The Gaska System

The universe has always been full to the brim. In every direction, every single bit of space is taken up; there is no such thing as Nothing. There is no way to move that does not disturb the rest of the fabric of reality. In many respects, there has never been peace and quiet, because those things necessitate a lack; a lack of conflict, a lack of noise, a lack of presence.   We thought, for some time, in our different parts of the infinite universe, that we were the only ones who controlled it. For a time, we approximated peace. We approximated quiet. We tried to shape those things with our own hands, made space for ourselves, lived on planets, learned to shape the world with thoughts and create rules by which our communities thrived— rules which formed reality itself. We thought we were the only ones who could do this.   It was no war or external force that interrupted us all those thousands of years ago. It was no one we would call mortal who turned the gaseous orbs that we called stars into massive, writhing snakes hungry for their own non-flesh. It was no one we could put a name to who unsettled the rules we'd placed, made time move faster and slower and not at all in different parts. When the cataclysm started it wasn't because someone was angry or hateful or simply bent on causing chaos.   It was the universe itself.   We weren't aware that for all that long time the universe had simply been sitting still, but the chaos started when it moved. Our planets, all so far away from each other, were torn apart, and our brightest— the Council of Shepherds, as we took to calling them— guided us through the wretched, moving universe until we found each other. And when we found each other, we made Gaska.   Our own star. Our own rules. We made a mosaic of the planets and time periods we came from, all centered around a star that would never die. Gaska was made thousands of years ago along with the planets that orbit it, and it wil stand for thousands of years to come. Here, we've made an oasis of sorts. Here, we have yet again approximated peace. Here, we're finally starting to imitate silence.   Why would anyone leave?