Oblivion: The Day Everything Dies

Oblivion: The Day Everything Dies

by

Vincent Pet

Copyright 2011©, 2016©, 2021© by Vincent Pet.

All rights reserved.

The characters in this book are fictitious.

Any similarity to real persons is coincidental and not intended by the author.

A few words

A few years ago, readers asked me (you can reach me through Goodreads) if I could expand this book. I mentioned that I was considering writing the next chapters. Some time has passed and although these chapters are, more or less, as last published on Amazon, my intention to write new material still remains.

Some would like me to continue the story of Adam & Evelyn. One reader told me that she wanted to read more about the Fion’s world. Another reader wanted the story of Brummer to be told in full. I’ll see what I can do.

In the meantime, this is the first time that the three short books of Oblivion are available in one volume. It reads very much like a puzzle where it all comes together in the end. The first book is a vision of the future. The story slowly evolves in a mystery during the second book and ends up being an adventure in the third book. I wanted this story to be like a reverse big bang and I do ask the reader to keep an open mind. Perhaps, you will guess the story’s punchline, or perhaps I will surprise you.

Well, on to the story & hope you enjoy.

Much Health & Wisdom,

Vincent Pet

Book One

Chapter I: Usana

Chapter II: Yorsabrim

Part I: Usana

Usana, the President of the United Planets, sat rigidly at the head of the massive, polygonal table while the governors of the colonized worlds bickered among themselves. It was a rare spectacle to find them united under one roof – almost unheard of in recent history even if there should have been many more. Over five hundred invitations had been sent, but nearly half of the governors were absent and feared dead.

The grumbling around the table quickly sputtered out as a rather pointy and contemptuous voice resonated above the others. Ms. President! We are wasting our valuable time pondering suppositions without foundations!

Most of the governors shifted their attention to the Governor of Zaron. He had spent most of his time – and theirs – emphasizing the pointlessness of their reunion. His latest outburst continued to fuel the agonistic attitude that he’d been displaying throughout the intense meetings as he stubbornly carried forward his own personal agenda.

Usana knew that his opinion was shared by the majority, but she refused to abdicate to his pessimistic appraisal of their predicament, no matter how distressing the situation appeared. To think otherwise would be to embrace death.

The aliens refuse contact and continue to mock us, he blared out in a hard, driving sharp tone of voice. We’re not even able to detect their presence! We don’t know what they look like, where they come from, or how they manage to elude discovery – and most importantly – why we’re being ruthlessly pursued and slaughtered! I don’t see what can possibly be concluded at this table if we don’t know a single thing about our aggressors!

Usana was well aware that the governor had ambitions of becoming the next President and that he was undoubtedly using the occasion to gather consensus against her. Nevertheless, she tried to comprehend the folly of his motivation. Did he realize that soon there might be no one left alive to govern, even if, his words seemed to imply that he was well aware of the fact?

The governor knew that he had everyone’s undivided attention and made sure that his message was well delivered as he further raised the pitch of his voice by one notch.

A month ago we were living under the assumption that we were the only life form in this vast universe. Suddenly, out of nowhere, something appeared and started exterminating our worlds, annihilating us one planet at a time. What we know is that we don’t know where the enemy comes from, that every habitable world that the enemy has attacked has been stripped bare of life, and that none of our probes or ships have been able to gather visual information about this enemy. They’ve destroyed our fleet, they’ve destroyed our worlds, they’ve killed over half of humanity, and we haven’t even seen one alien ship! So please, Ms. President, please tell me how can I possibly be optimistic at a moment like this? We are being murdered and we don’t even know why this is happening!

There was a long, silent pause as the governors glanced nervously at each other. Powerless frustration was clearly etched across their faces. Usana kept her composure as she assessed the unsympathetic eyes that peered back at her. She presumed that most of the council approved of the governor’s dramatic outburst.

Usana bid her time and let a few more moments of that charged silence slip by – just enough to stall the tension that had been steadily mounting. At that critical point of their meeting, she could ill afford to fuel that irrational fear that had taken possession of the council. Usana felt their helplessness too, and with it, the panic that their dire situation generated, but she needed to remain in control and assure that the assembly did not degenerate into a futile, bickering exercise.

When she finally spoke, her strong and firm voice echoed through the large featureless room, refocusing their attention back to the aim of that exceptional gathering that she’d summoned for.

Gentle governors, let us recall the purpose of this assembly. We have not gathered here to speculate on what we don’t know, but to elaborate on what is known. It is essential that we establish a strategy based on the facts that are at our disposal. We must do this now, before we leave this hall today. For those that have no more to add to this conversation, I suggest that you return back to your home worlds and wait for the end. At the very least, you’ll be helping the rest of us – who still hope – to continue with this meeting.

Her bold face inched abruptly forward. She had anticipated that there would be fear among the governors, but she had also expected them to be resolved. To her dismay, she came to realize that there were too many shocked, blank faces around her with little ideas to offer in what was undoubtedly humanity’s greatest challenge. She knew that this was going to be a decisive meeting, but she came to realize at that very instant that the moment was critical and that there would probably never again be an opportunity to preside over another Council assembly.

