Orbis, Walled
The last date I remember is September 29, 2300, until that day my life had been comfortable and luxurious, but after that morning, the whole world changed, and there were many times I wished it had all ended for me that day.
My name is Wilfred Aarden, and for ten years I was an executive in charge of marketing Ether services for Hilbert Technologies in the southern territories of the American continent.
My job was to establish business alliances with local companies for the distribution of energy, food, technology and any other Ether product through terminals manufactured by manufacturers based in the Rioplatense commonwealth, in the territories of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Normally I didn't have to leave my office in Oslo, Scandinavia, to do my job, but that week I had to pay a visit to a new manufacturer in Mendoza, who was hoping to get licenses to distribute Ether products.
My assistant, Tatiana Goren, and I evaluated the factory facilities, a former subsidiary, which had gone bankrupt and was reactivated by a workers' cooperative. The facilities were not the most modern, nor the best equipped, so we decided to license them for the supply and distribution of electricity and the manufacture of portable food and medicine generators, something much needed in this impoverished region. This was on the promise of re-evaluating their facilities soon, with the possibility of extending licenses to other products; although Tatiana and I knew that this would probably never happen, it was highly unlikely that their dilapidated facilities would ever be licensed for other products. This happened on September 28, 2300.
That was the morning of the last day we would spend in that sorry place. I had nothing against South America, at least it was not Africa or Indochina, where internal wars were wiping out everything and famine and insalubrity reigned in every corner. South America could still be considered a relatively civilized place, although the frequent revolts and occasional terrorist attacks prevented it from being a prosperous place, like Europe, the North American Confederacy or Russia.
Ready to head for the airport, Tatiana and I entered the basement parking lot of the hotel where we had been staying, a building that had seen better days, now practically unoccupied, with only a few guests staying in their rooms at the time, possibly because of the high rates and the scarcity of tourism in the region.
In Mendoza, the autonomous transportation service provider had closed down several years ago, so it was not possible to use Ether to provide transportation, a real shame at the time, so Tatiana and I had to rent an old autonomous Citroën at the airport upon our arrival. We were on our way to meet our vehicle, the only one in the parking lot, when it all happened.
Suddenly the lights in the basement went out and some old and almost moribund battery emergency lamps were the only elimination of the place, Tatiana, who was walking in front of me, turned to see me with a disjointed face, astonished by that, she continued moving forward and it was then when the earth began to shake violently, emitting a terrifying buzzing sound that echoed through the body, I saw how my assistant fell to the ground, after stumbling, I tried to run towards her, but then the basement ceiling began to collapse.
I remember that I myself fell to the floor and stayed there, hiding my head under the notepad I was carrying in my hands, everything around me was creaking and buzzing and the floor kept shaking with extreme violence. I did not dare to open my eyes and could only wait for the worst, until for some reason I lost consciousness.
I woke up in the middle of absolute darkness, I felt a terrible pain go through my whole body, I was lying on my side with my legs cramped, I stretched them out and felt that I touched something hard like a wall with them, I lay on my back and stretched my arms to the sides and I could feel with my right hand, what looked like loose rocks and I guessed that they had come off the ceiling. I screamed, calling out to Tatiana and asking for help, but received no response. I tried to get up and when I tried to get up, I immediately bumped into the ceiling, I calculated that I was no more than a meter from the floor, how had that happened?
I kept feeling around me, while I moved on all fours, until I felt with my left hand the notepad, I tried to turn it on, but I didn't get any response, I guessed that it had been hit and broken. It was then when the roar of a gigantic explosion resounded throughout the place, making everything shake again, I felt how earth and stones fell on me.
I kept feeling around me, while I moved on all fours, until I felt with my left hand the notepad, I tried to turn it on, but I got no response, I guessed that it had been hit and broke down. It was then when the roar of a gigantic explosion resounded throughout the place, making everything shake again, I felt how earth and stones fell on me, fortunately, without hurting me more than I was already.
I rummaged in my pocket and found my phone, I tried to turn it on, but the same thing happened as with the tablet, it did not work at all, what the hell had happened, as far as I knew, Mendoza was not a region of seismic risk, and even more, why the emergency services did not make the respective notifications, ten minutes before it happened. Or because the electric service had been suspended, that was something that should not happen, the whole hotel, as well as my tablet and phone were taking power from the Ether.
I remembered that in the inside pocket of my jacket I was carrying a battery powered lighter, an accessory that always accompanied me, because of my anachronistic vice of smoking tobacco cigarettes, I took it out and pressed the ignition button, I could see how two small electric arcs formed a tiny and bright blue x in the middle of the unfathomable darkness that enveloped me.
I continued searching in my pockets and found my handkerchief, I put one of its corners between my fingers and rolled it up to see if I could light it, when exposed to the electric arc, it quickly caught fire. I picked up the flaming piece of cloth and used it to illuminate my surroundings.
Above me the ceiling formed an inverted slope that touched the ground a few meters from my feet, apparently, one of the ceiling slabs had come loose and fallen without cracking completely, fortunately for me, because it had stayed right above me and had not crushed me.
While, at my feet, the fallen ceiling slab closed the passage where it touched the floor, to my left, right and where my head was pointing, I could see piles of debris that also blocked the passage.
I kept looking around and among the debris, to my right, I could see something metallic looking peeking out from under the debris, at floor level. I dropped the handkerchief on the floor, so that it would continue to burn there and I advanced on all fours until I was close to the object, I felt it with my hand, and immediately identified the shape of a woman's shoe, shuddering, I stretched out my hand again to touch around where I had picked it up and then a shiver ran down my back, I quickly went back to where I had dropped the burning handkerchief.
I felt my whole body suddenly tremble, seized by terror, as if for the first time, my mind realized the gravity of the situation I was in. I stood in shock with my thighs pressed against my chest, breathing shakily and trembling, until the fire of the handkerchief was completely extinguished. In the midst of that rubble, among the dirt and rocks of the collapsed roof, I could feel the cold foot of Tatiana, who had been walled in by the debris.
<hr>
-I think that's enough for today Aurora, -said the teacher, who attentively, listened to the girl reading from a thick, leather bound tome.
-Did I do well, Professor Jensen? -asked Aurora, rubbing her hands together.
-Of course Aurora, your interpretation of English has improved tremendously, - said the woman, as she looked at Aurora through her large, bead-rimmed glasses -. You may go.
Aurora took her bag, which was hanging on the back of the chair, and left the room, after which Professor Morelli entered.
-How did Aurora do? -he asked.
-In two years she's already reading old Spanish, English and French perfectly, -answered Daria Jensen.
-I think I had a good eye in attracting her to the school, I'm sure Julia would have been very happy -continued Morelli.
-I never got to know Julia Roberti, but I know that Dr. Casado was very fond of her and was very sorry to see her go, -said Daria
-Yes, Benjamin loved her very much, he never recovered from her death, I think he always hoped that she would return to the university.
-I'm surprised she hadn't initiated her niece, at least in old Spanish, -said Daria.
-From what Aurora has told me, I think Julia never wanted to make the girl's mother uncomfortable, she never agreed with her sister coming to Alessia, I don't think she would have liked her trying to teach her daughter dead languages.
Lead image source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/arco-encendedor-encendedor-encender-3297273/
Orbis, The Man with the Hat
That morning Ivan had decided to indulge Aurora and talk to that mysterious man who had spoken to him on the monorail, it had been several weeks since his arrival in Alessia and since his growing friendship with the librarian, Aurora's insistence that he contact the man, who had offered to teach him to read the ancient languages, had increased.
Almost all of her sister's dinner conversation was about what Hilda had taught her, and how the lady in the library read in one of the ancient languages, but didn't understand all of them. And that she wanted them to take up the offer of that man in the funny hat, who had promised to teach her.
The idea that a stranger, no matter how kind he was, had approached his sister, while he was asleep, to talk to her and make promises, did not seem to him to be the most correct thing on the part of that person, he did not say that he was some kind of delinquent, but, at the very least, his way of acting was suspicious.
She searched through the things in her bag, hoping she hadn't lost the card that the man had given Aurora, she rummaged around until she found a small bundle of papers fastened with a rubber band and almost at the top of the package was the card, which she read with distrust.
It was a business card with Alessia's university logo in watermark, and it said only one name "Dr. Luciano Morelli", accompanied by a contact number, which Ivan guessed, was a university terminal. When he took his lunch break, he would take the opportunity to call and talk to the individual.
In the afternoon, as he had proposed, after taking his lunch, he went to a communications booth and asked the automatic operator to connect him to Alessia's university central, and when he was asked for the number of the terminal he wanted to connect, he indicated the one on the card. After a few seconds a rough and cracked voice could be heard speaking to him with the accent of someone not originally from Alessia.
-Hello, tell me, to whom am I speaking, -said the voice on the other end of the connection.
-Hello, my name is Ivan Roberti, are you Dr. Luciano Morelli, - he asked.
-Yes, how can I help you, Mr. Roberti?
-You were talking to my sister during a monorail ride, about six weeks ago, I hope you remember, -Ivan explained.
-Of course, the girl Aurora, I do remember her and my offer still stands, - answered Luciano.
-Well, I would like to talk to you about it.
-Of course, where can I find you, Mr. Roberti, tell me place and time, -said the man, clearly anxious.
-How about today in the gallery in the center, in front of the library, at 1,700 hours, - said Ivan, intrigued by the man's interest -. I'll wait for him at the west entrance.
-I'll be glad to meet you there.
The afternoon passed, and Ivan continued to be intrigued by the great interest that the man seemed to have in talking to him. Although his first impression made him think of the individual as someone very formal and pleasant, he was still concerned about how anxious he seemed to be to meet him.
At the appointed time, Ivan was standing by the automatic door at the west entrance of the gallery and saw an individual in an elegant gray suit, topped with a blue suede hat with a golden tassel, approaching him from the pedestrian walkway.
-Good evening, Mr. Ivan Roberti, I presume, -said the individual, extending his hand to him, at the same time removing the strange hat, in a gesture that Ivan recognized as an unusual greeting in the region.
Ivan stretched out his hand and strangely felt the man squeeze it cordially, and then put his hat back on his head.
He was a very thin man, with pale skin, black, slightly graying hair and a bony face, adorned by a thick moustache, completely white.
-I am Dr. Luciano Morelli, - he said, bowing his head slightly -. It was I who was conversing with your sister on the train, and first of all I beg your pardon for my audacity in questioning the girl while you were asleep.
-She told me that you had offered to teach her ancient languages, I don't understand why you made such an offer, - said Ivan -. Forgive my mistrust, but you don't know us, and it seems strange to me that you would wait until I was not attentive to talk to my sister.
-I understand your mistrust, but I entered the carriage shortly after you fell asleep, and I was waiting almost all the way to talk to you, but you didn't wake up, so I took the liberty of talking directly to the girl, -said Luciano.
-All right, but why your interest?
-To tell you the truth, my real interest was focused on an ancient tome that I saw your sister carrying, I am a professor of literary archaeology at the University of Alessia, and I could not resist the temptation to browse through that copy, - explained Luciano -. However, while talking to your sister, I found out something that made me make you the offer you are referring to.
-What was it that you found out? -Ivan asked, intrigued.
-The girl Aurora told me that you were Julia Roberti's nephews and that the copy was an inheritance from her, -he explained.
-That's right, did you know my aunt Julia, -Ivan asked.
-That's right Mr. Roberti, I was an apprentice of your aunt, during some years of my studies, that was just before she left the university.
-I understand, and that's why you offered to teach my sister.
-Not exactly, what I'm actually offering her is a scholarship to get her into Alessia University. I'm in charge of assigning study places in the archaeology faculty, - said Luciano -. I always felt a great affection for your aunt, and I was very affected when she left, you could say that I was that young apprentice, infatuated with his tutor. And don't get me wrong, I was very saddened by her departure and years later, devastated to learn of her passing, that's why I wish I could help your sister get into Alessia University and carry on your aunt's legacy.
-And how do you know my sister wants to be like my aunt? -Ivan asked.
-I could see it in her face, in the zeal with which she kept that old tome, which by the way I would still like to read carefully, and in her look, when I told her about learning ancient languages, -he explained.
-But she is only twelve years old and has only studied at the village school, she has never been to an academy.
-That's all she needs, there is no big difference between what she could study in a school, to what she can learn in the academy. Besides, I could see in his eyes more eagerness to learn than I have ever seen in any of the young people applying to the university, and don't worry about his age, it wouldn't be the first time someone under fourteen has been admitted.
Lead Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/sombrero-mountie-canad%C3%A1-polic%C3%ADa-1069100/
At the Gates of Hades - Tatar
Tatar
Again in this dark and stinking place, as I get off the transport ship I am hit by a nauseating stench of rotten fish, urine and pine disinfectant, showing that dirt is difficult to cover when it has spread so far.
I adjust the parameters of my breathing mask and immerse myself in the dark alleys of Tartarus, a place lost in the middle of a world forgotten by Parliament, where, far from the sight of the army, all sorts of evildoers gather to hide before or after committing their misdeeds.
I feel disgusted just to step on its streets, all the scum of the galaxy seem to gather here to scratch each other's backs, traffickers, hired killers, pirates and smugglers of all kinds, get the market for their products, drugs, animals, palladium, iridium, weapons and humans, are traded like toys.
Since I left the security division of Polaris, this place has become a recurring destination, for some reason all roads always lead here, all human evil seems to converge on this very spot.
Degenerates and addicts roam its streets, looking for their share of morbid vice, seekers of forbidden objects and substances, or those who for a fee are willing to kill those they need to get out of the way.
For several years Petersen's smokehouse has been the place I visit to seek the information I require, in addition to catching up on the ins and outs of local gangs and gangs, there, Simon Petersen the owner, has always been my trusted contact.
-Oliver, how long has it been since you've been here, - said Petersen cheerfully as he saw me enter, his round, stretched-out face seemed to glow in the colourful lights of his shop's entrance.
-Hello Simon, I'm afraid it's been less time than I would like, -I answered, looking inside the place, where piled up as if they were bony corpses, almost two dozen addicts were leaning on deckchairs, with a needle connected to their carotid artery, by which they were hydrated and nourished, while remaining completely outside the real world, in a hallucinatory dream of Morpheus, a product synthesized from opium, which can produce extensive and pleasant erotic dreams that can last for days -. I see that business is going well.
-No doubt there is always a market for a good product, you want a chair, I have only one free one, take advantage of the fact that I have just received new product from Persephone, -he said smiling as he showed me all his big, fake, blindingly white teeth.
-You know I don't come here for your product, what do you know about the Soriano girl, -I asked without much protocol, as I looked at her ugly face.
-Because I should know something, my business is not girls -he said, looking away from his room full of human remains.
-Come on Simon, you know everything here in Tartarus, don't tell me you haven't heard about the case.
-Some things are better left unsaid, -he said, clearly distressed, -and others are better left out.
-How's Clarice? -I asked, knowing her weakness. Usually the best way to make someone loosen their tongue is to know some of their secrets.
-Damn it Oliver, that's not fair, you know I'd do anything for Clarice, -he said, putting on two big puppy dog eyes-. Fine, but get me out of this, I don't want them to know you were here or I'll be in trouble.
-Relax, I never put my friends at risk -I said.
-On the North Boulevard, a mile from here, towards where the Gao casino is, there is a bar called The Pleasure of the Kan, where the Satoshi meet, they control the traffic of girls from Cepheus, - he said with a worried face -. Two weeks ago, they received a new shipment and I heard that tomorrow buyers will come. It seems that there are people from Avalon and Eden who are their customers. If he's here in Tartarus, he must be there.
-Thank you Simon, you've been a great help, take care of Clarice, we'll see you soon, -I said before I left the premises.
-I hope I won't see you for a while, these visits are becoming too frequent -he said as he saw me leave.
After the war, even though the Parliament was in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure and creating stimuli to activate the economy of the planet, Cepheus remained a difficult place to live, hundreds of rebellious soldiers hid among the ruins of the cities, mimicking the people who tried to survive. They formed gangs and gangs that later organized themselves into criminal syndicates, which in the midst of the chaos of the reconstruction of the planet created all kinds of criminal operations, in the absence of local forces to provide security.
Thirty days ago, the daughter of Lion Soriano, a member of the local parliament of Cefeo, was kidnapped while she was with her friends, in one of the new shopping centers that began to proliferate in the cities of the planet, there were never any demands from the captors, simply the girl and two of her companions disappeared, without leaving any trace.
Soriano contacted her friends in the parliament and they in the security division and the security division came to me, which brings me back to this stinking place, looking for these three missing girls. It seems that my reputation, after the case of the Polaris murderer, continues to take me to these dark places, even after I have retired from active duty.
Orbis, Between Books
The days passed faster than they had ever passed in Aurora's life, for the first time she was in a place that was not La Villa and she did not stop being fascinated by what she saw, it was not only the sea, the gardens, the big trees in the library square, and the library. In La Villa only Aunt Julia and the school had books and neither had as many as that gigantic building.
Ivan worked most of the day and as she had nothing better to do, she spent most of the afternoon walking the streets surrounding the set of buildings where she lived, this was so until she discovered how to get to the library, at first she was fascinated by the imposing building, and the green of its gardens, but when she realized that she could enter freely, it was its large and bright rooms full of books, projectors and interactive terminals, which really caught her of the place.
Her fascination with books came from her aunt Julia and the long afternoons she spent listening to her read the stories that filled her crowded bookshelf. Stories of vanished kingdoms, of lost cities and ancient heroes who once walked the world, of inventors and scientists who changed the world, of the exploits of explorers and adventurers and how it all ended with the great catastrophe that wiped out almost everything that existed.
Unfortunately, shortly after discovering that she could freely enter the library, she also discovered, in a bad way, that, although she could enter; in order to take the books, she needed a credential, which she did not have and needed Ivan to obtain it. The lack of one earned her a scolding from one of the monitors in the room when she removed a book from a shelf, which set off an alarm on the clerk's desk. So she could only inspect the interactive terminals in the general room, which, while they could keep her busy for a while, were not far from the things her aunt or the school had already taught her.
That afternoon, while she was using one of the terminals, she saw a woman in her fifties coming out of one of the restricted rooms, walking with difficulty, while carrying in her hands two large and heavy books, similar in appearance to the one she kept from her aunt, the woman placed the tomes on one of the tables at the end of the room and leaned against it, trying to catch her breath. Seeing her, at moments she reminded her of her aunt and mother, in their last moments, when illness overwhelmed them.
Aurora got up from the bench where she was sitting and stealthily approached the woman, hiding among the tables, slyly sat on the bench of a terminal a few meters away from her and watched her carefully, while she played an interactive content about the human digestive system and that of other mammals, which she was not really interested in watching.
She was a tall, thin woman, with brown, partially graying hair and a pale yellowish complexion, she clearly appeared to be ill, as sooner or later happened to everyone her age. Apparently, just as in La Villa, people over the age of forty suffered from the same degenerative affection, which in the end killed almost everyone it attacked, without the doctors being able to do anything about it.
The woman dropped heavily into the chair, as if she could no longer stand, let her head fall back and exhaled a weak sigh, which seemed to express more frustration than relief. After a few minutes, she tried to stand up again and her legs gave out, causing her to fall back into the chair. Frustrated, she pushed the books forward, leaned her elbows on the table and buried her face in her open hands.
