[LNH] Looniverse Chronicles #2
Andrew Perron
pwerdna at gmail.com
Fri Aug 6 15:52:07 PDT 2010
PREHISTORIC PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
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LOONIVERSE O CHRONICLES
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Written by \--2--/ Andrew Perron
Deep Space, 2010 AD: Thesis, Antithesis, Elemental Synthesis
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The cover features a man flying upwards on a starfield. He's
dark-skinned and white-haired. He wears a purple bodysuit that leaves
his hands and feet bare. Over this, there's a white mantle with a
symbol of a gold asterisk over a rotated purple asterisk, and a white
cape with inverse black stars on it. He wears a V-shaped golden belt
and gold bracers with "W" shapes made of crystal going all the way
around. His hands are in fists, away from his sides; behind his right
hand there's a black hole, behind his left, a supernova.
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I was browsing the Google Groups archives for RACC, and found a
discussion on the net.elements of the Looniverse. Upon finding out
that Dave van Domelen had created Timeindex as the net.elemental
equivalent of plasma, Saxon Brenton asked whether there was a
net.element for the Bose-Einstein Condensate. This immediately sent me
into a brainstorm, figuring out what it could be. For a while, I
wasn't sure if I was going to work it into a story or not, but when I
realized I could pay homage to Mark Gruenwald's greatest creation...
*oh* yes.
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One of the differences between our world and the Looniverse is in the
field of space travel. Space elevators exist in both the Western and
Eastern hemispheres, asteroid mining is a going prospect,
interplanetary travel is available in governmental, commercial, and
superheroic forms, and interstellar trips, while rare, are not unknown.
Most people have still never left the surface of the Earth, but
humanity has touched the stars.
Nevertheless, Peregrine "Perry" Carollan could feel it in his bones: He
was far beyond where human hands could go.
Currently, he was drifting through the area of space known to Earth
science as the Very Very Very Deep Field. As this "area" was ten
thousand galaxies wide and billions of lightyears away from his home
planet, Perry wasn't especially comforted by that, but as Seyfert,
agent of the cosmic protector Unixepoch, knight of Infi.net.e, and
Defender of the Looniverse, it was his duty to be here.
He held up one of his Quintom bands, and it lit up the intergalactic
medium. Intellectually, Seyfert knew that he wasn't actually seeing
anything; though each atom around him was heated to about 100,000
Kevins, this far out, there were only about thirty atoms per cubic
meter. But the bands allowed him to sense them, and the metaphor of
vision helped him deal with the input.
As he scanned the intergalactic medium, he saw that he was just in
time. Twin disturbances were forming, equal but opposite reactions of
the cosmic dust. To his left, the rarefied plasma spun, motes of light
and heat blurring into a blazing nova. To his right, it collapsed in
on itself, burning far brighter until, in an eye-searing second, it
imploded into a darkness far deeper than empty space.
Before him were the thrumming presences of Moment, Cosmic Net.Elemental
of Timeindex, and Singularity, Cosmic Net.Elemental of Compress.
They had not yet noticed the mere human. The bodiless forces embodied
were converging on a single point. Seyfert couldn't see anything
there, even with the subtle senses of his bands, but he knew what had
drawn them here.
Unixepoch had explained it. Long, long ago by human reckoning, about
half an hour on a universal scale, a galaxy had been at war with
itself. Seyfert wasn't sure whether it was the intelligent races of
the galaxy, or, somehow, the actual stars and planets fighting each
other - to Unixepoch, it was all as one - but the battles had gotten
greater, more destructive, until, finally, in a single moment, all was
gone.
It could have been a doomsday weapon or a desperate attempt to end the
war; the effect was the same either way. The galaxy had expanded
infinitely in one aspect while contracting infinitely in another,
unsticking it entirely from the greater universe. Now it was known as
the Infinitesque, with infinite space and zero time, touching the
"normal" continuum at exactly one point.
The point, to be precise, just between where the net.elementals had
manifested. The point, it appeared, which they would be fighting over.
The point, Unixepoch had stressed, which neither one of them must gain
control of.
