Help.

At the bottom of oceans, there live amorphous blobs of flesh and teeth. They survive in pressure high enough to crush bone, and look through eyes that never see the light of a star.

Help.

If one of these creatures were to be sent up to where whales swim, how would they react to the difference in pressure? Would it feel like flying? Would they rejoice in the ease of movement? Or would their skin and muscles scream as the water that once held them together now gave no support?

Help.

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Would they marvel at the blue of the ocean? Stare in awe at the variety of color that exists in the universe? Or would their eyes burn as light suddenly forced its way into an organ never meant to receive so much information?

...

But even at the bottom of the ocean, in numbingly cold waters with no way to see what’s around them, the creatures know they are not alone.

Hello?

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The solar flare. The one that caused Mirror Station 07396 to lose power. Could it have caught the light? Taken it somehow? Could the light of the star have eaten the light packet just before it reached the mirror?

The mirror hadn’t even received a tiny fraction of light. Not even enough to register that a packet was incoming. The sensors were active after the power came back on, but there was nothing to sense.

There were 1.4 seconds’ worth of light out in the universe somewhere. Was it mixed in with the star’s light?

If so, it was gone forever. There was no way to retrieve light from one of the brightest things in the universe.

As scientists searched, one by one they resigned and admitted the solar flare had most likely taken the packet.