Until the dawn, p.36
Until the Dawn, page 36
The alien society had somehow managed to gather together much of the matter from the older stars and other nearby objects that they had deemed unusable and packaged it into a series of incredibly massive spheres. The largest of the spheres was precisely situated directly above the central black hole so that the gravity well could slowly drain matter into its swirling whirlpool – but at an extremely slow and carefully controlled rate.
Beneath the nuclear bulge at the bottom of the black hole was a smaller sphere of condensed matter – still unbelievably huge by their measurement standards. By her estimation Jillian predicted it was at least several thousand light years in diameter. This one was apparently unaffected by the immense pocket of gravity above it and seemed to occupy its position solely to counterbalance the black hole's gravity and help to keep it stabilized.
Then there was that beautiful ring of yellow stars orbiting the center of the Proteus galaxy with near geometric perfection. With well over four and a half billion of them floating out there, she couldn't even begin to guess as to how many habitable planets might be among them… particularly after Noah had informed her that his civilization was quite capable of constructing and then terra-forming planetary bodies as well. He had described the galaxy as a vital 'observation point' that his people had built for the express purpose of observing the Poseidon phenomenon.
Unlike the other galactic objects in their universe that were constantly in motion and had the natural tendency to alter course based on gravimetric conditions, the Proteus black hole was 'tethered' to one spot and virtually stationary. The only real movement came from the stars that continually rotated in a circular orbit around it. Then there was that huge, empty black void that surrounded the entire galaxy, designed to function just like Jillian's 'rock in the stream' analogy. The void was basically a no-gravity barrier that protected the inhabitants of Proteus while allowing them to carefully monitor and study the effects of Poseidon's intense gravity on the universe.
Orbiting outside of the ring of stars were more of the gigantic spheres of matter, each carefully kept in storage for use in replenishing the larger, central sphere that fueled the black hole. Noah had also commented that some of this matter was also occasionally tapped to 'refuel' stars that were older and entering the latter stage of their lifespan. It was an extremely educational point that had prompted Jillian to ask just how old the newly discovered civilization was.
Their alien friend could not say for certain but did point out that his people had been around for years that numbered in the millions. Would they ever run out of matter to keep their black hole and ring of stars stabilized? Not likely, was Dr. Marcus's final determination upon further study. Noah's people were experts at gathering together the cooling blue giants, dying stars and massive dust clouds of nebulae that continually floated past them in the river of gravity. They currently had all of the matter and energy that they needed, so the rest was simply allowed to continue moving past them on its steady course directly out of the known universe.
Amidst the enthusiasm over the original discovery of Poseidon had come this additional delight – even shock – over finding such an advanced civilization so safely tucked away in one of the nastiest pockets of gravity ever charted. The entire past few weeks had been more than Dr. Marcus could ever possibly have imagined, and she had resolved to personally take advantage of every opportunity available to her. The rest of the Observatory staff continued to work diligently in support of her efforts, carefully executing both the short- and long-term objectives that she found herself continually developing for them.
To make matters stranger, it turned out that the energy field used by the aliens to generate the three million light year spherical void around the Proteus galaxy was yet another contributing factor to their CAS singularity problems. It had the tendency to aggravate surrounding matter, thereby generating at least some of the interference that had forced Greg and Trey to begin making constant adjustments as the Waywardsman approached the area. Upon their arrival within Poseidon's river, the massive dampening field had also been the major reason that the CAS systems had overloaded… not the intense gravity of Poseidon and its captured galactic objects as originally speculated. This was the reason Noah had used his shuttle to approach and dock with them, since the small ship's sophisticated computer system was currently nullifying the protective field's effects on the Waywardsman and allowing it to CAS transit directly into the Proteus galaxy.
* * *
On the 152nd day since their ship had left the Milky Way, Jillian was unable to contain her enthusiasm and made the decision to get up extra early again. She spent the first half hour in the Observatory shaking her head in wonder as she continued to review the diagram that Noah had given her. This time she was comparing the picture with actual images taken using the Waywardsman's telescopes during her off-hours. The golden ring of stars was the only part of the galaxy visible to them without the aid of gravity measuring equipment. The exact size and placement of the giant matter 'spheres' was practically undetectable to them even when utilizing the non-traditional methods of detecting and locating dark matter. Whatever type of energy that Noah's people were using to trap and contain the matter in those massive balloons was also immune to its gravity.
"Good morning Dr. Marcus," Nell said to her as she entered the Observatory and took a seat at her desk. Jillian looked at her in disbelief, wondering what in the world her young assistant was doing up at 5:30 a.m. on a Friday morning. Then she thought back a few days and nodded knowingly to herself as she remembered the small signs she had observed in the past couple of weeks that Nell and Trey had escalated their relationship.
