Sol System

Solar Year 2234 A.D.

The surface of our Sun churned and swirled just as it had always done. Super heated and alive with nuclear fire. For over four and a half billion years the sheer weight of our star has crushed hydrogen into helium, converting a mind boggling 4.6 million tons of hydrogen into energy every second in the process. This little miracle has been happening consistently for longer than the earth could've even been called a planet. 

Those millions of tons of hydrogen burned every second has fueled all known life in our solar system for Billions of years. So much energy shifts around inside the sun that it has currents, storms, bursts of excitement, and explosions of energy so massive it’s hard for our human minds to put them into their proper scale.

Even now Earnest could see the hot tendrils erupting from the Sun. The columns of superheated plasma arced out bending back toward the raging lake of nuclear fire. Five such columns moved slowly over the roiling surface. Like a Giant Godlike hand reaching for some way out. As if it were desperately trying to escape its own fate. Only to be pulled under the lake of fire; returned to its prison of magnetic fields and dense gravitational forces. Our brilliant Sun was, until recently, the only known bastion for life in the Cosmos.  

During the billions of years Mother Earth kept her steady orbit round our Sun she sprouted countless species. Of those, untold billions of creatures passed into extinction. Some few million struggled enough to be reborn again, and again, and again. Passing on their genes in a bid for immortality, shaping the world that shaped them in return. All under the constant light of our own behemoth of nuclear fire. Our Sun is the focal point for balance and order in our live. All the evolved beings in the Sol system depend on that nuclear fire for everything we have. Early man worshiped the Sun as though it were a God; and for very good reason. Even still in the year 2216 we called it the Sol system; still the heart, soul, and safe harbor for all known life. Until they arrived.

Earnest sat quietly aboard the F.S. Hawking orbiting silently around the raging Sun. The Massive stellar observatory was a technological marvel, the pinnacle of human imagination, engineering, and construction. Telescopic arrays on board use advanced quantum AI that meshed together unthinkably massive clouds of astronomical data. Data gathered from an unimaginably chaotic solar surface. AI refined these clouds of data and sifted for everything from solar core tectonics, to sun flares, and coronal mass ejections. Nothing like it has ever been constructed in human history. The station's large concentric rings spin slowly to generate artificial gravity for the tens of thousands of science staff that once worked on board.

But all the lights are off now, the sensor arrays are powered down, the proton collider no longer makes antimatter, the fusion reactor lay cold and quiet as the void. Everything was offline. Only one light remained in the remnant to human ingenuity and engineering brilliance. The station was shut down for its last trip around the Sun before our Sun itself was doomed to pass away. 

Inside the last lit room of the observatory Earnest sat, his scraggly gray hair an eternal unkempt mess. His small, well worn red couch was a comfort to him, especially when tracking hard problems. A bowl of hot stir fry rested in his left hand, unused chopsticks in the right. His worn creases, and baggy black eyes betrayed his life spent overworked, sleepless, and anxious. 

“Well Lady, I guess we did it…” he said.

“You do not seem as excited as I anticipated.” came the soft feminine voice of Earnest's AI assistant.

A holographic face materialized in the air floating over Earnest's shoulder, coming to rest in front of him. Pinpricks of light could be seen scattered around the room as the holo projectors etched her form with light. 

She faced him, her lips pursed; showing the meticulously programmed worry over the Earnest's sorrow. He knew her programming intimately, and seeing her worry filled him with sorrow all the more. A tear welled up in his eye as he sat staring through the observatory's viewport. He watched some more solar flares move across the surface. The collected images were enhanced and made visible by AI networks showing observers real time renderings of the surface.  The solar flares seemed to be reaching for him, calling to him for aid, or maybe just trying to say goodbye.

"Saving the Human race doesn't have the satisfaction I thought it would." He said, placing the steaming bowl on the table.

Leaning back he watched the flares, letting his body sag into the couch. He relaxed for the first time in decades, letting his fate wash over him. Regret, sorrow, and anguish followed in a torrent of emotion. His mind danced around all of the things they'd left undone, all of the work they'd not quite finished. He wished for more time… time he knew he'd never get.

"I just wish we could've given them something better, something more than that... hell."

"Is it not better to survive in suffering than simply perish in peace?" Lady asked, a quizzical look crossing her light formed face.

"Perhaps, but I can't even begin to know what will happen to them. Mankind's recent history has been a struggle to free us from our material bonds, the tyranny of the will of others, the sins passed onto us through our ancient beliefs, as well as our own cultural and psychological constructs.” he said with a shuddering breath.

“We had peace and plenty for nearly a century. Now I've plunged the last remnants of humanity back into the dark ages, given them stark boundaries, enforced ignorance upon them. We've programmed the deaths of countless innocent people who we'll never meet. All in a bid to keep our species alive. We needed more time!!" he shouted. Wiping away tears, his pupils turned to pinpricks as he locked eyes with the Sun, still churning fire just out the viewport.

Of course there was no more time. The Founders had done what they could. Whatever was guiding the supermassive black hole toward the Sun never responded to their messages, there were decades of messages now. They either could not fathom, understand, or hear humanities cries. Or even darker still, they chose not to listen. So The Founders were forced to devise an alternative solution. 

Proof of black hole manipulation, as well as wealths of data on the quantum gravimetrics led to the invention of Black Hole quantum processors. An innovation that spurred huge advancements in Quantum Computation. These new computers allowed for simulated realities that had been the final key saving humanity. But it came with a cost, a very steep cost. One that irrevocably changed the nature of human evolution. 

