Author : Roger Dale Trexler

They gathered, all of those interested in watching, at a position twice the distance Pluto was from the sun. Onboard the maiden ship, Corosin, Trya watched intently.

“It’ll happen soon,” Gavin said. He smiled, revealing a perfect row of teeth. Long ago, when Sol was still a yellow sun, humanity had eradicated tooth decay, cancer, and all other diseases.

“Do you think it will hurt?” asked Trya. Her blue eyes glistened in the artificial light.

“Hurt?”

“When Sol explodes?” she said. “How do you know it doesn’t feel pain?”

“Not at all.” He paused and thought on it a moment. “We’ve known Sol was going nova for thousands of years,” he said. “That’s why we moved out to the stars. Mankind will survive.”

“But what happens when all the suns in the universe go out?” asked Trya.

Gavin grinned. “Relax. That won’t happen for millions of years. We’re working on machines that can cross into other dimensions. By the time all the stars in the universe fade to black, we’ll simply jump into another dimension.”

“But what happens when all the stars in all the dimensions die out?” she asked.

Gavin nodded. “That’s a good question. By that time, we’ll have figured out a way of building our own stars.” He pointed toward Sol. “Imagine having a star just like Sol to replace Sol when it’s gone.”

“When Sol goes nova, it’ll be the end of the beginning of mankind,” Trya said. “Don’t you feel any remorse of it?”

Gavin shook his head. “Not really.” Then, his expression softened and he took her hand. “It’s Sol,” he said. “The birth star of mankind. It’ll go nova, explode, contract back down into a white dwarf, then transform again in maybe a million years into something else. It’s the nature of a star. Sol served its purpose.”

He turned to her. “Now, we have to honor Sol’s sacrifice.”

“By watching it go nova?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

They sat there for a long time, staring out the viewport of the ship. With the passing of each second, Sol was visibly shrinking. It was something Gavin had seen a dozen times before, but there was something that touched him emotionally about Sol’s impending transformation. He had lied to Trya about not feeling remorse for Sol. He did feel a pang in his heart for the star that had birthed mankind so terribly long ago.

The ship’s computer alerted them that Sol would go nova within minutes.

Gavin held her tighter.

“I don’t want Sol to go nova,” Trya said. “Why can’t things be like they were when we lived on Earth?”

“Mankind wasn’t supposed to stay tied to one world,” Gavin told her. “We were supposed to go out into space and explore. We did.”

“But we left Sol behind,” she said.

“Sol will always be a part of us,” he said. “And we’ll always be a part of Sol.”

The security claxon went off, but Gavin flicked a switch and shut it off.

Through the viewport, they saw the light go out of Sol. Darkness filled the cabin of the ship.

Then, a massive explosion filled the view port with light. The computer automatically adjusted the screen so as not to hurt their eyes, and Gavin and Trya watched as the newborn supernova Sol was born.

“I will miss you, Sol,” Trya said.

“We all will,” Gavin replied. “But it’s time to go home. I’ll leave a probe here to monitor Sol.”

Trya nodded.

“Let’s go home,” she said.

He dropped the probe, then turned their ship toward the stars and left Sol behind.