Waiting at the End of the World By Terry Bramlett
Dandra floated into the solar system, slowing from above light speed to enter the universe at the correct time. Eons had passed since he had last visited the system and almost as long since it had impinged on his consciousness.
He stopped, lingering in the Oort Cloud before entering the inner realm of planets. He perceived the entities gathered around the planet that had once been the seventh in line from the star. Most of the entities were like Dandra, energy-based, having no need for matter, but he felt the presence of carbon life forms floating outside the debris rings surrounding the planet. Dandra exuded surprise that so many entities had shown for the upcoming event. That matter-based life even remembered this solar system stupefied him. A barrier separating the energy life from the matter life stood out in his perceptions. Anger flashed in him, but he quelled the emotion, knowing that most of his species did not favor mixing with any creature based in the concrete world. He sped toward the gathered entities, emotions about the event mixing in his spirit.
A familiar presence reached toward him. "Dandra, I am so glad you came," she said. Dandra sent shock and glee back to Falia. She had once been his mate and together they had seeded many planets within this universe and others. Dandra received love and joy. "I was afraid you would forget," Falia said.
"How could I forget, Falia?" He shot annoyance toward her, bringing a response of mirth. "You told the seven universes to remind me." His annoyance projection softened to admiration and love. "Besides, I could never forget where I first knew you, Falia."
A sphere broke from the mass and he rushed toward her, feeling Falia's emanating love as they neared each other. At half the speed of light they merged, sharing experiences and emotions. Their shared trust expanded to include everything they possessed.
They separated and Dandra wondered what the matter-based life forms thought of two beings merging together, producing a multi-colored, violent display of energy. He turned toward the entities massed around the ringed planet. Two of the other planets shared the distinction of rings, but this planet gathered the rock and ice in broad bands visible across interplanetary distances.
A vague memory flashed into his perception. His body shivered against the cold of the winter, staring through a telescope to see the richness of the ringed planet once named Saturn. Earth had been full of life and Dandra had been a young boy unaware that he was different from most humans. Mirth infused him as Falia shared his memory. A young girl appeared beside the boy Dandra had been.
"I'm going to go there one day," he had told her, pointing toward Saturn. She laughed the laugh Dandra had grown to love. A few billion years later the same laughter came from the energy being beside him as they raced toward the others.
"Well you did get to Saturn," Falia said. "The first trip we took when we cast off our bodies and left Earth was to this place, just outside the rings." He projected another image to her to which she responded with laughter and love. "I know it was the first time we shared so deeply in our present form."
Dandra did not speak as he processed the memory and Falia's reaction to it. He girded himself for the encounter he knew would await him when he reached the others of his kind. Their emotional projections were guarded as they watched him approach, but one entity displayed disappointment. Danrda's father hid nothing from his son. Dandra shut down his emotions, ejecting even Falia as they neared the waiting mass of energy.
"Dandra," his father said. "Good of you to come." Disdain accompanied the communication. They had been opposed for so long that neither knew how to react. "I knew that you would be here when Earth came to the end of its natural cycle."
"Baldur, thank you for your greeting," Dandra said, using his father's formal name, trying to inject respect for Baldur. He felt he owed his father respect even after billions of years. "I am surprised to find the so many of us attending the death of Earth." He let the word death sink into the other entities' emotions before he continued. The entities with Baldur displayed their disgust with Dandra. None of them would study and explore the life cycles of the universe, being more concerned with trying to live forever, seeking ways to outlive the universes. He returned their disdain to them without adding his own.
"Enough of this disrespect," Baldur chided, surprising Dandra that his remarks were meant as much for the others as himself. "This is a solemn moment in the history of this universe, in the seven universes, in the history of our species. My son has chosen to bring life to the universes and he has succeeded in that task, spreading matter-based life throughout the seven universes. The accomplishment may not be in the mainstream, but it is more accomplishment than many of our species attain." Baldur projected a part of himself toward the matter creatures hovering around Saturn's rings. The creatures reacted with awe and terror at Baldur's projection. A murmur of surprise at Baldur's stance moved through the other energy beings as Dandra hovered nearby, marveling at his father's choice of the words 'my son.'
