Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe (18 page)

Image 20
– Photo of what appeared to be a drawing of a cross on the
mysterious book found on the moon.

(credits and details on the final page)

Two years had gone by since the
astronauts had returned from the Stellarium-12 mission. The Orion-II spaceship
had been left on the moon. All of the crewmembers had gotten home safely; the
rescue mission had been a success.

On November 15, 2053, NASA held
its first scientific conference to share its findings from that extraordinary
mission with the world.

This first gathering was
dedicated to the Stellarium Program. All of the agency’s non-confidential
findings, which had come as a result of the data captured by the astronauts
before landing on the moon, were disclosed. A special agency report was
presented to the scientific community, offering a summary of the mission, as
well as its findings. At the same time, the three most important Astronomy and
Astrophysics journals in the world published special editions will more than
180 scientific articles based on data from the mission.

It was an avalanche of information.
And there would be much more to come. NASA worked with all of the American
universities and research institutions interested in studying the data
collected by the Orion-II, gathering all of the papers that had been submitted
and approved during the first 20 months of research. Everything was done in an
organized fashion, with the goal of offering a solid rationale for their
discoveries, while also providing a full report on the mission.

NASA was still keeping a few
things secret, as they searched for answers to unresolved mysteries.

Images, videos, conclusions and
new theories were debated extensively over several days. Later, books were
written. Documentaries and movies were created. And just when things seemed to
be cooling off, in mid-2054, NASA launched its second conference, this time
with the press’s involvement.

The second gathering was very
different from the first one. The goal was not to talk about the findings of
the Stellarium-12 mission. There was only one topic: the moon.

And the media coverage was
intense. Even the President of the United States was there. He would speak
after the latest lunar discoveries were announced, which led to many rumors and
high expectations.

And there was one other
difference in comparison to the previous event, one which could be perceived
before the conference even began. The huge logo on the main billboard was not
NASA’s, but that of a different and unfamiliar agency: “UNSA – United Nations
Space Administration.”

Just below this title, one could
read the words “Founding Agencies,” followed by the four largest space
exploration institutions in the world: NASA (American), ROSCOSMOS (Russian),
ESA (European) and CNSA (Chinese).

A little further down, underneath
a line of text that read “Members and Partners,” there was a list of more than
60 space agencies from around the world.

The event kicked off with a
welcome speech by Dr. Elizabeth Lark:

I’m
here today to tell you about two developments. First of all, to make official
the rumors that have been making their way around social media these last few
weeks, I am here not just as the Administrator of NASA, but also as the first
President of the United Nations Space Administration.

Elizabeth was normally a very calm person. She exuded
confidence. But, during this announcement, her body language and speech
patterns indicated otherwise. She spoke firmly and composedly. However, just
minutes before going out on the stage, as she stood alone in front of the mirror,
the head of NASA was wracked with nerves as she practiced her speech. She knew
how important her announcement was, and what a big impact it would have. Thus, had
she decided to introduce the new institution first as a way of preparing the
public for the revelation that would change the world.

On
this day, we are making official the creation of an international agency,
specifically focused on space exploration outside of our solar system. UNSA is
a joint venture made up of the largest agencies in the world; furthermore,
dozens of other agencies from the four corners of the world will participate.

UNSA
has its own director, who reports to the Board. The Board is made up of the
administrators of the four founding agencies.

This
new agency will combine the resources of its founders to focus efforts on a
single joint space program, Stellarium-II, whose objective is to expand human
exploration throughout the universe.

Then, after a short moment of
silence, the crowd responded with a round of applause. Up until that point, she
hadn’t said anything too out-of-this-world. There had been several
collaborative projects and agreements in the past. It was only a matter of time
until an institution aimed at improving the focus and governance of the field
was created, although the phrase “throughout the universe” did get the public’s
attention.

So, why were they all there? The
launch of a new agency certainly wouldn’t be the central topic of the event.
They also knew that the creation of that institution, as well as the
President’s presence at the announcement, were probably connected to the
Stellarium-12 mission in some way.

With her hands clenched,
Elizabeth continued:

But
that’s not why we’re here today. In fact, the creation of this joint endeavor
is the result of something we will announce in just a few minutes.

But
first, I want to emphasize that the discovery we’re about to announce here is,
unequivocally, the greatest finding in the history of mankind. It will change
the way in which we view the world from now on. It will also change the nature
of our efforts in space exploration. Furthermore, it will change what we learn
in books on history, biology, and even religion.

At that moment, no one applauded.
Everyone present was completely silent and attentive. The same thing happened
in the homes of each and every person who had decided to watch the event on TV.

