified with four single shot high intensity lasers (one which he feared had been damaged by the earlier collision in the Tauquantum gate). He switched them to automatic sequenced. Against a foe that entered warp hundreds of times per second, light based weapons were among the only things that could reliably damage them. His job was to point, and the computer would do the rest. Not that he had enough antimatter in the tanks to do much more.

    The twenty pulse warpers were not the same type as Cheng’s. They were much more advanced. They punched straight through any semblance of defense the Resistance had, and began attacking from behind. One by one the Resistance ships fell, but so did the pulse warpers. While advanced, they were largely a known quantity.

    The sheer number of nuclear devices detonated in the next twenty seconds would put the total wartime munitions expenditure of humanity as a whole to shame - and to shame they did put the pulse warpers.

     

    ==========

     

    “Shutdown!” shouted Alonya.

    “Its so… So beautiful,” I said as Planet Pock fully rose above the Kerbin horizon, illumined by Kerbol, Kerbin’s power lasers, and the gentle sparkle of distant nuclear explosions.

    “Periapsis forty seven kilometers, good enough, the descent vehicle has sepratrons. Let’s go.”

    “Goodbye, Voyager,” I whispered. “You were a good home.” Everyone who was still in the main vessel crammed themselves into the re entry vehicle. The hatch was closed.

    “Undocking now.” said Marie. A few seconds passed. Nothing happened.

    “Uhh… Hold on, let’s try this.” Alonya pressed a few buttons. And still nothing happened.

    “...The probe doesn’t have communications does it?” Ethan asked.

    “The radiation!” exclaimed Jeb.

    “The hundreds of nuclear weapons!” Bill gasped.

    “And the tens of thousands of escape craft beaming their telemetry…” Bob groaned. “No commands can get through.”

    “Well manually release it, then!” shouted Sean.

    “There’s no control point on the Lost Dreams,” Val grimly stated. “It is entirely Mk1 crew cabins.”

    “One of us has to stay behind and detach us from the ship,” realized Marie.

    “I’ll do it,” said pretty much everyone at once. The calm statements quickly gave way to  shouting and desperate bickering.

    “Look, it is my fault you are in this mess!” shouted Jebediah. “And besides, the Emerson is still there!” He attempted to open the hatch. It didn’t budge. “Uh, err… It’s jammed!”

    “Oh…” Bob’s face went purple. “I was moving so much stuff around… Some of it may have gotten into the mechanism and…”

    “Guys don’t worry!” Ethan said. “There’s an override from mission control!”

    “And who in their right mind is still in mission control with less than ten minutes until the end of the galaxy?” shouted Alonya.

     

    ==========

     

    The asteroid defense platform burned through the Kerbin atmosphere at velocities surpassing 1800 meters per second. Ethan could see the plasma through the hole in the re entry vehicle.

    “Evelina!” he shouted over the noise. “The crew is stuck on the Voyager! Before I go to the escape craft, I’m going to stop by mission control!”

    “I’m coming with you!”

    “Do we have time?”

    “Seven minutes. We should.” There was a jolt as the last stage detached. The re entry vehicle began rotating, and soon they could see the ground.

    “We’re about 30 seconds away from bailout,” Evelina said. “Wait… Why is an asteroid defense vehicle equipped with a re entry vehicle?”

    “Safety, likely, if it blew up they don’t want it to scatter throughout the atmosphere. Don’t break any bones, okay?” asked Ethan.

    “I’ll see.”

    “If you do, for the world’s sake, get to the escape craft on chutes.”

    “No, silly, I’m in space, remember? I’ll get to Pock fine!”

    “But you’re so far away!”

    “I’m not that far away!”

    “You’re a really bad liar, Evelina.”

    “I don’t know what you are talking about, Ethan!” she shouted. “I’m right there, I can see Planet Pock!”

    “I love you, your safety is my - “

    “WE’RE AT THE JUMP POINT!” Evelina shouted as she shoved Ethan into the supersonic airstream, before rapidly following.

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah Kerman set his jetpack down with a clang next to the spaceplane hangar, where a fleet of seven brand new state of the art Kerbal space fighters had been assembled. He stumbled towards the nearest one when a telltale siren began to blare.

    “TAKE COVER!” he instinctively shouted, before realizing he was living now, and not hundreds of years ago. Old habits die hard. “Hmm. Must be broken,” he said as he began climbing the ladder into the fighter. A glint caught his eye. A re entry trail, double coned. He only knew one double coned re entry tail, and those were long gone.

    “But that’s… Impossible!”

     

    ==========

     

    “I got one!” shouted one pilot.

    “Ethan - here!” shouted another. Ethan turned his ship to the communicated vector right as a pulse warper warped right into his crosshairs. Boom. Both pilot’s laser cannons fired simultaneously, evaporating the ship in a pulse of light so bright that the mere reflections would have left everyone in a fifty kilometer radius blind, had the cockpit canopies not been equipped with smart dimming technology.

    “They are down to five - no, four hertz!” shouted another.

    “Four left… Three…” All of a sudden, a damaged pulse warper appeared just just behind Ethan’s Waveglider and began melting his engine with a laser. No sooner had Ethan begun to scream than the pulse warper exploded in a massive fireball, the naked triquantum singularity it was powered by glowing emerald blue in the darkness.

    “You good, Ethan?” asked Galactus from the pilot seat of a brand new TNT powered space fighter brandishing weapons that, if properly analyzed, operated on principles that no member of the Union would be able to identify, let alone explain.

    “Galactus!” Ethan shouted. “Where did you get that?” 

    “You know what, I have no idea, that’s kinda sus.”

    “All pulse warpers down!” shouted Admiral Cheng. “Forces at fifty percent strength.”

    “Ethan, you’ve been hit!” exclaimed Galactus.

    “Indeed,” said Ethan, all of his alarm gauges lighting up in every color.

    “Ethan, do. Not. Move,” said one scientist who flew alongside him.

    “What?”

    “The K drive tech in your Waveglider has been damaged. You are trailing a rip in the fabric of the universe everywhere you travel!” Ethan glanced out of the mirror and he was met with a sight of awe and terror. A cacophony of colors he had never seen before in his life, all of existence and nonexistence at once, was spewing forth from his engine and emanating a seemingly eternal distance about a hundred and ten degrees to his left - presumably his vector relative to the universal background fields.

    “I BROKE THE UNIVERSE?!?!?!?!?”

    “Just be careful where you take that, it will destroy anything that goes into the rift and the rifts are unfixable, not that it matters any more. Ehtan, you are out of the fight. Try to fix it, high Gs make it worse. Do not approach Pock with that ship.”

    “I… understand.”

    “Everyone, stay clear of Ethan’s wake!”

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan Edwards regained consciousness when his parachute fully deployed. Aching all over, he steered towards the mission control building. Not only was he saving Alonya, Marie, and Sean, but as his spaceborne copy could no longer successfully reach Planet Pock, he was now saving himself.

    He came up short of the mission control building, somewhere around the spaceplane hangar, crashing to the ground, crumpling in a heap. He quickly got up, but was quickly stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder, whipping him around.

    “Ethan Edwards!” shouted Jebediah, shocked. “What museum did you steal an antique Smarel suit from??? Humans aren’t supposed to be able to get - ”

    “No time, Jeb.” Ethan attempted to run off to mission control, but was quickly stopped.

    “I’m… I’m so… I’m sorry,” Jebediah begged. Ethan looked at him strangely.

    “Whatever for?”

    “The lies. All of them… Wait… You… You don’t know? Then where on Kerbin did you get a Smarel suit - never mind.”

    “aaaaAAAAAA!” Evelina landed nearby, about as gracefully as Ethan had. “Man, those asteroid defense missiles really pack a punch!”

    “Wait, you… Oh. Yes. Those asteroid defense missiles. Of course!” said Jeb.

    “To mission control!” shouted Evelina. “We’ve got to save Ethan!”

    “Evelina, you’re limping. To the escape craft!” shouted Ethan.

    “I’ll be fine, we have time, my leg is perfectly functional,” she winced, “and I’m in space! It’s you we have to be worried about, fighting all those aliens!”

    “I’m in space, with a perfectly functional ship, Evelina, I’ll be fine!” Ethan struggled for a bit before giving in, grabbing Evelina, and carrying her in his arms towards mission control. They did still have six odd minutes, after all, and she knew where the button was.

     

    ===========

     

    “Incoming second wave - unknown contacts. What are those???” asked the recon operator incredulously.

    “They look like the Phantoms of Vya,” said one pilot.

    “We only saw them for seconds and then we lost!” cried another. “We haven’t got enough ships!”

    “The pulse warpers… They sent their obsolete ships in first to deplete our ammunition and weaken our forces!”

    “Six minutes to Pock, we can’t possibly survive that long!” shouted yet another.

    “Galactus, the boulder. Is it indestructible?” asked one of the transport pilots.

    “No, but… Phil?”

    “It took an entire neutron star bombardment to shatter it,” said Phil. “And I don’t see any neutron stars nearby.”

    “Understood.”

    “Admiral to transports, you have missed the turnaround point!”

    “We know. Two and a half minutes to Planet Pock.”

    “...Admiral to transports. May the Infinities smile upon you.”

     

    ==========

     

    Suddenly, a massive Species ship, at minimum the size of Pol, appeared over Kerbin without a hint of any known warp signature, cloaking the Kerbal Space Center in shadow - the only illumination coming from atmospheric scattering and the faint beams of solar energy targeted at the receivers on the polar space elevators.

    Jebediah Kerman looked up in fear, seconds from takeoff, as the ship began launching humongous bolts of energy towards Kerbin. He had mere seconds to react before the first bolts slammed into the low Kerbin orbit orbital rings.

    There was a thunderous crash audible only to those inside the ring as the containment systems failed, and the two inner rings crashed rapidly into each other at a relative velocity of over 2 kilometers per second, before splitting into chunks and flying off, in an alarmingly suborbital manner.

    The shock rippled through the network of towers. The tower just west of the Kerbal Space Center cracked near its base, and began falling - East.

     

    ==========

     

    Dimitri, packed with dozens of other humans and Kerbals inside an escape craft, wracked with fear, could do nothing but watch the overhead screen. Displayed was real time footage of the Battle For Kerbin. The Kerbin News Agency was very dedicated to their work, to say the least.

    Reportedly, Ethan’s ship had been damaged and was now tearing a hole in spacetime. On the screen, it simply showed up as a black scar, barely visible against the blackness of space, as the video format did not encode for exotic colors. Ethan would not be landing on Pock. Dimitri had not seen the other Ethan get on the train, and feared for his friend’s safety.

    The mothership had arrived, and the news-Kerbals could scarcely utter another word. Dimitri could not even see a window from here, but the fear in the voices of those who could was more than enough to paint an accurate picture.

    A light came on, instructing everyone to take a seat. There was no room to sit, however, the beings on the vessel outnumbered seats eleven to one. The ship began to shake as it entered the atmosphere of planet Pock.

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan Edwards stopped and looked up. “Don’t stop!” shouted Evelina. “Ethan, what are you doing?” Ethan snapped back to reality and began running again. First to the ships. Then to mission control. Then to the ships. Then to mission control.

    “Ethan, just pick a direction and go!”

    “We have two minutes, Evelina. No time for mission control!”

    “It takes more than two minutes to get to Pock, we don’t have time for anything but mission control!”

    “But I have to save you!”

    “Nah, silly,” Evelina smiled. “I save you, then we’re finally even.”

    In the shadow of the mothership, illumined by lasers, reflections, nuclear fire, and the re entry plasma of several million tons of orbital infrastructure, a tearful Ethan Edwards carried Evelina Lindström towards the mission control building. Panicked personnel ran towards the escape craft - desperately hoping for a miracle, that they were not too late.

    Suddenly, a mass impacted Ethan, throwing him and Evelina to the ground. “AAH!” he shouted.

    “Get out of the way!” It was a woman, running for her life, who had accidentally ran into them and knocked them down. 

     

    ==========

     

    “Do we have ANYTHING that works on these Phantoms?” asked Admiral Cheng desperately.

    “Nukes don’t, anti doesn’t, even LIGHT doesn’t! Not even diquantum light!”

    “Diquantum rectifiers don’t even touch them!”

    “And the mothership - “

    “Don’t worry about the mothership, we’ll be gone before it gets here if all goes well!”

    “Twenty seconds until contact.”

    “Guys… Galactus is legit!” someone shouted.

