Identifiera denna berättelse om världens ände (eventuellt Big Rip)?

Detta är " Senaste kontakt " av Stephen Baxter. Den publicerades online för en tid då den nominerades till utmärkelser ... du kan fortfarande hitta ett webbarkiv av den posten som är länkad till Wikipedia-sidan.

Gång för punkt:

En kvinnlig forskare har beräknat det exakta ögonblicket en viss våg av förstörelse, sannolikt Big Rip, kommer att slå jorden. Hon väntar på det ögonblicket tillsammans med sin mamma.

Passar:

“Mum, it’s October.” Caitlin blurted that out. She looked thin, pale, and tense, a real office worker, but then Maureen had always thought that about her daughter, that she worked too hard. Now she was thirty-five, and her moderately pretty face was lined at the eyes and around her mouth, the first wistful signs of age. “October 14th, at about four in the afternoon. I say ‘about.’ I could give you the time down to the attosecond if you wanted.”

Historien är en uppsättning möten med sin mamma över tiden från ungefär när det först tillkännages att universum slutar, tills ögonblicket slutar. Senare i berättelsen spenderar hon det exakta ögonblicket med sin mamma.

En sond har konstruerats som kan överleva, men mänskligheten kommer inte, så det kommer ingen att läsa ut data.

Ja, det finns forskare som undersöker fenomenet till sista stund, även om data kommer att vara värdelösa:

Caitlin looked at her curiously, but didn’t pursue it. “Listen, Mum. Some of us are going to try to do something. You understand that the Rip works down the scales, so that larger structures break up first. The galaxy, then the solar system, then planets like Earth. And then the human body.”

Maureen considered. “So people will outlive the Earth.”

“Well, they could. For maybe about thirty minutes, until atomic structures get pulled apart. There’s talk of establishing a sort of shelter in Oxford that could survive the end of the Earth. Like a submarine, I suppose. And if you wore a pressure suit you might last a bit longer even than that. The design goal is to make it through to the last microsecond. You could gather another thirty minutes of data that way. They’ve asked me to go in there.”

Och i slutändan hoppas ett mycket svagt hopp att de har en sond som kan fånga data som kommer att överträffa fenomenet och fortsätta för den som kommer efter.

Och vad gäller ...

Hennes partner har begått självmord, eftersom han (som många andra) inte vill bevittna förstörelsen.

Detta verkar också matcha:

"So how’s Bill and the kids?”

“We had an early Christmas,” Caitlin said. “They’ll both miss their birthdays, but we didn’t think they should be cheated out of Christmas too. We did it all this morning. Stockings, a tree, the decorations and the lights down from the loft, presents, the lot. And then we had a big lunch. I couldn’t find a turkey but I’d been saving a chicken. After lunch the kids went for their nap. Bill put their pills in their lemonade.”

Maureen knew she meant the little blue pills the NHS had given out to every household.

“Bill lay down with them. He said he was going to wait with them until he was sure—you know. That they wouldn’t wake up, and be distressed. Then he was going to take his own pill.”