[ WP ] A group of people worship a small , plain , clear glass marble . You touch it , and realise why .

There are people of all ages here. They work. They live. And they give thanks. But unlike most they thank this... thing. 
 
 I've scanned it every way I can think of and I always get the same result. Glass. Not even good glass. Not pure glass. Not some exotic quartz. This is some degenerate castoff that's been formed into a reasonably round sphere. But it's got the structure and significance of a common toy. 
 
 Now it's not just sitting there, like on a pillow. Some considerable effort has been made to mount the marble in a frame. Three fine points rise on minutely adjustable legs to hold the marble just so. The stand is a work, no a patchwork, of old and new technologies. 
 
 The stand has been erected on a short plinth that shows ancient wear and pitting. 
 
 And the building is some sort of temple. It carries the weight of age. It's been dressed and re-dressed with arts and sigils, all depicting the plinth and the marble. Though in truth the actual marble in the frescos has a lot of variations. 
 
 Some of these writings are ancient. Like creepy ancient. A true concordance of dead languages and pictograms that might date back to the diaspora. 
 
 And the people. Long lived. Healthy. Happy. Welcoming. Always wishing the blessings of glass upon you. 
 
 The rest of the planet? Meh. Farms. People. Light industry. But the whole place dedicated to `` the miracle of glass''. And every single damn one of them has marbles. No really. Every one. Like all the time. They play with them. They give them as gifts. There's a tradecraft in them. Some are decorated but the most solemn, the most serious, are plain glass no different than this one. 
 
 I key my comms. `` I've got nothing. This is the strangest cult, but they're harmless. We could take the lot of them with a slingshot and some billy clubs. The locals are almost toxicity peaceful. I ca n't figure out why the War College has a permanent interdiction and defense order for this whole sector. Nor why that interdiction is so old.'' 
 
 The temple keeper, something of a snott-nose, clears his throat. `` Is that why you're here? You want to know why?'' 
 
 I roll my eyes at him. 
 
 `` That's easy. Touch it. Very gently. Do n't move it at all.'' 
 
 He's got his own marble out. He's rolling it in his fingers nervously as he's been doing for the many hours of my study. 
 
 I figure'what can it hurt' and I reach out for the gentlest touch. 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 `` Take your gloves off.'' 
 
 `` Really?... Alright.'' 
 
 Tink! 
 
 I am surrounded by the dead. Not in a generic or familial way. I just recognize the clothing and ways of the ancients from my studies. This room is a lab built into a bunker, from long before the temple, the plinth, mount, or marble. The ancients are toiling to probe the nature of the universe and experience both success and failure. 
 
 They create a pinhole in spacetime. An apature through which all reality might drain. It's supposed to be one end of a wormhole, but where wherever the other end might be has some serious negative traits. The contents of the lab start getting sucked in, collapsing. Purely by chance a slab of smoked glass shielding moves first and the mayhem stops. The black glas begins to glow, as if heated from within. 
 
 Then the scene jitters, but it's the scene of a cataclysm barely glimpsed, and then back to the place it started. 
 
 I jerk my hand back like I'd been burned. 
 
 For nearly zero time here I was really _there_. A witness. 
 
 I pull out new gear and make better scans. There's a hole in spacetime here. Plugged by glass. Plain glass with no extraneous metals or non-uniform oddities that the hole can use to its advantage. Those researchers are in a perpendicular time, trapped in mathematical amber. 
 
 Every person on this planet stands, marble in hand, ready to replace the plug when this one fails. Playing games of dexterity. Playing games of skill. They guard the hole through which the universe will one day drain away. 
 
 I key in confirmation of the interdiction order and look at the kid I'd all but dismissed earlier. Over-eager is probably what you want in a universal guardian of this sort. 
 
 He handed me a marble and it genuinely made me feel better, though I doubt I could place it with his youthful speed and accuracy. 
 
 I weighed it in my hand as he said `` may the blessings of glass be upon us all.''
