AJourney

BeyondThe
Galaxy
WrittenByJohnBaxter

ChapterOne
The professor entered the lecture theatre in the normal way. He noted that,

for some reason, the place was packed out, standing room only. The press had
done their work, advertising that this lecture was to be like no other in the
history of the Society, or likely to be within living memory, and all of the
students in the lecture hall had to be displaced from the best seats by the
television cameras. Yes, today was a big one. He expected no less.
As he approached the dais, a wave of applause fanned across the
auditorium. He checked his iced water, his notes, and his slides were all ready
to deliver his lecture, his statement, and his findings. Today, things changed,
forever.
He cleared his throat, and brought the hum of hushed gossip to a close by
raising his hand. He now had absolute silence. He knew he had their
undivided attention. He milked the moment a little while he composed
himself. He looked at the many faces that were visible to him, possibly the
first three or four rows, and thought to himself, I wonder how many of these
faces would look the same after I have delivered this lecture. Time for
conjecture is now over. Time to begin.
People of our Earth, he said, appealing to all nations rather than any
specific one, I have a little story to tell, a story that may perplex some of
you, it may thrill others. Please, no questions till the whole story comes to an
end. I ask only that you listen, with patience, to the first part, as it gives the
background for the next section, and so on. Sort of setting the scene, to steal
a phrase from our media people here
A small ripple of laughter rang around the auditorium, dying as quickly as it
had started.
What I must do, is ask you to listen very carefully. What I am about to
reveal is not for discussion, or for any one race or creed anywhere on Earth.,
this being a real dig at the superpowers. He continued, It is public domain,
and shall remain so. As I finish each page of the announcement, a copy is
being posted on every website within the World Wide Web that deals with this
sort of thing so as to stop any form of data suppression

The professor took a small drink from his glass of water, smug that he had
been able to fight back the powers that had held him bound for so long, and
then began to address the gathered throng.
In a small galaxy, just to the left of what we now call the Andromeda
cluster, by about eight light years or so, there, among the many stars, lay a
planet, not a particularly important or indeed a special one, being one of eight
that rotated around a small sun. It did have life on it at one time, life that had
evolved there for a good many millennia. From single celled, through time, to
more and more complex beings, evolution at its best.
In the first few millennia, the many varied life forms developing were more
interested in their own survival than in their surroundings. They hunted to eat,
drink, had sex to sustain the species. It was only when the first of the
thinking sentient life forms appeared that records started to be kept. These
records, though very sketchy from the very early civilisations told of celestial
calendars and events, of life at a crude basic existence, which led to the
inevitable beginning of various religions and beliefs. This lead to a God
fearing people, led by power hungry priests, which spanned much of their
early development. This had the usual effect of leaving science and
knowledge to those brave enough to go against the standard religious beliefs
for many centuries, risking their own death at times.
In one such period, the people of the central and eastern part of the major
land mass there at this time were known as the Doligaih, which in their
limited language meant the land in which they lived, or literally meaning the
only home there is. From this we can surmise that these people knew of no
other civilisation on their planet, and as far as we know, at this time, there
was not. They were alone.
The actual beings themselves were not unlike the human form, though
smaller in height, being about four feet tall at full adult height, gravity there
being stronger than we have here on Earth. Their skin was pale and rough,
covered in what we would think of as warts, though these really contained
millions of organisms that converted the lethal rays of the twin suns into a
protective barrier. A sort of symbiosis.
Their faces, as we would perceive as faces, were thinner than ours, their
noses narrower but longer than we humans, and their eyes were slightly more
on the sides of the head than ours, large organs they were, and as black as
coal. They were all pupil really, using one of their eyelids to limit the light
entering them, like the filter on a camera. This still did not make them
repulsive to human eyes, just, different
They called themselves The Radahs, pronounced radars, as in sound
echo equipment, and they had many major differences to we humans, far too
many to go into in the time we now have available, so I look only to the

