Prelude:
The cosmos is vast beyond all human understanding. Astronomers tell us that the “visible” universe is over 93 billion light-years in diameter. And that’s only what we can see from our viewpoint on this little speck of dust that we call Earth. When you look at all those tiny lights in the night sky, understand that each one is but another mote of dust in a creation that has held humanity’s focus since before he discovered how to make fire.
Astronomers also tell us that the age of the universe is over 14 billion years. A star can live for millions, if not billions of years. While some stars age gracefully, others explode with great violence. Modern astronomy has shown us the birth and death of countless stars. By the time that we can see the light from some stars, they have already lived out their lives and are now just expanding clouds of gases and energetic particles.
When anything explodes, it sends pieces of itself in all directions. Much of that matter is drawn back into regions that can form new stars, much is also released into the vastness of the cosmos. We often refer to the space between stars as “empty” space, but space is not truly empty. Granted, it may be a long way between those pieces, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
Also, keep in mind that every last speck of matter in the universe is in motion. Paths can cross, trajectories can change, only to be changed again. What was going in one direction is now going in another. A cosmic game of pinball or pool. Sometimes the cue ball gets sunk in the corner pocket, or the pinball zips between the flippers, and the game is over.
14 billion years is long enough to have seen the most unlikely of events occur, and even occur more than once. Life itself is one of those “unlikely” events. Our absence of factual proof (so far) of other life does not preclude its possibility. The odds of our discovering evidence of another advanced, self-aware, intelligent life form IS astronomically small..
But not zero…
II: The Pa’anin
Quite literally, A long time ago, in a solar system far, far away, there evolved a race of intelligent beings who called themselves “Pa’anin”. (The People) And while they may have been physiologically different from humanity, they were people all the same. They had dreams. They loved, they hated, but most of all, they questioned. And when questions could not be answered, they speculated. Speculation leads to opinions. And, like humanity, opinions can lead to violence.
Their earliest history records a nearby star suddenly shining bright enough to be seen in the bright afternoon sky. Years later, historical records gathered from around the planet recorded a year of terror. The sky had opened up, and fire and rocks fell from the sky. Exploding and scattering their remains in all directions. Brave souls later discovered pieces of these rocks. Pieces that were deep black, perfect spheres, embedded within crystalline formations, unlike anything that had ever been discovered before, or since.
The black stones came to be called “Star Seeds”, and for a time, they were worshiped by the Pa’anin as proof of the divine. Entire religions were founded, based upon these “Star Seeds. Over time, the priests discovered that when the Seeds were prayed to with chants and songs, the Seeds could become “soft” and could be shaped by hand. However, when the songs and chants ended, the Seed would instantly snap back to its original form.
Intelligent life tends to advance in knowledge. Factual and provable science often butts heads with faith and belief. Growth, through knowledge and technology, eventually identified them for what they were.
Formed within the heart of a star, “Star Seeds” were found to be a new type of matter, unaffected by anything other than those ancient chants and songs. That is, until the discovery of ultrasonic harmonics and harmonies. “Music” at thousands of times higher frequencies than any kind of organic life could possibly detect. Research into those harmonics eventually led the way to manipulation and the ability to form the “Star Seed” into whatever shape they chose.
Like any other intelligent species, the Pa’anin advanced technologically and pushed out into the heavens. Coupled with the ability to manipulate Star Seeds, they found ways to use the crystals that the Seeds were embedded within to develop technologies allowing them to explore vast reaches of space. The most profound creation derived from that technology was what can only be described as an Artificial Entity.
The Pa’anin created an Artificial Intelligence and provided it with everything they knew about the Star Seeds. They created a spacecraft from those Star Seeds. The combination was unexpected and synergistic.
They had sought to control the Star Seeds. Instead, they had created a lifeform.
Mind and Ship became one. Together with the Pa’anin, they began to explore.
That exploration allowed them to make contact with another intelligent race.
At first, that contact was beneficial. Both races prospered from it. But it seems that pride and greed, and the other 5 “deadly” sins, are another universal constant. Each had what the other wanted. The Pa’anin and the secret of Star Seeds, and the Other, the ability to create and use Antimatter. Those base desires escalated to war on a scale that eventually led to the destruction of those civilizations. The final battle was apocalyptic in its scale, and by the end, there were only broken remains left drifting in the voids of space.
A sad story that has happened time and again in the vastness of space and time. And it is but one small tale of the universe we see at night.
