Sidereal Journey is the story of a race of beings driven into exile by the
threat of a black hole which is about to engulf their planet. Left with no
choice they set off to find another home, somewhere in the unknown
universe...
1. A Black hole is swallowing the sun... 1:18
2. They learned of it's existence... 1:41
3. For persistence... 2:25
4. Bringer of obliteration... 0:37
5. Into nowhere... 0:58
6. For persistence... 0:39
7. So it's our final hour... 1:17
8. The light from the perishing sun... 2:30
9. Ahead - the universe! 0:38
10. No longer will we be the meek ones... 1:21
11. How could we ever know... 1:23
12. Head for that star... 1:08
13. As one surveys this ocean... 2:24
14. The iondrive a silent vibration 1:31
15. Several planets in orbit... 1:08
16. Enemies!? 0:57
17. Once more proven - we are not alone 1:06
18. Lightspeed - plunge into hyperspace 0:38
19. No clue to where this jump is taking them... 1:59
20. Breathless... 0:31
21. Turning up the power, accelerating again... 0:53
22. This time passage was violent... 1:18
23. Rings, spread like rippled water... 1:20
24. They stare unblinking... 1:08
25. Eternal night... 1:10
26. How many worlds... 0:52
27. These beings failed and perished... 1:08
28. Ahead once more... 0:59
29. This journey has taken us... 0:51
30. The Moon was laid in orbit... 1:14
31. Can this be what we hope for... 1:02
32. Terraform - alter the environment 1:23
33. And so one day the sleepers waken... 2:10
"A Black hole is swallowing the sun..."
Their world was ending.
Stars foretell dismal tidings - erupting then subsiding.
A cosmic prank? A virtual cataclysm!
Distant beacons gasp and die, stars that burst and tremble,
before our eyes the heavens crumble to the beast.
[Into their solarsystem a black hole was moving, a gravitational well -
a thing so powerful even photons couldn't escape it's grasp. Devouring every
atom in it's path it crept ominously in from the stellar depths, leaving
a trail of utter emptiness behind.]
They learned of it's existence through a nearby novaburst - a beast was coming their way,
drinking stars to slake its thirst. Disturbing the gravitational bonds that bind the worlds.
"Destiny... Bright future, you're nowhere to be seen,
and where do we go from this point on - our world abruptly ended.
Destiny, destiny - abruptly ended.
Is the fate of our kind to be exiled and forever be the homeless ones?"
[Realising their sun was in the path of the destructive mass abd subject
to inevitable and immediate annihilation, the structure of their
civilisation was shaken. But their kind were not inclined to emotional
extremes - a species ofinvertebrates, their blood as cold as the
continental swamps from which they'd risen. Soon they set their collective
mind on a single task - the survival of their race, and to this end - the
migration from the homeworld. All resources were directed to a immense
project, the c onstruction of an enormous vessel capable of carrying a
vast number of them onto a journey of unknown proportion...]
"For persistence of existence and the future of our kind,
breaking up from all we know of and the doomed ones left behind."
Invincible - moving in from the void.
Insatiable - solarsystems destroyed.
Undisturbed for billions of years seven planets thread their dance in circles,
'round and F-type star, their blazing mother - by the dark intruder all is squandered!
[While their nemesis loomed ever closer to impose its cataclysmic force
upon them, one of the small moons circling the planet was being excavated
and remodeled to function as a gargantuan spaceship. Vast chambers were
prepared to hold the millions of spe cimen representing every known
species of their world. Scouts were sent out to collect everything from
the small insectoid creatures at the bottom of the foodchain to the giant
carnivorous slugs that ruled tha arctic swamps. As many as time permitted
of the indigenous forms of life would be brought along in the migration.
If possible, the complete environment would be present if the opportunity
occurred to recreate it someplace else, were they to succeed in finding a
world in the proper stage of evolution - with the right atmospheric
conditions, fertile, yet still empty of life... Shuttles went back and
forth, back and forth, constructionworkers, machineengineers and
biologists worked endlessly, slowly the project began taking shape.
