Stellar Evolution Specialist Panther hides a smile as she arrives at the observation dome. <\/span>Indigo is philosophizing again, isn\u2019t ze?<\/span><\/i> she thinks. Ze is staring out the window of the dome, holding a cup of coffee in one hand without drinking it, and only offers a small wave when ze notices her.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe lasted longer than anyone would\u2019ve thought,\u201d Chief Science Officer Indigo muses, mostly to xirself. \u201cBack before the evacuation, people thought this place would burn as soon as the core stopped fusing hydrogen and the shell ignited. I\u2019m sure our original orbit is inside the convection zone by now. But look at us. Against the odds, our orbit moved out at pace with the star\u2019s expansion, and this place remained habitable for a few million years more.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou have a generous definition of habitable.\u201d Panther follows Indigo\u2019s gaze toward the red giant star visible through the heat-proof transparent paneling that forms most of the base\u2019s exterior. The red giant currently fills over half the sky. \u201cJust because we\u2019re not literally inside a star doesn\u2019t mean this place is somewhere you\u2019d want to live a life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Indigo chuckles. \u201cI suppose, but we live here, don\u2019t we? We have a surface to stand on, and we haven\u2019t been crushed by gravity. That\u2019s habitable in my book.\u201d Ze takes a sip of xir coffee, awash in the red light of the dying star.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t be here much longer,\u201d Panther points out. \u201cOur friend here has ejected a solid fifty-five percent of its original mass and is quickly approaching planetary nebula stage. Soon, there won\u2019t be any star left to do science on. Not to mention this planet\u2019s days are numbered. I don\u2019t want to be here when it finally gets fried or catapulted off into space or whatever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Indigo sighs. \u201cThat\u2019s what I called you here about,\u201d ze says, finally turning to face Specialist Panther. \u201cWe\u2019ve been running on a skeleton crew for a while, the past hundred years or so, and the planetary shielding has taken quite a beating in that time. You\u2019re right to say the planet\u2019s days are numbered. In fact, our engineers say the shields won\u2019t last another month, which is why I\u2019ve decided to call it. We\u2019re evacuating the base as soon as possible and deactivating the shields remotely. Time to let nature run its course.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Panther isn\u2019t surprised. \u201cIt\u2019s about time,\u201d she agrees. \u201cI\u2019ve liked this job well enough, but the folks back home have been urging us to leave for ages. It\u2019s getting dangerous over here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d Indigo turns to study the view again, admiring the enormous red sun and colorful molten surface of the planet. \u201cBut humans have had a presence on this planet for over seven billion years, and I\u2019ll be sad to end the streak.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Panther tilts her head as she looks out the window with Indigo. \u201cWhat did they call it in the olden days again?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEarth,\u201d Indigo answers. \u201cThis was planet Earth, birthplace of humanity.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luna Fortner Stellar Evolution Specialist Panther hides a smile as she arrives at the observation dome. Indigo is philosophizing again, isn\u2019t ze? she thinks. Ze is staring out the window of the dome, holding a cup of coffee in one hand without drinking it, and only offers a small wave when ze notices her.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions\/224"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/18-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}