Sumeru - 3. Chapter 3

The Globe, New York, August 9, 2068

A new era in spaceflight began on August 8, 2068, when spaceship Shiva took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The interstellar spaceship is headed for the star system X104 close to the galactic center, approximately 25,000 light years from Earth. The calculated flight time to the edge of the star system is five months. The crew will investigate the far off star system and then proceed to exoplanet X104C, a possible twin Earth.

Spaceship Shiva is currently on its way to the edge of our solar system where the warp drive will be initiated. The ship has passed by Jupiter. Transmissions from the spaceship are not delayed due to the new quantum communication system. Commander Ross reported that all systems function properly and the crew are well. The men look forward to exploring the new world. They are proud to open mankind the door to interstellar space.

Commander John Ross is responsible for the overall mission success as well as the safety of the ship and the crew. Pilot Dan Wesley assists the commander in maneuvering the spacecraft. Flight Engineer Pete Crop is a Mission Specialist with additional responsibility of assisting the Pilot and Commander. PLC James McKinsey and PLC Rob Kendrick are Mission Specialists with additional responsibility of the science. James McKinsey is a physician and biologist, Rob Kendrick has linguistics, sociology and anthropology degrees.

From the Indragatha:
Sail Your Ship With Care

Beware, my king, and be on guard
Don’t follow the ways of the Asuras
What goes up must come down
Watch and sail your ship with care

Touchdown
February 4, 2069

The ship touched down on the well-preserved runway. The tarmac had resisted the lush vegetation, bushes and trees of a saturated green. The air was humid. Water vapor and wafts of mist dimmed the light of the sun. It was an hour after dawn, but the place had an aura of twilight.

“Touch-down completed. Ship came to a halt,” pilot Dan Wesley said.

“Report to ground control Earth. Ship landed on Mount Meru. This world is real,” Commander Ross said.

Commander John Ross didn’t particularly care about the name of the planet. He was more interested in the space mission itself. The mission was a gigantic leap of humankind into space and a tremendous success. They had detected the remnants of an alien civilization. The men were excited, naturally, but John, responsible for the ship and the crew, proceeded with caution.

He worried briefly. They had assured him that time dilation was not an issue, and in fact so far they had not had any difficulties with the communication system. The space crease technology functioned and worked properly. Messages were sent to Earth and received from ground control Earth with almost no time delay. Briefly, however, John wondered how many years had gone by on Earth and if ground control Earth had received their message.

At this moment, a message came in. Mission control replied: Good morning, commander. Well done. We are waiting for news.

Flight engineer Pete Crop confirmed the message from Earth.

Then there was a silence. The flight crew looked out of the cockpit window, each of them absorbed in thoughts. It was an outstanding moment. They had landed on an exoplanet, a habitable planet, a second Earth.

“I think we ought to get off the ship and explore,” James McKinsey, the biologist, said.

“We must first scan the area,” John replied. “Deep scan,” he ordered. “And check the data and all values again. I don’t want to get off the ship after months in space and land on a planet that is 25,000 light years from home, and then suffocate because I did no re-check on the contents of the air.”

“This is clearly a runway. This civilization had aircraft,” Rob Kendrick, the sociologist, said. “It doesn’t look ruined. The material did not decay. It’s not a natural material. It’s surely artificial.”

“They had spacecraft,” Dan said. “The Dyson ring around the sun. An advanced civilization built it. This runway was peanuts to them. I wonder what has become of them.”

“I’d say from the images of the Dyson ring that the objects were left to themselves a long time ago,” Pete said. “The ship’s sensors detected no activities. This technology made use of the energy of the sun. The ship’s sensors would have detected any signals, if the objects emitted ones. Nothing. The objects are dead.”

“I would say the civilization was very advanced,” Rob said. “We would not be capable of building a Dyson ring.”

“We cannot build a Dyson ring yet and implement the objects in an orbit around the sun, but we can at least build energy collectors,” Pete said.

“The air is breathable,” James said. “What about wildlife?”

“Nothing big in the immediate surroundings,” Dan said. “But the sensors are getting signals, signs of life, definitely. The computer interprets the signals as bird song.”

“Birds singing in the morning,” Pete said. “Hey, what a surprise. Would you have thought to find birds 25,000 light years from home?”

“I said the computer interprets the signals as bird song. It’s the closest match it could find. Maybe it’s a group of alien bugs chirping a song,” Dan replied.

