Interlude 3: Emigration

It's interesting how most entities in physics have opposites.  Matter has anti-matter. In fact, all the particles have anti-particles: anti-protons, anti-electrons, and so forth.  Magnets have opposite poles.  In nuclear energy, fission is the opposite of fusion.  And, concerning the Laws of Motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Newton's Third Law.  The list goes on and on.  Now, here's the funny part – many opposites attract.  On a magnet, opposite poles attract; in chemistry, a positive ion attracts a negative ion; and in physics, a vacuum always attracts substance.  Opposites attract in people too . . . but I digress.  

Where am I going with this?  To Time, the formal concept thereof.  Is the past the opposite of the future, or vice versa?  Are there different kinds of Time?  This question has been answered by Einstein, who else, and is universally accepted.  His General Theory defines a concept called – time dilation.  The more the gravity, the slower time elapses.  This is one of Einstein's sacrosanct precepts.  Therefore, by his definition, there are different kinds of Time, some flow faster, some flow slower.  What was Time like in the enclave of the First-Born?  Time was in flux there, as it is everywhere, elapsing slow or fast, depending.  But it’s not that bad and quite pleasant really, providing the option to extend the pleasurable and vice versa.  Though rules and traditions have evolved to deal with this.

What about Space?  Does Space have an opposite?  Anti-Space?  Does it annihilate normal Space?  Of this, I do not know, except that there are alternate dimensions or “planes’ out there.  Though this is a very advanced science, we’re talking 6^th and 7^th Level Technology here.  On Earth, various theories have been proposed.  One such is superstring theory, which postulates 10 or more dimensions of Space.  Components, if you will.  In our home Universe, three predominate, and at least seven have collapsed, folding in on themselves, causing tiny loops of energy, which vibrate.  As such, they supposedly form the particles.  Or so they say.  In the Aether, vast manifolds of Multi-Space convolute and envelope many dimensions.  They act like colossal Klein bottles twisting and intertwining.  And navigation must be charted around, or through, as the case may be.

But events do happen, and the initiated have learned how to deal with the quirks inherent to this locus.  The First Born agglomerated the appropriate mix of fundamental elements and engineered an area of normalcy.  They constructed a smallish volume complete with the blackness of ordinary Space.  A containment of sorts to enclose a safer and more traditional living experience.  It was a very pleasant oasis in a sea of everything.

But what about Matter, you may ask?  What kind of Matter Is there?  And what is Matter anyway?  What are quarks made of, ultimately?  Charge?  Then what is a charge, and where does it come from?  It must come from the Aether.  And it does, or so I’m told.  For the Aether itself is the stuff of everything.  And the Aether coalesces into mists of free quarks and scintillating photons amidst the auroras of Space and Time.  Can energy be extracted therefrom?  I am told yes.  The term for it is 5^th Level Technology.  Dabblers on Earth refer to it as zero-point energy.  In the First-Born’s enclave, a small star cluster was created.  A vestige of home.  For home always kindles a warm feeling . . . no matter where.

Please permit me to reiterate.  Most of the First-Born had, at this point, transcended to life forces consisting primarily of the intangible constituents of Space and Time, with traces of elementary Matter interspersed.  Bundles of spaceons, chronomes, and charge, arranged within their attendant radiating threads.   And it is these threads that can be used to gather and shape the components of the Great Manifolds, the elementary essences of the Aether.  And, as a consequence, in this primordial soup of everything, the creation of things becomes possible.  By extending these fibrils, these beings could manifest their will.  Give form to the inchoate and . . . create from pure thought.  Here, the First-Born could truly be gods, which is the primary reason why they emigrated.  For apotheosis is the ultimate motivation.

 But there was trouble in Paradise.  Their home Universe was under attack by an unknown entity.  Many tunnel points were discovered. 

 The Observers reported this: “There are 1.27x10⁹ injection sites of both Dark and Phantom Energy.  Areas of decreased density are materializing.  False vacuums have commenced and are propagating exponentially."

The gods screamed.  A scream that shook the Aether. 

In bubbles of false vacuum, new and lower energy states exist.  And the constants; the prior fundamental framework, changes.  It changes into new particles, structures, and forces.  But the old life within does not change.  Its atoms and molecules are ripped apart.  Hence, it dies.  For no life, as we know it, can exist in a false vacuum.  And these bubbles were expanding.  If unstopped, the change, the imbalance would consume the Universe.  The Progenitor itself would change, and all previous life would cease. 

There were those among the First-Born who were content to repose in the euphoria of bliss.  They were the Oldest Ones and the most powerful.  Awakened by the scream, they reached out. 

"Close the Progenitor."  The collective will of the First-Born was marshaled behind this imperative – the totality of their will was exerted.  Their thoughts were materialized, and a new fleet was built.  Tendrils raced out searching for the malefactor, then the sealing of the tunnels began.  The ennui of the Gods was no more.  The sleeping giants awoke.

Another imperative was emitted.

"Gather all that we left behind.  Deploy the Caretakers."