Author: Bryant Benson

Earth 23979

Ancient Records: Elder’s Account

From the deepest reaches of the endless abyss, he emerged. He descended on our world like a shining god, a gift of annihilation from the black heavens. His name was Nim. The oldest of the elders remembered the day of his arrival. He was marked by the splitting of the sky and there had been rain ever since.

It was debated amongst the greatest minds whether he was the cause or correlation of the onslaught that arrived shortly after his disappearance. Had the ancestors simply waited to learn instead of comparing their own limited perceptions with one another in futile effort to be the most correct before the imminent extinction of their species, they could have basked in the glory that was their unlikely and fleeting existence in the first place. A common regret of the dying. However, even the greatest minds are limited to the knowledge of their time. And in those last days, even the greatest minds prayed to Nim for another single day.

Nim, the essence of the void itself, was simply there to observe. He was no god as that concept was lost on him like the idea of flight would be lost on a worm. Grander most likely as even a worm interacts with something that can fly. Perhaps Nim was the worm and every aspect of human existence was a culmination of unconscious factors such as the sun. Nim’s purpose, like that of the worm, would never be understood by the sun or anything like it that appears grandiose yet lacks cognitive ability.

Earth 23979

Nim’s Log: Arrival

I awoke upon entering Earth’s atmosphere. Having been briefed for the equal likelihood of both a suicide mission and an exploratory one, I was happy to learn that I had survived the portal jump and was on the latter of the two possible outcomes. However, my heart sank to see the vastly different landscape of the eerily familiar planet that I had just left. I know it was hypothesized that a parallel Earth would lie on the other side of my journey but I still feared that I had simply been regurgitated by the abysmal vortex and arrived sometime in a rather depressing future.

I found the most difficulty in landing as the surface was riddled with spiraling wind storms that wielded acidic rain. I collected samples from their oceans only to find them devoid of life and rife with toxic elements. It was undrinkable and burned the flesh. For a moment I considered that I had arrived at the planet’s birth but what I thought were caverns and jagged mountains were decaying cities in the process of being reclaimed by the soil they were formed from. As desolate as the strange Earth seemed however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. Regardless, my Earth’s survival depended on my success with 23979 and my objective was clear.