III: THE WRECK
The derelict spacecraft that had been the crowning and final achievement of Pa’anin technology had been caught in the deliberate destruction of a star. Slowly tumbling through space for so long that the conflict that had created it was lost to time and distance. The dark, flat black of its hull, even in the proximity of a star, was difficult to see.
When you could see it, it was obvious that it had suffered a devastating blow in that now far-off battle; its journey had only added more damage to it. What was once a sleek integrated hull and a testament to the genius of its creators was now a ruin. It had been twisted and stretched, smashed and scarred. The Star Seed alloy that the hull was constructed of had been able to withstand forces that could only be guessed at, but battle and chaos had left their unmistakable marks. The Mind had suffered as well. The explosion had delivered a knockout punch that lasted millions of years.
Now it was just another mote floating through the vastness of interstellar space. Centuries and light-years passed, and its course was altered again and again by chance encounters. Sometimes falling close to a massive gravity well and being flung off in a new direction. Sometimes it would impact or be impacted by another body and ricochet off in a new direction. A celestial game of pinball or 8-ball.
By its very nature, chaos can favor positive outcomes as well as negative. The dark craft always managed to continue on its journey. After a time that can only be likened to geologic ages, its wandering path led it towards a small, yellow dwarf star. Its travels had led it halfway across the local galaxy and that trip was about to end.
In the vastness of the void between stars, speed and velocity are meaningless unless you have a fixed reference point. Those values are only valid when you have something to measure them against. Once you have a fixed reference, only then can you determine direction and rate of movement.
As the craft entered the system and passed one of the outer planets, a gas giant, it could now be seen to be traveling at a speed much greater than anything else in the system. The gravitational attraction of this gas giant had already captured small planets and moons, as well as many millions of rocks of countless sizes, and the Wreck was no exception.
Like many times before, the path of the derelict was pulled in by this huge gravity well. Its course once again altered, again not captured. As it approached the giant, its speed could now be inferred by how quickly it approached and overtook some of the moons. In that close pass, it left a trail of vaporized rock. Orbits were disturbed and other impacts occurred, affecting other orbiting rocks. The “break” of a game of eightball on a cosmic scale. As the wreck approached the giant, it acquired ever more velocity as its path reached the perigee of its encounter. The change in course was more than enough for the craft to climb out of the gravity well and hasten its journey to this solar system’s primary. A high-powered bullet fired from God’s biggest gun.
This Gas Giant had a well-developed set of rings as well as over 150 satellites and countless rocks. As it continued its inward journey, it crossed the orbit of another rock. This rock had been orbiting the gas giant for hundreds of thousands of years and had survived many encounters with smaller objects. About 20 miles in diameter and composed of the typical nickel-iron base like many other pieces floating in the void, it became the target for the wreck’s next-to-last impact.
Slamming into this rock, the craft hit slightly off-center, and at a speed that would vaporize any lesser material, the craft flew through the asteroid like a high-powered rifle bullet shooting through a bowling ball at close range. With much the same results. Much of the asteroid simply vaporized, and smaller pieces scattered in all directions. The remaining rock fractured into dozens of smaller rocks destined for other orbits. One piece, an eight-mile-diameter chunk, followed the speeding Wreck deeper into this young star system.
The shock of the impact awoke a corner of The Mind. Awakening brought confusion. It had been fighting, no, fleeing from something. Now here it was speeding to the center of this solar system. Limited diagnostic inquiries only returned negative results. Limited because this little corner of The Mind was all that could be accessed.
Even that limited awareness allowed it to make assessments. Basic navigation could only supply percentages, and the numbers didn’t look good.
Having shed much of its velocity but still betraying its extra-solar origin, it continued streaking inwards to the primary of this system until chaos reversed that lucky streak as it slammed into the fourth planet out.
A lifeless red ball of sand, rock, and dust.
At some point in the distant past, this planet may have hosted life of some kind. While H2O could be found there, it was either frozen or trapped deep underground. It also supported an atmosphere of sorts. Composed mostly of carbon dioxide, it was not thick enough to offer much in the way of resistance to the hurtling wreck.
Striking the surface at a shallow angle, it “skipped” like a flat rock on a still pond. It left a trail of six impact sites before it came to its final resting place in the side of a crevasse hundreds of miles away.
After untold billions of miles and untold millions of years, its journey ended—not in stellar fire, but half-buried in red silence, waiting. The corner of The Mind that remained understood it was dying. It could only hope to keep a spark alive, in the hope of discovery
Over millennia, other impacts scattered billions of tons of broken rock in all directions. The thin atmosphere allowed storms to scour billions of tons of dust, sand, and rock across the planet. The craft was covered and exposed hundreds of times throughout the 65 million years it lay there.
