MILKY WAY TETRALOGY
Lights Out
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MILKY WAY TETRALOGY
Narrated by:
Virtual Voice
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Narrated by:
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Virtual Voice
This title uses virtual voice narration
Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks.
While I didn't plunge the galaxy into darkness in the first book, I did permanently erase Alpha Centauri and our Sun's planetary system. Humanity is no longer a development that brings tremendous relief to write about. "First Contact Chaos" itself details the arrival of these two benign alien probes at Earth, and the subsequent realization that we are truly not alone leads to the complete disintegration of humanity and all its institutions.
I took a detour from my "lights out" quest to introduce the Industrialist, a being who extracts water from both living and dead star systems. I don't delve into the Industrialist's identity, motives, or methods, focusing instead on their peculiar habit of stealing and corralling water into deep-space ice lakes.
The Industrialist's handiwork is discovered by a space probe from the Tau Ceti system, whose mission is to investigate the fate of Alpha Centauri and Sol. Unable to identify the force behind the water theft, the Intellect from Tau Ceti dispatches three Guardian Cruisers to the Bernard system on a hunch—a hunch that proves correct.
"Tau Ceti," the second book in the series, establishes that despite its massive size, the Milky Way is consistently balanced: gravity and kinetic energy, star formation and star death, visible matter and dark matter, order, and chaos, and especially the ever-present struggle between good and evil.
"The Unmake," my favorite of the four books, began with a chilling concept: a predator from the Milky Way's halo that could literally "unscrew nuts from bolts" of anything it encountered. As my AI collaborator and I brainstormed the idea of disassembly, the AI suggested something far more terrifying: the unmaking of matter itself. We decided not to dwell on its origins or motivations, choosing instead to focus on the sheer terror it unleashed upon the Centaurus Spiral Arm.
This predator wiped out sixty-four percent of the Arm, the most populated stellar region, plunging it into utter darkness. The Unmake then left the Centaurus Arm, heading for the tantalizing target of the Milky Way Bar. However, an inexplicable galactic gravitational slingshot created a trajectory that sent The Unmake hurtling out of the Milky Way and toward Andromeda, 2.5 million light-years away.
When I realized my piecemeal plan to extinguish the galaxy's light would require fifteen or more books, I knew I needed an innovative approach. The galaxy, with its four large spirals and numerous minor arms, was too vast for a gradual dimming. I needed a single, knockout punch—a concept my AI initially argued was not theoretically possible.
I then combined my idea of a dented and leaking universe ceiling with the concept of a second Big Bang. The excitement of watching my AI furiously scribble supportive theories was immense, culminating in book four, "Zenith Singularity," and the ultimate re-creation.
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