Earthward Bound

8-35-472-1158-Im

If life was a game then Rodinians long ago mastered it.   Survival and the dangers of the universe are afterthoughts of the hypothetical they need not worry about. With near godlike and unmatchable capability and power, they know of little hardship or suffering, no anxiety or urgency, and no threat or hostilities; only a suicidal lunatic or a fool would challenge them. Yet, with all their power, they resign themselves to passivity and non-interaction with the rest of the cosmos, under a strict doctrine of non-intervention.   When two relatively young Rodinians, Quixos Thezumai and Kalrinasqua, are confronted by the hardships faced by those not lucky enough to be a Rodinian however, they find it difficult to accept or obey Rodinia's doctrine. The stark contrast between their lives and the lives of those outside Rodinia brings them into direct conflict with those non-interventionist laws.   With the aid of a rebellious Rodinian Mycoship called the Quellor, they break contact with Rodinia and join the free Rodinian enclaves hiding throughout the cosmos, intent on delivering some good fortune to those less fortunate than themselves. As the centuries tick past however, a wedge develops between them concerning how far they should go in their mission to make the universe a better place, and for how long in the face of enormous cosmological scale, and the impending end of space-time in only 21 million years.   Whilst they do so, forces back home begin shifting the once ossified and immobile tectonics of Rodinian politics, and not for the better. Non-interventionism exists as a response to past abuses of Rodinian power, and the malign forces that made it necessary are once again angling for a return to power, exploiting the end of the cosmos as a political crutch. Their success would undo all of the good done by the enclave Rodinians-in-exile, and spell certain misery for all non-Rodinians.   In the depths of deep space, with Rodinia's gaze turned inwardly and those few Rodinians-in-exile stretched into near irrelevance, something reawakens unnoticed. It's vengeful eye glares at Rodinia, but its mind ponders an even worse atrocity that would stun the universe into silence. And something else, still, descends on our universe; something the Rodinians with all their godlike power and intellects cannot fight or explain. Whatever lies ahead, be it mortal suffering, supremacist politics, or godly revenge, the worst is yet to come.   And whatever this is, our universe's only way to resist are the Rodinians. A civilization of deeply flawed creatures, whose brains evolved not to handle godlike power, responsibility, or the capacity to think as a god, but instead had godlike power and responsibility thrust upon a brain designed for little more than chasing prey through primordial lands and oceans of Earth, with all the flaws therein.