explaining the universe [closed]

[clear_horizons]

"Miss Katara, may I present: the universe," Picard said, gesturing in the Sensorium to what appeared to be nothing more than a big black nothing with a small glowing ball in the middle. He made the statement expecting and hoping for questions, and was honestly looking forward to answering them. Katara reminded him of himself and of Renè. In the

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[kaya_waterwave]

Katara had to admit, she was a little taken aback. First off, she had only vaguely heard of the Sensorium being referred to, and even then she was a little skeptical. So her first foray there was going to be daunting, especially when taken in this fashion. She observed the nothingness, which she supposed was space in her limited understanding of it. The glowing ball, however, she was not familiar with, and suddenly wished she had more time to spend in Wa Shi Tong's vast library. If he had only been a bit more receptive and less suspicious about their intentions, she might have been more prepared for what she was seeing now.

"Is the universe so small?" She said, hoping she didn't sound too naive.

[clear_horizons]

"No," he replied, his smile warm, "just young. It's about to get bigger. You see, this is billions of years ago. We're about to witness the birth of the universe." He pointed at the ball, as though by reaching out, he could somehow touch it and make it all the more real

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara's eyes were actually bugging out of her head now. Of all of the crazy things she had seen today, this had to take the cake. Never in a million years would she have imagined she;d be able to see something like this, and her eyes were absolutely riveted. She couldn't turn away.

She felt a sense of oneness in her, something that was sure Aang must feel every time he entered the spirit world, but had eluded her since she was unable to see what he saw. In this moment, Katara seemed to almost forget everything, and just stared into the heavens. The stars were the best part, seeing them burn endlessly, and for a moment she saw the beauty now in firebending, how lucky it must be to create and control a living breathing spark.

"It's so beautiful," Katara said softly. "And to think...there are so many other planets, so many places to see, and we don't even know. Its overwhelming, to know this exists. How do you deal with it all?"

[clear_horizons]

"I have a special image in my heart that keeps me from going mad at just how huge it is. Milky Way; Sol System," he suddenly intoned to the Sensorium, and the image quickly zoomed in on a spiraling collection of stars, and them down to one star in particular, around which several planets orbited. Picard pointed to each one, naming them, though he passed over the third planet, saving it for last.

"Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune. Pluto." His finger finally settled on the third planet, covered in blue and green and swirls of white. "Earth."