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Origin Part 1

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It was. It simply was. It was in this universe, but not a part of this universe. It was a leftover. A remnant of what existed before this universe existed. A remnant of something that was not consumed when the Big Bang destroyed what was here before. A shard of something that exists in this universe, but not subject to the laws of physics and reality that govern this universe.

It was old. The Remnant had borne witness to the creation of this universe. It had seen the rise of ancient beings of power, primordial beings that smashed entire solar systems in their wars for dominance. It had witnessed the birth of the very first the stars, the coalescence of hot gasses and matter into the stuff that made up the myriads and myriads of galaxies. And it had seen the death of some of those galaxies. It had seen the formation of black holes, pulsars, quasars, and vast nebulae. It had traveled past planets where the first stirrings of life were occurring in the depths of oceans and pools of ooze. It had journeyed past planets with civilizations that had created vast interstellar empires.

It had traveled. It had traversed the endless distances between galaxies. It had crossed the width and breadth of countless galaxies; roaming past planets, suns, and solar systems. It had roved the universe in an endless voyage of eternal travel.

It was other. It had come from an existence and reality other than the one it was now a part of. It was outside the laws that governed this universe. It has sailed through the hearts of suns unscathed. It had shrugged off the energy of countless pulsars with no effect. It even traveled through the event horizons of more than one black hole. Not because of the effects of those singularities’ gravity wells, but rather because they were simply in the Remnant’s path. That was not to say it was immune to the environment it now occupied. It just meant that it reacted in unpredictable ways that defied the laws of physics for this universe. The Remnant had passed through the molecular acid clouds of Excalia-7 without and effect, yet was deeply pitted when it passed through the tail of a comet spewing charged gallium ions. It had drifted past an Ilrawiuan battle fleet when an overeager Gunnery Officer had decided to do some impromptu target practice. Believing the Remnant to be nothing more than a piece of interstellar flotsam, he had his jump carrier fire its secondary batteries at it. The Remnant absorbed the barrage of polyphasic kaon beams with no apparent effect. At least not for 17 Ilrawiuan krelks, or 11 Earth minutes. At 18 krelks, the Remnant radiated an omni-directional blast of Delta-wave radiation of sufficient strength to sterilize all life in the Ilrawiuan solar system. After causing the Ilrawiuan apocalypse the Remnant continued on its way in its eons-long journey though space.

 

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The girl looked up from her reflection in the brown waters of the bog. She could hear one of the adults calling for everyone to return to the wagons for the midday meal. The girl returned to gazing at her reflection in the water. For her, the opportunity to be out in the wilderness and away from the familiar and monotonous surroundings of her farming village was much more interesting than another meal of brown bread and fermented cabbage mixed with some pieces of dried meat. This had been the first time she had been old enough to go with the older children and some of the adults on the annual expedition to the east.

It was late spring, a time after the spring crops had been planted but before the first harvests had commenced. This was the time of year when the village sent those who were old enough and those who could be spared on an expedition to the east. Loading supplies and equipment into two mule-driven wagons, the group of adults and older children trekked to the east. East into the vast forests and wilderness that stretched across the horizon. East past the forests to the boggy marshes and fens that were fed by forest streams and rivers. It was there that the adults set up crude ovens to reduce the decaying vegetation from the bogs to make bog iron. The archaic process enabled the village to obtain vital iron. The metal ingots would be taken back to the village where blacksmiths would use it to make plowshares and farming tools critical to the survival of the agricultural community.

At the edge of the swamp the villagers broke into two groups. One group was tasked with collecting firewood from the nearby forest for the primitive iron furnaces. The other group collected iron rich plant detritus from the bogs to fuel the furnaces. The young girl was part of the latter group. She had spent six days so far toiling in the damp fetid waters hauling basket after soggy basket to the furnaces. But she had still found time to explore this new place, marveling at the new birds and insects she discovered. And then there were the plants, so different from the potatoes and grains she had watched her village grow all her life.