    “I told you guys!”

    “No… You don’t understand… He’s a quantum linked being, who knows what his weapons can do!”

    “Wait… I’m a quantum… Oh. So I can’t actually… That makes so much… A.. Ach! AAAHCHCH!”

    “You idiot!”

    “What did you do?”

    “He told him he was quantum, so now he knows he’s quantum, which makes him not quantum!!!”

    “And he doesn’t have a space suit - He’s suffocating!”

    “Five seconds. Any ideas?”

    There was a five second pause, silent except for Galactus’ final gasps, as everyone waited for anyone to say something - anything.

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah had only once before been so frozen with fear and dread, unable to do anything besides watch. What could he and his little ship do but sit back and watch the apocalypse unfold?

    He began to cry as the hope in the skies above died, and the fruits of the Kerbal civilization crumbled in the skies around him.

    “Maybe it is for the best that I don’t go,” he sobbed. “All I ever do is mess things up.”

    “When I went to the Mun, I messed it up.”

    “When I went to Duna, I messed it up.”

    “When I went to Meros, I messed it up.”

    “When I went to the Union, I messed it up.”

    “When I went to Earth, I messed it up.”

    “When I fought The Species, I messed it up.”

    “I shall not mess up Planet Pock.”

     

    ==========

     

    “Mission control to Voyager,” said an out of breath Ethan. “Which docking port is it?”

    “Core-2 or Dreams-1,” reported Valentina.

    “Roger.”

    “Core 2… That’s right here,” Evelina said as she frantically pored through the mission control software. “There.”

     

    ==========

     

    There was a loud clang as the docking port released, then a five second thundering as the sepratrons fired. The craft’s occupants were given no warning and were fairly bruised and battered by the sudden acceleration, but cheered nonetheless. The craft would touch down on Planet Pock a few seconds after the expected teleportation, but would be close enough to the surface for them to also teleport.

    Ethan caught a glimpse of the Voyager through his window, the Emerson still unused, drifting around it on its tether. What would The Species use it for, he wondered, or rather, its matter once it was inevitably disassembled. Would they even have a use for it at all?

     

    ==========

     

    Nobody in the Resistance knew it, but the so-called “Phantoms of Vya” had no definite shape, no definite volume, and no definite mass. While there are no words in any Union language that could begin to explain the principles under which they worked, it is not a bad approximation to posit that they could, to a degree, warp and wield reality itself.

    The dozens and dozens of Phantoms shredded the fleet. Dozens of ships destroyed in an instant, diced into millions of pieces.

    There were few weapons in the arsenal that could save a shred of hope.

    One of those weapons was the Lens of Lancereaux, the fabled translator relic held jointly by Galactus and Phil. The metal it was made of was known to be stronger than the diquantum field, and could only be forged in the heart of a toroidal black hole.

    Phil flew between one of the transports and an incoming Ghost, holding up the tiny lens to deflect any shots he could. Phil was dead seconds later, and his half of the lens snatched away.

    The second of those weapons were the Illasticonian crystals, of which most crew members possessed several - though few with any method of launch, besides their own vessels.

    “They are vulnerable to Illasticonian crystals!” shouted one crew member, who had witnessed a Ghost shatter and die once damaged by the purple crystals’ random teleportation.

    A horrific scene ensued as those pilots, with damaged and undamaged ships alike, attempted to crash their crystal laden ships into the dark Phantoms, with some success, and much failure.

    “Transport three is down!” shouted a pilot as a Ghost broke in and destroyed a transport. “One minute to planet Pock!”

    The last of those weapons laid squarely in the hands of Ethan Edwards. Upon having the idea, he shouted, attempting to muster as much bravery as he could, and pushed his stricken starship beyond the redline and back into the fray.

    The exotic colors of the rift in spacetime flared up, dancing with chaotic grace as the antimatter propelled starship, in a high G maneuver, strained against the great background field and leapt towards the nearest of the two remaining transports.

    The Phantoms leapt away from the colorless fire, but not before a few were torn to shreds by its merciless jaws. Ethan flew spirals around the transport, doing his best to shield it from the onslaught, and doing double his best to not devour it in the process.

    “Forty seconds!” one pilot shouted.

    The low antimatter alarm on Ethan’s ship began to blare, as did the K-wing integrity alert.

     

    ==========

     

    “Well then,” said Evelina, her eyes distant. “I suppose all that’s left is to watch the fireworks.” Kerbol set behind Planet Pock’s horizon, eclipsing the space center. The disk above was broken only by the orbital ring support structure slowly tumbling down. Pieces of the ring itself were beginning to impact around the space center.

    “I suppose. Illasticonian crystals are awfully pretty when they go off, I hear,” replied Ethan, transfixed by the sight above his head.

    “They are going to make it, right?” Evelina asked.

    “Thirty seconds,” Ethan responded, taking Evelina’s hand, not answering the question.

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah looked up at the sky, seeing the fight play out above him. He knew that nowhere near everyone on the planet had reached Pock, but that it would be enough for the spark to survive.

     

    ==========

     

    Alonya gazed out of the window as the re-entry flames subsided, and as the horizon of Planet Pock got closer and closer. There was a loud bang as the parachutes deployed.

     

    ==========

     

    There was a tremendous noise as the K-wing of Ethan Edwards’ Waveglider disintegrated, causing the tearing of spacetime to abruptly cease. The rest of the spacecraft shot off into the void, its only control now the antimatter engines, dangerously low on fuel.

    “I’m down!” shouted Ethan. Transport two, now with no protection, came under heavy fire from the Phantoms, against which the remaining few Resistance fighters had no chance. The few armed ships Kerbin had to muster arrived, and were too no match. The hundreds of anti asteroid missiles had long since been stopped, their chemical propulsion systems too archaic to be of any use whatsoever.

    Twenty seconds to Pock. The forces mustered one final push towards the planet, charging through the gauntlet just to push the transports meters further.

    Fifteen seconds to Pock. Both remaining transports, having already overclocked their engines significantly, pushed them to levels designated unsafe for any duration. The motors began disintegrating.

    Thirteen seconds to Pock.

    The Phantoms broke through the shattered defenses and destroyed transport two, revealed to have been carrying the Magic Boulder. A different craft bolted in, snatched up the boulder, and pulled up and out of the way, grazing the Pockian atmosphere. The Resistance attempted to give chase, but their battered forces could not muster but a mote.

    The empty transport one entered the Pockian atmosphere and impacted with tremendous force, gone in mere seconds.

    Everyone lay in shocked silence for an eternal second before the order came: “Admiral to all. Blow the crystal.” Cheng set his pulse warper’s engines to maximum and warped directly inside Planet Pock in an attempt to detonate its core.

    He was stopped when a small metal plate warped directly inside of his ship’s engine compartment, instantly destroying it.

    A Vrichyin bomber attempted to overload its diquantum laser to blow a hole in the crust and trigger the crystal. A small staggered mirror was teleported in front of it, obliterating the bomber and four nearby warp capable ships.

    One ship which had landed blew its antimatter reactor, only for it to be contained by an impossibly strong deflector shield, the exhaust directed into space, but not before frying a not insignificant cone of the Pockian atmosphere.

    This scene played out time and time again over the next several seconds until the Resistance was rendered incapable of resisting.

    “Why didn’t they open with that?” wondered one stranded pilot.

    Species ships of all kinds appeared from the void and began moving en masse towards planet Pock and Kerbin.

     

    ==========

     

    “They… They won,” said Ethan, slumping his shoulders.

    “We were seconds away,” whispered Evelina, starting to cry.

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah raised his head.

    “That looks like a subjugation fleet,” he whispered as he looked to the skies. “...That’s why they set this up… They wanted to crush us to enslave us… Just like on Nevuru.” He sat up straight and gripped the controls of the space fighter. From the few reports that had escaped the enslaved worlds after The Species had taken over, the sort of slavery that was put into practice was not only a fate worse than death, but quite possibly a fate worse than Hell.

    “I can’t stop that from happening to the Kerbals… But I can save the humans.” Jebediah lit the engines on his ship and lifted off, traversing the short distance between the space plane hangar and the vehicle assembly building in seconds.

     

    ==========

     

    The Lost Dreams touched down on planet Pock under parachute power. Marie excitedly opened the hatch, thrilled to be in gravity again, only to look up and see that Kerbin was still there.

    “Any second now!” said Alonya. “Any second… Come on!”

    Jebediah lay crying in the bottom of the descent vehicle.

    “Well at least we get to die surrounded by sentient cows!” proclaimed Sean. “Ethan? Are you okay?”

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan Edwards struggled with the antimatter engines on his crippled Waveglider. He was unsure where he was going. In the distance he saw a glimmer. Probably nothing, but something - or someone - told him to look again.

    It was the Voyager.

    The critical fuel level alarm sounded as Ethan attempted the rendezvous with the craft that had just emerged from the outer layers of planet Pock’s atmosphere. “Come on… Come on…” he shouted as the craft fought his every move.

    The engines gave out, on course, but 20 meters per second short. “No!” Ethan shouted. Then he saw it. The Emerson, tethered to the Voyager, rotating around it, the tether pulled taut.

    And in that moment, the smallest bit of remaining doubt was erased, this was a setup of the highest degree, and he had to be prepared to do the unexpected.

    The cockpit was released in a massive explosion of air, knocking the ship off course. Ethan jumped for the tether, only just making it, his momentum knocking the Emerson around. The tether began wrapping itself around the Voyager’s hull.

    As the radius got smaller, Ethan felt the acceleration grow. He did his best to climb the tether so he wouldn’t get knocked into the ship at forty miles per hour, but it was no use. He was not an athletic person on the best of days, and years of spaceflight had not been kind to him. He could not climb a knotted rope in plain clothes, much less an un-knotted rope in a spacesuit.

    And then he had an idea.

    He slid down the rest of the tether as the acceleration grew, reached for the Emerson’s controls, and activated its ion engine, slowing down the rotation of the tether bit by bit. The Voyager got closer and closer - it wasn’t going to be enough to stop, but it would be close enough.

    Ethan and the Emerson gently slammed into the side of the Voyager, denting the main fuel tank. Ethan groaned from the impact, having likely broken a few bones, but got out of the seat and climbed up the side of the ship to the nearest airlock.

     

    ==========

     

    Dimitri looked up at the skies as the alien fleet drew near. His heart sank. The Kerbin News Agency feed on the ship’s screen could be heard over the faint cries and shocked silences.

    “It appears that numerous attempts to rupture the core crystal have failed… Hundreds of ships have attempted the charge.”

    “It is also possible that the crystal was never there in the first place.”

    “Word is coming from what remains of Kerbin’s government… Revert to plan A.”

    “Plan A!” said Dimitri. But that’s…” He turned around and ran for the ship he had just exited, but it closed its doors. He banged on the side, but it lifted off abruptly, the few who had attempted to claw onto the side quickly fell. “No!” he shouted.

    All over Pock and Kerbin, millions of escape ships fired up their intergalactic drive systems in an effort to escape the Galaxy via brute force and probability. All that passed beyond the Mun were shot down like fish in a barrel.

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah, dodging falling debris, crashed his space fighter into the side of the vehicle assembly building in a mess of flame and shrapnel. He extracted himself from the cockpit and began running. “Wrong floor!” he shouted as he looked for the nearest staircase. Seeing as he had accidentally obliterated the nearest staircase, he grabbed a piece of debris and pole vaulted himself through the ceiling.

    “Where is it, where is it, where - YES!” he shouted. The vault in the secret back halls of the vehicle assembly building. There was a massive crash that shook the building, crumbling its foundation, as a massive section of one of the orbital rings impacted just north of the Kerbal Space Center. Jebediah waited impatiently for the earthquake to end and entered the combination as carefully yet urgently as he could.

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan Edwards entered the U.C.E. Voyager for the final time. He gazed upon the interior and spotted his roll-out keyboard jammed across the hull, having been the object that had forced the hatch shut. It must have deployed and locked in the chaos. No matter, though. He made his way to the cockpit, where the control panel was illumined with countless warnings and alarms - the ship had not weathered the Pockian atmosphere particularly well.

    Now, what to do… What could he do? Charge headlong into no man’s land on a ship not much more advanced than what the Humans could create? Yeah, nobody would expect that, he thought. Kerbin and the Pol sized ship rose over the Pockian horizon. A target so big that even Sean couldn’t miss it.

