A universe becomes hospitable for life in four supereons, or periods of time measured in billions of years. Immediately after the big bang that starts an existence, a universe is intensely hot, too hot to allow for the formation of life and most cosmic structures that sustain life. As a result of the extreme heat, reality itself is supercharged and appears white hot, hazy and difficult to navigate if there were anything to navigate it. After the heat of the universe peaks, the temperature begins to cool, though it is still too hot for the formation of most cosmic material. After significant time, the universe becomes transparent, and significant cosmic bodies can form. The last Supereon of universal formation is the cradle, the state of existence that is characterized by a boom in the formation of celestial bodies, the creation of water, and the formation of life.
Supereon 1 – The Superheat
Supereon 2 – The Cooling
Supereon 3 – The Transparency
Supereon 4 – The Cradle
from The Ascendant – 1 – The Ascendant, a PRL 2019 Interim Short
If we speed forward billions of years to the far future…there will be one dominant species of sentient beings. They will have both horns and wings and each will be such a deep and rich shade of red that they will sometimes disappear against a dark backdrop. These beings will be much bigger than all of the beings currently in existence and they will have a short coating of hair that covers their bodies, like the hide of a deer. They will generally have brown coats, though some will be shades darker to jet black. Their horns will be unique to each individual though most of them will have at least two branches of horns that emerge from either side of their heads, or from either side of their foreheads, but there will be some with just one branch of horns, some with three, though one and three branches will be rare…
…These beings will exist on an artificial world of their own creation…known as Top, home of the Ascendant, the last great race that the [Node 1 Hyperion] universe will ever know…
…In order to keep [Top] safe and ensure its longevity during the last great universal skirmish…the Ascendant, utilizing advanced physics … will knock their planet Top out of sync with their physical realm with the hope of moving it into a different parallel of existence. This experiment will not be completely successful. The planet Top will vacillate between many physical realms… so technically, the planet Top and the beings known as the Ascendant will exist in the futures of many parallels of existence…
from The Ascendant – 3 – Just in Time, a PRL 2019 Interim Short
“We endangered the lives of every member of our great collective and we are calling that a victory? It’s lucky that I’m brilliant and I managed to pull this off. The navigators are all exhausted, the entire continent, as if we aren’t already worked hard enough as it is.” She stood from her seat, eyes still on the controls that flashed bright greens and reds, and on the monitors that showed the view outside the planet completely around. Navigators of the planet all live on the continent that contains the navigation systems. The navigation systems occupy every structure built on the continent and the navigators sleep within the structures built for the processors, taking shifts to monitor the various equipment to ensure that it was always attended. The planet’s navigation keeps it relatively stationary when it is not moving, and it can send the planet hurtling through space at light speed. And Telyne-Rhad 77 will figure out the coordinates that will allow the planet to navigate time itself. It will take many rounts of programming, but Telyne-Rhad and the navigators will move megatons of metal and rock and billions of lives from the relative end of time to the relative beginning. Of course the move will be risky, riskier than the move that will make the planet unstable within A-space, and transient through many parallels of existence. Telyne-Rhad will object to the time jump among her peers, and to the commander, the woman who was high on life atop Top in front of the timespace anomaly. Telyne-Rhad will fear that the instability of the planet will make it impossible to ensure that it would arrive in the past of the intended parallel of existence, but many of her superiors will be convinced that the vacillation of the planet among various parallels will be largely under control because the Ascendant will develop the ability to travel to and inhabit any parallel of existence at will. But Telyne-Rhad will remind them that when the planet idled in its home universe, the vacillation would happen spontaneously and always required correction.
Telyne-Rhad’s fear proved to be warranted. Unbeknownst to any of the Ascendant, when the planet Top traveled to the distant past, it landed in the distant past of every parallel of existence that it had ever traveled to. The planet Top was replicated across the multiverse and when it landed in many different pasts, they believed that they had reached their destination and proceeded with their plans much as they did in the prime parallel, with variations that depended on the circumstances in which they found themselves.”
– Issue 1 – An Unexpected Confrontation
by VIV
“We are here, we should just be grateful and make it worth the effort,” Duq-rey said and she glared at Telyne-Rhad who was distracted by the monitors. Duq-rey admired the woman, she envied her position, and she pitied it. Telyne-Rhad was a legend of the Ascendant and if they could achieve their goal of preventing the happening, then stories of her brilliance would be told for countless millennia to come.
“I presume that she will be fine up there in the standard containment field?” Telyne-Rhad asked.
“She is our fearless leader,” Duq-rey pointed at the monitor that showed a view of the woman standing atop the planet. She was a sight, powerful against the backdrop of the early universe that looked wild with cosmic dust and debris. Then Duq-rey pointed to another monitor that showed the view of the timespace anomaly in all its splendor and the planet drew ever closer.
