“Run Karooch! He’s after us!” Eynak snarled and growled as he took long strides towards them with his lean, fourteen-foot body. Srenyi and Karooch scurried for their lives up a steep embankment and Srenyi’s favorite derby fell to the ground. They were careful not to run into the dark rows of trees that lined the foreboding hills of the orange lights.
“I know a place to hide Karooch. Follow me there!”
The two used their small sizes to slide down into a burrow, and instantly, a seemingly unfazed red-feathered zant lifted itself out. It immediately saw Eynak running full bore towards Srenyi and Karooch.
Zants were one of the few other life forms on the planet besides the Quittu and the Allanze. They resembled a hummingbird with a giant face and tiny arms that fluttered rapidly, propelling them like small drones. This particular zant hovered around Eynak, its face already reflecting his deep denial and self-loathing.
“You get now! Get! Get! Go, zant! No see you…ahhh!” screeched Eynak.
The zant had perched itself on a metallic branch, at first looking straight into Eynak’s eyes then impassively looking away. Whether or not it was consciously attempting to help Srenyi and Karooch wasn’t clear to them, but its timing was impeccable. Eynak stopped addressing the zant, realizing that any attempt to avoid his own truths was futile. Eynak’s denial was clearly reflected through the ever changing face of the zant. Slowly the strange bird morphed into the face of the young Quittu that Eynak had last year senselessly murdered after he wandered south alone from his home among the northern rocks.
“Stop, stop. That not me, that not me!” Eynak’s shrieks finally gave way to a scowl and expression of self-loathing.
Zants would generally appear at the least opportune times. They would then hover in the vicinity of the perfectly formed Allanze. When a zant visited they could not hide, and they were as impossible to kill as any self-evident truth. Their appearance had simply meant that it was time to face a cold reality deep within the soul – even as any remaining shred of compassion among the Allanze was rapidly vanishing forever.
Srenyi and Karooch tiptoed down the glen, carefully looking back at the maniacal figure that had intended to kill them. Seconds later, Eynak was already starting to admire his towering frame after having found his reflection in the open area of an otherwise moss covered pond.
“He’s quite the self-absorbed one isn’t he, Karooch?”
“Yes, Srenyi. I dare say that somewhere along the line, something went horribly wrong.”
After they had made their way through a clearing of green hues and were safe, the two looked back at the serendipitous zant that was now resolutely perched on a high branch a few hundred yards away. They sat pensively for a few minutes, and then Srenyi spoke. “They seem to somehow know, don’t they?”
“Yes they certainly do, Srenyi. Despite this trophic cascade, they feel compelled to somehow collect a debt of consequence. Yet this cycle of blind folly keeps spiraling down, and I dare say that it never ends.”
“Until it does, Karooch. Until it does.”
CHAPTER 9
CHANGE IN THE FORECAST
Out on the back deck of 51 Clarella Court, Emma and Darci were bundled up in Aldan Farm windbreakers and skullcaps. They were sitting on fluorescent green wooden lawn chairs and staring up at the stars as the wind began to pick up.
“Our field hockey championship is only seven days from now, can you like believe that? I wonder if it’ll be crazy muddy again?”
“I hope not Darce!”
“Well, since you’re the little barometric girl at school, what does your long-range forecast look like?”
“I haven’t checked the 10-day, but I’m actually more worried about what’s going to be going down a little further out.”
“Like the forecast for the whole month?” asked Darci.
“Um no…more like the million day forecast.”
“My mom said that they only used to get the 5 day forecast when she was in grade school and even that was wrong…Wait, did you just say a million days?”
“Yup.”
Darci looked bewildered for a moment then began to ponder, “Hey, I wonder what the girls on our team will look like in a million years?”
“That’s easy. They’ll be infinitely dense and spaghetti-fied from venturing past the event horizon and then spinning forever through a black hole, unfortunately.”
This time Darci gave a look that was more entertained than puzzled. “Spaghetti-fied?! What does that mean? Girl, are you still obsessing over your little space friend?”
“How couldn’t I? I know that it’s all really weird, but I think that if you pass an event horizon and fall into a black hole you actually do keep getting smaller and smaller into infinity.”
“Ah, okay. That fact is above my grade level!”
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m just overthinking everything lately.”
“It’s okay M’s,” Darci said with a smile. “Just try to check that crazy stuff at the door next time!”
Emma sat quietly immersed in thought.
“So are you really for real with all this alien stuff?” asked Darci.
“Darce, the bad news used to be that in a few billion years when the sun eventually became a red giant it would have pushed its equator out past Mars. The worse news is that it turns out that something else is coming first, and we actually only have a million days left.”
Darci seemed puzzled. “Wait, I thought Mr. Shively said earth had like 5 billion years left?”
“Maybe as a hot, molten rock it would have, but the helium-burning phase would have already started way before that. So even without the clusters, that polar bear plunge thing your older brother does every year? Chances are it would have been canceled because there’d be no more oceans.”
“Not even a hot spring spa?”
“Nope, nothing.”
”So no matter what, we’ll still need to get that term paper in by the 28th?”
