Personal Log
Observer - Designation They Are Worth Remembering
Verification Code When the Great fight, it is the Small who suffer

I find myself standing at a precipice, looking across the horizon of this world I have called home for the past fifteen of its years. It is a quiet place, devoid of the works of the planet's inhabitants, be they native or migrant. Lush foliage blankets the coast, snaking its way up the steep cliff, splitting stone. Here, I cannot hear the bustle of cities, or the rumbling of factories, not even the roar of spaceports.

But even in such a location, sentience makes itself known. There is not a place on this planet where its presence cannot be detected, in shape or shadow.

I watch the twilight sky, extraordinarily clear for a world that had dealt with considerable light pollution issues even before an asteroid struck it. The sun begins to set, taking with it the blue hue of the horizon. The stars begin to make themselves visible, but now they must compete with much closer lights- orbital habitats, industrial cargo vessels, surface-to-orbit launch vehicle, exploratory vessels hurtling to other worlds, and a nascent war fleet.

However, even they are not what draws my attention as I look at the black expanse above me. Rather, it is the newest additions to the night sky that catch my gaze- two hundred and fifty bright points of light, crowded together. Cetus, the constellation from which it has come, is now deformed, transformed into a gravid whale that looks ready to give birth at a moment's notice.

These new lights are brighter than everything else in the sky, save for the massive moon of this world. They can be seen at night in the hearts of the largest cities on the planet, and even in daytime a sharp observer can find them. For the past ten days have they been visible to the naked eye, and the past ten days have been ones of tension. I see it in the way the bustle of life has seemingly slowed, as if everyone is holding their breath, and in the furtive glances they spare to the sky whenever possible, whether they be human, Race, or fithp. From television programs to social events to the internet, the newest constellation dominates them as readily as it dominates the night sky.

After twenty years, the Race Colonization Fleet has arrived in the solar system.

With this, the final half of the conflict begun twenty years ago begins. Though an entire human generation has passed since Earth's victory over its invaders, the war was but a part of the equation. The system that has been painstakingly built by human, Race, and fithp over the past two decades is an incomplete one- the incoming Colonization Fleet, the Emperor's reply, and the diplomatic envoy to Home, are its final pieces. It is they that will either break this system, or prove its resiliency.

The sun has all but vanished below the horizon, and more of the stars make themselves visible, glittering in the infinite blackness. For the past few months, I have noticed a growing trend in stargazing parties across the planet, primarily focused on Tau Ceti, though a few have been focused on Alpha Centauri and the two systems owned by the Race. There is no practical purpose behind it- even with a powerful ground-based telescope, Tau Ceti remains little more than a point of light hanging in darkness. One cannot hope to see the Race's presence, or even Home itself, a power that the most advanced space telescopes are scarcely capable of.

And yet, perhaps it is because they only see a point of light, that they continue to look. A way to recognize and acknowledge their worries of the future. They naturally think of the relations with the Race, of the possibility that the Emperor will order a resumption of the war and bring all five species to the brink of annihilation, but when they look to the source of their concerns, all they see is a point of light. The uncertain future of four worlds and five peoples, made manifest in a faint light.

In a matter of weeks, Earth will finally grapple with the issue of the Colonization Fleet, and all the possible decisions will fall away, until one remains. In less than four years, the Emperor's reply to Earth will finally arrive, and the first transmissions from the Ramesses-Hattusillis mission will follow in another seven. On the decisions made in the coming decades hinges the fate of entire civilizations.

To borrow a human aphorism, I have my work cut out for me.

Rather than recording the words of the people who live these events entire decades after the fact, however, I now have an opportunity to watch them unfold before me. To record the changes in the people as they react to the changes in the world around them, year after year, decade after decade. A more ambitious and difficult process than my previous endeavor, but one that could prove far more rewarding.

But such work will not begin yet. For now, I continue to watch the sky. The sun finally sets. The long day of silence between Earth and Home has come to an end, and now night has begun. The light of the sun has now vanished, and even the new constellation will disappear, one by one, as the fusion drives of the Colonization Fleet deactivate and carry a hundred million sleeping souls to this planet. Soon, even the stars will seem to fall out of sight, until only one remains- far dimmer than many others, and yet in the eyes of the world, it seems brighter than anything else.

Quiet falls on an entire world, as a night of uncertainty begins for the worlds of humanity, the fithp, and the Race. Whether or not the sun will rise again remains yet to be seen.