A Spark in a Dark

(to be noted, there are possibly many possibilities, this is a story for any who see the potential end of the universe if there ever was such a thing as a dead end, or if that sounds too fatalistic what we in this country would call a cul-de-sac, if you see the universe as a neverending beautiful glowing and growing tree type thing then just a silly fictional bit of pulp fiction ;)

Bella was slowly and methodically taking in the projections,

'It's looking like a potential landslide, in our favour', she concluded to the other three,

'Good' - Grant, the project overseer's reply.

'Galactic are asking which model you'll vote for if the referendum goes ahead tomorrow, as it's now looking'

Al, the project's "daddy" piped up at this, 'Contrast! Of course! Grant believes, good souls can only truly be forged to their highest peak, only after, getting their sole, or souls, calloused trudging through hellfire of doubt and fear first.'

Maurice, the project's PR lead, sighed at this, the main weapon the opposition used during the campaign had been the mis-branding of a couple of the top ten proposed models as "Hell", and "Chaos" the labels had stuck, suddenly, the very pure spark, had a slight tarnish in some people's mass media not questioning too much minds

'I plan not to vote', Grant replied then joined Bella in pouring over the live projections

'I'll be voting for equilibrium', Al continued, 'I can't see how any of the others can really be considered with it on the list'.

'Equilibrium will always be exactly not that, even a slight run of fate, and it' becomes, an almost unstoppable force, well perhaps that's a limited way of looking at it, however I fear risk of any kind where un-needed' - Maurice cut in,

Al resumed, 'almost unstoppable, and come on, it's the classic, good versus evil, fate of the universe in the balance at every turn type stuff'.

'I'm not convinced' Maurice responded. 'I'm leaning toward bliss, it's not been chosen before in traceable mapping'

'I won't vote either, I'd consider voting though if Bliss was looking like the winner, for the other forerunner, the risk is too great with bliss, what happens if there are no more votes, no more of these discussions, then when do we get to pick any of the others?' Bella added.

'Pish, we're talking less than a point of a point of a percent' Maurice retorted and continued, 'and we could finally put to rest the argument of "It's too risky", if nothing else'.

'It doesn't work like that, you know that Maurice, just because you walk over a rickty brdge ninety nine times dosent mean it'll hold on the 100th crossing' Al waited for Maurice to reply, when he didn't he pressed on 'There is also too great a risk that just because we theorise you don't need suffering to experience true joy it dosent mean it is the case, why take the risk? Isn't Joy if only experienced a few times in a lifetime if it feels true ,more important, than an entire lifetime of endless contentment if that contentment is not earnt or strived for?'

Al and Maurice had reached this crux before, weeks ago, and Grant and Bella's attention's clearly wained as the familiar ground was reached.

'We're at 87% projected "yes" vote' Bella reported now pouring over the data once more.

'Equilibrium sees the killing and butchering of trillions of sentients, Bliss, barely a handful, and you speak of "true joy"? A Mother, losing her son, who had a brave and courageous soul, mourning his image ever more, how is that worth another's "true" joy.' Maurice, ignoring Bella's comment, continued, all four had known for months the answer to the vote would be yes and there would be no fake enthusiasm or anticipation of results from any but Bella.

Bella's face suddenly became stricken,

She glanced up to the others and said in whisper 'Chaos, is the frontrunner in the fiirst poll'.

The others were silent now.

Al was the first to speak, in a hushed toned 'Do they say, why?'

Maurice's voice croaked as he spoke, 'Surely it's a mistake?'

Even Grant's usually stone-walled face was pulled in cocern.

Bella watched the numbers fluctuating and spoke up 'It's varying, there seems to be strong arguments for a number of the models'

...Will update with more soon (hopefully), not the full prologue.