Destruction crept ever closer...]
Bringer of obliteration - inigmatic monster.
Flee from what can not be fought, forced into migration.
Powerless, pitiful - it's inevitable.
"Into nowhere - regionsbeyond knowledge, regions of mystery.
Leaving behind millions of us, left without hope - dying.
Always in our minds they live on."
"...so farewell, and don't look back, just make our kind live on!"
[As that last message was received, the mighty engines that were anchored
deep into the surface of the Moon started tugging it away from the
motherworld. Slowly, resisted by the inertia of the Moons enormous mass,
it accelerated out through the planetsys tem and away at an angle from
the sinister black hole, now already eating the outer planets.]
"For persistence of existence and the future of our kind,
breaking up from all we know of and the doomed ones left behind."
[Influenced by the force of the intruders overpowering gravity, the very
rotation of the planet was disturbed, and the order of a billion years was
broken. Drawn from its natural orbit its surface was put into a state of
total chaos. Huge tidal waves swe pt around the globe and storms of
unpredecessed fury erased most life on the planet in an unstoppable
onslaught. A world once full of life suddenly lain in ruins, sons
of evolution terminated in a few excruciating moments...]
"So it's our final hours, the world is trembling now,
a strange vibration through us, tells it's time to go."
In roaring protest oceans heave and strike upon the land,
and mountains crumble under forces out of hand.
Their destiny - obliteration?
Their legacy - a new creation?
The light from the perishing sun, erupting behind,
a beacon so blindingly brilliant - a luminous tombstone.
Gaining velocity now away from the squalor,
a desperate quest has begun - their exodus.
Travelling to new horizons, in hope of a future - their exodus.
Environmental evolution, life in balanced distribution -
eons mold the species, until everything connects...
Can life be recreated, can the pieces of a broken world ever be rejoined?
[Heading for a cluster of fairly mature F- and G-type stars in the
direction out from the galaxys center, they calculated their chances to
find a habitable planet about one out of a hundred. Still this was the
best choice they had, the surrounding cubic kiloparsecs of space mainly
occupied by blazing stars of the blue-white O- and B-type, too young and
hot to nourish life. Still - should they ever reach their destination, the
question still remained - could they ever succeed in rebuilding what took
nature a billion years to form?]
Their destiny - obliteration?
Their legacy - a new creation?
[Not inclined for sentimental throughts, they set their mind on letting
the past be past and adapting to their new existence - a race of cosmic
wanderers, explorers of unseen lands...]
"Ahead - the universe!
Our offspring shall be a new breed of conquerors, coming in at lightspeed.
And future revelations, the worlds that lie ahead, will shape to the purpose of our presence."
"No longer will we be the meek ones, we are prepared for war!"
Way back in ancient history something occurred that still haunts their memory.
Out of the sky aliens descended, - their placid lives were turned into enslavement.
A vile breed of merciless predators, cold intellect, evil and superior,
their arrival struck like a meteor - within a breath the world was in a stupor.
Imagination revealed to be exceeded by the truth,
now alien monsters wreacing havoc in their midst,
enslaving those unfortunate abducted to a horrid fate.
"How could we ever know the terror that was coming? Indeed - we were naïvely meek, but now our creed is altered."
...and in the blast of roaring engines all was lost.
Lost but now broken - that which is ruined can be built once more.
[In the present the usurpers were long gone, vanished into space as
suddenly as they'd come...]
"But somewhere out there, lurking still the enemy - we must prepare!
We will be armored with fury, the craving for vengeance within our hearts..."
"Head for that star, it's not far - measured in galactic terms,
leave the old sun going nova astern.
Go where noone's gone before...
[So out into the great expanse of interstellar space they set forth,
treading the enormous distance between their own, dying sun and their
galactic neighbors. They knew little about spacetravel and were not even
sure that they would ever succeed in reaching their destination. However,
they felt pride in having achieved the first part of "the purpose", in
escaping the cataclysm that engulfed their planet, and saving specimens of
virtually every known form of life, now kept for unknown time in the
hiberna tionchambers deep inside the moonlet. Through optical instruments
and on electronic screens they observed the surrounding emptiness from the
controlrooms, suppressing the feeling of utter loneliness in the
desolation of the cosmic waters...]
