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When Worlds Collide

Prologue

Dark…

…a sidereal cold…

…velvety darkness that was made of no shadows, for there are none in the Void…

…an abyss so timeless and infinite it has no meaning and is now, for anytime can be but now, and is here, for anyplace can be but here…

No time. Nowhere. Nothing.

And in the cold… in the dark… pinpoints of light.

Nuggets. Shards. Cold and with ragged edges and never frozen but ever-changing, multiform in their complex varying shapes, in their never stable colours.

Worlds…

Sometimes, a spark will zigzag from one pinpoint of light to another, and another, and another… connecting randomly worlds that do not touch…

…a web of worlds: shimmering, stabilizing, shimmering again, trembling and reforming.

Sometimes, this lucent webs last but for an instant, gleaming then fading.

Other times…

…other times the sparkling connection gets tangled on a shard and turns slowly, folding and unfolding, tearing and uniting, fusing and confusing and the shine twists and merges and swirls like a pearly, metaphysical milkshake.

And then firms.

Like this five-point star of worlds that are now growing closer, and closer, and closer, and will soon collide.

Worlds so incredibly different and yet so alike, composed of the same fundamental units, vibrating with the same frequency: same atmosphere, same life forms, just the odd little difference in how it all works here and there… worlds peculiarly suited to the establishment of a connection…

The collision of worlds happens silently, softly, with none of the grandiosity such a reality-altering effect might be expected to have, and with all the naturalness of a fortuitous event, a connection is indeed formed, a link that touches only three focal points on each world, three dots on the luminous shards… living anchors chosen by the inscrutable laws of probability…

On four of those worlds, it results in nothing more than inspiration for an imaginative novel, a sudden desire to sail the seas, or even just nightmares.

But on the fifth world… on the fifth world conditions are such that the randomly chosen living focuses are both able and willing to grab the offered chances.

Thus it begins…