Novafarers [Science Fiction Epic Poem]

Prologue:

In a phase after the void spoke and churned,
a supernova exploded, set off by
its immenseness. Concocted from ruin,
the earth whirled from a lone gathering of
dust and time; forging its way through eons
of possibility. Non-sentient
urge driven by a pulse echoing on
its own vast ebbing vortex; shattering
a black hole’s function, quashing its design:
instead of sucking itself into raw
nothingness, conception spewed a mere speck of
being, a fragment of potential,
honed until lethal as a shard, that could
shape and chisel life, eventually.

Ultimately, existence could not be
denied. Creation is a paradox:
from its opposite it originates . [originating from its opposite?]
From the fastening of these molecules,
heat formed through the friction of their movement,
the warmth of their unconscious bonding.
These particles' unknown desire for a
new, whole existence bursting mindlessly.
What drove these motes to solidarity
is still unknown, and the impetus does not
matter so much as its consequence.
The seed-pit formed, molding the fruit of all
known sentient existence; all known life.

A pistil-womb, exuding fragrant potential
on blooming earth: molten and scorching, its
fervor gradually cooling to live—
each receding centigrade becoming an
onslaught of promise in the wake and swell
of the muted calm as the vapors writhed.
First dead abyss, then dust’s novel lushness.
Dust, heat and elemental combinations
merged to foster the new plane for future
existence: a compilation of quarks
to ions set stages for growth to ensue:
amoebas grafted amidst the volley
of radiation’s impact, the memory of
these wounds imprinted onto the prospective
generators of the one-celled species.

Mononucleic scions begat more
advanced offspring that used the scars as shields
against looming radioactive abuse
that increased its severe oppression
exponentially upon climates
that housed unwitting entities. Sunlit
vehemence twisting and cutting away
vicariously through the creatures’ guard
which attempted to endure the unseen
pernicious waves of solar assault.

*Despite this unconscious war between
cosmic construction and oblivion,
amoebas thrived, survived the stellar storm;
steered by an intrinsic urge catalyzed
by conditions of moisture and thermal
to replicate and delineate from
the mean basis to sophistication;
driven to explore options of complete
and total cellular renovation.
This beginning burst, divergent in its
trajectories, the cells dictated by
exterior forces to become the
foundations of plant and then sentient
life-forms now geared to dividing again.

An unsuspecting fate compelled some cells,
each creature to transform, flexing parts fused to
befit new organisms their new lives.
Cold-blood to hot-blood, plant and sentience
catalyzing what would be humanoid;
a dynamic species, bequeathed with hope
as it transcended from one-cell to many,
losing what was unnecessary to
regulate body temperature and
balance the domineering heat and
radiation of the sun, using the
capricious star’s energy to support
instead of suppress their fresh existence.
Each strand of fur that fell away was a
welcome signal to radiation to
ply their skin, enriching, while still holding
the aptitude for devastation of,
the very existence of beings it touched
Thus, the Taotao’mona were conceived.



Chapter 1: Taotao’mona Discovery of Radiation

In the depths of subterranean caves,
pseudo-graves encapsulating channels
of animation, the evolution
departed from the amphibian course
launched. Taotao’mona ascended from scales,
now fleshed onto the sprawling landscape. Their
skin a beige translucence indicating
unknown epidermal hunger for the
sun’s caress, though still fearful of its blows.
Enthralled by a lighted place where enhanced
sustenance was revealed, Taotao’mona
viewed, acknowledged darkening: a thrumming
shift that continued life upon the planes.

Taotao’mona streamed from their underground
stasis, dazzled by the brightness of great
overhanging light which would fade, slowly, as their
surface visits lengthened. When earth turned its
back to the solar malice, a cool dusk enveloped
the Taotao’mona. Amazed by the
finer points of radiance, surprised by
each new twilit change, with newer stars coaxing
their interest and awe. Luminous still,
though it diminished, indicating that
even if the land was far from verdant, it
resounded a terrifying splendor.

Great slabs and boulders of rock, mere crumbs of
a supreme magnitude, scattered almost
haphazardly while great, coarse obelisks
towered and challenged the Taotao’mona
with reflective indifference. The poor
beings wondered at these monoliths with
a guarded curiosity, and when
lightning-laced tempests glided through the lulled
atmosphere, the rocks tempted the white-bolts
of blazing power, humming in portents
when the sky-currents struck precipices,
encouraging magnetism, rock
summoning lesser beings to itself.

