It never focused on one spot for long. It would cast its gaze on an area for maybe a minuet or two, twitching as it did so, before rolling in its socket to look at something else far off.
It never blinked. In all the years Frankie Emmerson studied the eye, it never blinked. In the decades of study by other scientists, it never blinked. There was a live cast sent out to the rest of Terrrankind to watch the eye, in the hopes to catch it blinking, but most were too disturbed by the colossal entity to watch the stream for long.
When astrologists first discovered it, they had believed it to be a nebula beyond the edge of the universe. Some speculated it was the form of a neighbouring universe, but when an expedition was sent out, they discovered what it really was, an eye looking into our universe.
A research outpost was set up on the last moon of the closest planet to the eye. The final stop before the physics of our universe warped. Even then, the eye was thought to be so far yet, galaxies could fit in the gap.
Frankie looked out through the observation window in one of the many research labs of the station. It filled the sky like Jupiter from the outposts of Titan, but Frankie felt a different disorientation. It wasn’t a vertigo fear of suddenly falling into the sky as you looked up, it was something more anxious. A dizzying realisation of some greater form of life beyond anything Terrankind could imagine. Frankie openly wept the first time he saw it.
“Probe reaching LS2” A white robed research assistant chimed monotonously.
Frankie did not take his gaze from the eye, as the pupil flew across the sky to his left. The right side of the eye had a brown and red corruption to its otherwise perfect blue iris.
“Nominal?” Frankie said.
“Distortion within projection.” The assistant said.
She was plugged into the control console and could see from the probe as if she was flying it.
“Physics boundary in 3...2...1…” Aster said. She was Frankie's lab partner.
The assistant groaned. “LS4 and accelerating.” She said.
“Already?” Frankie said.
“It’s only getting faster.” Aster said. “We must consider new laws.”
“Collaborate the data.” Frankie said.
The lab behind him became a hive of activity as the rest of the assistance, interns and lab techs worked their stations to collect all the data.
“LS5...LS7...At this rate, the probe will reach the eye before we have chance to de-accelerate.” Aster said.
“Bring it in.” Frankie said.
“Length is obstructed.” The assistant said.
“Shit, stop, now.” Aster said.
“We can’t.” Frankie said. “At that speed, it will shatter the probe.”
“We have others.” Aster said.
“Fly it through then.” Frankie said.
Aster looked at Frankie with fire, but Frankie never looked away from the eye. Wanton destruction of scientific equipment would be enough to have him thrown from the project, but she nodded.
“Approaching the pupil.” The assistant said. “It is...darkness. Venti. I can see...I can…” There was a twin pop of wet noise. The assistant froze in her chair.
Frankie finally looked away from the eye. The assistant sat back in her port, pale, mouth open. Two trails of blood, either side of her face, escaped from under her sensory system covering the upper half of her face.
“What happened?” Aster demanded.
“Get an apotheke.” Frankie shouted
He moved to the assistant and ripped off the sensors. He heard a faint tearing as the ports were forcibly removed from the assistants cranium. Two empty and dark sockets looked up at him from a lifeless face. There was no viscera, no blood, her eyes were just gone.
“Where’s the apotheke?” Frankie looked around.
The lab was silent, everyone was frozen to the spot, looking out the observation window. Frankie looked over his shoulder and for the first time in five years, for the first time since its discovery, the eye looked at him, looked at them all.
Anxiety burned through Frankie and he squeezed his eyes closed. He could still sense it, looking at him through the lids of his eyes.
Someone screamed. Wet pops. A thud of something heavy hitting the floor. More screams.
Frankie risked a peek and saw one of the lab techs lying on the floor. Those around him didn’t seem to notice, only screamed in their own agony. He could feel something behind his eyes, a pressure, darkness creeping in from the corners.
“Aster? What’s going on?” He said, ducking under his console.
“Darkness.” Aster said, emotion drained from her. “I can see it, it can see me.”
Aster looked down at Frankie. Her eyes swam with a dark fog that slowly obscured her iris and pupils.
“It doesn’t like us looking at it.” Aster said as the darkness fully engulfed.
There was a faint pop as the eyes completely vanished and Aster fell to the floor, her empty sockets still looking at Frankie.
He squeezed his eyes shut so tight he could see stars and wept.