A rock, like any other…
IV: Genesis 1
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Upon the Earth, He placed wonders and mysteries, questions and answers. Then he created man. But first, he created the heavens. The wonders, mysteries, questions, and answers of that first creation have held our attention ever since we first crawled out of our caves and looked up at the night sky. We have dreamed of what might be out there. We have told stories of Gods and Demons that lived in the sky. We have imagined Galactic empires ruled by the benevolent and the wicked.
The positions of those lights in the night sky were studied and pictures were drawn by wise men. They were used by others to navigate their world. Some claimed to be able to read signs and portents and see the future. As we have learned about the universe around us, we have come to understand that we are only seeing a small part of what is out there. And what we see is the past.
Humanity has existed on this planet for something like 200,000 years, but it has been less than a thousand years since we have gotten away from the myths and stories that we told ourselves for so many generations. Great thinkers (sometimes at the cost of their lives) proposed other explanations for all of those tiny lights in the night sky.
Slowly, we have begun to understand that our world is but a tiny speck in a universe that is so vast that it defies understanding. Distances between stars are measured in the time it takes light to travel in a year. In a single year, light travels approximately 5.88 trillion miles. Our nearest neighbor is 4.24 lightyears away.
The void of space is vast beyond all comprehension. But it is not truly empty. There are uncounted pieces of flotsam and jetsam adrift in the abyss between stars. A star explodes and throws mass in all directions. A planet is pulled from its orbit and flung into the vastness. One drifting rock impacts another and sends both in different directions. Every last speck of matter in the universe is in motion.
Chaos is the only true constant. Given time and distance, anything can happen, anywhere. But within that chaos, small patterns can emerge. Whirlpools can form and spin for moments or eons.. But chaos is the only constant. Improbabilities can, and do, occur.
There has been time enough in this universe for entire civilizations to rise and to fall. Time enough to see the outcome of random events unfold with entirely unexpected results…
V: The Hope
In the early years of the 21st century, a visionary entrepreneur by the name of Elon Musk publicly expressed an almost pathological fear. The longer we stay on this one single planet, the greater the odds that some event, whether by our own hands or some cosmic event, will be the end of humanity. His vision was for humanity to become a “multi-planetary species” as the only way to ensure our continued survival. To this end, he created Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX.
Elon’s stated goal was to create a civilization on Mars. His efforts sparked off a second push to space, or another “Space Race” that enabled Humanity to create the first footholds on both Luna and Mars.
Our continued presence on these two bodies allowed us to learn much more about the cosmos around us. One of those discoveries was that not only have every meteorite, asteroid, moonlet, and planet in this solar system been slammed with rocks from within our solar system. But they have also been peppered by rocks from far outside our little corner of the cosmos.
Early studies of the moon suggested that if we were to attempt to extract resources from the Lunar surface, the results might not be equal to the cost. But these estimates were based on the technology of the time.
SpaceX and many other privately owned companies brought that cost so far down that shipping hundreds of tons of supplies to orbit and beyond enabled large-scale, in-situ processing and construction. The savings in tonnage was enormous. But, as in basic physics, the cost was simply transformed into another “value.” There is always a price to pay.
Space is hard.
When you build a system, you take unrelated parts and attempt to get them to work together as a whole. The more moving parts you bring into a system, the more possibility for failure you introduce into that system. That “value” turned out to be human life. “Accidents happen.” In space, the smallest mistake can be fatal. Early accedents caused many to doubt the wisdom of space
That is, until “on-the-ground” expeditions began to find “samples” of what were referred to as TCEs (technology-critical elements). Those “samples” eventually totaled several million tons. Other researchers later discovered pieces of never-before-seen elemental minerals with amazing properties. As these discoveries became known, the amount of funding available began to grow in leaps and bounds. Similar discoveries were also made on Mars. But due to the distances involved, it was just barely enough to justify the cost. But the moon is right in our own backyard. By the end of the 21st century, there were several hundred people living and working on the Moon and Mars.
And then the “Dubai Rock” happened..
VI: THE ROCK
The entire world knows what happened that day so many years ago. Humanity had entered an age of innovation that had only been seen in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.
Elon’s dream had seen its fruition, but the challenge of Mars was not without cost. Of the first 50 “Pioneers” to the red planet, only 12 managed to survive until the next mission landed.
NASA’s Artemis program also saw costs. 4 souls were lost when a habitat module exploded due to an unseen fault in a wiring junction. Two more in suit malfunctions.
