Prior parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

I hope you enjoy.

—

The telescope sat there on its side, looking much like something that was not going to be in use for a good line while now. It seemed like an age that Purvell stood there, staring among their peers at a thing that was surprising and slightly devastating. Who knew how long it would take to fix, if even it would be fixed at all.

It was a lot of money down the drain, that was for sure.

At some stage Rigby and Clay arrived, as did others. It seemed as though some people were in too much shock to talk and could only stare; others began talking among themselves, trying to work out what was going to happen from here. All Purvell could do was stare.

Eventually everyone who was there was ushered out by the head of the observatory. For now all that could be done was locking the space away and powering it down until something further was worked out, and for then that was it. For Purvell, it seemed like the end. Sure, they would have work to do eventually, but likely they would have to relocate to another observatory to continue their work and that was something they weren’t looking forward to. There probably was one closer than they thought as they hadn’t thought about it much as it was not something they needed to worry about most of the time. All they had to worry about was going through the motions and following their routine to get all their work done and all their data collected.

Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have to relocate at all. Maybe if they had to relocate they’d be relocating with most others.

The main space was shut down for at least a few hours and so a few went off to go do something else, to kill time for a while. Purvell located Rigby and Clay and they decided to go to a nearby lake, just to go look at something other than numbers.

The observatory was in a really lucky location in that not only did it have good views, but it was close enough to a lake that felt like it was not near an urban area, thoguh it wasn’t so much a lake as it was a massive pond, or at least that is how it felt. A light breeze blew across its surface and various waterbirds found their way there, though most were not seen all the time.

Purvell, Rigby and Clay got there and stood around a while, making idle talk whilst attempting to skin rocks across the water’s surface. Eventually the conversation turned to what had happened. Purvell explained what they caught, for they didn’t catch much of it due to how quickly and suddenly it happened. Clay went into detail about what they heard and as soon as they heard it they came rushing in. Rigby had just arrived and heard it from the outside.

Clay wondered about what the cost of replacing the telescope would be. It wasn’t young and it wasn’t old, but it certainly was expensive. Rigby was fairly certain that it would be replaced pretty quickly, but pretty quickly could still be months, depending on what kind of structural damage was done to the support and the machinery in the space. It was possible that the whole room would have to be redone.

Purvell hoped it would only be weeks and stated their desire to not go elsewhere. They kept mostly to themselves but they liked the atmosphere of that observatory. It was just a nice space to be and work in and it was close to home. Rigby mentioned how there were a few others close by, but thought that there was a good chance any relocation would be temporary if that was even needed, because it was unlikely that it was. Clay was silent and soon the other two also were.

There wasn’t much to say and there wasn’t much to do, and they all were hoping the rest of the day would be called off because what would be the point in continuing on for the day anyway? That was pretty much it; there was nothing more clearly a full stop on the working day than losing the main research tool.

Of course, Purvell had questions; how could they not? As far as everyone there was aware, the structure was sound. It wasn’t old enough to break; nor was it unable to handle the telescope. It was something designed to handle things far, far heavier and perhaps more awkward than the telescope as it had to be to ensure the telescope’s safety.

Of course there were others, but that stuck out among a sea of noise and even then they seemed more intent on staring across the water’s surface, trying to find answers for questions that hadn’t been asked.

Eventually the three of them decided to head on back to the observatory and the small talk resumed. When they arrived they were told that it was closed for the rest of the day and to enjoy the remainder of their day off. AS such the three went their separate ways and Purvell cycled on home.

Well, most of the way as when they neared their residence they decided instead to go for a ride around town. It had been a while since they did anything akin to exploring and so they decided it would be a good idea to just check things out, see what was lying around. Maybe it would give them reason enough to head on out on the coming weekend.

Purvell saw a lot of things as they cycled around, but nothing stuck out and everything blended in with each other. They eventually settled on cycling out for a little while, just to see if there was anything further out that perhaps they hadn’t sen in a while, or at all.

A few hours passed with nothing catching the eye, however, and so Purvell decided to head back on home. What else was there to do? Their mind was elsewhere and they had nothing to offer it other than a place away from cars. Going out of town didn’t help as there wasn’t much of anywhere to stop and be away from things to check out other things, and looking at the town itself didn’t offer much in the way of distraction, so what better thing to do than head on home? And so they did.

Of course when Purvell got home they realised they could get some more sleep and so sleep was on the menu. It was not long before they began preparation to try and get a few more hours of rest where they hoped that, after, they’d be fine to think more about the questions and sort them out.

There was a process here to try and follow and they found that their desire for working things out was kicking in in a way that it hadn’t for a while. This was the exercise that Purvell felt was the best kind and probably what they needed. If anything, at the very least it gave them a break from the prior evening’s events and, had they not been distracted by the new set of questions, they would have agreed was a good thing.

Of course when they reached bed rest was not what they had as suddenly their mind was racing through everything it could other than anything that could resemble information that they might be able to theorise upon. Suddenly the noise was there and it was heavy. It became a wall of indistinct words coming forth, fighting for prominence but unable to get any and they weren’t able to pick a single moment to stop upon.

Knowing that this was not going to change, at least for a while, Purvell decided to get up and make a coffee. They could at least plod around and be bored for a while; that always worked to kill time.

They went to turn on their kettle and received a small shock. Purvell wondered if there was an issue with the wiring and so they switched the pot off and plugged it into a different socket and it worked fine, but it also didn’t stop heating and so, as Purvell had walked off, it took a while to for them to realise that the kettle was still going as it hadn’t made its loud, sudden click that it does when the water was ready.

Maybe the wiring was failing.

The kettle’s handle was incredibly hot to the touch and so Purvell decided that maybe coffee was not the best thing to have but rather just a glass of water, of which they were able to pour fine from the tap. For that they were thankful, but it wasn’t what they wanted and so once more they were stuck with an issue, albeit a rather minor one, all things considered.

Purvell tried to9 work out what they would do from there, but there was little of anything that they could work out. It was a day that stretched far ahead of them and they had little to do. They weren’t in the mood to read. Maybe they’d try and work out what was happening with the socket, but that could also wait.

Maybe they’d just do nothing for the rest of the day and leave it at that.

Eventually Purvell decided that the best course of action was just to head back to bed and hope for the best. Maybe their mind would keep on racing; maybe it wouldn’t but at leas they’d be lying down and that was an improvement over doing little to nothing at all, or at least that is what Purvell thought in that one moment of clarity.

And so once more Purvell went to bed and hoped for the best, but once more nothing came of it. They stared off into space, up at their ceiling fan. As though on queue, the fan began spinning on its own. Purvell didn’t notice at first, thinking that maybe they switched it on by accident and so went to switch it off. The moment they were out of bed the fan fell to the ground. Had they been slower and it would’ve landed right on them.