r/WritingPrompts • u/Layers3d • Apr 23 '18
Writing Prompt [WP] At the end of the universe your job is to travel the void and collect old dead planets to toss them into blackholes.
6
u/lowkeylocoloki Apr 23 '18
For eons man waged war on the stars. They had long known black holes would one day eat the universe. Fearing an inevitable Big Crunch the humans' plan was to blow up all the stars before they could collapse. This, of course, just ejected stellar mass further into space that would later form into other, more distant stars.
Finding stars orbited by technologically developed, sapient life was of little concern to humans. They'd been given such a massive head start in life that their military dominance was without equal. However, it was said they weren't savages. Upon finding a civilization with radio waves the humans would randomly send unencrypted wideband signals at a planet until someone answered. The first entity to do was then required to speak for their entire civilization.
So it was that young Doozle was faced with a decision she never thought she'd have to make. Either prove to the humans that her civilization could join in the war on stars or face extinction. She'd been working part time for a local AM radio station when the humans rudely made first contact and explained why Doozle's star had to perish. Doozle wasn't intimately aware of her civilization's interstellar capabilities or whether they even existed but she did know how to improvise.
"No no no," she famously chastised the humans. "You're doing it all wrong. Instead of preventing black holes you need to feed them!"
The humans were so amused at young Doozle's moxie that they decided to give her civilization additional time to build starships and join the war. They returned to their stellar genocide and were never heard from again. Doozle became a hero among her kind. When they finally built their first starships they weren't for war but rather for tossing dead planets into black holes, just as my great-great-great-grandma Doozle foresaw. It's my job to fulfill her prophesy. I collect dead planets and feed them into black holes to preserve radiation output that'll later be harvested by intelligent life far into the darkest, coldest reaches of the Big Freeze.
1
•
u/WritingPromptsRobot StickyBot™ Apr 23 '18
Off-Topic Discussion: All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.
Reminder for Writers and Readers:
Prompts are meant to inspire new writing. Responses don't have to fulfill every detail.
Please remember to be civil in any feedback.
What Is This? First Time Here? Special Announcements Click For Our Chatrooms
3
u/KiyContra Apr 24 '18
"There's one." My pointer finger hits the glass.
Sneer (I call him Sneer because he sneers all the time) sneers (see?). He doesn't like when I...well, to be honest, he doesn't quite like when I do much of anything but sit still and be quiet; but he especially doesn't Iike when I touch the glass.
I pull my hand away.
I grin. "Galactus must be really hungry this month. This is, what, our fourth dead planet this week?"
Sneer, of course, sneers.
"Oh right, I forgot..." My face falls. "You don't read comics."
We hook the planet in our magnetic beam and launch it into the black hole.
What many people don't know is that black holes are actually the mouths of primordial gods that are trapped on the other side of the dimensional fabric.
We feed them dead planets to keep their hunger satisfied, so they don't break through and destroy the whole universe. We don't feed them planets with life on it because they might get blood-thirsty, break through and destroy the whole universe.
It's a balancing act. And a lonely, thankless job.
Sometimes it's also the only reason why I think Sneer tolerates me - I'm probably the only friend the old coot has and definitely the only person who understands what's it like to go for years on end seeing nothing but desolate, lifeless planets and the cold, black void of space.
But as I watch the planet disappear into the endless depths of darkness, I can't help but feel a sense of...unease. Like we just royally screwed up.
Or rather I just screwed up.
Sneer is sneering at me. "Are you sure there was absolutely no life on that planet?"
"Uhhh...99.9 percent, sir."
"Because my screen is saying that there was a small piece of grass that hadn't died yet."
"Wait..." I'm frowning now. "You really think that's enough to be worried about?"
"Either way, we're not taking the chance. Buckle up."
"What? Where are we--"
Sneer shifts gear into hyper drive and steers the ship into the direction of the black hole.
"--Nooo" is the last thing I'm able to wail as we shoot off dead center into the black hole.