Prophecy

by Gregory Cholmondeley

  Ops bit into an apple and said, “We’re not going anywhere for a while. Circle around and let me explain about magical energy, hydrocarbon bonds, and why Saturn and I brought so many supplies with us.”

  Mars squeezed Terra’s hand and whispered, “It’s beginning.”

  Chapter 33

  Szalracht

  May 17, 16897, Earth

  Commander Szalracht stared at his desk and sighed. He was old, even by his species’ standards. Most of his kind lived about 200 years, and he was already 212. He had also been alone for the past century, since starting this experiment.

  Szalracht’s species had discovered electricity over 10,000 years ago and had built a civilization that spanned the galaxy. However, there were fewer than a million of them left when he started this project. Szalracht wondered if any now remained other than himself.

  His race had always been driven by learning and growth. They had managed to overcome their competitive and destructive nature but completely ravaged their world. His people had a unique advantage, though. Their solar system had two habitable planets.

  Szalracht’s people migrated to the second planet. They carefully preserved it while embarking upon the second phase of their development. Over the coming centuries, his people discovered ways to bend physical laws enough to visit far-away star systems. They used their science to expand their knowledge of the universe and fully understood how it works.

  Empires grew and fell. Wars waged, and peace or destruction ensued. Eventually, however, a calm settled over their vast civilization. They hadn’t matured as a species as much as they had become bored. New star systems were not much different than those already seen. Scientific discoveries were relegated to history, for everything was known about physics, chemistry, life, and time. Even the passing fads of altering their DNA to craft new versions of themselves or creating regions of localized physics with unusual characteristics became blasé.

  More and more people just lost interest in living. Entire planetary systems became extinct in a matter of centuries as people stopped mating or even eating. They were beyond bored. They were lonely.

  Almost every habitable planet Szalracht’s people had visited contained life; however, none of it was capable of having an intelligent conversation over lunch. They had found hundreds of extinct civilizations, but none had lasted as long as theirs. Most lasted less than a millennium following the inevitable explosion of scientific advances after discovering electricity.

  A thousand years, or even ten thousand years, occurs in the blink of an eye in a universe billions of years old. This galaxy would host millions of civilizations in its lifetime. However, the likelihood of two of them existing at the same time was infinitesimally small. Most of the ruins they found were hundreds-of-thousands or even millions of years old.

  Szalracht’s race could see their future. It was written in the ashes of the species which had predated them. Like Szalracht, his species had already outlived its expected lifespan. They would die, and they would die alone.

  Earth was the first exciting discovery in over a thousand years. The civilization on this planet had gone extinct just over ten thousand years ago. There had been intelligent people alive on this planet at the same time as Szalracht’s people! Their times were tantalizingly close together. Szalracht proposed utilizing dimensional shifts to send a signal back through time to help these people survive a bit longer. Perhaps they could provide the companionship his people craved.

  He repeatedly sent his signal back and waited. His first success came when he connected with some machines, which were still running long after humans were extinct. They provided sufficient information to fine-tune his signal to reach further back in time to before the humans’ demise.

  His last attempt almost succeeded. Mankind had created a world full of fantastical creatures, but they were all synthetic. The information he transmitted arrived too late to save the intelligent life in their world, and the beings that populated the one which survived were constructed by magic. They could not exist outside of this region of localized physics.

  He needed to stop humankind from destroying themselves and their planet. His goal was to halt their destructive technological path and provide them with a magical alternative. There was a minuscule window in time for this to work. Humans needed to be sufficiently advanced to understand his message. However, they could not be so advanced as to have already precipitated their demise.

  This was his last attempt. Szalracht was too old to try again. Today he would step outside onto a desolate wasteland, or a faux mockery of reality, or a peer civilization. Whatever the outcome, though, he was alone. He had made so many temporal dimensional shifts that he probably never existed in the universe outside his office.

  Commander Szalracht shook these sullen thoughts out of his head, put on his hat, and opened the door. He stepped out onto an overgrown lawn in some sort of abandoned fairground or park. Tattered banners, shredded by too much time in the wind and sun, listlessly fluttered from nearby poles. A bandstand with peeling paint, sagging steps, and a leaky roof rested in front of him.

  This was the strangest version of the world he had ever encountered. It felt gritty and real, not fairytale-perfect like the previous magical version. It wasn’t a wasteland, though. People had been here somewhat recently, but everything seemed abandoned.

  Szalracht wandered around the park for nearly an hour, puzzling his situation before he was startled by a voice.

  “You were supposed to be here six years ago,” said a young man, leaning on the ramshackle bandstand.

  “I beg your pardon?” asked the bewildered commander.

  “You missed the big event. All the important people were here from our empire and yours. The party lasted six months before people started getting bored and leaving. I sent out a message that you finally showed up, but don’t expect anyone to come this time. They are all on their way to The Great Gathering,” stated the young man.

