The Dark

Jared’s new ship, the venarian swept through space at breakneck speeds, moving from one colony to the next. He was a spare part merchant scavenging for materials on dead planets long abandoned selling parts to whoever would buy. Times were tough, and those brave enough to traverse the dead rocks filled with various native beasts were lucky enough to enjoy the spoils.

Jared stared out the Grand front window of the cockpit, where his son snuck up behind, wondering what was in their view.

“Daddy, what’s that?” His son Michael asked. He was the age of eight, barely four feet tall with hair fire red as Jared’s was. His point led to a massive circle of total darkness, with a bright fire swirling around it’s side, seeping into the middle.

“That’s a black hole, son. It’s sucked a star into it’s pull.” Black holes were eerily beautiful, total black nothingness, crushing all that came within its grasp.

“Why does it do that? It looks like nothing’s even there.” Michael said curiously.

“That’s because it’s centre is so dense, it pulls everything toward it, using it’s gravity. Isn’t that neat?” Jared looked back to see his son confused. “What I mean is, it’s something so heavy that nothing exists around it.” Michael’s head tilted.

The space around it seemed warped, bent and twisted. Relativity rang true near it, time passing years by the minute. He loved gazing into them, it was fascinating, he wished to get slightly closer. He stared into the dark, hypnotized by it’s allure. The bright star swinging round slowly, moving into it’s mighty centre, disappearing. The space bent so wildly that it dragged around it it seemed. Jared couldn’t look away.

Abyss, grand sphere of a single point, a singularity. Bending all to it’s will, time, space, energy, the wills of men. Many have flown into it and disappeared, theorized to have been crushed, or ascended to a higher dimension. Where gravity travels, where time has no meaning, all there is are gods and energies. The essence of gods sat within, Jared knew it. He was set into a trance, unable to move his hands, his limbs, his eyes. All he could see now was the black. Muffled yells and tugging on his shirt came from the periphery, Michael could be heard but not seen, only one thing could be viewed by Jared forever more, as the venarian passed beyond the horizon into the truth beyond.

           The dark.

No Meal, No Mercy

Jag was thrown back into his steel cage in the Irikan space gladiator barracks by the Ungarian guard. A massive, green-skinned humanoid race with muscles like boulders. “You better think over what you’ve done, earth scum. They’ll be here soon.”

“What happened? Gix asked. “What’d you do?” Gix was his partner in crime, his cell mate since the beginning. He was an urad, a bug-eyed blue-skinned man with a voice as loud as a megaphone. Not a surprise that most species would evade them, but GIx was good company.

Jag scrambled up, weakened from the fight, and the beatings thereafter. “I didn’t mean it...I didn’t want to kill anyone. How was I supposed to know his brain was where my stomach is?”

“Oh no. That means…”

“Yeah. They’re putting me to the beam.” Jag feared it, the beam. A supercharged laser, able to vaporize a being in milliseconds, but rumour was you could feel the pain well after death. “Damn Irikans, they should inform me of what I’m fighting. Humans are still bound to earth, I was stolen. I don’t know anything about the infinite races of the galaxy.” Damn them. White-skinned, horn-headed bastards who enslaved all they could find.

“It’s too bad, now I’ll have a different cell mate, I don’t want that. Human’s are simple, and you’re patient.”

Jag laughed. “You’re a funny guy, Gix. Too bad they don’t allow for honest mistakes on this planet, wherever the hell it is.” Jag sat, melancholy. He felt nothing, no fear, no sadness, no regret, yet he would miss his friend. He missed Earth too, but that was a dream four years gone. He would be free of slavery, but he would miss Gix, his lovable friend who fights like a gorilla on steroids. So kind, but not to be on the wrong side. Urad’s could expand to three times their size at will.

“All right, scum. It’s time to go.” The guard returned and commanded him up. Jag was taken away, nodding at Gix, who nodded in return, a tear forming at the corner of his eyes. Then, Gix was gone from sight, and the arena came. A massive, neon, ethereal blue stadium with huge stands, seating thousands upon thousands of people. The Ungarian threw him into the centre.

“Welcome everyone! This human is charged with killing a man in the arena! We have found him guilty, sentenced to death by vaporization!” The crowd stayed silent. “Any last words, human?”

“Yeah, when do I get my last meal?”

The Irikan spat forward in disgust, “Peh.” bringing his hand down with an almighty fist, the large cannon above him shooting a beam of light at Jag, disintegrating him into black dust.