WHERE THE STARS LIGHT OUT

They didn’t expect this; they would rather think they would see God, but this was way beyond their mental abilities… suddenly, all theories about parallel universes found logical explanation; all theses telling that a dying space is replaced by a new one also proved correct! Captain Hans Olo looked back at his crew. Everyone was moved; they couldn’t believe their own eyes. No one expected to see…

***

Did the descendants have a moral right to decide for the future generations? Did the mission justify the fact that Earth became a myth (old, dusty myth that must be known because it is your duty) for them?

For over three thousand years, Manta Saria, a giant spaceship, was roaming the cosmic emptiness to accomplish something that would once be pure madness. Centuries ago, scientists proved that the universe ends at a certain spot – and a few centuries later it was shown that the end was material, as if someone surrounded everything with a giant wall. Ever since, it was believed that it was of the highest importance to check what could be found behind the end. Some even called the expedition „To discover God” – soon it would turn out if the jokes were a prophecy.

They passed many galaxies. When one of them looked promising in terms of existence of life – or at least had a planet where people could set up a colony – research probes were immediately sent. Despite lack of success, they could afford being so wasteful – thanks to nanotechnology, the vehicles were built of a mere thousand of atoms.

Three thousand years in the black emptiness. Over twenty generations that knew Earth only from their textbooks. They sometimes asked themselves whether it all made sense; whether they were not heading for their own doom. Did they have the right to see the face of God? To prove the existence of the Highest One, if he was there.

For over fifty years, Hans Olo was the leader of the expedition, and there was not a single day simulant when he was not haunted by these questions. Questions without answers.

The most important escapade in the humankind era was planned in the finest details. In the preparation phase, the toughest problem was the issue of food production. To keep the crew alive, they would have to have the storage area hundred times larger than the whole ship. It took a few years to invent a molecular generator and to save the whole project. The device would degrade waste to atoms and create anything from those atoms, including food. Salvation and curse, at the same time. Curse, because nothing could be wasted – even the dead and the feces were degraded to atoms (and then eaten in a form of generated food) – they never knew the taste of real, Earth-made food, juicy fruit, bloody steaks… Everything they produced, had a similar, slightly paper-like taste.

The deceased turned to food – although he spent his whole life here and he knew no other food, this thought was arising a non-determined, primal feeling of disgust and fear. The fact that his body is digesting processed feces was somehow acceptable, but the fact that maybe one day he ate his parents… mother… father…

Fuel was a lot less troublesome. There was no doubt that light could not be outspeeded. However, due to the use of antimatter as fuel and invention of new, extremely damage-resistant materials, engineers managed to obtain sub-light speed – only slightly slower than that achieved by photons. Despite undisputable success, scientists were still in despair… it would take the ship over a million years to reach its destination. Preparations got stuck in a dead point for ten years. Every day, fewer people believed that the project would be successful. Some voices of outrage could be heard, because the planetary government spent many billions of eurolars, which of course was the biggest burden for the poorest taxpayers. They didn’t care about some expeditions; cosmic extravagances.

One night – soaked with resignation – one of very young astrophysicians rose to his feet from his bed and until morning, with madness in his eyes, was calculating formulas that he had dreamt of. He created a theory of time-space curve synchronization. To put it as simple as can be, the youngster managed to create „a road map of the universe” and to create „tunnels” in the space-time curves… in practice, this meant that getting to the destination point would last almost three thousand years, which was acceptable.

When the spaceship was almost built, the greatest minds of both sexes were gathered together. Among them, five thousands of volunteers were selected; half were men, half women. The chosen ones had to accept just one condition – they had to make pairs, each pair had to have two children. This cycle had to be repeated for many future generations. Generations that had no choice…

Then, day 0 came! For five thousand brave men and women, the time started a new cycle. Just like long before the birth of Jesus marked the beginning, now the launch of Manta Saria was the new start. The chosen representatives of humankind on a volunteer mission. Sacrifice that would be incorporated into the academic curriculum for ever, regardless of the result.

Hans often wondered what Earth looked like now. He was born among the stars, not on a remote, blue planet, but he missed it strangely – as if deep in his genes, a bond with this primal mother of humankind was encoded. True, they received news via information beam but the transmissions were distorted due to different radiation types and curves of the time-space. And they were outdated, unfortunately. All news was two thousand years late. Most probably, no one would ever solve the problem of communication over such distances. This is still better than nothing. The Earth could well not exist anymore and they would learn about it in two thousand years.

