Monday, February 18, 2013

Orbiting the Son - Pt. 1


Made by ~BS4711

One

The frozen comet hurtled through the bitter darkness of the Oort cloud. This vast belt of icy void orbited the far away Sun, which was a faint distant red glow. This particular comet was one of many. Tens of hundreds of thousands of frigid hulls of frozen water and dirt slowly moved through the dead silence. Cometa ached to enter the warmth of the Outer Solar System, away from the other comets. For within the true Solar system, she could melt and perhaps be a true planet, maybe even with her own moons and rings. But for now, she carried on. Silence. Vast chasms of darkness on every side, occasionally punctuated by one of her dead cousins soaring far above or below. Abysmal black pitch. Dead still. Constant unease of deep stillness. Cometa, aching to become a light and a glory, sung herself a lullaby:

"Oh that I could be a Chosen.
And not one of many Frozen!
Darkness gives me such unease.
That I could do but as I please!
I wish that my cold bonds would thaw
And release me from the Law!"

And Cometa wept a frozen tear, and hurtled on through the dead space.

Two

A thousand years later into her 34,404th orbit around the sun, Cometa pondered an enigma.
 "I wonder," said she, "how beautiful would I be, if these dreary roots of Cold lost their hold on me?"
 Though she knew it not, that distant red glow on the horizon of her universe had been pulling her closer and closer for over ten thousand years. Each orbit brought her marginally closer to the beating heart which pulsated light from the solar system's core. And today was the day when Cometa's dreams would come true. For she was now leaving the Outer Solar System. And a thought struck her, like a hammer striking a silver bell. She was drifting further away from her Arctic neighbours than she ever has! Glee filled her as she sailed toward the Sun, and she cackled out to her fellow comets:

"How sad you all must be,
to say goodbye to one as me!
But alas, I love you not.
May ye frozen tubs of cold glass rot."

"I shall be," thought Cometa, "the greatest planet that has ever existed. I shall have twenty-two moons and rings a thousand light-seconds long." Thus on she sailed, ever closer to yonder Star and Sun.

Made by *QAuz
Three

After another ten thousand years of slowly orbiting away through the deep glacial cold, she espied far off another comet also being gently pulled inward by the Sun. It was far smaller than she. It was a frosty white one, flecked with grey dirty snow. Many craters also speckled her face. She was old, perhaps as old as Cometa herself, though surely not as old as the Elder Comets that floated dead through space far behind. 

"Ho there!" Cometa cried out to the distant comet. She spun around, surprised, and spotted Cometa, cried back "Hello there! I shall wait for you here!" And, after waiting a few hundred days, Cometa caught up with her. "Hello, my name is Cometa!" "Enchanté. My name is Stará. What are you doing here, so far away from your home?" Cometa replied "I am going to yonder star, to make myself into a light and a glory, so all the universe can behold my splendour and be exceedingly amazed." "Why," replied Stará, "That's exactly what I intend to do as well! I was hoping that the Sun could melt me, and reveal my true beauty which is hidden within. I feel that I am tremendously special and important, and others simply need to gaze upon me and they will understand. That is why I have left everything behind." Cometa then realized that Stará would be her direct competitor for the exaltation she felt was due to her, Cometa, alone. Bitter anger filled Cometa. What could she do? Suddenly a dead smile flickered onto the lips of Cometa as an ingenious plan seeped into her icy cores.

Four

Ten thousand years later, millennia after Stará had disappeared into the icy darkness behind her, Cometa felt a rise in temperature. Although it was only marginal, Cometa knew it was true. She was closer to the Sun than she thought she would ever be. The Sun! Freedom! Soft warm showers of water would pour off her! Bursts of glee shot through her and reconfirmed her plan to steal the glory. 

Suddenly she saw a tiny dimly glinting grey object accelerate exponentially towards her. It zoomed right by her. "Wait!" she cried out. "What?" retorted the Grey Thing. "What are you?" she asked. "Busy. I'm measuring the average percentage of hydrogen atoms per cubic metre at regular intervals, by zoning every five kilometres from the Sun. I've been at this for far too long and I have too much time left, so I must go now. Goodbye!" "Stop! I need a friend!" cried out Cometa. "Not me, I'm far too busy and intelligent to be your friend, but if you need something to do you can count the stars one by one and then count them backwards in the exact reverse order and repeat ad infinitum until you find a friend or something more useful to do. Farewell!" And the mouth of Space quickly swallowed up the Grey thing.

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