We
discovered that the technology we use to jump through wormholes under the
Stellarium Space Program was invented millions of years ago.

On
their way back from the Stellarium-12 mission, Commander Scott Russell, as well
as astronauts Allison Scheffer and Frank Wood, had to land on the moon, where
they were rescued by another ship.

They
landed in a place that we knew very little about. Many years ago, we had
detected an intense magnetic force coming from that location, which indicated a
strong presence of metallic materials.

At
first, we thought that it was just interference caused by objects left behind
by the Chinese exploration a few years earlier. Nonetheless, those three
astronauts discovered that we were wrong.

As
I announce the following three important discoveries, we will project images
captured by the crew of the Orion-II on the moon, as well as those captured by
the other two manned missions we sent in the months that followed, so that you
can see it all with your own eyes.

The
FIRST finding is that the moon is not just a satellite. The moon is also a
ship. Inside, it has a huge structure capable of transporting the population of
an entire city. And its technology is very similar to that used by the
Orion-II. It is capable of creating wormholes and jumping to faraway places in
space. It has 36 rings, whereas, for example, our Orion-II only had two. Upon
entering one of the ship’s domes, located in and built into the interior part
of the satellite, the first astronauts found an object similar to a book. It
was written in a previously unknown language, but seemed to have been left
there with the sole purpose of being found and decoded
—
something
we began to do months later.

The
SECOND discovery, which was made after we partially decoded the book, is that
the moon jumped to its current location through a wormhole created in Draco. We
discovered there was a problem when activating the acceleration device, causing
an immense gravitational field to remain active for hours before the wormhole
was created and the moon was able to jump through. This led to a serious
disturbance in that region, causing the Valkiria star to be thrown out of
balance and pick up speed, a velocity which it maintains today. The moon jumped
from Draco more than 200,000 years ago, arriving at its current position in the
Earth’s orbit.

An
interesting point worth mentioning here: we believe that this ship, our moon,
was used by a civilization that likely lived on the planet Sater, which orbits
Valkiria. This civilization arrived on that planet the same way that it left
it, by traveling on a huge ship, probably the same ship, and jumping through a
wormhole. The book included a drawing of three planets. One is Earth. The other
is Sater, in the Draco Galaxy. And the third planet, we believe, must be the
one that civilization came from, where they lived before arriving in Draco,
millions of years ago. A planet much like Earth.

The
THIRD finding is something I already mentioned about the star in Draco. For a
short while, more than 200,000 years ago, the Valkiria star followed a
trajectory outside of its orbit. For us, here on Earth, that change was
perceived between the years 2000 and 2015, due to the amount of time it takes
light to get here. When we look at that star, we are looking at the past… and
we saw it move due to a gravitational anomaly. We now know that this anomaly
was created by the moon when it jumped from Draco and traveled toward Earth.

Finally,
my friends, we have one big question to answer: if a civilization arrived here
more than 200,000 years ago, in a huge ship which we later named the moon,
where is that civilization now?

Elizabeth remained silent for a few seconds. She drank a bit
of water. The television cameras, broadcasting live, focused in on the
President of the United States. As usual, he was not smiling. It was clear that
he was feeling somewhat nervous, and he looked distant.

The head of NASA let out a sigh. She looked into the camera confidently.
With a calm voice and well-articulated speech, she continued her presentation,
purposefully omitting the information that was still classified by the agency:
the “S.O.S. ORION” message on Sater’s surface, captured in a photograph, and
the Christian symbol on the alien book found on the moon. Those two elements
aside, Elizabeth focused on the civilization that had lived in Draco:

We
don’t have any conclusive answers about what happened to them. There is still a
lot of material left to analyze. But our suspicions are anything but orthodox:
we know that the first fossil of a homo sapiens, the modern human, was found on
Earth approximately 200,000 years ago. There is nothing before that. There
isn’t even a link connecting us, evolutionarily, to primates or earlier
species. We also know that Neanderthals lived on Earth at that time. The homo
sapiens, which appeared here about 200,000 years ago without any previous
evolutionary traits, lived with the Neanderthals, which had been here long
before that, until the latter went extinct.

Thus,
there is evidence that we, homo sapiens, who appeared on this planet at the
same time the moon arrived here, coming from Draco, could possibly be the children
of that civilization.

We
humans may be much older than we originally thought… and the origin of our
species may not have anything to do with this planet. Earth may just be another
planet that humans have inhabited throughout our existence.

Then…

A profound silence took hold of
the planet…

The moon remained full, static,
hovering in the sky…

And the Universe had never been
so unknown.

To be
continued…

Image 21
– Earth as seen from the moon.

(credits and details on the final page)