Infinity Flight

by Perry Rhodan

  A car brought them into the city. Nobody paid any attention to them. Barkon had returned to the normal activities of its everyday existence. All of a sudden Rhodan realized what made Barkon seem so much like Earth. Its day also lasted 24 hours.

  They turned into a side street. There was a sudden steep descent: the road led directly underground. The tunnel was brightly lit but it seemed to be endless. The car drove down this tunnel for a full 10 minutes before it stopped.

  "We are now exactly 600 feet below the surface," explained Nex. "This is an absolutely safe storage place for our films. No cosmic radiation can reach down here. Air is permitted to enter when the films are shown and that takes place only once every 50 years when a new government has been formed and its representatives are required to view the history of our world. Otherwise these films are stored in a vacuum."

  Rhodan said nothing. Silently he followed the Barkonide through long corridors and various rooms until they reached a fairly large and comfortably furnished room. A gigantic switchboard took up one of the walls. In the front, above some kind of a stage, hung a milky shimmering screen. On the opposite wall Rhodan could see the built-in projector. Two rows of upholstered chairs beckoned invitingly.

  "Please, have a seat, Rhodan. Everything will be done automatically; I just have to press the correct button to have the desired film brought to the projector. Our race knew space travel already one million years ago but this knowledge could not save us from the catastrophe. On the contrary. The forcible separation from our home environment in the universe was made even more difficult for us with the realization that a few fortunate ones managed to flee in time. I'm going to show you now Barkon at the start of this catastrophe—which at the same time is the end of its galactic history."

  The room grew dark. In front, where Rhodan earlier had noticed the milky projection screen, the wall seemed to recede in order to give way to a reality which presented itself in real-life colors to Rhodan's eyes.

  "That's Barkon seen from a departing spaceship," explained Nex with a slight tremor in his voice. "As you see—nothing much has changed since then—except that we had, spaceships at that time. Now you can clearly recognize our former neighbor planet three; it's entering the picture from the side. Unfortunately we could never find another planet suitable for habitation in our own solar system. But we had a colonial empire, a very big colonial empire."

  "In which part of the galaxy was the sun Barkon located?" Rhodan asked on an impulse, without having been prompted by the Immortal.

  "You'll soon be able to recognize it. It's of course impossible in the short time at our disposal to view all the films we have but I'll select the most important ones. Every 50 years, when our government changes and the newly elected representatives witness the complete showing of these films, they stay three months down here apart from brief interruptions. But then they are in formed of the history of our world and the past of our galaxy, of whose present story we know nothing at all."

  His statement contained also a form of request.

  "Well discuss this," promised Rhodan. "However I'm afraid you'll be disappointed."

  "Your marvelous ship makes me suspect just the opposite," Nex smiled encouragingly. "But look here now—that's one of our last ships carrying settlers. It brings the emigrants to a newly discovered system where life has not yet developed."

  The gigantic structure was about 1½ miles long and was circling Barkon in an orbit. Smaller ships ascended from the planet's surface to bring the passengers. Giant plastic hoses served as safe gangways. Huge cargo hatches admitted smaller vessels carrying the luggage and equipment of the colonists. Far below the planet Barkon was turning beneath the busy agglomeration of the spaceships.

  "The settler ship brought along the film again," continued Nex. "You are seeing only short sections."

  Soon afterwards the Barkon system sank away in the infinity of space. The film had been made with a quick motion process. This caused Rhodan to re-experience something similar to what he had witnessed on his flight to Barkon II: the stars were gliding swiftly past in the area before him. A yellow sun grew larger. It seemed to be the destination of the expedition. Then a planet filled the view, a medium-sized world, overgrown with a luxurious vegetation. Rocky, high plateaus reared up from grasslands and primeval forests. Broad rivers streamed through fertile lowlands through which vast herds of strange-looking animals roamed. Once Rhodan thought he saw a creature, resembling a dinosaur but he could have been mistaken.

  "There was no intelligent life yet on this world," explained Nex. "But this planet was fertile and teeming with all kinds of animal life. Our settlers found a paradise. From the time they landed to the development of a civilization, about 10,000 years must have passed, according to the experiences we've gathered in other places."

  "Do you simply deposit your emigrants on a suitable world and then no longer keep in touch with them?"

  Rhodan asked in surprise.

  A peculiar smile played around the Barkonide's lips. "Yes, that's the way it is. At the very beginning of our history we started colonies that remained dependent on the mother world. But that proved later to be the wrong method. The settlers kept relying on their old home planet and its supply lines. They developed no proper interest to exploit the opportunities offered by the natural environment of their new colony. The settlers became decadent, lazy. On the other hand, our shipwrecked volunteers—for this later type of colonists had to take apart their spaceship in order to be able to survive—they found a new home which supplied them everything needed for life. They were forced to work and to seek further development of their resources. True, they also suffered reverse strokes of fate, and more than once we found out that our descendants on these colonized planets had reverted to barbarism. But these were the exceptions. As a rule vital societies would develop who guarded the inheritance of their forefathers—even if they'd forget their origin. For this was one of our principles: we would not provide the emigrants with any written records or films of our history. Only thus was it possible to make them become completely independent."

