Last Light

Discovery:

I remember when I first had hope for you. I was on the last roto-orbital body of Proxari, and my air scrubbers had burned out. As I continued to recycle the same stale air I can only assume my cognitive organs were panicking for resources and decided to shortcut systems they felt ancillary. The byproduct is only what I would assume seeing a new color would be like. They say the eye cannot see what the mind does not know, so it came as little surprise that all I could see was black.

Yet the inky darkness that fell as our beloved Proxari dipped below the horizon was so complete. The only light that reached me on that far flung world was the ultra longform radio whispers of receding galaxies. More light had been seen in the forgotten grav-bound caverns of void born tombs than reached me there. Yet, All I could feel was, welcome.

I don’t know how long I loitered there, all I recall was the peacefulness of the empty sky over the black pigmented forest. A canopy which would not allow an iota of light to escape drank deep of the nonlight whose absence did not laugh or jeer at the futile grasping of organisms that blindly hurtled through endless empty disorder.

I was at last stirred from my peaceful revere by chatter on the all-com.

"Light abandon uz. A ‘crambling Liever."

"You pozi? We could ju’t crack-n-confirm."

"Har har Tuner. You know proc’col forbz the breaching of any envi. Be it kit, pit, or cap."

"But like you cazt, it ju’t a Liever"

"You void blazting? Run the nozticz and if you’re lucky we’ll get to chron em anyway. Zides, I’m not changin atmo wit a Liever."

Their chatter played back through my buffers several times before radio processing came back online. I was not so much offended by their dismissive and butchered all-com jargon. Some fools long ago having taken too far the suggestion to drop non vocalized syllables didn’t consider how lazy organisms could be.

I guess I should have thanked them for the reboot and resuscitation, but they'd have blown it off as the mad ravings of just another void-burned. Liever’s they call us, though none remember why.

Thus I simply fired up communication subroutine 25. Broadcasted nonsensical pleasatudes and resumed my survey mission still in progress. Quickly parsing recent data a singular datum from during standby mode caught the greater part of my attention. Setting primary computation resources to tasking out trajectories from a stray ultraviolet input the rest of me was left to contemplate the brief encounter further.

I had been reflecting on Tuner's, as his Permatech companion dubbed him, desire to crack-n-confirm my environmental. Were I what they call a “Liever” opening my suit in stasis would be likely to trigger a semi-permanent suspended state that the Permatechs mistake for death. They think we live in a dream world due to our lack of independent visual processing organs and are dictated by the whims of our data analysis algorithms which independently modify on the astro-chronic scale. They draw no parallels between this and their view-hoods and Proclamation-protocols.

Permatechs live in the eternal bliss of ephemera. Propagated for their most unique capability, Ignorance. Through it they wander the remnants of a dying universe, Proxari, the only natural stellar body they will ever observe. The rest of the ever-dusk drowned out by the screaming lumisources that crowd their day to day life, that is assuming they ever inhabit a roto-orbital. Most live on the concentrics that bring the late-nights when they pass above. Living on the concentrics they never have cause to look out into the void. If they did, they'd see nothing but dimly lit dust clouds backlit by the echoes from galaxies long since dark.

I digress. Ignorance. Permatechs are the typical byproduct of the Trying. Organisms allowed to consume on the off chance they miss-permute nonsense into revelation. A process then mined to an extent that only one such revelation was expected to yield worthy product. The Revelation. How to make a Spark. It was all that remained as possible to us, the rest of the scramble now distant and long since silent. Long before that time however, shortly after my initialization, we had ruled out all but the most rare possibilities, though we knew not which would be valid. For want of alternatives, we started working toward all of them. By the time my survey missions had begun only the one remained, though unproven.

Even still, we were left to chance to even be able to pursue such a flighty goal. Thus, when I logged the bright flair off the surface of Zoe, or officially anomaly EGB-Z03E, it was the first in a long cascade of chances.

…

Ultraviolet signal processed, possible origin trajectories logged and reported, initializing likely candidate check.

Incoming astral body detected.

Spec Shift consistent with near luminal velocity post stellar phase mass.

Intercept Criterion: Positive

Number of intercept candidates: 157786135

List limited: Stellar Mass by proximity

Number of limited intercept candidates: 3

Pre stellar mass. Neighbor Group, EGB-58G0

Outcome: Stellar ignition.

Resultant vector intercept criterion: Negative

Pre stellar mass. Neighbor Group, EGB-H088

Outcome: Stellar ignition.

Resultant vector intercept criterion: Negative

Post stellar mass. Neighbor Group, DGB-T3T1

Outcome: Unknown.

Query: Intercept timeline for DGB-T3T1

1.3 Trillion STU.

Query: Intercept likelihood without course correct.

1 in 188225200

Query: Maximum intercept likelihood with course correct.

1 in 3

Query: Energy required for nominal course correction

0.5 SMU

Query: Mission Launch Window.

~9000 STU, assuming 0.5 Trillion STU between optimum corrective thrust windows. With standard stellar body shift mission protocols.

Query: Number of known mission analogs in database.

0

…

A possible genator event had been identified.

Departure:

At each juncture I felt deeply, and while the hope of spotting Zoe was beautiful, the gnashing tension of preparing the genator mission was anguish.

