Offshoots

Chapter VII - - - - - Revolution

Chapter VII

               

                ‘It’s so close now…’ I said, observing the red star, which was even bigger today than yesterday morning, and looked like a proper sun.

                Chem just nodded. 

                Today is Christmas Eve on my Earth. Today this Earth moves a bit closer to the gravitational sphere of influence of a different sun.

                ‘There is an ancient story in our world,’ she said. ‘It says that the Creators of the Universe resolved to place the planet on an orbit around one of the Sun Gods, so that they can always supervise us. This first sun was a young God, a child, perhaps. He reigned over the sky and the earth for a period of 7 months. After that, the Earth approached another god, this time an older and wiser one, of a bigger material size, who was to look after our world for the next 10 months. 10 months of living in harmonious peace and prosperity, and then the third Sun – a goddess now – took us under her wing. And from then on, year after year, three different Gods watch over us by turn, always in this order: child, male, female.

                Every passing from one sun god to another is violent and frightening, for our planet flows wildly into the dark depths of the outer space for a couple of minutes. We’ve survived them all, though, for thousands of years. But recently, our people have forgotten the gods, and the gods got angry. And if we don’t praise them, they shall throw us into the abyss to fall for eternity.’

                ‘Now, that’s the legend,’ Josh intervened. ‘The real stuff is a lot naughtier. There are no gods, you know that already. But the Solar System really works the way she told you. Well, not exactly. There are only three suns, not an infinite number.’

                ‘I’m sorry,’ Josh said crossing his arms, ‘I don’t get it.’

                ‘Me neither,’ I admitted.

                ‘Alright, pay attention. I’ll draw it for you. This is the Earth today (he sketched the round planet on a piece of paper). It’s been orbiting around Sun no. 1 for seven months now. Today it reached its aphelion, its orbit is farthest from the sun, and at the same time, it got closer to Sun no. 2 (he drew another circle), the biggest star in our solar system. And because it’s so big, its gravitation, its attraction force is huge.’

                ‘So huge it just snatches the Earth form the first orbit and make the planet circle around it instead,’ Allie said.

                The red star was Sun no. 2.

                ‘And that’s going to happen in a week?’ I asked.

                ‘Yup, in about six days.’

                ‘And what about the third sun?’

                ‘After 10 months it’ll happen again, exactly the same.’

                ‘It’s a pinball game!’ Josh exclaimed.

                ‘I guess it is,’ I said.

                ‘Sorry?’

                ‘Nothing, it’s just a game in our dimension, similar to the present circumstances. It’s a joke. But, hey, is this all safe?’

                ‘Well, it was until now,’ Allie said. ‘But constant gravitational shifts like that have a great impact on Earth’s spinning and orientation. Up until now, it was the Earth’s rotation on its axis that kept it stable while passing from one sun to another. But because the planet never really has the exact same orbit – it often happens to end up on a little farther orbit from the sun than the previous year, and, of course, it’s colder if that happens and vice versa – because of that, its axis and the poles gradually moved a few degrees. Thus, the extreme climate. You can never predict whether the year’s going to bring drought or flood.’