Iridescence - Chapter 1

A universe overflowing with light,

Black holes sprinkling the deep cosmos beyond,

Drawing matter towards them, feasting on hues.

Everything shimmers with so much colour:

Cyans, magentas, greens, pinks and yellows.

Among these event horizons, white holes.

Spewing matter drawn from another plane,

These are the black holes’ total opposites.

Even light may not enter these great beasts

As particles continue to flow out.

These take the place of the suns from our world.

From them, life is able to evolve, thrive.

All usable energy comes from them.

Plants feed off the light that they are given,

While the animals feed off of these plants.

In contrast, black holes pull all to themselves,

Hungry beasts that are to be avoided.

Despite the danger life has adapted.

The black holes are not useless in this realm,

For some brilliant minds have put them to use.

A great sphere is built, reflective inside;

Surrounding the black hole in its center.

One single point on the sphere is open.

A particle is aimed at this black hole,

Narrowly missing it as it moves past.

The hole’s strong gravity pulls this atom

And lends it some of its own energy.

Potential energy turns kinetic,

Speeding up the atom’s trajectory.

It will hit the inside mirrors just right.

Once it does, the journey begins again.

Faster and faster each revolution,

Until, near light-speed, it is caught at last.

The energy gathered from the black hole,

Absorbed by a non-reflective panel.

The energy travels from transistor

To transistor, stored until further use.

Nearby starships stop by to refuel.

One of these is experimental, new.

This ship, first of its kind, faster than light.

Pioneers: sights set on a galaxy.

None of their kind had been so far from home.

The intergalactic drive was engaged,

Ready to begin its maiden voyage.

Distant stars calling to them; their new home.

In a moment, everything went downhill.

Vast, quiet explosions within: error

Coming from the generator’s space-drive.

Within mere moments, all was still again.

The ship was no more, though not lost for good.

The blast tore a hole in space-time, alas,

For any observers, the crew was dead.

For the most part they were right, damage done,

Passengers taken by the tragedy.

Yet some of those caught in the blast survived.

Flung to a universe far different,

Empty, black, with only small points of light,

Stars, to break up the neverending void.

We see the ship floating aimlessly out

Into space, light-years from anything else.

Ages pass. Once, shimmering black opal,

Now, slowly fading paler and paler.

A galaxy nears, a conglomerate

Made up of gas, dust, and billions of stars.

Its gravity pulls the ship to itself.

It is hard to say how much time had passed.

To the inhabitants things grew slower,

More sluggish, as power was diverted

In order to be conserved, rationed out.

Some see the galaxy rotate a touch.

The void grows crowded as it approaches,

Tiny dots filling the sky all around.

The crew, unable to keep track of time,

Can only watch as the hull shifts from dark

To white, shimmering hues nonexistent.

The vessel approaches a speck of light.

Around it floats eight large spheres: its planets!

The nearest to the ship: windy and blue.

A gas giant, one of a few nearby,

Its mass pulling the ship, veering off-course.

Its star emits light which fuels the ship,

Yellow-white light split into a rainbow

Upon impact with the exterior.

Some color returns to its pale pallor

As it feasts on the optical spectrum.

The surge in energy awakens it,

Awareness returning to the ship’s mind.

Though miniscule, not enough to move it

On its own, not until it gains power.

And yet, a new path is charted ahead.

Hungry for sunlight, the ship veers again,

This time aimed directly at the source: Sol.

Deprived for so long of their source of life,

Few minds inside survived up to that point,

Most having long faded away to dust.

On the ship’s journey to the system’s star,

It passes a belt of scattered debris:

Remnants of a planet that never was.

Rock, crystallized iron, dust, gas, and ice

Loosely connected by their gravity.

Before long, a small, rocky, red sphere nears.

Around it are two tiny asteroids.

This world is barren, devoid of features

Beyond its mountains and polar glaciers.

Its pale red color hardly attractive.

The ship hurtles toward the star once more.

This close, water ice, formed on its surface,

Begins to melt, sublimating to gas.

Now, another planet stands in its way:

Larger than the last, a drop of blue-green.

About this one orbits a large, white moon,

A fourth of the size of its host planet.

While small, the moon still dwarfs the spacefarers.

Unable to maneuver as before,

The ship almost impacts the satellite.

The celestial body tugs on it,

Shifting its course directly to its host.

The larger planet’s intense gravity

Offers the craft no choice but to draw near,

Atmospheric friction heating it up.

The following, over in an instant.

After the interstellar voyaging,

Eons of silence, and empty darkness,

The moment is almost too quick to note.

A soundless roar now, the craft makes impact.

Yet all is still on the planet’s surface.

A vast crater surrounding the crash site

Visible from space near the northern pole.

Glacier and permafrost bore the impact,

Sublimating the ice into vapor.

The crashed ship, still hot, sits upon a lake

Formed from ice that was initially spared.

Spacecraft once iridescent black opal,

Now pale, with little remaining color,

Lies in wait as what crew remains recoups.

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