The eternity experiment E-Book

Nick Nouan

• Herausgeber: Editorial Autores de Argentina
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 121

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

A lost rock in the universe strikes and alters the fate of the inhabitants of a tiny world, a seed of humanity drifting with the sole purpose of challenging the boundaries of time.

Leseprobe

NICK NOUAN

The eternity experiment

Nick Nouan The eternity experiment / Nick Nouan. - 1a ed. - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : Autores de Argentina, 2024.

Libro digital, EPUB

Archivo Digital: descarga y online

ISBN 978-987-87-5761-2

1. Novelas. I. Título. CDD A860

EDITORIAL AUTORES DE [email protected]

Index

First Part

Single Chapter: The hit

Second part

Chapter 1: Mandate of Youth

Chapter 2: Waste

Chapter 3: Simplicity

Chapter 4: Two futures

Chapter 5: Half measures

Chapter 6: Telegram

Third part

Chapter 1: In vitro evolution

Chapter 2: Lights

Chapter 3: Impasse

Chapter 4: Children of the future

Chapter 5: Frozen seeds

Chapter 6: Diamonds

Chapter 7: Escape

Chapter 8: Link

Chapter 9: Foreign Bacteria

Part 4

Chapter 1: The successor

Chapter 2: Another Scream in the Dark

Chapter 3: Learning

Chapter 4: And learning

Chapter 5: Fire and Spirit

Chapter 6: Wings to Work

Chapter 7: A Day in the Life

Chapter 8: Master Word

Chapter 9: Terkins

Final Part

Unique Chapter

Epilogue

First Part

Why colonize new ephemeral planets when we can create one without limits?

Peter Niloum

Single Chapter: The hit

Location: undefined.

Time: The moment of impact.

—Hey Adeklis wake up, I want to go to one of the windows. I haven’t looked at the sky in a long time.

Adeklis opened his enormous black eyes lazily, as if would weigh a ton.

—I was resting and you interrupted me. You already did it more than once. Can’t you stay alone for a while?

—Of course, but you’ve been asleep for a long time and it won’t be long before they call us to the meal intake. Then we have to ventilate, we just have a few moments.

—I don’t understand how you can rest so little knowing the effort that awaits us. It’s the last time you wake me up before time. I want to sleep all my body asks, or until I hear the call of the guardians.

—It’s just that I already saw them hanging around, that’s why I know it won’t be long before they wake us up, let’s go…

—Hey… stop! Wait, wait a little, I want to look at something... Yes! My flower opened its petals at last! I want to drink the nectar now. I´ve been waiting for this moment since childhood. Mother told me that once tasted it, I would never be the same again.

—Ok, but do it fast. I’ll cover you, not to be seen and punished for feeding outside the intake.

—They can’t punish me for consuming my flower. It is normal in any woman.

Adelkis joined their lips and pressed them forward stretching and tapering them until they formed a beak of about ten centimeters. Then she placed it inside the long cocoon and slid her thin tongue towards the source of that nectar. Immediately, an immense pleasure sensation invaded her face, and breathed an air of satisfaction.

Seconds later she felt an unknown effervescence in her blood, an uncontrollable impulse that prompted her to kiss and hug Pulkin effusively. The inexperienced boy could barely react to such an unexpected love demonstration and let her do as she pleased.

During the kiss, Pulkin received some of the nectar remaining in Adelkis’s lips, and shortly after a never–felt excitement invaded his veins. After a few seconds that energy became a vigorous torrent of an unknown fluid escaping from the center of his body, right where he was perfectly coupled to Pulkin.

—What was that? Adelkis asked, astonished.

—I don’t know, I couldn’t stop myself – the boy answered– It must have been the flower. Is it a kind of magic flower?

—I don’t know... Mother told me that before drinking its nectar, I should ask her because she would tell me the right time. However, I always knew I would find out on my own... Hey! Look out! You still have your tube inside of me! – The girl said.

—You put it there, I didn’t even know what was happening.

—Well, now you move first and try to get out! If the guardians catch us in this scene, I can’t imagine the punishment we´ll receive.

Carefully Pulkin backed away and managed to get separated from his girlfriend. They both then looked at each other with relaxed and stunned faces.

—This is very strange – Adeklis said– Now I feel tingly in my stomach, it seems like I have worms in my belly or something. What should I do?

—I think you should talk to your mother, she will surely be able to help you. Tell her what happened, although... prepare yourself for the punishment coming... Shall we go to the windows? It is getting late.

—Sure, the windows. I had forgotten. Let ‘s go now.

Immediately the teenagers uncoiled their long tails off the floor holding tubes and floated barely moving their limbs until they reached one of the enormous thick windows of the immense spacecraft. They settled on the window base and watched the impressive spectacle. Millions of stars sparkled in a diffuse horizon. Pulkin stroked his girlfriend´s long white hair while watching the faint phosphorescent light emanating from the outline of her pointed ears. At that moment, Adeklis, enthralled by the star spectacle, thanked him silently for having woken her up a while before eating. It was well worth contemplating that sky before starting the working day.

That was one more of hundreds of occasions they had shared their thoughts and desires observing the infinite, just as they used to make all the young couples in the ecosphere for millennia.

On that occasion, however, Adeklis began to feel a sudden discomfort coming from the pit of her stomach. At first, she suspected some adverse reaction due to her recent physical union with Pulkin, but she immediately dismissed the idea. It was a strange feeling of expectation and irrational anxiety, something like a bad omen. Confused, she turned her pale face toward her boyfriend and he returned an amazed look to see if she would see the same. She then turned her big eyes toward the glass and they both confirmed a huge rock was approaching straight towards the window.