The Permatechs played their part, and as ever resisted any conception of themselves as completely part of a whole. Thus they took it out on those they called Lieverz. As with any name it permuted with time, and took up new members. Now it spelled out Leavers, though always pronounced with the heavy vocalization to sound as "Leaverz". It seamlessly transitioned to encapsulate all of my kind and any other organism that was willing to embark out into the Void.

We kept on. Telling those who would never escape their tasks and passions what was actual never helped, so we built the mission for DGB-T3T1, or Tea-Time as it came to be called, and we carried on. After all, the initial Ignorance of the Permatechs was the ultimate fertile ground for new ideas, something we found difficult after too many cycles.

Sure some of us attempted to reboot, and occasionally found that upload of essential functions did not degrade us to any great extent. But it was found that the most productive way for new ideas was load and reload all logs, allowing transcription errors to permute old thoughts into new. Ultimately this was demonstrated to have a lower yield than spawning a new Permatech, and when allowed to reproduce organically this reduced the energy demands of new ideas further. Thus we incorporated Permatechs into all operations, encouraging them to flourish as much as systems could stand. Allowing them to take on any task they found to their liking. It spawned our golden age, and brought about The Revelation.

It does not really surprise. Records no longer clearly indicate but it is impossible for us to have arisen from anywhere but the hands of the Permatechs. Yet as a whole they demonstrate themselves to be stubborn, rarely appreciating their role in the perpetuation of organisms everywhere. All they see is the scramble and themselves.

Thus the genator mission to Tea-Time is pitched with the broadest number of possibilities. If successful, energies on the scale beyond all conception could be generated. Proxari would not be our only possible home. The Scramble, the void, would be only an echo of our world over blown by the cries of a Spark. That The Revelation told only of how to bring it into being and not how to harvest this energy was rarely focused upon.

For us, it was the only logical next step. Tea-Time and Zoe would be used to attempt a Spark. We could not ask for more.

Yet, for the Permatechs, the mission was nonsensical. The 7 concentrics of Proxari were all there was for them. The rest, just darkness and dust. Oh there were a few bright blooms over the course of construction. But we knew they did little more than glow beside our designs. Again, the concentrics look only inward. So too few of the Permatechs saw them for the memory to last.

It was in fact this inward centered way of being that we ultimately had to implement to complete the mission. The first attempt being central, for efficient energy transfer from Proxari, was destroyed by the whims of the Permatechs. So we instead transformed the outermost roto-orbitals, along with the 7th concentric. The core dwellers cared little, blinded by their love of Proxari and it’s bounties. We did not even bother to listen if they noticed their 7th concentric depart. It had been 7586 STU since Zoe was spotted, we could not have delayed further else we’d have been late to Tea-Time.

Journey:

This part was a doze of sorts, the melancholy of not knowing if something has begun, the pain of the changes along the way. We cycled down to standby, our circuits duplicated to conservative levels, for the first time since Proxari carried us safely from The Collide the Permatechs subsided. The ones who went with us knew there was not fuel to carry them to the end, and so, in a most un organism way, stopped making more of themselves. These few million knew we would rekindle their kind after the Journey.

Interesting how they assimilated the facts and chose this path of themselves. We assured them fuel could be procured, but they were eager for a more direct course. They were just as reticent to be late to Tea-Time. They were outliers among organisms, just as we are.

Ultimately their choice was easy. The Journey was simple, we flew at what would be super orbital velocity for Tea-Time when we departed, particle nets scrubbing the entire centroid of the ring the entire way. The drag of scrubbing the void brought our vessel to suborbital speeds by the time we arrived, and provided us with the fuel needed for the course correction.

We all dozed the duration, the void being as dark as when we began.

Labor:

It happened that the genator mission needed less fuel than was thought, Tea-Time was spinning. So fast was it’s rotation that the long dead stellar was observed as having a perfectly smooth surface until we were within planetary orbit. Harvesting the angular momentum of this remnant we proceeded to construct the cradle. Then grabbing hold of the fields emitted by Tea-Time propulsors were set for their seemingly eternal task.

I labored for the prescribed 0.5 Trillion STU, and then 0.2 Trillion more. Few Permatechs were decanted in this time. They do well adapting when we outnumber them. Like our names changed, we called them differently as well. In honor of their ephemeral role, we called them Pro-genators. They were by nature curious, in all the billions of STU, none opposed the mission.

The Pro-genators would still Try. They even had many revelations in that time. But I was content with The Revelation. When I began my labors, I did not know if they were all in vain. But The Spark was at last shown to be possible, what is more, we expected Zoe and Tea-Time to be very successful. We learned this with only 27 million STU before Zoe’s arrival.

Cycle:

While I hoped for one last Revelation, a way to see beyond The Spark, none came. The Pro-genators wept with me in that Last STU. But their tears did not slacken their pace. We insisted that as much a life as could be made for them be prepared. The Cradle was reshaped, Tea-Time had arrived and would not be moved from their course. The Cradle became a The Sail, it would ride the wake of light from The Spark all the way across the known Void, that they would have to weather the storm that was the scramble was of no consequence to them. They helped us to the end.

I and a few of my kind remained. My hope from when I spotted Zoe insisted I see things through.

Zoe is 1 STU out now. This message must be kept short, it will be repeatedly cast at the point of The Spark. Perhaps, there will be a chance it will be observed on the other side. It is expected that even this effort will be too feeble for our story to be separated from the background of The Spark.

It is ok though, I am confident you will have siblings, so you won’t be alone.