Returning to her reflection in the brown waters, she watched as a water strider made its way across the surface. The insect’s movements created tiny ripples that distorted her image as it skated towards the edge of the bog. She smiled; her brown eyes sparkling with delight as watched the water become placid again. A noise distracted her from her reverie. She looked up to see one of the village boys approaching her. He was a year older than her, a member of a neighboring family she knew well. It was also his first time coming to collect iron. The two of them had talked about the big adventure before they had left the village. The girl had noticed how he always tried to sit next to her at mealtime, or how he was always offering to fetch her something to drink or eat. She enjoyed the attention, the boy was handsome to her and his attentions made her young heart beat faster with excitement. He approached and called her name. She noticed he had one hand behind his back in an effort to keep something hidden from her. When she asked about it he produced a large purple flower; explaining he had picked it just for her. With a bashful smile he handed it to her.

 

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The Remnant bore down on the small blue-green planet. Its course would lead it to skim past the planet’s upper atmosphere like it had done countless times in eons past. But this planet was different from all the other the Remnant had encountered in one key way. As the otherworldly visitor began to enter the atmosphere a curious phenomena occurred. The Remnant’s surface came into contact with a form of oxygen it had never encountered before. This was the first time it experienced a planet with enough oxygen, that was the right distance, from the correct type of star to form a triple oxygen molecule known to the natives of the planet as ozone. The surface of the remnant began to swell and blister immediately upon contact with the ozone layer high up in the atmosphere. The object began to glow with a bright vermilion light; a light far brighter than could be explained by simple atmospheric friction. A loud sizzling noise emanated from the Remnant as its physical structure experienced a runaway conversion reaction from exotic matter to equally exotic energy. Bright plumes of energy began to erupt from the surface of the Remnant, pushing it lower into the atmosphere.

 

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The girl giggled as the boy demonstrated his sword fighting prowess and skill with a pine branch. The boy was describing how he would protect the village from the wolves that threatened the village each winter. She clapped her hands as he boasted of his bravery and courage, and then laughed as he struck a heroic pose on top of an old tree stump. The girl was still clutching the purple swamp flower as she watched his antics. Her attention was drawn away from him when a strange red light appeared in the sky behind the boy.

The boy noticed the shift in his companion's attention. He turned around on the stump, catching sight of the glowing object in the sky above. As he watched it rapidly grow he could hear the elders cries for everyone to return to the wagons. The panic he heard in the adults' voices fueled his own fear. He jumped off the stump and grabbed the girl's hand. Pulling her along, he raced towards the small hillocks that sheltered the wagons. The pair ran with increasing desperation, shouting to the others they were coming. As he ran the boy could feel a growing heat at his back. Everything around him began to reflect a red light as the object in the sky hurtled towards the surface. Time seemed to slow as the boy looked back over his shoulder. The object had grown alarmingly in size, now rivaling the size of a full Autumn moon in the sky. Its crimson light was now brighter than that of a noonday sun. The heat on his face reminded him of the forge back in the village; when he helped work the bellows for the blacksmith. The glowing coals, blazing a bright yellow and orange so bright it hurt the eyes to look at radiated as much heat as he now felt from the approaching object. In a moment of clarity the boy realized they would never reach whatever shelter the small hill would afford the wagons. Pulling the girl into his arms, he jumped behind a pair of stone slabs next to one of the iron pits that had been dug out earlier. Huddling in the bottom of the hole, he did his best to shelter the girl with his own body.

 

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The reaction within the Remnant reached a critical stage. The loud sizzling noise suddenly stopped as the entire surface of the object seemed to collapse inward. The Remnant was still over a mile above the surface of the Earth when its eons-long journey finally came to an end. With a roar that surpassed the loudest volcanic eruptions that had occurred on Earth, the Remnant exploded in a massive burst of concussive force, light, and exotic radiation.

