The End

-7. Mass

The longest mile.

Even the hardest.

No more shade but not yet light.

Too ahead to go back but not far enough to be considered safe.

The core of the transition.

All devoted to learning and growth, foundation of the everything which hopefully will come, where turmoil and antagonisms certainly don't diminish, indeed.

Persisting in the growth path initiated in the previous phases, the lump becomes more and more greater and able to generate a growing gravitational pull which, attracting and compressing towards itself other matter, significantly increases internal temperature and pressure.

From lump to mass also beauty increases and, unconsciously becoming more attractive, it happens also of magnetizing a bit of everything, good and bad. The mass on the road doesn't like the company of any object irresistibly moving towards her, she'd like to choose who and what keep closer, in short, to make some 'in' selection, but unfortunately it's not always possible. It so happens that the good matter feeds her desire to be one day fire, while the one which can't sent back to the sender sometimes hurts her, far beyond the surface, jeopardizing her general evolutionary path.

In addition, the rising star is in full swing on an unstable orbit and this amplifies the feeling of nausea experienced when she has to digest something she really doesn't like.

The possibility to keep stable without going crazy is influenced by a number of scientifically well-defined factors, simplifying density and temperature; a nebula is more unstable as her mass is bigger and her size and temperature lower, while a nebula is safe when the mass-temperature ratio makes gravity to be effectively counterbalanced by pressure, thus avoiding the premature departure of the apprentice. For dummies it means that the atmosphere must become really hot and the space available to grow seems never enough. It means that in order to go to the heaven it's necessary first to pass through the hell and its bestial heat. Only those really strong, that is, dense, can make it. Dense doesn't mean big, indeed, carrying around a cumbersome size can make all more complicated; dense means full of consistency, concentrated, able to look at the goal without distractions.

Starting from these first hypotheses next astrophysics noticed some inconsistencies; in the equilibrium theory just illustrated indeed it was assumed that the cosmic region in evolution was surrounded by a static mean, but so it never happens. If factors outside the mass are considered too, it results that her actual evolution rate is slower. In other words it means that, being more beautiful, the apprentice not only attracts bodies physically less talented, but at the same time becomes object of the desire of already formed asters, which see in her young and succulent matter an excellent combustible for feeding their own expansionist desires.

'Eat or be eaten' it's valid not only in the Earth's savannah but also in the immensity of the spatial abysses, and if the mass isn't enough careful she risks to become firewood for fireplaces already bigger and more structured than her.

Another key reading is possible: the more nuisances you've around, the more it becomes difficult to evolve, in general to get any result. The metamorphosis prefers loneliness; it doesn't depend on the intrinsic independence of the traveller, it's just a way to contain entropy, to minimize the risk that something will go wrong.

Concluding, the science agrees that reaching the target of the star is an absolutely uncommon success. The context is borderline impossible, every gram of mass is an hard conquest, while all around try to steal you essence. If the case or the fortune doesn't help the failure is the most likely goal; wondrous examples are black holes and white dwarfs, amazing celestial phenomena as obscure as dangerous.

The mass feels this uncertainty and in the rare moments of break it's impossible not to question about what destiny is really waiting for her: nearly imperishable jewel of the cosmos or anonymous stellar fertilizer?