Pale Blue Dot - volume 5 - The Pale Blue Dot 5.9
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Solar prominences erupted, sending searing torrents of plasma into space, churning and roiling with relentless grandeur.
“Hey, focus!” The voice of Richter came through the speaker next to my visor, yanking me out of the breathtaking sight as he pulled on the communication line between us.
“Sorry!” I shook my head and awkwardly navigated the ship’s armor using my magnetic boots. My first spacewalk was nothing like I had imagined.
“Keep your defensive circle up,” he reminded me again. “The particles and radiation from the flare will shred you down to the molecular level.”
“Then why are we out here…” I complained, silently praying that the flickering lights along the edge of my circle, like static electricity, were just my imagination.
“The comm relay had some issues,” he said, gesturing to an open panel on the ship’s hull. Richter crouched down to work on it. “It’s crucial for tachyon communications and drone command. We need it to be operational.” Richter checked the parameters, muttering to himself. “Especially since we’re so close to the Gaia Buffer Zone. I don’t want the crew taking any risks.” So you decided to let us take risks. What kind of risks? “And this thing is made of adamantine… it shouldn’t…”
“Adamantine?” I didn’t think I’d heard of that metal before. Though speaking of tachyon communications, I’d received countless good morning videos from the Archduke Siberian this morning. It was quite an extraordinary display of persistence over the past five years.
“Oh, sorry.” Richter chuckled a bit. “Adamanium alloy.” He restored the panel and stood up. “There was a bit of a feud between the Fantasia and Anime factions over it, but I’ll explain it to you later.”
Richter occasionally brought up things only “Council members” would understand, and I had gotten used to it. I extended consciousness send him an image I shrug.
“No!” He staggered, turning to shout at me. “Seal off immediately…” Everything vanished in that instant. “…Luther!”
In the boundless darkness, I could not perceive my own existence—no form, no sensation. Yet I knew it wasn’t the loss of existence itself but the overwhelming insignificance in comparison to another “existence.”
What is this…? I could sense, even from a staggering distance, beyond the detectable universe, an entity of immense magnitude. How had I not noticed this before? Or how could anyone have missed it?
Resonance. The other presence detected me. That colossal entity, with a hint of… curiosity, instantaneously understood everything about me, from my organs to the particles at the tips of my hair.
With a sense of reverence and fear, I reached out to it, only to encounter resistance and a faint trace of amusement.
“Don’t rush.” The presence communicated in a way I could comprehend, gently pushing me back. “The time is not yet right.”
The presence withdrew, and the disturbances it left behind plunged me deeper into the chaos. Without direction, space lost its meaning; void became everything, and all returned to oblivion.
“Luther!” Amidst the absolute darkness, a streak of deep blue guided me.
I jerked upright, emerging from the indescribable vision, gasping for air. Once I recovered, I looked around.
The airlock had been pressurized, and Richter removed my visor, sitting beside me and using a small flashlight to examine my pupils.
“I should have warned you beforehand,” he said, turning off the flashlight. “But congratulations, you’ve confirmed that you’re the first Omega-level psychic discovered in the Sol.” Richter sighed, gently cradling my head and meeting my gaze. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, the overwhelming shock still making me feel a bit unsettled, though it was mostly psychological.
“I need to inform the Council, but…” He turned away, scratching his ear, looking quite hesitant.
“What was that?” I finally managed to ask, and the white wolf’s expression indicated he knew exactly what I meant.
“To manage the scope of memory compression if needed…” Richter looked down at the floor, resting his elbows on his knees, his tail and ears drooping without movement. “I can only tell you that it’s an intelligence far beyond our understanding. We’re currently confined within the Solar System, and the Phantom are the gatekeepers.” His tone became somewhat detached. “The only condition for lifting the blockade is passing the trial.” He looked up at the airlock’s observation window. “But the rules aren’t ours to set, and we don’t even know what the trial entails.”
“Oh…” I shifted closer, leaning against the white wolf, savoring the sensation of our fur brushing together. I didn’t quite understand what he was trying to convey, but seeing Richter so vulnerable made me want to offer some support.
“Do you know that the expansion of the universe is accelerating?” he said slowly, etching a blue aura in physical space with his mind. “The longer we remain confined to our star system, the smaller the cosmic range we can reach will become.” The aura expanded, growing faster and faster. “The exotic matter needed to open a wormhole can only be gathered from high-level Phantom entities at this stage. But it’s also quite rare in the universe.” The aura suddenly stopped expanding, gradually dimming until it disappeared. “Who knows, maybe Homo sapiens won’t even qualify to reach broader worlds before the heat death.”
“Homo sapiens?” I rested my head on the white wolf’s shoulder and asked.
“Sorry, I’m really tired today and keep blurting things out.” He sighed and responded, gently nuzzling the top of my head with his chin, making my ears flop down. “It’s more or less from about two thousand years ago…”
He slowly recounted the buried history, and I listened attentively, tenderly holding Richter, placing my paw on the white wolf’s, and gently stroking it. Richter flipped his hand over, lightly touching my palm with his fingertips in response.