We were always concerned with the big things in the universe. The black holes and nebulae. The vast biological and synthetic empires at the edges of the war on heaven, conducting their own atrocities. The angels and demons that warred across the cosmos with the supermassive intelligences and their fleets of titans. But it was a very little thing that ended it all. The smallest thing, actually. Couldn’t even call it a quark, let alone an electron, or photon. It was even smaller. So small, no one saw them until it was too late. Not even the supermassives. No, a dinky ember of the universe that came before, still smouldering in the background radiation of our universe. All it took was time and the right trigger. Then the spark was lit and the embers reignited. The universe burned, all at once, and we can only hope that from its ashes a new reality will arise.
Paddy Dobson
10th May 2022