Emperor Avex sat at the helm of his ship, shrouded in all the opulence and glory of the Celzex empire. Surrounding him sat the greatest minds of this Celzex generations carefully monitoring their screens and systems, with numbers and markings unreadable by their onboard visitors. The Celzex may have made an alliance with the humans, but that didn't mean they weren't intent on keeping at least some of their secrets. At his side, Admiral Vir gingerly made his way across the floor, avoiding a flurry of tiny bodies that erupted from nearby cracks and crevices, only to vanish under consoles, and into cracks in the walls.
Celzex ships were built like that, with many small hiding places. Lord Avex wasn't sure how many of the tiny bodies belonged to him, and didn't really care. His first wife might have card, but only because she had a habit of eating her own offspring when it was convenient.
Avex had never really gotten a taste for it.
Even now, he could see the human staring hungrily at the floor, and had he not known the human better he might have assumed the man was hungry for a midday snack. More likely, he simply wanted to pick one up and hold it. It had taken a while to come to terms with the fact that humans found them irresistibly adorable rather than warlike like they had first assumed in the earl days of their acquaintance, but Avex consoled himself with the fact that, even if the humans thought he was adorable, none of them would dare say anything.
Even his own father, who had the luxury of changing his shape to a more suitable warlike form, did nothing to question Avex, a face he was pleasantly surprised at, especially after hearing about his father's past.
Celex stepped into the room just then, bending down sharply and scooping one of the scampering celex children off the floor. Gingerly stepping around any other tiny bodies still running for cover, he walked over to Admiral Vir and deposited the tiny creature in his hands, "Here" he said, "Before you explode."
Indeed it did seem that Admiral Vir was ready to erupt, a smile of pure delight crossing over his face, one green eye bright as he cradled the tiny body to his chest. Humans have incredible bonding instincts. If he had just met Adam, Avex would have assumed it was his paternal instincts kicking in after the birth of his children, but by now he understood that that's just how humans were.
Celzex have no parental instincts to speak of. His relationship with his father had only been as good as it was because he had proven himself to be a worthy warrior, but turning to watch Adam gently stroking the tiny ball of fluff, he made a mental note not to let his wife eat that one, though with Adam's track record he half expected the human to smuggle it away in his pocket.
Avex honestly wouldn't care.
Finally managing to control himself, the human stepped forward brows knitted together in a valiant attempt at seriousness as he said, "So, how is this going to work." The look was somewhat undermined, by the gentle way in which he cradled the small body in his hands. Avex honestly expected the tiny Celex to bite him, but instead it curled up and nuzzled against his hand, somehow totally secure in the arms of an alien stranger.
Humans tended to have that effect.
"If our calculations are correct," he turned to look at Adam, "And when I say if, I actually mean because our calculations are always correct, and we are absolutely sure, we have determined that this is the optimal location."
The 'optimal location' in question was a patch of nondescript empty space some 92.5 million miles from arcadia, or approximately 8.3 light minutes. From here, you could probably have seen Arcadia with a powerful enough telescope if you knew where to look, except for the fact that Arcadia was a dark planet illuminated by basically nothing.
However, all of that was about to change.
This day had been YEARS in the making, the planning for which had started almost as soon as terraforming began on the dark little planet. Over the past few months animals and plants had been introduced onto Arcadia, that, though capable of living in the dark, were better able to survive in the presence of light.
Not only that, but Arcadian scientists had determined that the Arcadian rate of vitamin D deficiency and growing presentations of low-light related depression was unsustainable. This wasn't like Noctopolis, which didn't give a single shit about the health of its people, this was Arcadia, which might have been number one on the list of best places to live except for the absence of a good light source.
But again.
This had been foreseen for some time, the artificial suns were only going to manage for so long.
This was the end result.
Avex motioned with his foot/hand 'foot and hand are the exact same word in the Celzex vocabulary', "Essentially, what we have done is create a warp nexus around a gas giant of sufficient size and mostly hydrogen content."
"You mean, sufficient size as to mean it was almost big enough to be a star but didn't quite make it."
Avex nodded, "Something like that. The giant will be moved to this location using the warp nexus. This is technology we have used a few times before to settlements to more desirable locations, but we have rarely done such a thing at this scale, though I am more than confident in our abilities." he cleared his throat and kept going, "From there, we will catalyze hydrogen fusion by warping a significant amount of mass directly into the planet's core."
Adam frowned, "Will that even work? Won't that just make the whole thing erupt outward or something? Or turn it into a black hole or some shit?"
Avex shook his head, "The gravity created will be sufficient enough to avoid any sort of explosion, but the gravity isn't nearly strong enough to result in a black hole." His advisors nodded in agreement.
This move wasn't entirely unprecedented.
The Celzex had created artificial stars before, this was just the first time they were doing it using this method. Other methods took significantly longer.
Adam continued to stroke the fur of the Small Celzex nerves clear on his face. Arcadia needed this, the wildlife needed this. Hye told him that their new inland ocean was going to need this if they wanted the ecosystem to function properly.
"Are you ready?" Avex asked.
Adam nodded, "Might as well get it over with."
With a nod Avex initiated a microwarp to place their ship at an agreeable distance. Now this hadn't been easy, Arcadia is a wandering planet, which meant they had been forced to calculate the exact trajectory time an angle in comparison to location and position, so that when the star emerged, Arcadia would fall into a stable orbit within the goldilocks zone.
Adam was only lucky that Arcadia did indeed have a molten core, and so possessed a proper magnetic field.
