Echoes of the Stars: Seeds of Civilization

In the year 2145 of the Stellar Calendar, the last stars in Earth's sky are silently going dark above humanity. Not because of war: the scars of the Third World War have healed over after half a century of peace. Nor because resources have run out: controlled nuclear fusion and orbital solar arrays have made energy nearly limitless. The stars are vanishing in a slower, more complete kind of farewell. An invisible barrier at the edge of the Milky Way is expanding like a vast hand closing around humanity, severing its ties to the universe one by one.