Aurora, who, discreetly hidden behind the terminal monitor, continued to watch her attentively, gave her the impression that she was crying, as she hid her face with her hands. The girl left the terminal and timidly approached the woman, who did not notice her presence.
-Are you all right, ma'am,? -Aurora asked.
The woman raised her face and looked at her with two tired and aged blue eyes, she straightened up in the chair and looked up and down at the girl, who was watching her attentively.
-Yes little girl, I'll be fine, I'm just feeling a little tired, -she said sweetly.
-Do you need help?
-No, I just need to take a breath, -she answered -tell me, what's your name?
-Aurora, ma'am..., -the girl answered proudly-. Aurora Roberti.
-Hello Aurora, my name is Hilda, -she said -. Tell me Aurora, what are you doing here, instead of being in the gallery or in the academy, like all the children of your age - asked Hilda.
-I don't know what the gallery is, and I'm not at the academy -answered Aurora.
-What do you mean, you're not in the academy?
-I'm new in town, I arrived just ten days ago, where I come from there is no academy, there I studied in a school and I had already finished all the courses they offered, I did it long before all the kids older than me, -she said proudly.
-And why did you come to the city Aurora Roberti - continued Hilda.
-I moved here with my brother after our mother died -answered Aurora.
-And is he with you?
-Not at the moment, he works during the day, then, after doing the housework, I go for a walk in the neighborhood and I always end up here, looking at the contents of the terminals, but they don't let me read the books, because I don't have a credential.
-I understand. Well Aurora Roberti, I have to go on with my work, it has been nice talking to you -Hilda stood up with difficulty and tried to lift the books, she took impulse and lifted them from the table, but again her legs faltered.
Aurora quickly approached her and held her by her side, preventing her from falling, and helped her to stand up.
-Damn it, I'm becoming useless - Hilda said in a cracked voice, partly because she was tired, partly because she was repressing her tears and frustration.
-Let me help you, I am very strong, -said the girl giving her a smile.
-Okay, you take one of the books, I'll take the other, - said Hilda.
Before the woman could say another word, Aurora took both books, which were heavier than she thought and with a forced smile on her lips, her arms stretched to their limit by the weight and with a surprised expression she said, -I can handle them both, come on tell me which way to go.
Hilda smiled, stood up and walked to the private reading room where she worked, followed by Aurora who stumbled along carrying the heavy copies in her hands.
After that afternoon, Aurora would have free passage to the room where Hilda worked and it would be with her that she would learn more about the catastrophe that once changed humanity.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/mujer-biblioteca-libros-estudio-3435842/
How Old is the Universe?
Greetings to all. the universe is 13,700 million years old. but the answer to the question is not as easy as it seems, how do we know how old the universe is?
Until about 100 years ago, there was a firm belief that the universe was eternal, had always been there and always would be, its state was static. This belief led Einstein to incorporate in his equations of general relativity, the cosmological constant, as a mechanism to avoid the collapse of the universe due to gravity, predicted in the solution of his equations and thus guarantee its invariability, just as Observations seemed to indicate it.
However, four scientists, independently, would propose that the universe was not in a stationary state and that, on the contrary, it was expanding, its works, initially ignored, would be later claimed, going on to be consecrated as the currently accepted cosmological model .
***Alexander Friedmann***, who defined, based on the statements of General Relativity, the equations that allow describing the geometry of the universe and also predict the expansion of the same.
***Georges Lemaître***, who was the first to propose, based on experimental data from Vesto Slipher and Carl Wilhelm Wirtz, the expansion of the universe, in addition to the “Primitive Atom Hypothesis”, which would later be called the Big-Theory theory. Bang.
***Howard P. Robertson*** who, together with ***Arthur Geoffrey Walker***, based on general relativity, also proposed the theory of an expanding universe, in addition to predicting the *redshift of light*(1) from the objects that moved away from us, and develop a metric that coincides with the results also obtained by Friedman and Lemaître.
The cosmological model developed independently by these scientists is known as FLRW Model or Metric (Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker) and describes an expanding, homogeneous and isotropic universe.
Later Edwin Hubble, after observing the so-called galactic nebulae and studying its spectrum and redshift, could determine that they were further away than previously believed and that they were moving away from us, which led him to indicate that they were galaxies equal to the Milky Way and not objects inside it.
Hubble’s observations allowed us to corroborate Lemaître’s Big-bang theory and put an end to the idea of a static universe, consistent with this, Hubble was able to calculate using the data obtained from his observations of the redshift of several galaxies, that the universe It was 2000 million years old. Of course Hubble was not right, this method was not entirely accurate, in addition the fossil and geological record dated the age of the earth in not less than 3000 million years, which was not consistent with their observations.
In 1998, a group of researchers from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), headed by Adam Riess, studying the *supernovas 1a*(2), a type of supernova, with a well-known and predictable behavior, could determine that the universe was not only expanded, it was making it faster and faster, but I’ve talked about this before. The fact is that this discovery allowed us to redefine the composition of the universe and bring back the idea of Einstein’s cosmological constant, associating it with dark energy and turning this factor into an element to be considered in the calculation of the age of the universe.
Another very important discovery to date the age of the universe is the microwave background radiation, a type of fossil radiation, produced 400,000 years after the Big Bang, when the early universe had cooled enough for the hydrogen nuclei and helium could be combined with electrons to form atoms and the radiation of matter is decoupled, that event left a trace of perceptible photons in the radioelectric spectrum that lasts until now in the microwave band.
The estimated age of the universe is the result of one or several estimates according to different methodologies, depending on the procedure followed, the figure can change from hundreds, to billions of years. To date we have three more or less accurate estimates about the age of the universe, explain what each of them consists of:
Age Based on the data from the WMAP Probe
The WMAP probe (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), is a device launched by NASA in 2002, which is located in orbit around the Sun at the Lagrangean point L2 on Earth. The purpose of WMAP is to study the cosmic microwave background and its anisotropies, it is able to measure the temperature difference between any two points of space.
The bodies that emit radiation also release energy in the form of heat, consequently the cosmic microwave background being a residual radiation of the Big-bang, also has a signature of heat that is in all the inverse, this signature is about 2 ° K , which is why there is no absolute zero in the universe, in any part of the universe, however distant from any body that emits radiation, there will be a temperature of approximately 2 ° K.
This temperature is not the same everywhere, there are certain small fluctuations, these fluctuations are what are called anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background and is the main object of measurement of the WMAP.
The data of the WMAP, allows to date the universe in an age of about 13,700 million years, with an error of about 200 million years, this calculation is based on the estimation of the size of the universe at the moment of the decoupling of the radiation of the Matter, which can be calculated from the first spectral peak of the cosmic microwave background, knowing this information, and using the Friedman equations, we can calculate the age of the universe. Of course the value of this age is subject to the geometry of the universe that is chosen, having variations between one and another.
Age Based on Cosmological Parameters
Currently the accepted cosmological model is called ΛCDM by Lambda – Cold Dark Matter, this roughly describes the composition of the universe which would be composed of 70% dark energy, expressed by Λ, 26% dark matter it is a type of matter different from the baryonic one (everything that is formed by protons and neutrons) and that does not interact neither with this one nor with the photons, but with the gravity; and 4% baryonic matter. This model is the basis for calculating the age of the universe according to cosmological parameters.
From the Friedmann equations, we can deduce the zero time of the universe, for it is necessary to know the components of the density parameter (Ω) and the Hubble constant, consequently, the parameters necessary for the calculation of the age of the universe They are the following:
***H0*** or Hubble constant, which is a parameter of Hubble’s law, which defines the redshift of a galaxy’s light in relation to its distance of us.
***ΩR*** or current radiation density.
***ΩM*** or density of matter, dark and baryonic.
***ΩΛ*** or vacuum density or cosmological constant – dark energy density.
Again using the data provided by the WMAP, for the amount of dark energy and matter, while using the value of the Hubble constant calculated from the data obtained from the observation of the Supernovas 1a, a value can be obtained approximate for the age of the universe of 13,600 million years.
Age Based on the CNO Cycle
The CNO cycle is one of the two fusion reactions, through which the stars transform hydrogen into helium, is the most common type of reaction in massive stars with temperatures above 15,000 ° K, in this cycle, the stars use as catalysts carbon, nitrogen and oxygen nuclei to fuse protons (hydrogen nuclei) in helium-4 nuclei.
Some studies show that this cycle is slower than previously thought, consequently, the age of the universe would be higher than expected, taking about 15,000 million years. However, these studies have been questioned.
Gravitational waves
On August 17, 2017, in an unprecedented event, LIGO(3) (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detected an emission of gravitational waves and simultaneously the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, detected an emission of gamma rays that, coupled with the non-detection of gravitational waves by VIRGO (another interferometer similar to LIGO located in Italy) which places these emissions in a blind point of the latter device, allowed to interpolate the sector of the sky from where the gravitational waves had to come, this guide, to the scientists where to orient the telescopes to look for the source and 10 hours later in the Observatory of the Bells in Atacama Chile, the origin of the phenomenon was found in the galaxy NGC-4993 located at 140 millions of light years in the constellation of Hydra
The phenomenon corresponded to a Kilonova, the collision of two neutron stars, which was observed throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, this particular event and the opportunity to be confirmed visually, together with the data obtained from previous observations of gravitational waves, allowed to date the age of our universe between 11,900 and 15,700 million years. Age range that although it is quite large allows to confirm the estimations made by other methodologies, and opens the door to a new methodology to specify the age of our universe.
So, in short, we can say that the age of our universe, although we do not know it accurately, is around 13,700 million years ago, this has been estimated after studying the cosmic microwave background and the redshift of light emitted by type 1a supernovae, this under the assumption that the density of the universe Ω, is compatible with a plane geometry universe. To shorten the matter, it is estimated that our universe is 13,700 million years old.
Well, so far this publication, I hope you liked it, I am attentive to your comments and I thank you in advance for your support. Thanks for your attention.
Notes
*Redshift of light*: The redshift, refers to the light waves that are perceived have a wavelength that has shifted to the wavelength of the color red. As the object moves away its light waves will tend to shift to red, or at higher wavelengths, although with lower frequencies, such as infrared, microwaves and radio waves. On the other hand, if the object approaches, its sling length will become smaller and its frequency higher, with a shift to blue, ultraviolet, x-rays, etc.
*Supernova 1a*: A type 1a supernova, is produced when a white dwarf forms a binary system with another star, whose mass is being attracted to the white dwarf, forming an accretion disk, exceeding the limit of Chandrasekhar and the white dwarf collapse on itself producing an explosion whose brightness can be determined within a margin of error of between 10 and 20%, this predictability makes this type of supernovas ideal for determining intergalactic distances.
*LIGO*: is an observatory of gravitational waves that is located in Hanford Site (Washington) and Livingston (Louisiana), in opposite coasts of the United States, its purpose is the arrest of waves caused in the gravitational field, which are provoked for massive cosmic events such as; supernovas, fusions of black holes or neutron stars. These waves move at the speed of light. It consists of two laser interferometers located more than 3000 km away from each other, each consisting of two arms of 4 km, each of which circulates a laser that is reflected in mirrors, when a gravitational wave is detected one of the arms stretches while the other shrinks, this causes differences in the time that the lasers travel the arms, these variations of time are what allow the detection of the wave. On September 14, 2016, LIGO detected for the first time a gravitational wave that, according to the models, corresponded to the collision of two black holes, this confirmed the existence of this type of disturbances of the gravitational field, which had been predicted by the general relativity.
Sources
BBC, ¿Cómo medimos la edad del Universo?, BBC https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-43597755
Pedro J. Hernández, Supernovas de tipo Ia y aceleración del universo, Astronomia.net http://astronomia.net/cosmologia/SupernovasIa.htm
ESO. Telescopios de ESO observan la primera luz de una fuente de ondas gravitacionales. ESO https://www.eso.org/public/chile/news/eso1733/?lang
LIGO Caltech. What is LIGO?, LIGO Caltech https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-ligo
El Lobo Rayado. El brillo de las supernovas de tipo Ia. Naukas https://naukas.com/2016/04/04/brillo-las-supernovas-tipo-ia/
ABC Ciencia. Logran medir la edad del Universo con una onda gravitacional. ABC.es https://www.abc.es/ciencia/abci-logran-medir-edad-universo-onda-gravitacional-201801091325_noticia.html
Hernández, P.J. Supernovas de tipo Ia y aceleración del universo. Antronomia.net http://astronomia.net/cosmologia/SupernovasIa.htm
NASA. Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, NASA https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Universidad Internacional de Valencia. ¿Qué es el corrimiento al rojo y qué aplicaciones tiene en astronomía?. Universidad Internacional de Valencia. https://www.universidadviu.com/que-es-el-corrimiento-al-rojo-y-que-aplicaciones-tiene-en-astronomia/
Wikipedia. Ciclo CNO. Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciclo_CNO
Wikipedia. Ecuaciones de Friedmann. Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuaciones_de_Friedmann
Wikipedia. Métrica de Friedman-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker, Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9trica_de_Friedman-Lema%C3%AEtre-Robertson-Walker
Lead Image Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
The End of Everything
Time is the death sentence from which nothing escapes, even time itself had a beginning and will have an end, in this publication I try to explain what this end will be like.
Previously I made a publication, trying to explain the origin of everything that exists, understanding everything to the universe, of course, my idea was, in broad strokes, to present the events that occurred in the moments after the Big Bang, not to explain literally the origin of all things, such a task would be almost impossible.
Now I propose to try to explain, in the simplest way possible, that everything will end; explain how the end of the universe will happen
Perhaps the title of the publication is something grandiloquent and not necessarily precise, but according to some of the scenarios that I will explain below, we could refer to the end, not only of what exists, seeing it from the point of view of the subject, but of the end of space time itself.
https://pixabay.com/es/galaxy-universe-black-hole-stars-2880359/
To understand how the universe will end we must remember a concept of which I have spoken before, the Dark Energy, for the possible ends of it, are closely linked to this strange, albeit abundant form of energy, which seems to be causing the expansion of the universe.
According to some estimates, approximately 70% of the energy content of the universe is formed by the Dark Energy, a strange form of energy, associated with the quantum vacuum. It turns out that in the quantum world, the concept of vacuum is not literal, because as an effect of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles are created in a vacuum, which subsequently end up annihilating each other, but as an effect of this process energy fluctuations are generated in quantum fields, as if waves in a pond were treated, these energy fluctuations are what is called vacuum energy and is the main candidate to be the explanation of the Dark Energy; because at great distances it has an effect of repulsion between the baryonic matter (all the matter that we can touch, see and measure)
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen_del_Universo#/media/File:DarkMatterPie.jpg
In addition to the Dark Energy there is a second factor that we must take into account, the density of matter of the universe or Omega (Ω), the value of this parameter of the Friedmann equations, which describe the expansion of space, raises three possible scenarios that would describe the geometry of the universe and from these scenarios, the values of the Dark Energy, would allow to describe the possible endings of the universe.
If Ω has a value greater than 1, the universe would be closed and have a spherical geometry. This type of universe in the absence of dark energy would end up collapsing on itself.
If the value of Ω is less than 1, the geometry of the universe would be open, curving on itself, but without closing, to form a hyperbolic surface like a saddle.
The last possible value of Ω would be that of equilibrium, equal to one, in this case its geometry would be flat, Euclidean.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destino_final_del_universo#/media/File:End_of_universe.jpg
In the case of the last two scenarios even in the absence of dark energy the universe would expand, but in a non-accelerated way, causing, for a variable period of time, the galaxies to move away from each other without major consequences. While, for the three scenarios, the presence of dark energy would lead to the accelerated expansion of the universe, with different consequences, depending on the amount of it.
First, we will examine the possibilities involved in case of the non-existence of dark energy. In this case it is interesting to examine only scenario 1, since in the other two scenarios the expansion would continue in a uniform manner, but in the long run the result would be similar to the one proposed in one of the scenarios that I will explain later.
The Big-Crunch
As a result of a spherical geometry and in the absence of dark energy, the universe would expand as an effect of the Big Bang, this expansion would stop, until the effect of gravity reversed, with which the universe would begin to contract.
https://pixabay.com/es/planetas-espacio-galaxy-explosi%C3%B3n-1497200/
This contraction would lead the universe to revert to a point, first making the galaxies combine to form one, in this process the average temperature of the universe will increase, causing any planet like Earth to lose the possibility of releasing its excess heat into space , which will end up eliminating any possibility of life.
The more the universe contracts, the higher the temperatures will be to the point where the stars themselves are unable to release their heat and end up exploding, in this way the universe would be transformed into a plasma ball that would continue to warm up until the disappearance of most of the elementary particles, leaving only the quarks, to finally be all form of matter absorbed by the black holes that would eventually end up merging all and compressing into a new singularity. Thus ending time and space.
The similarity of this state, with the initial state of the universe, gives rise to a complementary theory, which is that of the Big-Bounce, which suggests that after the state of singularity arrived during the Big-Crunch, it would follow a new Big-Bang, with the consequent creation of a new universe, and that this process of birth, death and rebirth of the universe, would have been repeating itself forever, creating this the question of whether time is infinite, because this process would imply a permanent existence of this dimension.
One of the objections presented to this model would be that it contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, according to which the universe, as a closed system, would tend to a continuous increase in its entropy. So we could not move to a state of greater order, which would be implicit in the formation of a singularity that would contain the universe itself, even, in some hypotheses, it has been proposed that the arrow of time itself would be reversed, when the contraction of the universe began and we would begin to see everything that happened in reverse, from a state of greater entropy, to the minimum entropy that existed before the Big Bang.
Finally, as a last objection, this model, current data, seems to point out that the geometry of the universe must respond to an Ω in equilibrium, that is, a flat geometry, so this scenario would be practically ruled out by science.
Now, assuming that the universe is flat, we must first consider the absence of dark energy, in this case, the universe would continue to expand, but at a continuous rate without acceleration, simply the galaxies would end up distancing themselves more and more, some of them others, to later have an end caused by the disintegration of protons or the collapse of matter, which will be explained later. However, this is not what the current data show, the universe would be growing at an accelerated rate, which would indicate the presence of dark energy.
So given the existence of the Dark Energy and its accelerating effect of the expansion of space, there are two possible purposes for our universe, The Big-Freeze and the Big-Rip, let’s now briefly see what these scenarios are, which until now seem the most likely.
The Big-Freeze
Big-Freeze, or thermal death, is perhaps the most likely scenario according to the recent observations of the space probe WMAP and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, about the amount of dark energy in the universe. The Big-Freeze, poses the absolute cooling of the universe, after the disappearance of any type of radiation, dissipated in the huge dimension of a universe completely depopulated of any form of matter.
This process of cooling would take place in four eras, which begin with the formation of the first stars after the Big Bang, when the universe was no less than a million years old.
Stelliferous Era
In this era, stars predominate, it is the era in which we live, it is supposed to have a duration of about 1014 years counted from the Big Bang. The end of this era will occur when stars cease to be formed by the collapse of stellar gas accumulations. Over time the death of the stars, will cause the clouds of gas and dust that would serve as a hotbed for new stars, have a greater predominance of heavy elements, this will result in the formation of increasingly smaller and colder stars, frozen in terms stellar, its surface temperature could be similar to that of the earth.