  "But then they forgot where they came from?"

  "Yes. This was the only successful method of settling the planets of the galaxy and of forming races independent of each other. Often it took several thousand or even 20, 30 or 40,000 years till two such races would meet up again. They might wonder why they resembled each other so closely but explained it away as one of the necessities of evolution." Again Nex smiled and threw a sideways glance at Rhodan. "Well, are you beginning to guess at the truth?"

  Slowly Rhodan nodded his head. "I believe I do. But one million years is a long time, don't you think?"

  "It's not that long, measured by galactic standards, and if we ignore the brevity of our individual lives. 100 thousand years in the existence of a galaxy are, in the terms of a planet, just one life span. Thus this period of one million years that we are all alone in this corner of the universe is the equivalent of 10 galactic generations. I ask you now, what can 10 generations accomplish on a planet?"

  "Sometimes nothing, sometimes a great deal—it all depends on the state of development and the characteristics of that race."

  "I can see your criticism," said Nex while he was fiddling with the controls at the switchboard. "You believe that during these 10 generations which were 100,000 generations for us, we have been standing still. You regard our civilization as a petrified structure. You wonder why we made no attempt to undertake something against the cruelty of our loneliness. just admit it."

  "I feel you should at least have tried to keep up the communication you already had established with the other worlds. Maybe via hyperradio."

  Nex pushed a button. "I'm going to show you today something that will make you understand our actions—if you have a heart."

  Again darkness enveloped the room. In front of Rhodan arose a confusion of strange constellations, all unfamiliar to him. The camera seemed to hover in space even though the picture was a
bit hazy as if a glass pane had been placed between the observer and the stars.

  "These pictures were made by our largest observatory—one million years ago. Once a year our camera made one single shot, always at the same time. In those years when the sky was covered by clouds at this particular date, no pictures were taken. Thus we obtained on an average one picture every three years. It always shows the same section of the galaxy—at least for the time being. Every second you are watching that screen now actually 50 years are going by. One entire life span will take just two seconds here, that is 100 years for every couple of seconds. See for yourself what our own forefathers must have felt then so long ago. They underwent an experience that shook them—to the very depths of their souls. That has remained to this day the basis of our beliefs and mentality."

  And Rhodan saw.

  The constellations gradually began to shift—to get farther and farther away. They appeared to draw closer into a clump; the stars of the constellations were no longer spaced far apart. They also grew dimmer.

  Then the angle of vision became so wide that Rhodan could survey the entire field—and he suddenly recognized what he was seeing. It was the arm of the spiral nebula from which he had come. After about 10 minutes the arm had become visible in its entirety. It had become almost impossible to distinguish the individual stars from each other. They formed an elongated and slightly curved cloud which was shining from inside. But this glow grew rapidly fainter.

  "Can you see over there the somewhat brighter conglomeration of stars?" Nex asked, bending down to Rhodan. "That's where once upon a time our sun Barkon was located. For some inexplicable reason this solar system detached itself from the gravitational pull of the rotating Milky Way and slipped away from the close grouping of the stars. However our solar system did not spin off in the direction of the galaxy's rotation but at a right angle from it. To this day we have been unable to agree why this happened. Our system was rushing with an irresistible force into the horrible abyss which separates the galaxies. Nothing could stop this drift. But you can see here for yourself the same horrible sight our forefathers were observing. What they were feeling—I don't know if you can vicariously share their emotions."

  Rhodan remained silent.

  One hour later the entire Milky Way had become visible. The spiral-shaped arm which also harbored Rhodan's home sun, now shining on an uninhabited virginal Earth, jutted far out into the eternal darkness of the cosmic abyss. Near to its end stood the sun only 30,000 light-years separated from this darkness.

  Where was Arkon located?flashed suddenly through Rhodan's mind, but he was careful not to voice out loud this question. But the Immortal had heard the silent inquiry. It answered:

  More toward the center of the galaxy, Perry. Don't indulge in idle guess work new, I've been warning you all along. The right time has not yet come for you to be permitted to get a glimpse of the overall picture. You are beginning to get some inkling already and thus you already know more than any other beings of your galaxy. What you are experiencing now in the form of a vision is a miniaturized version of what another person will experience in billions of years on a far greater scale. Don't keep thinking about this unless you want to go out of your mind.

  Farther and farther away receded the shrinking Milky Way into the dark infinity and farther and farther moved Barkon on its relentless path. There were no stars in the vicinity of the spiral nebula. The faint glow of the bunched together billions of stars extinguished the still weaker light of other far distant galaxies. There was seemingly only this one galaxy in the universe and this galaxy kept speeding in the opposite direction with every second—or with every century.

  The great solitude had begun for the Barkonides.

  Nex depressed another button. "I'll let this film run with 100 times greater speed. From now on each second you are watching here will represent 5000 years on the screen."

  The rest of the film lasted another three minutes.