"As one surveys this ocean - vast and cold, will we reach across to that distant shore?
Pinpoints of light - the billion suns that shine like beacons from afar...
Strange, silent universe - forlorn, ever silent universe.
Eternal universe - this dark, never ending universe.
Mysterious universe - bright, shimmering, iridescent universe."
Pursueing the quest for a new hope, their future a straw for which they grope...
The iondrive a silent vibration through the itinerant Moon, a world asleep within its womb,
a starship ever accelerating, engines thrusting full, approaching lightspeed - powerful.
Instruments set to compensate if anomalies were to occur,
the fabric of space is twisted.
Mass and inertia fluctuates when close to the speed of light
the laws of physics shifted.
[In front of the helpless navigationteam the instruments suddenly gave a
startling pulse of erratic measures, an all-systems-fail-situation was
evolving within a few moments. Left with nothing to judge from but simple
eyevision they hurried to the obser vationports, just in time to watch the
surrounding starscape getting blurred and distorted, as if travelling at
impossible speed. Then suddenly, with a tremor through the Moon, blank
screens came to life again...]
...several planets in orbit, bathed in the warmth of a sun -
friendly and welcoming, just like a miracle strangelyappeared.
"Wonders occur beyond reason - maybe this journey will end
sooner than dreamed of, defying the possible fate that we feared."
[For a time there was some excitement among the crew, obviously the ship
had slipped through a wormhole, to appear from hyperspace into a unknown
region. Now they had absolutely no idea of their position, but the planets
circling the yellow star in front of them might prove to be just what they
set out to find. Still, they had to be cautious...]
Enemies!?
Gazing at the second planet from the sun, green and blue at the equator.
No doubt - there is life down there that flourishes and grows,
have they stumbled on the homeworld of their ill-remembered foe?
[A number of probes were send out for a rendezvous with the planet,
equipped with surveyingdevices of every kind. Meanwhile, they kept the
Moon falling inwards the sun on a course that would imply it was just one
of the millions of asteroids scattered throughout the system. Scrutinizing
the planet, the probes stealthily moved into orbit, sending back visual
information that seemed to justify their fears: huge cities spread out for
miles and miles, pushing back the lush jungles that covered most continents.]
"Once more proven - we are not alone. Another world below - we must go on...
[...we are not alone, There... way below, must go on.]"
[It was obvious this was a highly developed civilization, probably
technologically more advanced than was their own. There was no way of
telling if this was really the home of the race that had once raided them,
the probes had no means of distinguishing such detail from the surface.
However they deemed it improbable, judging from the type of architecture
and vessels detected. In any circumstance this was not a place to fit
their purpose - already evolved with its own fauna and flora,
and much too crowded.]
"There is no room for us here - our quest goes on..."
Lightspeed - plunge into hyperspace...
Wormholes - moving at dreamlike pace.
[Once again entering that mysterious other dimension, the universe faded.
Outside the ship there was only blackness and occasional streaks of purple
light. This time the passage lasted a long time. Were they would end up
they had no way of telling...]
No clue to where this jump is taking them, no instruments respond.
They might end up across the galaxy, or in the void beyond.
[Time passed inside the ship, the universe outside seemed to have
vanished. Outside the portholes there was nothing, just an empenetrable
grayish, metallic glow. First Navigator began to fear they had left the
material universe. The strange medium outside implied that they were no
longer moving - could they have entered an "exit" from the universe they
knew? Unfortunately, little was known in the science of such matters.
First Navigator didn't want to express his apprehension, under pressure of
the reliance from the team. So they waited, patiently watching the
inactive screens... And so, after a long, ominous silence, a faint
vibration was felt. The gray un-matter gave way to the purple-bluish
streaks of light they had experienced previously. A distorted image
of a spiralgalaxy could be seen floating by, a bluish glow, a feeling
of queasiness. Suddenly they were back in real space...]