similarities during this brief visit. They lived in civilised groups, villages,
towns, and cities, had governments who were elected, and worked as a
collective, all for the good of each other. There were squabbles, religious ones
mainly. They were what we would deem to be a proper civilisation.
This study, unfortunately, is not the reason for our current visit. We are not
here to study these people and their culture, but it is the starting point to look
at their sciences, for there are the important answers we seek.
The Radahs started to study astronomy from an early time in their
evolution, more as astrology than astronomy, following the stars across the
night sky, plotting and drawing the many shapes they seemed to make, also
plotting the stars apparent travels across the heavens. This drew the
conclusion of these early astronomers that helped them learn about the
universe they lived in. They were not, at this time, far wrong.
As I said earlier, our visit to these people was not for their culture but for
science, and we have to understand the outcome of the knowledge we have
just learned, by studying theirs then, starting from the very beginning, and as
best as we can guess, here is where it all began.

Chapter Two
After three millennia, the Radah scientists had mapped their known
universe, understood the basic rules of quantum physics, and knew about
gravity, and its effects on the objects around it.
After another five millennia, they were travelling out among the near
planets, and were able to travel to places only their imagination could have
known before. In all of this exploration, they had found nothing. They were
still alone. No other recognisable life form had been found. In a way, that
there were no other to be found, made them special, but it also doomed them
to loneliness.
It was after thirty or so millennia that some of the scientists realised that
the heavens were changing. The changes were very small to their eyes. They
already knew that the galaxies were always moving, and always had been.
They knew the rate at which the heavens seemed to move, and where it all
seemed to be going. But was it? Only time will tell.
We now move up a large number of years, a couple of million or so. The
Radahs had changed, their appearance, beliefs, and all of the civilised culture
that made them who they were, were all ancient history now. It is lucky for us
that their science hadnt changed.
An archaeology dig in the middle and eastern part of their now huge
civilisation, in an area not now inhabited, or indeed had been for eons,
certainly not since the last meteor had crashed into the planet, wiping out

almost all of the inhabitants in this part of the hemisphere sixty millennia ago,
was taking place by ancient historians. They stated that they would put their
reputation on the line to prove that, at one time a full civilisation had existed
here, with culture and science. They even knew the name of the race that had
lived there. The Radahs.
With their sophisticated equipment, they could find things, even read
documents, without actually touching the soil above it, provided the finds
were open to the soil itself, or in the case of documents, inside a pottery type
or based material. Metal could be penetrated, but only just, and if the
precious stones or documents were inside a casing of Urlite, then the reader
rays could not even read the scratches on the lids of the boxes. These had to
be lifted the old fashioned way. Dig them up, and by hand, slowly, so as not
to damage anything.
Urlite was an inert metal, very heavy, but quite soft, and easily damaged,
and the last thing the experts wanted to do was wipe off an inscription or
marker from the top of a major archaeological find by accident, the laser
digger melting the words or symbols so as they could not be read. That would
really have caused problems with the historians, and many other highpowered people in the community.
The dig in this area had been going on for some years, turning up finds that
a primitive civilisation had indeed existed there all that time ago. A basic,
ancient people who worshipped unknown Gods in the heavens, and lived life
in fear of natural disaster. At least that is what was thought until the Septenna
was found, high up in the rocks above the plains, where what appeared to be
a temple used to stand. The documents were first considered to be of religious
significance, and therefore of no use, since religion now was no longer
practiced anywhere and in any form on Doligiah. It was only when the entire
group of boxes, which together formed the whole Septenna was unearthed,
that things became clear. The boxes were of Urlite, and on the surface of each
box were a numbered code of sequence. These turned out to be the form of
dating used at that time. Contained within these Urlite boxes were what
appeared to be star charts, and other astronomical data, all beautifully hand
drawn, and detailed. The whole sky was charted, from east to west.
Constellations with names too. A major find for the archaeologists working
there. Unfortunately, the charts seemed to be wrong. Odd stars, the dimmer
ones, were about the same, but the rest of the charts were total drivel, or so it
appeared. This temple had been, as they found out later in the dig, an
observatory. These ancients appeared to be more intelligent than first thought.
The equipment found and the contents of everything in the whole place would
be moved and reconstructed at a museum, for all to see, both live or virtual.

