Sometimes science is a flashy thing: summoning lightning, causing earthquakes, commanding mechanical beings without even touching them
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Bella likes watching people. She also likes observing the End of the Universe while at Milliways. She wanders over to the window, and is rather surprised to find someone else admiring the view. Someone dressed in attire much like that she is used to. She decides to say hello
"I imagine that it's every time of the day simultaneously, in here, and no time at all, so they would both be equally appropriate. I wish you a good one, either way."
He smiles, a bit awkwardly. "There has never been anything else like it, and when it is gone, there will never be again. The scale of it is overwhelming."
"I wish you a good...day, as well. When exactly are you from, if I may be so bold?"
She pauses to look out of the window.
"Indeed. And to think that there are people who never think about anything grander in scope besides what they eat for breakfast and what their neighbors wear. It's sad, really, isn't it?"
"1899," he says, "New York. Well, Colorado at the moment, but New York generally."
In spite of the Serbian accent.
"As long as there is breakfast, and one's neighbors aren't going about unclothed, neither of those matters much. I couldn't imagine spending my time worrying about things like that, not when there is so much wonder in the world, so many things left to do."
1899? Only eight years from her own time! Bella is visibly startled, as almost everyone she's met at Milliways have been from well into the next century--and some even from the one after that.
"1891," she responds. "I'm from...well, I live in Germany, but my mother and sister live in Switzerland. Father lives in London. It's...complicated. But I forget myself! Bella Moriarty. And you, sir, are...?"
She extends a hand before nodding again.
"I can never understand how some people choose to be so ignorant of the greater mysteries around them."
"Nikola Tesla," he says, giving a half-bow as he clasps her hand with the faint awkwardness of a man who spends more time alone than with company. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Moriarty. I am from Serbia originally, but I lived in Paris for a time. Which is neither Germany nor Switzerland, but also not New York."
Attempting to explain why he says the things he says somehow makes him even more self-conscious.
"And not another planet either, unlike some here."
"Wireless energy, at the moment," he says. "Back home, it was lightning, but here, given the unique surroundings, I cannot help but want to study something else. The opportunity to see the end of everything--not just once, but every night, so each time we can see some new facet of it, something we hadn't seen before."
He glances to the window again. "I want to know what it sounds like, whether there are any messages being sent. Surely there are no people left living there--that would be a terrible fate, to die again each night--but machines, distress signals, may have survived."
I've tried sketching it, on the few times I've been here. I've tried explaining it through art, through mathematics, through every conceivable way I can imagine, but it just doesn't do the actual event justice.
And, when I return to Heidelberg, who would believe what I had seen? Father's work on asteroid motion was seen as improbable because it was beyond the realm of what telescopes can prove. What would they think of the end of everything?
"It puts things in perspective," he says, "how small we all are, how fleeting everything we do is. And what potential we have to destroy ourselves--that is nature, out there, but we are also destructive."
He looks away from the window, and back to her. "If we can understand that--really and truly understand it--then we will understand everything. There will be no secrets in the universe."
"Have you thought about... why it is? Why this place is here, I mean; the universe began, and so it has to end sometime, but a place for people from all times and places to come and witness it, long before it actually comes to pass in their own worlds. There has to be some reason, some higher purpose to it."
"No, to be honest, I really haven't thought about why Milliways exists. I've thought plenty about what it is and tried my hardest to explain how it is here, but I've never really thought about why. Perhaps it is to show us that we are not indestructible...
...Or maybe said higher power just has a rather bizarre sense of humor."
"I think that what it is cannot be separated from the how and the why. Something like this, something so... complicated, it cannot simply have appeared here by accident. It must have been deliberately placed here, and there must have been a reason for it. The amount of energy it would take to supply all the rooms here, if nothing else--no one knows what the power source is. No one has been able to find it. It's a bit puzzling."
"Sir?"
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"Good afternoon," he says. "Or evening--is it evening? The window does not help when it comes to time."
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"I'm not really sure."
She laughs.
"No, it really doesn't help, although it is quite fascinating."
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He smiles, a bit awkwardly. "There has never been anything else like it, and when it is gone, there will never be again. The scale of it is overwhelming."
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"I wish you a good...day, as well. When exactly are you from, if I may be so bold?"
She pauses to look out of the window.
"Indeed. And to think that there are people who never think about anything grander in scope besides what they eat for breakfast and what their neighbors wear. It's sad, really, isn't it?"
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In spite of the Serbian accent.
"As long as there is breakfast, and one's neighbors aren't going about unclothed, neither of those matters much. I couldn't imagine spending my time worrying about things like that, not when there is so much wonder in the world, so many things left to do."
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"1891," she responds. "I'm from...well, I live in Germany, but my mother and sister live in Switzerland. Father lives in London. It's...complicated. But I forget myself! Bella Moriarty. And you, sir, are...?"
She extends a hand before nodding again.
"I can never understand how some people choose to be so ignorant of the greater mysteries around them."
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Attempting to explain why he says the things he says somehow makes him even more self-conscious.
"And not another planet either, unlike some here."
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It's funny, she thinks, that I remember Huddersfield and Geneva, but know nothing of the time in between. Strange how the mind works.
"Indeed." She smiles, feeling as if she's forgotten something--oh!
"Nikola Tesla...You're the one doing all of those experiments in applications for electricity!"
She looks out the window again, motioning to the end of the universe.
"Are you considering doing some research into astrophysics, as well?"
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He glances to the window again. "I want to know what it sounds like, whether there are any messages being sent. Surely there are no people left living there--that would be a terrible fate, to die again each night--but machines, distress signals, may have survived."
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And, when I return to Heidelberg, who would believe what I had seen? Father's work on asteroid motion was seen as improbable because it was beyond the realm of what telescopes can prove. What would they think of the end of everything?
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He looks away from the window, and back to her. "If we can understand that--really and truly understand it--then we will understand everything. There will be no secrets in the universe."
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...Or maybe said higher power just has a rather bizarre sense of humor."
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