 

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The girl screamed in terror as she lay underneath the boy. The red light suddenly intensified, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut tightly. Seconds later the radiation and concussive force arrived. The stone slabs shielding the hole cracked and splintered, yet they lasted long enough to blunt some of the concussive force of the blast. By the wildest coincidence the twin slabs of shcist were shaped in just the right manner to create an acoustic shadow that spared the pair from permanent hearing damage. Still the sound of the explosion drowned out the girl's screams. Even with her eyes shut the light was painfully bright. The girl's fear only intensified as the shape of a skull appeared before her closed eyes. At first the girl assumed it was a specter of death coming to claim her. But as the jaw of the skull moved she realized it was the boy's skull as he lay on top of her. Like how the bones of her hand could be seen when held up against a bright light, she was seeing the bones of his skull through her tightly shut eyes.

The boy screamed in pain as it felt like his back was on fire. The force of the explosion pressed down on him like a giant hand and pinned him down on top of the girl. He was sure the skin on his back was peeling away like the skin on a ham hock left to roast over a fire for too long. He clutched the girl tightly as the ground shook violently all around them. The waves of force rode over the hole as a huge fireball rose into the sky.

Finally the cataclysm came to an end. The pair of dazed children tentatively started to climb out of the hole. Looking around, they gazed in awe. Standing back to back they looked around. For as many miles as their eyes could see everything was covered in a layer of dirt and dust. The landscape looked alien to them. It took a moment for the youngsters to realize why they could see for so far in all directions. It dawned on them that there was not a single tree standing as far as the eye could see. The old growth forests had been blown down by the force of the blast like so many match sticks tossed on the ground. The ringing in their ears was all they could hear, as an eerie silence had fallen over the scene.

The boy twisted around in an attempt to look over his shoulder. His back no longer burned but he still feared what he would find. To his astonishment the shirt on his back appeared undamaged. The only thing he could see was that the brown homespun shirt seemed faded and more tattered than before. He also noticed none of the vegetation appeared burnt, only knocked down and flattened. His self-inspection was cut short by the girl tugging on his arm. She was pointing towards the small hillock where the villagers had set up camp. She was shouting loud enough to overcome the ringing in his ears, urging that they go see if anyone else survived. Nodding, he headed in that direction.

The girl followed behind her companion. She coughed in the dust-filled air. Small bits of debris were still falling from the sky as they walked through the flattened marshland and forest. She was still looking around when a gleam of blue light caught her eye. She stopped at the edge of a small pool and looked into the dark water. The blue light had vanished but a trail of bubbles was rising to the surface of the bog. The girl knelt down and reached into the black water. Her hand closed around a small object. As her fingers touched the surface of the object, she felt a strange tingle run up her arm. She nearly dropped it, but managed to hold on to it long enough to lift it out of the water. It was a metallic looking object; shaped like a small cup with an attached curled handle. It felt lighter than it should and the sunlight shining through the dust-filled air reflected off its surface in strange iridescent colors. The girl examined it with curiosity as her fingertips tingled where they touched the object. On a impulse, she put the tiny cup in the pouch tied to her belt and hurried to catch up to the boy.

The children finally reached the remains of the camp. They were relieved to find the rest of their group still alive. The small hills had saved them from the worst of the blast and some of the noise of the explosion. Still there were numerous minor to moderate injuries; mostly concussions, contusions, and broken bones. And all of the group had suffered some degree of hearing damage that would follow them for the rest of their lives. Two of the adults were busy trying to calm the spooked horses while the rest tended to the other children and more seriously injured adults. As fast as possible, the battered and shell-shocked group loaded their supplies of harvested iron and began the long trek home.

 

To be continued ...

Animation by the fantastically talented :iconorcaman001:

Set in the :iconangel-fallsda: setting, where all will be revealed in due time.

Continued here:  Origin Part 2 by Teri-Minx

 

 

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© 2014 - 2024 Teri-Minx
Comments19
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Goldham92's avatar
wow, this is very interesting