Most probably, he was not the only one to have thoughts like that. The whole crew was born on the ship, in space – they would also most probably die in the black depth – but everyone had to know the culture, history and geography of their descendant’s home planet. And all this just to teach the future generations, to keep the memory of Earth. After all, their ascendants would return there one day.

The longer they flew, the more suspicious theories were born. Someone said that they were escaping; that the blue planet was invaded by aliens. Someone insisted that they had no place to return to, since the mother planet collided with a giant meteoroid. One person even invented such a curious theory that Earth never existed.. the ship was there always, since the beginning of time! This made the hair rise on the head! The best, most meticulously chosen genes, the children of geniuses and such madness in their heads! Luckily for them, they were almost at their destination point.

A sudden shake and pulses of bass vibrations woke him out from his thoughts. They were decelerating. For the first time in a few years their speed was decreasing. They reached their target! Just a mere thousand kilometers to the „end of the universe”. They would meet the unknown in a bit more than an hour. The sensors were going mad, squeaking to alert the crew about a huge obstacle made of unidentified matter. Hans decided to turn the alerts off. The crew needed silence and concentration. This was an extraordinary moment – they couldn’t make a slightest error.

Manta Saria was approaching its destination steadily, leaving behind the space sparkling with quadrillions of galaxies; aiming at the ideal blackness. The order forces and emergency services were ready. Commandos, just in case, took their positions at the blasters and military vehicles. On every level, there was a terrible mess. People were crowding in front of giant screens transmitting the whole action and the speech of the leader. Their faces showed different emotions, from fear to excitement – maybe these were the last moments of their lives or maybe this was their ticket to a new, better universe…

For almost all of his life, Hans Olo was getting ready for this very moment; he imagined it million times; it even invaded his dreams. When it finally came true, he could not hold his emotions. His voice was trembling, his heart was pounding, sweat was flowing in abundant rivers over grey hair.

The crew should definitely not see their leader in such a condition. He decided to send his deputy to read his speech on Olo’s behalf.

His most important task was now to compare the latest data. Being so close to the barrier, they could analyze it thoroughly.

Scientists were rushing nervously around the research instruments and they reviewed hundreds of printouts. Another ten, up to fifteen minutes and he would call everyone to get a detailed report. They would have a real brainstorm.

The ship stopped a kilometer away from the end. A miniaturized research nanoprobe was launched. It shot at an enormous speed to suddenly stop a mere meter from the unknown matter. In a blink of an eye, it started transmitting detailed data recorded by the sensors, getting ready at the same time to go through the intermolecular gaps of the barrier.

This was no brainstorm… it was a real tornado. Eventually, decisions about future actions had to be made based on information sent from the nanoprobe after it penetrated to the other side of the barrier. Everyone had their eyes fixed on the screens. At the beginning, everything was dark, but then it started to get lighter. Finally, they saw a blinding whiteness. The computers started printing new portions of data. One of the scientists approached Hans, holding a printout, as if it was a million eurollars voucher. Almost exploding with emotions, for a while that lasted an eternity, he could not make any sound. But finally he managed to shout out in a trembling voice:

“There is atmosphere over there!’

Analyses and live discussions lasted for a few hours. Finally, it was decided that they had to cross the barrier to get to the other side. In fact, the risk of something unexpected was enormous, but so many generations gave their lives away from the Earth that they couldn’t do anything else. Because there was atmosphere on the other side, they decided to surround Manta Saria with a bubble of dark matter plasma. As soon as the construct stuck to the barrier, it started to drill through it. In the fly-through point, a time-space loop was generated to prevent anything from the other universe migrate where it shouldn’t to. Even if some atmosphere got through the claster, it would get stuck in the loop forever, without any damage.

After a few, stressful hours, they arrived at the unknown universe. Most of the cameras were momentarily focused on the barrier, so that they could see what it looked like on the other side – it was light pink, rough and…

… and it started to move away very quickly, at a speed so unbelievable, that the research instruments protested since they lacked scale. The terrified crew froze. They didn’t expect this; they would rather think they would see God, but this was way beyond their mental abilities… suddenly, all theories about parallel universes found logical explanation; all theses telling that a dying space is replaced by a new one also proved correct! Captain Hans Olo looked back at his crew. They were moved, they couldn’t believe their eyes. No one expected to see…

The more away was their universe, the more it resembled a shape of a… child. Their space… was just a cell in a giant organism of a few-year-old kid non-suspecting anything. Was the universe of this child also just a cell, one of many billions, in somebody else’s body? Did he also have a universe in each of his cells? Hans felt that he would go mad any moment. Even now, biting his lips until they bleed.. was he killing billions of creatures, destroying their universes?

He saw sudden darkness in front of his eyes.

He fainted.