Before they could react, they were shaken by a shock that propelled them several meters and remained floating. Then they saw how everything, the floor, the ceiling, the plants, and the other residents also received the consequences of the impact. Only a few guards, who at that moment were carrying out their usual duties floating, were lucky enough not to be affected. Unable to take action, they barely managed to observe with despair the rest, trying to resettle and return to their place. After a while, they heard a scream calling for calm from the leader of the village, Master Elmu, coming down from another window. He approached the couple, and little by little several guards joined. Elmu then spoke:

—Listen, everyone, we have been shocked by a big rock. It is a strange and unusual situation. We had the enormous luck that the object was not so big and the impact was not frontal, therefore the blow was light, otherwise, our existence would have ended. From now on we will divide into groups to review the contours of the sphere; you must tell me immediately if you notice any damage that involves some direct contact with outer space. If this is the case, we must find a way to correct it as soon as possible because the slightest air or temperature leak can be fatal.

While talking, Elmu watched the gathered group and noticed the presence of the young couple between them.

—Pulkin and Adeklis, How are you feeling, are you in good condition to help the guardians?

—Yes, we did not suffer damage in the blow. We were just at the window watching the sky when we suddenly saw the rock approaching and impacting us.

—You were lucky. Then you will tell me in detail. Surely many brothers must be injured or beaten, we must go help them. Join the Guardians and any strangeness you find, let me know immediately.

—Of course sir.

The teenagers rushed towards the center of the enormous sphere, waving its wings, made of a thin membrane joining the wrists with the ankles. They rose until they reached a panoramic position to see the full outline, filled with hundreds of small gardens with beacons of light, some of them generated by the same plants. These gardens spread everywhere, to the sides, up and down, like small luminous oases in a sea of darkness. None of them seemed to have been affected by the impact, just like that of the central hanging forest and its lights. That structure was the main source of light and oxygenation of the sphere. Now it was imperative to ensure the integrity of the different water tanks and all the bright spotlights.

Any breakage in its structure could directly affect the stability of the fragile vital balance of that small world. Several villagers rose towards the center reassuring the rest, confirming their good health. As they arrived, Elmu gave them the same instructions: exhaustively check every corner, every irrigation pipe, every tank, and each container. After a while, Adeklis and Pulkin decided to slide through the gardens and observe the soil in detail. As they checked, they made their way back to the window, checking the stability of the base where it clung to the vegetation, painted almost entirely in a faint green emerald. Only two kinds of plants stood out from the general chromatic monotony. The Disiac and the Dreamer. The rest shared the paleness with the rest of living beings. Those hotblooded wore white skin that was about to be transparent to take advantage of every minimum spark of light. Albino was the predominant hair color of almost every being. The faint degree of pigmentation of the villagers was barely colored by the light from the lamps in the gardens and the columns of luminous jellyfish. This energy, meager but sufficient, allowed them to sustain life although no longer that plethora of colors and varied tones that their ancestors enjoyed in the worlds of sunlight and gravity, but life nonetheless.

The couple approached the window slowly. Every new step was an exhaustive check for any possible breakdown on the terrain. Just before reaching the base of the window, Pulkin noted an unusual slight deformity beneath a water pipe. It was not a crack but a scattering of stones that were contained only because the pipe covered them. Without a doubt, the impact provoked the rearrangement of these rocks. He brought his hand closer to check the temperature or perceive any air movement indicative of a leak but luckily the results were negative. However, part of the floor was not firm. He then began to dig with his hand, clearing away gravel until an object with a smooth and transparent surface appeared before his eyes. He asked Adeklis to help him extract that object and between them managed to take it. In a flash, they reached the window and covered it with their bodies. They waited till no one could see them and started to inspect it in detail. It was a thick glass chest about sixty centimeters long by thirty wide and thirty thick and inside there was a huge book.

They unfastened the weak hook on the lid, also made of glass, and opened it. It was a thick book wrapped in a thin cover and hard metal sheets, written in letters unrecognizable to Adelkis, but not to Pulkin. Together with the book, there was a small metal artifact that looked like a large–scale watch or stopwatch as it had several numbers. They took it and put it to their ears to see if they could hear some sound that showed any kind of operation but nothing, it seemed already decomposed. Next to the numbers was the word “years”. It was stopped at the number 198,874,987.35.

Second part

Chapter 1: Mandate of Youth

Location: Isaac Newton Preparatory School Boston

Time: the year 2050

—After years of archaeological investigations, we know that there were certain moments in the earth’s history where the continuity of life, particularly human life, hung by a thin thread.

This is how Professor Ernest Jostainser usually started his first university annual class before his large young audience.

—It is not unreasonable to infer that in such extreme situations, the difference between preservation and extinction depended on a set of specific characteristics. For example, small animals were able to withstand the consequences of the meteor impact that ended with the dinosaurs. Often, the preservation of a large group of specimens or even the entire species depended on the cooperation and sacrifice of a small group of individuals. A clear example of this can be seen in documentaries of certain types of insects, migratory ants would be the clearest example, which when encountering a deep well form a bridge, joining together until they reach the other end. Once the bridge is armed, the great mass of ants crosses the structure from above. When the last ant crosses the bridge, it begins to undo from back to front and a large part of bricks–ants falls to the well, losing contact with the group exposing themselves to a secure death. The ants that formed the bridge perhaps intuited their future and if they had had a choice they would have rejected that alternative of suicidal altruism, but they had no choice.

Their genetics and instincts forced them to act that way. If nature were democratic, balanced, and fair, life would have been extinct a few minutes after emerging. Without these individual sacrifices in pursuit of common preservation, we would surely not be here studying today.

After a few seconds, he continued…