The Alchemist

Everyday this happened.

Little explosions rocked over the surface that it watched over.

Everyday the alchemist came to watch.

The sweet destruction that went on underneath.

Orange and red glowed through the windows. A constant glow that was only shut out half of the day.

Most days were normal, the daily endeavors with nothing to report, all the equipment working perfectly. Sometimes they would drift ever so lower to the heat below and they were pressed back into their harnesses as they went ever so faster.

They dreamed of what could have been. Holding old pictures of a decrepit past that were eventually thrown into the fires that consumed the world below.

Most of them never bothered to look below, relying on instruments and data to continue their work above it all, worrying more about their trajectory and why the bar had been closed for a few cycles.

The few that did look down, however, found something different. They found themselves awestruck at the beauty of it all. The very thing that gave them life, could take it away so quickly. They would swear that they saw things, ants they said, crawling around on the surface. They would say that it wasn't what they believed it to be, but rather a new world that they needed to explore.

This alchemist, in particular, had never thought much of it. The bad ones are always cut out in the end, they thought. It couldn't happen to us. The alchemist gazed on.

Suddenly, things began to appear on the surface. Little things, little black dots that moved around through the orange glow. The alchemist was amazed of course, never had this been seen and recorded.

Excited, the alchemist went to tell the others about the phenomena. They had thought that the others had been crazy, well perhaps not, how could they when their master had seen it first hand? None of them turned around at the persistent screaming, none would listen to what the 'crazy' wanted to say.

Not fazed by the disinterest, the alchemist vowed to observe it firsthand. He sat down at the controls as he separated it from the main structure.

The craft rushed towards the surface in a ball of flames.