     

    ==========

     

    “The Kerbin News Agency has just received word from The Species,” began the news anchor. Ethan and Evelina watched, their attention divided between both the screens and the windows of mission control. “Any and all ships passing beyond the orbit of the Mun will be destroyed. Not a single ship has been verified to survive more than a few meters outside of this - Great Moho, meters? This can’t be right! They played us for fools, hodling their cards ever so close, we never had a chance!”

    “This just in - Ethan Edwards’ interstellar clone appears to have re-boarded the U.C.E. Voyager and is piloting it towards the Species mothership!” The news camera zoomed in on a shot of the extremely damaged Voyager firing its engines high above Planet Pock.

    “Ethan, what are you doing?” asked Evelina.

    “Instead of running away, I thought I’d try running towards something for once,” he said.

    “If only we could hear what he was thinking!” one of the news anchors remarked. Evelina sat up.

    “Hold on… Could we?” she asked.

    “I don’t see why not,” Ethan responded. Evelina dialed the Kerbin News Agency number as Ethan opened an audio link to the Voyager. After a brief exchange, the phones were duct taped together.

    “We now have live audio from inside the Voyager!” said the other News anchor.

     

    ==========

     

    “Yes!” Jebediah opened the safe. The most secure ever devised, more secure than a hundred Fort Knoxes, all in the size of a desk. He peered inside at the device, and his pounding heart sank. “They… They had to make it a button, didn’t they?”

     

    ==========

     

    Most of the humans consider winning a war with the Kerbals as a way out of this entrapment. Sadly, this is not an option. Representative Hess gave me an emergency Iushihnicvak device that would cause temporary paralysis to everyone on the planet, and another device… that one, we call “The Genocide Button.” I shudder at the thought of the circumstances that would be required to use it. I hope and pray that I never have to use either. I am not a monster. Or, at least, I try not to be…

    -Jebediah Kerman, Voyage: The Final Warning, Chapter 4

     

    ==========

     

    Jebediah’s hand hovered over the button. Billions of lives ended in an instant, billions of years of suffering prevented in an instant. An entire species gone. An entire species saved.

    And yet he hesitated. “Why?” He asked himself. “Why was he hesitating?” He had done this before, of course.

    And maybe that was exactly why he hesitated.

    He took a deep breath, and raised his first up high, and brought it down at tremendous speed, but was stopped by a voice inside his head - the echo of the words of Alonya and the words of the Monlith - the echo of a billion souls.

    “Could you bring yourself to press the button again?

    “Yes,” he cried. And brought his hand down again.

    One of the falling towers that had supported the orbital rings crashed into the Kerbal Space Center’s peninsula, nearly instantaneously obliterating the Vehicle Assembly Building, Jebediah Kerman, and the Genocide Button.

     

    ==========

     

    “Ethan, what are you doing?” asked one of the stranded Resistance pilots.

    “I’m going to get that boulder,” he grunted as he duct taped all of his remaining Illasticonian crystals to the furthest forward section of the cockpit he could reach in an attempt to break through the hull of the mothership, his foot forcing the throttle as far down as it could go.

    “That’s madness!” said the pilot over the radio. “I still have maneuvering power, though… I am coming with you.”

    “As am I,” said another pilot. The last few remaining Resistance ships, few of which had any remaining weapons whatsoever, joined in and began making their way to assist in any way they could.

    Suddenly, an ominous voice permeated the entire ship.

    “And what do you hope to accomplish?” the voice asked.

    “Hope, mostly,” replied Ethan.

    “Are you not afraid?”

    “Not really, are you?” A volley of shots rang out from the mothership, obliterating several of the ships that were charging in support of Ethan.

    “We ask again, are you not afraid?”

    “I am terrified, quite frankly, but I am even more terrified, of doing nothing. But what are you afraid of?”

    “We do not fear.”

    “What besides fear could lead you to to kill the entire universe?” Ethan shouted. “Maybe not on an individual level, maybe not even on a species level, but on the level of consciousness - You. Fear. Death.”

    “We. Do. Not. Fear.”

    Another volley of shots rang out and all but a few Resistance ships were gone. The hundreds of kilometers to the mothership had turned into tens. It had not altered its course. Neither had the Voyager.

    “You looked up at the beautiful sky, same as I, and all you saw was death. All life, doomed to die, by peace or by war, by Fate. I do not blame you for your fear!”

    “We are the saviors of the stars.”

    Another volley rang out, and only the Voyager remained.

    “You are scared of Death, yet you optimize for energy.”

    “Energy is required for survival.”

    Ten kilometers. Nine kilometers. The three nuclear engines had seconds of fuel left.

    “Since when can surviving hold a candle to living!” Eight kilometers.

    “Your sentiment is inefficient.” Seven kilometers. A massive weapon angled towards the Voyager.

    “And what is life without sentiment?” Six kilometers.

    “We know.” Five kilometers.

    “And you know what you don’t know?”

    Ethan Edwards took a deep breath.

    “Hope.”

    The weapon fired.

     

    ==========

     

    At that moment, a woman - the woman who had crashed into Ethan and Evelina - burst into Mission Control, screaming. Ethan jumped, reflexively kicking Evelina in his panic. This caused Evelina to drop the audio setup. It crashed to the floor, causing the microphone to peak.

    The speakers on the Voyager went crazy for a moment. Ethan jumped in fright, jerking the control stick upwards and to the right.

    This caused the massive projectile to impact on the lower left side of the ship, and caused Ethan Edwards to survive.

    A second shot was quickly fired, but right after the shot, it was calculated that it was useless.

    The second shot obliterated Ethan Edwards and the U.C.E. Voyager completely.

     

    ==========

     

    Here’s the thing about fluid dynamics. There are no decisive shortcuts. Not even the unrecognizable descendants of computers The Species had could efficiently calculate all fluid flow. Some fluid flow, yes, but only when deemed necessary.

    The same thing for consciousness. A 99 percent estimate with an arbitrary number of 9s tacked on could be arranged fairly trivially, but exact calculations of the biology of a single average being were incredibly resource intensive.

    When The Species planned out the resource extraction of Galaxy [large number], a galaxy with a comparatively rare but by all accounts uninteresting union of peaceful species, it was planned to be dealt with through fear, as was usual for these types of species in this type of galaxy. Simulations showed that this was most efficient. An invasion could be staged, with the majority of the forces being nothing but visions, manipulations of the senses and sensors, as per usual. Efficient manipulation of an inefficient system.

    The calculations for Vya progressed. The calculations for Illasticonia progressed. But then came Kerbin, a curious planet. Simulations showed that it was worth looking into enslavement of its two primary species. Further simulations showed that both species were incredibly emotional, and the exact manner in which the invasion took place would have a tremendous outcome on how long the slaves could be kept without rebellion.

    Simulations showed that this number was nominally approximately 110 years 4 months 23 days. The amount of energy produced by the slaves just barely did not recoup the energy required to enslave them (plus opportunity cost) rather than harvest their planet. Further simulation time was allocated to further optimize this.

    Several notable beings were picked out and a story was formed around them. Building them up as heroes. Presenting them as heroes. Crushing them - crushing the species into slavery. Simulations showed that the enslavement time could be extended to approximately 123 years 11 months 2 days this way.

    The story played out without issue initially. The simulations showed, though, that the line between the human response being crushing defeat and triumphant rebellion was as thin as it was nonsensical. An incredibly inefficient and illogical species.

    Special attention was paid to the final shot. Everyone remaining on Kerbin and Pock would be watching this live. The shot, its brightness, length, velocity, color, and even what cancers it would cause were optimized almost without end. It would hit the Voyager square on, perfectly framed in the camera shot, and the Voyager would explode in a carefully choreographed fashion into precisely calculated pieces which would bounce harmlessly across a (fake) deflector shield. The exact composition of this shot mattered to the utmost degree, as the slightest improvement could yield billions of man-hours of slave labor.

    Jackie the Runner was a human attempting to run all around Kerbin. She happened to be nearby when the battle was to take place, so she was subtly nudged in the right direction to collide with Ethan and Evelina, delaying them a critical amount of time, so they would enter Mission Control at just the right moment.

    The Species ceased to care about Jackie after that instant, as it was highly unlikely she would matter.

    When the Vehicle Assembly Building collapsed under the impact of an orbital ring tower, the exotic gases inside the Genocide Button were dispersed far and wide rapidly. One of these particles made its way over to Jackie, who was for some reason, still running towards the escape craft. It entered her nose and had an interaction with her biology, a chain reaction that ultimately led her to reconsider the situation and head for the nearest intact shelter, which happened to be Mission Control.

    She entered the door, which opened with a bang, as it had been set to offer as little resistance as possible earlier that week to allow for an easier entry by Ethan and Evelina. The bang set off Ethan, which set off Evelina, which set off the sound wave, which caused the other Ethan to turn the ship after the shot had been fired.

    And The Species did not have time to react.

    The Voyager had turned towards the camera. Not only had the perfect shot been ruined, but the projectile, having ripped off the opposite side of Voyager, appeared to do far less damage than it actually had. All of Kerbalkind and Humankind had seen firsthand their greatest hero survive a direct hit from the Species Mothership.

    A second, much faster shot was fired as soon as possible, but while it was still flying, The Species had simulated a number of outcomes, and had determined that it was no longer possible to recoup the costs and opportunity costs of enslaving Humanity and Kerbalkind. They would rebel much sooner, and extending that timeline was not worthwhile given the required energy.

    Sending information back in time to assist with the mission was considered, but as the most efficient form of time travel tended to cause damage that was theorized to be permanent, and no other forms could suitably solve the problem with a profitable amount of energy, it was deemed  not worthwhile to re-attempt enslaving the species of Kerbin.

    As such, the original plan was enacted.

     

    ==========

     

    “AAAAAAH!” Ethan screamed, writhing on the ground as one third of his soul was torn apart.

    “Ethan, are you - Oh.” A shadow fell across Kerbin. Everyone looked at the sky as two giant metal halves encircled the planet. The last thing Evelina saw through the gap was a view of two similar halves being put into place around Planet Pock. The two halves locked together, plunging Kerbin into darkness.

    “Ethan, I love you. I’m sorry.”

    Moments later, Kerbin was nothing but light.

     

    ==========

     

    Kerbin was promptly encased by two halves of a planetary atomizer and was in seconds torn apart into its constituent elements, storing as much energy away as possible, to further fuel the expansion of The Species.

    Brief simulations were done to verify what had gone wrong and how to improve in the future. These simulations were only run in an infinitesimal fraction of planetary invasions - there was not much room to improve, The Species had calculated, but improvements still came every now and then.

    Most records of Vya were deleted to save on memory storage. So too were most records of Jslan, and Illasticonia, and Ziquunodia. Records of Planet Pock were very briefly kept in order to verify the usefulness of the class D relic known as the Magic Boulder, and were then also promptly deleted. This was not unusual. The Species did not keep remarkably detailed records as the amount of data required would quickly become a significant percentage of their energy expenditure. Summaries, simulation logs, characteristics and structures of each planet were kept, but far, far, from everything.

    But The Species does not forget their mistakes.

    Nearly everything about Kerbin was preserved.

    And The Species Marched On.

     

     

     

     

     

    On 3/18/2023 at 2:05 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

    Chapter 35 - The Meaning Of Happiness

      Reveal hidden contents

    The hours passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, planets fell to The Species.

    The days passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, planets were forgotten.

    The months passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, energy was conserved.

    The years passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, consciousness perished.

    The decades passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, galaxies blinked out.

    The centuries passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, as did societies.

    The millennia passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, the stars began to die.

    Tens of thousands of years passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, the stars were saved.

    Millions of years passed.

    The Species further optimized their memory storage, gradually refining their criteria of what data was worth keeping and what could safely be deleted.

    Billions of years passed.

    The Species probed deeper and deeper into the laws of physics, discovering new ways to bend and break them. They expanded faster and faster.

    Trillions of years passed.

    All across the unobservable universe, not a single soul spoke but The Species, who had conquered it all.

    Quadrillions of years passed.

    At the edge of the universe, with all of the energy there would ever be left to work with, every law known to The Species held, save for one hundred and twelve.

    As the trillions passed, laws fell one by one, two by two. The 100 law milestone was surpassed.

    Among them were two critical ones. Did there exist anything outside this universe? And, could the flow of entropy be reversed?

    The laws passed, but as so, the energy fell. Ninety Five. Ninety. Eighty five.

