Species 972

A taller woman that slid across the ground on a multitude of tentacles led a parade of students through the museum. Some walked on two legs, some walked on dozens, and others moved across the ground with none at all.

They followed in a rough formation behind the woman. A gaggle of disgruntled sanitation bots followed behind them, buffing out the scratches and disposing of the fluids left behind by the group. Some of the other guests shot looks at them as they galavanted about.

“Our next stop in the Museum of Unnatural History is the exhibit for Species 972,” Mrs. Shrillbax told her students. “Now, please put on your hologoggles for the presentation.”

The students obeyed and the room darkened.

“Species 972 were located on the fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy, in the Ophren System. They inhabited the third planet from the star, which they had called Earth. Who can tell me the condition of their planet when it was first discovered?”

One of the students, who was a short, round blob, raised their arm

“Yes, Xeelox?”

“Completely destroyed.”

“Very good.” The presentation moved forward. A dozen rocks that had once been Earth floated around in a lazy orbit. The students stepped back, taking in what once was. “Now, based on what readings did we learn what happened to Species 972, and their planet?”

The same student raised their hand. Mrs. Shrillbax looked from side to side before her shoulders slumped.

“Yes, Xeelox?”

“It was from temporal imprints.”

“That’s right.” The remains of the planet vanished and were replaced by a 10 foot tall graph that had a flat blue line that hugged the bottom. “This line shows the normal readings from temporal fields, ones that have been properly stabilized.” A jagged red line was added far above the blue. “Shvella, can you tell me what this line represents?”

Shvella, who had been whispering to her friend, snapped her head towards Mrs. Shrillbax, then to the graph, then back to her teacher.

“It’s uh, not good.” A few of her classmates stifled laughs.

“Technically correct I suppose.” She sighed. “That, Shvella, shows the readings taken around the remains of the planet Earth. Such high readings can be classified as ‘not good,’ but does anyone know what caused them to spike that much?”

One of the students, one who stood far above the others and even Mrs. Shrillbax, raised their hand.

“Yes, Gleeob,” she said, smiling.

“It was because they abused teleportation technology, right?” Their voice came out as a shrill whine.

“Yes. From what experts gathered from historical imprinting, they discovered how to teleport nearly 200 cycles ago, and the technology spread rapidly across their planet. However, their usage far exceeded the limit of the fabric of space time for their area. Can anyone,” she paused, “besides Xeelox, roughly explain which of Vrellum’s Axioms the Earthlings violated in doing so?”

An armored insectoid with a body that was barely above the floor made an effort to prop up its front end up.

“Yes, Skrelx?”

“Don’t mess with spacetime until you understand what you’re doing.” Their voice was a low buzz.

“Correct. Earthlings were not the first to run afoul of this Axiom, but it is the most violent case of Spacetime Snapping documented.” The graph vanished and a tall, slender being in a pilot’s outfit was displayed. “Captian Corvellion, the great explorer, was the first to find the remains of Earth. Shvella!” They jumped back.

“Yes, Mrs. Shrillbax?”

“If you have so much to say to your friends you can either share with the whole class, or you can explain to them why Captain Corvellion considers himself lucky he was able to return to us.” Their eyes lit up.

“Well, in Chronicles of Captain Corvellion season 3 Episode 9 he tells us how his ship was torn apart and smashed back together as he travelled through the spacetime scar, and he kept getting teleported all over the place and all of his instruments were going crazy and-”

“Thank you, Shvella.” They shrunk back and the rest of the class stifled another laugh. “While the events are a bit exaggerated on his show, they are accurate enough for this classroom.” The image of Captain Corvellion vanished, and was replaced by a picture of Earth.

“This is Earth and the surrounding spacetime before the snap,” Mrs. Shrillbax said. The image shuddered and warped. “As more and more teleportation was done without the proper anchors, the surrounding area was strained more and more until…” The shuddering and warping became more intense until the Earth was shattered. What was left behind was an angry hole.

“This is the scar.” A tiny ship flew into view and was stretched, squashed, and teleported around the outer edge of the scar. “This is a recreation of what happened to the Captain’s ship as he flew near it. Experts agree that he was fortunate because he didn’t reach the heart of the scar. Does anyone know why?” She looked around at the students, shook her head, and then said. “Xeelox?”

“Because nobody knows what would happen with a scar that large.”

“Yes, correct.” The presentation ended, and the students took off their hologoggles as the lights came back on. “Spacetime scars are still a largely unknown phenomenon, and all attempts to send instruments through the one now called Scar 972 have been met with failure.” She led them to a mangled hunk of metal in a display case. “Mylxvov, would you read the plaque aloud for the class?” A metallic arachnid creature approached it and began to read in a robotic voice.

“This is the only recovered instrument that passed within 50 feet of the heart of scar 972. The team had thought it lost until it appeared 20 hours later, in a system 2 lightyears away. Unfortunately, all the data from the trip was lost during its violent hyperjump.”

“Thank you. Now, get out your writing pads. The question you’ll be answering for homework on this exhibit is, ‘What technologies in our society have risks?’ Feel free to ask your parents or do research on the galactic web.”

And with that, Mrs. Shrillbax led her class on to the next exhibit.