AKFrost
rating: 0+x

"God Damned Scientists!" Site-2949 Director Giuseppe Rossa banged his hand on his keyboard.

"Your magnets not working?" Level 4 Researcher Dr. Adriano Giallo called over. Rossa glared at the doctor before pointing to his screen.

"This is what cost us 350,000,000 credits! You and your damned tests! It was a quill that gave you a strange power. Just a small hole in reality that can be easily blocked, but you just had to poke holes at it until it blew everything up!"

While Rossa ranted, Giallo walked over and looked at Rossa's screen. On it was a surveillance video of a researcher and a D-class. The researcher apparently prodded the D-class to write down something on a piece of paper before the video violently cut off to what appeared to be an explosion.

"At least nobody died." Giallo replied, "And now we know what the item actually does. It writes reversed text by causing a local reality inversion, and the D-class writing the exact same text forwards caused an explosion from annihilation."

"And what good is that?!" Rossa seethed. "The item was destroyed! The site was destroyed! 25 Items are still unaccounted for, and I've got 350,000,000 against my balance! Why couldn't you have just gave it a number and put it in a box? Is this 'knowledge' worth 350,000,000?!"

"Not this particular piece, no." Giallo replied, "But that's how science works, dear Giuseppe. Failure is the mother of success, and success is worth the cost of all the failures. I can document the item now if you'd like."

"That won't be necessary." Rossa spat, "we had control over it for all of 78 minutes."

"Your choice." Giallo eyed Rossa as Rossa walked over to the water cooler. Rossa seemed to hesitate when he reached the machine, before throwing away his cup and stomping up to Giallo.

"The Foundation Research Department costs 2 undecillion credits to run a year. What did you scientists do that could possibly justify that cost?"

Giallo eyed Rossa like a idiot, "Ending death itself isn't enough for you? Any number is equal to zero when compared to infinity."

Rossa stomped back to his desk.

"You know, you pretend as if ending death is worth infinite credits. I'm not convinced it's even a positive. Ever since science has ended death, we have people trying the opposite, to bring death back."

"Fools." Giallo stared at Rossa, "Don't tell me you're considering it."

"I've lived a very long time,” Rossa said, "I've fought more fires like this than my father has had hot dinners, and that difference can only increase now…"

Giallo raised an eyebrow, "Surely if work at the Foundation bores you, you can always go work elsewhere."

"Elsewhere," Rossa spat, "and what then? I keep switching jobs? Eternity will outlast everything, Adriano. It already outlasted Earth, and the Sun, and the Milky Way. It will outlast this universe. It will outlast every universe. Eventually, we will be adrift in a great void, undying but unable to do anything. What then? Is your cost justified?"

Giallo stood up.

"And what do you think death is?"

Rossa froze, unable to avert Giallo's gaze.

"Director Giuseppe Rossa." Giallo continued, "Death is nothingness. We cannot experience nothingness. It is not being cast adrift in a great void. Remember how slow time seemed to be when you were an infant? Remember how variable your perception of time seemed to be when adjusted for your experiences? Death is the absence of experience, and by extension, the absence of time. You cannot go from a state of experience to a state of non-experience, nor can you go from a state with time to a state without time."

Rossa refocused his eyes, before riposting, "Except in the event horizon of a black hole. There is no time, only space."

"You're absolutely right Giuseppe. Death is a black hole, a singularity. And the thing about singularities is: you cannot ever reach it."

Giallo sat back down.

"As you approach death, your perception of time will slow down. You will not reach sweet oblivion. You will continue to experience, at an exponentially decreasing rate, the last moments of your life, towards a perceived eternity. To us, you may be dead, as material pulled into a black hole is lost forever, but to your perception…"

Rossa closed his eyes.

"You will live, for eternity."

Giallo stood up and walked towards the door as Rossa sat in his seat, still processing his words.

"And that is what science has done for you. It gave you a chance to actually have a choice."