10-05-2009, 09:12 PM
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#16 (permalink)
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... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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Quote:
In a soundless concussion of light, Earth's core gave up its hoarded energies. For a little whole the gravitational waves crossed and re-crossed the Solar System, disturbing ever so slightly the orbits of the planets. Then the Sun's remaining children pursued their ancient paths once more, as corks floating on a placid lake ride out the tiny ripples set in motion by a falling stone.
There was nothing left of the Earth: They had leeched away the last atoms of its substance. It had nourished them, through the fierce moments of their inconceivable metamorphosis, as the food stored in a grain of wheat feeds the infant plant while it climbs toward the sun.
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- Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke |
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