"Good morning," she replied back. "Was it your turn to use the shower first?"
"I beg your pardon Doctor?" Nell said innocently, ignoring the bait and beginning to sort through the growing backlog of files on her desk. It was almost a complete turnaround for her… on any normal day the young lady's desk was usually spotless before she ended a prior day's shift. To actually have piles of documentation beginning to accumulate was unheard of.
"It just seems as though you have a lot on your mind lately," Jillian said as they continued to work in the mostly deserted Observatory. There were still some night personnel on duty and she noted a few others had also decided to start their day early. Between Poseidon and Proteus her staff had gotten just what they needed – a thrilling diversion to occupy their time and help them forget about the devastating Brotherhood attack that had taken away their homes.
"Trey is a great guy… I'm glad we met and paired up before everybody else started to," Nell said, smiling. "From what I've heard, a lot of people have already chosen significant others – we're going to have a lot of children on this ship very soon."
"I know," Jillian said with a cheerful smile. "It will be a great sight to see."
They both looked at each other in puzzlement as the Waywardsman's hull suddenly trembled a little and then steadied. Usually the ship's course was extremely stable – several additional, larger tremors shook the large starship again before everything returned to normal.
"Are they testing the CAS Drive settings again?" Nell asked.
"I don't know," Dr. Marcus replied. "I wouldn't think that they would want to try while we're inside the void around Proteus. My understanding was that they had it working well enough to transit us into the galaxy. After that, we were going to rendezvous with Noah's people and open formal negotiations or something."
Around them the rumbling continued and Nell quickly picked her coffee cup up before it could spill liquid all over her paperwork. The all-call suddenly beeped, followed almost instantly by the Captain's voice.
"Good morning everyone," said Norris cheerfully. "I'm sorry to wake you this early but we've had an opportunity presented to us that I couldn't pass up. Everyone whose shift just ended can go back to sleep, but the rest of you might want to get started a little earlier than usual this morning. I think you're going to find it an interesting day."
The Waywardsman continued to rumble forward to whatever destination the Captain had planned for it. Jillian and Nell simply exchanged looks of disbelief at his sudden mysterious behavior before returning to their work. They were still busy twenty minutes later when more turbulence – a sudden burst this time – shook the ship again. Almost immediately they could hear the sound of the engines shutting down. Nell slowly walked over to one of the open observatory windows and took a good look outside before glancing curiously over her shoulder at Dr. Marcus. Jillian herself had an odd expression on her face.
"I'm pretty certain we just landed," Nell said, astonished.
* * *
Norris was in Observation Dome One, still posing question after question to his new friend Noah. He was standing next to one of the large window ports in the room watching the ship's passengers – slowly at first but then more confidently – begin to migrate out of the Waywardsman via the lifts in the front landing skid and out onto the dew-covered green grass of the meadow that they had landed in. Off to the west a brand new day was dawning, with a golden orange sun beginning to peek over the horizon at a partially-cloudy morning.
During their abrupt departure from the Sol-system, the auxiliary lifts on all three landing skids had been available. Since that time, the rear two that were attached to the tips of the Lab and Observation wings had been off-limits. This time only the forward skid was accessible to the disembarking passengers, but it still didn't take very long before there was a large crowd of people standing near the front of the ship taking in the fresh air and sights of a beautiful morning on this new, previously uncharted planet. It made the Captain happy to see his passengers and crew getting a chance to really get out and 'stretch their legs'… he had every intention of joining them, once business was done.
"Your artwork is exquisite," Noah commented, pointing to a series of paintings that hung on one wall next to the conference room's table. Each of them was a very accurate representation of a period in Earth's history. Some depicted famous battles and had lots of advancing warriors, while others showed scenic farms and ancient cities. The rest of the collection consisted of fourteen precise renderings of famous historical figures.
"They were all done by a famous artist from Earth related to my family line," pointed out Norris. "She is – was – one of the most prolific artists of my generation, gifted with vision and able to produce painting after painting with the same quality as her first. The government asked her to create this series for a historical project that they had in mind, but I took a tour of their museum with my son just after I received the assignment to command this project and asked that they be moved to the Waywardsman. We had no idea at the time just how long our journey would take, so I wanted there to be some anchors to our culture that we could use to teach our children while we were away from home."
"And now after just 152 days, here you are," Noah grinned.
"I still don't know that much about your people," William decided, glancing at the cheerful older man standing next to him. "I mean, if your society is truly millions of years old…"
"… then how come we haven't evolved past humanoids in some manner… ascended to a higher plane of existence or something?" He smiled, pondering the question carefully as he walked slowly over to the window on the opposite side of the room as the one the Captain stood next to. They both watched the passengers spread out on both sides of the ship, all of them joyfully soaking up the warmth from the planet's morning sun.