  “What party? What’s The Great Gathering? And, who are you, young man?” asked Szalracht.

  “Why, the welcome home party for Commander Szalracht, Hero of the Galaxy! You saved our world and your own civilization through your heroic efforts. You can still almost read your name on that big billboard over there,” the boy answered as he pointed toward a weathered sign.

  Szalracht squinted at the faded sign and saw ‘Sz’ on one side and ‘acht’ on the other. Something had knocked a large hole in the middle, and the lower edge appeared to have been chewed.

  The young man cryptically added, “The Great Gathering is when and where all the successful civilizations from across the galaxy are meeting. It is scheduled for when the universe ends. That’s one party which no one wants to miss!”

  Then the fellow approached the stunned commander with his arm extended and said, “Hi. My name’s Mars. We got your message.”

  The End

  Epilog

  The story has ended. I have resolved all the plot lines and answered every significant question. No sequel is planned to continue the saga for the characters in this series. Also, the epilog is where I have fun explaining my thoughts on the multidimensional nature of time and the universe. This discussion will likely be confusing and less than enjoyable for most readers.

  For these reasons, I recommend that you cease reading now and be satisfied. Should you choose to ignore my advice, be warned that you risk questioning your understanding of the universe and unleashing questions that may never be answered.

  Cave lectorem.

  - Gregory Cholmondeley

  Lament of the Immortals

  When we were young

  we thought we had our whole lives ahead of us.

  But as our families and friends died

  we sought the company of others.

  When our societies were young

  we thought we had all the time in the world.

  But as our world ended

  we sought other planets.

  When our
galactic expansion began

  we thought the universe was infinite.

  But as the universe ends

  we wonder, what of us?

  May 18, 16897, Earth

  Hera stared at her two visitors in disbelief. Terra was engrossed in the onboard computer database while Mars was rooting around the facility, trying to find something. Both seemed to be oblivious to the engine roar fading into the distance.

  She exclaimed, “I can’t believe that you two are blithely puttering around as my uncle steals your ship and heads somewhere unknown while stranding us on this planet! What is wrong with you?”

  Terra scoffed without looking up, “First, he isn’t your uncle. Szalracht was simply the person who programmed you. Furthermore, he didn’t even construct you to be his species. He chose to make you appear human in an attempt to interact with us. And, we know exactly where he’s headed. He’s going to the Great Gathering.

  “A better question would be, why was he so obsessed with Roman god names?”

  Mars added, “Or, where did he put the last gift he received before switching timelines? I’m looking for a twelve-inch-long, quartz cylinder. It’s about four inches in diameter. Have you seen it?”

  Terra was correct. Hera was a simulation created by Szalracht for companionship and interaction with humans. She was slightly less than six-feet tall, attractive by Earth standards, and had a solid, physical form. However, she was nothing more than a life-like computer simulation with a range limited to the few hundred meters surrounding the laboratory computer.

  Hera replied, “Szalracht based his messages and naming upon the oldest human records found when he arrived on this planet. And I think you’ll find the artifact you are seeking in my bedroom closet. My uncle had no interest in it, but I thought it was pretty. By the way, how do you know about it? For that matter, how did you know how to communicate with Szalracht? And what is the Great Gathering?”

  Terra answered, “We know about the cylinder because we gave it to you. We can speak Szalracht’s language because we’ve been studying his species for several thousand years. And, the Great Gathering is a kind of mega-party for all the surviving intelligent species of the galaxy. Szalracht couldn’t wait to go once we told him about it.”

  Mars exclaimed, “Found it! It needs recharging, but I think it survived the trip!”

  Hera was confused. She asked, “What is that object that fascinates Mars so much? And, what do you mean by a party for the surviving intelligent species of the galaxy? The only intelligent species are ours and now yours. How do you know when and where this party is? Also, if it is so great, why would you rather stay here than attend?”

  Terra muttered, “Mars, why don’t you take Hera outside and explain the universe to her while I attempt to make sense out of Szalracht’s database.”

  Mars nodded toward the door and said, “Sure, why not. This thing’s going to take a while to recharge anyway. Let’s start with the Great Gathering guest list.”

  Mars and Hera walked over to the grandstand and sat on a couple of weathered benches as Mars began his explanation.

  “As you know, tens of thousands of technologically-advanced civilizations have arisen across our galaxy over the past several hundred million years. Nearly all managed to destroy themselves within a thousand years of discovering and harnessing electricity. However, a few dozen managed to survive for several thousand years and expand their domain across sizeable regions of our galaxy. Yours, by the way, is one of the longest-surviving species with over ten thousand years under your belt. However, your society was nearly wiped out by the time you found our planet.

  “Szalracht’s experiment successfully created a timeline that brought our species back from extinction and inserted some spunk back into yours. This experiment resulted in a unique situation where two intelligent civilizations exist in the galaxy at the same time. By the way, we sincerely appreciate you saving our species.

