The year 10 to the power of 100 AD. A long time from now in a universe nearing the end of its useful life. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is grinding down to it's inevitable conclusion, and the last of the stars are rapidly winking out of existence. The Universe will enter a final eternal dark age as entropy finally expires, leaving nothing except a few subatomic particles and the odd photon or two. On a solitary world orbiting a dying red-dwarf star the last sentient beings in existence came to sit out the final end. These creatures were known as the Accursed, no one knows what they looked like or much about their culture. The Accursed's origins disappear into the deep history of the universe. We are not sure if they are/ were of one species. That they were-will be the ultimate sons and daughters of the whole of sentient life is one thing that cannot be disputed. Clinging to life on their tiny rock in the sanguine gloom of the Last Light, the Accursed contemplated their fate; there was no where else left to turn, they were the last of their kind, the last of any kind. Yet still they sought for anyway they could to carry on, to survive. Their tiny planet could no longer sustain the Accursed as a people and many of them died, their bodies causing the air to go foul and warm up due to the release of green house gases. In a way a similar process was occuring on the dying sun of the world, as it approached its end it too released more energy in a kind of final spark at the end. The Accursed became the Few and still they sought survival through their advanced, if degenerating science. The individual creature was no longer a viable paradigm, but if the many could become one there was a hope of some continued existence. So the Many became One amd paved the way for the creation of the Only. Story- Andrew Panero- (C) 2011 Carrara Render with some post render work. Planetary texture by Hameed. I'm sure some of you will be familiar with the Loup Garoux character from my story 'The Survival of the Daleks'. For various reasons I believe it necessary to tell this creature's back story as a story separate from Survival. This is because of the fact that he is my character and Daleks aren't my characters! So without muddying the waters too much I wanted to assert my intellectual property rights for this character, you never know when an idea could come in handy!