Fall of the Quantaline
by Hazen Wardle
Many thousands of years ago, when men on Earth were only just discovering how to harness the power
of fire, a majestic race of space-faring creatures inhabited two planets of a star system so many light
years distant from the Earth even now the famed Kepler space telescope has not yet detected even the
faintest of light from their star.
This race was the Quantaline.
They were similar to humans only in that they were bi-pedal, and there the similarities cease. They were
birdlike and they vaguely resembled crows, though even there the similarities were minor. They had
thick plumes of downy black feathers on their heads, faces and bodies were covered in fine feathers in
any color of the rainbow, and like many bird species, females tended to have the more subdued colors.
Eyes, set nearly on the sides of their heads, were large; the iris’s colored and ringed in red, and the ever
common black pupil. What may have once been wings eons ago had developed into flightless arms, with
only the merest hint of having ever been wings. The most notable distinguishing feature of this race
was that of their side-by-side double beak. Additionally, some had telepathic ability and others had the
capability of creating micro-wormholes which gave them the ability to see into the future or the past.
At the height of their civilization they numbered in excess of a billion-billion across two worlds. They
were highly skilled in anything imaginable, and their deep-space travel capabilities took mere weeks
instead of lifetimes.
They eventually discovered Earth and primitive man. Scientists on the fringes of both government and
society secretly took to experimenting on the primitive humans, transporting them in great numbers to
the Quantaline worlds of Rrefosdlia & Wyaeenll, only to eventually release those who survived back into
the wilds of the planet Earth. (But that is another story.)
For nearly 50,000 years the Quantaline people inhabited these two planets, having originally migrated
from a star in a neighboring galaxy. They knew, however, that their time in the Quantas system (for that
was the name of their star and sun) would be short, on galactic scale. The planets were perfect but the
star was not. It was a red giant, nearing the end of its long life, but the Quantaline grew complacent over
the past fifty millennia and their population grew to unfathomable numbers.
And then Quantas started showing early signs of death.
Although the Quantaline had the technology and the capability, evacuating a billion-billion people would
take many hundreds of years— if not thousands— and scientists had calculated, at best, that they had
a maximum of five hundred years before solar expansion grew too great to remain on the planets.
Something had to be done.
The governing body scrambled and additional deep-space transports were constructed. Regardless
of social or economic status, people would be taken on a lottery basis, but after the first five years of
development and ship construction, it was clear to all that even after 500 years had passed, only a small
dent would have been made in reducing the population on both planets.
It was then that people started to realize their plight. Even though doomsday was centuries away they
became panicky and frightened. Notwithstanding, construction on the massive ships continued though
they were many years away from the first ship being ready even for testing.
“Death to the sun!” the people cried in the streets. “Down with that terrible beast in the sky that
just goes around burning people like some sort of psychotic arsonist” A near religious-like anti-sun
move sprang up and quickly gained momentum across both worlds. People did not want to leave, so a
courageous group of scientists banded together, and for the next twenty-five years they worked on the
problem of reducing the size of the sun, of reversing its death-spiral.
And finally they announced their plans. A thousand ships armed with anti-nuclear matter would
approach the star Quantas and fire simultaneously. The people on board and the ships alike would be
simply called…Firefighters.
Preliminary tests had shown a small anti-nuclear rocket to have a minute impact, so theoretical
reasoning indicated a massive assault would yield larger results of the same.
At first the government wanted nothing to with this outrageous plan, but soon they bought into it as
well, agreeing that a quick fix was much cheaper in the long run than building millions of deep space
ships. ‘This will shrink the size of the sun, extending its life another 50,000 years at least!’ the scientists
assured the governing body. Thereupon they canceled the increasingly expensive relocation project and
instead dumped every available dime and able-bodied Quantaline into building the rockets and ships.
The crews of Firefighters were carefully selected, and they became instant heroes overnight.
Only a handful of Quantaline scientists remained skeptical of the plan. “The data is inconclusive!” They
rallied day after day to get the governing body to listen, to change their minds, but they would not yield.
Ten years it took to build the ships, as they needed to withstand the extreme temperatures now
radiating from the increasingly larger sun, and after only two years into the project the calculations were
revised and it was determined another 500 ships would be required. Each ship carried one hundred
rockets.
One hundred and fifty thousand anti-nuclear rockets intended to fire into the heart of the sun they
called Quantas.
The small band of dissenting scientists dwindled, their numbers reduced to only five as their colleagues
were pressured by others. One of those remaining few was called Lotros. He and his fellow scientists
each had mental capability of creating these micro-wormholes as well as telepathic ability. They
discovered many years ago that they could join minds and create larger worm holes. This ability they
had been developing and could now create one large enough to pass a small ship through. This would
be their life-boat, their means of instant escape should the rockets indeed fail. But they also knew from
data collected and re-examined that the chances of the anti-nuclear rockets failure were much greater
than their success.
The choice they had to make was great and heavy. On one hand they could escape safely and avoid the
impending disaster, but on the other hand was their sense of duty and honor to their people, to warn
them and try averting danger, making a run for it only at the last possible minute.
The time came.
Parades and parties were held in honor the heroic Firefighters, and soon after the ships were launched
with billions of spectators on the surface watching the broadcast and the lucky thousands watching first-
hand from multiple orbiting space stations and luxury yachts. Low planetary orbits were choked with
personal, commercial, and governmental craft.
Lotros waited in the escape ship, ready at a moment’s notice to join minds with his friends and open
the wormhole. The other four scientists, their final attempt at stopping the sun-shrinking attempt a
failure, diverted their own ship away from the command firefighter, making a beeline toward Lotros and
his awaiting ship.
From a distance they joined minds and the wormhole opened.
But even these scientists made a miscalculation. Behind them, their dual planets and many space-
stations dwarfed by the meddlesome and ominous star Quantas, now riddled with anti-nuclear rockets.
But Quantas did not shrink as expected. It exploded; expanding at an incredible rate even the fleeing
scientists could not escape. It expanded to a monstrous size, enveloping the entire sphere of space out
past the fourth planet, both Quantaline planets of Rrefosdlia & Wyaeenll were vaporized in an instant. A
billion-billion lives snuffed out in mere seconds.
The shockwave blasted Lotros’ ship through the collapsing wormhole, damaging the craft as it
disappeared to some unknown point light-years distant.
The Quantaline, arrogant in their attempts to control the forces of nature, perished in an instant, one
survivor, drifting in deep space, alone.
Thanks to my good friend Peter K. and his recent incessant nocturnal ranting’s on Facebook about “That
psychopathic ball of fire”, the Sun, which were key in inspiring a story I never realized needed writing.
Now, find out more about Lotros in “Dr. Who: The Secret of Excalibur”, available in the short story
volume ‘Inverted Orbits vol 1’ http://www.angelfire.com/ex2/gt6er/books.html
