Part 1
It was the summer of 1992; that was when the world's song rang a dull tone.
{Opening theme:} Pink Floyd "Time" from their Album: [Darkside of the Moon]}
"Space, was it really life's true final frontier. I can see the lament imagery of the Earth being the womb for humanity. But to few of us humans see the Earth in that same parent/child light.
"To some, they believe... No, they think she has always been just a chunk of raw material, awaiting the proper company who can merchandise, cultivate and monopolized upon it. I feel that we the Homo sapiens don't truly appreciate the truth, that she is a bright blue sapphire in a very vast immeasurable sea of bitter cold darkness.
"I sit here and watch the day's fold one into the other. I can't really say I mind this, although it is a kind of loneliness that gives me feelings of reassurance, with these empty uneventful days it helps to confirm my affirmation; these feelings that have always existed in my heart and I am sure it exists in other peoples hearts too. The truth that we, all humans might truly, really be alone in this vast incalculable universe truly a hard, lonely pill to swallow. But this both comforts and scares me... As I continue to do my research, I've been finding this truth to be less and less unthinkable; that this is fact.
"But maybe, maybe there is still a chance, however slim it may be and on that note, I know that that could only help to serve as a much needed catalyst to finally unify our world and all her people, but on a secondary note. Being more of an after thought really? That, what if? What if we all the places we've looked actually house life, but that we're still too unevolved for them to present themselves to us? That little tidbit of information chills me down to my very core and that makes me evaluate all my actions as if I'm under a microscope.
"I know it must be some delusional paranoia setting in but, it does feel as though someone is in fact, watching us, like the entirety of the human race is a much smaller organism observed through some other observers telescopic lens. I fear, that with the knowledge of extraterritorials of a far greater and knowledgeable power would have presented itself and our global powers. Would realize how small their little squabbles really are. But if my suspicions are true then that, that which maybe scares me the most is not the fact that we've found other intelligence... No, that would be welcomed may times over. No, this rising fear is that maybe the human race, maybe we have run into an evolutionary dead-zone. Run our course and that intelligence has come to 'clean house' so to say.
"Forever, will we be caught without substance? Left to fade into the wrinkles of time without putting up much of a fight? I suppose my own mortality comes into play, when I think of these things. But that is not a discussion I would willingly walk myself into. A woman of my esteemed body of work and privileged life could I really fear the unknown, that there also may not be a place for me after I physically pass from this world. But what a strange subject for one to segue themselves into? Let us leave this recording for later date, this is a problem that we as the human race must finally learn to at the least coop with." Suddenly the door to the woman's office bursts open and a skittish, nervous young man rushes into the room, looking overly exerted about something.
"Professor Hamilton, you hav'to come quick! Doctor Carroll's located another nebula burst!" He found Professor Amelia Hamilton-Carroll sitting behind her laptop fingers buzzing across the small keys. She looks up without out once looking to her fingers as they type away.
"What are you talking about Douglas?" asked the Professor.
"Ophiuchus has picked up another polarize burst there occurring much more frequently and sporadically! A sub-spatial anomaly has begun bursting from the 82-degree quadrant. The anomalies also on the move, gaining more velocity and moving almost too fast for a clear estimated reading!" Professor Hamilton-Carroll stood without word and rushed past her assistant. In all the year her husband and herself had studied the stars. This was the moment they had been waiting for. She rushed out into the main observational deck, where the super telescope sat center stage. Galilee the name of the worlds most powerful telescopic instrument, afore named after space foremost admirer sitting about thirty feet on a suspended tower of additional instruments.
Professor Hamilton-Carroll's husband Doctor Lewis Charles Carroll, who is one of the leading experts in the field of macro-cosmography. He had picked up on a strange star formation just behind the Zodiac Ophiuchus and as strange as that might sound, he was finding that there might be more to this than a simple solar flare or two. It was like a new sub-independent individual organism that could live within the great vacuum of space, though in the most farfetched boyish dreams he hoped, he was catching the first glimpses of a superior race of friendly alien life forms. As the good doctor pulled himself away for a moment he looked down at his beautiful wife as they both beamed with excitement.