There will come a time when the only stars that still illuminate the galaxies are the red dwarfs, who live for very long periods of time and never reach the red giant stage, achieving only in their last moments reach luminosities and sizes similar to our sun . Some of these stars will most likely be present until very late in this scenario of the end of the universe.
https://pixabay.com/es/galaxia-de-andr%C3%B3meda-v%C3%ADa-l%C3%A1ctea-755442/
During this period large galactic islands will be formed isolated by immense distances, the local group will end up colliding, forming a single galactic cloud, in the long run the same will happen with the supercluster of virgo, which is attracted towards a great attractor. The local group, which, unlike the virgo cluster, is not being attracted to the great attractor, will end up moving away from it until it is visible.
Already at 10E11 years, there will be no proof of the origin of our universe, the microwave background radiation will have disappeared or will be undetectable, dispersed by the expansion of the universe
At the end of this era, black dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes will predominate. Gigantic black holes will govern the centers of the new galactic clouds resulting from the collisions and consequent mergers of those who inhabited the ancient galaxies.
Degenerate Era
In this era the dominant objects will be the dense remains of stars, black dwarfs (the remains of white dwarfs after being completely cooled), neutron stars and black holes. It is estimated that this era will be between the 10E14 and 10E32 years, depending on the time it takes for the protons to disintegrate, if that happens.
https://pixabay.com/es/agujero-negro-espacio-estrellas-2072227/
During the early stages of this era, stars will still be produced, but only through stellar collisions, brown dwarfs, frustrated stars that did not initiate nuclear fusion could collide producing an occasional red dwarf, which would live for billions of years until collapsing into a White dwarf, similarly could generate collisions involving white dwarfs or neutron stars leading to stars that fuse helium or carbon, which would have a short life, or lead to explosions of gamma rays and even black holes. These processes of star formation would occur mainly in the peripheries of the galactic nuclei where the density of objects that can collide is greater. It is estimated that a galaxy such as that formed by the entire local group could get to have by this process about 100 stars that illuminate its center.
Like what happened with the stars, black holes would also start to collide giving rise to larger ones, until the new and isolated galactic islands formed by all the galaxies that made up the old clusters and superclusters, have become gigantic black holes . While this happens the black holes devour all the stellar corpses that populate its surroundings, giving rise to quasars that would illuminate the galactic nuclei, this would last about a billion years until they have been turned off and cooled.
The gravitational waves, the product of all these impacts between super massive objects, would eventually unlink any planetary system that may still exist, it is possible that even some red dwarfs that never reach the red giant phase, still conserve planets around them, These may be the only ones who suffer this end, being expelled from their stars, many destroyed and some becoming wandering planets.
Even dark matter could begin to disappear due to the collision of its particles or to being captured by the gravity of stellar remnants. This would alter the gravity in the galactic halo by decreasing the mass of the galaxies and causing their expansion.
The culmination of this era, would come from the hypothetical disintegration of protons, according to some models of quantum mechanics, this could happen between the 10E32 and 10E45 years, or even in a longer period that could reach 10200 years.
The disintegration of the protons, would lead to the disintegration of the atomic nuclei and little by little to the disappearance of all the matter, leaving only the black holes.
It could also happen that the protons never disintegrate, this would lead to even stranger phenomena, because product of the tunnel effect, the solids would end up behaving like liquids forming spheres due to gravity, at the same time this same effect would produce nuclear, cold fusions , that would end up transforming all the matter that exists, except for the neutron stars, in iron, this would happen in 101500 years, to finally all end up turned into neutrons and finally collapse in black holes, this would occur between the 10E10E26 and 10E10E76 years.
Black Hole Era
https://pixabay.com/es/agujero-negro-espacio-92358/
This would be the era that would see die the last objects that perhaps still remain of the current era, the black holes. After the disintegration of protons or the collapse of matter if they do not disintegrate the protons, the only objects that would remain in the universe would be black holes, which in the end, also end up disappearing as a result of Hawking Radiation, a black hole with a solar mass could take 1066 years to disappear, while the most massive known can take 10100 years, so this era would not last less than this time, after the Degenerated Age was over. Once the black holes have disappeared, there will be no trace left in the universe of what were the stars and galaxies, the universe would be made up of only a few particles.
Dark Era
This would be the last stage of the universe, before the eternal thermal death, in it the temperatures would be almost equal to absolute zero, the expansion of the universe would continue its unstoppable course, there would only be some particles such as electrons and positrons, neutrinos and photons and such Once some exotic particles, with time electrons and positrons could annihilate each other emitting gamma rays, this process that would end up annihilating all existing particles, could last an unreasonably long period of time, although it could also be that you will never reach total death thermal
The interesting thing about this period is that the scarcity of physical processes could lead to the loss of meaning of the physical laws, and that processes of a quantum nature that are still manifesting may tend to give rise to macroscopic processes, including possibility that regions of the universe collapse giving rise to a new Big Bang, of course this is nothing more than mere speculation, it is not possible to determine the processes that gave rise to the Big Bang or that there was before him
The Big-Rip
According to this hypothesis, if the amount of dark energy in the universe is large enough, there will come a time when the universe will begin to tear in an increasingly accelerated way, because gravity will be unable to counteract the repulsive effect of energy dark, until reaching the point that matter itself would disintegrate.
https://pixabay.com/es/galaxy-espacio-universo-11098/
Estimates indicate that the end of the universe by this scenario would occur some 20,000 million years in the future, according to these estimates to 1000 million years from the end of the universe, the galaxies would have moved away from each other enough, so that, product from this. the effect of gravity is reduced, causing its tearing, 60 million years from the final moment, only single stars would remain, three months from the end the planetary systems would tear apart and a few minutes later the stars and planets would, at 10E-18 seconds the atoms would disintegrate, leaving only some subatomic particles, unable to interact and without any energy, for the enormous distances that would separate them.
Phase Transition from False Vacuum to Absolute Vacuum, Coleman-De Luccia Effect
This is the last and weirdest of the scenarios that would pose an end to the universe, it would not be related to the amount of dark energy, nor to the geometry of the universe. In theory now the universe would be in a state of false vacuum, ie there would be areas where there would be a complete absence of particles of matter, but in which there are nevertheless energetic fluctuations of quantum fields, virtual particles and antiparticles would be generated, in this false vacuum, it could happen, by tunnel effect, a transition to a state of absolute vacuum, which would manifest as a vacuum bubble that could appear anywhere and start to grow at the speed of light, until covering the entire universe . In this vacuum bubble, physical laws would be different, affecting any form of matter that is trapped. Due to gravity, the center of the bubble would collapse into a singularity that would eventually spread throughout the universe, altering it completely.
https://pixabay.com/es/negro-taladro-espacio-cosmos-3490482/
These would be the four scenarios that would represent the end of everything that exists, either because it is absorbed into a new singularity or because all kinds of activity disappear even at the quantum level, none of these scenarios would be observed by humans (except maybe the last), unless we have managed to leave our planet, because long before this happens our sun will have consumed the Earth when it reached its red giant phase, and then disappear leaving its place to a white dwarf, who would see the last moments of the existence of matter.
Well, with this concludes this publication, I hope you have been to your liking, I am attentive to your comments and I thank you in advance for your votes. Thank you for your attention, until the next post.
Sources
Atkinson, N. No “Big Rip” in our Future: Chandra Provides Insights Into Dark Energy, Universe Today
Cuentos Cuánticos. El falso vacío, Cuentos Cuánticos
Coleman S. and De Luccia F. Gravitational effects on and of vacuum decay. Physical Review D. 21(12)
Fraser, C. Dark Energy Could be a Breakdown of Einstein’s Theory, Universe Today
Hubblesite. Fate of the Universe. Hubblesite.org
Todo Sobre Ciencia. Energía Oscura, Todo sobre ciencia
Villanueva, J. C. Big Crunch, Universe Today
Villanueva, J. C. Big Freeze, Universe Today
Wikipedia. Big Freeze, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Destino final del universo, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Ecuaciones de Friedmann, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Falso vacío, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Teoría del Big Crunch, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Teoría del Big Rip, Wikipedia https://www.universetoday.com/22382/no-big-rip-in-our-future-chandra-provides-insights-into-dark-energy/ https://cuentos-cuanticos.com/2012/07/19/el-falso-vacio/ https://www.sns.ias.edu/pitp2/2011files/PhysRevD.21.3305.pdf https://www.universetoday.com/10530/dark-energy-could-be-a-breakdown-of-einsteins-theory/ http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/de-fate_of_the_universe.php https://www.allaboutscience.org/spanish/energia-oscura.htm https://www.universetoday.com/37018/big-crunch/ https://www.universetoday.com/36917/big-freeze/ https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Freeze https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destino_final_del_universo https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuaciones_de_Friedmann#El_par%C3%A1metro_de_densidad https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falso_vac%C3%ADo https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teor%C3%ADa_del_Big_Crunch https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teor%C3%ADa_del_Big_Rip
Lead Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/reloj-5-vor-12-la-und%C3%A9cima-hora-2057400/
Are we insignificant?
Yes, we are insignificant, Who are we? … Does our existence have any value for the cosmos …? What is our role in everything that exists …? Are inconsequential questions.
Our search for meaning is no more than a form of complacency, a reflection of our desire to be more important than what we actually have, it is part of our justified inferiority complex.
If we look at the universe, we will realize that, for everything that exists, we are simply one more world of the heap, populated by insignificant beings. It is irrelevant that life has proliferated in him, that life has been organized, until it has become complex and that these complex life forms have developed communities and self-awareness, in order to be able to ask themselves these questions.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603.jpg
The Sun, our star, is a yellow dwarf, one of the most common types of stars, not the most common, but almost, it is not an especially interesting star, it is average, it is not very convulsed, like the blue or red giants , who consume their fuel with such intensity and to such an extent that they have a very short life and a spectacular and violent death, much like James Dean (yes, the phrase is not of him but it fits like a finger), “Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse”. Nor is it as boring as the red dwarfs that live for an eternity and their death is comparable to the extension of a candle flame, some shine from before the creation of the galaxy and may still be there when it ceases to be.
Our solar system revolves around the galaxy in Orion’s arm, rising and falling in the plane of this, as if drawing a wave, if we imagined it as a sphere with the Sun in the center it would have a diameter of about 2 light years, in all its immensity our solar system is not more than a tiny point in our galaxy of 100 thousand light years in diameter and it is not even a rarity, the more we search, we find more and more planetary systems, formed by an infinity of worlds . We live in a star system more than the heap.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistema_solar#/media/File:Montagem_Sistema_Solar.jpg
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of an array of galaxies we call the local group, consisting of about 45 galaxies, of different sizes, several of them larger satellites, among them only three can be called giant galaxies, being Andromeda the largest and the Milky Way the next in size.
Andromeda, about 50 thousand light years larger and the Milky Way, in about 3000 to 5000 million years will collide, mixing and tearing each other as if it were two wisps of smoke, intertwining, until the supermassive black holes of their nuclei combine in a bigger one and end up both forming a new galaxy. In this process our solar system could survive without almost being affected, just by contemplating the impressive spectacle in the night sky, or maybe we could shoot out in the tear, being adrift in space in the fragments of the stellar cloud that separate during the collision.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superc%C3%BAmulo_de_Virgo#/media/File:Superc%C3%BAmulo_de_Virgo.jpg
The local group is part of an even larger structure, the Virgo Supercluster, made up of more than 100 clusters as the local group, in total it has a diameter of about 107 million light years. This super cluster is at the same time contained in the Liniakea Hypercluster, a filament-like structure that groups three other superclusters apart from ours, gathers some 100 thousand galaxies and has a radius of about 520 million light years. Somewhere in the supercluster of Hydra-Centaur, the Great Attractor is a gravitational anomaly in which the center of mass of the whole hypercluster coincides and all its components move towards it.
In turn, the Lineakea hypercluster in only one of the more than 6 million hyperclusters that make up the observable universe and that are distributed almost uniformly in the form of filaments throughout the space, if we compare the size of our planet with that of the observable universe, it would be the equivalent of comparing the size of a molecule with the diameter of the orbit of Mercury, the fraction of the universe that we can see extends in a radius of 13,700 million light years, more beyond that distance, the objects move at speeds greater than the speed of light, so we will never get to observe them.
So before such vastness, such a number of possible galaxies, stars, worlds, what is special about us ?, there is only one possible answer, NOTHING, we are an insignificant world among an infinity of them, a probability of life among infinity of them , we do not know if there is life in other worlds, but the odds are in favor of it being so, so the only thing that may make us special is probably not a rarity, but the rule, where the necessary conditions exist, life is will manifest, simple organic compounds will be grouped into amino acids, these into macromolecules and these into primitive life forms, and thus the chain will initiate. We are not an exception but the rule, the universe tends to complexity, to the construction of larger and larger structures. From the elementary particles to the filaments of galaxies that form the observable whole.
Before this extreme complexity, before this order emerged from chaos, our simple existence is futile and unimportant, for the universe we are insignificant, irrelevant. We are nothing special, we are simply another species that inhabit an insignificant planet, a boring star system, in one of the many galaxies of the Virgo Supercluster.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/ni%C3%B1a-creo-que-mujer-mujeres-1721424/
Then no, the universe does not conspire so that you can achieve what you want, simply the universe you are not interested in, learn to accept your successes and your failures, not everything turns out as you want it, no matter how hard you try, for more positive thinking you have, you will not get everything you want, your actions do not have a transcendental meaning, do not be pretentious, your life is not a search for an ultimate goal, live enjoyment every success and learn from every failure, appreciate every moment with the his.
There is only one thing that equals us, from Donald Trump to amart29, from the president of Apple Inc., to the corner juncture, we are all insignificant for the universe, at any time a devastating event, a supernova, an explosion of rallos gamma, a solar flare or a comet, could erase our existences, and simply everything that humanity has been on this insignificant planet, would disappear from the universe leaving behind only a set of emissions in the radio spectrum, which would eventually also disappear, leaving thus erased all evidence that once there was a civilization in a boring star system on the Orion arm of the Milky Way.
Sources
Wikipedia.Sistema solar, Wikipedia
Wikipedia.Grupo Local, Wikipedia
Wikipedia.Supercúmulo de Virgo, Wikipedia
Wikipedia.Laniakea, Wikipedia
Wikipedia.Gran Atractor, Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistema_solar https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Local https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superc%C3%BAmulo_de_Virgo https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Atractor
Orbis - The Sea
For someone who had spent her whole life in front of a dry river bed and water was a luxury that few people in the village could have at home, being in front of the sea for the first time was absolutely overwhelming.
Ivan urged her to take off her old boots and put her feet in the water, but Aurora refused to do it, the imposing sight and the fierceness of the waters overwhelmed her, she felt as if they were oppressing her abdomen and making it difficult for her to breathe.
-Come on Aurora, come with me, I promise nothing will happen to you, -Ivan shouted from the shore, where the foam of the waves was diluted in the white sand-. Come closer, don't be afraid.
Aurora, fearful, took off her boots and felt the sand on her feet, it seemed to her that she had never been barefoot, outside her house or Ivan's room; as far as she knew, it was the first time that her feet stepped on something different from a cold concrete floor.
She could feel the sand slipping between her toes, and found it strangely pleasant, as did the warmth coming from the tiny grains. She walked slowly to where Ivan was waiting for her, motioning for her to hurry and stopped just before she stepped onto the wet sand.
-What's up monkey, hurry up, -Ivan insisted.
She took a deep breath, trying to push the fear out of her mind, despite the thunderous sound of the waves, which seemed to pound her head. She stepped onto the wet sand and felt the cold water of a breaking wave, slipping through her fingertips and it was as if a great weight was released from her back, suddenly her fear disappeared and she ran splashing to hold on to Ivan's waist who took her in his arms.
-You see there was nothing to be afraid of, -he told her, without her paying the slightest attention, she already knew that.
After arriving at the train station, they went straight to the room where Ivan lived, which was part of a dwelling shared by three families; one of whom sublet one of their rooms to his brother.
-I promise I'll look for something bigger so we can be more comfortable -Ivan told her when he noticed the dismay on her face at the smallness of the place.
It was not that she was used to a very big place, after all, the house in La Villa was one of the smallest in the whole place, but, at least there she had her own room, which was even bigger than this one.
-With the sale of the house in La Villa, we can rent a small apartment downtown, tomorrow I will look for one when I go to work, one that we can maintain with my salary, as I no longer have to send money to my mother... -Ivan paused-. It should be enough for us to live in peace.
That night Ivan slept on the floor to give her his bed, however, Aurora could hardly fall asleep, much had happened in recent days, the sudden illness of his mother and its hasty outcome, as well as having to take care of everything related to her burial, had made her mature suddenly.
Now, less than a week after her mother's death, her whole life had changed, La Villa was no longer her home, she was in the largest of cities, alone with her brother, with no one else in the world to lean on. Her only option was to continue maturing.
This was her second day in Alessia, that morning Ivan had taken her to see what would be her new room, it was a small apartment with two bedrooms and a bathroom, it was on the third floor of a building of four.
-The place is not very well kept, it has some plumbing problems and the walls need to be repainted, but I think it will be fine for both of us, I must buy a stove to cook and a couple of cots for both of us, I will do that this afternoon, -Ivan explained, while he showed her the place.
Aurora walked back and forth and peeked into both rooms and the battered bathroom, it was not her house in La Villa, but it would be her new home. The rooms were practically the same, but only the window in one of them let in plenty of light from outside, she would later find out that the view from the other overlooked a neighboring building.
-I'll let you choose your room- he said. -Which one do you like the most?
-I prefer this one, -answered Aurora, almost without thinking about it, but with little interest, pointing to the most illuminated room.
-It's an excellent choice, monkey, -said her brother -- You've already seen the view from the window.
Aurora, reluctantly, walked to the window, to find a breathtaking view of the sea, a lonely and illuminated white sandy beach, which peeked between the surrounding buildings, she had not noticed before, but the rumor she heard since they had entered the apartment, were the waves breaking on the shore.
-What do you think? -asked Ivan, who was watching her from the door.
-I like it..., I like it very much, -she answered, smiling for the first time since she came to Alessia.
-Come on, you want to know the sea, - her brother suddenly told her.
After walking for a while on the sand, they sat down on a bench to shake their feet so they could put their boots back on, while they did so Aurora took a handkerchief out of her pocket to dry her hands and found the card that the man on the train had given her.
-Ivan, I forgot to give you this, -said the girl, extending the crumpled card to her brother.
-What is this, - asked Ivan rhetorically. -Who is this Luciano Morelli?
-He's a man who was talking to me on the train, he told me he could teach me how to read my aunt Julia's book, - answered Aurora.
-It says here that he is a professor at the University of Alessia, Faculty of Archaeology, - read Ivan, on the small piece of paper. -What exactly did he tell you?
-He asked me to look at my aunt's book and then asked me if I understood it, - explained Aurora - I said no and he asked me if I wanted to learn how to read it and I said yes, - said the girl with a shrug. Then he gave me his card and asked me to tell you to call him when we got to Alessia.
-Okay, I'll keep this, - said Ivan putting the card in his pocket -. I'll find out who he is and then we'll decide what to do, for now we must go back to the apartment, you'll be in charge of packing my things, while I go to work and look for what we'll need in our new room, if everything goes well, today will be the last night we sleep in the same room..., did you know you snore, -he said laughing.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/pies-piernas-arena-el-agua-ola-ir-1599884/
Orbis - The Sandwich Kiosk
Peter and his father's small food stand was located near one of the exits of the square in front of the library of the University of Alessia, although it was not one of the most popular among the students, the income they had was enough to be able to live quietly, the vegetable omelets and rye flour buns filled with grains and mushrooms that were their specialty, had a loyal clientele that delighted in them, they were a change from the meat and chicken sandwiches that were usually sold in the other kiosks of the site.
