The Glorious Championship! [S3G5] [Round... Uh, Seven? The Oasis]

Originally posted on MSPA by Not The Author.

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Username: Not The Author

Name: “Lucky” VII

Gender: Not Applicable

Race: Unified Species Starfleet Artificial Planetoid (Exodus-class)

Color: Steel Blue

Weapons: None, though various systems could potentially be weaponized, or weapon batteries could be constructed, should things come to that.

Abilities: Generally, local manipulation of gravitation, strong nuclear force, and electroweak force. A wide variety of abilities can be thereby derived; notably, wormhole generation, matter assimilation and rearrangement, and inertial dampening.

Description:

SpoilerShow

A gunmetal-grey spheroid the size of a Giant Star (~3 Tm diameter). It houses one-tenth of the entire surviving population of the universe from which it originates, mostly in physical stasis. For the purposes of this contest, it has been reduced to the size of a large beach ball (~1 m diameter).

Cryogenics, biomechanics, and nanotechnology have sufficiently advanced that, while a body may be frozen and inert, the mind can be transferred to a mechanical matrix set to the specifications of the user, while the body remains indefinitely preserved, hence “physical stasis.” Most of the passengers are in such stasis at any given time, though many have opted to remain “awake.” Natural lifespans are impressive even without cloning, cybernetics, or stasis, and while generations have passed since the last galaxy died, a large portion of the population still remembers living on or near a planet.

The societal hierarchy of each of The Ten has diverged significantly in that time. VII still houses a parliamentary structure, though the governing council is more of a figurehead at this point. Most of the power lies with VII’s High Admiral and her bridge crew; some might claim an oppressive, militaristic dictatorship, but there’s been no opportunity for abuse of power in the centuries of drifting through empty space. The people are happy, as they can occupy themselves in any (virtual) reality they please. The crew is content; while they have to manage a ship the size of a large sun, most of the systems are automated or controllable from a virtual interface. There haven’t been any critical emergencies in a very long time, since there’s been nothing to cause any.

Biography:

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The universe was, by and large, at peace. The War had concluded; so long none remembered its cause but historians, so costly the casualties measured in quadruple-digit exponents, so destructive as to reduce whole galaxies to nebulae. The resultant technological advancements elevated all peoples to the status of demigods. Minds could be copied into computers the size of marbles, matter could be rearranged on a whim, and people began to focus on occupation as recreation rather than necessity. The Universe was united under a single governing body composed of the brightest minds of the time. Life was easy and pleasant.

Then the universe collapsed.

The Big Crunch was a very gradual process, but it was inevitable. Despite knowing it'd happen for millennia, nobody thought to try and stop it until much too late. all their abilities to manipulate matter and energy, the citizens of the universe could not stop their reality from slowly collapsing into a mind-bogglingly large black hole.

So they didn’t.

They ran. They could only run. The High Council of the Unified Species had ten planetships constructed to carry refugees as far from the singularity as possible, picking up more migrants and materials as they fled. Eventually, the universe settled down into a single massive sphere of matter, and ten comparatively-minuscule dots crawling away into infinity.

Years passed into decades, and decades to centuries. Hope was not lost, for the citizens of the universe had escaped the death of all things and had nothing more to hope for. Planets no longer existed, just simulations of planetary environs replicated by the ship, but that was enough for all but the oldest and most nostalgic. Research into escaping to parallel universes proceeded, but gradually slowed as experiments produced no appreciable results and the citizens of VII grew used to their new home. Life was normal, after a fashion, and the people were content once again.



Then this happened.