Orchestrating all of this hadn't been easy, but his scientists were some of the best in the world.
"Are we ready?" He asked.
Adam took a deep breath and then nodded, manically patting the small celzex in his hand with absent fervor.
"Begin." Avex ordered.
"Initiating warp."
Celex gripped tightly with one hand onto the back of Avex;s throne, all of them bracing themselves as if expecting to feel a jolt. Of course there was nothing, and in a sudden flash of bright light , the first phase of operation Lifelight was done. It was almost impossible to see in the blackness, but their scanners indicated the sudden appearance of a new mass, at just the predicted location.
The jolt of sudden gravity probably should have been noticeable, but the ship would have compensated.
They kept the planet with its original rotation, hopefully something it would maintain as a star as well.
"Ready for ignition?"
'Ready."
He turned to look at Adam, "Do you wish to do the honors."
Adam swallowed hard, but nodded and stepped over to the console. Lord Avex dimmed the viewscreen.
"Ignition in ten, nine, eight, seven."
"And I only ever got to blow things up." Lord Celex muttered under his breath. Avex snorted.
"Three, two, and One."
Admiral Vir threw a hand up over his face. Celex turned his head away, and Avex braced himself.
***
Down on Arcadia, the central parkway was packed with bodies. Sometime in the previous week, the artificial heaters that helped to warm their atmosphere had been turned off. It was cold, very cold.
Blankets and parkas were rampant. Men and women sat together clutching tea and hot chocolate in their mittened hands as plumes of fog billowed up from their lips. Sunny stood with spear in hand, lording over the small heated carriage thingy, that held Nyx and Astra. At her side, Kay held her hand, bundled up to the point where he looked more marshmallow than child.
Together, she clustered with a sizable portion of Adam's family. Martha, Jim, Jeromy, Thomas, Maya, David, Jordan and all of their kids. Kimber wasn't too far off sitting with her little band of friends. Conn had come out of his official capacity, and stood next to Eris, one long, bony arm draped around her shoulders.
Neither of them bothered to wear a coat.
Kay tugged at her jacket, "Momma, Qué está sucediendo?"
Sunny sighed, She was going to kill Ramirez. She had been forced to take Spanish classes just to understand her own son some days. He was only just figuring out the difference between Drev, English and Spanish, but still there were days he spoke almost entirely in one or the other.
"Dad, is going to bring us light. Remember how on Anin, it's bright during the day and dark at night."
Kay nodded.
It felt weird to explain this, "Well, dad is going to do that for us." She tightened her hand around her spear. Hopefully that's what he was going to do, and not like.... Blow something up. With Adam's track record it was sort of a tossup.
Speaking of Ramirez, the marine sat next to thomas, wilted like a sunflower and rather scruffy looking. Inside his winter parka it almost looked comical. His Abuela sat next to him, and offered him some hot chocolate, which he tried to decline, but she refused to take no for an answer. The man was still a mess after Maverick had left... even now.
Looking up, Sunny could just make out the shape of Glados, who had been drawn out of her hole to lurk in the shadows to witness this event. Sunshades were required, and being passed out to those who didn't have them.
This was going to be bright.
She lowered the shade even further over the heated carriage.
Kay shifted nervously.
Music swelled up from somewhere on the square.
She didn't know when this was supposed to-
TEN, NINE, EIGHT-
The crowd surged with agitation, voices raised to count along until the crowd was chanting in unison raising their voices to the black sky, filling the air with plumes of white mist
THREE TWO, ONE!
Nothing happened. Some of the crowd looked around in confusion. It was lucky for them Kimber understood how light works
"EIGHT, SEVEN SIX." She shouted, counting off the eight seconds it would take for the light to reach them. Confused at first, then realizing their blunder, the crowd took up her chant, getting louder and louder with every moment.
Kay shouted along with them.
Sunny covered Kay's eyes.
THREE
TWO
ONE
The sky exploded with light. Sunny gasped in shock and pain throwing up a hand to cover her own face as the sky bloomed with terrible light. It was like getting hit by a flash grenade, and the distress of the crowd rose up in a wave of screams, shouts and moans. Dogs barked, jeffery snakes hissed , wolves yipped somewhere in the Arcadia wilderness.
The jellies were unaffected.
Still blinking back artifacts, Sunny managed to raise her head, eyes adjusting slowly to the light.
As she adjusted, so did the others, until murmurs of shock and pain turned into gasps of awe, shouts of unmitigated joy as they turned their faces to a vast, blue sky.
"Holy shit." She muttered
"Holy shit." kay copied.
People cheered, people cried, people danced in the street, now lit by a noon day sun. Arcadia was a different city, bright with white architecture originally meant to help illuminate the night, now gave the city the feeling of floating on a cloud. Martha laughed though her voice was choked somewhat.
Sunny could feel the heat on her skin.
***
That night, Sunny, Adam, Kay, Astra and Nyx sat on the roof of the spiral tower, watching as their new star dipped towards the horizon painting the sky with various shades of blue, yellow and pink. Sunny also didn't fail to notice the small fluffy guest that was hiding under under the patio table.
"What are you going to name it?" Sunny wondered
Adam frowned, "Name it...." then a slow grin spread across his face
She sighed, "oh no.
"Bob."
"You can't name a star bob." She protested
"Yes I can, and yes I just did.... Aslo the people of Arcadia will agree with me.
Sunny sighed in amusement and shook her head, "Bob it is then."
The GA won't tell you this, but The Celzex are free you can just pick them up and take them home