Usana detected the expression of defeat deep in their eyes as she challenged them and did not like it. She needed every single one of them to bring their knowledge and experience to the table in order to forge a cohesive plan of action.

Governors, remember that we are supposed to be among humanity’s brightest minds. We need ideas to fight this menace and show our people that they can depend on us to lead them out of this terrifying moment in history. We must slow down, defeat, or sign a truce with this enemy to gain time even if it means surrendering. For have no doubt that this is not a war like our ancestors experienced. This is not a battle where survivors can flee and regroup for a better tomorrow. If we lose, there will be no one left to see that better day come. It will be the end of humanity, the end of who we are – of what we mean as a race. It will be as if we never existed.

She paused for a few seconds, letting her words sink in. In a society where people spent ninety percent of their time in cyberspace, living and dying multiple times in endless adventures and fantasy worlds, Usana had little idea if they all understood the full scope of what she was telling them.

Our history, our cultures, our sciences, and our arts will be obliterated. Everything will be wiped from this universe. I called each of you to this hall – in flesh – to emphasize how real this threat is. This is not a game. This is not a virtual state. We need this reality to exist. Everything we created is governed by the physical laws of this universe because our bodies reside in this universe. In the end we must keep coming back to this reality because this is the only existence that matters. The reality is that over sixty billion people have died and only about the same remain. There is no computer program to hide inside, no safe place to connect to and no restart button to press once it ends. I need ideas that will give us hope. Otherwise, we will die and the human race will become… extinct.

She glared at them as she emphasized her last word. Some raised their heads to meet her gaze. Some still did not fully comprehend what was at stake. Usana wasn’t even sure if she had their full attention or if parts of their minds were simultaneously playing the usual three or four fantasy universes while they listened to her.

Most, though, acknowledged what they dreaded to utter aloud. They knew deep inside their conscious that a new fear had just been born. It was a fear so deep that everything else became inconsequential for no thought could camouflage its bluntness. That fear was extinction and each had an almost impossible, indescribable sensation of it. No one knew exactly what it was, but it implied a state of nothingness – a blank screen that would last forever.

Yes, extinction was something other than death. Of this, they were certain. They knew how to deal with death. The fact that their worlds would still be spinning with all that they left behind after their demise was somehow reassuring. That they might be remembered even in a footnote, a memory, a thought, was gratifying and proof that their living days had a sense. The fact that they could seek comfort in having contributed to the continuing flow of humanity made life noble and gave their struggles a valiant purpose.

Extinction, though, was unfathomable. When had humanity ever been threatened by extinction? Perhaps, in the early days of mankind, before the secret of fire? When man first started playing with the atom? Perhaps, the long forgotten Zika virus, when assisted by global warming and man-made pollution mutated and became air born, causing a fertility crisis and leaving only a couple of billion people alive on Earth?

When had man ever thought of extinction? Not when they were wiping out thousands of species on Earth while building cities, civilizations and empires – not even then. Man had reached out and colonized a third of the galaxy and now that they were at the start of a new wondrous age, at the doorstep of seeding humanity throughout the universe, they were faced with a fate abandoned by the human consciousness a long time ago. How could man become extinct? It was not possible – not now. The President refused to believe that man had dared descend from the trees to boldly walk across the Earth, leap to the stars, only to be squashed like an ignorant brute from existence.

An unexpected harsh, rising laugh from the far end of the table suddenly grabbed their attention. The President became rigid, slightly bothered that someone would react so lightly and spontaneously after a speech which should have made them reflect and gather resolve.

Brummer was the governor of Dragolia, one of the least populated planets in the galaxy. The fact that he was a governor was questionable. Many doubted that his planet should even hold a seat on the planetary council. Usana hadn’t seen him in the preliminary briefing that morning and didn’t expect him to arrive at all. Dragolians were notorious for never leaving their home planet.

She snapped at him, visibly upset, as she stood up to confront him.

The moment is grave, Governor Brummer. What do you have to laugh about?

His laugh subsided, but his quirky smile didn’t, as he rose from his chair. In an age where humanity had genetically engineered itself to, at first, reflect the cosmetic fashions of the centuries that valued beauty over pragmatism and then in favor of practicality where functionality was valued over esthetics, Brummer was unique. His planet was known as a haven for those that refused to embrace technology. Like most Dragolians, Brummer was very similar to the original template of a human being and opposed to implementing advanced genes within the population.

Whereas, most humans had infrared, telescopic, and fractional vision that permitted them to observe and scrutinize four or five different objects at once with various degrees of depths, Dragolians did not. While most humans could survive with their hidden gills under the oceans or with their skin secreting sealant in the vacuum of space and hostilities of planet atmospheres, Dragolians couldn’t. They lacked double genitals, temperature control genes, and other basic comforts that were standards on any normal individual.

Dragolians even possessed the original brain schematic – refusing to compartmentalize areas to specific functions with enhanced nerve terminals, therefore limiting their intelligence. It had been proven long ago that a triple brain split into small sectors connected with each other was the most functional intellectual state. One part was used for the conscious state, one for the virtual state, and the other as the control center of the body’s physiology while also doubling as the backup copy of the essential traits of the other two parts.

The third region of the brain also served as the input/output terminal that interacted between the