"Thank you, Baldur," he said, humility emanating from his being. "I appreciate the kind words and emotions flowing from you." He felt Falia laugh, knowing she had engineered his father's assessment. Dandra wondered how she managed such a feat, but was not prepared to ask, deciding to approach the subject later when alone with her.
"But we may soon be a part of eight universes, instead of seven," Dandra continued. The entities projected dismay, shock, and distrust to his announcement. "A bubble has formed as a node on this universe and it is in the process of giving birth."
His father flashed blue with surprise, pulsating his elation and excitement. "When did you find the node, Dandra?" Baldur's pretense of disappointment vanished. No new universes had been born in the lifetimes of their species. Dandra knew the others did not understand the significance of the discovery, but Baldur realized that the new universe could be the answer his species sought. A new nodal universe might mean survival when the finite universes collapsed.
"On my way to this event, I saw an irregular shape bulging through the fabric of this universe," Dandra said. "Its critical mass has been reached and the bang could happen at any time." Dandra felt his father pull away, explaining the significance to the gathered beings. Projections of understanding reached him. A few entities revised opinions on Dandra and his work, but he remained unconcerned about what they said. For Dandra, knowledge was interesting in and of itself. He did not wish to just survive; Dandra wanted to learn, to experience, to live.
He turned his attention toward the small energy mass hovering on the edge of the swollen sun's atmosphere, just above Earth.
"That's the recorder," Falia said. "We have time for you to experience Earth before its consummation."
"Father?" he projected toward Baldur, whose spherical shape flashed red, embarrassed Dandra asked his permission. Dandra waited for Baldur's response.
"If anyone should experience this, then you should, Dandra," Baldur said. "There are few of us who remember Earth the way you remember her." Dandra sent his appreciation and flew toward the recorder, circling above the baked cinder of what used to be the bastion of life in the known universe, the only bastion of intelligent life in the seven universes.
Dandra studied the spinning ball of melted ore and rock. No life remained, but without this backwater planet his species would never have existed. His thoughts wandered to the matter creatures keeping their distance from his father's entourage. Most came from planets he had seeded with Falia in the last few billion years. None were direct descendents of the humans who gave birth to his species, but they were here nonetheless. He wondered why.
"They are here because they know how important this world was as the seat of their own lives," Falia said, speaking only to Dandra. "Their respect is what brings them."
"We did not create these creatures to become gods, Falia," he said. "We created life because we remembered what life offered to us when we were trapped within the world of matter." Dandra frowned as he thought of the worshipful attention he received from matter-based life forms.
"They do not think us gods, Dandra," Falia answered. "But they respect us for our work, for our act of creation, for giving their species life." Dandra projected his understanding, but harbored his doubts. He had searched the seven universes and found nothing to resemble the god that humans had told him about when he was Earth bound. Falia changed the subject. "You must merge with the recorder, Dandra," she said. "It is beautiful emotion."
He crept toward the recorder as if afraid of what it might show him. He probed the recorder before immersing himself in the experience. For a moment, events rushed through him at an incomprehensible speed. He pushed his sphere into the recorder, slowing the rush of information to a manageable level.
Earth warmed through the millennia as years passed through the recorder's memory. Dandra caught the emotions of the few remaining humans as their world changed; leaving them to fight for survival before extinction took them. Another civilization grew as insects formed intelligent communities, but the ever-warming Earth sent them into extinction before they could expand into the solar system.
Life on Earth became tenuous. Big animals died in huge numbers as animals moved underground to escape the heat of the sun, becoming nocturnal. Smaller animals survived longer on the surface, but in a few million years, they had succumbed to the heat. Plants evolved to withstand high temperatures, but Earth turned dry as weather patterns changed due to the conditions on the sun. Plant-life joined the animals in extinction. Dandra projected his grief at the loss of life while he understood the message of the sun's change. All things pass. It was a lesson he knew, but did not want to internalize. He found that after a few billion years of existence he could not accept the fact that one day he must die.