It would soon be four years since his accident at the Orbis factory in Axia, his father and he had moved to Alessia a few months after that, as soon as they could they started a new food stand like the one his father had in Axia. But that wasn't the biggest change in his life in the last few years, shortly after arriving in Alessia, he met a young medical student and after several months of dating they decided to live together and she moved in with him and his father.
Now, after almost two years of being together, they are expecting their first child, Lucia is already seven months pregnant, the doctors who evaluated her had told them that they were expecting a boy, whom they decided to name Samuel, after Lucia's grandfather. The arrival of Samuel was a surprise for both of them, her other sisters had turned out to be infertile and the doctors suspected that she might also be infertile.
It was almost lunchtime and Peter and his father had everything planned for the arrival of the bulk of the customers, normally the students had an hour to eat between morning and afternoon classes, it used to be a mad rush of young people walking from one place to another looking for where to spend the credits they were allotted for lunch, It was usually not the first choice of most, but they could always count on their loyal clientele, consisting mainly of professors and students in their final years of studies, to their pride even the director of the university had become a regular diner and a loyal fan of the mushroom and vegetable sandwiches.
Lunchtime was also the only time of the day he could see Lucia, between the early morning when he and his father went out to prepare everything in the kiosk and the evening when Lucia left her classes and joined them to accompany them until closing time, he had no contact with her, unless for some strange reason one of her classes was suspended.
Peter always had the idea that, for him, a poor and not very smart mutilated worker, coming from a dirty and wild industrial city, to find a beautiful and intelligent young medical student, who took notice of him and wanted to be his companion for life, had been the single greatest achievement of his whole life and now to be about to become the father of a child would be the greatest joy he would perhaps ever receive.
Just at two o'clock in the afternoon, the flow of students and teachers began to stream through the gardens and the central plaza of the university, in a hurried search for food. The stalls selling sandwiches of different types of meats, pastas and desserts were the most sought after, located almost in front of the library, it was the part where the largest number of students were crowded. Peter could see Lucia pushing her way through the bustling crowd in the square, dressed in the usual blue gown she always wore when she had lab classes, she walked with difficulty and her appearance was funny, since the buttons of the once loose gown, on her now bulging belly, seemed a risk to the safety of the eyes of anyone standing in front of her.
He hadn't seen her since the wee hours of the morning, when he had left her asleep in the bedroom, he and her father were out long before dawn and for almost three months now, when her belly began to grow and she began to have difficulty sleeping, he preferred not to disturb her in the wee hours of the morning. Her smile was radiant, her small, plump figure, stood out in the crowd, for Peter it was like seeing a single person in color in a world of sepia tones.
-Hello Peter, hello Mr. Peter, haven't you started selling yet, do you want me to help you with anything, I have an hour free after lunch- said Lucia cheerfully, although suffocated, in front of the counter.
-Don't worry Lucy, sit quietly and rest, father and I already have everything ready, if you want after lunch, tell us how the practices are going, -answered Peter, from the other side of the counter.
Lucia sat down at a small table with only one seat, provided for her next to the kiosk, and she began to rest and eat the lunch she had brought with her. She excused herself by saying that the doctor had told her that she should eat more meat, but the truth was that she did not really enjoy the vegetable-based food they prepared at the kiosk, she liked the buns stuffed with mushrooms, but she could not eat that every day, so she preferred to bring her food from home and thus not buy from the competition.
That afternoon would be crucial in Lucia's career, after helping Peter and Pedro to clean the tables after lunch and chatting with them during her free hour, while they prepared everything ready for dinner, she went to the dean of the medical school to receive from him the news that her doctoral research thesis had been accepted and as soon as she finished her internship she could defend it in order to receive her degree.
Sixteen months after this day, Lucia would receive her medical degree, and little Samuel, already one year old, would accompany them to his mother's promotion. Both of them and his grandfather Pedro were amazed at how fast the little one was learning, at eight months he had begun to say his first words and at one year old, he was already making himself clearly understood, although with a limited vocabulary.
Samuel, unlike other babies his age, could stay focused for a long time on the same activity, without losing interest in it, besides having a fine motor skills much more developed than any other infant of his age they knew, to the point of being able to hold a pencil and make firm and coherent strokes on paper, he still could not read, but he could identify and repeat letters and numbers, besides counting to ten.
That afternoon at Lucia's graduation ceremony, Samuel, clearly intrigued by this, asked Peter what was going on, to which Peter replied that his mother was becoming a doctor. Incredibly, Samuel understood what a doctor was and told his father, "I also want to be a doctor like my mother", so clearly, that Peter was impressed and did not tell Lucia the anecdote until two days after the event. Full of joy Peter told Lucia.
-Samuel told me that he wanted to be a doctor like his mother, -Peter with a wide smile continued- you see Lucy, Sami will be as smart as you, not a fool like his father.
Hearing this, Lucia approached Peter and hugged him as tight as she could, -You are not a fool Peter, you are the most honest and lovable person that exists, besides if you were a fool, I would have never fallen in love with you- she told him- and Samuel will be smarter than both of them and as good as you-.
The Hilbert surname once played a sadly important role in history, a role now known only to a few academics. In a few decades it would be the precocious Samuel who would be in charge of changing this, for the benefit of a dying humanity.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/comida-callejera-de-coreano-se%C3%BAl-1308958/
Orbis - Alessia
A long stretch of monorail separated Axia from Alessia, although the trip took about six hours, Aurora had the feeling that she had been sitting in her seat next to the window for days, even if it was not much she could see due to the speed at which they were moving, it was more than she had ever seen in her entire life.
On its way, the monorail crossed about eight villas larger and more colorful than La Villa, a bridge over a lake of beautiful greenish waters, large fields of crops, and several miles of desert, Aurora was amazed at such a variety of landscapes, but what impressed her most was the passage over the eastern mountains and the view from them of the sea, impressed she emitted an exclamation that caught the attention of a passenger who was sitting in front of her and that during the whole trip had not raised his eyes from an electronic notebook.
He was a man in his forties, with a yellowish complexion and a bony face, dressed in an elegant dark blue suit, complemented by a strange blue suede hat, crowned by a golden tassel. After Aurora called his attention, the man was observing her discreetly for a few minutes, paying special attention to the object she was carrying on her legs, they were almost about to reach Alessia when he addressed a few words to her.
-Excuse the indiscretion child, my name is Luciano Morelli, I could notice your interest in the landscape during the whole journey, is it the first time you travel? - he asked looking at her face with great interest.
-Yes sir, it's the first time, my brother has done this route before, but I had never left the village- answered Aurora pointing to Ivan, who had fallen asleep in his seat a few minutes after leaving Axia.
-They are going to Alessia I guess, if it's not a bother, could you tell me what they are going there for -continued Luciano.
-Yes sir, we are going to live in Alessia, my mom died recently and my brother and I decided to move there- answered Aurora innocently.
-And again, if it's not too much trouble for me to ask you, what's that you're carrying on your legs - he asked, while pointing to the bulge on the girl's legs.
-A book that belonged to my aunt, she lived for some time in Alessia- answered Aurora squeezing the book wrapped in cloth that she was carrying on her legs.
-Would you allow me to see it? - she asked looking her straight in the eyes.
-But you're going to give it back to me, aren't you? -she said, staring him in the face, while frowning.
-I give you my word- he said to her, while he gave her a wide smile, which seemed to be a grimace on his bony face.
Aurora with difficulty extended the book to Luciano, who took it with delicacy and put it on his legs to unwrap it. He looked at it curiously without opening it and felt its cover with interest as if looking for something in particular, his face remained expressionless until he opened it and began to leaf through its pages, the man's eyes seemed to open until they were completely round, his serene expression became somber, Aurora noticed how his jaw seemed to drop as if he was about to open his mouth, but without parting his lips, after glancing at it for a while almost without blinking, he took off his curious hat and scratched his almost bald head nervously, closed the book and stared at Aurora.
-Excuse my indiscretion, but what is your name? - he asked apparently dismayed.
-Aurora Roberti-, he answered tilting his head to one side and smiling cheerfully at her.
-And Aurora, what was your aunt's name-, he asked, fixing his gaze on Aurora.
-Julia, sir, Julia Roberti... - she answered back in her seat intimidated by the man's gaze.
Luciano leaned back in the seat and for a moment Aurora had the impression that he was going to be sick, he took a big breath of air and carefully wrapped the book again with the old and faded cloth, he lifted it from his lap and passed it to Aurora who again, with difficulty, put it on hers and held it clinging to it frightened by the man's behavior.
-Tell me something Aurora, do you understand what it says in that book you treasure so much, - he asked, his already haggard face looked even more aged.
-No sir, I don't know how to read what it says, my aunt never taught me the languages in which her books were written- answered the girl.
-Would you like to learn to read those languages- asked Luciano.
-Yes sir, I would love to-, answered Aurora smiling again.
-I will leave you my phone number, tell your brother when he wakes up and you are in Alessia, to call me, I will talk to him about teaching you to read the languages in which your book is written. Don't forget to do it, it's very important-, Luciano's expression looked like the one who desperately begs for something, he extended Aurora a card that he took out of the pocket of his suit.
-Yes sir, I will certainly tell him- said Aurora taking the card.
-For now I will say goodbye to you, don't forget to tell your brother, it is very important, we are almost to Alessia, I will go to the next carriage to have a drink, I have to think about some things, I trust I will see you in Alessia- he said again with a pleading expression.
-Yes sir, of course- answered the girl still clinging to the book.
The man got up staggering and went to the door that separated both carriages, but not before turning twice to see Aurora again as he walked away.
It was already dusk when they reached Alessia, again Aurora's expression was filled with amazement and joy at the sight of so many illuminated buildings, as well as the lights of the vehicles moving quickly from one side to the other, just as they passed between two large and illuminated dome-shaped buildings, she noticed that Ivan had awakened and was watching her attentively with a big smile. Aurora saw him and was amazed and full of joy.
-What is that big round building? -she asked her brother.
-It is the University of Alessia, where Aunt Julia studied, and the one next to it is the Library.
Aurora glued her forehead to the window and kept watching Alessia's lights moving in the opposite direction of the monorail while her face was smiling broadly.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/viajar-ciudad-cuerpo-de-agua-3265967/
Orbis - Farewell to La Villa
He had spent his whole life in that small house and now he had to leave. All his childhood was spent in La Villa, it was his world, the only thing he knew; after the death of his mother, Ivan decided that the best thing he could do was to go to live with Alessia, his mother was the only thing that still kept them in the villa.
Shortly after Aurora turned twelve, her mother fell ill, as her aunt Julia did some time before, Ivan said that it must be the fumes coming from the forbidden zone and Axia, that the fumes were killing the people of the village.
Even before, his brother had talked to them about going to Alessia to look for work to send money for her and their mother and that when they could they would leave too, he even went to travel a few times and stay a few months in the city, but always ended up returning home, when he finished with the work there.
When her mother got sick, Ivan was in Alessia, she had to take over for two weeks while she returned, in her twelve years she had never felt very close to her mother, maybe in those weeks she had known more about her than she had in her whole life. She told her about her childhood on the north side of La Villa, how she and her sister, Aunt Julia, used to listen to their grandfather's stories, about ancient times, about when people lived in caves, about all the hardships humanity went through after the catastrophe.
But what impressed Aurora the most was to see her mother's happy face as she told her about the hours she spent playing with Julia after school, how they would lie down on the grass to watch the ants carrying bits of leaves to their nests and the hours they spent talking about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Julia always wanted to continue studying, she wanted to be a teacher, but she didn't want to stay in the village, she wanted to go to Alessia, she wanted to continue learning about what her grandfather told them.
Her mother felt more identified with what her mother was doing, she wanted to raise a family, have children and live peacefully in the village, she never thought of leaving and always thought that Julia's dreams were nothing more than fantasies, so when she was twelve years old, she was surprised one afternoon, when, while they were walking back from school, Julia told her that she was going to apply for a scholarship that Orbis gave annually, to go to study in Alessia.
Her mother would have been furious at the possibility of her sister leaving her alone, Julia told her that when she was working as a teacher she would come for her and they would live together in the city, but that was not what her mother wanted, that was Julia's dream, her mother only wanted to stay in the village, to learn to cook, to weave, what older women do.
Julia received the scholarship, which was not a surprise to anyone and a month later she went to live and study in Alessia, before leaving she reminded her mother of her intention to return to look for her so they could live together in the city.
By the time Julia returned, six years later, her mother and father were already together, Julia went to Alessia alone and a year later she was back to stay in La Villa, her mother never asked her why she had returned, if she had fulfilled what she had always wanted, Julia moved to live in a house at the south end of the village and a year later when Ivan was born, her parents decided to move in with her.
When Julia died, her mother wanted all the books and notes she treasured so much to be given to Alessia's university, she had told them it was because she thought Julia would have preferred it that way, but she confessed to her that in reality she felt she was getting rid of what she had once taken from her sister.
Before he died he made one last revelation to her, he told her that one of the people who had come from the university to get Julia's things was her sister's tutor while she studied at Alessia. The man told her of his dismay when Julia told him that she was returning to live in La Villa, she was his best student and was the most promising of the recently graduated historians, she already had a position as a teacher, when asked why she was leaving all that, Julia confessed that she did it because what she most wanted was to return to live with her sister and she preferred to leave that, than to lose her forever.
Now she was here in what had been her mother's room, sitting on the bare mattress of her bed, contemplating through the door the living room of what would soon cease to be her home, the room was almost empty, only the bed and the old closet remained, suddenly it came to her mind that it had not been emptied and she would not let anyone rummaging through her mother's personal belongings.
The closet had only a few neatly arranged dresses and shoes, of the two bottom drawers one was empty and the other contained only some socks, as she closed it after seeing that there was nothing important, she remembered that her mother used to put things on the cabinets and shelves, So she looked for a small stool and climbed on it to see if there was anything on top of the closet, when she stretched to look out, she found an object wrapped in a faded blue cloth, as she could she stretched and pulled it to rest it on her head and then got down from the stool.
The cloth wrapped a book, which at first sight seemed to be one of her aunt Julia's, when she opened it she could see the usual texts in languages that only she understood, in its first page she found an old photograph of fifteen by ten centimeters, in it appeared sitting on a park bench, two smiling girls, about twelve and eight years old, holding hands, on the back was written in a beautiful cursive handwriting, "Julia and Paula, summer 866".
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/maleta-descanso-rubia-mujer-bella-1077412/
Orbis - The Catacombs
Hilda leaned back in her chair, she had already spent eight hours reading the thick copy and it was beginning to get dark, she would have preferred not to have to take it back to the historical texts room, but soon it would be closing time and she could not take the book out of the library, fortunately for her there had been little movement today, only a couple of engineering students who had dedicated their afternoon to prepare for next week's qualifying exams and had not interrupted her at all.
After leaving the text in Tomas' hands and telling him she would continue reading the next day, she set out to return to her room. On the way to the transport she was able to assimilate what she had read during that afternoon.
The author of the first pages of the diary never knew what really happened, he did not know the cause of what had happened to the world, for him only the sky had blackened, after a series of destructive earthquakes, which devastated his city. In reality, there was not much difference between what she knew today, almost a thousand years after the catastrophe, and what the person who wrote the first pages of that diary knew who lived through it in person.
After the earth had calmed down, the sky blackened for what seemed to those who lived through it to be little more than four years, the plants began to wither and little by little the animals were disappearing, absolutely all equipment that ran on electricity ceased to do so; for lack of sunlight and of what in various parts of the writing was called Ether. From one moment to the next mankind had been returned to the stone age.
With the darkening of the skies came a winter that lasted more than ten years, the people who survived the catastrophe took refuge in the subways of the cities where it was easier to keep warm, many others fled the destroyed cities, seeking less hostile places for shelter, taking refuge in caves in the mountains, where at least they had a less crowded environment.
These city subways and caves were what they called catacombs, and human life developed in them for at least twenty years after the catastrophe. When the almost permanent winter had definitely ceased.
The catacombs were cold, damp, dark and unhealthy, and daily disease, hunger and hypothermia claimed the lives of those who precariously inhabited them. In his story, the author of the initial pages of the text, told how, in the first months of living in the subway of his city, almost every day one or two people died and the situation worsened with the passing of time, according to his speculations, of the nearly five hundred people who were in the sector where he was only fifty-six survived the first year.
Those who stayed in the cities were the luckiest, in the mountains, as most of the vegetation died, many of the animals disappeared, so there were no food sources, that, the cold, the diseases and the lack of experience to live in a wild environment, ended up killing almost all those who decided to take refuge in caves.
Something that strongly caught Hilda's attention was the constant reference to Ether, apparently it was the main source of food, resources and energy before the catastrophe, it was the first reference she found to that in all the historical records of the time she had studied. From what he could understand, a good part of the misfortune that befell mankind was because of the dependence it had on this technology and its absence, was its doom.
The transport was arriving at the station where Hilda was to get off, she would stop by the food stalls in the square for something for her and her ferret, before returning to her room; she felt too tired to cook, she just wanted to get to rest, but she still had a long night left transcribing her notes and crossing the new information with what she had already gathered from other sources, she had to get her work done today, because tomorrow she had to continue with the reading.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/cueva-galer%C3%ADa-subterr%C3%A1neo-piedras-1880282/
Orbis - The Library
The walls of the room were painted in a sterile white color, without any ornamentation to alter its monotony, about twenty tables occupied the entire place, in them each and every one of the two hundred chairs were unoccupied, in the background could be seen the coming and going of those in charge of the historical documents room. Hilda stood up and walked slowly to the glass door that separated the two rooms, her forty-eight years were already weighing on her back, it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe and she could not move at the same speed as before.
-I hope no one is coming today- she thought as she pushed the door, which she found especially heavy today, -I wouldn't want to have to walk again and again through the room-.
In front of the glass door was the desk of the manager, a slim, dark-haired, greasy-haired young man, who looked at Hilda in disgust.
-Hello Mrs. Hilda, little movement in the reading room today, -said the young man, while sketching a forced smile.
-Yes, Tomas, no one has been here all day, -she paused to take a breath, she was short of breath, -haven't they brought down the document I asked for yesterday?
-Let me find out- Tomas turned around and walked to the end of the room where the archivist's counter was, he spoke to one of them who, after leafing through a notebook, turned away from the counter, Tomas turned around and made an approving gesture as a sign that the document was already there.
The archivist returned and placed a thick white box on the counter in front of Tomas, placed a piece of paper on it and then said something that Hilda did not hear. Tomas lifted the box and returned to his desk where Hilda was waiting for him, watching the whole process.
-What you asked for, Mrs. Hilda, the archivist told me that I should return it before departure time, and to let him know if you are going to need it tomorrow, so as not to return it to the main file, -Tomas placed the box on the desk and handed over the slip of paper that the archivist had placed on the box. -Please sign me the receipt-.
Hilda took the pencil that was on the desk and after looking at the receipt, signed it and returned it to Tomas. She lifted the box, which she found incredibly heavy for what it contained, exhaled a sigh and, surprised, blinked repeatedly, after catching her breath, gasped, -Tomas, will you open the door for me please-.
-Of course, Mrs. Hilda, -he hurried towards the heavy glass door-. Do you feel ok?, -he said, as he pushed it.
