Introduction To The Cloud

The first sign of something going wrong was during the 2115 Universe Soccer game, almost halfway through, static and power spike waves showed up on the monitors. It worsened quickly until it looked like paint splattered across the screen.

The crew of the asteroid mining ship grumbled and checked the signal readings from their satellite's laser feed. It bounced up and down but always stayed lower with each bounce. Finally, it bottomed out and stayed there.

They went to the viewing port that faced the satellite and the asteroid they were mining. They couldn't see any lights emitting from the satellite, which had always glowed pale yellow before.

They noticed a cloud surrounding it. The cloud almost appeared to be a pale lime green oily smug, with scattered sparkles through it. It covered the area around the satellite and the entire visible space in that direction.

It seemed to be slowly moving on the wind, but there weren't any winds or currents in this part of space. It appeared almost to be a living entity.

After about 20 minutes of checking all their gauges and meters, they couldn't see any reason for the satellite break down. Per company regulations, one of the com people sent a message and video burst to Terra 5 about the problem. Terra 5 was on the ships opposite side from the cloud, facing towards the main part of the Milky Way.

As the cloud neared, the asteroid alarms started wailing, lights flashed in the ship, warning of a loss of connective signal from the working miners.

Staring out the viewing port, everyone, except the men suiting up to go, were shocked to see the enormous mineral ore harvesters start floating away from the surface.

As they floated up, the hatches opened, spewing out the contents of the harvesters - men, equipment, mined ore, and supplies.

They also saw the miners on space sleds and a hauler speeding toward the asteroid.

As they entered the cloud, everything came apart.

The vehicles stopped, hatches popped open, magnetic panels connections fell off.

The magnetic closures on the miners' suits came undone, and the helmet shields opened and were pushed away by the pressure inside them.

Luckily, the men inside the suits died quickly.

Before the cloud reached the ship, another longer and more detailed burst of what was happening was sent with videos.

Shortly after the 2nd burst message was sent, the lights on the ship went out as the cloud's influence demagnetized everything.

As the ports and bays popped open, the contents were also expelled with the release of the internal pressure.

The ship, asteroid, and the floating objects hung there in space like a strange mobile because no forces were left to move them after the clouds outward edge passed.

When the cloud reached the first inhabited planet, millions died within minutes because the electrical devices that kept them alive switched off.

All power was lost in hospitals: ventilators shut off, surgeries lost their lights, heart pacing, all medical maintenance equipment stopped, and incubators quit.

All monitoring equipment went black, and there were no more warnings of medical crises.

Vehicles stopped, dropped, or sank as their engines and electrical equipment stopped.

Planet-orbited satellites failed first and fell from the sky. Broadcasting satellite warnings were not sent out because of the cloud's speed.

All the weather domes failed and opened.

As the cloud advanced, the planet's nuclear reactors and atomic motors went critical without controls, imploded, and their cooling devices overheated and caught fire.

Within a few hours, the planet was back to the pre-industrial era. Using fires for light and heat was like old-time camping, but without even a compass.

Without the magnetic fields, the planet's angle started changing and drifting from its old orbit and the poles began relocating.

Just before it arrived, new information about the cloud was sent out by laser bursts.

Its course was plotted, confirmed, and reconfirmed that the cloud was moving toward the area of space where the mirrored solar system of the old Earth, its sun, and eight other planets were.

The thought of losing this solar system also scared everyone who learned about the oncoming danger.