It wasn’t until I learned that quantum physics was that I decided I no longer wanted to be a physicist. Maybe if I had been something might’ve been different. I always stayed tangential to physics as it still intrigued me. Although working as a sound engineer was much more profitable, I still looked into things that I found interesting or saw in the news. Apparently there’s this concept in quantum physics that states that an object that is unobserved ceases to exist. I always thought it was worth a good laugh but noting more. It’s essentially just a retelling of the classic, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it does it make a sound?” Of course things make sounds, and of course the universe still continues on when no one observes it. That’s what I thought up until we installed a brand new giant eye in the sky.
The James Webb Space Telescope operated fine and dandy for the first 18 months. 18 months of discovery, clearer pictures than the engineers who put together Hubble could’ve ever imagined, all for us to rekindle an unholy primal “thing” that hadn’t poked it’s nasty head out in god knows how long. Scientists had said that it was something they found in space about 42,000 Light Years away with the JWST, but images looked like it was too small to verify and could’ve been interference. Soon it went from, “something” to nothing, as newer photos taken of the same location indicated nothing of the sort.
All but the most dedicated conspiracy theorists forgot about the incident up until a 6 months ago, 3 years since the original image had come out. Something had been spotted indeed, there hadn’t been a mistake. Space is so gigantic that every picture from the JWST is essentially like taking a grain of sand and holding it up against the sky. It makes sense that we didn’t see it again since it moved as fast as it did. It was spotted, and was once again decidedly stationary in this photo, and approximated to be around 3000 light years away from us. A week ago astronomers around the world began reporting something strange in the sky that appeared to be encroaching upon us. If we’d stopped at the first photo, put the JWST on hold, and just let that thing float off into distant space, we wouldn’t have had an issue. When we found it in the second photo is when the labcoats realized something was going on. When civilians started seeing movement from it is when they realized that A) it’s alive whatever it is, and B)( hopefully) it can’t move if not observed. Almost like a giant, cosmic, all consuming version of the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who.
All telescopes, mirrors, and reflective surfaces were destroyed, we don’t know if it’s still coming for us, but we hoped blinding ourselves would turn out to be a good long term solution. I don’t know what happened to the world, but it appears imminent danger with little hope of survival brings everyone together. Everyone was blinded whether by choice or otherwise. Luckily I got to be one of the first to lose my sight. Never thought that would be a sentence I’d say, but it allowed me to try going back to normal. Eventually everyone was back to work. I’m currently in the process of testing out the new attempts at echolocation gear to make a map of the city people could understand. The first scan seemed a bit low, it shouldn’t be showing a ceiling. I am outside after all, I can feel the sun on my cheeks. I run it again, and this time the ceiling is even lower. Something in the back of my mind clicks, and I remember , “While observation typically means visually, there are other ways, take for example a bats echolo-“