Entry #30 - 4.15.5503
When Mar didn't return from her latest visit to the Ecila, as she was supposed to have done almost a week ago, we suspected the worst -- suspected the Geckins must've somehow tracked her down and, this time, captured or even killed her. That's when I summoned Sona to see what she could find out. And for the next two days we waited to hear of Mar's fate, hoping for the best but fearing something seriously bad. And what Sona eventually reported was far, far worse in many ways than anything we'd ever imagined.
It's three days later now -- late at night with both moons high in a violet Ohm sky -- as I sit writing these words in my journal. It's my usual time for recording happenings and anguishing over the latest drama that's befallen our group in the den. But tonight things are different. This time the threat goes far beyond our little group -- beyond even our vast corner of the galaxy. My fears tonight aren't confined to our continuance alone -- they're for the very future of existence. "This time" may be our last.
Existence. An abstract concept unique to sentient beings -- something most struggle to control. But what's happening now -- what's happened to Mar -- is beyond anyone's immediate control. And whether or not there's a universe left -- a year, a week, a nanosecond from now -- is yet to be seen. All we can do is hope.
It all started on a distant world, somewhere on the far side of the Hendra cluster in a binary system containing eleven life-bearing orbs and 23 moons -- which are all, at this point, less than dust. It started on the fourth planet out, with a war between two nations -- one with an abundance of water and one suffering drought. It ended, years later, with annihilation -- of the peoples, the countries, the planet, their system, their galaxy.
And now it's spreading through space -- this erratic ripple of destructive energy emanating from a dense black hole some 73 billion light years away -- the remnants of a far-off galaxy that is no more. And while this one ripple isn't enough to bring universal collapse, it adds to a growing instability that, if not checked, eventually will. And in the meantime, it's got Mar.
Apparently (according to Sona) the ripple caught Mar by surprise, broad-siding the Disposer and fragmenting the ship and its lone occupant, scattering them across numerous dimensional continuums. There are now an untold number of Mars and Disposers, each experiencing a different evolving history -- each trying desperately to get back home. Unfortunately, none will succeed unless all can be recombined. And therein lies the biggest problem -- nobody (at least none of us) knows how to do it.
And time, as it were, will soon be running out.
