A distance so far, it takes trillions of cycles to reach, and uncounted n to the power 10 cycles to reach back; past and along the bending effect caused by an ordinary gas giant; past numerous smaller inner planets and various scattered objects, their gravitational spherical harmonics known and modelled to almost unimaginable accuracy, and then, after, the return. Onward. Beyond.
The task it had been set was one of infinitesimal finesse; the slightest mistake resulting in failure, and destruction. Not of itself, for it was safe where it was, out in the cold hard vacuum, so far from the star at the centre of the system it was really just a point of light somewhat brighter than any of the other countless billions. But if it failed, then all would be lost, and it might as well die.
It had waited a long time; thousands of orbits of the target planet had occurred since it had arrived, and it had itself been round the star several hundred times in its long, lonely watch. But now it's time had come. Now it had Purpose.
It could feel itself being drained. Long stored reserves were being used in vast quantities to do what it was doing. Reaching out, caressing, analysing, comparing, selecting and then - if it was sure it had found what it had been tasked to find - invading, enveloping, teasing apart and mapping. Inevitably; destroying.
Nothing was truly wasted or lost. The information remained, and that was the real harvest.
The task was nearly complete. So quick, after all the waiting. Far away, the planet was close to completing a full turn. Once it had, it could rest, and wait again. It would wait until another task was given it. It could wait a very long time.
But it felt, somewhere inside the silica-rock substrate that contained a thing that a human might call a conscious entity, that it would have failed if it were not called upon to reach out once more.
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Science FictionA Novella. It is New Year's Eve, and the world is getting ready to celebrate. But this year, as midnight comes, so does an inexplicably terrifying fate. In a desperate attempt to survive, a group of strangers, brought together by luck and chance, f...