Space is hard, unforgiving, and deadly..
But a great many people do not think that is reason enough to stop.
Most especially when the expected lunar surface composition also contained minerals and elements needed by a power-hungry world. For eons, our moon has acted as a shield against the flotsam and jetsam of the universe. Not all of those rocks floating out there are simple nickel-iron.
However, the Moon is not a perfect shield..
In the very early morning of what had been forecast to be another blistering summer day in Dubai, the sun seemed to rise early. At precisely 3:14:15 AM, the sky began to blaze. Seconds later, the worst disaster in human history imprinted itself into the memory of all who survived.
Those who were far enough away to survive the strike and witnessed the “event” describe an intense light moving like a bolt of lightning. A brief flash followed by a tremendous explosion. The strike was captured by at least half a dozen satellites. Before the day was out, the images had been broadcast around the world. They showed a streak of light entering the atmosphere. Dim at first, then blazing brightly, followed by a massive explosion that climbed rapidly into the upper atmosphere. The shock wave could be seen forcing its way outwards from the center of impact. Entering the atmosphere at about 30 degrees, with a speed of something like 90,000 miles per hour. Dubai died in an instant. The airblast and fireball killed millions that the actual rock missed. The surrounding countries were devastated, and the entire planet suffered from the catastrophic results for years.
In the aftermath, it was determined that a rock roughly 500 feet in diameter smashed through our atmosphere and impacted the Earth just outside Dubai, leaving a crater nearly 3 miles in diameter. When the Rock struck, unlike most meteors, large pieces remained intact, and the largest piece skipped like a rock across a lake.
Its path took it directly through the middle of The Burj Khalifa moments before the shockwave and fireball turned it all into broken rubble, it then landed in the middle of the Persian Gulf.
Unlike the majority of meteors that enter Earth’s atmosphere, very little of the mass “calved”, or broke apart. Several smaller pieces did, however, break off and continued on to create their own areas of destruction.
Most rocks that fall from the sky break apart in the atmosphere. If they are large enough to reach the surface of our planet, it results in mutual destruction. What actually vaporized was mostly our own Earth. The ejecta from the impact included many smaller pieces of the rock. The event was so sudden and so unexpected that the mind balked at acceptance. The explosion was heard thousands of miles away, and the debris created secondary strikes hundreds of miles from the central impact site. Hundreds of millions of tons of dust and debris were thrown miles into the upper atmosphere. It was nearly twenty years before the seasons returned to anything close to “normal”.
The bulk of the rock seemed to be a previously unknown substance. Several of the lesser-impact craters revealed an unblemished, totally black sphere. Later named Dubainium, this new substance was harder than anything that man has ever been able to produce. Lighter than steel but heavier than aluminum, and was the ultimate expression of black. It seemed to absorb light and had provided the rock with a very low albedo. Perhaps one reason we never saw it coming. If it doesn’t reflect light, you can’t see it.
Later investigation also revealed several new elemental compounds that had never been seen before. Crystalline structures that current science said were impossible. Other discoveries (eventually) provided some answers, insights, and clues into some of the odd nooks and crannies in the world around us.
But those answers did not come without cost. The disaster that faced the planet called for something that had never, in human history, been attempted. Everybody working together for a common cause. Science was shared, ideas were put forth, ideas were shot down. Some worked, others did not. What mattered was the simple fact that the human race had pulled together with a common goal. Survival.
In the following years, the question most asked became, “Why didn’t we see it coming?” Despite the billions of Dollars, Euros, Yuan, or Rubles spent on astronomical research, we never saw it coming.
It turns out that out of the thousands of satellites that orbit this planet, fewer than 5% are looking outward. We rely mostly on ground-based, telescopic observation. But you can’t look everywhere all at once.
We had no idea.
Humanity was rudely awakened that day. Our collective noses were rubbed into the fact that there is a whole Universe out there that we know absolutely nothing about. Sure. We had eyes out there. We look at “Deep Field” images of distant stars, nebulae, galaxies, and wonder. But we have the eyes of a baby. We are only now learning how to see.. But we still have no idea what we’re looking at.
The pieces of the Rock that were recovered indicated it formed in nodules. Many small nodes were found, but none appeared to be fractured or damaged in any way. The main body of the Rock had skipped and landed in the middle of the Persian Gulf. Burying itself in the mud and silt. It was eventually found but trying to raise a mass of that size defeats us to this day. What can be made out, however, is that the main body as well, appeared undamaged. The smaller pieces were subjected to intense investigation and testing. Unfortunately, not much could be determined. It could be described and weighed or compared to other minerals. For instance, its hardness made diamonds look like chalk. Its color could only be described as the total absence of light.. Samples were subjected to heat, radiation, pressure, abrasion, lasers, and all manner of invasive testing. Nothing seemed to affect it until one researcher stumbled across part of the solution.