The strangest paths they travel, strayed from the original design.
No way of knowing whether fate will be obnoxious or benign.
[Receiving data again, they set to the task of readjusting the plan to the
new environment. They had found themselves in a region of young, white
stars surrounded by dense sheets of green nebulosity. Within these clouds
of matter, hundreds of parsecs across, they knew that new stars were
being formed. Composed mostly of hydrogen and nitrogen, the gas was
getting denser in certain inner regions, swirling and contractinghad once
been created, stars were being born right in front of them. The light was
brilliant, the space alive with colors reflected from the monumental
gaspillars around them. Awed by the beauty of it all, they watched in
silence.]
Breathless...
[Immense, unfathomable in its splendor the view filled them with feelings
of insignificance and tranciency, their ship nothing but a microscopic
speck of dust drifting through this vast chamber of stars. A billion years
from now, when the very memory of their existence would be long and ever
gone, these stars that burned so furiously white would still be young and
powerful. Some of them would eventually form their own family of planets
where might one day rise another race of beings, perhaps much like
themselves but oblivious to the memory of the sleeping world that
once soared past their newborn sun...]
Turning up the power, accelerating again - this place is not is not what they are searching for.
Beautiful but barren, radiation burned - too young for life.
Find another wormhole, warping dimensions again - this place is not is not what they are searching for.
Enigmatic passage, network of secret ways - mysterious tunnel.
No clue to where this jump is taking them - no instruments respond.
They might end up across the galaxy, or in the void beyond.
This time passage was violent, rocking their very foundations.
Pounding like hammers, piercing like spears, hurled to their new destination.
Spinning mindlessly, beating them breathless and wailing.
Grinding relentlessly, warlike the sea they were sailing!
[A tremendous force battered the Moon, tearing at the structure of the
engines on the surface, shattering the fragile ionizers that fueled the
driveunits. A nauseating disturbance of the space-time continuity made
them lose all sense of reality, flung to the walls they cringed in terror,
bleeding and vomiting. Glaring lights moved through the chambers, shifting
shape, pulsating irregularly, entities of pure energy examining the alien
element the Moon constituted in their unworldly realm. Finally, culmin
ating in a deafening roar of turbulent powers outside the light-beings
moved away, leaving them in sudden stillness. Shaken and subdued they
came to their senses, turning to the screens...]
Rings, spread like rippled water, fleeting...
the portal closing whence we came, vanishing like a mirage.
One step from extinction - the remainders of a world,
flee the threat of oblivion on a path of no return.
Irretrievably lost, destination unknown - blindly wandering, forever..?
They stare unblinking, without emotion, cold eyes that witness our demise - the stars.
"Lead us now, minds of cosmos, bring an end to our despair..."
Faintly - a crescent, outlined against the glowing halo of the galaxy.
[They had found themselves in a region void of stars, somewhat above and
outside the galactic disc. Dropping out of hyperspace obviously occured
when entering the gravityfield of an object in the immediate path, so they
reasoned. Therefor they were confused by the emptiness of space around
them, until they spotted the dark globe lit only by the backdrop of the
distant stars.]
Eternal night [...this world a graveyard],
an island remote [...an eerie, lonely outpost],
no warmth, no light [...dead, frozen ghostland],
corpses alone [...inhabit the cities embedded in ice].
A shadowempire - a planet fallen from grace,
dark, frozen ghostland - death rules this haunted place.
[There was no way of knowing how old this civilization was.
At a temperature just slightly above absolute zero it could have been
preserved for aeons in its present state. Obviously this planet had
strayed from the orbit around its sun, probably influenc ed by an object
of considerable mass, which gravitypull had made it wander off into
space... Now completely static, affected neither by tide nor time,
it would remain a tombstone until the end of the universe.]
How many worlds did strive for consciousness but failed, as a capricious
fate decides to bring it down again? How many worlds will rise and climb
the narrow ladder through countless years of evolution, all in vain?