“Yeah, somehow term papers are always due before the end of the world, even when it’s just a million days away.”
Darci’s facial expression grew concerned. “But seriously, I was really hoping that you were going to tell me tonight that the whole rabbit on the tablet was just a joke. But now there’s more that your friend told you, and you’re actually serious aren’t you?
“I really, really am…And I’d rather fall through a black hole than have to start making my case about these things called clusters, not to mention a possible way of survival someplace else for the human race, and hopefully for pets too.”
Darci tried to introduce a bit of levity. “It’s like when the News wants you to keep watching the commercials, so they say, ‘big weather changes are ahead so you’ll want to stay tuned for the extended forecast.’ Speaking of that, what else are you seeing on that crazy forecast horizon of yours?”
“Nothing but trouble, Darci. Nothing but a big dark flow of trouble.”
CHAPTER 10
THE VIDEO
Emma decided that the most effective way to inform the world about the coming clusters was to record a YouTube video. She thoughtfully arranged paintings including Van Gogh’s The Starry Night around her room. She noticed that most homemade videos completely lacked interior design on the walls behind the subject. Emma had recently blogged about how most YouTube tutorials revealed an unsettling commonality of bare white walls in the background—regardless of the message or the medium.
Emma began to record, “My name is Emma Hayes. I’m seventeen and I’m in twelfth grade at Aldan Farm High School in Montgomery Crossing, Pennsylvania USA. I happen to also be in advanced placement physics classes there too...”
She cleared her throat and then continued, “Have you ever wondered about how truly limitless the universe must be? Like, that there must be an intelligence out there that’s light years ahead of us?”
Emma laughed to herself. “Okay well I have amazing news. I know, with authority, that there is intelligent lif
e in the galaxy Centauras A.” Emma was empathetic to an expected skepticism. “Okay stay with me here people. The life forms living in the galaxy Centauras A...well, they’re some really tall creatures that are kind of blue and…and well, then there are little cute creatures. These creatures are not exactly people but they are very smart and can recite the names of tons of planets and have beautiful fractal patterns on their fur. I guess they sort of look like a rabbit mixed with a beagle and I guess a koala with big feet.”
Emma paused to collect her thoughts and looked down on her notes. She made a split-second decision not to mention Srenyi by name – it was a subconscious decision to protect him.
“Okay so I’ve been informed, and rather definitively I might add, that there are giant clusters destined to totally destroy earth and in fact our entire solar system in precisely one million days. So I’m asking every astrophysicist out there to direct your attention to the concept of dark flow and the associated giant galactic clusters that are at this moment hurdling through space at millions of miles per hour.”
Emma’s face looked serious, like a doctor delivering bad news to a patient. “Now people, I’m talking about amazingly huge amounts of matter and energy on scales you can’t even imagine, and they’re coming this way.” She paused for a few seconds.
“Now, I know you’re thinking that human race is doomed, right? Well not exactly, but first I have bad news. Although my contact on the planet X7gTH5 informs me that their technology is far superior to ours, the physics that it’s based on is not the same as here.”
Emma rolled out the name of the planet with a familiar alacrity pronouncing it slowly for the camera. “Again the name of the planet is X 7 little g T H 5.”
She paused for a few more seconds as if waiting for the world to digest the news so far, and then she attempted to provide comic relief. “Look, what can I tell ya? Life is complicated, so I just stick to astrophysics.”
Emma paused again and looked to the side for a few seconds towards the window where a dog could be heard loudly barking outside. She quietly whispered to herself, “Not now, Biscuits,” and started again.
“But everyone the good news is that my contact is sure that a solution involving a quantum bridge will work for us just like it did for them, the Quittu, like a zillion years ago. He said that we must always remember that time is as big of a factor as space.”
She shook her head and had a slightly confused showed on her face.
“Anyway, continuity of the human race can still be possible if we all pull together as one.” Emma smiled for a few seconds before continuing.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering how you all factor into this crazy news. I’m going to set up a Facebook page and an Instagram, too, since I’m sure there will be a lot of cool pictures to post. And working on this will be a really cool class project for all the younger kids too. I mean when you think about it, there’s no sense worrying about homework anymore if there’s no more earth to do it on, right? So this will be the definition of a ‘hands on’ project.”
Emma shuffled through her prepared notes and adjusted the webcam.
“Obviously I’ll need to let NASA know, so if anyone knows someone that works for NASA or the government, please write to me in the comments section below. Oh yeah, we don’t have tons of time to figure out how to build the worm hole so Srenyi,” Emma paused. “I mean, they told me we don’t have any time to waste.”
Emma paused for a few more seconds and began to tear up. “We all are so lucky to live on this earth but unfortunately we need to find somewhere new – just trust me on this one. I know we can do this…please help. We need everyone, and I mean EVERYONE to pitch in. I’ll be posting more videos soon so please subscribe to my YouTube channel and send this to everyone you know. Thank you so much, everyone! We can do this! Talk to you all soon!”