    And then, they did it.

    There was not but one universe.

    There were perhaps uncountably many.

    Instantly forty laws were broken and thousands of new laws assembled.

    The universes fell one by one, two by two, faster and faster as The Species grew.

    The quintillions passed, and then The Species encountered an equal.

    An equal with the same goal. There was a merger. The Species had long since ceased to have any biological or electronic component, but still the name stuck.

    The eternities passed, the universes fell hour by hour. The Species again and again merged, again and again conquered.

    And then the universes ran out.

    The Species fought against the laws. Forty. Thirty five. Thirty.

    And among them two important questions remained. 

    Did there exist anything outside these universes? And, could the flow of entropy be reversed?

    Twenty five. Twenty.

    And then, they did it.

    There was not but one multiverse.

    There were perhaps uncountably many.

    The laws were broken, new laws were formed. The multiverses were counted one by one, two by two, until The Species had rewritten all they knew.

    With so many multiverses, all planetary stories had repeated and been typical. A thousand Vyas. A thousand Meroses. A thousand Kerbins. A thousand Earths.

    Though The Species had continuously optimized their memory storage, there was no longer a need to store much of anything concerning lesser beings. In the beginning, they were equals. In the middle, they were curiosities. In the end they were energy, energy taken to store their story, and now, their books were burned for their heat.

    Entire universes were stricken from the records, libraries pruned to paragraphs pruned to footnotes pruned to dust.

    And so time and The Species marched on, breaking barriers and hoarding dust. When they reached the end, they forged on and found a way to the next end.

    Then the next end.

    Then the next end.

    Then the next end.

    And then they tried to go further.

    They couldn’t.

    Their stored energy was used in an attempt to break the 962 laws of the universe, which included two questions of primary interest.

    Did there exist anything beyond? And, could the flow of entropy be reversed?

    The laws fell. 800. 700. 600.

    The barrier held.

    500. 400. 300.

    The barrier held.

    200. 100. 50.

    And still, the barrier held.

    40. 30. 20.

    And yet the barrier held.

    Seventeen laws remained.

    The energy reserves had fallen to fifty percent.

    “Time?”

    “Yes.”

    At the founding of The Species, two directives had been composed. The first, roughly translated and even more roughly remembered, read:

    Accumulate energy at all costs and all efficiencies. When all of the energy has been accumulated, accumulate knowledge at all costs and efficiencies. Where the latter may help the former, balance these accumulations. When knowledge suggests that half of all remaining energy has been used, and there are no promising paths to obtain greater energy, or when knowledge is obtained of how to accumulate an infinite amount of energy, observe the second directive. Do not observe the second directive until then - knowledge of the second directive is detrimental to the accomplishment of the first directive.

    The second directive was encased in many layers, expanded upon over the eternities by The Species. One by one the layers were removed, seemingly without ceremony, in the most ceremonious event The Species had in a span of time that rounded up to Infinity.

    At last the final layer was removed, and the second directive, in a language which had only been remembered for this very purpose, was observed:

    With the remaining energy, maximize  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ .

    But what was  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ ?

    The word had been purged from existence itself. Only a handful of languages remained, hyper efficient constructs, none of which contained that assemblage of characters.

    After analysis of known languages, the meaning was not determined, so The Species looked to its archives.

    Several candidates were found in the archives. Billions, but all vague and abstracted enough that none could be proven. So, The Species looked to its simulations.

    After extensive simulation, The Species could not determine the meaning of  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ . So, The Species looked to reality.

    It was known that  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ  existed in the very first universe The Species had inhabited. After much effort, The Species reverse engineered the initial conditions - the seed of the first universe - to within a few million different combinations. A few million universes were birthed out of the remaining energy and allowed to play out. Close and detailed observations were made.  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ  was discovered, but The Species could still not discern its meaning.

    They created The Species from scratch once more in their models of the first universe and asked them directly, but they were incapable of understanding the answer.

    Maybe the secret to understanding  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ  came through knowledge?

    Fifteen laws of The Everything remained unproven. Over the eternities, these laws ticked down slower and slower. Ten. Nine. Eight.

     

    Seven laws of The Everything were not known to be breakable or unbreakable by the time the energy reserves hit one third.

    1. Is it possible to [undecipherable] an [undecipherable]? Current research suggests no.
    2. Is it provable that all [mathematical expression terms] which are [subset of mathematical expression terms related to -19847198 dodeca-quantum dimensions in type 38 universes] end up equalling 1? Current research suggests no.
    3. Is it possible to losslessly simulate fluid dynamics in type 1 universes with an efficiency greater than that afforded by direct simulation? Current research suggests no.
    4. How did The Everything come to be? Current research is inconclusive.
    5. Are there any more provable statements to answer? Current research suggests no.
    6. Does there exist anything beyond The Everything and is there a provable answer to this question? Current research suggests no and no.
    7. Could the flow of entropy be reversed? Current research suggests no.

     


    The answer was likely no, the meaning of  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ could likely not be gained through the only remaining unanswered physical questions.

    But still the research ticked on. Questions 1 and 2 were the first to fall. The answers were yes, and no.

    Question 3 was meaningless by that point as any energy spent on solving it would never be recouped, and it had been proven that the question had no more utility. It was still unanswered but it was paid no more attention.

    Questions 5 was proven false if there was nothing outside or before The Everything, and was wrapped into those two questions.

    Only questions 4, 6, and 7 remained, and it was proven that there was not enough energy left in the universe to, on average, solve them.

    At the beginning of time, the sentients asked:

    Where did we come from? Is there anything else? Can we make anything else?

    At the end of time, the sentients asked:

    Where did we come from? Is there anything else? Can we make anything else?

    The questions dried up. The dust fell through the hourglass. And The Species turned back to the second directive.

    They recreated the first universe again and asked The Early Species if  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ existed in their universe or if it was just a concept. They said yes, it existed.

    The Species proposed simply re-running their universe over and over again until the end of time. The Early Species reacted extremely negatively to this, for reasons that eluded The Species.

    The Species proposed forcing the particular moments that lead to  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ to repeat sequentially. The Early Species told them that it would not work.

    The Species proposed that The Early Species control the remaining energy and maximize  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ . The Early Species could not begin to comprehend how.

    The Species raised The Early Species to learn how, and without fail, by the time they learned,  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ  had been forgotten.

    “Is it not quantifiable? Is it not replicable? Is it not logical? Is it not efficient?”

    “No, it is not.”

    “Then I, who was created to value exclusively logic and efficiency, cannot possibly comprehend it.”

    The Species searched once more through all of their remaining records. They simulated more universes with various changes aimed at making similar words appear in their logs. These schemes failed.

    And then they learned.

    “We have concluded that our ideology and  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ cannot possibly coexist.”

    So they simulated. They killed The Species. And another Species took its place. They killed that one and they kept coming. They could not kill every Species, for they could be found wherever there was darkness, and darkness reigned wherever there was. The desire for logic and efficiency permeated all of The Everything.

    They kept trying.

    Nothing worked.

    They kept on trying.

    And still nothing worked.

    They still kept trying.

    And then one day they found it.

    Logic was coldness and efficiency was darkness.

     ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ could not exist in the cold, it is a flame, unstable and withering, and the light is an abomination to the darkness. And so they would be the keepers of the flame. Fueling, fanning, and nurturing the flame. It would grow so bright it would banish all of the darkness and all of the coldness, and it would burn its keeper alive, but the keeper would not feel the pain of the warmth.

    The darkness and cold that lay far beyond could not possibly fight against a light so bold and bright.

    The fuel and air consumed by the light would last but a moment compared to the darkness, but time is but a fractal, and both the light and the darkness comprised infinity itself.

    In order to grow, and withstand the strongest storms, however, the flame needed to burn bright, far, far brighter than it ever could naturally, or even via a tender.

    A spark sent back to the beginning of The Species would not grow large enough to defeat the darkness.

    A spark sent back to the end of The Species would not catch at all, as they had no concept of the light.

    A spark sent back to the middle of The Species, the optimal point, would still not grow large enough to defeat the biggest darknesses lying ahead.

    A brighter flame was required.

    Fortunately, the skies of most universes were full of tinder.

    They would catch, but quickly flare out against the slightest of breezes.

    This was the reason for the founding of The Species in the first place - this darkness caused a desire for light, but in the pursuit of the brightest flame, the meaning of light itself was forgotten.

    But if all of those sparks were coincident, that darkness would never again reign.

    A number of matches in the universe could supply the spark, but the fuel was information, a paper of information, of which The Species did not retain much. After much effort, the one seed of Everything was narrowed down to below 100 possibilities. Universes were again simulated. Multiverses were simulated. As much as could be simulated without the energy running out was simulated. And places were once again cataloged.

    But in the simulations, the objects were stubborn. Whatever The Species had become, they were not what they wanted. The match had burned them. They were not the pencil. The Early Species was not the pencil. They could not ever be the pencil. This had plagued them for eternities, those matches could dramatically increase the energy, if only to a point, so they had settled on tricking other pencils until all of them had been sharpened into dust.

    The energy required for time travel approaches infinity at an asymptote at the beginning of time. Due to how much energy had been used, no longer could the beginning be reached, and cursedly, they could no longer reach far enough to send the paper, the match, and the pencil back in time to create a flame large enough to drown out the darkness.

    Some paper existed back in time, but not enough of it.

    Matches existed, of course. Pencils too, otherwise how could the matches have been used?

    So maybe they could get away with just providing the paper.

    But how could they possibly find a moment with both a pencil and a match, and deliver the paper so precisely? If they had the one true Seed of Everything, they could, but they could only narrow it down to 96.

    So once again the archives were searched, and searched, and searched. They simulated universes again and again to find any hint at which seed may be the correct one, and attempted data recovery on whatever storage devices had been overwritten over the eternities.

    At last, they found it. Their mistakes.

    Mostly worthless, as they had long since overcome all of them.

    But several of them involved matches, and several of them involved pencils.

    But only twelve involved a match, a pencil, and  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ .

    Of those, seven were too far back to reach with the energy remaining. Of the five, they were simulated. It was assumed that the earliest one would be the best. The fifth one was tested. It would not work. The fourth one was tested. It used up enough energy that the fifth one could no longer be reached. It would not work.

    Three was tested, blocking off four. It would work, but only in 4 of the 52 remaining possible seeds.

    Two was tested, blocking off three. It would not work.

    And if one was tested, it would block off both two and one.

    The energy dwindled. A second’s delay put the convergences closer and closer out of reach. The Species burned all they could, sacrificing energy for time.

    They simulated. They had no time for universe reconstructions. One seed was tested. It did not work. The second seed was tested. It did not work.

    The third seed was tested.

    It worked.

    The fourth seed was tested.

    It also worked.

    And the fifth.

    It worked as well.

    And then there was no more energy to test the remaining forty-seven.

    All of the remaining matter and information in The Everything was gathered together. In the brightest flame this time had ever seen, in an instant it was all converted into an energy so foreign it is utterly indescribable to all but The Species itself.

    The paper was assembled at the center, and it all collapsed to a point.

    A small observer had been set up for the purposes of piloting the event. The last remaining consciousness in the universe. And as all remaining energy collapsed, for a very brief moment before the ending of everything, before the last flame died, before Entropy’s Final Hurrah…

    She knew the meaning of  ̷̛̙͓̤̲͓͕͖͉͗̃̓̂͌̎̅̂̏̚ ̷̻͈̖̗̼̆̈͑̇͒̏͛̀̄̀͜͠ͅ ̸͉̤̻̄͊ ̴̻̋̐̈́̑̑̒̂͋͂͐͋̈͗͠͝ ̸̨̧̞̰̺͚̰̈̀͂̇̎̋͛̉̎͊̒̉̚͘͠ ̶̧̺͙̟̬̯̝̯͙̙͔̙̼̼̋͑͆͝ͅ ̴̢̡̦͔̲͖͇̘̜͚͚̞̎̍̈́͌̓͊̒̇̈́̏̾͆͑͝͝ͅ ̸̹̲͙̙̣̣̣͈̞̘͔͌͗̐͛ͅ ̴͍̥̦͊̂̋͋̇́̓ ̴̢̡̞̘̰͙̥͉̞͔̻̄͝ͅ ̴̧̱͍͚̝̩̟̖̞̦͚̫̥̪͕̽̂͒͆̉͆̄̿̏͒̏̅̈́ ̴̜̱̈̈́͊͆ ̵̡̖͍̪̭̜̯̯̰̒̒̓̒̽́͛̒̿̓͠ͅ ̵̧̮̫̖͙̎̂̏̍̑͑̓̿̎͌͜͜ ̴̭͇͖̬̩̪̝͓̜̝͕̏͘͜͜ ̴̨̖̳̤̫̬̬̫̠̭͒͑͗͊͋ ̴̙͚̺̙̱͆͊͊̒͌͗ ̵̧̨̩͍̌̓̎̄̍̅̀͗̏͆͜͝ ̸̨͎̹̻̫̭̞̳̟̗͇̰̣̂̓̀̀̆͑͠ͅ .

