Journey And Arrival

Wayfarer spends several minutes reliving the life of Christian Brannock before shutting down for the interstellar journey because he lacks Alpha's ability to spend travel time in intellectual or aesthetic activity. The ship reactivates him when crossing the remnant of the Oort Cloud. Coupling to instruments, he scans the Solar System:

Saturn's rings are depleted;
one Jovian moon has disintegrated into rings;
the Red Spot is gone;
Mars has lost its moons and tilted its axis;
the Sun is larger, whiter and brighter;
the solar wind is stronger;
ultraviolet has increased;
antimatter plants near the Sun and trans-Plutonian comet harvesters either were dismantled or have eroded;
some minerals on Venus are now molten;
Luna has lower mountains, newer craters and ground collapsed on empty cities;
Earth is almost entirely cloud covered, with glimpses of water and land but no ice or lights;
Gaia greets Wayfarer but there I end for today.