-Yes, don't worry, I'm just a little short of breath, - Hilda answered as she left the room, trying to hurry to her own desk and leave the box on it.
Gasping, she placed the box on her desk and lifted the lid, which bore only an identification code. It contained a thick leather-covered volume, with nothing written on it, its pages covered in plastic, they were handwritten, it had about a thousand pages, which were sewn together with what seemed to be a thick synthetic fiber string, she glanced through them for a moment without reading them, just looking at their contents, it was written on different types of paper, some pages on white paper, others in stripes, others on paper that seemed torn from other books and reused; also, the quality of the ink and the handwriting changed throughout the pages; one could tell that the volume had been written by different people, over a long period of time.
Attached to the inside of the box cover was an envelope containing a plastic slip with a brief explanation of the contents of the box.
Copy R-234-443-678
Title: Untitled
Author: Various.
Date: Estimated between 45 and 359.
Description: Compilation of diaries of various reporters, it is considered the record of events closest to the great catastrophe, narrating life in the catacombs and briefly describing what happened during the catastrophe.
Provenance: Southern region of the continent.
Condition: restored in 899, there are illegible pages, the cover is not the original, possibly missing pages.
She saw the first page of the volume, it was partially torn at the edges, the paper had turned yellow ochre with time, it was written in Spanish, the text was barely legible, fortunately, the opaque blue ink still contrasted with the color of the paper. She placed the book under the projector she had on her desk, in order to read it, since it was difficult to read with the naked eye, at the top of the page she could make out what seemed to be the author's name, a date and a small legend.
Antonio José Ríos Arocha, year 5 in the catacombs.
I think it has been about 8 years since the earth shook and the sky turned black.
She increased the contrast of the projector and read the next page. She had waited a long time for this, the volume she had on her desk had been kept for several years since it was found and brought to the library, and she had waited several more months for it to be available to her, after having been rotated by several historians of the University, and at last she had the opportunity to read it.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/libro-biblioteca-educaci%C3%B3n-283247/
Orbis - Axia
Section 24 was a crowded block of apartments located at the northern end of Axia, in it lived almost a third of the population of the city; after the southern blocks had been evicted, because of the great concentration of the mist, almost all its inhabitants had been moved there, its initially wide corridors were now almost impassable, because of the merchant stalls offering their wares and the immense swarm of its inhabitants.
It was the largest section of the ten still active and the last to be built, its spacious apartments were initially dedicated to the new settlers, who were transferred from another industrial city, which had been closed for exhausting the resources it exploited, but because of the need to close sections 1 to 14, it had been necessary to house up to three families in each apartment; since then sections 20 and 24, which had received most of the evictees, were not good places to live.
-Axia is growing like crabs, - said Isaiah to Abdel, as they made their way through the people flooding hall 45, section 24.
-How is that? -Abdel asked.
-It is breaking out of its shell to make room -Isaiah answered.
-But instead of making space, it seems to be running out of it- said Abdel as he squeezed between two women who were standing in a line in front of a stand selling vegetables.
-Yes, maybe the comparison is not very good- concluded Isaiah.
After making their way for a few more minutes through the corridors of section 24, they found themselves in front of the door of one of the apartments, they had the number 433 almost illegible in front of their eyes, -this must be it- said Abdel, and then knocked on the door.
There was a clatter behind the door, followed by a clearing of the communicator, -What do you want?-, a voice was heard in the door speaker.
-Hello, my name is Abdel, I am a friend of Peter Hilbert, we work together- answered Abdel shouting into the microphone.
-Please let him in, Mrs. Ogawa - a distant voice was heard over the loudspeaker.
After a brief rattle of latches, the door opened, revealing a tiny old woman with long blonde hair and a pleasant smile - come in young people - she said cheerfully, stepping aside to make way for them - can I offer you some water? -The old lady said smiling while she squeezed her eyelids to focus on Abdel and Isaiah's faces.
-Yes, thank you very much ma'am, it is very hot in the corridors- answered Abdel leaning towards the old lady.
They both entered the apartment, it looked just like any other apartment in section 24; things piled up everywhere, people peeking through the doors to see who had arrived and an intense stale smell, typical of any place with poor ventilation and many people accumulated; above all this, there was also an intense but pleasant smell of spicy food, which must have come from the kitchen. Isaiah guessed that it was the lovely old lady who had welcomed them, who must be cooking dinner for her family, one of the three that lived in that apartment.
Near the large window overlooking the canyon, through which the yellowish light of the reflectors, placed on the walls, was entering to complement the scarce light that came in because of the mist, was Peter, leaning back in an old armchair, his face drew a wide smile when he saw Abdel.
-Hello Pig, how are you doing? - Peter asked him, extending his hand to greet him, - Sorry I don't stand up, but I'm still not good at balancing - he removed the cushion he had on his legs to show the stump of his amputated leg a little below the knee. -Who's your friend, pig? - he asked pointing to Isaías.
-I told you not to call me pig, you lame bastard, he is Isaias Lopez, you must know him from the factory, he operates one of the cranes- said Abdel in a jovial tone.
-Hello Hilbert, how are you recovering? - said Isaías, solemnly.
-I'm fine, but don't call me Hilbert, that's what they only call me at the factory and Mrs. Ogawa, I don't know why I've never been able to get her to call me you," he said while smiling, -Call me Peter, now that I see you well if I know you from the factory. And what brings you here pig? -
-You call me a pig again and I'll cut off your other hoof, - Abdel said as he raised his fist in a threatening tone in Peter's direction while he laughed loudly- I came to bring you the things you left in the locker room - he extended to Peter a large cloth bag that didn't seem to contain much inside. - So, what are you going to do? Are you going to stay at the boarding house or are you going to find something to do? -.
-My father told me that we would sell the food stall and move to Alessia, my aunt lives there, I think that with the pension I can be quiet for a while, at least while we put a food stall in Alessia again - Peter made a helpless expression while he pronounced those words.
-I hope you do well in Alessia, old man- Abdel turned his face to Isaiah, and pointing his finger at Peter said: -Lopez, did you know that this brute, he is royalty or something like that -How is that?
-How so? - said Isaiah wrinkling his forehead.
-His family is descended from rich people, isn't it Peter - Abdel squatted down in front of Peter. - Explain to him, you fool.
-He says that a long time ago, before the great catastrophe, our family was the richest in the world, but that was just a rant that my grandfather told him - Peter looked down at his amputated leg, at the same time he lifted it up with his hands - In any case, what good does that do me now - his face darkened.
-Don't be a fool, besides, you're going to get a prosthesis, aren't you? - asked Abdel.
-Yes, they already made the mold, I had to put the stump in a cold viscous thing for ten minutes, while it hardened, I swear I thought my skin was going to fall off when they took it out- he answered, he looked at Isaiah's feet and taking the bag Abdel had given him, he asked: -What size boots do you wear Isaiah? -
Thirty-six I think - Isaiah answered dismayed.
Peter threw him the bag - Here, these should fit you, I think you need them - he said, pointing to Isaiah's feet, encased in a pair of worn brown boots - besides, I have one left over, there are also some socks - and I'm wearing a pair of socks.
They were talking for half an hour more, until Abdel said he had to go back before the transport to section 21 left, they started to say goodbye to Peter, when they were about to open the door Mrs. Ogawa appeared in front of the kitchen door - How are you young people, can I offer you some water, - she said squeezing her eyes and smiling a beautiful smile.
Abdel and Isaiah saw each other's faces and held back a laugh, - No thanks ma'am, we have to go now, my partner will be dropped off by the transport, - said Isaiah, as they left the apartment.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/botas-calzado-ropa-de-trabajo-3450702/
The Multiverse and Time Travel: From Comics and Movies to Theoretical Physics (I)
There is a concept that will be familiar to any comic book fan, at least for those who follow those of the two major publishers of this type of publications, Marvel and DC Comics, which, to reconcile the variety of series, characters, scenarios and sometimes versions of the same characters and scenarios, that exist between the pages of their series, have adopted the concept of the multiverse. A concept that we are now also beginning to see represented in their productions for the small and big screen.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/batman-comic-con-comics-los-libros-2216148/
This concept, together with time travel, has been the leitmotiv that has served to explain and amend any irreparable situation in the plot of many stories, and in many cases, the very core of the motivations that guide the events.
But what does science say about the possibility of a multiverse, it is possible that there could be different versions of us, existing out of our sight.
In this regard, theoretical physics gives us different approaches to the idea of multiverses, all of them are mere speculations, which in the first instance cannot be proven, hence their hypothetical character. In this article I will discuss one of these hypotheses and in subsequent publications I will continue to expand on the subject.
The Interpretation of Multiple Worlds (IMM)
Much has been said about Schrödinger's cat experiment as a way to explain the superposition of states in the quantum world. Suppose that in a box we introduce a cat, a sealed container with a poisonous vapor and a device that will break the container when it detects the emission of an alpha particle from a radioactive isotope; we seal the box so that we cannot see what is happening inside, and after waiting a few minutes, enough for the isotope to have a 50% probability of having emitted the particle, we ask ourselves, without opening the box, in what state is the cat?
Ignoring the ethical implications of killing an innocent cat, this experiment aims to show us, taking to the macro world, what happens with particles at the quantum scale; a phenomenon called superposition, we do not know for sure if the cat is alive or dead, we can only say that its state is equally likely for both cases, that is, it suffers from a superposition of states.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/f%C3%ADsica-gato-de-schr%C3%B6dinger-3864569/
At the quantum level the state of a particle is defined by the so-called wave function, which is nothing more than a probabilistic interpretation of the state of the particle, so, for example, the position of an electron at a given time, can only be defined as a probability expressed by the function, as well as the state of life or death of our cat. The only way to know what happens to the cat, is to open the box and verify it, which in quantum physics is called collapsing the wave function, when this happens, we can know, for example, if the electron is in a place or not. This impossibility of knowing the exact state of a phenomenon at all times, gives a random character to the events in the quantum world.
This is how the perspective of quantum physics, on multiverses, is a direct product of the random nature of quantum phenomena, and is expressed in the Interpretation of Multiple Worlds (IMM) of the American physicist Hugh Everett; from this position, any possible result of a quantum phenomenon, regardless of its probability, exists somewhere, as a classic example of this is the aforementioned experiment of Schrödinger's cat.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universos_paralelos#/media/File:Schroedingers_cat_film.svg
From the IMM position, actually when opening the box, there would be a bifurcation, in which both states would be occurring in parallel, in two different universes, so there would exist somewhere a universe where the cat would be alive and another where it would have died poisoned.
In this interpretation, the random nature of quantum physics would make possible the existence of infinite universes in which each event, subject to quantum randomness, generates bifurcations that give rise to parallel universes.
The IMM gives an interpretation of quantum physics in which the discrete phenomena of each universe can be explained by classical physics, while the randomness of the multiverse requires quantum physics.
These universes would coexist in the same Hubble volume, or space that could be reached by an observer located at the center of an imaginary sphere; beyond this limit, objects move faster than light and would be unreachable. Consequently, these universes would share the same physical constants and laws as the other volumes of the bubble, while their configuration would depend on how randomly distant they are from the bifurcation that gave rise to them.
This concept of multiverse, we can see it expressed, for example, in movies like Avengers: End Game, of course, not without escaping the inevitable time travel. When each of the infinity gems are removed from different moments in time, it forces the creation of different timelines, which are nothing more than universes, bifurcated by the disappearance or not of the respective gem, always keeping as the object of our attention in the film, the universe in which the gem was not extracted, and disappearing the bifurcation, when they are again returned to their original time. That is the explanation of why Captain America could age in the same timeline in which the snap occurred, obviating of course, the paradox that there have been two captains all the time.
For Dragon Ball fans, this is also the explanation why Trunks from the future cannot change the events of his time, because no matter how much he tries to modify the past, this would only start new timelines, universes, that would not affect what happened in his own universe.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/joven-hombre-masculina-guerrero-3816561/
In a future article, I will explain other interpretations of physics regarding the concept of the multiverse, thank you for your attention.Click to Source
Sources
Redacción EC, ¿Qué son los universos paralelos? La última teoría de Stephen Hawking, El Comercio. https://elcomercio.pe/tecnologia/ciencias/son-universos-paralelos-ultima-teoria-stephen-hawking-noticia-517869
Rodríguez, G., Universos paralelos: explicando la teoría, VIX https://www.vix.com/es/btg/curiosidades/3683/universos-paralelos-explicando-la-teoria
Tegmark, M., Universos paralelos, Investigación y Ciencia https://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/investigacion-y-ciencia/universos-paralelos-355/universos-paralelos-3885
Vera, B., Las teorías de los universos múltiples, N+1 https://nmas1.org/material/2017/08/15/teorias-multiverso
Wikipedia, Multiverso, Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverso
Wikipedia, Universos paralelos, Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universos_paralelos
Let's Talk About Galaxies
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/galaxy-cielo-estrellado-estrella-11139/
One of the qualities of all matter is its capacity to organize itself to form complex structures, and although it may seem that this contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, in reality it is nothing more than an expression of it. The four fundamental forces have the capacity to build, from the quantum world to the cosmic scale, structures that scale in levels of complexity; galaxies are one of these structures, and the last ones with a clearly defined characterization that we can identify. Beyond them, the structures that make up the universe become more diffuse and difficult to identify, because of the magnitudes that characterize them.
What are galaxies?
It can be said that galaxies are a grouping of stars, stellar remnants, planets, satellites, other minor bodies, gas, dust and dark matter, which are gravitationally bound together to form an identifiable structure.
The main and most notable components of galaxies are the stars, their number can vary from 10^7 in dwarf galaxies, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud, to 10^14 in the giants.
In the beginning, galaxies were considered gas clouds, which were part of our neighborhood, for this reason they were initially called nebulae, for example Charles Messier in his ***Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des amas d'Étoiles, que l'on découvre parmi les Étoiles fixes sur l'horizon de Paris*** (Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which are observed among the fixed stars above the Paris horizon), of 1774, classified the Andromeda Galaxy as M31 or Andromeda Nebula.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/m31-espacio-astronom%C3%ADa-astron%C3%B3mico-3613931/
The first to propose the idea that the, by then, so-called spiral nebulae, were actually clusters of stars that were more than 150,000 ***Parsec*** (1) away, was Heber D. Curtis, in 1917, who came to this conclusion by studying the photographic record of novae observed in different spiral nebulae and noticing that they were 10 times less bright than those observed in the Milky Way. This observation led him to postulate the hypothesis of island universes, of which the Milky Way would be one.
It was Edwing Hubble, using the Mount Wilson telescope, who in 1924, managed to distinguish stars in the Andromeda Nebula, by then called Andromeda Nebula, and identify a particular type of them, the Cepheid VV, the study of the redshift of its spectrum allowed him to determine that they were between 800 and 1000 million light years away, eight times more distant than the most distant known stars of the Milky Way.
How did galaxies form?
Theoretically, the origin of galaxies goes back to the early universe, during the period of inflation, for some unknown reason, quantum fluctuations caused matter to expand unevenly in all places, causing what is reflected in the cosmic microwave background as anisotropies, the areas of greater concentration of matter were distributed in filaments or cosmic strings, formed as a result of the phase changes that the universe underwent, these accumulations of matter gave rise to gigantic clouds of gas from which originated clusters of stars that would later give rise to galaxies.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflaci%C3%B3n_c%C3%B3smica#/media/File:Ilc_9yr_moll4096.png
This would explain why galaxies would be distributed as clusters that are organized as networks surrounded by empty space, and are not uniformly dispersed throughout the universe.
However, recent observations indicate that galaxies could have originated some 600 million years after the Big Bang, which would not allow enough time for the small anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background to give rise to such large structures; which seems to question the accepted theory of their formation.
On the other hand, the theory is also insufficient to explain several features observed in our own galaxy that could be common to others, such as: why the ***Galactic Halo*** does not rotate or does it very slowly and is so dispersed, while the ***Galactic Disk*** rotates and is so dense. It is also inexplicable that the stars that form the halo, with lower density, are older and of lower metallicity than those that form the disk, as well as it does not explain why even though in general the ***Globular Clusters*** that are supposed to be formed by stars born at the same time and are formed by very old stars, in some cases almost as old as the universe, in some others they seem to be formed by younger stars and even by stars born at different times.
How are galaxies classified?
The instrument used to classify galaxies is the ***Hubble Sequence***, this is a classification proposed by Edwing Hubble in 1936, which is based on the shape of galaxies, basically four types of galaxies can be identified, the spirals, which at the same time are divided into simple and barred spirals, ellipticals, lenticular and irregular galaxies.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxia#/media/File:Hubble_sequence_photo.png
Some astronomers claim that the Hubble sequence should be read backwards, which will be explained later.
***Spiral galaxies***: Spiral galaxies have the shape of a more or less flat disk with a bulging central region formed by older stars, which is called a bulge, from which the spiral arms emerge, giving them their name.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxia_espiral#/media/File:Messier_81_HST.jpg
The spiral arms would contain most of the interstellar gas and dust so they would have the highest star formation rate, while the bulge would have little interstellar matter.
Two types of spiral galaxies can be found, the regular or simple ones which are denoted by the letter S in the classification and the Barred Spirals, which have a band of stars extending on both sides of the bulge and from which the arms arise, these are denoted by the letters SB in the classification.
Both types of spirals are subdivided according to the tightness of their spiral arms, for which a lower case letter 'a' to 'c' is added to denote the tightest to the loosest, respectively.
Additionally it has been proposed to add an additional type of spiral galaxy that would be an intermediate step between the simple spirals and the barred ones called Semi Barred, and would be denoted by the letters SAB.
***Lenticular galaxies***: they are formed by a defined disk surrounding a large central cloud of elliptical shape, they are intermediate states between spirals and ellipticals.
The reason why it is stated that the Hubble sequence should be read backwards is because lenticular galaxies would be the result of the collision of two galaxies, either spirals or a spiral and one of another type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_galaxy#/media/File:Potw1328a.tif
Like spirals, lenticular galaxies can be regular and barred, the former being denoted by the letters SO and the latter by SOB, additionally, according to the density of the disk and the central bar are added numbers from 1 to 3 from the least to the densest.
Additionally, other classifications have been proposed, such as SOAB for those with a rudimentary central bar, or E/SO to denote elliptical galaxies that resemble lenticular galaxies, among others.
***Elliptical galaxies***: Elliptical galaxies are usually formed by old stars and show little star formation, have little interstellar matter and consequently few open clusters.
They are denoted with the letter S and numbered from 0 to 7 according to their eccentricity, being the S0 spherical and the S7 plate-shaped.
These galaxies would be the result of the stabilization of lenticular galaxies and the exhaustion of their interstellar matter, consequently, they would also be the product of the collision of spiral or spiral galaxies and others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_galaxy#/media/File:Elliptical_galaxy_IC_2006.jpg
These galaxies are usually the largest and are generally found in the nuclei of large galaxy clusters.
***Irregular galaxies***: Irregular galaxies lack an identifiable shape that allows them to be classified in the Hubble sequence, they are usually small in size and many of them are small spiral galaxies that are deformed by the presence of larger neighbors.
These galaxies are classified as Irr I, which denotes those that present some structure that could resemble a spiral, and Irr II, which do not present any identifiable shape. In addition, the name dI is used to refer to irregular dwarf galaxies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irregular_galaxy#/media/File:A_lopsided_lynx_NGC_2337.jpg
There are other types of galaxies, which differ from the others not in their shape, since they can be characterized within the Hubble sequence, but in their ability to emit electromagnetic radiation in different spectra in a particularly remarkable way; they are called ***Active Galaxies***.
