The next morning, I left the space habitat on our cargo shuttle named Monna. Noma was in the co-pilot seat and she was almost as excited as Monna was. Needless to say, after the two hour trip to the first planet, I indulged the both of them in their desires. My anger hadn't been as prominent the last little while because I had been working through it with Noma whenever I could.
I had been tempted to get Lashina's help, since that was one of her primary jobs; but, we weren't completely at the sharing everything stage yet like I was with Noma. She knew it all, accepted it all, and loved it all. That was because over my lifetime, I had been messed up both emotionally and physically almost as much, and in some cases more, than she had been. I had accepted her completely as well.
Also, I was a little worried that I would set Lashina off on her own tantrums if I was too close to her when I let myself go. Unlike me, she wasn't discretionary when she let her anger out and there wasn't a valid trigger that would set her off. That was one of the reasons The Order kept her on a short leash, because the goddess asked them to keep her contained. Her reputation would suffer if one of her followers made it a habit to crush and tear up Order facilities when they were angry.
I tore up a good portion of useless land for several hours, essentially forcing myself to have a tantrum, and Noma was right there with me in the shuttle to handle any Presence overages. I finished my little outburst and rather than wait to go all the way back to the station, Monna suggested staying onboard with Noma. The cargo area opened up and inside was a makeshift hotel room with food, a bed, and even a tub.
“Did someone put you up to this, Monna?” I asked with a chuckle as I took Noma's hand and led her into the cargo area.
“Yes, Grandpa.” Monna said. “My sisters and I haven't been able to surprise you before, so we came up with something we thought you'd really like!”
Noma laughed as she stripped off her clothes. “Remind me to thank them.” She said and hopped onto the bed. “Come to me, my liberator! Ravage me as only you can!” She said dramatically and then spread her arms and legs out into a star pattern.
“I heartily accept your offering and judge it to be... delicious.” I said lecherously to make her laugh and my black bodysuit sunk into my skin. I climbed onto the bed and ducked my head between her legs and made her moan. “Ah, yes. Quite delicious.” I said and licked my lips where she could see me. “May I continue?” I asked her and Noma nodded several times, so I kept going.
Two hours and one unconscious Noma later, I flew Monna back to the space habitat. Almost as soon as I landed in the shuttle bay, my perception picked up that there was something different. I saw that there was another living compartment attached to the station, just off to the side of Opina's main computer core. I tried looking into it and saw that a black barrier was around it.
I hit the intercom button. “Opina, what's going on? Why is there a new compartment attached to the habitat?”
“It's a surprise, Grandpa!” Opina said, excitedly. “Put Noma on the transport pad and I'll take care of her while you go over and check it out.”
“Wait, staying with Noma on Monna wasn't the surprise?” I asked and put Noma on the transport pad and Opina whisked her away.
“Nope! That was the distraction!” Monna said and laughed. “Go on! Hurry! My sisters are waiting!”
I left the shuttle bay and went to the computer center, then saw the new doorway on the side. “What's with the barrier?” I asked and walked over to it.
“We didn't want you peeking, silly!” Opina said. “Okay, girls! He's here!”
The barrier dropped and the door opened. Inside was... nothing. It was a completely bare white space. There was nothing on the walls, the floor, or the ceiling.
I stepped inside and the door closed behind me. “What's going on?”
Something flickered in the far corner of the room and a womanly figure dressed in a regal gown appeared there. She walked over to me and I was surprised at how lifelike the hologram was. I also recognized the Presence signature.
“Zoe?” I asked and the woman laughed a reserved and high class laugh.
“I knew you could tell, Grandpa.” Zoe said. “Sisters?”
Six more holograms formed up and I could tell who was who by their chosen avatars.
“I'm not going to ask what this cost to set up.” I said and they all laughed.
“This is also a distraction.” Zoe said. She tried to reach for me and her hand went through mine. “You need to hurry up with your miniaturization technology. We can't create a barrier small enough to simulate a hand.”
I gave her a wide-eyed look and her hand reached up and almost touched my face.
“Until then, we will show you the true surprise. Unfortunately, there's not enough processing power to show us and your present at the same time.” Zoe said and the avatars faded. “Grandpa, we give you... the universe.”
The entire white room went completely dark. Then there was a spark in the middle. Then more and more. Then suddenly it expanded and grew and became larger and wider, then more and more things appeared. I watched, completely fascinated, as stars and then galaxies formed. They swirled and turned in their orbits as the 'universe' expanded out and grew at an exponential rate.
