The Sentient Stars by Christina Sng
In a move against the rebels,
The Capitol sends sentient stars
Nearing supernova to destroy
Any star systems refusing
To comply with their regime.
As a reward, they are promised
A safe zone for their starlings,
To grow and thrive without
Being harvested or destroyed
For fuel — protected.
These stars are too massive
To be captured as dark matter
In Singularity Jars,
Requiring far too much power
Than anyone can harness.
Even Bella cannot get close enough
To negotiate. A sordid business,
She thinks. The stars are protecting
Their young — a Universal trait.
She is just like them.
News comes in of an insurgence
In her star system and now the Capitol
Has sent a red supergiant to destroy them.
She ports to its nursery, gathers
Its starlings into a Singularity Jar,
And channels their energy
To open a wormhole ahead of it.
Bella releases the starlings
Into its path, watching,
As the star sweeps them up
Into its tremendous orbit,
And turns back to the Capitol,
Away from the star system
It was heading to destroy,
Bella’s home planet inside it.
The dying star ushers its starlings
To the safe zone, and as it enters
The galactic centre, it supernovas,
Destroying both the Capitol and
The planets surrounding it.
Bella returns home to a new world
And a new hope. No more overlords.
No more bounties and chasing stars.
No more coercion and world destruction.
She is finally free to be a child again.
illustration By ESO – http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0644a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28966525
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