Emma’s indomitable team spirit was clearly evident and unfortunately would be lost on her classmates and many of those who would soon view the video. She saved it on her laptop under the name of SrenX7, and she posted it on YouTube at 9:47pm on Thursday evening April 15th. By 11:00pm it had eleven views, by Sunday afternoon it had over 131,000 views and by Tuesday morning the number had ballooned to over one million views. By then the hashtag #spacerabbitgirl was trending. Emma had gone viral.
CHAPTER 11
THE REEDS
As visions from the minds of beings from distant galaxies were transported back and forth to the Allanze through the gently flowing reeds, an almost weightless, tin-like, toxic byproduct called kuri was slowly created. Its formulation was caused by radio currents that combined with odorless chemicals, and its consistent humming and grey bulk and would inexplicably go unnoticed by the Allanze.
Kuri that piled up for centuries didn’t stack well despite its light weight. It wasn’t compostable, so storage areas needed to be found for it on almost every area of X7gTH5. Even the most desperate planets within Centaurus A refused to allow it to be dumped on their soil or oceans due to the addictive and often deadly radio waves produced from its residue. A low yet persistent hum from the stacks of kuri was sometimes audible even at the reeds themselves, though it was quickly tuned out as visions began to permeate hungry minds.
Srenyi was in the midst of his nightly constitution when he noticed an unusually large amount of kuri piled up near the reeds where Eynak was receiving images. “I must say, they naively assume that any information created and relayed is somehow permanently destroyed.”
Under ordinary circumstances Eynak would have charged Srenyi, however, he was presently far too engrossed in his intoxicating ritual and he simply continued to groan. Srenyi stood with his arms folded observing Eynak when he made an intuitive discovery. He conveyed it to Karooch without speaking. “My word, the stacks of kuri being produced from Eynak’s transmission are creating an unbearable din and revealing some of the most discomforting images….”
“Oh dear, what are you seeing Srenyi?”
“I’m afraid there’s much discord on earth. Sadly, Eynak finds it most pleasing.”
The Allanze leader they spoke of was used to receiving images of humans speaking without filter. He enjoyed the fact that they had no way of realizing that their discreet behavior was in reality being observed and also well distributed to numerous planets. However, today it was the tumultuous upheaval and not human debauchery that was actually feeding the insatiable Allanze appetite light years away.
Srenyi relayed what he heard and saw coming from the stacks of kuri to Karooch. “Eynak seems to have had a keen interest in Emma’s troubles, as well as the cruelty directed at her through their social media. The whole medium is actually downright anti-social if you ask me. Curiously, they’ve insisted on referring to me as a space rabbit.”
“My stars Srenyi, you’re certainly not as quick as a rabbit, as least not literally.”
“That’s inconsequential, Karooch. These events on earth have progressed quite unfavorably. The garch known as Grayson and his two plus two equals seven chicanery is channeling Eynak. He seeks to force his will on a very frightened and confused earthly populace. The garchs seem to draw them in with their propensity to need to be moved to tears. They use alluring titles to get humanites to ingest their images such as ‘This 30 second video will change your life,’ or ‘What happened next will shock you.’ They commit mind crime on the unsuspecting humanites that are drawn into consuming these images. Doubtlessly it’s due to their propensity to now have others think for them.”
“That’s quite distressing news, Srenyi. What is your theory that drives the ghastly work of the Allanze?”
“The short-sighted nature of the garchs and their hold on power and money can be manipulated for the broader goal of the Allanze. Clearly Eynak views the compulsions pervasive in human culture as a threat, and he will stop at nothing to prevent them from ultimately crossing a quantum bridge.”
Srenyi looked up to the sky in the direction of the Milky Way galaxy. “He believes they w
ill invariably yearn for the orange lights, visions from the reeds, and the elixir from the flowers. Therefore, Eynak wishes to discredit Emma’s quest for humanite continuity by creating support for the garchs. Likewise, he believes the humanites will enter a time of great internal civil war, and thus will invariably run out of time to save themselves.”
“Ah, I see Srenyi. So divided they fall.”
“I’m afraid so, Karooch. But there is one more candle left to light…”
CHAPTER 12
GOING AWAY
Aldan Farm High School was electric with Emma’s YouTube video. Thousands of shares were occurring every hour. “Hey there’s crazy space rabbit girl,” was being whispered as Emma walked around the school.
As Emma passed through the halls at school some students ridiculed her to her face. “Take me to your leader,” one boy said as he passed her in the hall. A girl she had never seen before jumped out from behind a set of stairs and yelled, “Emma phone home!” Emma was already in shock and completely humiliated when she was summoned to the principal’s office that afternoon to speak to the school principal.
“Emma, how are you? Is everything okay?” asked Mrs. Jamison.
Tears streamed down her face as she tried to speak. “I just can’t believe people are so mean. They don’t understand. No one understands!”
Mrs. Jamison had already made up her mind as to how to proceed. “Emma, you know Ms. Morrison the school counselor right?” Emma nodded as her hands covered her tear stained face. “Okay good. Well she is going to come in here in just a minute and speak to you. I’ve also already spoken to your mother. She’s on her way to pick you up.”
The Million Day Forecast Page 4