“What happens now?” Duq-rey asked.
“Our job is largely done for this mission. Send all first tier navigators off for leisure and call in their relief. They will receive future navigation orders from higher command. We are relieved of duty until notice.”
Duq-rey couldn’t tell if Telyne-Rhad was truly relieved or very worried, though it was most likely the latter.
Before Duq-rey left the command tower of the largest structure on the continent that contained the navigation systems of Top, Telyne-Rhad growled loudly.
“What is that?” she grumbled and stood to get a better look at the overhead monitor.
Duq-rey turned and stood behind the Lead Navigator. Her mouth fell open, like she was starting to say something, but then words escaped her.
“Contact Paul-Iar,” Telyn-Rhad said, “find out if other Ascendant were given permission to leave the outshell.”
“They are Ascendant?” Duq-rey asked. She hadn’t moved to comply with the Lead Navigator’s command. She was transfixed on the nine stark white figures that descended on the outshell. They had the same proportions of the Ascendant of Top, sturdy bodies with elaborate wings and horns that made them appear angelic, but instead of dark coats of fur, they were white, and on the monitors, they appeared as stark figures that disrupted the colors of normal space around them.
“They cannot be,” Telyne-Rhad said robotically, lost in her head as she tried to understand what was happening.
“What is happening at the timespace anomaly?” Duq-rey asked. She had turned to look at the other monitor and there were more of the stark white figures, clusters of them floating in space in some formation before the anomaly, creating a clear pattern of white against the brilliance of the colorful anomaly. Then they began to draw the exotic energy of the anomaly into themselves, waves of it breaching the surface of the anomaly and disappearing into the white figures. Duq-rey stared with rapt attention and Telyne-Rhad was speechless beside her. The sight of the white figures bleeding the anomaly of its color, leaving a sad gray blotch on space that slowly began to close just like the spent anomalies at the end of time that the Ascendant had fled, was shocking to both of them and they could not look away.
Distracted by the horror of the draining of the timespace anomaly, Telyn-Rhad and Duq-rey were not watching the monitors that showed their fearless leader, Neu-Brosme, who was still on the surface of their planet to greet the young universe in a containment field. Neu-Brosme approached the stark white figures.
“You are Ascendant?” she asked with astonishment, screaming over the distance as she walked in their direction. She heard them laugh.
“I look so young,” Neu-Brosme heard her own voice say in the distance and she stopped suddenly. Her senses were suddenly on edge, something was very wrong, but familiar?
“Don’t be alarmed, little leader,” Neu-Brosme heard herself continue as the figures approached her. Soon they were close enough to make out their features and they looked like members of the 77 being led by the mirror image of herself but starkly white, horns and all.
“I assume you have questions,” the white Neu-Brosme said as she stood before Neu-Brosme. A staff materialized in the hand of the white Neu-Brosme and she leaned on it casually. The other white 77 proceeded to the opening in the outshell, but Neu-Brosme was transfixed on this mirror image of herself.
“Are you another version of us from time?” Neu-Brosme asked. She hoped that she sounded as confident as she meant to sound; the entire episode was very unnerving.
“Of course,” the white Neu-Brosme said cheerfully, “but maybe not the time that you think. Or maybe it is and I’m confused. Who can keep track anymore? You all are here to slow the death of this existence? An existence you believe to be the young universe that you left. But it is not that. Thanks to Ascendant science, you are just a copy of who you think you are, thrown very much off course, and so lost now that you could never find your way back.”
Neu-Brosme knew that this was a possibility. Her scientists had explained every possibility of their endeavor to travel from the relative end of time to the relative beginning to alter the development of existence to prolong its life. And she knew that it was a very real possibility that what this white version of herself said was true.
“Are you here to help us find our way to our correct time?” Neu-Brosme asked.
The white Neu-Brosme shook her head slowly. “There is no going back. There is only forward, only the future. We have already begun the decomposition of this universe. But don’t worry, you will be me, we will be us, and we will continue the work of absorbing all of our power from across the doomed multiverse. We will correct our mistake and the Pito will be pleased. Come,” the white Neu-Brosme extended her hand as thin tendrils began to grow from her body to wrap Neu-Brosme who was quickly like a mummy up to her nose. She groaned as the white Neu-Brosme approached. “Welcome, sister. We are Neubril, herald of the Pito, leader of the Descendant.”
The entirety of the planet Top was wrapped in thin tendrils of white like webbing, and after unknowable time, it faded to nothing and the entirety of the universe was gray, on the verge of collapse. Soon, there was no trace of Neubril and her Descendant.
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