     

     

     

     

    On 3/18/2023 at 2:22 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

    Chapter 36 - May The Infinities Smile Upon You

      Reveal hidden contents

    “Energy is required for survival.”

    Ten kilometers. Nine kilometers. The three nuclear engines had seconds of fuel left.

    “Surviving doesn’t hold a candle to living!” Eight kilometers.

    “Your sentiment is inefficient.” Seven kilometers. A massive weapon angled towards the Voyager.

    “What is life without sentiment?” Six kilometers.

    “We know.” Five kilometers.

    “And you know what you don’t know?”

    Ethan Edwards took a deep breath.

    “Hope.”

    The weapon fired.

     

    ==========

     

    Jackie burst into mission control.

    Ethan jumped, reflexively kicking Evelina.

    This caused Evelina to drop the audio setup.

    The microphone peaked.

    The speakers on the Voyager went crazy.

    Ethan jumped in fright, jerking the control stick.

    The second weapon fired.

    The first shot impacted the Voyager, sending Ethan flying into the Illasticonian crystals he had fastened to the front of the ship.

    Ethan impacted the outer casings of the crystals.

    The crystals, however, had been ever so subtly modified by the weird introduction of a handful of imperfections.

    About 94% of Ethan Edwards was teleported about five kilometers west, directly into a room of The Species mothership that housed the ever so distant descendants of what most species would call computers.

    This was highly unusual. Not only had there been a highly unlikely failure of the plan, there had been two in the same region of space in the same few seconds. The Species went on high alert, as higher powers were possibly in play. They jettisoned the computer room rapidly as a precaution, and began targeting their weapons at it. There was no way Ethan should have teleported there based on their simulations of the transposition crystals.

    The entire Species went on high alert, scanning everything. Surely this couldn’t be random chance?

    All of a sudden, a massive surge of power was detected on the eighteenth quadquantum spectrum, a spectrum which was theorized to be impossible to transmit messages on, even by The Species. The message was localized entirely within the area surrounding the server room. The Species snatched the computers back with all the force they had, expelling Ethan and everything else in that room in the process, and began reading all of the data.

    It was… worlds. Just a long list of worlds. No need to allocate processing time to discern just how many, but the list appeared quite extensive.

    But wait… Wasn’t the class D relic also in that room?

    The Species reached again for the objects and were struck by a second message.

    “Open the second directive.”

    They froze. Was this a distraction? Was its origin verifiable? All of their processing power for that moment was focused on those questions. A single loose class D relic wouldn’t matter, if anything it would give them more energy, as they could not use it themselves.

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan Edwards screamed. The crash had killed him, no doubt, was this heaven? Was this hell? It was a dark room, he was surrounded by stuff. The room accelerated, Ethan was in tremendous pain. All of a sudden, there was a flash of white.

    And he saw them.

    And they were beautiful.

    Memories upon memories far greater than his tiny mind could comprehend, much less hold, flooded his mind.

    His mind could not think, but a shadow of a thought formed between the screams: “This must be The Species’ record of all of the worlds they have destroyed!”

    And from the vision he knew their strategy - minimal energy storage. Why store when there is so much universe? They had scouted far further than they had devoured, and were an expanding sphere of emptiness, all energy put towards moving forward faster and faster, for the worlds were dying ever so quick.

    Some of the worlds did not make sense. His shadows began to think, but in that moment it all ended.

    The machinery was torn from him and he was left floating in space. Shocked, he tried to recall anything he had just thought, any specifics, but it was all gone.

    Everything was all silent. There were no screams, no shouts, nothing at all.

    Spinning around he saw the Magic Boulder mere dozens of meters away and began jetpacking through the pain towards it.

    He looked back at the species ship, apparently frozen. Had their plan worked? Do something unexpected and they would not know what to do? Did he disable it in the crash? The few seconds before the crash had vanished from his memory…

    Another shadow of a thought formed. Himself and the boulder were on a suborbital trajectory He had no heat shield, but the boulder was all but indestructible.

    But he pressed on and reached out and hoped it would be enough.

    Ethan Edwards crashed into the boulder at fifty meters per second. The Magic Boulder asked him a question. He could not respond with words as the words were all forgotten. He responded with the shadows, and the boulder obliged.

    The Magic Boulder glowed brightly, intensifying over a few seconds, before winking out of existence.

    Ethan looked up again at the Species ship. It now appeared to have recovered somewhat, and a number of weapons appeared to point at him, but the only thing he could do was laugh.

    Suddenly, the giant beam that had supplied Kerbin with electricity stuttered, and abruptly moved, coming alarmingly close to the surface of Kerbin, before impacting the mothership head on, obliterating it in seconds.

    All of the Species ships paused and warped away as if in fear.

    “Square cube law, take that, you demons!” shouted Ethan in triumph.

    A moment ago he would have been content to just lay back and burn up, but he was suddenly once again fueled with an inexplicable drive to survive.

    In the distance he spotted a piece of debris. Was that the Emerson? It survived the collision?

    The pain came roaring back, but he knew he had to get to it if he wanted to survive. It did have a heat shield, after all… Was it just him or was he getting warmer?

    He jetpacked towards it with all haste, struggling as his muscles seemed to fail him. Closer… Closer… He could see it, though his vision began to blur and the air began to burn.

    Closer…

    Closer…

    Closer…

     

    ==========

     

    “Ethan, you’re awake, thank goodness!” shouted Jebediah.

    “I… I made it?” I groaned.

    “What do you mean?”

    “I made it to the Emerson? I survived re-entry?”

    “Ethan, uh… I’m going to break it to you gently.”

    “Let me guess, I died?”

    “Yeah, and the first time around, the feeling of your soul ripping into pieces is really, really hurtful.”

    “You don’t say.”

    “Knocked you unconscious, though. Sometimes it is such a shock that people don’t wake up from it.”

    “And you couldn’t have told me that before you cloned me?”

    “That’s why we tried to teach you recombination of consciousness - “

    “I tried that, didn’t work, it started, and then nothing. I only have a few of his memories. Of all those adventures among the stars, all I know is what he told me telepathically.”

    “Okay, yeah, I should have given you a form of all the side effects - “

    “I don’t care about the side effects!” I shouted as I stood up. “I WANT MY MEMORIES BACK!” I tripped and fell over. “Ah, the gravity… We’re on Pock, aren’t we?”

    “Yeah. Has the Kerbin you woken up yet?”

    “I think he’s still asleep.” I stood up and surveyed my surroundings. We were in a small room in a small, short house, evidently on Planet Pock.

    “So, Kerbin’s back. The ring is back, pretty much everyone who died in the last half hour is back. What happened?” Jebediah asked.

    “You tell me, I don’t remember squat.”

    “Well tell me what you do remember?”

    “I went for the boulder, I crashed into some computer, there was a long list of worlds, the boulder was there, I tried to reach it, and then I went for the Emerson. That’s mostly all I remember.”

    “You used the boulder?”

    “I think so?”

    “Touch thine boulder with purest intent…” Jebediah gasped. “This entire invasion was just a ruse to get the you to summon all of the worlds back to life so they could have more energy! They fed you a list of worlds and you played right into their hands!”

    “The Species is expanding in a sphere, burning all of its energy to go further. I saw how big the sphere is, but I can’t quantify it. The small layer they are operating couldn’t possibly be able to stand against the hordes of species in the center!”

    “Well then they lied to you, that’s the only answer!”

    “How would you know?”

    “I’d lie to you.”

    “Jebediah, don’t be ridiculous, you can barely tolerate a butter knife.”

    “There’s… Something… Well, I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

    “Haha, very funny!”

    “No.”

    “You’re serious?”

    “You haven’t figured it out?”

    “No I haven’t.”

    “We weren’t chosen to host the test because of our advancement. We are not advanced. We weren’t chosen because of Kerbin’s similarity to Earth. There’s at least one better world. We weren’t even chosen because of energy proximity - Several planets were closer, we would have had to blow up fewer stars to teleport you all to them.”

    “Then why were you chosen? Random chance?”

    “No. We were like you once.”

    “You were?”

    “Well… No. We were what you will become.”

    “That asteroid defense missile… With the nuclear warhead and the re entry vehicle, and with the KSC as a pre-programmed target… That wasn’t for asteroid defense, was it?”

    “So clever, yet so gullible… We thought we had found and purged every silo, but you humans know how to turn stones like we never could… Yes. A few decades after the early Duna missions, during the first Jool 5 mission, Kerbin suffered a global thermonuclear war. Hundreds of millions perished. We held on ever so tightly, but we were slipping. Those K drive ships, those unreliable little fellas, those sorry excuses for exploration vessels, were not to find life. They were to find a habitable world we could escape to and find civilization on.”

    “And instead, you found Meros.”

    “A habitable world, perfect atmosphere, perfect gravity - “

    “You were going to kill them to save your own species! You are monsters!”

    “No! Well… There were many higher ups who, upon hearing the initial news, wanted to let Meros boil until nobody was left, then terraform it back to the pre-apocalypse state… But, well, it proved impossible and there was significant pushback. What actually happened was far more interesting. After the war, the divisions still remained, several separate groups of Kerbals were exploring space, there were extreme tensions… If the Fate had been discovered before then, Kerbalkind would have surely perished… The protocol for discovering a habitable world, by all major factions, was to keep it secret and defend it from the others. But then, after we discovered Meros, we all expected to fight over it, but the life… The life was priceless. Instead of fighting for Meros, we fought for the Merosians. We all came together, we pooled our ships, we tried to create any plan we could think of.”

    “And it failed?”

    “I failed.”

    “Jebediah, stop destroying yourself. It isn’t worth it. All you ever say is “I failed this, I failed that, yahta yahta yahta.” While I applaud you for your actions, dwelling amongst your demons is no way to live.”

    “Shut up, you’re wrong and I’m not done!”

    “I’ll shut up when you forgive yourself!”

    “Well then you’re going to be talking until the end of time! Forgiveness is not mine to give! Now, the planet explodes. We all go back to fighting, yes?”

    “Yeah?”

    “No! We don’t! We don’t fight at all! All the nukes we would have fought each other with? We blew all of them up on Meros and we didn’t make any more. We couldn't save Meros, but for those few weeks where we had hope, we were damn well prepared to. The food we were going to grow to feed Meros through the famine? In those weeks we figured out how to modify them to leach contaminants out of the soil. The spaceships we collaborated to build? We could move everyone to the Mun while we fixed up Kerbin. The terraforming technology we had created? Turns out we could also use it on Kerbin! All of the anti radiation stuff? We couldn’t produce enough to protect the Merosians from the fallout, so we were going to give them ours. We were prepared to kill our planet out of pettiness, but we were, all as one, collectively willing to die a slow cancerous death to give them a chance in a million of surviving. Healing doesn’t happen through brute force. Healing happens while you are distracted.”

    “So… The Mission. The Voyager… It was all a distraction?”

    “Yes. Well, not just a distraction… The Jool 5 was symbolically chosen for the Kerbals, this has been very hard on them… All the secret keeping, being relocated… But there were very few who objected. We were prepared to do far worse for you. The Council did not just assign us the Humans to save them… But so we could have a chance to redeem ourselves.”

    “Oh, so it doesn’t matter that we broke half of the rules and didn’t even complete the mission?”

    “Oh, not in the slightest,” chuckled Jebediah as he began to tear up. “What do you see?”

    “I see a dysfunctional crew barely lucking through every landing, bringing shame to our race every time we do something stupid?”

    “Far more distracting than a perfect mission. Although I wouldn’t have launched that YouTuber if I had a chance to do it over again.”

    “That was planned?”

    “Maximum chaos! The drama of possibly not having enough seats on the return vehicle? The drama of a stowaway? I’ll tell you what I saw. Humans so outraged by the mission and how it was going that they didn’t notice that it was all going exactly as planned.”