Active galaxies are those in which a good part of their emission in the electromagnetic spectrum is not due to the components that are normally sources of emission, such as stars or clouds of ionized gas. Very often these intense emission sources are associated with the supermassive black hole that all galaxies have in their interior, which in most galaxies is inactive.
***Seyfert galaxies***: they owe their name to Carl K. Seyfert, who, in 1943, noticed that a group of galaxies, mainly spirals, had a nucleus that seemed to emit a considerable amount of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared and visible range. Later, with the discovery of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei, it was concluded that these emissions were due to the accretion of matter in them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfert_galaxy#/media/File:A_wanderer_dancing_the_dance_of_stars_and_space.jpg
In these galaxies the nucleus would have a considerable amount of interstellar matter that when trapped by the gravity of the black hole would begin to rotate around it, forming a disk of ionized gas that would be the source of light and infrared emissions.
***Radiogalaxies***: these are galaxies that present an intense emission in the frequency of radio waves, this emission is due to ***Synchrotron Radiation*** (2). In this type of galaxies, there are large jets of matter in the form of plasma that are ejected at relativistic velocities, which interact with the electromagnetically charged interstellar medium generating by synchrotron effect the emission of very intense radio waves.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiogalaxia#/media/File:Onde-radioM87.jpg
This type of galaxies are usually elliptical galaxies, in which the supermassive black hole in their nucleus is active and generates plasma jets by ejecting part of the matter that is accelerated in the accretion disk. It is thought that this phenomenon does not occur in spiral galaxies, because the abundance of interstellar matter at low temperature prevents these plasma jets from being projected.
***Quasars***: unlike Seyfer galaxies that emit infrared radiation and visible light, and radio galaxies that emit radio waves, quasars have the peculiarity of emitting large amounts of electromagnetic radiation in both the visible spectrum and in the infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and radio waves, the intensity of its brightness is such that led astronomers to think that they were stars that were in our galaxy, and called them quasi-stellar objects because of their resemblance to a star and their intensity in radio wave emissions that differentiated them from common stars (Quasar is the acronym for quasi-stellar radio source), however, the redshift of their spectrum showed that they were the most distant objects observed to date.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar#/media/File:Artist%27s_rendering_ULAS_J1120%2B0641.jpg
Quasars would be the most intense sources of visible light emission that have been detected, most are so distant that they can only be observed with large telescopes. The brightest observable is 3C 273 located 2,200 light years away in the constellation Virgo, its apparent magnitude is 12.8, but its absolute magnitude at 10 parsec (33 light years) is -26.7, which means that, if it were at that distance from us, its brightness would exceed that of the Sun, this is the only quasar that can be seen with an amateur telescope.
The intense electromagnetic radiation emitted by these objects is supposed to come from matter orbiting at high speed in the accretion disk around the supermassive black hole of a galaxy, however it is not really known what processes make possible the emission of such amount of energy, even it is not known for sure what kind of galaxy houses this type of objects, some observations of the closest ones allow us to assume that they are elliptical galaxies, but this is not yet fully confirmed.
Within this context, there is another type of especially luminous objects called Blazars. Basically a Blazar is a Quasar, whose jet of particles points directly in our direction, which is why they are particularly bright.
What is the relationship between dark matter and galaxies?
I have previously spoken in this blog about dark matter, although never with the rigorousness of the case, in astrophysics and astronomy this term is used to refer to a theoretical type of matter that would correspond to approximately 80% of the total matter that makes up the universe. It is called dark matter because it does not emit any type of electromagnetic radiation, nor does it interact with it, making it imperceptible by the means currently available.
Its nature is completely unknown and its existence has been deduced and confirmed by different theoretical means and indirect evidence. One of these evidences is the fact that, in galaxies, its components can be kept together thanks to gravity and have not ended up dispersing.
The concept of dark matter is due to the Swiss Caltech astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky, who in 1933, estimated the mass of the Coma cluster of galaxies, based on the motion of galaxies at its edges, this estimate turned out to be 400 times larger than what could be calculated by the observational evidence of the number of galaxies and their brightness, then proposed that there must be some kind of "non-visible matter" that was the origin of the additional mass.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%BAmulo_de_Coma#/media/File:Ssc2007-10a1.jpg
Later between the 1960s and 1970s, Vera Rubin, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, determined by spectrography, that in spiral galaxies the angular velocity of rotation of many stars in different orbits was almost equal, which would imply that the galaxies as a whole would have a more or less uniform spin speed, this included the bulge much denser than the spiral arms, from this I can deduce that either Newtonian gravity does not apply on a galactic scale or more than 50% of the mass of the galaxy is in the galactic halo and is not visible. This result, questioned at the time, was later confirmed by observations of other astronomers, which led to the confirmation that the mass of galaxies would be composed mostly of dark matter.
At present the origin of dark matter is still unknown, it is speculated that it could be some kind of heavy ***Neutrino*** (3) or other hypothetical particles such as ***Axions*** (4) or ***WIMPs*** (5), it has also been proposed the possibility that it is dark objects such as planets or dwarf stars, however the latter have been associated with another type of matter called ***Baryonic*** (6) dark matter, which estimates indicate that it could be 50% of the total baryonic matter.
Recently, theoretical physicists Juan García-Bellido and Sébastien Clessese, among others, have hypothesized that dark matter could be formed by clusters of primordial black holes, which would originate during the process of cosmic inflation. The recent LIGO observations of gravitational waves from collisions of black holes with masses up to 50 solar masses raise the possibility of finding evidence for the existence of hypothetical intermediate-mass black holes, which would exceed 100 solar masses and could not be attributed to stellar collapse, since there could not be stars so massive as to have cores exceeding 100 solar masses.
It has been speculated that these black holes may be more frequent than thought and would exist in clusters in the galactic halo, which would explain the missing mass that is associated with dark matter.
What are galaxy clusters?
Galaxies are grouped into clusters and these into superclusters. In galaxy clusters, galaxies tend to move towards each other as an effect of gravity and together towards the center of gravity of the cluster. While in superclusters, the clusters tend to move together in the direction of the center of gravity of the supercluster.
The clusters of galaxies would be located in a network, a sort of spider web, formed by filaments of baryonic matter of low density, mainly gas and dust, in whose nodes would be the clusters of galaxies, this network would be the product of irregularities in the distribution of matter during the process of cosmic inflation, these at the same time caused by quantum fluctuations. The structure of filaments would be produced during the phase changes that occurred in the early universe, which would give rise to cosmic strings which would give this peculiar form of network to the distribution of baryonic matter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_groups_and_clusters#/media/File:Galaxy_Cluster_LCDCS-0829.jpg
What does our galaxy look like?
The galaxy in which the solar system is located is the Milky Way, its name originating in ancient Greece, where its appearance as a faint, misty white band across the night sky was associated with the milk spilled from the breast of the goddess Hera.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, this can be deduced by the shape of a flat band that can be observed in the sky, which gives away its flat disk shape, it is estimated to have a mass of 10^12 solar masses, is formed by about 200,000 to 400,000 stars and has a diameter of between 100,000 and 200,000 light years.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/v%C3%ADa-l%C3%A1ctea-rocas-noche-paisaje-1063305/
In our galaxy three structures can be distinguished, which are common to all spiral galaxies. The nucleus or bulge, the disk and the halo.
***The bulge*** would be formed mainly by old stars and would have less interstellar matter, so there would be almost no star formation processes, in the Milky Way there would not be a point bulge, but a pseudo bulge, which would have an elongated bar shape. In the center of the bulge would be a super massive black hole that has been named Sagittarius A, which would have a mass of 2.6 million solar masses. Sagittarius A would be an inactive black hole, because it would have no interstellar matter in its vicinity to be absorbed.
***The disk*** corresponds to the arms that arise from the central bar or pseudo bulb, it would be formed by 4 main arms; the Perseus, Orion, where the solar system is located, the Shield-Centaur and Sagittarius. Other arms of lesser density have also been identified, such as the Norma and the outer arms.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADa_L%C3%A1ctea#/media/File:Artist%27s_impression_of_the_Milky_Way_(updated_-_annotated).jpg
The disk is the region of the galaxy where the highest rate of star formation occurs, due to the abundance of interstellar matter, is formed mainly by young stars.
***The halo*** is a region around the galactic disk with sparse stellar population, formed mainly by globular clusters, the halo would have a predominance of dark matter, and would originate even before the galactic disk, when the galaxy was still a gas cloud that was collapsing to a flat shape.
There would be little interstellar matter in the halo, so there would be no star formation and its stars would be the oldest. The motion of the halo would be transverse to the rotation of the galactic disk, so that some of its components at some point cross the disk or bulge, a star that is part of the halo, can be identified by transverse motion to the galactic plane and its low metallicity.
What is our galactic neighborhood like?
The Milky Way is part of the so-called local group, a grouping or cluster of galaxies, which consists of about forty galaxies, of which the main ones are Andromeda, the Milky Way and the Triangulum Galaxy, the rest are dwarf galaxies, some of which are satellites of one of the main ones.
The local group is part of the Virgo supercluster, a grouping of about 100 galaxy clusters, which is dominated by the Virgo Cluster, and whose center of gravity is the so-called Great Attractor. In whose direction the members of the supercluster move.
Going a little further, the Virgo Supercluster, together with three other superclusters, is part of a filament called the Liniakea Hypercluster, which is formed by more than 100 thousand galaxies and has a diameter of 520 million light years.
The Milky Way, together with the local group, move in the direction of the Virgo Cluster, in its trajectory the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide, giving rise to a larger galaxy, which has been named Lactomeda and which will most likely be an elliptical galaxy, In the process, part of the matter that forms the disk of both galaxies will be expelled to the extra galactic space, this collision will begin in about 3870 million years and will conclude 2000 million years later, when both galaxies have merged completely. In this process the supermassive black holes of both galaxies will also merge, giving rise to an even larger one and possibly could be activated giving rise to the emission of jets of charged particles that would turn Lactomeda into a radio galaxy.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/galaxia-de-andr%C3%B3meda-v%C3%ADa-l%C3%A1ctea-755442/
This brief description of our galactic neighborhood and its future concludes this publication, I hope it has been to your liking and I am attentive to your comments and suggestions. Thank you for your attention.
Notes
***Parsec***: is a unit of astronomical length that corresponds to one arc second of parallax between the Sun and the Earth, equivalent to 3.2616 light years.
***Synchrotron radiation***: a type of electromagnetic radiation produced when an electrically charged particle moves in a curved path at relativistic velocities in the midst of a magnetic field.
***Neutrino***: a type of subatomic particle of neutral electric charge and very small mass, its name comes from Italian and means small neutron.
***Axion***: a type of hypothetical sub atomic particle of neutral electric charge, proposed as part of a solution to the CP symmetry problem, in theory high energy photons could temporarily become axions, which explains why high energy photons manage to cross great distances without being absorbed by the interstellar medium.
***WIMP***: stands for weakly interacting massive particles (weakly interacting massive particles) would be a type of hypothetical particles that would not interact through gravity or the strong nuclear force, and since they do not interact or emit electromagnetic radiation, they could not be detected.
***Baryonic matter***: baryonic matter is that which would be formed by baryons which are particles formed by three quarks, such as neutrons and protons, all matter formed by atoms, for example, is baryonic matter.
Sources
AstroMía, ¿Cómo es la Vía Láctea?, AstroMía https://www.astromia.com/universo/comovialactea.htm
AstroMía, Radiogalaxias, AstroMía https://www.astromia.com/glosario/radiogalaxias.htm
Astronoo, Cuásar, Astronoo https://www.astromia.com/glosario/radiogalaxias.htm
Astronoo, La secuencia de Hubble, Astronoo. http://www.astronoo.com/es/articulos/secuencia-de-hubble.html
Bellido, J. y Clesse, S. Agujeros Negros Primordiales y Materia Oscura, InvestigacionyCIencia.es https://www.investigacionyciencia.es/files/28627.pdf
Casanova, V., Clasificación de las galaxias según la secuencia de Hubble, Astrofísica y Física https://www.astrofisicayfisica.com/2010/06/clasificacion-de-las-galaxias-segun-la.html
Heras, A., Las galaxias de Seyfert, radiogalaxias y blazars, Introducción a la Astronomía y Astrofísica. https://antonioheras.com/las_galaxias/galaxias-seyfert-radiogalaxias-blazars.htm
Iafrate, G., Ramella, M. y Bologna, V., LA SECUENCIA DE HUBBLE, Virtual Observatory. http://svo.cab.inta-csic.es/docs/files/svo/Public/Projects/Education/EuroVO_HubbleSeq_spanish.pdf
Wikipedia. Agrupación galáctica, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrupaci%C3%B3n_gal%C3%A1ctica
Wikipedia. Materia oscura, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materia_oscura
Wikipedia. Colisión Vía Láctea-Andrómeda, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colisi%C3%B3n_V%C3%ADa_L%C3%A1ctea-Andr%C3%B3meda
Wikipedia. Grupo Local, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Local
Wikipedia. Vía Láctea, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADa_L%C3%A1ctea
Wikipedia. Galaxia, Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxia
Orbis - Aurora
-A blue sky! - Aurora shouted as she looked at the east wall of the canyon; she could see the Antenna, a huge building made entirely of metal, which her aunt Julia had told her was used for communication a long time ago, but now it was only a fossil of a remote past, unknown to all of them today.
-A long time ago it was possible to communicate through the air, -Julia told them, in her eagerness to show them what the world was like before Orbis, -There were telephones that didn't need cables and devices to see what other people were doing in distant places-, Aurora imagined big transparent boxes inside of which you could see people cooking, playing or telling stories.
She missed her aunt and her stories, they would sit on the rocks in front of her house under the lights and talk for hours after dark and they had finished their evening chores, sometimes other children from the village would join them. Julia said it was her job to tell stories, that she had learned it from her grandfather, Aurora would have liked to do the same as her aunt, but she had died before she had taught her all the stories. Now, after finishing her chores in the garden, she was left to sit alone for long, boring hours until it was time to go to sleep.
At the southern end of La Villa, where she lived, there were no children of her age, she was the youngest in that part, the few children in the vicinity were about their own business, some learning chores with their parents, others playing in groups, which she could not join, because she was too small, so, while her mother cooked supper for her brother and prepared everything for the next day, she had nothing left to do but sit bored on the rocks, where before she would have sat listening to her aunt.
-Before the great catastrophe, the world was green and blue skies-, was Julia's litany, -There were cities where millions of people lived, in buildings that rose beyond the clouds-, Aurora imagined gigantic towers like the antenna, stretching to infinity, in a blue sky; blue like that of some of the rocks Ivan brought her from the mine.
Aurora closed her eyes and could only try to imagine that blue sky, her world of ochre and brown tones did not allow her to do anything else but think of those rocks that her brother brought her when she was younger.
-People traveled in big transports that flew from one city to another, some reached beyond the sky and could go from one side of the world to the other in a matter of hours,- Julia continued saying, -But one day, suddenly, the great catastrophe happened, the world changed completely, the skies were blackened for years, full of smoke and dust, all the people in one half of the world died at once and most of those who survived in the other half, died in the following years-.
Aurora's stomach contracted and her skin bristled, every time she heard Julia talk about the catastrophe, she could see her aunt's expression change, the sparkle in her eyes faded and her face suddenly aged. Julia was not there, nor were her grandparents, nor her grandparents' grandparents, it happened in a time beyond belief, her memory is only in the stories told by those who deal with it, as her aunt did, something she will never be able to do.
It was already dark when she decided to stand up and go back to the house, it was starting to get really cold and her light coat wasn't much help, she could see how the moths were flying around the light fixture she was under; in front of her she saw the light peeking through the windows of her house and in them, the silhouette of her mom going from one side to the other.
She stopped for a while looking at her house and thought how, little by little, that part of La Villa has become empty, more and more people are moving to work in Axia or those who go to neighboring villages, previously, at this hour, there would still be several children of her age playing, today only she is outside her house, she and a few people who come from doing their work in the mine or the farms of La Comunidad.
Her house was the last one at the south end of The Village, you could say it was the last one in the whole village, or the first one, depending on where you come from of course, the four nearest houses had been left alone, in the last 2 years, some had gone to Axia and others, to the other side of the village, where they were closer to the few stores there were and to the farms of The Community where many worked.
His own parents had previously lived on the north side and worked on the farms, that was before his dad started working in the mine and Ivan was born; when they decided to move in together, they did so near where his Aunt Julia lived, to the house where today, standing under the streetlight, he watched his mother go around getting things ready for the next day.
Julia lived in one of those four houses, today unoccupied, the farthest one, living alone with her old books, written in languages that only she understood, languages that have disappeared, old and dirty books with their pages covered with plastic, so that they would not crack and joined by big metal rings. After her death, her mother kept the books for some time, until people from Orbis came and paid her to take them to one of the schools in Alessia, the nearest town, where they would be kept in a large library.
As he continued to see the silhouette of his mother in the window, he remembered that soon it would be two years since his aunt Julia died, -I want to see a blue sky...- he thought, as he began to walk back home; it was time to go to sleep.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/puesta-de-sol-anochecer-silueta-691848/
Orbis - The Forgotten Zone
The sun's glare could be seen through the clouds high in the sky, it was the hottest time in the mine, the temperature must have been around forty degrees, Ivan sat leaning against one of the wheels of the gigantic dump truck, one of those that transported the material to the forgotten zone, he took out of his backpack a cloth bag in which his mother had carefully packed; three bread rolls, a container of boiled eggs and a piece of dried meat, plus a large bottle filled with water, which had originally been frozen, but was now completely liquid, although it was still fresh. He quickly devoured the loaves, after opening them with his hands and filling them with the eggs and meat, the time to eat was short, he had to make the delivery of the material before three o'clock in the afternoon, otherwise he would have to wait until tomorrow to do it and he would lose part of his pay.
This would be his third delivery of the day, hopefully he would be back home by five in the afternoon, he drove the giant truck along the dry river bed from the mine for about twenty minutes before he saw the signs announcing the entrance to the forgotten area, He saw himself in the side mirror, as if confirming that he was wearing it. A few minutes later he began to enter the mist, luckily he would not be there for long, his was the last delivery of the afternoon and there were no more trucks lined up to unload the ore.
The landscape of the forgotten area was like the illustrations of other planets that he had seen in old books when he was in school; there were only orange rocks and earth, and everything was overshadowed by a slight yellowish haze that became denser as one went deeper into it.
The slope leading to the unloading hopper was completely clear, in front of him, he could see the giant shovels moving as they transported the material along a conveyor belt, which seemed to have no end, lifting it from the hopper to who knows where, its extension lost in the mist a hundred meters further on.
When he reached the slope, he turned the truck around to climb in reverse and thus be able to unload the ore into the hopper, this was the most terrifying part of the maneuver, luckily the truck's reverse sensors were synchronized with some lasers that were on the edge of the cliff in the unloading area, so he only had to follow the directions of the voice that from the loudspeaker told him: -right, ..., left, ten meters to the edge, ... right, stop, ..., you can unload now-.
