The Vast Horror of It
Is the present secure?
Affirm.
You’re sure because…
Affirmative. How many times, Starski?
And you remember the greeting?
We come in peace. Still sounds a bit overdone to me.
It’s what they like. It’s what they want to hear.
Yeah, whatever… Are you getting any readings? We’re within one light year.
Negative. I’m receiving noise but no communications.
We come all this way. Suddenly it’s like they stop transmitting.
Not suddenly. I mean we’ve been traveling towards the telemetry so it’s been getting closer all the time, but even so I haven’t seen any coherent communications for the past several hundred light years. They may be covert but…
So we abort?
Aren’t you curious?
***
Okay, we’re here. Scan for the bipeds.
Negative scan.
People of planet Earth, we come in peace. I repeat, we come in peace. What’s going on down there? Maybe we should just take a look.
Negative. I’m reading high levels of toxins.
Life forms?
Arachnids.
Spiders? Well, that does it. I hate spiders!
Agreed.
What do you suppose happened?
My guess is it just took us too long to get here. We missed civilization.
Yup. Looks like they wiped themselves out.
***
What now?
Go home, I suppose.
You do realize that by the time we get there…
Shit, you’re right. Centuries will have passed. Nobody we knew will be there any more. They may never even have heard of Starski and Bach… Look at all those points of light out there, Bach. Amazing, isn’t it?
Yes, it’s a beautiful sight.
I didn’t mean that. I meant the vast horror of it–that no matter where you look, you’re looking into the past.
Time. You mean it’s all about time. All this space and there’s no future in it.
So you think maybe we should just go on out there? Do a little prospecting?
Why not? We still have the present.
That’s very good, Oonah.
Loved the dialogue. What scared me was that ‘no matter where you look you’re looking into the past.’
Jennifer
Comment by jennifer walmsley — October 29, 2009 @ 1:48 pm