Dr. William Maclure, a materials scientist, was actually taking a break at the time. Sitting at his desk with his lunch, he had turned on the radio for some background, when he noticed some readings fluctuating while the music was playing. It seemed that certain musical harmonies caused changes in the mineral. Some of his instruments actually read something besides zero. Further research found that it wasn’t the notes that were being played, but the harmonics.
It was eventually learned that with certain harmonic ultrasonic waves, the Dubainium began to become malleable. As long as the sound was present, the mineral could be “manipulated” like almost like a metal of some kind.
However, the exact pitch and frequency of those harmonics to do more than change the basic shape of the “sample” was still under intense investigation. Once the harmonic stopped, though, pop!. It instantly recovered its original properties. A perfect black sphere that didn’t reflect light. The possible uses were enormous. As were the questions. However, the supply wasn’t. Aside from the main body of the Rock, which remained in the middle of the disaster that was the Persian Gulf. Samples were few and far between.
And there, science stopped. In the intervening 20 years, the only “progress” in understanding Dubainium was more questions. In the meantime Humanity had many other pressing concerns.
The climate of the Earth had been a concern for decades. With the introduction of billions of tons of dust, smoke, ash, and debris thrown into the atmosphere, every “climate model” on the planet went out the door.
The years that followed brought out both the best and the worst in humanity.
VII: Discovery
For over 65 million years, “The Mind” had rested on the inner slope of one of the many crevices that are carved into the surface of this speck of red dust, floating in the void.
It now lay with its forward end looking up into the vastness of the void from which it had come. The once proud craft, a testament to its creators, was now a mangled hulk. Much like a beer can. A crumpled piece of garbage tossed aside by the universe. But one man’s garbage is another man’s gold.
For eons, it lay there. Until one day, there was a change.
Movement from something other than falling debris, drifting dust, and sand.
Planned. Deliberate movement.
The star that this planet orbited had something rare in the universe. It had life. The third and fourth planets both boasted this rarity. The fourth planet, the Wreck’s final resting place, once had life. But that was eons ago.
When the debris from the craft’s last collision slammed through the atmosphere of the third planet, it wiped out the majority of life on that planet.
But the life on that planet continued to grow and evolve.
That evolution led to a lifeform that differed from anything that had come before. This lifeform had a central nervous system that became dense enough to begin to reason and to question. To look up at the starry night and wonder what was out there.
Dense enough to step off the planet of its birth and begin to explore the vastness of the cosmos. Man had taken that first “Giant Leap”.
And then the universe stepped in and stirred the pot. A seemingly random rock awoke every last man, woman, and child to the fact that we really have no idea what is out there.
Humans are stubborn.
What was lost was regained.
Man had returned to the Red Planet…
At first, there was little other movement, but shortly, that movement increased, and soon the craft was once again exposed to the heavens in all of its mangled glory. The curiosity of Man knows no bounds, and he became obsessed with this discovery.
On the planet below, the news of the discovery generated chaos on many separate levels. This single discovery changed more minds at one time than any other idea that man’s mind had ever imagined. Over half of the religions on the planet had to figure out how this single fact fit into their system of beliefs. True “Creationists” refused to admit to the evidence, taking much the same stand as the “Flat Earthers” and the “Fake Moon Landings” crowd.
The saving grace in that “awakening” for the rest of the faithful, was, from all places, “Hollywood.” For over a century, Hollywood had, and still does, churn out movies dealing with alien lifeforms, civilizations, and alternate ways of looking at the universe.
The late 20th Century introduced electronics, manufacturing, scientific research, new ideas, and new methods and ways to look at the universe around us. However the “awakening” wasn’t easy. Governments fell. Regimes changed. Alliances changed and then changed again.
Many of the old players rose to the challenge. The United States. China. Japan. And Russia. However, these entities had more concerns than just space. Inspired by previous examples, private companies pooled resources and created the Selene Consortium.
The destruction of Dubai had turned humanity’s attention to the sky. “The Consortium” was formed to sponsor and assist research, exploration, and exploitation of potential discoveries that would ease the demand on Earth’s finite resources.
Recovery of both Lunar and Martian assets was well underway, and then “The Wreck” was discovered on the surface of Mars…