Stars stretched across the vast expanse of space, glittering brightly, pulsing dully, flashing and burning their way through the dark existence of What Is. In the distance one of them brightened for a moment, eclipsing its neighbours in an inferno that changed the course of no less than three civilisations and obliterating a fourth just as they discovered their ocean floor. It was a shame; if they'd survived they would have gone on to discover the absolute truth of the universe.
On second thought maybe it was a good thing they had died. Such discoveries tended to only bring trouble in his experience.
Closer, a pair of stars orbited each other in the ancient cosmic dance of their binary system. On the sixth planet an otherwise unremarkable species of a plant very like oleander began to wonder "why?", and took their first step towards sentience.
Closer still a comet drifted through the vast emptiness of space, still moving purely by dint of the fact that it hadn't run into anything yet. Its tail streamed out perpendicular to its flight path as it passed near enough to a sun for it to be affected. It numbered on without altering its course, tumbling end over end on its meandering journey between the stars.
At the point of observation, on the edge of a nebula, a small blue box with 'Police Public Call Box' blazoned above its doors in glowing letter spun gently. Within its four walls was a space much larger than should be possible given the human laws of physics. In the very centre of that space, a very old man with a very young face and eyes that have seen too much by any reckoning bent over a monitor. He ignored the grandeur of the universe, the brilliance of the ever-night sky because he had already seen it all a hundred, a thousand, a million times and more. He ignored eternity, his gaze fixed on memory and the short span of a human life. They were the rich embroidery in the tapestry of the universe, the colour in an otherwise commonplace existence. They reminded him of the wonderful because the shine never had the chance to fade from their eyes.
They were ephemeral, but they were amazing.
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