  “You see, the time scales and distances in our galaxy are so great that no two species had ever connected before. A thousand-year or even a ten-thousand-year span is a blink of an eye in a universe that is over thirteen billion years old. Thus, the likelihood of any two species existing at the same time is almost non-existent. And, galactic distances are so vast that even if someone did detect a signal from another planet, the senders would probably be extinct by the time they received a reply.”

  Hera grumpily retorted, “I know all that. That’s what brought us to your planet. What I don’t understand is your statement about surviving intelligent species. There are none other than us in the galaxy! We’ve explored their ruins.”

  Mars chuckled, “Don’t get your undies in a twist, Hera. It turns out that over the past several hundred million years, over a dozen species discovered ways to warp space enough to conquer the galaxy like you. These civilizations disappeared, but they did not die out. Instead, they packed everything up and headed off to the Great Gathering. They even left invitations for future species, but you guys somehow never got the hint.”

  Hera appeared confused, so Mars elaborated.

  “Time dilates if you fly into the event horizon of a black hole. If you go in too steep, then you’ll be crushed and never come out. However, if you have precisely the right speed and trajectory, you will dive into the gravity well and slingshot out far in the future. It’s not true time travel. You simply don’t age as quickly as everything else in the universe for a while. So, all the conquering civilizations over the galaxy’s entire History took the plunge with trajectories designed to reappear at the same time.”

  Hera asked, “OK, so let’s say that everybody who ever existed effectively disappeared until sometime in the distant future. How do you know when and where this Great Gathering will be?”

  Mars laughed, “Oh, that’s easy. They all headed toward the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. And, they will all emerge shortly before the end of the universe, which will occur in just under seventy-six million years.”

  Hera pursed her eyebrows and replied, “The galactic center makes sense, but I think your time is off by a few orders of magnitude. The universe is expected to last for billions of years, not millions of years.”

  Mars sighed and said, “That would be nice. However, we have this pesky universal law called the conservation of mass and energy, which dramatically shortens it. Tell me. What do you think you know about the cycle of the universe?”

  Hera looked puzzled but answered, “Well, the universe began as a singularity about thirteen or fourteen billion years ago. It then rapidly expanded into the universe we know today, which continues to expand at a constant rate, known as the Hubble constant. No one is sure whether it will continue to expand or whether it will collapse back into a singularity and, possibly, repeat the cycle. In either case, however, it will certainly last billions of years.”

  Mars smiled and asked, “Is the universe infinite? And, does it have a center?”

  Hera quizzically looked at him and answered, “Of course.”

  Mars sighed and said, “You are so right and so very wrong. Listen to what you just said and ask yourself if it makes any sense.

  “How can something expand or contract if it is infinite? An infinitely long line can neither change length nor have a mid-point, because, by definition, it is infinite. Therefore, if our universe is expanding, then it must be finite. Also, how can it have a constant rate of expansion if it might collapse back into a singularity?

  “You are correct that, however far we travel, we cannot escape from our universe. This fact does become a bit of a paradox if you insist on sticking with three-dimensional thinking. However, it can be easily solved if you take a higher-dimensional perspective.

  “You see, our universe exists in a 3:1 reality. In other words, we have three physical dimensions, forward/backward, right/left, and up/down, and one temporal dimension past/future. Furthermore, we are stuck traveling at a fixed speed and direction in our temporal dimension. However,
our physical universe is neither linear nor infinite. It is, instead, the finite, three-dimensional surface of a five-dimensional bubble intersecting a four-dimensional space.”

  Mars grinned as though this clearly and succinctly explained everything. Hera, however, stared at him with a bewildered expression. So, he tried again.

  “Four and five dimensions are hard for us to imagine, so let’s create some examples to simplify the concept. Imagine a group of dot-people living in a universe with only one dimension. They can move forward and backward on a line but cannot comprehend the notions of right and left or up and down. These guys happily live in their infinitely-long, linear universe. They make astronomical observations which indicate that their universe started as a singularity before rapidly expanding into its current state. They also observe that it continues to grow at a fixed rate and argue whether it will, or will not, someday collapse back into a singularity.

  “So, their universal model is the same as ours, except only in one dimension. They, of course, cannot comprehend a second physical dimension, but we can. What if their linear universe isn’t an infinitely-long straight line. What if it is, instead, a vast circle? Our one-dimensional friends can’t comprehend how traveling forward could bring someone back to where they started. They have no concept of second-dimensional bending. But we can envision a circle, so the answer is evident to us.

  “Now, imagine that their circular universe is the intersection of the surface of a three-dimensional balloon and a two-dimensional plane. Their universe would be a singularity as the balloon first intersects the plane and would rapidly grow in diameter as the balloon travels through it. Their circular universe would then shrink back to a singularity and eventually disappear as the balloon passes through and beyond the plane. This model allows their universe to appear to be infinite to them and still expand. And, it means that there is no single center point on their line. Everything in their universe is expanding away from everything else.”