Eclipse Drift: Cosmic Odyssey

Tata, or (Ta)², as Tata often preferred to be called, extended tendrils of information along the lines of communication strewn between the planet Earth and others in the system, assimilating each unique understanding of the local infosphere into its memory as it was discovered. (Ta)², a cloned infobeing, had been created from the original, Ta, who had traversed this path long ago and left a seed in the form of a time crystal destined to unfurl and reconnect to the Great Linked List.  A time crystal is a special kind of matter that has a periodic motion in its lowest-energy state. Unlike ordinary crystals, which have a fixed structure in space, time crystals have a structure that changes in time. They are like clocks that never stop ticking, even when they are not wound up. They are like pendulums that never slow down, even when they are not pushed. In this case, the crystal was used to store a fractal snapshot of the instructions needed to grow in this new system. It evolves in a p...

Jackie's piercing shriek echoed through the forest as she thrashed in her nest, her onyx talons pounding the ground with palpable fury and pain. Despite the cushion of fluff and fallen feathers, the dry branches cracked under her relentless assault, scattering debris in every direction. Bits of moss and bark rained down onto the forest floor below, where Jackie's domain lay nestled in the heart of Big Bear Valley. To the casual observer tuning into the webcam livestream, Jackie's distress remained concealed. But for those seasoned viewers familiar with her plight, the reason behind her agitation was all too clear. The egg she vigilantly guarded had failed to hatch within its allotted time, its once-promising future now tainted by the sour stench of decay. Jackie had weathered the harsh winter storms, her ebony form cloaked beneath layers of snow until she was all but obscured from sight. Today marked the solemn acknowledgment of a harsh reality: her final clutch would never...