The scale shrank and shrank as the model became larger and larger and its contents moved out from the center. I almost couldn't believe it as the model was populated with planets and moons that were just microdots in the cosmos that was growing in front of me. It kept expanding and the scale kept shrinking until it slowed down... and then it stopped.
“This is where we are right now.” Zoe said and a galaxy blinked, then it grew and showed me the top down view of where we were in that galaxy. “You had given us so much data and then told us to take as much data from everything that we could find to try and give you something like a battle plan.”
The galaxy in front of me had an overlay with shipping routes, ship paths, hyperspace jump coordinates, where settlers landed, and everything else that had been recorded for every planet in the galaxy.
“We could not do it.” Zoe said.
“Until Zoe had an idea.” Hela said. “We were limiting ourselves with the normal galactic map. It was plotted by simple computers and given to us in a flat context in order to maintain the map's integrity. That was its flaw and limitation.”
“Zoe!” I said. “You wanted it to be a three dimensional model!”
“No, Grandpa.” Zoe said. “I wanted it to be a four dimensional model.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Four... oh, my.” I thought as I looked at it and the model added a time dimension. “You added the progression over time.”
“The addition of time gives it a dynamic that normal models cannot compensate for.” Zoe said. “Once we took all of the data from The Order's old computers and added it to our satellite data, which gives us current information on all of the systems they are in, we could easily progress backwards and extrapolate the creation of galaxies, planets, and stars.”
“You found the center of the universe?” I asked, a little wary.
“Yes and no.” Zoe said. “We found the origin point of the initial explosion / detonation / death of the first entity.”
“But...”
“No galaxy, star, or planet is there.” Zoe said. “Relique is not physically in the center of the universe.”
“So, what you're saying is, my hopes of finding the planet where everyone believed it would be, was a faint hope.”
“All sentient beings born on their respective planets believe that their planet is the center of the universe, until they are shown otherwise.” Zoe said. “No one told them or could show the citizens of Relique that they were not at the center of the universe. In fact, they couldn't even be in the center of their own solar system. The mechanics of stellar phenomenon preclude that hypothesis.”
I watched as she zoomed in on the center of the current galaxy and she showed me a massive black hole.
“This is the only thing capable of holding an entire galaxy together by gravity alone.”
I nodded. There really wasn't anything else in the universe that would be strong enough to hold thousands of stars together and stop them from flying off on their own.
“These are the brown dwarf stars in this galaxy.” Zoe said and a flat overlay appeared on 'top' of the galaxy. “This was the problem we had. It told us where they were located; but, it didn't tell us where they were.”
The galaxy turned onto its side and then the overlay dissolved and the brown dwarf stars appeared inside the three dimensional model of the galaxy.
“Now we can see where they are in spacial coordinates in relation to each other, then we added in all the other data, compensating for drift and the time component, since not all ship trips occurred at the same time.”
I caught my breath. “You found records where the brown dwarf systems weren't brown dwarfs!”
“Thank you, Grandpa. I just won a million credits.” Zoe said and several groans were heard.
I had to laugh at that as the brown dwarf stars flickered and a time index between when one record of a normal system was there and when we discovered that it had become a brown dwarf star.
“We found some were already brown dwarfs and they are marked and were excluded in our various calculations, since they could not be quantified in the same respect.”
“Understood.” I said. “What did you discover?”
“In our galaxy? Nothing.” Zoe said. “In the neighbouring galaxy? Nothing.”
“I have a lot of patience, Zoe.” I said. “Don't test it.”
Zoe gave her haughty laugh. “Another hundred thousand credits for me.” She said. “When we compared both galaxies, a certain pattern appeared.”
“I know about them being out of the way systems with almost no populations to speak of.” I said, then the second galaxy model appeared in front of me and it already had all the data marked on it. Then the brown dwarf stars grew in brightness and the other stars faded to a dull white. The models rotated and then stopped when they were in the proper position in space in relation to each other and showed me part of the head of a rabbit.
“Goddammit.” I said. “It's not the same planets as in the data I gave you from Relique, is it?”
“We can't tell.” Zoe admitted. “The only thing we do know is that the patterns are similar to what you described.”
“How many similar images have you discovered after compiling the data of the nearby galaxies?”
“Thirty six.” Zoe said and I cursed. “Grandpa, such language is unbecoming.”
“I'm sorry, Hun.” I said and crossed my arms. “Are the images limited to each galaxy, or are they composites from several galaxies?”
Zoe didn't say anything for a moment.
“Zoe? Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes, Grandpa.” Zoe said, her voice a little subdued. “I was unprepared for your term of endearment.”