"Well, now that you've raised the question…"
"Look at your people," Noah said proudly, waving at the images in the room's window. "At this moment the members of your Observatory staff might disagree, but there is truly nothing greater than the human adventure. Our capacity to feel, to express emotion, to enjoy a lovely morning like this one, to labor hard and long in the fields to produce food – it is unparalleled in the boundaries of our exploration. And my culture has done a lot of exploring, Captain!"
"So you are human beings just like us?" wondered William.
"Oh yes, your Dr. Simon has verified most assuredly that I am indeed human… right down to my blood type," Noah said with a grin. "She has scanned me, poked me, tested my blood and verified that much for you." He flashed the Captain a puzzled look. "Why, did you expect me to have three arms, an oddly-shaped forehead, or an extra bone above my nose… something like that?"
"No," William decided. "However, after traveling billions of light years over the past few months I just hadn't expected to come all this way only to find additional humans… that's all."
"We like to organize our people into law abiding civilizations and enjoy life in the same manner that your people do," Noah said. "My father was a farmer and his father could do wonders with electronics. We have horses and dogs and cats and other animals just like your people do. Me, I have a garden… half of it is dedicated to growing fresh produce like tomatoes and cucumbers and the other half is reserved for beautiful flowers and bushes."
William noticed that his new friend looked a bit fatigued. "I'm sorry if we've had so many questions," he said sincerely, offering Noah a chair. "It's just that we have a lot of scientific specialists on board…" They both sat down at the table across from one another.
"You don't have to apologize," Noah insisted. "Our people had the same unbridled curiosity when we first began our exploration of the universe. I can understand how Dr. Simon wants to know if I'm human like you and why Dr. Marcus wants to know how we generate the energy field that creates the void around the Proteus galaxy. If I had just begun a journey out of my galaxy and found another artificially constructed in the manner that ours is, I think I would be able to come up with a few questions of my own."
"They were so eager to talk to you about all of their technical stuff that I decided to wait with my own questions," admitted William. "You don't mind if I record our conversation I hope?" he asked, watching the other man wave favorably at his audio recorder. He switched it on. "Our Council will want to review our discussion in detail."
"No doubt they will. You have handled your responsibilities quite well Captain," decided Noah. "Particularly concerning the recent challenges your people have faced… I find you to be a very strong man and a good leader for your people."
"How much do you know?" Norris asked. "I mean, we could tell by that first diagram you sent to us that you knew exactly where we came from. It was obvious that you knew the location of our home galaxy…"
"Correct. Once the Point-to-Point technique is used to travel more than a few hundred thousand light years, it becomes extremely easy to detect over long distances, if you know what to watch for. We are experts at tracking the unknown anomalies that appear randomly in our universe. Once we knew you were there, we sent probes of our own to study you and were able to extract information on your recent history directly from your computer systems."
"Some might consider that spying, or even a hostile act."
"Yes they would," Noah admitted. "But we've discovered over the years that anyone who truly values peace over violence usually has nothing to hide. The technique allows us to rapidly learn what we need to know about your culture – language, customs, etc. – so that we can more efficiently speed up the initial contact process and open relations with you more quickly. Or would you have preferred we continue to tempt you with clues for another few years?"
"No, this is better and we don't have to spend a year or more developing a common language," William found himself having to admit.
"You see," Noah grinned, holding out his hands. "You have no idea how many civilizations scattered out there would have tried to shoot us rather than recognize the advantages of the situation."
"Like those idiots in the wasteland galaxy," Norris said, remembering the Waywardsman's clash with the alien warriors very vividly.
"Precisely. You were headed in their general direction, about to encounter them. That was one of the primary reasons I transmitted the first picture to you when I did. You were about to discover that you were not alone in the universe and – given their long-term hostile nature – I wanted to make certain you had at least some warning."
"Then your people have the power to stop that war, and the Brotherhood back home…"
Noah held up his forefinger and waved it in warning. "My people have to be very careful about interfering with cultures that are not a direct threat to us," he said cautiously. "They – and you – have the right to develop and mature over time just like we did. Those intelligent races that cannot learn to live peacefully with each other are almost always selected for extinction by nature. They inevitably bring it upon themselves."
"Like we did when we warred with each other over the years?"
"No one can judge you but you, Captain. Yours is one of the most unique situations that I have ever encountered. Not many races become advanced enough to experiment with artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic enhancements or other things of that nature. But there have been other worlds, like yours, that have tried to create a superior form of human. It almost always backfires, because the universe so easily counterbalances itself. Make a man stronger physically and he might find himself hindered more greatly than a normal man if he contracts a muscle disease… that sort of thing. Increase his intelligence tenfold and his ego will almost always increase as well until he gains too much self-confidence and loses the capacity for common sense and humility."
