Retransplant for agressive species has always served the council well, the situational disruption for class H and above predator species has always been a transient event. The relative risk of exodus from the world in question has been mitigated through replacement to a known isolation period distance of 300 standard units. The contagion should entirely eradicate the native population of class B predator tool users in less than half of the isolation distance depending on the host species resilience. There does not seem to be a choice as the predator H species is indistinguishable from the more benign native class with exception to photosensitivity. The council will reconsider at one and two half-life of the isolation distance. Council case closed.

They said it would take almost fifty years for nature to reclaim what humans destroyed. They said humanity will prevail. They said so much before it happened.

But look at us now, only a year after.

Separated.

Frightened.

Destroyed.

And all it took was taking away our stars. We didn’t knew how vulnerable we were. How deeply fear loomed in our very souls. Who would have know that the fear of darkness wasn’t just one children had?What bad things could happen if we would be just covered in darkness?It didn’t take long after the stars disappeared for humans to turn on each other. First some crazy ones spoke of the apocalypse. Many took their own lives. Then the people turned crazy in this never ending darkness. Killing each other. You could only trust your family. And even then, they changed. Everything changed.

The even the very nature changed. Animals turned to monsters. Becoming more ferocious.The few survivors after the first months were those who adapted fast or had resources horded beforehand.It was as if someone just turned off everything. People began to wonder why it happened. Was it punishment from god? Why take away the stars? And not only the stars. Every advanced technology stopped working. Will it ever come back?Humanity learned fast how depended they had become. Most people where not able to tell how much time had passed. But there where a few.We call them Timekeepers. How would have thought that people with hourglasses would become some of the most important ones in the few reclusive communities that had survived?I am one of them, Timekeeper Raphael they call me. Probably because of my blond hair and handsome face which reminds them of drawings of an angle.My real name though is Raphael Morgenstern. I used to be a janitor at a High school. Nothing fancy, just a job to meet ends.

In a few hours it will be a whole year for me and the people around me living in total darkness. Helping and surviving off of each other. Hunting, cooking, learning together how to live in this new world.I looked up in the sky, wondering if I will ever see the stars, the sun or the moon again.

We all lost so much, and we will keep loosing.

But then it happened.

A Bell rang.

It resonated deep within ones very own soul.

“Awaken and use our power”

And the darkness was gone. In front of me, the stars humanity missed returned. More brilliant and beautiful then ever. Recognizing differences from before. Earth used to have one moon. Now it seemed as if we had three. Blue, red and yellow moons orbiting the earth. And I am pretty sure other stars changed positions as well. Are they the same ones as before? Did earth travel in space?What voice did I hear?

I streched out my hand towards one of the moons.

My hand was glowing.

“Awaken”, they voice said.

“Use our power”, it repeated.

“The age of magic has begun”

Press 'submit' on the portal and our tender is uploaded. The website was glitchy tonight. But that's 'job done'. It's 8pm. We're half a day ahead of the Friday, midday deadline. And by 'we' I mean me. I sent the others home an hour ago. I can relax tonight. No need to come into the office tomorrow. Long weekend doesn't make up for the extra hours for weeks on end, but it's something.

Check the phone. Supposed to be seeing Shannon tonight. But no text for about an hour and a half. Last text was from me to confirm I was on track. Can't double-text. Especially to an ex.

She's probably going to flake. Shit happens but being totally ghosted by an ex, especially after things went so well two weeks ago - ouch.

But shit does happen. People are still acting a bit weird since the stars disappeared. Obviously, nowhere near as bad as when it first happened. People went loopy for a few months. Religious cult maxing. Orgies. Divorces up. Abortions up. Resignations up. Conception rate rock bottom. Consumer debt giving state debt a run for its money.

I can't be too critical. I went through that ayahuasca phase. And all the stuff with Shannon. Cheating. Arguing about who cheated first. Then the miscarriage. Then the official break up.

But we all became accustomed to the starless sky. The power of hedonic adaptation still shocks me. Good or bad, we just get used to shit.

Even astronomers and cosmologists. You'd have thought those professions would be emptier than the sky. But no. They became obsessed with studying what was left in the solar system with new vigour. A new set of missions planned to all the planets, even the Oort Cloud.

But people are still acting weird. So it's important not to take anything too personally. I AM taking it too personally. But it's important to pretend I'm not.

I say bye to the security guard as I'm walking through reception, looking down at my phone, frantically swiping everything on every dating app, to see if I can save my first free Thursday night for weeks. The app crashes, some sort of network overload. WhatsApp has crashed too. Maybe Shannon has texted me. Maybe I should head to the burger bar anyway. It's only around the corner and I've got nothing to eat at home might as well go.

The security guard isn't there, weird.

The streets are heavy with idiots. All stood still. So many for a Thursday evening. Something must be on at the arena. Is this the week that Taylor Swift is here?

Get my face out of my phone for a minute. Cars are stopped in the street. The drivers have stepped out onto the road. Everyone is looking up. I ask someone why. He looks at me like I'm an idiot, "Haven't you heard?" I've been at work. "The stars are back."

I can see two dim dots in the sky, dulled by the city lights and my overstimulated eyes. But that's just Venus and Jupiter, right? I keep looking. My eyes adjust slowly. I am another gormless mouth-breather blocking the street. Is that another dot of light? Another one perhaps. Are my eyes playing tricks on me?

My phone buzzes. It's Shannon. "Where are you?" she asks.

"Where are you? You ghosted me."

She laughs, "I'm at the burger place. All the apps have crashed. Have you seen the sky?"

"I'm looking, but... is it real? Hold on, I'm just around the corner."

Walking the last block to the burger bar with my neck craned, looking up. Bumping into people. Sorry this, sorry that. Nobody cares. They keep looking up, they can't turn away. Their universe is suddenly infinite again.

Shannon is outside the restaurant with the staff and all the customers, faces on the sky. I don't say hello. I take her hand in mine. She brings her eyes down and I think I can see a star glinting in them. I want to believe it.

Then someone trips the power and the city lights go dark for blocks. Everyone around us coos. We look up. The Milky Way stretches across the sky. Glitter scattered over sepia and red fog. Shannon squeezes my hand. We're so back.

END

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When we lost contact with the Voyager probes, our curiosity was piqued. So we pointed telescopes out to where Voyager I and II should have been.

When we lost the stars, we panicked. We had our sun. But we had no background cosmic radiation, not a single photon from the greater universe coming our way.

In seven months, we warred; the Polish took the entire planet, then renamed themselves to the Terra Firma System Union. A reminder that we still had Terra.

We discovered Hard Light just after the war, and with it, we sent probes all over our system.

Then, the stars came back.

We were on the opposite side of the Milky way, in another thousand-light-year wide anti-star bubble. No matter. We poured all our resources into FTL. Every last person helped. And then we had the GEP FTL Engine, able to cross that thousand light-year gap in mere days.

But we didn't head for the closest star. We went for Centauri. It was ours, and would be ours.

And what did we find when we arrived?

You.

You, the ones who ripped us away from the same stars that pushed us to land on our moon. You, the ones who caused another World War to happen. You, the ones responsible.

Even though Sol is gone, this place is still ours, and we will fight tooth-and-nail to make it happen. Leave this place and a one thousand five hundred light year bubble around where Sol used to be. Or we'll happily start the Humanity's first interstellar war crawling our way back to where Sol's original home.

Leave.

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