198 — Forward, Into the Past!

In 1904, two great nations, Britain and France, signed the Entente Cordiale, finally establishing diplomacy and ending their colonial disputes in North Africa.

In the constellation Leo, a planet (K2-18b) had built its most advanced telescope on an asteroid in solar orbit. This great and powerful telescope honed in on a planet--Earth--whose atmosphere showed evidence of having within it the molecular biomarker, dimethyl sulfide. Even more fortuitous, the planet's orbit resided in the habitable zone of its star.

Quantum mechanics, an enigma imbued with nonsense, defined a special relationship between the two planets when one had glimpsed the other: they became empathically entangled.

As it would turn out, dimethyl sulfide was in K2-18b’s atmosphere. But life there wasn't limited to the algae producing it, but included sentient beings who watched Earth. Just as the Earth wondered about K2-18b.

The light from Earth witnessed by observers on K2-18b, from 120 lightyears away, was revealing what was happening 120 years ago. As such, the K2-18b'eings were catching the breaking news from 1904. The observers there watched the Entente Cordiale as it was being signed.

Being empathetically entangled, they relished the détente.

"Oh, how wonderful!" exclaimed Nshma Nsat, head astronomer of Ammatarasht University on the continent of En'aboscht. "Fiercely competitive and hostile people have matured their ethos to where they can cooperate and move forward."

"Yes," agreed Ymab, his protégé. "Here, on our world, let goodwill, benevolence, kindness, and charity ensue!"

These were welcome sensibilities, since K2-18b, so empathically entangled with Earth, had feared the type of pre-Entente Cordiale pathos that had reigned for millennia in Earth's history.

Now there was to be a new, golden age. Amity! Collaboration!

The naïve people of K2-18b would watch in horror, 8 years later, as the Titanic sank. They would then suffer--empathically--the unspeakable atrocities of two world wars, two atomic bombings of populated cities, and myriad genocides over class, race, and religion.

The Ks-18b'eings, as it turned out, had developed IMMINOscopes, through which they could look into our future. Still empathetically entangled, they had suffered predictably for what was to come.

Earth ultimately had developed periluminal telescopes to watch K2-18b'eings in real-time: what they saw was a dead planet overrun by ghosts.

_________

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

For Monday, July 15, Day 196 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge

366 WORDS (without A/N)

Title-accompaniment photo was AI-generated but the days of future past were not.

THE HERCULEAN CHALLENGE GRINDS ON, 366 WORDS AT A TIME:

There are currently three surviving Vocal writers still participating in the insane 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:

• L.C. Schäfer, challenge originator

• Rachel Deeming

• Gerard DiLeo (some other guy)

Read them. Support them. Look at them from afar.