The largest hurdle for colonization of new stars was the insurmountable task of traveling the void of space. In the words of Earnest's favorite author from the late National Era, Douglas Adams said, “Space [...] is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.”

The Arks the Founders built and the people on board were all made of matter. Like all matter they too were constrained by the laws of physics. With the energy requirements for travel, and the number of species the Founders wished to save there weren't many options. 

Sub-light travel would be the only way, no material had been discovered that could resolve the Alcubier equations, which made warp travel a non-starter. This meant that it would take nearly 200,000 years to reach a safe place in our Galaxy to begin again. Assuming the astronomical data for the exoplanets was correct, assuming the stars weren't already inhabited, assuming a myriad other catastrophic failures didn't occur along the way. Earnest shook his head, there was no time to dwell on that now.

“Lady, how much time will have passed here on earth when the first Ark lands?” The man said.

“Assuming the estimated 198,615 years of travel, at 93.4% the speed of light, it would be roughly equivalent to 560,000 years for an observer from the Sol System.” She said, Earnest nodded with a resigned sigh.

There were other problems, ones that would have to be solved in flight. The Founders didn't have time to perfect the Arks, they would need to be maintained, upgraded, and updated as the human races traversed the void. Races… because now there were 7 of them. For if Madagascar affected evolution so drastically as an island off the African continent, surely what they had done would bear divergent paths, perhaps deeper ones too. Progress could not stop, the species must keep learning, growing, and evolving. If they were going to have any chance when they colonized a far off distant world they would need a diverse species. An evolutionary shotgun blast Dr. Tartaus had called it.

More worrisome was the technical aspects of the Black Hole processors. They had not been tested long enough to be rendered completely stable. They were still prone to overload in processing capacity which led to catastrophic failures. Quick expansion of the black hole, shattering of its containment shell consuming the entire Ark… and all souls aboard. 

There were a few trials decades before that had wiped out whole research stations on the outer edges of the system. A blink of darkness followed by massive waves of Hawking radiation as the Hole collapsed back into nothing.

As such, hard decisions needed to be made. The people needed to keep evolving, living, and growing so they could one day adapt to the new universe some hundreds of thousands of years from now and some hundreds of thousands of light years away. At the same time they would need to be kept ignorant of their situation.

Massive groups of people attempting to leave the Arks simulation would cause spikes in processing, again resulting in a total collapse. Too many people living in the simulation produced the same result. 

So they built The Custodians. AI's designed to carry out the will of The Founders while the Arks sailed the void between the stars. They would have to cull the human population from time to time. Keep the populations from advancing too far technologically speaking. Any seeking to escape would have to be dealt with as well. Humanity would live stark, brutal, and short lives. War would be a near constant and they would be watched over by AI that would be as cruel and capricious as the mythical Gods of Ancient Earth. The Founder's safeguards would keep the species subdued… but alive.

The Founders had been blessed to have the time they did. When the anomaly was first detected it sent the whole system into chaos. Life other than our own seemed to have been found, and they were coming to our system. Further inspection of the astronomical data made it clear they were heading straight for our Sun. And at the crib of their so… a massive black hole pulling them through the Galaxy.

Second guessing his actions now was pointless, the Arks had already left. He would never know that brutal hellscape he'd designed for them. Part of him was glad that he wouldn't have to live long enough to see the pain he would inflict on so many human lives. Select creatures and plant life of Earth and Terraformed Mars, as well as 30 billion human souls were now drifting silently through the cold dark. 

The tired man looked down at his grandfather's mechanical watch. Steam still wafting over his uneaten bowl of stir fry.

They would be at a safe distance by now. The explosive energies and gravitational sheering wouldn’t reach them. The Founders made sure to send them early, on various courses, and with multiple redundant measures; just in case of any unforeseen complications. Still, so many things could go wrong, and their fate was now their own. Whether they knew it or not.

Gods and AI willing, life would find a way to fight on.

"Lady." The man said, sniffling, wiping tears from his face.

"Yes Earnest?" She said, her voice soft and comforting.

"Could you turn out the lights please?"

The lights in the room clicked off. Our Sun shone bright through the window, illuminating his face in the dark. He could almost feel its warmth as he cracked a solemn smile, hope still beating in his heart.

The space station rumbled violently, shaking with tidal forces of the unseen supermassive gravity well. Alarms began blaring, emergency lights kicking on around him as he sat there quiet and resigned. Pieces of the Station were torn from the walls by the oncoming force as Earnest, Last of the Founders, passed on to eternity.

Out of the darkness a massive spire of a ship cruised inexorably toward the Sun, our Sol. Jutting spikes and flickering lights were arrayed on the sides of the massive ship. Pieces of the monstrosity moved, spinning, and whirring with a mechanical grace. 

Light bent, warping itself round the front of the ship, beautiful streams of light bending and spinning in exquisite geometric patterns. The distinct patterns created by the warped fabric of spacetime, by something unbelievably massive. Even our Sun's light was reflected and stretched around the unbelievably deep well of gravity. It created a halo of light, outlining the dark mass at the front of the ship.

Our Sun began to rip apart, hot tendrils of plasma streamed slowly toward the great massive dark, Sol screaming in agony. The swirling mass of light and gas spluttered, dimming, as leftover clouds of hydrogen went whipping out into space. The last entrails of our home star pulled around the black hole, their light bending with one last glimmer. Leftover wisps of plasma arched away far into the darkness; the final gasp of our majestic Sun as it slipped into the eternal void.

Let me know what you think in the comments