1: It's the end...
March 13, 1999
“Quickly, quickly!”
Behind him, echoed the hollow and ringing pings and pangs of a dozen feet rushing down the industrial staircase.
“Hurry!” he wailed as the panic in his voice left a thickening air of concern in its wake over the heads of the astronomists.
He listened to the shortened breaths, could feel the tension knotting in his own stomach. He threw his hands forward just as he reached the door at the bottom of the stairwell. It slammed open, and the momentum from running down the flight of stairs carried him as he speed-walked over the concrete to a safe distance from the observatory tower.
He pivoted on his heel, facing the building. The other scientists rushed past him, grouping up behind him like a squad of scared ducklings. No one said a word as they simultaneously looked up at the sky.
"Do you see that?" he shouted.
Some nodded, others prayed as straining necks and squinting eyes watched a light fall from space towards the observatory. It looked like a meteor, growing brighter and brighter as it descended down to the mountain the observatory sat upon.
And then it appeared in full, suddenly, as if time had jumped a few seconds into the future. A massive construct, the size of a city block, floating in the air and moving inland.
The air grew stale, and the scientists could hear nothing. He couldn't wrap his head around the phenomenon. Was the construct making too much noise, or was it somehow draining the atmosphere of all sound?
One of the scientists grabbed his shoulder. He looked at their fear-filled faces, their jaws suddenly too weak to close their mouths. Even if he could say anything they could hear, he wouldn't be able to come up with the right words for the moment.
He fell to his knees, shaking. He looked at his hands, his fingers curled as if they were grasping for something that couldn't be touched.
Why am I shaking?
It wasn't the cold, and the only emotion he could currently identify was excitement.
The other scientists spread out in a circle around him, their expressions changing to looks of helplessness as their eyes moved back and forth from the construct and each other.
He clasped his hands together, rubbing the arthritis from his joints.
Why can't I stop shaking? His eyes filled with tears, and his stomach began to heave.
What am I doing? Why am I laughing?
