A Small Gray Dot

He nodded. “Yes, you would think he lived here; however, he didn’t. Neither did any of the others found in that condition in Blue Heaven. Their being here was an effect of the Event. For a while, it warped space and time – which, by the way, is why it’s easy to get lost here. Because of the wedge, a small bit of that influence remains. Not much, just enough to make it difficult to find one’s way within this neighborhood, and to cast those shadowy figures seen at night. Those, I believe, are simply images – shades if you would – from another time, past or future, or it could be both. They are not distinct enough to make a determination. In either case, they are not aware of us at all.

“The blighted patches that appeared are also an effect of the wedge, caused by an emission. I believe them to be the displaced products of a different dimension or a universe other than ours. Fortunately, whatever is in them seem to be restricted to those areas.

“There weren’t many bodies found here but they were all from surrounding communities, not from here. It was a while before I became aware of the fact that no one who actually lived in Blue Heaven perished that day. Some have since moved away and as in other communities, there were a number of suicides but the Event didn’t kill anyone here. It was a factor that I couldn’t understand at first but have since deduced what happened.”

My mind couldn’t help but race to the thought that had the Event occurred at a later time, say six months to a year later, Zoni and I might have been living in Blue Heaven and… I shook my head. It wouldn’t have saved the rest of my family, or my friends, and all the other shit since would’ve still happened but deep within, my soul wished it had come later because in that case, I would still have Zoni… It was a hollow wish and I pushed the thought away.

“Okay. So, what caused it? Was it a black hole or what? And how do you know it was centered here?”

He shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure of what it was, son, other than it was a type of energy, but I am sure it was not a black hole. As to what caused it, I’m getting to that. At one point in my life, I was an astrophysicist, and even though I retired, I still dabbled. I even have a telescope built into a skylight in my attic. This is not the best area in the state for sky watching, as there is too much artificial lighting around – well, there was at that time though not so much now – but I only put it in for hobby use, you see. My main computer connects to it, and there is a video camera attachment and a device for picking up different frequencies.

“Since this was something close by, when I ran to get my camera that morning, I also activated the power to the telescope, as I wanted to get a shot with it and, if possible, readings from the phenomenon. The first thing I did, of course – once the power returned – was to see if the telescope picked up anything. It had, and even recorded a few impressions before it lost power, but it wasn’t anything I could understand, not right off.”

He sighed. “It took me two years to learn what was captured; exactly what it was I was seeing. I ran tests, did numerous calculations, and I could show you everything including the original readings but unless you are a physicist or mathematician, most of it wouldn’t mean much to you.” His eyes gleamed. “But I can show you something.” He turned to the nearby computer on the desk and turned it on. He smiled. “My telescope was faster with its camera than I was with mine and it picked up an image. This is what it saw before the power cut out.”

Morgan and I leaned in to see. The computer slowly powered up and the doctor moved the cursor on the mouse to open up a folder. He clicked on an icon and a video sprang up. We watched as a gray dot appeared surrounded by what seemed to be a faint, slightly darker gray grid.

“Watch the grid,” he said.

The grid twisted and turned as it rode the edges of the dot, which spread to encompass the screen. Parts of the grid appeared to separate from the dot as it continued to grow, and faint lights appeared briefly that flickered a couple of times before steadying and then gradually fading away as the gray thickened.

“This is what I saw when I checked. It did not make a lot of sense but it didn’t take me long to see that those dim lights showing through the gray area were stars – they are within the Orion constellation. If you’ve ever looked at that part of the sky, you will recognize the ones in the center as Orion’s Belt, but you can ignore those as they were merely behind the dot, though they do indicate at what position it occurred. The dot you see is the Event. The grid is what caused the deaths. It radiated out from the dot which was the point of occurrence. None of the grid touched down in Blue Heaven.”

I was agitated. And confused. A small gray dot and a grid killed my family and half the world? “But… what was it, Dr. Bennett? Why did it happen?”