What follows is the loose translation of extracts of thoughts of one who thinks in a language too far from our own.
Slowly, something reveals itself.
A new gravitational force somewhere out there.
And what from? A new planet forming? An undocumented asteroid or ship?
We set out to find it.
We look through telescopes, peering into the night sky, hoping to spot the source of this gravitational pull. Something about this spot in space, a tiny planet on the edge of the system, something about it causes the lenses to [fold/glitch/smudge], they are faulty, the planet makes them so.
Easier to venture out there, since telescopes won’t show us what we seek.
Near the edge of the system, a planet somehow gaining mass.
So, we wander out, simple in our time, not so simple a few millennia ago, impossible a few millennia prior to that. Our records are old, but claim a few hubs should be present, hardly a few thousand.
A planet at the edge of the system, icy cold, to the point of death for our [old selves/ancestors/ancient humans/those that came before].
Long and long should it take; but years upon years of research have allowed this; the travel time cut to almost nothing; a few microseconds. Time and money and effort and [power/teleportation].
We sit ourselves in view of the planet, the entire thing. A small planet, but large out the window, not quite taking up the space behind my thumb.
And there it is that we see, what it is that has been causing the gravitational force, what it is that could alter the orbits of all celestial bodies in the system.
What it is, is simply…
horrifying
Not something I would ever have wished to lay eyes upon. Something that was once a human, that has changed itself so thoroughly that the word no longer describes it.
A once-human so large that it appears to be squatting on the planet, [a toad on a stone/a slug on your finger/worse; something not right].
What can count as human? And does this fit?
Featherless biped no longer fits; unsuited for most of us “humans.”
Altering ourselves so thoroughly as to be something, something more? Something less or something to the side, different and parallel and something else altogether.
Gills and wings and feathers and extra arms and legs and feet and hands and [extra/no genitalia]. No more breathing or no more cell death or no more growth; some of those which appear as children are thousands of years old now, maybe.
This thing.
This thing outdoes them all.
How grandiose it is.
How abysmal it is.
Unsuited.
This one, this [long-lost human/once-human/forever human]?
A being with its own gravity.
Those that used to live here, long gone; outdated records. They did not leave of their own volition; [moved/evicted/killed/swallowed/engulfed/taken]. The planet too, beginning to form into it; it? It. The once-human. The DNA alteration out of control, though intentional, isn’t it so?
Isn’t it?
It is.
It says as much, through a voice in our heads.
“I know what I’ve done; I regret what I’ve done; I’d do it again.”
It spake; [mumbled/deafened/muted/anguished].
Intent.
Intent and Consequence.
We must [conclude/abolish/clear/end it].
Must control the force – gravity; mustn’t allow it to alter the system; should it become too massive.
Mustn’t let it.
However,
I do wonder:
How much would it alter, could it alter, would it change, could it change?
How much would it kill?
Other planets?
The star along with it?
Other systems?
A galaxy?
Should we [allow/forget]?
To see what it could become?
To see how much [damage/danger] it can [cause/be]?
What could it [overtake/eclipse/conceal/obliterate]?
To oblivion what could it send?
And how much choice do we have?
It will continue. It does continue. Over hours, deliberating, we see it [change/alter/grow] more and more [grotesque/misshapen/distorted/deformed] and monstrous.
The once-human no longer so big, no, no, much [bigger/saftig/corpulent/exhaustive/massive].
Kill it now!
Before it takes us!
Before it’s too late!
So, oh do we try.
[Pulse cannons/rail guns/controlled lasers] hitting at what we assume to be weak points, drive it away from the planet, drive it away from the system.
Drive tiny robots into its brain, they cycle about in its head, chewing away, eating grey matter; unsuccessful.
[Something like a hadron collider], around the planet, crashing subatomic particles into each other over and over and creating tiny black holes which eat away at it before collapsing in on themselves.
Attempting to blast away at it seems [ineffective/inefficient/dangerous], using anti-matter to propel anti-matter at it to form a kind of implosion, where it would be sucked into the nothing that anti-matter [creates/destroys/repels/is], and nothing.
And nothing.
And a cage it would eat.
Once-human; too far removed.
It continues.
[Unstoppable/irreparable].
Move it away from here!
Take it somewhere else!
We’ll figure out what next then!
Yes but,
