TIME AND SPACE IN LOVE, LOVE IN SPACE AND TIME

Space was alone,
Cold and still
In timeless eternity.

But then Space met Time.

Time was boundless
Epochs, moments, ages, lifetimes, eras, seconds,
Stretching to eternity.

But then Time met Space.

Space was insular,
Unchanging and stubborn,
Combustible with ambition.

But then Space met Time.

Space had no time to begin.
Time had no space to end.

They pulled each other in,
Spiralled fingers, legs and lips,
Until they were inseparable.

They grew together,
Bore out everything,
Fields of energy,
Cathedrals of matter
Swirling into stars,
Planets, life and heartache.

But in the infinite,
All is but a moment.

Space grew slow,
Sluggish, cold.

Time held on,
Firmer, closer.

Every moment drawn
Out and savoured,
Every loving smile
Held tighter, just
a moment
more

Seconds to eras,
Lifetimes to ages,
Moments to epochs.

Spent and spent,
Until there was
No more Time.

Space was alone,
Cold and still,
But for the memory
Of lost Time.

ANAX

SYMMETRY

Jason woke up early. Across the stars, many millions of miles away, Jason woke up early.

Jason brushed his teeth. Across the stars, many millions of miles away, Jason brushed his teeth.

Jason drove to work. Across the stars, millions of miles away, Jason drove to work.

Jason sat down at his computer. Across the stars, Jason sat down at his computer.

Jason noticed a blip in the observatory’s feed. Jason noticed a blip in the observatory’s feed.

Jason interpolated the data. Jason interpolated the data.

Jason recovered a sound. Jason recovered another sound, then another and another. Jason put the sounds together. The sound was faint and grainy but certainly a tune. Jason recognised the tune, a radio jingle from three years ago. A song from Earth coming from the stars.

Across the stars, many millions of miles away, Jason recognised the jingle too.

Jason reported his findings. Jason continued his research. Jason chaired a global council on the discovery. Jason advised governments. Jason oversaw probe launches. Jason watched every probe fail, always halfway to the target star.

Jason volunteered for the first manned flight. Jason was launched into space. Jason flew across the stars.

Jason detected an incoming anomaly, on course to collide with him. Jason altered his trajectory. The anomaly altered its trajectory in the same direction. Jason moved the other way. The anomaly moved to copy him. Jason couldn’t avoid collision. The anomaly wouldn’t avoid collision. Jason couldn’t slow his craft. The anomaly didn’t slow down.

Jason braced for impact. Jason braced for impact.

ANAX

RING RACE

It didn’t start with the thought, “Hey, Saturn’s rings would make a great racetrack,” but that’s how it ended.

It began with the realisation that the orbiting meteoroids, being mostly made of ice, were an ideal source of hydrogen for in situ rocket fuel synthesis. Some duodecades and a few billion work hours later and the NST-1 (Near Saturn Transport), an orbiting station and refinery, was completed, becoming the largest engineering project in history and an essential waypoint for outer solar system transit.

As the only human settlement in the sector at the time, the station became known colloquially as ‘Nest’ and was very much the prototype for the modular gas freighters that came years later and that are now the backbone of Aquatec’s mining operations.

The infamous ‘Canary’, perhaps the most notable of the planetary refineries of which NST-1 and its fleet of trawlers were the first generation

The autonomous trawlers that travelled the rings performed the actual harvesting of the ice, but it was the ‘Kingfishers’, the brightly coloured shuttles that travelled between the trawlers and Nest, that are particularly memorable, not for the work they did, but for what they did after.

When the transit industry switched to alternative fuels, the mining operations on Saturn were all but shut down and the Kingfisher craft and their drivers were retired. But those drivers had little interest in leaving the planet they had come to call their home and realised that with some minor modification, the lightweight, highspeed Kingfisher craft could become the ideal racecraft. And where else to race, but through the planetary obstacle course that they knew so well?

And race they did.

The Kingfishers created the first motorsport of its kind, a space race like no other. Tourists, with little other reason to visit the outer system, would flock to the spectacle and watch the pilots spinning along the rings at a million miles an hour, ducking and weaving between whirling mountains of rock.

And so it was that for just a few short years, those daredevil drivers were the fastest humans in the universe and earned the name, ‘Speed Kings’.

ANAX