A few weeks passed turning into months and the anomaly, well it had continued to flash and recede. Like a playful preschooler playing a game of pick-a-boo. Dr. Carroll, leans back in his observational chair and looks up at the sky through the spacing in the roof. He knew his eyes couldn't possibly make out whatever was going up in the heavens that surrounded the home he had always known. He looked around seeing all his assistance working there themselves to death for something that maybe was nothing more then a simple illusion of spatial gas. He turned to see his wife overlooking the latest print outs from a sister observatory. Lending whatever help they could to his project. 'Amelia, someday. Somehow I'll repay you 100 times over for the patience you've given me. This I make a silent vow, I won't let your sacrifices go unheard.' as she looked up from the stack of pages and he childishly smiled wide at her. She smiled and laughed to herself. Slowly the day trudged onward as they usually do and Dr. Carroll kept a vigilant eye towards the sky. As the time rolled around 3:30 he felt a gentle touch caress his back he shivered as he leant back to see Amelia carrying two hot cups of coffee.
They sat outside, atop the observatory resting comfortably on her telecommunication satellite. Lewis lay facing the vastness; Amelia lay curled up next to him. He held on to her with one arm and in the other held his cup, chilled by the outside air. "Amelia?" said Lewis as she took her face from his chest to look up at him. "I know this will probably sound like a broken record but is this what we've waited for? Is this really all we get? Our first observations of a possible alien race and I missed it! We've seen nothing and it's been four months!" Amelia blinked, as words couldn't find meaning, not in a way that could comfort her husband.
"I can not spend my entire life waiting for another chance. Amelia, I think I'm going to give up my research." this came as an unbelievable shock. Amelia almost jumped when she heard him.
"Lewis, no! You cannot abandon all this time and effort. You've put so much into this. You cannot just up and walk away from it all." he gently pulled his wife back down and held her in a warm embrace.
"'Melia... I beginning to see that this was all just a childhood fantasy that I wanted to come true. But I have to let this go. I don't really need some atrociously ugly award, I have you and I should have done this along time ago... I've thought it through. Do you remember that University that asked me to lecture on Spatial Mathematics; well I finally called them back. And I start classes in one month... Now, before you go in a most justified ranting about how I should stay here and finish what I start blah, blah, blah. I've decided to do this, because you deserve to have the family that I promised. We both wanted for each other when you married me. I know I can't hold back the hands of time. So, I want to devote all my time to you from this day forward." Amelia began to cry as she fought her hardest not to try and change his mind. Lewis was a very stubborn person when he's made up his mind about something and she was overcome with happiness but was it at the cost of his other love?
A few more weeks past by and Lewis was doing the finishing touches on the last hypothesizes. For any future macro-cosmologists that might decide to pick up where he was now leaving off. Amelia watched him scurry about as she sat in front of one of the station monitors. Endless updates scrolled by as the program was set up to do. A seismograph could also be heard as it monotonously ticked away much like a metronome. Lewis stood up and stretched himself, letting out a great groan that echoed throughout the enormous room.
"I'm beginning to have second thoughts about this whole mess. I've far too many papers to finish before I can begin my lectures. I'll be finished with these well into my retirement from the college!" Amelia laughed but Lewis gave her a very serious look, which didn't stop her from laughing even more.
"It's makes no difference to me Lewis. You're the one that set up this schedule... Not I, you should have given yourself more time!" the sound of seismograph halted as it's sound became much more faster. Amelia turned to see it was jutted to one side of the paper. She walked up to it as the little arm flicked all over the graph.
"Lewis? There's something peculiar going on?" Lewis walked over to the one keyboard and looked over the data running by his face. A smug smile came over his face as he ran over to the railing and looked about ten years old.