So affected by the sun’s influence,
their bodies became adeptly conscious
of radiation and heat that drifted
across their awareness. Where sunlight traced
flesh, a gift bestowed in the layer of
ectodermis, novanin1 cells that laid
undetected in their integument,
amassed to protect subcutaneous
tier. Their darkened bodies burnished with
strange yet subtle bioluminescence.
Their weird skin’s novanocytes, their hide’s storm
clouds rushed to block the star from committing
further sin on their brilliant new skin.

When Taotao’mona contacted with each
other, their reactions communicate
empathically, the sensation was
intensified by the radiation
they received from the central star. A blood
rhythm orchestrated by their primal
furor or attraction that echoed a
message of  receptive flight or provoked
fight. Signals of corporeal replies
translated in body were tracks of heat
arranged upon a neurological
pathway to understanding of other
organisms and their environments.
Radiation played upon their bodies;
like fingers plucking at harpsichord
strings, weaving songs that communicated their
emotions, plying their brain matter to
think most objectively, to determine
the days left until their oblivion.

Taotao’mona populations increased,
although they still huddled together, for
the sake of familiarity. Thus
sustained by stout vegetation, enormous
trees born of angiosperms, what they would
call mannha, the Taotao’mona flourished.
These ample monocots could weather the
gratuitous lightning storms of the plane,
their resilience akin to the strength
of the Taotao’mona. After living
on earth for so long, with their own primal
summons noted, climatic patterns could
also be predicted  by the weather’s
eddies of heat and squalling fluctuations.
Eyes widened by the radiance of a
sun heralding their evacuation
from their golden age; they could not wholly
foretell of a cataclysm that would
befall them; they had no useful way to
pronounce calamity’s arrival, they
only knew it was inevitable,
imminent. Their existence’s greatest
lessons, dire warnings were not results
of focus or concentration, but from
breathing and simply noticing2 their world.



Chapter 2: Aurora’s Foreboding Foretelling

Horizons flared with strange filaments of
light. Colors arrayed in a terrific
display over heaven’s glided dome to
compete with the dusky veils of the stars.
The Twilight of Taotao’mona hovered
over their glossy heads, a divining
spectacle that dazzled them. A moment
of beauty would precipitate unease.
Taotao’mona existence embarked on
its utterance as auroras melted
to morningtide. Motley phantasms
alighted each periphery; beheld
as ominous in its iridescent
glory. The Taotao’mona were clutched in
the sky’s awesome luster. Their skins quivered
and bristled with anxiety. New lights
drove terror to sensational insight.

The dawn’s arrival gave no boon, instead
a burden. The Taotao’mona faced the
glaring sun, hoping for illumination,
and their minds darkened with despair: plasma
swells blackened and brandished invisible
wrath on the perceptive dermis of the
Taotao’mona. They fled in terror. The
sun’s radiant apathy commenced their
retreat below, beneath an armor of
earth, to their hollows of defiant soil.
Their anguish intensified by merely
sensing each additional corporeal
appearance. Although panic, pain
were communicated, so was a sense
of preservation. Their minds focused on
the signs of impending catastrophe:
sunspots were an ill-omen, its guttate
surface leering perniciously on them.
Their skin confirmed the menacing forecast,
the sun’s strength would concentrate and cascade
its electrified particles upon
the vulnerable planet, decreeing
annihilation on all existence.

Their dermis mutely vaticinated3:
their stoic haven would be consumed in
the deluge of solar-storms. Their skins
almost burning with the sun’s energy.
Their heated bodies glimmering beyond
their understanding. The Taotao’mona
were nauseated with vertigo: a
consequence from a surfeit of the
massive absorption of radiation.

Their horror subsided, for a moment.
Rationality surfaced at the crux
of their established fear. Reason willed out.
Although the sun’s emissions would rob them
of their prospective destiny, it did
bequeath astute logic and clear foresight—
in addition hyperprosexia4.
They knew in order to preserve their species,
they must move. They scrutinized the night’s
stars for other omens of chance. They held
vigilance in their caves. They observed their
terrestrial landscapes, realizing
that lightning-struck stones droned in a mock-life.
Fascination followed when the rock called
to other meager chips which lunged to their
original mass, almost melding to
the greater slabs of reflective stone.
These dissilient6 geodes held answers
to the Taotao’mona’s plight. They would live.