// First image: Black and white charcoal on archival paper. A cosmic dust storm with streaks of bright white bursting from a single point towards the center. Imprecise perspective rendering makes the viewer feel lost and uneasy. //

The art class is small. The forward momentum of the AION Initiative always takes precedence over softer pursuits. Professor Inoue knows they have very little time to nurture their chosen mediums outside of the two stolen hours they have together every other week, but he loves them just the same.

// Second image: Impressionist oil-pastels on dented sheet metal. A collection of triangular, oblique pyramids float in uniform amongst towering cumulonimbus clouds. The dark of the pyramids, rendered in rich blues and purples, juxtaposes the soft pink and orange hues of the clouds. //

Although the group consists of no more than fledgling doodlers, research and art share a core skill: observation. They're in session, attempting a charcoal still life of laboratory glassware and a fungal sample, when it happens. An alarm blares, and powder-blackened fingers grasp for one another, seeking comfort as news from home tumbles through the class. They hurry to the Caldera to observe.

// Third image: Acrylic paint on wood. Bold blocks of color. Two spheres: the larger one blue with green swirls, the smaller one eggshell white. A deep red fills the background. The lines are mostly crisp. Some red has bled into the white sphere, where the artist left a light smudge trying to correct the error. //

Armageddon is peaceful this far away. They expect a shockwave to roll over the settlement. Surely an apocalypse warrants at least a small earthquake? A few shattered Straus flasks? Nothing comes. The members of the AION Initiative observe a tragedy from approximately 1.7 light years away, through telescopes built to show a vastness beyond their solar system. Tens of thousands of years of human history decimated, and from their Kepler, it's nothing but a few flashes. Invisible to the naked eye. Occurring approximately 1.7 years prior.

The AION Initiative, born in the pursuit of observation, ends in observation.