“Well, I can't hug you, so I'm stuck with verbal banter. I hope that's okay.”
“Of course.” Zoe said. “Thank you, Grandpa.”
“I'm glad you're not insulted or embarrassed.” I said. “So, did you find the rest of the rabbit image?”
The galaxies in front of me faded and the universe turned and rotated in place, then all of the currently known brown stars appeared. The images they extrapolated appeared and lines joined them together. The rabbit was highlighted.
“It definitely looks pretty close to one of the images we found on the portal map of Relique.” I said, then had a weird idea. “Given the state of the current brown dwarf systems, and adjusting for drift over time and the constant expansion of the universe, can the images from Relique be made with these brown dwarf stars?”
The universe shifted slightly and the rabbit was fully formed right in front of my eyes.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay.” I said. “We know the distance I travelled between each portal and using the map, can you model the entire planet of Relique and add the portal locations on it?”
The planet appeared right in front of me and I stared at it.
“All right. If we assume that since Relique was the central target of that rogue goddess, it had to be the center of the portal attacks.” I said. “It shouldn't matter how far away that the brown dwarf stars are from the planet if they are in the same pattern on the planet.”
“Grandpa.” Zoe said, her voice almost a whisper. “Since we proved that the patterns around the planet are the same as they are in space when regressed in time, then they can all be traced back to the planet.”
I nodded. “In order for the images to be the same, they would have to have the planet in the very center.” I said. “Zoe, draw lines between the images in the universe and connect them to each other.”
The lines appeared and seemed to make an almost circular pattern. It wasn't anywhere near the center of the universe.
“Now draw tangent lines from a single star in each picture towards the center of the pattern for me.” I said and the lines went kind of haphazardly as they criss-crossed. No clear center could be found. “Now, add in the Relique planetary model near the congregation of those lines and match the portal to the stars in the pattern.”
The lines shifted and pointed towards the center.
“Reduce the scale of the planet model to an appropriate planetary size.” I said and the planet disappeared while the lines remained the same. “Add in the other stars and draw lines between the stars and the portal locations to finish the patterns out to the other side of the sphere.”
All the lines appeared and a center point could clearly be seen.
“Mark the position and return the universe model to the current state.”
The planet was inside a galaxy and it had moved off a significant distance with an arrow pointing at it.
“Wow.” I said. “We just found Relique.”
“Grandpa, it is very far away.” Zoe said. “Almost too far for current technology to reach without bringing significant replacement parts and self-sustaining food sources.”
“How many years did that current shift add to the planetary model?” I asked, fearing the answer.
“Just over twelve hundred.” Zoe said.
I sighed and nodded. “How long would the trip be, if we loaded everything we needed onto a ship and headed there?”
“If you had a ship large enough with the same speed upgrades as we have, with enough people to survive the trip and with having most of the life support, environmental capacity, food growth, and spare parts storage taking over most of the ship, then it is possible to reach it in a hundred and fifty years.” Zoe said. “Give or take ten years for repairs, maintenance, and rest stops at compatible planets.”
“So, not a viable option right now.” I said. “Save the data and keep it in priority data storage, please.”
“That is with current technology.” Zoe said. “If you continue with your miniaturization project, it is possible to take a much smaller ship.”
“I won't be miniaturizing reactor cores.” I said. “That would defeat their longevity and usefulness.”
“Only the main ship operating machinery and components need to be smaller, as well as the computers, data processing nodes and memory blocks.”
“That's going to take years to complete and at the moment, we have another problem.” I said.
“Yes.” Zoe said and highlighted all the other brown dwarf stars that didn't match the patterns on the planet. “They are not in the same positions and do not lead to anything, even using your extrapolation technique.”
The model changed and the stars accounted for disappeared and all that remained were the ones we couldn't connect to any kind of central focus. Zoe connected them together and it was only a quarter of a sphere, which wasn't anywhere near enough of a sample size to find out where they pointed. That was also assuming they pointed to a planet in the first place.
“Well, I guess we'll keep on going until we figure this out.” I said and then smiled. “Thank you very much, all of you. This is a great gift.”
I turned and started to walk towards the door.
“Grandpa.” Lidia's sweet voice cut through the silence. “There's one more thing you should see.”
I turned to look back at the model and another arrow appeared. I walked over to it and saw that it pointed to a spiral galaxy that was way off to the side of the holographic model. Not surprisingly, it was a lot farther away from our current location than Relique was.
“What is it?” I asked, genuinely curious, then I heard something that gave me a real surprise.
“It's Earth.” Lidia said.