Sign in Subscribe

60. Dissemination - Giant of the Stars

Victoria, John, Mark and Vince rushed toward the elevator. Using her navy badge to get priority, they left much faster than they arrived.

60. Dissemination - Giant of the Stars
Giant of the Stars — concept by Greg

Victoria, John, Mark and Vince rushed toward the elevator. Using her navy badge to get priority, they left much faster than they arrived.

Knowing a multitude of warheads now in the hands of terrorists all over the colonized worlds, time wasn’t on their side anymore.

Vince said goodbye to them as he chose to return to the research facility perfecting the new shields. The others caught the first military shuttle heading to the Irondome in orbit with supplies.

The only person still sitting in the restaurant, even as the waiters left, played with an antique domino set. Putting numbers to numbers first, just at it stood on the barely readable instruction manual. Half a millennia is not kind to paper and ink.

Reached into the box, she put the next domino on its shorter edge.

  • “Ava, we failed. How can you sit there and do nothing?” — Dan sat in the opposite chair, seemingly appeared out of thin air.
  • “Dan, Brad, Vince.” — Brad, the engineer who tried to murder Dan and lost his family, Vince who shared the latter experience and lost his home for the cause, flashed into the chairs right next to them. — “You have to look at history now. One event, even if such a magnitude as this, can be entirely irrelevant.”

She reached in to the box again, standing up another domino piece to its edge.

  • “Those who perish, will live their lives again in the next cycle.”
  • “This will tear the federation apart.” — Vince joined in.
  • “Yes, it will. And a stronger race will emerge from the ashes.”

She reached into the box again, increasing number of pieces facing each other in front of her.

  • “Just as from the aliens meddling half a millennia ago?”
  • “That was more of a survival of the fittest. This time humanity will survive, that is ensured. But it needs strength for the thousands of millennia to come. To keep the cycle going.”
  • “What if the cycle is broken?”

She reached into the box again.

  • “Then life was meaningless. The cycle keeps your soul alive. Your days alive are the little window you can look into the beautiful universe and interact with it.”
  • “What would if the cycle is broken, what would it look like?” — Dan needed to know what he is fighting against.
  • “Cold and empty universe. Where nothing lives anymore. It keeps expanding into infinity until just silence and darkness remains in the vacuum of nothing.”
  • “How can we stop this?”
  • “The shields…” — Vince blurted it out as he connected the dots. — “It annihilates dark matter.”

Ava knocked over the first domino. The clicking sounded like a metronome as the pieces fall after each other.

  • “In today’s episode, we revisit the curious case of Giant of the Stars from 20 years ago. My name is Chloe and this is the Galactic Disaster Investigations.” — a documentary stream showing a lady dancing in front of a green screen like a teacher, cutting to a footage as the Giant of the Stars luxury cruiser leaves dry dock the first time, enthusiastically pointing out its features, cutting edge at the time of launch.
  • “The case closed with the owner corporation bankrupt, federal corruption brought into the light as the cruiser was used for illegal weapon smuggling broke public trust.” — the lady named Chloe continuing with an experts enthusiasm imparting knowledge to the next generations — “At the time it was not understood how the effects of this single crash will change history, even if the judgment was fair and right.
  • “Barely a year later the first colony seceded from the federation citing the government unable to put a stop to terrorist attacks and corruption, kicking off a chain of events leading to today. But that is a topic for another video. Stay safe and keep curious! Until next time!” — list of patrons and subscribers sliding on the screen.
  • “Henry, you should not watch those horrific videos before bed time.”
  • “But they are fascinating, dad. I want to be an investigator, just like you.” — John smiled, reminiscing to the old times with the transportation safety board.
  • “You can be whatever you want.” — not in the mood to break down his eleven year old son’s enthusiasm with no end of war in sight, civilian transportation through deep space won’t be safe again in any time soon.

And unfortunately corrupt and greedy corporations are the least of the problems right now.

  • “Dad, when mom will come home?”
  • “Soon, Henry, soon.” — John looking at their family photo from a few years ago, hope Victoria is just all right out there.

A little over a year ago I started this series. 60 scenes, written as a serialized sci-fi, originally intended as a book.

I wanted to thank you all for reading what constitutes my public first draft of this passion project.

The turning point and introduction of my sci-fi universe is now done. The wheels are in motion, the choice is to explore our future or to learn about our history.

I chose both throughout the genre of sci-fi.

Keep reading, keep being curious and leave some feedback, would help to bring the best out of all my future endeavors!

Special thanks to all my close friends and relations supporting me through, this wouldn’t be possible without you all!

Another special thanks for such great content creators like:

Give them a like and a subscribe and support them to continue their work, bringing crucial learnings to light so we don’t repeat history.

Keep striving to be better and good luck!

Read the story leading up to now:
Giant of the Stars
Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy