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Authors: Andrew Busey
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screen, which would show them a two-dimensional version of what Thomas would experience in virtual reality.
Thomas put the helmet on and adjusted its volume.
Now that they had gotten the first diamond storage system connected, they were able to progress much farther into the future. They still needed more storage, a problem Thomas hoped would be solved by the synthetic diamonds, but at least they could continue now, probably for a few million years.
Thomas blinked in the darkness and asked, “How far into its life has the universe processed so far?”
Jenn said, “Year eight hundred thousand.”
“OK. Start me at three hundred thousand.”
He heard Jenn type and then the amber readout displayed:
SU Time: +300,000 Years
Again, Thomas started outside the universe, but this time, it filled his entire field of vision. It was vastly larger than before. He zoomed in through the outer barrier, and immediately, a thundering bass blasted his eardrums and pounded through his head.
“Ahhh!” he screamed and fumbled with the helmet’s volume knob. “Kill the sound! Kill the damn sound!”
The sound stopped, but sharp pains throbbed in his ears, like echoes. He thought for a second that the blasts had completely and permanently deafened him, but then he heard himself breathing.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“Interesting,” Ajay said.
“Yeah, so interesting I’m almost deaf. Let’s try to manage that better next time. Like maybe slowly phase in the sound.”
“Sorry,” Jenn said. “I’ll do that from now on.”
“Just a moment,” Ajay said dismissively. “This might be important.”
While he waited for Ajay, Thomas moved his joystick and looked around. It was like he was in a dense fogbank. He almost expected the outline of the Golden Gate Bridge to emerge any moment.
Ajay said, “Quit looking around so much. Our screen is mostly a blur.”
Thomas ignored Ajay and propelled himself forward through the fog.
“It’s making me dizzy. Slow down.”
Thomas said, “Look away for now, then. You’ll get your chance to explore, too.”
As he flew through the fog, he periodically saw small eddies where the gas was subtly beginning to collapse. These, he knew, would eventually become embryonic galaxies.
Occasional ripples flowed through the fog, causing it to shift erratically. Thomas thought it strange that the ripples seemed to come from random directions. He wasn’t sure what they were, but it seemed logical that they—perhaps reverberations from the big bang—should emanate from the universe’s center instead.
“I think I know what that sound was,” Ajay said.
“Well?”
“That fog you are in is ionized gases and photons. It is clumped because the big bang caused quantum fluctuations that exploded out through space and formed what are apparently random denser clusters. Each clump tends to accrete as its burgeoning gravitational well pulls in even more gases. As this happens, the photons try to escape and create pressures that periodically erupt and send huge sound waves rippling across the universe.”
“Yeah, those were some pretty serious sound waves.”
“They are so intense that they influence the way galaxies are clustered. They pushed matter together in different ways.”
Then, in the blink of an eye, Thomas stepped one hundred thousand years ahead.
SU Time: +400,000 Years
It looked almost the same, but now he could make out more. The early fog of the universe had begun to clear and matter had further clumped into high-density regions, protogalaxies. The strangest thing he saw was that these budding galaxies were connected by eerie filaments that were barely visible at this scale. As he studied them, he realized what they reminded him of—a spider web—which made the yet-to-be-born galaxies appear as morning dew, glistening at the intersections.
“It’s beautiful,” Lisa said, watching the image on the large LCD display. “Let me put the helmet
Thomas put the helmet on and adjusted its volume.
Now that they had gotten the first diamond storage system connected, they were able to progress much farther into the future. They still needed more storage, a problem Thomas hoped would be solved by the synthetic diamonds, but at least they could continue now, probably for a few million years.
Thomas blinked in the darkness and asked, “How far into its life has the universe processed so far?”
Jenn said, “Year eight hundred thousand.”
“OK. Start me at three hundred thousand.”
He heard Jenn type and then the amber readout displayed:
SU Time: +300,000 Years
Again, Thomas started outside the universe, but this time, it filled his entire field of vision. It was vastly larger than before. He zoomed in through the outer barrier, and immediately, a thundering bass blasted his eardrums and pounded through his head.
“Ahhh!” he screamed and fumbled with the helmet’s volume knob. “Kill the sound! Kill the damn sound!”
The sound stopped, but sharp pains throbbed in his ears, like echoes. He thought for a second that the blasts had completely and permanently deafened him, but then he heard himself breathing.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“Interesting,” Ajay said.
“Yeah, so interesting I’m almost deaf. Let’s try to manage that better next time. Like maybe slowly phase in the sound.”
“Sorry,” Jenn said. “I’ll do that from now on.”
“Just a moment,” Ajay said dismissively. “This might be important.”
While he waited for Ajay, Thomas moved his joystick and looked around. It was like he was in a dense fogbank. He almost expected the outline of the Golden Gate Bridge to emerge any moment.
Ajay said, “Quit looking around so much. Our screen is mostly a blur.”
Thomas ignored Ajay and propelled himself forward through the fog.
“It’s making me dizzy. Slow down.”
Thomas said, “Look away for now, then. You’ll get your chance to explore, too.”
As he flew through the fog, he periodically saw small eddies where the gas was subtly beginning to collapse. These, he knew, would eventually become embryonic galaxies.
Occasional ripples flowed through the fog, causing it to shift erratically. Thomas thought it strange that the ripples seemed to come from random directions. He wasn’t sure what they were, but it seemed logical that they—perhaps reverberations from the big bang—should emanate from the universe’s center instead.
“I think I know what that sound was,” Ajay said.
“Well?”
“That fog you are in is ionized gases and photons. It is clumped because the big bang caused quantum fluctuations that exploded out through space and formed what are apparently random denser clusters. Each clump tends to accrete as its burgeoning gravitational well pulls in even more gases. As this happens, the photons try to escape and create pressures that periodically erupt and send huge sound waves rippling across the universe.”
“Yeah, those were some pretty serious sound waves.”
“They are so intense that they influence the way galaxies are clustered. They pushed matter together in different ways.”
Then, in the blink of an eye, Thomas stepped one hundred thousand years ahead.
SU Time: +400,000 Years
It looked almost the same, but now he could make out more. The early fog of the universe had begun to clear and matter had further clumped into high-density regions, protogalaxies. The strangest thing he saw was that these budding galaxies were connected by eerie filaments that were barely visible at this scale. As he studied them, he realized what they reminded him of—a spider web—which made the yet-to-be-born galaxies appear as morning dew, glistening at the intersections.
“It’s beautiful,” Lisa said, watching the image on the large LCD display. “Let me put the helmet
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