He stopped the truck, set the brake, and flipped the switch that dumped the ore into the hopper, the clatter of the big rocks falling and the mill wheels inside the machine was so deafening that it completely drowned out the noise of the truck's engine and the whirring of the conveyor belt. When the noise stopped, he knew he was done unloading, so he flipped the switch on the dump truck again, this time in the opposite direction, and set off down the slope.
When he was about a hundred meters down the slope, he felt a strange vibration under his seat and a new noise began to fill the cab of the truck, a screeching sound that became more and more intense, until it became painful; He began to lift his foot off the accelerator to stop, but at that precise moment a tremendous bang shook him, lifting him from his seat and almost throwing him over the steering wheel, the truck began to stop on its own, while a cloud of black smoke came out of the exhaust, the screeching began to become more serious as the truck stopped moving forward; even when he pressed harder on the accelerator, it did not pick up speed.
There were about two kilometers to go before reaching the signs announcing the exit of the forgotten area, when the truck came to a complete stop, the engine was still running, but no matter how hard I stepped on the accelerator, I could not get it to move. Ivan had some ideas of what might be happening, but in neither case did he have the tools, or the time, to set about repairing it.
If this had happened to him at any other time, he would stop to wait for another truck to come by, to take him to the mine, and someone would take care of towing the truck back; but his was the last batch of the day, no other truck would come until the next morning. He could stay in the cab of the truck, the air filtration system would continue to work as long as the engine was running, but he didn't know if it would keep running for long and if he stayed there he would have to spend the night. The other option was to leave the truck and walk to the mine, which was about fifteen kilometers away, possibly arriving after six in the evening, but at least he would no longer be in the forgotten area.
After turning off the truck, Ivan adjusted his respirator mask, took his backpack and opened the door, he could see how the mist began to fill the cabin, went out to the door step and began to descend the stairs, halfway to the floor, he stopped briefly, to turn on the emergency lamp that was attached to his overalls. Once on the ground he opened a compartment that was at the foot of the ladder and took out a box that was there for emergencies, opened it and took out a couple of signal lamps, a black bag with the Orbis logo and a small toolbox, walked to the back of the truck and placed one of the lamps, which as a beacon, began to rotate emitting an intense blue light, then set off in the direction of the signs, leaving the other lamp in his path, in front of the front of the truck.
He walked for about fifteen minutes before leaving the signs behind, although it was still not safe to remove the mask, he felt relieved to be out of there, he continued walking for another two kilometers before taking the risk of removing the mask, he felt that this thing more than helping him to breathe, it was choking him, He released one of the latches and separated it a little from his cheek, he smelled the air that entered and felt a sudden burning in his nose and throat at the same time that a smell of rotten eggs filled the mask, he quickly readjusted the latch and held his breath, He quickly readjusted the safety catch and held his breath, while he pressed the button of the mask purge pump again and again, after pressing it about twenty times he took a breath of air, the smell was gone, he felt relieved that he had not removed the mask completely, before he smelled the air, although he was already far away from the forgotten area, the stench of the mist was felt, he picked up the black bag and toolbox and kept walking, there were about five kilometers to go when he decided to try again to take off the mask, this time the air felt normal so he continued without it.
Back at the mine, the transport to La Villa had left an hour ago already, so he had to stay overnight in the changing rooms, after taking off his overalls and taking a bath, because he felt his skin itching, luckily he always had a change of clothes in his backpack. As he drifted off to sleep he thought that he would never again offer to carry material to the forgotten area, no matter how good the pay was. Now he had to figure out how to explain to his mother, when he got home the next day, why he had been hauling material for two weeks already and hadn't told her, even more so after the discussion they had that morning when he started doing it.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/m%C3%A1scara-de-gas-veneno-protecci%C3%B3n-469217/
Orbis - The Diggers
The mist was very thick between the canyon walls that morning, it almost reached the entrance of the mine, - the activity in the forgotten area must have been intense that day - thought Aurora, to the south the clouds could be clearly seen and their usual ochre color, forming an almost uniform layer.
-The sky was blue, with clouds that were sometimes white and sometimes gray - her aunt Julia used to tell her; she never saw them, it was a story her grandfather told her and him, his grandfather and so on, in reality, nobody knew if it had ever been like that, they were just stories.
For her, the sky had always been the same, ocher and with clouds of a darker and darker ocher, until it became brown, just like the mist that covered the forgotten area, as the diggers called it, like her brother Ivan, it was forbidden to go there; only the diggers, who worked in the mine, could get that close. According to what his brother said, the air of the forbidden zone could not be breathed, at least not for long, because one would get sick and die, luckily the winds that circulated through the canyon, kept the mist away from La Villa.
-Aurora, are you all right? - she heard her mother's voice behind her.
She turned around and saw about ten feet away, at the foot of the rock she was sitting on.
-Yes, mom, I was just looking at the sky, -Aurora answered -Do you think it was ever really blue, like aunt Julia says?
-Stop wasting time on nonsense and go back home, we have to prepare lunch for your brother who has a shift today at the mine-, without saying another word, she turned around and started walking towards one of the small cabins in La Villa.
a Villa was a small hamlet, located on the side of the west wall of the canyon, about three hundred meters from what was once the bank of the river that once ran through the depths of the canyon; those who lived there were called The Diggers, as they were dedicated to extracting minerals from the mine, located about five kilometers north, in the vicinity of Axia, the largest of the five hundred and thirty-two industrial cities of Orbis.
Although the inhabitants of Axia knew them as Diggers, in reality, among them, the Diggers were only the mine workers, a hundred or so men, ranging in age from thirteen to thirty, who were something like half of the adult male population of La Villa. The rest of the population was engaged in other activities, mainly growing grain, raising goats and chickens, and trading with the villages outside the canyon, some few also bringing in goods from the nearest habitation town.
By far, the diggers were the main source of income for La Villa, the minerals they extracted, were delivered to Orbis, to be processed in Axia, in return, Orbis supplied clean water and electricity to La Villa, in addition to paying a salary to the diggers, providing machinery and financing the infrastructure works that were necessary, besides providing the materials for it.
Aurora opened the decaying door of her house and as she crossed the threshold, she heard her mother arguing with her brother in the kitchen.
-I don't want you to accept that they assign you to deliver the material to the Orbis people-, her mother shouted heatedly, -you are going to have to go to the forgotten area and I don't want you to get sick-, continued the lady while she muffled her voice.
-Mom, they are going to pay me more, we will be able to buy more seeds and Mrs. Rina's house, -Ivan answered vehemently.
Mrs. Rina was one of Aurora's neighbors and her family, she and her husband lived alone, a few houses away from theirs, but Mr. Samuel, that was the name of Rina's husband, had died a few months ago in an accident in the mine and now she was moving to a neighboring village to live with her family.
-I don't care, we don't need anything else, your father was delivering ore in the forgotten area for a week and got sick with pneumonia, he was about to die, -said the woman while she waved her hand in front of her son showing him her thumb and index finger pressed together.
At that moment Aurora entered the kitchen, her mother looked at her and stretched out her arm to point to the kitchen counter, she told her -Take the basket and go get some eggs Aurora, after breakfast you will go to the store to get some oil and feed for the chickens-.
Without saying a word, Aurora took the basket and left to go to the chicken coop, a small hut of five feet by five feet, that her father had made with some pressed wood that the people of Orbis had given him, she picked up the eight eggs that were in the trough and went back to the house.
Breakfast passed without touching again the subject of Iván's work, when he was leaving to wait for the transport, his mother said to him with a sad gesture, -Iván, don't accept to go to deliver material, please- her face looked disjointed. Iván did not answer anything, he hugged her and walked off in search of the old dump truck in which the diggers were taken to the mine.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/miner%C3%ADa-a-cielo-abierto-carbono-3554221/
Orbis - The Furnace
The transport glided along, emitting its hoarse sigh for several minutes, before coming to an abrupt halt. As the doors opened, an intense blast of heat was felt from the outside, while a profuse smell of rotten eggs pervaded everything and a hypnotic amber glow peeked through the doors.
-If you haven't put on your helmet and mask, do it immediately, - Rivas was heard to say.
Isaías could see how two rows in front of him, Hilbert, one of the new workers from the lower blocks, hurriedly and fearfully tightened the straps of his mask even more, at the same time he stood up, - No matter how much you tighten the straps, the result is the same - he thought, at the same time he also stood up, to go to the nearest door, of the two that were on his left. It was his turn to go to sector 8, the farthest from that level, luckily it was one of the farthest from the extractors' entrances, so the mist was less dense there, due to the effect of the air currents, and he could see better, although it would still be crazy to take off his mask.
He got off the transport and hurried to his station. He was in charge of operating one of the cranes that moved the crucibles where the molten material coming out of the furnaces, which were on the lower level, was poured. He had already been in that position for eight months, luckily he had managed to get out of the boiler, as they called the lower level, unharmed. He had spent a year and a half in the boiler and fortunately had only suffered a minor burn or two and the common recurring eye and throat infections.
As he walked away from the transport he began to feel more and more heat coming through the soles of his boots to the soles of his feet, Orbis said the boots were specially designed to withstand the temperature of the floor, but they never said they did not fully insulate, the hundred plus degrees he was at, on one occasion he slipped and fell resting his bare palms and suffered serious burns, which took weeks to fully heal.
From his station, he could see the door of the elevator that led to the boiler, every hour a shift of workers went up and another replaced it, at this time a group of about twenty workers, were about to go down, they were dressed in their respective silver uniforms, which made them look like those old photographs of men walking on the moon, a vestige of those times when space exploration was a source of pride of countries now disappeared.
First in one of the rows, facing the door, he could distinguish the face of Hilbert, the young man from the transport, who had barely a week of having started to work, after a season in the Orbis training facilities, possibly he had already realized that what they taught him in the operator course, was only useful to operate the furnace, but in no way helped him to cope with the harsh conditions of work in the boiler.
For Isaías the work was monotonous and boring, but by far, better than being in the boiler, the one-hour shifts, with two hours in between for breaks, even though they were fewer hours of work per day, were the worst thing there could be. The heat in the boiler reached one hundred and fifty degrees and in the vicinity of the furnaces it easily exceeded one thousand degrees, not even the suits could save someone from being incinerated, if he got too close to a furnace. On one occasion he saw how a guy they knew as Lester, for walking carelessly along the route followed by the crucibles, was hit by one who was returning after unloading the molten material, the blow threw him about five meters from the door of one of the furnaces that was open to unload material, the suit began to catch fire as soon as he fell to the ground, there was no way to rescue the body until the furnace door was closed again.
Twenty minutes into the new shift in the furnaces, the emergency siren was heard all over the place, apparently one of the workers in charge of securing the crucible brakes when they returned to reload, had tripped and fallen in the path of one, as he learned, one of the crucible wheels had cut the guy's leg below the knee.
-Over time, these kinds of incidents start to become unimportant - Isaiah thought as he heard about it, -the longer you are here, you get used to people getting injured-.
The rest of his eight-hour shift ended without any other incident, and on his way back to the transport he met a group of workers from the lower level who were commenting on what had happened.
-Were you there when the amputee happened, - he asked one of them, whose last name was Mota, according to what it said on his overalls.
-Yes, - he answered -. The guy was securing the brake lever and apparently the brake caught his suit, he tried to free himself, but the other crucible arrived before he could, and crushed his leg.
-So, what was he doing securing the lever when a crucible was on its way? - asked Isaiah.
-Who knows, he's a new guy, - said the other guy whose last name was almost illegible - I think he had never operated the brakes, since he arrived, he had only been cleaning the filters of the vacuum cleaners, just today they put him to do that.
-Yes, we haven't talked much with him - Morales interrupted - he's a guy a little slow, his name is Hilbert, I think he lives in section twenty-four, his father is the owner of a small food stand.
Isaías said goodbye and hurried to get on the transport, on his way back to the apartment block only one thought was going through his head - It doesn't matter how much you tighten the straps, the result is the same.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/industria-acero-hierro-alto-horno-647413/
Orbis - The Abyss
Lead Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/el-calentamiento-global-2958988/
Isaiah sat down on the edge of the precipice and looked down, he could see his bare feet dangling and below them, a dense brownish mist, hiding the bottom of the abyss, a deep acrid smell flooded everything around him.
He turned around, looking over his shoulder, he could see a row of dying trees blackened by the smoke from the factories that obscured the horizon on the other side of the canyon.
He stood up, his blistered feet burning intensely, with heaviness he turned and walked down a path through the trees, behind him he dropped a greasy, balled up paper bag.
After crossing the grove of dying trees, he found himself in a clearing, where the grass grew ankle-high, deep green, in front of him a pristine stream, he dipped his aching feet into the cold water and sat down on the bank, the earth was soft there and sank a little under the weight of his bony backside.
In the distance he heard a shrill, distorted voice that woke him from the stupor that was beginning to daze him, ―Isaiah Lopez, ..., Isaiah Lopez, ..., get back to the transport or you will have to wait an hour for the next one, and it will be deducted from your pay for the day.
Isaiah got to his feet and ran clumsily back along the path through the dying trees, leaving behind the clearing and its stream, leaving the grove, down a flagstone roadway that bordered the abyss, crossed by a precarious railing made of almost rotten wood, a hundred meters further on, he found himself in front of the transport.
A sort of lead gray monorail wagon about ten meters long and with the Orbis logo on its doors, two on each side, in front of the only one that was open was the supervisor of the crew, a guy with a yellowish complexion and gray hair, whom they only knew as supervisor Rivas.
Rivas saw Isaiah and dismissively told him, ―Put on your boots before entering the transport ―. Pointed to the shoe hanging from his neck, tied by the braids; as he could. Isaiah shook one of his blistered feet. while he lifted it to the knee height of the opposite leg, forming a four with his legs, while resting his shoulder on the side of the transport, then he put on one of the boots without tying it and repeated, with greater difficulty, the operation with the opposite leg.
―Get on quickly and take your filter and helmet ―said Rivas without looking up, while he was checking something on his tablet, when Isaiah was inside the transport, he passed and closed the door behind him.
A kind of long and deep sigh was heard coming out of the transport, which slowly began to move along the tracks that plunged into the abyss, in a downward slope, getting lost in the mist that covered it.
The track crossed the canyon from one side to the other, entering a tunnel excavated in one of its walls, before entering it, the transport came out of the mist, revealing the bottom of the abyss; where once there was a flowing river, today there were piles of waste, accumulated there after decades of being thrown from the factories located in the upper part of the canyon and the houses that, like cells of a beehive, populated the canyon wall.
Among the piles of debris, already disintegrated by the rains, winds and heat, for some months now, yellowish grasses grew and a few pale green bushes began to take shape. This resurgence of life, among the debris thrown to the barren bottom of the canyon, could have been contemplated by the occupants of the transport, ignorant of the event, if it had had windows.
The transport was lost in the depths of the tunnel in the wall, heading for one of the Orbis factories that crowned the top of the canyon, while inside Isaiah, Rivas and the other occupants watched, on the small screens in front of their seats, safety information about the use of the transport and promotions about Orbis' latest investments to improve the working conditions of its employees.
Sara
Lead Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/fantas%C3%ADa-retrato-m%C3%ADstica-hembra-2824631/
The pain that ran through her body was getting worse and worse, reaching the point of paralyzing her, she felt it moving inside her, twisting, tearing her viscera.
It had been eight months since she woke up in the middle of the forest, half naked, covered only by a light robe, with her hands tied behind her back and gagged, she found herself alone in the middle of nowhere, as best she could she stood up and walked for hours until she found a small farmhouse, the people who lived there assisted her and called the police, she was taken to the county clinic, the doctors said she had no signs of abuse, no serious injuries, the tests showed that she had been drugged with belladonna.
https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/componer-mujer-fantas%C3%ADa-la-cara-2391033/
She did not remember how she had gotten there, she did not remember anything prior to that day, only her name, Sara, the people on that farm had given her shelter, a couple in their forties with two children, Ricardo and Patricia were their names, the children Javier and Lucia. They were good people, they raised chickens and grew some tubers, in the eight months she had spent with them she had become accustomed to their day to day life, she collaborated with them on the farm to repay them for their help, she appreciated them as if they were her family, they were the only thing she knew as family.
Shortly after arriving, the nightmares and flashbacks began, she started to remember images and sensations she didn't understand, a campfire, shadows that seemed to move around her, people shouting her name, an intense burning in her back and a musky smell. Over time they became more intense and painful, she dreamed of being naked in the forest, lying on the grass, seeing figures hiding behind the trees, watching her and shouting her name, they were terrifying, guttural screams, many voices around her, then a shadow would envelop her, an overwhelming anguish would seize her, it was as if something was burning her from her back, a horrible burning that burned her body. Then she woke up.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/mujer-fantas%C3%ADa-forestales-de-miedo-3351713/
A month after arriving at the farm, she began to feel nauseous and faint, and it was then that the doctors at the clinic told her that she was pregnant. They had told her that when they found her, she showed no signs of abuse or recent sexual intercourse, so they did not test for pregnancy.
Her belly was growing, along with it her anguish, she felt her insides twisting and burning, burning. The nightmares and flashbacks became more vivid and frequent, but there was nothing new in them, they were always the same, only the feeling of being watched and her pain were more intense. She could notice that the tattoo on her arm was starting to get darker as if its greenish-gray color, started to turn black. It was an owl, like the rest of what was happening to her, she didn't understand how it had gotten there, she couldn't imagine what had led her, at some point in her life, to get that horrible thing tattooed, she felt it looking at her, she loathed it.
Until the moment came. She woke up in the middle of the night, she was lying on her bed, paralyzed by the pain coming from her belly, something dirty was growing in it, then she felt again the intense burning in her back, but this time she was awake, she was not dreaming it, she realized that it stank, it was that musky smell she had felt before, it was her own smell.
https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/mujer-cara-grietas-retrato-mujeres-3779153/
Little by little her drowsiness disappeared and with it her doubts, she could remember everything. The moment he had been waiting for since that night eight months ago had arrived, his burden would end, his mission was almost accomplished, in the midst of his intense pain, he stood up and left the room, the house was completely dark, a rancid stench of mold and rottenness invaded everything, mingling with his own stench, he walked down the stairs to the living room, reached the threshold of the door, which remained open, and turned around, an image of the living room, lit up, with breakfast served on the table, struck his now lucid mind, he remembered Richard's voice fearfully saying, "Who are you? ", she remembered Patricia running to her husband's side exclaiming, "What is this...!", between sobs, the children had said nothing, they only cried paralyzed at the sight of her.
She stretched out her right hand and took hold of the end of the axe that lay reclining next to the door frame, in the same place where she had left it that morning eight months ago, as she looked down she could see the shed door pin, which she had ripped out as she went in to take the axe. The moonlight rising through the trees illuminated the dark room and in front of her she observed the rotting, decaying bodies of the family; they had served their purpose, that morning they had served as sustenance for her eight months of waiting.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/vestido-blanco-hacha-tatuaje-horror-1478105/
Those eight months lying in that bed, between daydreams were over, that night before the fire she had sworn to fulfill the call of the ancients, to carry the condemnation that was coming for man, she would be the bearer of the one who would come to recover what had been lost.
She left the farm and went to where everything had started, she stood up in the exact place where the bonfire had been, "Saaaara..., Saaaara..., Saaaara...", sang the voices coming from among the trees, everything was already consummated, it was time to complete what she had started that night, she lifted the axe over her head taking it with both hands by the end of the cape.
-The time has come for your return! - she shouted and let the axe head fall like a pendulum on her belly.