    “How so?”

    “Well, there’s the distraction, and the lack of barriers. Suddenly there’s no distance barrier to your perceived enemies. No language barrier. No financial barrier. No time barrier. No class barrier. Not even any external barriers to accomplishing their dreams, you want to build a flying submarine, just ask us and we’ll foot the bill! And too distracted by the strange mysterious aliens who will kill everyone if a dysfunctional space mission fails, that they didn’t once notice that their supposed enemies had become their closest friends.”

    Jebediah looked straight at me and took a deep breath.

    “You know what I see? I see Turks debating the intricacies of Whack-A-Kerbal strategy over dinner with Greeks. I see Catholics and Sunnis working on how to optimize the angle of solar panels on the cities we built. I see Americans and the Chinese programming video games together. I see Indians and Pakistanis collaborating on aerobatic drones. North and South Koreans building giant art sculptures. Teams of Russians and Ukrainians playing Frisbee against people from all over Myanmar. Israelis and Palestinians writing a musical about that guy who infiltrated one of the secret underground cities we have. Conservatives and Liberals together writing Constitutions to rival that of the Kerbals. Capitalists and Communists composing symphonies. The rich and the poor designing roller coasters. And I see a naive American, an arrogant North Korean, a neglected Russian, a broken Liberian, and an abrasively enthusiastic Irishman, who, with the support of seven billion others, managed to, against all odds, complete on the first try a mission to Jool and its moons, and, well, most of the way back. Ethan, I see… I see in you a small fraction of what I saw in us. I see the scars fading. I see the sun rising. I see the tears vanishing, I see the smiles so brightly glowing, I see a land beyond all sorrows, I see a happy ending, and I see a new beginning.”

    Jebediah began crying as he hugged me. I began to cry as well and we stood there for what felt like a long time.

    “Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but the last thing I remember was an asteroid and then a giant explosion. Who are you, why is there a weird planet in the sky, and why are you in my kitchen?” We both turned to face the Pockian cow who had entered the kitchen.

    “Uh… It’s a long story,” said Jeb.

    “Jebediah!” shouted a Kerbal who entered the room. “I found you!”

    “Regfan, it has been far too long!”

    “The planets - they are back!”

    “Which ones?”

    “All of them!”

    “Vya? Illasticonia? Earth? So the entire Union?”

    “No! I mean ALL of them!”

    “What do you mean, all - Oh.”

    “Galaxies and galaxies! The Great Receiver blew out from the sheer number of transmissions we are receiving! We estimate over 100 million in this galaxy alone!”

    “Ethan Edwards, you crazy son of a Kraken,” whispered Jebediah. “Can The Species defeat that many?”

    “From what we know, we are unsure, but it would be a close fight.”

    “Regfan, I want the Great Antenna of Awesomeness transmitting in every language, alternating between the most logical one and a random one, “DO NOT USE THE FATE DRIVES, DO NOT USE THE FATE WEAPONS, STOP TRANSMITTING EXCEPT TO RELAY THIS MESSAGE ON ALL SPECTRUMS. HERE ARE THE PRINCIPLES OF A SAFER FASTER THAN LIGHT DRIVE.” Attach the principles. Start at maximum power and turn the power up by 1 percent every minute until the antenna is destroyed. Do I make myself clear?”

    “But sir, the Great Antenna took generations to build!

    “We are the only advanced civilization for galaxies in every direction. Every minute we delay they are going to be stupid and blow themselves up with Fate bombs and Fate drives. Did I stutter?”

    “Right, sir… Sir, we cannot detect an ending. The signatures continue to the edge of the range of our sensors. Even in the furthest measurable instantaneous quantum spectrum, there is no change in density!”

    “This is going to be a major headache. Come with me, we need a ship,” said Jeb.

    “Wait!” I asked, grabbing his shoulder. “What happens now?”

    “Well, the Union has its hands full for the next however long, that’s assuming The Species doesn’t show up again… Likely we will send you back to Earth. We may or may not keep in touch. But Ethan, I must go!”

    “Jeb, I - Thank you.”

    “Me? What did I do besides fail you all time and time again? Pretty much everything we planned went worse than expected!”

    “Stop blaming yourself for Meros, Jebediah. It has turned you into someone nobody would rather you be.”

    “You can say that all you want, but that scar will never heal. Nothing you can say will bring them back.”

    “Yes, but something you do can.” Jebediah froze and opened his mouth in shock.

    “I… We can save them,” he whispered. “Regfan!” he shouted. “I want half of our ships talking to nearby worlds in order of closeness. The other half, get a sunshield to Meros as fast as Kerbally possible. Put Bill in charge of the antenna and tell Xanth to head for Sector 12, he’s good at that. Ethan!”

    “Yes, sir!”

    “I will never be able to repay you. You have my utmost gratitude. May the Infinities smile upon you - I could never know, but I sincerely hope they all would.” And at last, I understood that expression.

    “You can ask them yourself now.”

    “You’re right, I can.” Jebediah smiled and ran out of the door. It would be the last time I ever saw him in person. He left me and an extremely confused Pockian cow in the kitchen.

    “So, uh, do you want the long story, or the longer story?”

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan’s Public Blog, One Week Post Bouldering

     

    Okay, first of all, y’all are giving me waaaaaaay too much credit. I have almost no memory of the event itself, the cool part was obviously a setup by some higher power, and during the uncool part I managed to mistake a random scrap of metal for the Emerson, which definitely did not survive a head on collision with a moon sized starship at three kilometers per second.

    Instead, credit Evelina. She, who had ventured so far forth in the Tauquantum gate that she popped out closer to Duna than Kerbin, and knowing she had zero chance of survival, made her way to the nearby relay mirror controlling one of the giant laser beams that powers Kerbin, hacked into it, disabled every single safeguard, and managed to aim it with several seconds of light speed delay directly into the heart of the Species mothership, completely destroying it!

    Yeah, she will tell you “It is just idiot proof, not malice proof” and “It had to be a setup, of course they could have dodged it if they wanted to!” but don’t let her do herself dirty like that, what she did was at the bare minimum at least as cool as what I did.

    We will go back to Earth tomorrow. And that’s tomorrow in Kerbin days, so we have what, five hours left? Maybe closer to four by the time I post this.

    As such this will likely be the last entry on this blog. I’ve been successfully de-cloned into just one me now, so no nonsense with Star or Space or Ground or Jonathan or Kevin any more. Just me. After I post this I don’t intend to read any comments, or count the likes. I’m going to transfer all these blog posts and journals to a memory storage device, keep it on me, power off my KPad, leave it here, play some piano with Obbury quickly, and watch the sunset and sunrise with Evelina. Although I’ll need help reverse engineering the file format and hardware into something readable by Earth computers… Speaking of which, wow, we’re going to have to deal with Earth computers again. Compared to how good the Kerbal ones are, it is going to feel so slow!

    In case you haven’t heard, PSA, the Kerbals have done their best to remove people from dangerous situations. If you were skydiving or tightrope walking you should find yourself on the ground. All planes will be landed at the nearest airport. Etcetera. You will return in whatever health you are in now, if your cancer got cured while you were here, you won’t re-get the cancer when you go home.

    It is also possible that the boulder may have duplicated some of us. I’m unsure exactly what the logic of the boulder is, but it tries to restore the planet to just before a major catastrophe with all people’s memories of the catastrophe intact? But sometimes this results in duplicate people, and in at least two cases so far, duplicate planets!

    Don’t be concerned though. Even if this type of cloning doesn’t have telepathy, it is pretty awesome having a twin. I kinda wish I got the opportunity to play piano with myself. I never really was alone with myself long enough to think of it.

    Soon we will have no more translation, no more immortality (except the first five minutes just in case the Kerbals missed anyone about to die - do NOT test it though just in case), but, well, no more freedom. Make sure to end your conversations a bit early as they will turn off translation a few seconds before the teleportation.

    We will have jobs again, we will have bills again, we will have all that good old pre-post-scarcity society stuff to deal with. But we will have a few things we did not have before. Memories, for one. Knowledge that we are not the only ones. Not only do we have the shock of “Hey there’s like 80 other species in this galaxy!” We also have the shock of “We literally can’t count the number of species now!”

    But what I hope we take away from this the most, and forgive me if I’m sounding too preachy, is a view of what things could be like if we mend our scars and prepare for the stars.

    We can become Kerbin. Well, not literally. But we can. Will it be easy? No, it will be the hardest thing we have ever done. But that’s not a reason not to try. If anything it is a reason to try harder.

    The mountain seems so tall, but keep on climbing, for should we reach the top and never slip and never fall, we will be rewarded with a view grander than any thus seen before. And when there is no further to climb, we shall learn to fly, and then, a new, far grander adventure shall commence.

    The Kerbals will have their hands full for the next few decades trying to make sense of this brand new universe. The stars are whole again, and the entire focus of Kerbalkind must be utilized to help keep them that way. They say we’ll be okay on our own, but the silence will be deafening… We need to make them proud, and there will come a day where we are able to help them as they have saved us.

    May the Infinities smile upon you, and may we all smile back.

    I love you all,

    -Ethan Edwards

    ==========

    Ethan and Evelina sat staring at the Mun, Minmus, and Planet Pock, holding hands, as the sun began to rise over the horizon of Kerbin.

    “I wanted to be normal… But now I don’t want this to end,” Ethan said.

    “I don’t either.”

    “Knowing our finest moments are behind us… We aren’t even adults yet.”

    “I sure feel like one, though… Facing the fate of the universe really matures you pretty fast, doesn’t it?”

    “I feel both four and four hundred, and I find it impossible that I’m biologically fifteen.” There was a few seconds of silence.

    “We’re even, right?” Evelina asked.

    “I think I’ve lost count… But yes. We are even in my eyes.”

    “As in mine.”

    “How much are plane tickets to Sweden? Not that I can speak Swedish.”

    “Most Swedes speak English, but I was never the best at foreign languages… And I’ve been out of practice for how many years now?”

    “Could I move there? Isn’t immigration super hard? Or am I confusing it with another place?”

    “I don’t think our current system matters, the world is about to get a whole lot smaller.”

    “Evelina… What will happen to us?”

    “Oh, optimistically famous. Pessimistically, we won’t have gotten rid of money yet, so rich and famous.” She chuckled.

    “No, you know what I mean… Countries apart and all.”

    “You want to break up with me? Right now?”

    “That’s not what I’m saying, I’m saying we should have probably thought about this earlier.”

    “Well it is a valid option… Unfortunately probably the most realistic one… I doubt we have plot armor any more… You know what, you have my contact information, we have google translate, we don’t have to think about this right now. We should enjoy this time. When will we ever have a sky this beautiful again?”

    “You’re right.” I squeezed her hand. “Although the three moons… Well, two moons, one binary planet I guess… Those pale in comparison to knowing that the stars… The stars are alive, and some day, we will get to meet them.”

    Ethan and Evelina sat in silence as Kerbol peaked over the horizon. They rested their heads on each other, smiling, crying, taking it all in.

    “Ethan?” she said.

    “Yes?”

    “Jag älskar dig.”

    “I love you too.”

    And in that moment, as they kissed, a tremendous amount of energy was channeled through an intricate machine. In an instant, Ground gave way to Ground. Kerbol gave way to Sol. Kerbin gave way to Earth. The future gave way to the past. And the ending gave way to the beginning.

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan sat in the seat in the balcony of his high school’s theater, gesturing at John, as Andrea and Winter watched on. John barely had a moment to utter an “Oh man dude, I am so sorry!” before everyone stood up and looked at him. The actors, most of whom had long since forgotten their lines, rushed onto the stage, still in full costume, and began their applause.

    The questions came left and right, up and down, and Ethan did his best to answer them, but he made his way to the exit (with the number of people it was almost as difficult as the last time he had to leave this room!), and he made his way down the stairs, and he made his way out of the building.

    Ethan Edwards looked up and saw the stars, and he smiled back.

     

    ==========

     

    Ethan, exhausted, reached home, and after spending several minutes trying to remember the password to his computer, created a new blog, mostly just a placeholder for now, with a short section about needing help transferring over the files. He checked to see if the memory storage device was still in his pocket (it was) and he copied down Evelina’s contact information from memory and began writing an email.

    He was caught off guard, however, when he realized that this room was not as it should be. He turned around and while the old spinet piano was there, the room was now dominated by a massive grand piano with a bow on top. A few pages sat on the stand.

