Time to Say Goodbye

Our planet is alone in the universe. Our small speck of dust with a covering in a mist, floating in a sun beam is unique among the countless trillions of dust specks in the universe.

In a field no different from the thousands of fields in England, an old man and a young boy sat together, staring up at the vast night sky. They had met by chance and begun an interesting conversation. The old man did not belong in this place. He was from a place so alien to the boy that to describe it would only cause headaches and confusion.

‘You know, those stars are so far away,’ the old man said, pointing up the dark sky, ’that by the time their light reaches our far corner of the galaxy, they could have lived out their entire life cycle and died. What we see are not the stars, but their shadows. We are seeing the ghosts of the stars.’

Pulling a shoot of long grass from the ground, the young boy toyed with it absent-mindedly as he listened to the old man.

‘Did you find anything?’ he asked the old man.

‘Oh yes. We found many things.’

‘Like what?’

‘We found entire civilisations. Whole empires that spanned the galaxy long before man’s ancestors even left the oceans around Pangaea.’

‘But they were all dead?’ the young boy asked.

‘Yes.’ The old man answered. A chilly gust of wind blew across the field. ‘We were too late.’

‘My teacher told me the universe was infinite.’

The old man smiled. His ancient skin wrinkled in a way it was not used to. ‘How delightfully naïve of him. The universe had a beginning, thus, it must have an end. That is the way of things, boy.’

The young boy looked down at the ground, thinking of what to say. He didn’t like the idea that his home was going to end someday. Death was too complicated for his young mind to fully comprehend.

‘Why were you late? Was there really no one left?’ he asked the old man.

The old man reached out to the sky with his fragile, withered arm and pointed to the sky. He singled out one star among the millions above.

‘We went everywhere. From Alpha Centauri to the furthest edges of the universe, we searched valiantly for any trace of life or intelligence. We found their ruins and their graves. We found histories of glory and hardship, courage and treachery. We charted the rise and fall of a thousand grand empires. Quadrillions of lives filled the universe with their glow. Quadrillions of stories that faded into obscurity long before man could even walk upright. We were too late. There were none left by the time we found them.’

It was ten minutes to midnight.

‘There must have been someone left.’ The young boy said. The optimism he showed was something quite alien to the old man.

‘No. We were alone in the universe. Life had risen, played out its act and had quietly fallen into the infinite night. We were the last roamers of the universe; the last souls to lay their eyes upon the galaxy’s divine beauty before the end.’

‘The end?’

‘The end of life, the universe and everything, my boy.’ The old man said, looking down at the small boy with a hint of sorrow in his ancient, pale eyes. ‘But you will never have to see such things. You do not have to concern yourself with the duties of the last caretakers of the universe.’

It was eight minutes to midnight.

‘My teacher told me that new life is always created. Somewhere, something new will be created.’ The young boy said.

Again the old man smiled. ‘Perhaps in a young universe. But this universe of ours is too old and feeble to usher in a new species. We are the last, my child. We are the death-throes of a galaxy preparing to succumb to the darkness.’

 ‘That’s sad.’ The young boy said, looking away from the stars above.

‘I know. You shouldn’t worry about it though, my boy. It is a long way away for you.’

‘Do you think it will hurt? The universe ending, I mean.’

The old man thought about this for a moment. ‘No. I think it will be quiet serene. Like falling into a cushion forever.’

‘That sounds nice. What happens afterwards?’

The old man shrugged. ‘Does it matter? None of us will be around to see it. No trace of us will be left for whoever comes after us. It will be a brand new universe completely free from any memory of humanity or any species that went before us.’

It was six minutes to midnight.

The old man got to his feet and helped the young boy up. ‘My time is coming to end, boy. I must return or else I will miss it.’

The young boy nodded.

‘But before I leave, I must say this: Despite what I have told you, despite how inevitable the end is, you can still make a difference. The world is yours for the taking, if you can set your mind to it. You still have time and you should use it well.’

The old man, back in his own time after his once-only trip to the past, poured himself the last of his brandy. Created over three hundred years ago, it was the last drop of brandy on the planet once called Earth. The blue planet was blue no more. The oceans were gone. The rainforests were gone. The icecaps were gone. Only an endless desert remained. It was a dead planet, no different from the specks of microscopic dust that floated in the air of the bedroom of the old man.

In what was once called the Mariana’s Trench,  the final bastion of humanity rested. Every member of the human race was gathered here. All of twelve of them.

Protected from the dead planet outside by their force-fields, the ancient caretakers of the universe prepared their final moments.

They all assumed their positions wearing their finest clothes and immaculately groomed to meet their fates with a touch of class. They gathered in small groups of two or three or sat by themselves in places of personal significance. The last of the food had been turned into a feast for those who wished to partake.

The old man chose to sit on the balcony looking over the centre of the facility where the nuclear reactor sat. His glass of brandy rested in his hand, slowly warming to the perfect temperature

The time was two minutes to midnight.

Beside him, his radio crackled and a transmission from one of the old man’s colleagues played out.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to say that serving with you for the past two hundred years has been the greatest honour of my life. I cannot say what comes after this moment, but I can promise you it will be a swift end. Goodbye, my friends.’

The time was one minute to midnight.

The reactor at the centre of the settlement began to cry out as it approached critical levels. The last ounces of power that could be drained from the power cells had been used to overheat the reactor which would lead to an explosion large enough to atomise the settlement.

The old man raised his glass in the direction of the radio. ‘Yes. Time to say goodbye.’

With a trembling hand, he raised the glass to his lips and took one final sip of the ancient brandy before the reactor exploded in a bright flash and the final sentient souls in the universe were wiped out.