Introducing Islae.

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Time no longer means what it once did. As humankind learned to master space, we found time and space were inextricably linked. Mastering space subsequently meant we were mastering time as well. There were several decades long ago, where age was a topic of debate and discussion. Philosophers, physicists, medical doctors, and politicians all vied for their own views and beliefs to be “right.” Once born, humans could skip years inside pockets of static time. And while Earth travelled its way around our turbulent star year after year, that person’s physical body passed through none of the same time. None of the same space. It became common to celebrate someone’s 30th year of truage in the 60th year of his or her birthage. As humanity spread among the stars, it became standardized to know both. With increasing distances through the black and ship personnel that went in and out of static time frequently, many began having trouble keeping track of their ages. Therefore, every bubbler (what the machines that created the bubbles of static time came to be called) was outfitted with IDKey slots. An individual could not enter without his or her IDKey card and as real time ticked by, the truage on their IDKey held steady while their birthage continued to grow. And everything was standardized to the denominations of the Unified Earth Systems. No matter how far away from Earth you travelled, or how long a year on your world actually was, a year was still one earth year.

My name is Islae Saria. I live on a world hundreds of light-years from Earth. At least I did. She was known as Eden. She was an almost perfect world; minimal terraforming was required for habitation. Her rotation of her star was far longer than Earth’s own, so I celebrated my aging several times throughout Eden’s single year. Though, having been born there, I not only celebrated on my truage and birthage days, I also celebrated on my world’s annual birth date. I hadn’t used static time much in my life before the Avii found humanity. However, as magic spread and chaos ensued, I found myself retreating to the safety of static time to remove myself from uncertain times. My birthage and truage grew greater discrepancy.

One day I was suddenly pulled from a static bubble and told to run. And I saw them. Glimpses here and there in frantic passing as they rescued as many as they could. No. That isn’t an apt description. They rescued as many as they could of those they desired to save. I tripped at one point in my running. While I regained my feet and looked about to try to make sense of it all, I noticed one of them near a static bubble. The creature put its hands together as if it were praying in the old fashion, and then it pulled them slowly apart, showing a hologram-like picture between them. It was a brain and neural system. Later I realized it was of the person inside the static bubble. The creature dropped its hands and the image dissolved; it turned and walked away without waking them. And I ran again. In chaos, I ran within a herd of humanity, corralled onto a transport ship like none I had ever seen before.

We only made it half way to the edge of the solar system before Eden was destroyed. Eden was an NQL regulated world. A “Neutron Quantum Link” bomb was nestled beneath her crust to ensure Eden’s population remained at peace within humanity’s empire. Her NQL had been activated. My perfect world was destroyed. She is only dust in space now. Adrift. Lost; as I am now. I have been told that those of us who were saved are among the few being taken to a hidden colony. A place for humanity to endure. Since I last left time, chaos has multiplied and spread, growing exponentially across human space. The creatures, the Avii, have told us that we are a species nearing extinction; a phrase I thought never to hear uttered throughout the rest of space and time. We will go to warp soon, travelling to an unknown alien world, far from any world currently known to human kind. We will be the survivor’s colony. The last of our species. According to my IDKey, my truage celebration is supposed to be within 50 hours. My body will have lived thirty-eight years in real time. It feels like so much more.