-----I stand on the edge of the galaxy, alone on a barren, windswept
planet. It is a dead planet, like all the others. Life disappeared countless
trillions of years ago. My name is… not important. To all intents and purposes,
I am the last living being in the universe. The metal casing I inhabit
is as solid as ever. Cold, unheeding to the whims of a dying cosmos,
after all these aeons it exhibits barely a scratch.
-----I am a Commander! I *am* a Commander, the suit that I occupy.
There are no more organic beings in the universe. Once, millions like me
fought against such beings. Millions of us - of them - died, all in the
name of immortality, or of freedom. I suppose my kind won.
-----Early on in the war - just a few millennia in, the balance
of power swayed steadily, and there were times when it could almost have
ended. But after the secrets of space travel were lost for good, it became
clear that no side could ever win.
-----Still, we kept on fighting, with pride our only motive. Countless
lives were lost… countless more were made to replace them. But they are
all gone now. Years, decades, centuries went by, but the killing went on.
Few could remember how the war started, fewer still could tell the difference
between right and wrong, but nothing ever changed. Combatants on both sides
were born to fight; to die. We knew nothing else, and it never occurred
to anyone to stop. So the war went on. And as we fought, we began to notice
that the daylight was dimming, as was the night. None of us paid it any
heed, so intent were we on destroying our enemies.
-----The ages past, and none could remember the days when our
sun shone bright, illuminating the battlefields with it's very presence.
It mattered not - our weapons gave us all the heat we needed, and the machines
we fought in had perfect vision in the darkest of nights.
-----Finally we realised that we could no longer tell night from day
- our own sun had died. We fought on. And each night, there was one less
of the millions of points of light that had been in the sky. Our solar
plants failed, having nothing to absorb. Then our power plants failed,
as the radoactives that powered them decayed into nothingness.
-----Our systems ran down. My suit was no longer able to generate even
enough power to support my friends. Then there was no longer power to support
me. Everything stopped. Our enemies suffered the same fate. And my kind
stood there, watching the star we had once thought extinct growing once
again, desperately burning all its energy in a futile attempt to survive.
We knew we had won. While our enemy's frail bodies withered and died, our
own would carry on for eternity.
-----The sun finally, truly touched the sky. The ground under our feet
glowed red, the atmosphere burned around us, but the warmth couldn't penetrate
into our metal cages. In the relative blink of an eye, the flame was gone.
The star had accepted its fate with better grace than we ever could.
-----And all last vestiges of energy dissipated, and were lost in the
winds of space. I could no longer know my companions' thoughts or feelings.
I was alone. As time passed by, I waited, watching the few remaining stars
go out, one by one.
-----There used to be a belief among our enemies that we felt no emotion.
Not so. We were created to have feelings, but after a few hundred years
of seeing ones you care for and love die around you, all emotion is burned
out. I have not held any religious beliefs since those days, but as I wait
now, sensing all the mass in the universe converging together for one big
crunch, I pray that it will be enough to end me and my fellows' existence
once and for all, but I know it cannot be. This armour, built for battles
long forgotten was built too well. It cannot be destroyed by anything nature
can throw at it. I almost feel sorrow again.
-----But for now, I stand, alone, on the edge of the galaxy, on the
barren windswept planet which is my tomb. I am a Commander, but it means
nothing, for I have no friends and no foes. To all intents and purposes
I am the last living being in the universe, but I am dead, as much as anyone
could ever be…