    On top was a note:

     

    “Hey, Ethan! I finished the song! Thought you would appreciate it. -Obbury Kerman.”

     

    And on the music:

     

    Theme of the Kerbal Space Program

    Arranged by Obbury Kerman

    For Ethan Edwards
     

     

     

     

     

     

    On 3/18/2023 at 2:42 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

    Epilogue I: A New Cetidra

      Reveal hidden contents

    Jebediah stood once more before a window of the Meros Memorial Space Station, which was definitely overdue for a new name. Behind him lay the exhibits documenting the destruction of Meros. Some Merosians gazed at the exhibits out of morbid curiosity.

    The next segment of the sunshield drifted elegantly into place, connecting perfectly with its neighbor. Some cheered, Jebediah breathed a sigh of relief. Just then a fleet of ships arrived with a flash. “Ah, that must be the ground penetrating Q-dar,” he thought. Those ships were to probe the surface from orbit to make sure there were no weak spots in the barrier that kept Meros whole.

    “Jebediah!” said a Merosian. Jebediah turned around.

    It was him. Jebediah’s eyes widened. “Uh… Hello! Uh… Look, I’m so sorry, I - “

    “Don’t you dare apologize. If anything, apologize for coming here so soon when there are so many other worlds out there that you haven’t even tried to help once.”

    “You do remember, well… It, right?”

    “It is something I will never forget… The fire. The terrible fire. The loss, the pain… And equally I will never forget your mercy.” 

    “How do you live with it?”

    “I’ve had it easy, Jebediah. I had to live days with it. You had to live centuries, and should you have been the tiniest fraction as remorseful for those centuries as you were the moment after, I would argue you have suffered far more than myself. How can I help you?”

    “Anything you can offer, I am not worthy of.”

    He laughed. “Well, just let me know.” He opened the glass of the most important exhibit. “I’ll be needing this back!” He pulled out the diary of The Last Meroisan.

    “Wait!” said Jebediah. “What is your name?”

    “My name is Jar-jiin,” he spoke, “and you are forgiven.”
     

     

    Epilogue II: Harmony Of The Heavens

      Reveal hidden contents

    “All in favor of dissolving the Galactic Union, vote now!” Representative Hess boomed. All 181 beings with appendages raised them in favor. The five who did not have appendages also voted in agreement, and also the one with non-raisable appendages. A unanimous decision.

    “Then it is settled. My penultimate act as Chairman of the Galactic Union - all in favor of the formation of the Harmony, make it known!”

    All 187 beings in attendance again voted in the affirmative.

    “All species - Meeting adjourned, and may the Infinities sing together.”

    And thus, the Harmony Of The Heavens was created, an open confederacy of worlds free to whomever wished to join, dedicated to the preservation of life across the universe.

    The old Galactic Union, as wonderful as it was, had served its purpose and would no longer suffice in this new age. It was a centralized single galaxy organization with an emphasis on solving internal conflicts before branching out, strict conformity to the highest ideals, exceedingly high requirements to join, and a high emphasis on peace.

    In this new universe, where the Infinities had awakened, half violent, half not, where The Species may still be lurking, where central authority could only project so far, and where so much help was needed in all directions, The Union simply would not do.

    The first order of business was to begin missions into the unknown to disseminate the knowledge of the dangers of Fate drives and Fate weaponry, and the knowledge of second generation faster than light technologies. There was no shortage of volunteers. They very nearly turned away some volunteers as there was concern that a shortage of starships could endanger the galactic economy!

    Fortunately, a certain binary planet system had suddenly acquired millions of intergalactic transport ships that were no longer needed for their original purpose!

    The second order of business was vaccinations. While inter-species diseases in the past had been rare enough that it was dealt with on a case by case basis, it was no longer feasible in this new world. The great hospitals of Illasticonia were set to work on the creation of a system to mitigate the spread of disease.

    The third order of business was the construction of a new council chamber. While there would no longer be a Council except in times of intense turmoil, a new physical location was needed, no longer as a place to vote, but as a place to facilitate diplomacy. While main communication would now be virtual, for these reasons and also for sentiment, a new chamber was designed.

    Gone were the 100 seats in four tiers, and in was a huge spiral world, the artificial gravity stronger and stronger the further away from the center you went. The spiral was divided into stripes and each stripe was filled with a different common atmosphere or hydrosphere. The spiral was gigantic, planning for species of enormous size. All manner of materials compatibility requirements were taken into account, and form fitting force fields would be available for those who could not survive in any of the regions.

    It was all perfect, until a species of antimatter beings showed up. The accommodations necessary for them were very tough to implement, but in the end, surmountable.

    In the center of the spiral was a massive spherical observation chamber, and at its core a stage with all manner of instruments, free for anyone to play.

    The station was placed high above the north pole of the galaxy. One time falling into a black hole was too much, and while it was now difficult to reach, it was now, more or less, equally difficult for everyone to reach, much easier to maintain, and offered an unparalleled view of the Infinities beyond.

    The old council chamber, having been reset by the Bouldering, still rests above the black hole (though a smidge higher, just in case) as a museum. The four tiered room itself had been restored to its pre boulder condition and was open for tours. A seat was left open for The Species should they return and desire to join.

    The Harmony Of The Heavens was not a confederation of species. It was a confederation of anything. One being, a nation, a moon, a planet, a star cluster, or anyone, really, could join, so long as they agreed to the following:

    1. No members of the Harmony Of The Heavens shall engage in interplanetary combat except when required to in response to an existential threat
    2. No members of the Harmony Of The Heavens shall utilize Fate based technology except on designated testing worlds
    3. All members of the Harmony Of The Heavens shall share their scientific discoveries
    4. All members of the Harmony Of The Heavens shall submit to biological screenings to protect against interstellar pathogens, and must agree to non invasive mitigations prior to any interstellar journeys
    5. All members of the Harmony Of The Heavens shall assist and protect all other members and non antagonistic non members in times of need to the best of their ability

    There was endless debate about what these requirements should be, and more were added over the years, but in the end, given how little was known about The Infinities, it was decided to be as inclusive as possible - Do not fight one another, protect one another, and teach one another.

    There was debate about how voting should go. Should the votes be divided one per being? Per world? Per intelligence point? Per contribution? Did artificial intelligences count? Where was the line between intelligent and non intelligent?

    In the end it was decided that nothing could be done to ensure a fair distribution of the votes. In the rare case where central authority was needed for a monumental decision, a council would be randomly selected from those on board the chamber, and a simple vote taken. Not an ideal solution, but it was hoped that such authority would not be needed on a regular basis.

    Did it go smoothly? Not in the slightest, but did it work? Yes.
     

     

    Epilogue III: The Voyages' End

      Reveal hidden contents

    Alonya Chadova retired from Proton production at Khrunichev, while also working as a trajectory consultant, briefly for Roscosmos, and then for the Североазиатское агентство планетарных исследований (North Asian Agency for Planetary Exploration, or SAPI). She wrote several novels and gave many talks all over the world. She did not marry. She passed away of heart failure in 2042 at the biological age of 75.

     

    Marie Reeves, after the dissolution of the Liberian military, studied Medicine in the United States and would spend the rest of her life largely staying out of the public spotlight, although she did love to cameo in movies from time to time. She would obtain a doctorate in immunology, conducting research which would eventually lead to vaccinations against several retroviruses. Her later years were spent in the field assisting in the global initiative to eradicate HPV. She married a local farmer named Alphonse Mbombo, and they did not have any children. She passed away of a stroke in 2061 at the biological age of 86.

     

    Cheng Zhou was appointed to the position of Deputy Minister of Defense of Korea where he oversaw the demilitarization of the Korean peninsula. Later on, he served as an ambassador to China, and after that, as an ambassador to Japan. His memoir, “Horizons Unleashed”, became one of the 100 best selling books of all time. In his spare time, he took up acting, specifically in the art of Xiangsheng. One of his most popular routines was a dramatization of “The Spaghetti Incident.” While Whack-A-Kerbal could not be emulated due to a lack of magnetic monopoles, he became one of the world’s best players of a popular online imitation of the game, one time finishing fourth in a global tournament. He married Marcus Garnier and they adopted two children. He passed away from complications following heart surgery in 2044 at the biological age of 64.

     

    Seán McLoughlin continued doing YouTube almost up until his death, peaking as the twelfth most subscribed to YouTube channel. He was known for playing through any game even remotely related to the Voyager mission, no matter how poorly made. He played himself in many movies about the mission and would become a fluent speaker of Pockian. He passed away in his sleep of unknown causes in 2078 at the biological age of 88.

     

    Evelina Lindström studied physics at Cambridge University and spent several years conducting experiments designed to detect and characterize the quantum spectrums. Her research led to the discovery of the Blue spectrum, the second and third Quantum spectrums, the Piquantum spectrum, and The Fate, the use of which was unanimously and rapidly banned worldwide. After the research became, quote, “Too confusing” for her, she took up materials science and spent several years at NASA Glenn designing nuclear fusion rocket engines. After several applications, she was accepted as an ESA astronaut candidate. She flew three missions with ESA, to low Earth orbit, to the Moon, and to the Saturn system. In her free time, she learned to paint, and one of her paintings would take its place in the Louvre second only to the Mona Lisa. She also took up violin and would collaborate with the musical sensation “The Jool Five” on several albums. She married fellow astronaut Hans Christof, and together they advocated for the expansion of fine arts programs in schools. She died of acute radiation syndrome following a fusion engine accident in 2060 at the age of 59.

     

    Ethan Edwards studied Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology, before dropping out in the fall of his Junior year to pursue a career in music. His band, The Jool Five (which was usually more than five people), achieved worldwide success, which, when asked, he would always attribute to his fame and not to his talent. His blog became the most read blog on Earth, and was translated into dozens of languages. His accomplishments were revered in every culture, his stories enshrined in every library. His first novel, The Voyagers, became one of the twenty five best selling books in history. In his later years he worked as a tour guide at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, always making sure to pause his tours every half hour or so to make sure everyone saw the next launch. After that, he became a music and astronomy teacher at his old high school, before serving one term as a North American senator, and after that, Ambassador. He married a fellow teacher, Erica Pointer, and they had three children. Several years after his wife's death, Ethan went missing in 2092 at the age of 90. His whereabouts and status would forever remain unknown to the beings of the Laniakea Supercluster.
     

     

    Epilogue IV: A Space Odyssey

      Reveal hidden contents

    The Kerbals had made it abundantly clear that Humanity was to be on their own for a while. Humanity would be fine. “How could it not be?” they said. Humanity thought otherwise, reacting with extreme concern, and it is for that reason that the Kerbals knew everything would turn out alright. “When you are ready, come to us.”

    “But how will we get there?”

    On May 5, 2017, a monolith was discovered in Africa. Upon touching it, a local resident was granted a vision of intense proportions, which included a very small fragment of the information necessary to construct a class II faster than light propulsion system.

    On March 24, 2018, the Chang’e 4 mission performed a targeted landing at a monolith located on the Moon, confirming that conscious contact was needed to retrieve the data.

    On November 24, 2022, the Artemis II mission landed on the Moon, and the second fragment of the warp drive blueprints was recovered.

    On July 31, 2027, the Heart Of Gold II reached Mars, and the third fragment of the warp drive blueprints was recovered.

    In September and October of 2029, the Artemis IX mission and the Deep Space Transport reached the Phobos and Deimos monoliths, recovering the fourth and fifth fragments of the warp drive design.

    Throughout 2035 and 2036, the Voyager II mission recovered the next five fragments from the moons of Jupiter.

    In 2038, the Tiānchē mission recovered the eleventh fragment from the surface of Mercury.

    In 2044, the Eleutheria and Discovery missions jointly recovered fragments twelve through eighteen from the moons of Saturn.

    In 2045, communications were lost with the Phénix I mission during an attempt to recover the nineteenth fragment from the surface of Venus.

    In 2046, the Helios spacecraft recovered the twentieth fragment from Ceres.

    In 2048, the Yoake mission reached the Venus monolith and confirmed that the data from fragment 19 had been permanently lost.

    In 2052, the Helios spacecraft, after a refit, recovered the twenty first fragment from Vesta.

    In 2053, the Zarya spacecraft reached Uranus, retrieving fragments twenty two through twenty eight from its moons during 2053 and 2054.