The historic finds themselves were hailed as a breakthrough, though of

course, these ancient star charts were ignored, and merely put on display, in
their tubes on desks, as part of the exhibition that was eventually made of the
finds.
The glory of this historic breakthrough eventually faded over time, and
other things became of more interest to the scholars, this exhibition then
becoming something of a specialist field, since all that could have been
gleaned from that old civilisation had already been catalogued, listed, filed,
photographed, treated to preserve, and now occupied a tiny little corner of the
vast museum. There it stayed.

Chapter Three
The passage of millennia can be so swift, it becomes but a moment in time

when viewed in hindsight. Thats why it becomes history.

That little corner of that museum existed for many thousands of years, first
as a museum exhibit, and then when the museum was replaced by a much
bigger and better facility built over the top of the old one, it became a stored
exhibit in the inner corner in the original building, obsolete, andoverlooked
by everybody and everything. It remained that way until the eventual
demolition of the original museum was to take place, so the exhibits from
within had to be moved to some drawer or store room in another part of the
newer building. These star charts, still in their original leather-like tubes were
to be sent to the astrophysics people, at their World Centre, to be used as
training exercises in finding out why the ancient got it so wrong, The idea
being to learn from their mistakes.
This is where things started to become clear, and it is from here that we are
most interested.
The Scholars studied the star charts as if they were rough sketches at an art
exhibition, giving only cursory glances to the information mapped out across
the heavens. They knew they were in an expanding universe, having studied it
for eons, but these charts showed that the universe was in fact in contraction,
and not expansion. It was like looking at something on a bend ahead of you.
Is it moving towards you, or away from you? Because its a curve, viewed
from one end, the object would move left or right, elliptically, so as to appear
to be going away, to the left or right, when in reality, its getting closer. This
theory was completely debunked, and was to remain so for yet another many
millennia.
We move forward in time again. We must travel in time by major leaps, far
too large to comprehend, but it is the only way to explain.

By now, this race had travelled to most of the points within their known
universe, travelling at speeds almost that of light, their technology at a highly
advanced stage. They had made their own star charts to enable them to
navigate in and around the many places within their quadrant. These charts
were updated at nanosecond intervals for pinpoint accuracy, I mean, we
couldnt have a ship slamming into a planet that orbited into their course
because the maps were inaccurate in real time. The body shape of this race,
though descended from the Radahs, now bore no resemblance whatsoever to
them, and were, by now, almost all brain, with mechanical transport to
facilitate any movement they might have to make, though they might move
two or three times in their very long life.
It was while they were in this part of their evolution that information
collected by them over the vast time that they as a race existed was reviewed,
mainly out of total boredom as there was little else of interest, and many
theories were put forward as to the meaning of life, and all that purile
nonessential theorising carried on, relentlessly, more as a pastime than
anything useful. It was all proving what had already been proven.
That is, until one of these brains decided to overlay their current star
charts with the ones from the previous thirty millennia or so, and came up
with a shift pattern, which didnt seem right somehow. It didnt quite follow
the then believed trend. Rather than dismiss the inaccuracies as faults in the
recording of the skies due to faulty machinery or atmospherics, and including
the many two dimensional photographs, he decided to go back to the
beginning of their civilisation and overlay the ancient maps drawn by the
Radahs all that time before, with the charts from the mid-time people, as they
became known, and then the charts of the current race. What he found
disturbed him. It went against everything he had been brought up to believe.
He needed a second opinion. Maybe two.

Chapter Four
There was much confusion about the outcome of the recent findings,
sceptics still insisted that the status quo was still correct. The ancient maps,
over layered by the mid-period maps, and then the current maps on top all
showed the same movement pattern. A steady movement across the heavens.
It was now undeniable. Conclusive proof that the universe was contracting,
not expanding, the galaxies all coming together in a form of slow dance. In a
few billion years, who knows what will be left.
It is strange that all life, no matter where and of what, on being sentient,
will quite happily live out the millennia as long as there is no threat to the

