The Nightmare Zone lay before Twilight and Forge. To the naked eye there was only the slightest of changes to the blank vacuum, maybe just the slightest tint and the vague impression of depth, like a shadow lying across black card. Twilight moved her head slightly and out of the corner of her eye vague lines and shades flickered, almost forming perceivable shapes and colours, but disappearing if you tried to focus on them.
They'd been dodging smaller Zones for about four hours and according to Forges flight recorder the Valkyrie was situated inside one of the largest fields. Twilight glanced round at Forge and wondered what he could see through his mechanical senses. Maybe it was better not knowing...
“So where in this mess did you see the Valkerie?” Twilight asked as they inched closer to the border.
“Plotting projected course now.” Forge replied quietly. If Twilight hadn’t known better she might have said that Forge sounded...afraid?
Definitely not better knowing what he could see.
Be careful Twilight.
Yeah that place is not fun. I don’t think even I could throw a party there.
To be fair to Forge, Twilight was apprehensive about entering the region as well. As far as she had knew no-one had ever worked out exactly what the Nightmare Zones were or where they came from, even ‘god’ level beings such as herself had avoided them unless absolutely necessary.
There had been many theories over the eons; some more plausible than others. Most races upon discovering their first Nightmare Zone went for the theory that they were simply weak points in the fabric of the universe; area’s where the seams that connected the membranes of existence had come loose. That theory worked...well in theory, but it did little to explain why the manifestations of this were so....well...they were called Nightmare Zones for a reason.
Twilight and Forge had both had a long time to study the ins and outs of reality in their lifetimes and had both agreed that the above theory, though popular, probably wasn't correct or, at least it wasn't the whole story.
There’s always that theory.
No.
It’s no more crazy then all tha’ other theories you’ve heard Twi.
Maybe, but what it implies... it doesn't bear thinking about.
“Calculations completed.” Forge said, “Is Twilight unit prepared?”
“Huh,” Twilight murmured, “Quite a distance in. Sod’s law I guess, couldn't be on the edge, could it?”
“I would be more concerned if it appeared easy.” Forge replied.
The two set forward, almost immediately Twilight noticed what appeared to be wisps of blood red vapour begin to appear, becoming visible in the very corners of her eyes. Twilight blinked a few times tried to ignore them, forging on into the Nightmare Zone. The two looked at each other, then moved closer together as a low, sonorous rumble sounded from somewhere within; almost like the Zone was welcoming them in.
Very interesting! Rare to see adventure stories set far out in the Heat Death.
Age of Descent, hmm, is that when protons and neutrons decayed? 41st age seems to relate to 10^41 years in the future, the upper estimate for the decay of all atoms. If so, then Twilight is in the Black Hole Era of the universe, with nothing but black holes evaporating away, waiting for 10^100 years when the last one is gone and the universe enters the Dark Era.
Really interested to see how this will progress!
So short lol
3936001 I was kinda making those age numbers up, didn't realise there was a correlation!
My thinking was it would be appropriate if there were 42 era's of the universe, H2G2 and stuff.
3936001 so you're saying the universe will last approximately one googol years?
Nice round answer, I like it.
3936297 Give or take a few factors of 10.
3936151 100 Trillion years from now, all fusable hydrogen is used up and the Stelliferous Era ends; galaxies go dark even as Dark Energy accelerates clusters away from each other; island universes of supergalaxies result. (Supergalaxy; the end result of a group of galaxies merging). The Degenerate Era begins.
Tl;dr: No more stars, Local Group merges, others too far away to see. All galaxies go dark.
After that, sometimes star remnants collide and explode or even create a red dwarf. As time passes, gravitational 'flinging' sends 90% of stars into intergalactic space and the other 10% into the central black holes.
Tl;dr: Galaxies evaporate.
Protons decay with a halflife of ~10^39 years. As such, carbon and oxygen and the like in white dwarves fades to hydrogen before vanishing alltogether. Only matter left is positrons (Anti-electrons), electrons, and the massive supermassive black holes that used to have galaxies. Dark Energy has stretched the universe so that any photon created extends to wavelength larger than the universe. The Black Hole Era begins.
Tl;dr: Atoms decay into nothingness. Dark Energy darkens light so much you couldn't see the sun if it was right infront of your face.
10^41-10^100 years, the Black holes are the only ones left, slowly seeping off energy into the cold void. Sometimes a black hole nears the end of its life, and Hawking Radiation makes it glow red, then yellow, white, before exploding in a burst of gamma... or it would if Dark Energy didn't immediately darken the light. At the end, the last black hole ends and the Dark Era begins.
Tl;dr: Black holes simmer away slowly.
Googol Years and On, the few electrons and positrons left from the decayed atoms span the cosmos. It is nearly absolute zero, and you'll find a single particle in a space the size of the observable universe. Sometimes, electrons and positrons grab each other electrically and form unstable positronium, the two spiraling together and annihilating in a burst of immediately-darkened gamma. Nothing else happens, presumably forever.
Tl;dr: Game over man! Game over!
3936792
OMG, I learned something sciencey today.
So anyways... Dark Energy is actually aptly named, except its aptness will not apply until "The 39th Age"? Cool...
My guess is the nightmare zones are places where space time has begin to unravel, undergoing the big rip. But as a result of these holes forming certain things from... outside have been able to make there way in