Dandra saw the oceans steam, then over a matter of years began to boil, vaporizing as temperatures left no room for water. He watched the land bubble and melt. Molten rocks moved across the landmasses until the surface showed no features, just a uniform smoothness.
Away from Earth, unicellular life struggled to evolve on a Martian landscape heated to optimal temperature, but the fourth planet held too little atmosphere to sustain the life giving processes. Life died on the red world as it died on every planet in the seven universes when unassisted. He wondered why Earth had been the exception. A mass of entities moved into the solar system. Dandra recognized the spirit of Falia and Baldur as well as others of his species as they took residence around Saturn; and then, blackness surrounded him as the recorder ended its run, leaving Dandra drained of emotion.
Falia moved near him and he rushed to merge with her. She tried to pull away, but he would not leave. Dandra kept control of his emotions and projections, trying to keep the despair he felt from her. Falia relaxed radiating love and sympathy toward him, caressing him with her light, her warmth, and her love. After a while, he emerged from her protective shell and projected his awareness around him. His father avoided him, as did others of his species. The matter creatures had fled in their ships, as his emotions within the recorder had not been masked. A few derelict shells remained, circling within the ring debris in declining orbits. Dandra hoped his emotions caused no loss of life.
He turned and studied what was left of Earth. The swollen sun licked at the molten surface with flares igniting fires in Northern Hemisphere. Dandra imagined Chicago burning in the flames of the sun as it reached out to envelop the planet. He felt his father's presence directed toward Falia, asking if Dandra was all right. Satisfied with her answer, Baldur pulled back within himself and moved toward the recorder, attaching it to his being and pulling it away from its stationary position above Earth.
"We will study this and your reactions," Baldur said. Dandra projected his assent. "I wish to know more about this eighth universe, Dandra, after this event."
For the first time, Dandra felt the ancientness of his life through his father. "Yes, Father." Baldur failed to hide his pleasure at Dandra's answer. For a moment, Dandra thought of his mother who died as she gave birth to the original, human Dandra. She existed on a smaller plane, but he had visited her and part of him wanted her here. His father moved away, locking his emotions tight behind the mask they all wore, but Dandra knew Baldur's real feelings. He had never known until this moment, but now he knew.
Dandra turned toward Earth as Baldur moved back to the other entities around Saturn. His thoughts reached for matter-based life and found none in the system. Did humanity survive in the stars? The answer depressed him. Dandra had failed to find any descendents of humanity. All of the matter-based creatures he created with Falia looked human, but no true evolutionary humans existed in any of the seven universes. Soon to be eight universes, he thought.
"It is time," Falia said, demanding his attention. He sent a thought toward her, but she returned it, attentive only to the sun's spreading mass.
Dandra watched as the sun licked at the edges of Earth like a snake tasting the air. The lava and ores burned with increasing intensity. Flames leaped from Earth to sun and sun to Earth. Molten oceans rose from the smooth surface in an effort to touch the solar surface. Tidal and gravitational forces pulled Earth apart one piece at a time as the sun enveloped the surface. After a while, Earth disappeared, consumed by the dying star.
No thoughts projected from any entities, allowing the silence of the universe to flow over them as they dealt with the emotions of Earth's death. Sadness and loss permeated Dandra and behind the veils, he could feel the same from others in the mass around Saturn. Humans did survive to the stars, he thought as he studied the spherical entities. The spheres banded together for travel out of Saturn's influence, heading for the stars. Dandra heard Baldur's muted farewell as they left. We are the evolutionary descendents of Earth.
"And you are the most human of them all," Falia said, laughing. Warmth filled him as the laughter flowed around him and within him. He threw a projection toward Earth, relinquishing the sadness of its destruction, knowing the planet had served its purpose and passed to its destiny. And what is our destiny? No answer came, but Falia shared the thought, answering with her infectious laughter. The last of his sadness faded with her mirth.
"Falia," he said. "We have seen a death. Let us witness a birth. A new universe awaits." She merged with him as they sped out of the solar system.