Akasha
My daily routine guides me next to a window, spanning nearly the length of the entire hallway. Looking out, I can see space. An endless void of darkness, pitch black. I walk by this window every day, and see the same thing. It’s lonely sometimes, knowing that our little structure is the last remnant of civilization in the universe. I know pretty much everything there is to know about Kuroe 228922, but I wish there was something else out there, like different civilizations to study and explore.
I’ve read about what the universe used to be like. Things called planets and stars littered the cosmos, each harboring a different environment. Most of which were uninhabitable, but each one was still unique. I do love Kuroe, but after so much time here, I’ve started to want something different.
As I walk forward, the window ends as well as the view. The bag I am carrying is rather heavy, containing various packages for the residents of Kuroe 228922. I’ve worked this job for many years now, so the weight doesn’t bother me at all anymore, but it feels like the weight increases slightly by the day, but I’m certain that’s all in my head.
I’ve been delivering packages for 90 years now, and have had a lot of interactions with the people of Kuroe, to the point where I personally know about 90% of the population. It is very rare to meet someone new nowadays, but if I ever do, it’s the highlight of the year. The frequency of meeting new people has decreased over time, the last new person I met was nearly 5 years ago.
The curved hallway opens up to the main area of Quadrant III, a vertical elliptical-shaped space that connects most of Quadrant III’s residential and commercial layers. Today, I have been assigned residential packages, whose layers are above and beneath the center layers of commercial areas. I take an elevator to the lowest residential layer, one which is so low it is hidden from the main area. From there, I take one simple look at a list of packages to deliver and instantly create a route in my head, one of the perks of doing this job for such a long time.
My first stop brings me to an old lady named Figma who lives with her whole family, all the way down to her great-grandchildren, who I believe are now in their 30’s. Figma owned a very successful business when she was younger, and sold it to a larger corporation. Because of that, she amassed a hefty sum of money, and was able to afford multiple houses she renovated and merged together, all of which were located on the edge of Quadrant III, with windows looking out into space.
As I reach for the doorbell, someone in the hallway calls out to me.
“Hey Akasha!”
I turn around and see one of the grandchildren of Figma, Connie. There’s nothing much to say about him, average height and build, but he makes up for it with bright blue contacts and blue dyed hair. Even though his Grandmother has enough wealth to last until Connie’s grandchildren die, he runs his own trading card shop. He must be on his way home from somewhere.
“Hi Connie.” I say as he approaches.
“You have a package for someone?” he asks, noticing the relatively small parcel in my hand.
“Yea, it’s for Emerald.”
Emerald is one of Figma’s daughters, but not Connie’s mother. Their whole family is so large it took me a while to get a grasp on the whole organization of it.
“Emerald is out right now, but I can take it for you.” Connie offers
“Thank you.” I hand the package to him, then Connie opens the door to their house and heads inside.
“You can come in if you want.” He offers
“Sorry, I’m on the job right now,” I say, lifting my bag with the other packages in it. “But I can pay a visit on one of my next days off.”
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“Ok, sure.” He says, turning around. He then suddenly stops and turns back around before I can leave. “Hey, has anyone told you…?” he asks.
“Huh? About what?” I ask back, confused about what Connie’s saying.
“Grandma Figma… last week… she passed away.”
“Ahh,” I say in response. I really don’t know what to say to that. I know she was incredibly influential in the development of quadrant III, and Kuroe as a whole, but I never knew her too well, despite how frequently I deliver packages here. Figma was getting up there in age though, It was really just a matter of time until it happened. I know Connie must feel sad about it. “I’m sorry, I… don’t know what to say.” I admit, no use in trying anything else right now.
“It’s all good, we’ve all grieved, and moved on. Only thing we can do now is remember her, and all she’s done for us.” Connie says, understanding both his and my emotions.
I grunt and nod awkwardly before leaving, the rest of the packages in my bag calling for attention. I really wanted to get out of there, I don't really enjoy talking about death. Since humans live for thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of years under the right conditions, death for a resident does not happen too often. Naturally, this causes quite a commotion. It is almost seen as more of an event than someone losing their life.
That always made me uncomfortable. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable, especially after losing someone close to them. That’s why many people choose to keep the passing of someone close a secret for a while, so when news does reach the public, it feels much quieter, like it should be.
Obviously, Connie and the rest of Figma’s family decided to keep news of her death a secret, and they most likely intend to do so for a long time because of her importance. If I were to guess, I don’t think they’ll formally announce it for at least 5 years, if they can get away with it for that long.
It makes sense, I lost my younger sister when we were young, and we didn’t even get the chance to delay the announcement. Before we knew it, crowds were surrounding our whole family. The news of someone passing, and someone who was not even ten yet was the greatest news in 100,000 years. I was not even twenty yet at the time, and the experience of being consumed by that crowd right after my sister died was something I don’t think I will ever forget, no matter how much I want to.
After running away, I made my way through my deliveries, traveling layer by layer, greeting all the people I know, which is literally everyone. After finishing the deliveries of quadrant III, I was done for the day.
Because of my hurry after talking with Connie, I managed to finish everything pretty quickly, a little bit before my normal shift ended. This left me with a bit more free time than I am used to, so I called my best friend, Gaia, on my way home.
“Hey.” She answered after picking up.
“Hey Gaia, I got off work a little early today, wanna get together?” I asked
“Nah, I’m working today, but I got the weekend off.”
“Oh ok, I’m off then too.”
“Alright, see you tomorrow.”
“Yea, see you.” I hung up after the quick conversation. Gaia isn’t very talkative, so I do most of the conversation directing when we spend time together. I still like her despite it, she was one of the only people I could turn to after my sister died, the only person who comforted me.
On my way home in quadrant II, I pass by the window looking out into space again. It’s still unsettling, the fact that we are all that's left in the universe. In history and mythology books, there used to be things called stars, and things called planets that orbited them. Humanity originated on one of these planets, but the name of that planet is never consistent, implying that we lost it at some point, or just forgot about it. Back then, human lifespan was very very short, not even 100 years on average by the time they left that first planet. I can’t even imagine living for only 80 years, there’s so many things to do in just Kuroe, having the whole universe but only 80 years with it must have been horrible for them. Back during those early days, space was filled with these stars. Books say that they looked like tiny points of light, and no matter which direction you looked, your vision was filled with them. I often fantasize about that time, being able to see a sky full of stars. But now all we have to look at is a void of darkness.
Apparently, these stars had a lifespan, and eventually they all died out over the course of trillions and trillions of years. The only things left in the universe capable of producing energy were objects called black holes. Black holes still have lifespans, but they are unimaginably longer ones than stars. In fact, Kuroe is built around a black hole, that’s what the four quadrants are built around, and that is where we get our energy from. Kuroe is destined to get its power from this black hole until it dies in a trillion trillion trillion years, probably even more.
Kuroe has not received any signal from any other black hole civilization, despite constant efforts to contact another. We are the last of humanity, trapped here. I should stop thinking about this, I’ll just get sad about how hopeless this all is.