Seyfert raised the Quintom Bands. They were still about an
astronomical unit away. Manipulating the quintessence, the dark energy
that permeates the universe, he expanded space behind him and shrunk it
ahead of him, shooting forward faster than light while barely moving at
all.
His timing wasn't quite perfect, and he flew straight through the
gathering storm of electromagnetism versus gravity. Still, it got
their attention, and as he scooted forward, his body overlapping the
Point Infinitesque, he could feel the pressure of their attention.
Moment flared, and the prominences became words. "Baryonic mortal. You
seek claim on the Infinitesque?"
Space buckled, and Singularity spoke. "Meddle not in the affairs of
cosmic beings, for you participate in the strong interaction and are
good with ketchup."
Seyfert raised his hands. Okay, let's hope this works... "Great
incarnations of the Looniverse, I come not to fight, but to help, to
warn, to explain. You're about to destroy the very thing you've been
fighting over!"
There was a cold dark pause. As one, in a harmony that could sear a
planet's ecosphere into gas and ash, the cosmic net.elementals said,
"Explain."
Seyfert talked fast. "The Galaxy Infinitesque was knocked out of
balance with the universe. It settled on a new balance, but a
precarious one - a balance of extremes. If either of you exerted even
the tiniest fraction of your power on it, you could overwhelm that
balance and completely sever it from the continuum."
Or, he thought but didn't say, the dice could fall the other way, and
it could start *overlapping* this continuum, with predictably
unpredictable effects on life, the universe, and everything.
Singularity pulsed, event horizon drawing breath. "Thus, we should
suffer this unbeingness to stand?"
Matter and energy traded roles, and Moment added, "We each have a duty
to be filled. Should we ignore it, and let another less worthy take
control?"
This was the most crucial point. Seyfert had gone over his words a
hundred times on the journey here, but still crossed his fingers as he
spoke. "Each of you has a duty. Your duties are total, and your duties
are equal - so let your efforts be equal. Not a balance of opposing
powers, but a collaboration between peers, working together in
enlightened self-interest for your own purposes and each other's."
The two spun in silence.
Oh, *shit*, thought Seyfert, they're not listening and they're going to
go on a rampage and pull the galaxy into the continuum and it'll spread
asymptotically and turn the universe into a reverse black hole and it's
all my fault!
The presences turned ponderously in space. "If you accept, I shall,"
they spoke together.
"Then I accept," they replied as one.
Seyfert let out a breath in the airless void. "Excellent! Great
incarnations, I'm honored that you deigned to listen to me, and
gladdened that you could see the greater good here."
The cosmic beings stared at him eyelessly.
He blinked, then realized - his body was still blocking the Point
Infinitesque. "Ah! Yes. Well, I'll leave you to it, then." He scooted
back, manipulating quintessence to move away from the point as
net.elemental energy carefully snaked into it.
Seyfert watched from a parsec away as Moment and Singularity sent their
combined energies into the point. He wondered what they'd do with it,
and how long it would take them; he wondered if "how long" even made
sense when talking about a timeless space. He wondered if their
efforts would produce an even greater threat.
It might, he decided, but he couldn't hold back the workings of the
Looniverse for the *possibility* of something going wrong. The cosmos
was humming along on its own, and that would have to do.
Seyfert raised his bands and leapt into infinity.
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Author's Note: Yes, an actual second issue! This one shows the other
side of the series, faraway places instead of long-ago times.
I figure Seyfert is a reserve member of the LNH, for terrestrial
missions. What's his origin? No idea. I'm putting him up as Free For
Use, and if anyone wants to fill in his backstory, go ahead! Moment
and Singularity are also going in that category.
The space elevators and asteroid mining were established in
Limp-Asparagus Lad #55. They're mentioned in LNH v2 #24, and are a
plot point in #36. They've probably shown up elsewhere, as well.
One possibility I was thinking about while writing this: Are there
non-cosmic net.elementals of Timeindex and Compress? If so, are there
cosmic versions of the other net.elements? Hmmm.
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, who notes that this is definitely
*not* part of High Concept Challenge #12.
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