“Patience. We won’t get off the ship before completing a deep scan of the area and careful analysis of the data. Run your check lists, men,” John commanded.

The men set to work. They focused on the data and only now and then raised their eyes and looked out of the window.

Three hours passed by.

They had sent several data packages and a brief report to ground control Earth an hour ago. John wondered why ground control Earth had not replied.

“Check on the communication system, Pete,” John said.

The flight engineer gave him a puzzled look but then performed a quick check.

“Everything’s all right,” he said. “Why, John?”

“I wondered why ground control Earth has not confirmed the data package,” John said.

“Too busy to reply. Eagerly studying the data,” Dan said.

“John’s right,” Pete said. “They haven’t confirmed our message. Did our transmission get lost in space? I can’t find a computer failure or malfunction. ”

John looked out of the window thoughtfully.

Sumeru
The Mythical Home of the Gods

From the Indragatha:
Mount Meru

In the center of the world, Mount Meru
Heavenly abode of the gods
Suns and stars revolve around Sumeru
Bowing to the seat of the gods

Sumeru, a gigantic space hub, seven times the size of Jupiter, built by the oldest race of the universe two billion years ago and located in a star cluster close to the galactic center of the Milky Way, was home to more than 100 space-faring species and more than 500 billion individuals. The megastructure was protected by advanced shields that perfectly hid the hourglass-shaped space station and reflected to less advanced sensors the perfectly real impression of a gigantic gas planet.

Sumeru orbited a yellow dwarf in a relatively young star system that had formed in a cluster four billion years ago and was surrounded by star formations which had long reached old age and where many stars had long ceased to be or had long turned into dying red dwarfs. Many species had settled in these star systems in the old age and had migrated to Sumeru when the time of the death of their sun had come.

Sumeru wasn’t the only megastructure but it was by far the biggest and oldest. Many space hubs had been built over the ages, most of them close to the center of the galaxy and all in touch and connected with Sumeru. Sumeru was the central hub, the main center where all decisions regarding the inhabited space sectors were taken.

The galaxy had been divided into sectors and each sector had been carefully investigated and cataloged. The entire Milky Way had been explored and mapped, earliest the center galaxies, then the galaxies farther out. The information was continually updated. Interstellar spaceflight and communication at vast distances had long ceased to be a challenge for the galactic center civilizations. These civilizations had reached an inconceivably sophisticated technological level when the Earth was still young and the Moon had just formed. Sumeru was built when bacteria on Earth began producing oxygen.

Sumeru had seen many civilizations in space come and go. The majority of civilizations didn’t last long. They sprang up and went down and they mostly ruined themselves. Most lasted only the blink of an eye from Sumeru’s point of view. Sumeru seldom intervened. They usually just watched the rise and fall of the civilizations with only the mildest of interest. Only at times, when a civilization, one that had reached a sophisticated technological level and was considered valuable to the galaxy, faced extinction due to natural forces, a jet stream or a supernova explosion for instance, and had not yet developed the means to fight off the destruction, Sumeru intervened and offered migration to one of their space hubs. It happened rarely, but now and then it did. On the other hand, when a civilization reached a sophisticated technological level, set out to conquer space and became a real threat to the galaxy because of evil intents and deep-rooted wicked personality traits, then Sumeru considered extermination of the civilization. It had happened only four times in the long history of Sumeru, because usually these civilizations exterminated themselves.

The Meeting of the Gods - The Annual Council

The annual conference was held on Sumeru. Diplomats and representatives of the various species gathered, many came to Sumeru from other space hubs. A few individuals came from a planet in an outer sector of the galaxy.

None of the center civilizations settled on a planet. While many species had migrated to other planets after their planet of origin had gone down or become inhabitable in the old age, this behavior had long stopped. Space stations, no matter how gigantic they were, could be more easily controlled than a natural planet that was subdued to natural forces which in essence could all be controlled but at times could not be predicted and at times got out of control. The space hubs, however, were part of a sophisticated safety and defense net. They could be moved, if necessary, but the center civilizations usually preferred to fight off the threat from space, which they managed with ease, since they had seen each and every threat from space so many times in their billions years long history, that they had long perfected their systems and means.

The species on the planet in the outer sector of the galaxy had joined Sumeru only 5,000 years ago, when a Sumeru team, an Asuras group, had detected them on a mining operation. The mining team had been unable to erect their stations, one on the planet, one on a platform orbiting the planet, and one on the outmost planet of the star system as a way station to Sumeru, as they usually did, because the inhabitants of the planet formed a world alliance in the briefest of time in order to fight off the Asuras and they were surprisingly effective at it. Sumeru would not have bothered to invite the species to join Sumeru, had the species not sent an all-world, as they called it, representative to enter negotiations. This man had thoroughly surprised the Sumerians, because his words were so thoughtful, his knowledge so profound, and his wisdom so deep, that he could easily converse with the Sumeru philosophers, even with those who held the knowledge of the old age. The species got the offer to migrate to Sumeru, albeit there was no imminent danger to their home planet. The wise man replied on behalf of his world and said they would not break Sumeru law and would stay on their planet until it was time. They asked permission, however, to regularly send men to Sumeru, scholars and students, to learn from Sumeru. Sumeru acceded to the request. The representatives were also invited to the annual meetings. Sumeru usually sent a ship to the planet to pick the men up, as the species, although they had invented the warp drive, was not yet capable of covering in a proper time frame the immense distance to Sumeru, which was located close the galactic center and 25,000 light years away from their planet.

The annual conference was about to begin. Diplomats were gathering in the large center hall. It was morning by standard convention.

Naamah was late. An angry expression crossed his face. “I know,” he said. “We’ve been through this a thousand times. We’ll find a way into their system.”

He headed for the door. It slid open and Naamah entered the corridor. The annual conference was about to begin and Naamah was far away from the assembly hall that was located in the center of the space hub. He hurried through the corridors, wanting to cross the distance physically, in order to calm down and sort out his thoughts. He finally realized it was a useless endeavor and he entered a quantum transporter. It took him to the center of the hub in almost no time. Naamah stepped out, took a breath and showed a neutral face.

The corridors were crowded. Representatives of all species living in Sumeru and other space stations were heading for the assembly hall. Some stood in groups, discussing the agenda and other topics. Naamah ignored them and hastened into the hall, wanting to take his seat before the hall became crowded. His neural implant announced an incoming message. Naamah grimaced. Tamiel had sent a message. He had spoken with the man only a couple of minutes ago. The matter was settled. They had been through it a thousand times, but Tamiel didn’t trust him, for whatever reasons. He was unable or unwilling to explain his concerns in detail. Naamah shrugged. It annoyed him.

Naamah was the Asuras representative. The Asuras species settled on the 114th level of Sumeru. They were an old race, albeit not as old as the oldest races of the galaxy. The Asuras originally came from a planet in the Orion Nebula. Naamah was born in Sumeru and had only heard of the Asuras system of origin. Their home planets went down when the sun expanded and devastated their system. The Asuras civilization was doomed to ruin. They had been an advanced civilization in all respects, technologically, economically, socially, and politically. They had established world laws, based on unimpeachable ethics, peace, equity and justice. These developments were a result of their expansion into space. They had terraformed two planets in their star system and millions of individuals had migrated there. It had become increasingly difficult to rule the wide-spread Asuras world and they had more than once been on the brink of a devastating war. The difficult times, however, brought forth the best in the Asuras species. They changed and adapted to the new challenges. They developed their personalities and their society. It took several centuries to complete the change, but they succeeded, and after the dark period, as it was called from then on, they were a peaceful species, intents aimed at solidarity and the common good. The societal and cultural change had come long before the sun expanded. The Asuras were a space-faring nation and had advanced technologies. They explored their entire star system and were about to leave it when the end time began. They had known that the sun would ultimately expand and take out the entire star system and kill every living creature in the process. They had hoped to escape the disaster and migrate to another star system, but the disaster had come earlier than expected. It was then that Sumeru stepped forward.

The Asuras migrated to the Sumeru space hub close to the center of the galaxy. The Sumeru space station was continually upgraded and expanded. It had become a megastructure of inconceivable proportions, the size of a super-giant gas planet, albeit entirely differently formed. The hour-glass shaped structure rotated slowly in space, a majestic structure, displaying absolute power and total dominion of space. The Asuras were awed. They settled on the 114th level 490,000 years ago.

The ages had gone by. Civilizations had risen and fallen in space, but Sumeru had remained, unchallenged, untouched, forever implemented in its place in space and in perpetual motion.