species. Any threat, no matter how small though, invokes an immediate

reaction to preserve, even though the threat is millions of years into the future.
Save at all costs. These creatures set about, using their superior knowledge to
see if they could come up with a solution to the problem of surviving the
inevitable extermination of everything, alive or inert. They started to devote
their time to this end. To survive
For our study purposes, we must move on another billion years, and stop to
view what is happening in that cosmos.
Time had marched on, millions of years saw the galaxies colliding, though
at first the gaps between the stars and their planets were so big, that nothing
actually physically collided, hence the almost undetected merger of many of
them. It was when the black holes at the centres of each galaxy joined
together as the galaxies themselves collided, then the stars and all of the
planets and the gasses, now all being drawn to that centre point, to disappear
into an unbelievably big black hole, which then swallowed another galaxy,
and its black hole and all of its surrounding matter, each piece glowing with
friction as it accelerated to near the speed of light, the light itself vanishing,
becoming prisoner of the gravity of the growing black hole.
I must point out, at this point that we are dealing with enormous
timescales, billions of years, so very hard to comprehend. Things were
moving near the speed of light, but the distances they were travelling cannot
be even imagined, they are so vast,
In yet more time, there was very little left on any of the outer rim, the last
remnants of a huge cosmos gone or going. Even light itself could not escape
the gravity of this now massive black hole. The end of everything. All gone.
No light, no sound, just empty blackness. Total
At some point in the next few millennia, the black hole itself hit an event
horizon. Sort of indigestion. Either the last little bit of matter overloaded it, or
a chemical reaction started inside, and suddenly, the whole thing exploded,
throwing gas debris all over the heavens. Gases cooled, became different
chemicals, became solid, joined together, formed new galaxies, stars, suns,
planets, as our theory of the Big Bang would explain, this taking place over
billions of years.
As to wanting to study the history of the Radahs, and their many offspring,
I stated that we were interested only in their science history. The reason for
that course of study is that the Big Bang, which ended their cosmos, totally,
was not the end of life. Far from it.

Chapter Five

The latter descendants of the Radahs had set about to preserve their
culture, their science, and hopefully their DNA, should the worst happen.
They designed and built a sort of space ark containing all of the information
about themselves, in an attempt to give some future race that may find the
craft, all of the information about themselves. They tried to design this ark to
withstand even the pressures and heat of creation itself. As the universe
contracted, they themselves understood that, at some time, this ark could
itself be destroyed as the whole universe, and everything contained in it
vanished into that final black hole. They built it anyway, and included their
current theories of surviving the death of the cosmos, all placed inside the ark.
Their home planet was eventually destroyed when one of their suns went
nova, swelled up and swallowed most of their solar system. They had long
left that area in space. Their colonies suffered similar fates, though the
inhabitants had already long before, got off the planets and onto others safer
and farther out. By doing this, the species were able to survive for many more
millennia. They still eventually died out as the cosmos shrank down,
travelling ever faster and faster to its own destruction.
It was said that this ark was designed to, though in a way yet unproven, of
being able to survive any astral catastrophe, and theoretically, come out of the
other side unscathed. A wild theory. The heat and pressure in a black hole
would turn everything back to its original hydrogen state, containing no
matter of any type, and destroy any trace of the atoms, never mind the
remains of this civilisation.
Under normal circumstances, I am sure you would agree, that nothing
would or could survive creation. These, however are not normal
circumstances.
The professor paused, and took another drink of iced water, and then
continued,
Two weeks ago, to the East of the what we know as Ethiopia, an object
was found, an object that was examined and studied by the worlds foremost
scientists. It was opened, and the contents deciphered and read, in
mathematics. We learned that this was that ark. The ark was found totally
intact. It contained complete and detailed information of the Radahs, and all
of the races which followed, right up to their final destruction, it had their
culture, their science, their history, right up until there was no-one left to
record it. That is how I am able to tell you all about these people. They did
include something else. Something that mankind may never use, or want to,
but it is there if we want it.
Inside this ark are the plans on how to build a sort of time machine, we
know thats what it does, we have already built and tested it, so that we could

also go through some sort of portal and appear elsewhere not only in space,
but in time.
Gentlemen, the separate DNA boxes had been opened, and the microbes
within released. Empty phials tell a story. Judging by the soil microbes found
on the inside of the phials, they were opened between thirty and twenty five
thousand years ago, there in Ethiopia.
Evolution at its best.
The professor stepped back from the microphone, and looked at the
shocked faces of the students and press within his range of vision.
He knew what was coming. The questions. Time to go.

JohnBaxter2009