"That will teach those bastards at the U.N! Now this is the proof we need, now we can finally!" Doctor Carroll was abruptly cut off by the sound of severe radio static as it silenced all other noise with its piercing screech.
"Doctor! ... Professor! ... There's something... else!" as the monitor Doug was standing in front of explodes. Sending the man soaring back into one of the many supercomputer towers. Amelia runs over to her assistant's side.
"Doug! Doug!" she screams over the deafening radio noise and just as suddenly as it came it vanished. Though no one could tell yet from the reverberating sound that continued to haunt them still through the depths of their eardrums. Amelia looked up, "What the hell was that!" and for one last time she saw her husband's weary smile. A bright flash enveloped the room and for what seemed like an eternity Amelia could not see a thing. But the taking her sights place were the sound of twisting and screaming metal, just as her vision finally returns she sees the central telescope was beginning to bend. The telescope shifted its immense weight, while letting gravity do all the work and for the very last time. Amelia saw her husband his body probably did not even have time to register anything that was happening before he was pulverized. Impaling the optical piece right through Doctor Carroll's chest. As it plummeted the forty feet and what really took only seconds felt so much longer and with the force from its weight the rest of the good Doctors body exploded like an overly ripened tomato. Blood splattered all over Amelia body.
Then a sound that would have many lasting impressions, a secondary echo of metal resounded as the large dome of the surrounding ceiling began warping under some intense heat that she somehow was not registering. Some of their assistants scurried around the room as many small fires had begun to erupt all over. Amelia barely had enough time to take in all that was going on around her as the rest of the structure came crashing down on top of her. As the gratings and ceiling fell she tightly hugged Douglas' unconscious body. 'God, Please don't let this be the end... I... I haven't done anything that I've planned. Please give me more time... More time to... To live.' Thought Amelia, as she slowly closed her eyes.
The deafening roar of twisting metal and exploding monitors drowned her voice out. All of a sudden the noise ceased. The roaring, the explosions, they just ceased while a much welcomed silence felt very alien now. Amelia opened her eyes hesitantly as all the chaos continued but now it was as if it as all muted. Then her eyes fell upon an image that as weird as it was did not at all surprise her. Amidst the ensuing destruction a tall, slender man, well, scratch that one couldn't really consider this a man, but for now we'll call it by that name. The man was cover from the tiptop of his head to the souls of his feet with white fur. As white as the first day of winter and his eyes, they were a crimson rose shade of pink. He made his way through the chaos smiling as he adjusted his waistcoat and his very white pair of gloves. A chain of gold hung at his side, he promptly pulled at the chain bringing a pocket-watch out of the left hand pocket. He parted his lips and when he spoke, his voice rang as crystal clear as crystalline glass not too bass and not too tenor.
"My dear, is it more time you seek?" Amelia heard the words but she was too awestruck to realize what was truly happening to her. The man bent down and with his middle finger curled knocked on her head. "Excuse me? Did you wish to have more time?" again said the man. Amelia stuttered out a reply that was, even in the silence barely audible.
"Yes... I want more time..." the man smiled at her answer.
"Then more time I shall give you. You mustn't use this time foolishly. For time is a hard thing to catch up to when you've been overtaken by it. But if you run hard enough surely even you can catch up to time." the man looked at the watch and became appalled by whatever he saw. "Simple enough. You have just not found the right time to go by? Somewhere you are horribly early, others will say you are far too late. But they'll have to speak with me my dear and I say you are not on the correct time. We'll meet again for the party and oh, how that party shall be? You will be ready for the party right?" Amelia looked up in her delirious state nodding her head. "Okay, then!" as he faded, folding space back returning into the nothingness from which he came. Amelia blinked as the sounds overwhelmed her senses again. Believing this all to be an episode of some kind of stress induced trauma. Her world ceased to exist as she became enveloped in the veil of utter and complete darkness.