Neron Rising

entire life away s

feel when I hold

t best. Because I know myself, and I know with how much

my skin, it's like it bonds with me, becoming one. I'm instantly aware of all the other Neron that

s every

nergy. Ner

y small bruise, any cracked finger. Any breaks d

holding this Neron, I am

vement draws my attention. The air is ve

wy fog. I find broad shoulders.

rching for the face of th

inly a male figure, reach

to ward me off, or m

hadowed face, I think that maybe

nside of me. I slowly extend my

he entire universe collapses in on us, and i

with a startled yell. I bump into a wall and le

ron. I've felt things, felt connected to people's

. But I don't want this feeling of heavines

he Neron shard, secure it back in t

ago. The power system it was operating on had to be over a hundred solars old. After talking with the building manager, I told him I co

left-over space without question an

y problems with the sys

the space to pla

I'm not. Here, I pretend that my

shop. "I spent two hours in that bar and overheard two different grou

m. We're a half a kilometer closer to the surface level than the actual mine. Huge, solid crystals of Neron as big as my head line shelves. The workers ope

ominion finds out there's Neron here, I want you to imagine the consequences. Korpillion is the only inhabitable planet in

ize why she unsettles me so much. She's cold. Her eyes ar

e being

s," she says. And all the little hairs on the back

idn

explains. "Since Dominion was founded, they have swept the entire galaxy approxima

s until Dominion returns and scans Korpillion w

in a cool, quiet way. "It doesn't matter if rumors spread to every cor

me and our planet will be gutted. If people knew now, they cou

are twenty-eight point one billion people on this planet. It would take decades to

s know for a fact that there is Neron on this planet. You are one of the only people who could

o a fine powder. My pulse pounds in my ears as I watch her, being so calm, continuing as though nothing i

ble when they come." She caps off the glass vial and sets it on a shelf with a line of other