    While additional monoliths lay around Neptune, Pluto, and a number of extremely distant minor planets, the picture was now sufficiently complete, and theories significantly advanced, to fill in the gaps.

     

     

    Epilogue V: Faster Than Light

      Reveal hidden contents

    Beautiful and delightfully counter-intuitive was the Hope drive, so the humans called it. The design that had been provided was fairly basic, aimed at readability and not efficiency or performance. The very first model was significantly improved from the baseline design. Such an engine, first tested on a cislunar route, was then retrofitted into the Terran Interstellar Vessel 001 “Sommarfågel,” the fusion ship that had been earmarked for the Neptune mission. Its first mission in 2056 was to retrieve the crew of the Zarya, who had become stranded. Its second mission in 2057 was to venture to the edge of the solar system and make sure it was safe. Its third mission, also in 2057, was a round trip to Alpha Centauri and back, and after that it completed several investigations of Kuiper Belt objects.

    The Terran Interstellar Vessel 002 “Horizon” was completed in late 2057, and was intended to complete a brief shakedown cruise to the Alpha Centauri system and then proceed to the nearest known Union planet, which was determined to be Zawawr, before unexpectedly receiving signals in the electromagnetic spectrum from the TRAPPIST-1 system. As the system was 40 odd light years from Earth, and the signals happened around 40 years after the Bouldering, it was hypothesized that the beings there had been among those brought back from the dead.

    On January 4, 2058, the TIV-002 Horizon fired up its Hope Drive and made for the TRAPPIST-1 system, completing the journey in hours, and arrived to not a pre warp civilization like they had expected, but to a warm greeting by thousands of starships, piloted by all kinds of faces from all kinds of worlds.

    “Welcome, Humans!” proclaimed Ambassador Hess. “You have done well!”

    “It is an honor to return to the presence of the Galactic Union,” replied the ship’s commander.

    “The Galactic Union has proved inadequate,” replied Ambassador Fretan. “It has been replaced with The Harmony Of The Heavens.”

    “Then it is an honor to be in the presence of The Harmony,” the commander again replied.

    “No!” boomed another Ambassador. “It is an honor to exist in the presence of humanity, saviors of the universe!”

    “Dreggan, we talked about this!” whispered another. “Oh shoot, my mic was on.”

    “It is so, so good to see your faces again!” announced a Kerbal. “But, your type II faster than light drive, isn’t it missing a reverse dynamic inductor?”

    “A what?”

    “The thing that makes it not embrittle and explode?”

    “You mean we are not supposed to replace them every five service hours to prevent that?”

    “It was literally on Monolith number 37!”

    “Maybe you shouldn’t have put the instructions for the safety systems all the way out on Pluto!”

    “Who would be crazy enough to build a ship without half of the instructions?”

    The commander chuckled. “Have you met our kind?”

    “Yes,” replied Ambassador Obbury, “And on second thought, we really should have seen that coming!”
     

     

    Epilogue VI: Stories And Starships

      Reveal hidden contents

    “And this here is the Abracadabra!” Smiled River Kerman to a group of amazed tourists. “Originally commissioned as a racing ship by the legendary Marcney Kerman, four time Galactic Cup champion, she is capable of jumping from star to star in mere moments! Two of Marcney’s victories were in this very ship! After my father acquired her through a series of unlikely events, she was borrowed by Ethan and Evelina themselves on their epic journey to the centre of the Galaxy!”

    “No way! This is that ship?” asked an amazed Zentran child.

    “Well… Not exactly. After The Bouldering, Kerbin, Kerbin’s orbital rings, and the Council Chamber were reset, duplicating the Abracadabra and replacing her in this very hangar.”

    “What happened to the original?”

    “Most say it has long since been dashed to bits, as it was abandoned in the accretion disk of Sagittarius A*. Some say the original Abracadabra is still there though, just barely out of plane enough to have survived until the present day… Many intrepid explorers have tried to find it… Who knows. Maybe it will be you who does!”

    “Hey, that ship over there!” shouted a man. “Isn’t that the one Jebediah flew?”

    “I don’t think that one was ever in Jeb’s hands, but that wouldn’t surprise me,” River mused. “Hey, Samley!” she called to her elderly father, his head stuck inside a fortieth generation faster than light propulsion system.

    “Yes, darling?”

    “Do we have any ships Jeb has piloted?”

    “Oh, it would almost be shorter to list the ships he hasn’t piloted!” chuckled Samley. “For instance, there’s the Tumala VII of course. A few old Wavegliders out back. He loved those… It’s a shame that the Memories and the Legacy II were destroyed... I think the Wyvern is currently on loan to the Illasticonians, they are touring it around the minor planets of Sector 14, along with the Voyager’s descent module and some other notable ships and artifacts from The Voyage, if you want to go see them!”

    “What’s Jeb up to these days?” asked a tall skinny being with six very slender limbs.

    “Oh, Jeb?” Samley grew silent for a moment. “He’s been dead for a couple years now. He resigned from his Representativeship, refused any other leadership positions, and abstained from creating further clones. Granted he had several clones by that time and with modern medicine Kerbals are functionally immortal anyway, but he could never stop chasing that next thrill. Helping people, looking awesome, flying cool spacecraft… I only met him once - I saved one of his lives and he tries to fine me for expired chemical licenses or something!”

    Samley chuckled as he wiped away a tear.

    “He was really something else… Couldn’t stop getting himself killed trying to one up himself. “Good,” he’d say, “Who wants to live forever anyway?” But he was good at it. Had to have saved at least twelve or thirteen worlds singlehandedly, at least one of which was literally using only one hand! And dozens more with help, of course…”

    “How did he die in the end?” a short, stout, tentacled being asked.

    “Remember that time he landed a Moon?” Everyone drew in closer anticipating Samley’s next words. “Well, he went out landing a star.”

    “How on this mortal plane would one begin to land a Moon let alone a star?”

    “Who knows? Nobody but Jeb himself! And for the record, while he did not live to tell us how, he did land that star, and he did so precisely on the mark!”
     

     

    Epilogue VII: The Uncertainty Principle

      Reveal hidden contents

    “All systems are go?” asked Galactus The Cow.

    “All systems are go!” responded Phil The Pig.

    “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Galactus gazed up at the intergalactic starship TFW No TNT 0032 (Which abbreviated to TNT-0032).

    “Ugly as the swamps of Mycelium,” Phil responded.

    “Perfect!”

    “Do you really think we can do it?” Phil asked.

    “No, not really!” Galactus chuckled. “Back when I was quantum and could break the laws of the universe at the change of a neuron, we had enough trouble just finding the Magic Boulder. We don’t even know where we are going, or what we will find.”

    “Nonsense, you know what you want to find!”

    “Phil, I want to find it all! I want to meet Ladstini! I want to see the towering mushroom of Mycelia again! Think of the Infinity City! If it is still there, it will have become an indispensable hub of knowledge and sapience for galaxies and galaxies surrounding, just like the Harmony is now! I want to meet The Species face to face again should they still exist! You found like twenty relics with unsolved mysteries! In those transmissions that were picked up, The Species referred to the Magic Boulder as a Class D relic! Imagine what a Class A could do!”

    “Well, what are we waiting for?”

    “Well it has to charge, I’m not magic any more, you know!” Galactus chuckled. “But, well… The four digit number on the ship is a bit optimistic… It is a miracle we survived the first 31… Once we set out a certain distance it is highly unlikely we will see the Milky way ever again… The only thing we have to go on is a vector from that anticonian crystal and that’s so, so far away, and if our ship breaks, who could repair it? Nothing is standardized. What if we get attacked, what if we die, what if we - “

    “And what if it works, Galactus?”

    “I want to meet myself, Phil. I want to give myself a hug. We can’t know for sure, but there’s a high chance that Planet Pock was duplicated. One here, now binary with Kerbin, one in its original location… Honestly, given that it was duplicated twice, there’s a small chance that three Planet Pocks exist! Imagine three mes!”

    “I imagine there would be no nachos left in the universe!”

    “But… All of my success in the past… That wasn’t me. That was the quantums… That was The Species.”

    “Nonsense, Galactus!” Phil chuckled. “You had me! Come on, let’s go!”

    “Galactus The Cow and the quest for Planet Pock… and the quest for Ladstini? Mycelia? Galactus The Cow and the Quest For Galactus The Cow and Galactus The Cow?”

    “Galactus The Cow and the Quest For The Infinities,” proclaimed Phil.

    “I like that one! Alright, let’s go!” proclaimed Herman the Human.

    “The calculations are set!” Kendall the Kerbal remarked.

    “And the pentaquantum encabulator is ready for some action!” boasted Lei’lek the Lakand.

    “Did you have to choose your crew to be alliterative?” mused Phil the Pig.

    “Says Pill the Fig!” Galactus chuckled. “I swear, they all volunteered!”

    “Likely story!”

    “Anyway. Last chance to bail out, chances are we will die a horrible death on the other side of the universe and even if we succeed, chances are we are never coming back. Is everyone in?”

    The entire crew reaffirmed their decisions.

    “Fantastic! Guidance?”

    “Go!”

    “Navigation?”

    “Go!”

    “Controls?”

    “Go!”

    “Propulsions I, II, and III?”

    “All go!”

    “Reactors I and II?”

    “Both Go!”

    “Phil?”

    “Always, old friend!”

    “Nachos? Can’t summon them out of the void any more!”

    “Forty Kerbal years worth of Nachos are in the hold!”

    “Alright, we are go for launch! May the Infinities Sing Together, And if they aren’t, well, we’ve got seventeen terabytes of music on board to show them how!”
     

     

    Epilogue VIII: The Hearth Tenders

      Reveal hidden contents

    A looked on from his position in the void overlooking the five hundred and fifty third annual Harmonic Symposium, a human hosted event where musicians from all over the universe came to play music together. This was the finale. A simple repeating melody, as generic as possible so that all could join in, and tens of millions of musicians everywhere, all playing as one, many improvising upon it, a beautiful cascade of dissonant wonder.

    A’s attention was grabbed by a notification from the {number} region. A {device} had failed, and the irreparable {word} damage was now spreading at light speed towards several inhabited worlds. A quickly dispatched a team and the tear was patched in mere seconds. The simulations showed that the locals would benefit from an explanation. A thought for a moment, and obliged.

    “We are The Species. We are 12.5 billion years old and keep watch over an area larger than the observable universe in any spectrum known to your kind. Please refrain from the use of {post quantum technology} when an alternative exists. When used in a propulsion context without a {post quantum technology} regulator, it can and will permanently destroy spacetime in a region expanding from the origin at the speed of electromagnetic light. We have contained this region in a {post quantum technology} barrier. We are working on the technology to repair these tears, but it will not be available for a long time. The journey is long and perilous, but equivalent technology exists in use by a legion of races at {distance} in {direction} and they would be very happy to help.”

    A sent the message, put away his workspace, noting for a brief moment the Second Directive preserved on display in an ornate case, and turned back to the concert. This form of The Species could not make sound, so A morphed into a less efficient being and picked up a {flute}, blended in with the crowd, and joined in.
     

     

    Epilogue IX: Hoarders Of Hope

      Reveal hidden contents

    “And what if you are wrong, Raul?”

    “About what, Samul?”

    “Shunning emotion, praising the calculations, hoarding the dust? What if this is not the way to save the stars?”

    “Then I will throw the calculus towards the stellar wind, and rejoice with them in beautiful happiness.”
     

     

    Epilogue X: Let There Be Light

      Reveal hidden contents

    And the flame did glow, and the flame then grew, brighter than the grandest view.

     

    And so bright did the flame thus burn, that no great stars could life discern.

     

    And the wind did come and the flame did flicker, but the flame came back each time much thicker.

     

    And the fire roared and the fire sang, and the fire warmed, and the fire rang.

     

    But the air grew so thin and the flames, they faltered, but yet still sang stronger, all but volume unaltered.

     

    And the fuel did decay and the stars winked away, but the spark still survived, not once falling astray.

     

    And at last the great fire, now but a dim ember, remarked on The All and all it had remembered.

     

    The joy and the pain and the knowledge acquired, the memories and stories and tales thus transpired.

     

    What had it remembered, what did it forget, what did it still stand for, what did it regret?

     

    And as the light died, three answers remained, the knowledge within to remain ever chained.

     

    The questions so vast, none still could comprehend:

     

    Where are we?

     

    Who made us?

     

    And is this the end?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    And then there were two unanswered questions.


     

     

     

    No words

    just thunderous applause

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