Eternal night [...this world a graveyard],
no warmth no light [...dead, frozen ghostland].
[There was a certain uncanny resemblance in what these creatures had
suffered and their own situation. They braced themselves and turned away...]
"These beings failed and perished, we will be stronger!
Let's leave this dismal graveyard and brood no longer."
[Beginning to understand the basics of spacetravel, analysing the data
from the previous jumps they set their minds to the task of finding a
suitable star, which could be reached without interference from objects in
the way. An orange K-type star some te n parsecs away was judged a likely
host to a family of planets. The course was set, acceleration was begun to
full capacity - the iondrive taking fuel from the sparse substance of
space. This time they felt a hint of anticipation as they made the jump -
could this be the star from which the dead planet had once sprung? Its
motion leemed to imply something of this signification...]
[Carefully planning the jump this time, measuring the surrounding space
for aberrations of any kind, taking time to make calculations, the trip
was over almost before they knew it. In front of them burned the K-type
star they had aimed for, soon found to be orbited by at least a dozen
planets, of which three seemed possible targets for their colonization.
They found a gap in the succession of orbiting worlds, which might have
been the result of a planet gone artray...]
"Ahead once more, the darkest sea we sail,
where noone's gone before, this time we shall prevail."
The Journey has taken us through perils, and despair
finally reaching what we hoped to find somewhere.
[The innermost planet in the system was small, burned and to no use for
their purposes. Second there was a bluish gasgiant of enormous size, which
in itself was no object of their attention, but one of its moons was a
world of atmosphere and oceans. Outside the gasgiant there was a gap where
they believed the strayed planet had once orbited, then a rather small
planet, which showed signs of having evolved life on a primitive level.
Fourth in succession was a frostbitten world with a thin atmosphere,
a bit too cold for their liking but with large deposits of ice in the
polarregions, which made it interesting. Now there was great excitement
among the crew. Of the three alternatives, the second was the one they
decided to focus on. Preparations were made to make a closer inspection,
geologists and biologists were awakened from the hibernationchambers, an
explor ationteam was designated and a vessel prepared to shuttle them
down to the planets surface...]
The Moon was laid in orbit around the newfound world, the team was ready to descend.
Tense with expectancy leaving the Moons interior - their apprehensions at an end?
The shuttles engines roaring as they set down on a hill overlooking a swelling ocean...
[Clad in protective suits and equipped with instruments for taking samples
of rock, soil and water they stepped out on the windswept hill above the
shore... It was late day, a cold autumn rain was drumming on the shuttles
metal hull. A storm was coming in from the east, ominous clouds gathering
out over the sea. There was a certain alien quality to the light and the
color of the sky, the surrounding landscap e a barren, dreary wasteland.
Trying to ignore the feeling of unease they set to their tasks, walking
down to the oceanshore...]
Can this be what we hope for, where to build our future?
Harsh and rugged, unwelcoming, cold, benighted land.
In the midst of this desolation so much greater our loss,
all the beauty that was squandered, oh - our unkind fate!
[Hostile as it seemed the planet was promising in many aspects.
The atmosphere proved to be much like their own, almost breathable.
The oceans consisted of water, though rich in some elements toxic to them
but nonetheless possible to transform by introdu cing chemicalproducing
bacteria. There was primitive life, a bluish slime covered the cliffs
along the shore, but not in any form that would cause any trouble to the
terraforming processes. All in all, the expedition proved the planet
to be a compatible future host for the thousands of lifeforms they brought
along. Basically satisfied with what they had learned the team returned
to the shuttle, the thunder of its engines drowning in the storm
as they lifted off.]
Terraform - alter the environment - creative power,
this world must bend to our needs, its destiny mould to ours.
Time is on our side, above the sleepers bide.
It will take years, centuries or more, to build the world we lost anew
and though we've come a long way there's far to go, this is the beginning...
And so one day the sleepers waken, fulfilling the glorious dream.
Into the future the path leads on...
More Sidereal journey
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