  In these three minutes the Milky Way fell with incredible speed into a black hole which knew no limits. From second to second the galaxy was shrinking in size and light intensity. There was still no star to be seen and the sky was dark. The typical shape of the spiral nebula changed into a washed-out spot which gradually vanished into infinity.

  Finally the picture on the screen grew constant. "This is our sky as seen today by our camera-telescope which continues making one photograph once a year and sometimes every two to three years," said Nex choked with emotion. He cleared his throat. "We are all alone," he continued. "But we realize that our work eons ago has not been in vain. The planets we colonized have brought forth their own races who by now must have developed fantastic civilizations. We, the Barkonides, are their progenitors. And whatever place you have come from, Rhodan, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you are a descendant of our own colonists—or perhaps a descendant of those men that our colonists deposited on some fertile but thus far uninhabited world. However great your race might be, they owe their existence to us, the patriarchs of the galaxy."

  Rhodan was trying to shake off the strong emotion that was threatening to overwhelm him. He knew that a gigantic problem had found its solution but he did not dare to completely take the consequences. It would be too monstrous. But why, he asked himself, had the Immortal shown him all this? Why had he taken him along to Barkon, whose inhabitants had—measured by human standards—looked into infinity but had not learned to cope with it? He found no answer to his question and the Immortal apparently was not willing to supply it to him for he remained silent.

  The image on the projection screen ceased. The room lit up. Nex was standing close to Rhodan. His eyes were filled with that sadness which had become part of life on Barkon II. With a trembling voice he said: "Can you understand now what loneliness means? You live under a starry sky and know that you are not alone in the universe around you. You know that at any time you can get in touch with others who resemble you and are your friends."

  "Maybe you are overestimating your descendants who have remained in the galaxy," Rhodan objected cautiously. "Many of your colonists might have needed many thousands of years to rediscover spaceflight. And many, on the other hand, never managed to rediscover it and thus remained on their own world, separated and isolated from the other races that had been their brothers. Many might have perished without even the faintest notion that they were not the only intelligent race in the universe."

  "You are developing a gloomy theory which none of us here would like to believe. We continue living sustained by the hope that our forefathers' colonization work has not been in vain. Your arrival on our planet was proof alone to us that we did not lead futile lives."

  "But even I cannot bring back Barkon into the community of the stars," Rhodan reminded him.

  A shadow flitted across the Barkonide's face. "True, you can't do that, but you are bringing us tidings from those worlds that once belonged to our realm and to which we had carried the seeds of life, intelligent life. And you shall bring back to them the news of our existence. Merely the knowledge that we have not been forgotten chases away part of the loneliness which has become such an unbearable burden to us."

  Rhodan nodded his head. "I think I'm starting to comprehend—and I also believe that I'll be able to help you.

  Nex pointed to the door. "Let's go now. From now on I'll have the films projected directly in your room. Today I wanted to show you these underground facilities. In a few weeks when you shall have learned all about our past you will show us what happened meantime in the rest of the galaxy."

  "Show you?" Rhodan exclaimed perplexed. "How could I show it to you? I haven't brought along any documents or films."

  "Oh, there's no need for that," smiled Nex. "All you needed to bring with you is your knowledge and your memories. We'll change your thoughts to concrete images."

  There was no more discussion while they were driving back to Laar's residence. Rhodan tried in vain to find a way out of this unpleasa
nt situation. What could he do in order to avoid the brainwash session that threatened him, for this was exactly what they planned to do to him.

  Don't worry,the Immortal whispered secretly to him. Or can you imagine I would have overlooked such an eventuality? Well, then! The Barkonides will be amazed to learn with what results their pioneering work has been blessed.

  Will you conjure up for their benefit things that don't actually exist?—Rhodan.

  I'll simply show them the future, was Its reply.

  4/ Barkon Embarks

  Until the eighth week of his stay, Rhodan acquainted himself with the history of the Barkonides—and thus with that of the Galaxy. He learned that the Barkonides believed themselves to be the creators of galactic civilization from which a cruel fate had banned them. They had brought the seeds of life to uninhabited worlds and firmly counted on the fact that their descendants would complete the work they had started for them. They considered themselves the progenitors of all humanoid races.

  At a time when Rhodan had been embroiled in a bitter battle with the robot spies of the galactic traders, as he vaguely remembered—a car came to take him to town. He was conducted to a tall building where he was awaited by the members of the Barkonide government, amongst them also Laar, Regoon, Nex and Gorat. They were assembled in a large hall which contained an array of complicated machinery and gigantic control panels. Underneath a luminous cupola stood a lone armchair. They led Rhodan to this chair.

  "We'll make matters very simple for you," explained Nex, after a brief initial welcoming ceremony. "We'll save you the bother of giving us a detailed description of development inside the galaxy; it would take too much time. Look at that projection screen over there! Our scientists have worked out a procedure to project your thoughts directly in the form of pictures on it. Just start thinking, imagine what has happened—and we shall be able to experience it together with you. This way we shall finally find out what has happened in our former galactic world since we lost contact with it."