The History of Everything
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/bola-de-fuego-fuego-marca-1229866/
This is the story of how it all began, and yet I mean literally everything.
There is a belief that everything that exists was created in a great explosion, and it turns out that this is just a bad joke, made, precisely, by one of the objectors of the theory that concerns us, but that, for those hazards of destiny, and paradoxically, ended up giving the name to the ***The Big-Bang Theory***.
This story begins about 13.7 billion years ago, for sure, it can not be defined with certainty, but various measurements seem to indicate that figure, from the point of view of physics, it is not possible to speak of a before the great explosion, because it would not have a meaning, there is no one before the big explosion, time starts with the big explosion, so to speak of a before, places us in the field of philosophy or metaphysics, rather than the sciences factual
There simply was nothing, no space, no matter, no time, only a singularity, a point of infinite density and mass, which, for reasons still unknown, began a process of expansion, it is not possible to explain why this happened, simply the laws that govern our universe are not applicable to singularities, not even those that exist in our own universe, black holes.
The case is that it did not explode, it expanded, it inflated, as if it were a balloon, it did not expel anything to its outside, because outside of it there was nothing to expel matter, it was and still is a process that takes place inside of the limits of the universe itself. It was not as if that singularity floated in an eternal void, there simply was nothing else apart from the singularity itself, in fact, we are still within the original limits of that singularity, only that its own limits have expanded, its mass remains the same, but its density has diminished at the same time that its volume grows more and more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang#/media/File:CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg
Perhaps in the only thing, that the processes that in this expansion and inflation resemble an explosion, is in the violence and speed that occurred, which in reality would embarrass any explosion known by man.
The initial events of our history happened so quickly, that it is necessary to resort a new unit of time to be able to explain them, the ***Plank’s Time***, which is equivalent to the time it takes a photon, to travel a distance that is also called ***Plank’s Length***, which is predicted to be the smallest length at which space has a classical geometry, at shorter lengths, the laws of physics lose meaning, as quantum gravity begins to take effect . The Plank’s Time or Cronón, is equivalent to 10E-43 seconds, and the first Plank Time of the universe is called ***Plank’s Age***.
During the **Plank’s Age**, when the expansion of the universe begins, the four fundamental forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetism and weak and strong nuclear forces) have not yet been differentiated, nor have elementary particles been formed , space and time were part of a singularity of infinitely large mass concentrated in an infinitely small space, an incomprehensible singularity; time begins after the Plank’s Age, before it, it makes no sense to think about time, since nothing less than Plank’s Time can be measured.
At the end of the Plank Age, the universe was about the size of an atomic nucleus size, something like 10E-20 times smaller, Gravity was the first of the four fundamental forces to differentiate, the universe was formed by a quantum vacuum, an emptiness full of energy, in which pairs of particles and virtual antiparticles appeared and disappeared, matter was not yet created.
At 10E-35 seconds inflation begins, the ***Inflation Age***, the universe begins to grow, during inflation its size increases 10E50 times the original, a huge amount, especially if we consider that during the period after 300,000 years after the *Big-Bang*, up to the present 13,700 million years, has only increased a thousand times its size; during inflation, along with the increase in size, its temperature will decrease significantly until 10E28 ° K.
The beginning of the Inflation Age was favored by the differentiation of the strong nuclear force and the electroweak interaction, this dissociation of forces, generated an immense density of energy scattered throughout the universe, which caused a great expansion force, causing the process inflationary
In this period of immense growth, it is space that grows, the gap between particular increases, at speeds higher than that of light, however, the particles themselves continue to move at speeds lower than this, even here, in the Vortex of the nascent universe, the limits of the theory of relativity are maintained.
At the end of inflation, about 10E-32 seconds after the *Big-Bang*, begins the formation of matter and antimatter, from the quantum vacuum, particles and virtual antiparticles that previously emerged from the quantum vacuum, take advantage of the energy created by the separation of the strong force and the electroweak interaction, to become real particles of matter, thus arises the matter and antimatter.
https://pixabay.com/es/fractal-resumen-de-fondo-f%C3%ADsica-1280084/
It is here that our nascent universe faces its second major test, the particles of matter and antimatter annihilate each other, releasing energy and photons, so in theory all the particles and antiparticles generated should have annihilated each other and our universe would only be formed by photons, however, there must have been some kind of asymmetry between the amount of matter and antimatter, which ended up favoring matter, which allowed the existence of the universe we know, it is still unknown how this asymmetry occurred.
The proliferation of matter continued along with a slower expansion of the universe, until about 10E-12 seconds after the *Big-Bang*, the temperature had dropped below 10E15 ° K, at this temperature, the electroweak interaction was dissociated, giving rise to the last two fundamental forces, the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear force.
Up to the millionth of a second after the *Big-Bang*, the elementary particles leptons and quarks, were dissociated, forming what has been called a soup of quarks, it is at this point where the temperature has descended below 10E13 ° K, thus allowing the action of the strong nuclear force, making viable the association of quarks, forming hadrons, the first complex particles, predominantly the association of three quarks, called baryons, which highlights the two that will then shape the material we know, the protons and neutrons. During this period, called ***Hadrons Age***, there is the annihilation of the baryons and anti baryons, where the asymmetry between both, contributes to the predominance of protons and neutrons over their antiparticles.
When the universe has reached ten thousandth of a second, photons have reduced their amount of energy, and the production of pairs of electrons and positrons begins, this is the so-called ***Leptons Age***, during which a process similar to that of the *Hadrons Age*, but in it, pairs of electrons and positrons are formed and annihilated, again the predominance will be of the electrons. But a good part of these primordial electrons will combine with the neutrons to form protons, leaving the matter dominated by the protons.
With a hundred seconds, the temperature drops below one billion degrees, then when the strong nuclear force, protons and neutrons begin to combine giving rise to the first stable atomic nuclei of deuterium, helium, 3 and helium-4; before this moment the photons were too energetic and their impacts broke any nucleus that was formed.
Thus the atomic nuclei that form our universe are formed, due to the combination of the primordial electrons with the neutrons to form protons, there is a predominance of hydrogen with only one proton in its nucleus, on the helium-4, with two protons and two neutrons, to give a ratio of three to one atoms, in favor of hydrogen, so the universe would be formed, initially, by 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. The period in which the first nuclei were formed is called ***Radiation Age***.
https://pixabay.com/es/mol%C3%A9cula-celular-la-biolog%C3%ADa-2082634/
When the temperature drops below 3000 ° K, the electrons, which previously could not be combined with the protons to form atoms, because if they did, the union was broken by the photons, they begin to combine with the nuclei of hydrogen and helium ; because under this temperature, the energy of the photons is low enough to allow the formation of atoms, this is when the matter becomes transparent to the photons, which can now move freely, at this point it is said that the radiation uncoupling of matter, this whole process occurs 380,000 years after the *Big-Bang*,
This decoupling left its mark on the radioelectric spectrum, the oldest record of the primordial universe, the oldest test of the *Big-bang*, the microwave background radiation. It can be said that it is the fossil record of the birth of our universe.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiaci%C3%B3n_de_fondo_de_microondas#/media/File:WMAP.jpg
After the formation of hydrogen and helium, the gas clouds were condensed by the effect of gravity, giving rise to the first stars about 100 or 400 million years after the *Big-Bang*, forming the first stellar clusters, and then galaxies. These first stars gave rise to heavier elements such as beryllium, oxygen and carbon. Their deaths gave rise to even heavier elements such as iron, calcium and aluminum, which originated during their explosions in the form of supernovas, and then, from the clouds of gas produced by these explosions, which contained these elements, formed new stars, with planetary systems like ours. Our sun, is a Population I star, this means that it originated from the remains of other stars that lived and died before it was born, and we are formed from the atoms forged in those stars.
Today more than 13,000 million years later, the universe continues to expand, the empty space between particles, between galaxies, a product of dark energy or vacuum energy, which constitutes 70% of the energy content of the universe, continues to grow. the baryonic matter of which everything we can see and perceive is made, makes up only 5% of our universe, the other 25% is made up of dark matter, a type of matter that can not be directly perceived, but which, by different means, we know that it is there, and whose origin and nature we still do not know.
This accelerated expansion can last forever moving away more and more the components of the universe, ending up tearing or can be reduced and the universe end up having a prolonged agony, victim of thermal death, or it may end up stopping and reversing causing everything to end collapsing on itself, this will be determined by the amount of dark energy, but that will be the reason for another publication.
Well with this concludes this story, I hope it has been to your liking, I am attentive to your comments and beforehand I appreciate your votes, until the next post.
Sources
Wikipedia. Big Bang, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Inflación cósmica, Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Radiación de fondo de microondas, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflaci%C3%B3n_c%C3%B3smica https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiaci%C3%B3n_de_fondo_de_microondas
Broken Past
The sea level rose slowly, covering a large part of the coast, Elmer, sitting on the sand, felt his trousers get wet and his ass wet, he stood up and saw his feet under the thin layer of water, he could remember the cold sea wetting them, I wish he could feel it, it was just a memory of other times, when it had not yet been broken.
He went back to where he was again on dry sand and sat down again, perhaps in an hour or so, the small island would be completely covered by a thin layer of water, and so it would be all night long until morning when it would rise from underwater covered with mollusk algae and other creatures that were trapped, drying under the embracing heat of the day.
One hundred and sixty years ago he was on this same islet, but in a different situation. The placid climate and peace that was breathed today in Cepheus had not always been the same, the pose had a turbulent past, exactly one hundred and sixty years ago, over this sky, beyond the atmosphere, about eight hundred kilometers away, developed one of the most violent and costly battles ever carried out by humanity.
More than fifteen thousand ships for each side were conflated in a whirlwind of violence and destruction, in the middle of a thunderous silence, almost three hundred thousand people, between military and civilians perished, many of them exposed to the devastating emptiness of space, compressed by the difference in pressure when the gases of their bodies were violently expelled into space and explode their blood vessels and boil their blood exposed to the difference in pressure. It is perhaps one of the most horrible ways to die, a terrible agony, fortunately of a few seconds.
The battle of the Polux space station was the worst scenario of the war for the control of Cepheus between the pro-parliament forces and the members of the separatist rebellion, part of the station was destroyed taking hundreds of thousands of civilians, while hundreds of pilots of both sides also died or were seriously injured or mutilated in combat.
Elmer was one of them, he had joined the rebel forces following the ideal of a planet free from the intervention of Heracles and his parliament of the colonies, today after so long realized the futility of their ideals and how unnecessary were the pain and losses caused by the war.
During the battle he was part of the first wave in attacking the Polux station, where almost two million souls were refugees, who fled from Cepheus, trying to escape the war, so that, by the pettiness of the rebel commanders, the war would be brought to them, in an unnecessary attack on a civilian target.
His ship was shot down in the first assault, even before leaving the gravitational attraction of Cepheus, he was hit by a projectile fired by a pro-parliamentary fighter hundreds of kilometers from him, his shattered body was thrown into the sea, mutilated by the explosion, his legs and right arm had been torn off, and he suffered severe burns.
For his fortune the system of descent and flotation of the pod of expulsion of the ship, was not compromised by the explosion, and could survive the fall of more than eighty kilometers, then the currents would lead him to strand on the same islet where they were today, there for five days, exposed to heat and cold, with his body half submerged in the sea during the night, when the islet was covered by water.
His broken body was able to survive thanks to the compression system and the thermal insulation of his flight suit. Fortunately, five days later a patrol of the pro-parliament forces found him following the signal of his emergency beacon.
Every ten years, he visits the same islet that saved his life, today again his body was complete, although with cybernetic parts; it was no longer broken. Again the water began to moisten his ass, so he decided it was time to get on the ship and return to his home on the coast, where his wife waited for him, before boarding her, again he saw his feet under the water and wished he could feel it.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/marina-marea-paisaje-mar-el-agua-2444040/
Scrap City
-Jonathan, please explain to me again, what the fuck are we doing here? -exclaimed Raul, clearly uncomfortable, as he shook one of his feet, trying to shake the mud off his boots.
-We are behind the source of a strange radio signal, -said Jonathan, without losing sight of the warning signs displayed in his goggles by the computer in his suit -. I detected it from orbit and maybe it could be something we could sell. Easy credits, my friend.
-Shit, this is the place where bad ideas come to die, I don't think there can be anything of value here, - continued Raúl, still shaking his foot -. I swear I think I saw back there parts of Dr. Petersen's electric weapons machine.
-Hold on, the signal is coming from that direction, -said Jonathan pointing to a pile of discarded industrial robot parts.
They walked in the middle of the mud, between apparently classified piles of scrap metal of different origins, parts of ships, robots of all kinds, machinery, structures of demolished constructions and a long etcetera.
Scrap City was called that place in the middle of one of the planets of the Heracles system. Even though it may have been terraformed, the eighth planet of the system was ignored; for Heracles was a world practically ready to be inhabited. With a continental mass that covered two thirds of the surface and a shallow ocean that occupied the other third, it could have been a good world to be inhabited, however, a sector of its surface was taken as a destination for all kinds of metal scrap, coming from human expansion throughout the galaxy, before the use of devouring nanobots was common. This region, of more than five thousand square kilometers, on this uninhabited planet, was informally called a junk city.
Jonathan and Raúl, dug through the remains of machinery in the stack, using an electromagnetic field projector, capable of lifting almost any object that possessed ferromagnetic metals, almost at the bottom of the stack they found a strange device the size of a generating machine that they placed in the airports, programmed to serve different types of food, only that this large rectangular box was completely devoid of metals, it was completely made of some strange material, similar to the fibers of carbon nanotubes.
-I have no idea what the hell this thing is, -Raul observed as he scratched his head, then adjusted his breathing mask.
-It has no indication or instructions on its surface, -said Jonathan -. But the signal comes from it. How would it get here, so what's in this pile of garbage, these things must have been here for over ten thousand years and this thing was at the end of the pile, it must have been here since the junk started to accumulate.
The object weighed about two hundred kilograms, they moved it using a levitation platform, and took it to the vicinity of the ship in order to disarm it and rescue its valuable parts.
-What will we extract from this thing? The scanner indicates that it has no metal at all, -said Raúl.
-We'll take it apart and we'll see; something useful it must have, any machine over ten thousand years old that still emits a radio signal, it must have some kind of valuable power source, it must have some kind of experimental isolation that doesn't allow the scanner to detect the emission of particles, it could be some army artifact, maybe they want to recover it and pay well for it.
The object did not seem to have any type of door, slot or joint, its surface was totally solid and smooth, it did not protrude from it, button, pushbutton or indicated of any type, it was literally a block of brown color, almost black, one meter wide, two meters high and one meter deep.
-I don't see how we're going to open this thing, I can only think of using the plasma torch, but that could ruin it, -said Jonathan.
-There's nothing left to open but to risk, after all, if anyone throws it away here, I don't think it has much value.
They lit the torch, and when they approached the surface of the machine it suddenly started to rise from the ground, floating about thirty centimetres above the surface. Their faces were illuminated with a faint light that seemed to come from within, and the color of which changed continuously.
Suddenly Raul and Jonathan fell into a kind of ecstasy and were transported to a world which was completely unknown to them, a completely barren planet, with no main star to illuminate it, with a completely black sky and few stars in it, where two spiral galaxies, located at both ends of the celestial vault, could be clearly seen.
Like ghosts moving through objects, they were transported to the bowels of that planet, where a network of dark, damp tunnels contained what appeared to be hundreds of honeycomb-like cells in which babies, human-looking children, floated in an amber-colored liquid.
Then they heard behind them a squeaking sound that seemed to pierce their eardrums, they turned and behind them was a strange creature about three meters high, whose elongated and almost cylindrical body was supported by four legs coming out of its lower end, at its upper end rested a kind of ovoid head and from what could be its neck sprouted no less than ten appendages, similar to tentacles, which moved continuously as if some kind of sensory organ, which was palpating the atmosphere around it were concerned.
The creature emitted a new, stunned shriek that made them squeeze their heads and throw themselves on the sore ground.
After this, they came out of ecstasy, they were kneeling on the mud in front of the machine, which was still floating thirty centimeters from the ground, emitting its strange, ghostly light, in Junk City.
Before their eyes, the machine rose above their heads and, as if compressed towards its own centre, disappeared, emitting a kind of burst contained by an invisible sphere that then vanished into thin air.
-Damn it, did you see what I saw? -exclaimed Raúl, almost out of breath.
-I suppose so, but I have no idea what it was, - replied Jonathan.
-What shall we do, to whom shall we tell this? -asked Raul in terror.
-What do you mean, who are we going to tell? If we say anything about this they'll say we're crazy, in fact I'm doubting myself that this wasn't just some kind of hallucination - answered Jonathan.
-Yes, it must have been the effect of the atmosphere of the planet, we'd better get out of here, I told you there was nothing good in this damn place
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/eliminaci%C3%B3n-volcado-de-basura-1846033/
Scavenger / Carroñero [Eng-Spa]
Scavenger [Eng]
In the distance the columns of smoke still rose and the flashes of the blasts could be seen, reminding us that even the battle was not over, that beyond the hills, hundreds of people and machines faced each other in a violent contest.
The old mechanical quadruped advanced among the wreckage, and Oliver, clinging to his back as if to a parasite on some abominable creature, looked carefully over the ground, trying to find something useful.
After four years of war between the forces of Parliament and the Confederation of Cepheus, the planet had become a gigantic disaster area. Most of its population had been forced to flee to Castor and Pollux, the space stations that orbit it, while the less fortunate, who remained on its surface, had had to become a kind of nomadic people who constantly had to go from one place to another surviving the catastrophe around them.
Oliver, like thousands of others like him, wandered from one side to another in the midst of the wreckage of the battle, in search of pieces of armour, weapons or ammunition that they could rescue, to sell them to the gangs that, in the absence of any authorities to account for them, had proliferated, taking advantage of the war, to traffic in anything that could be sold on the black market.
Unlike many who had to run around, pushing a platform or some improvised cart, Oliver was fortunate to have a Mulo, a robotic mule that he had managed to build with recovered parts, demonstrating his engineering background.
The war had wiped out everything he knew, his city, his family and friends, all of them gone, as well as the academy he had studied at and the factory where he had later worked. Now only the ruins remained, where he and a few others wandered like souls in pain in the midst of the hell the planet had become. Trying to survive in a war that had nothing to do with them.
As I advanced, under Mulo's feet, the remains of various crushed and charred armor creaked, crushed by their weight, inside were still the bodies of those who had piloted them, mutilated and burned, victims of folly.
He stopped in front of the destroyed remains of a crashed fighter, dropped off the back of Mulo, dug a bit and managed to find one of the plasma cannons which was still in working condition. Using a metal bar he detached it from the shattered fuselage of the ship and then, with the help of Mulo, placed it on the back of his fellow robot, before setting off.
One of these cannons would be enough to get food and water for him and new batteries for Mulo, and with it, follow the path of destruction left by the battle in search of remains that would allow him to live another day.
Carroñero [Spa]
A la distancia aún se levantaban las columnas de humo y se veían los destellos de los estallidos, que recordaban que aun la batalla no había acabado, que más allá de las colinas, cientos de personas y máquinas se enfrentaban en una violenta contienda.
El vetusto cuadrúpedo mecánico avanzaba entre los restos que tras de si iba dejando la refriega, Oliver, aferrado a su lomo, como si de un parasito sobre algún tipo de criatura abominable se tratase, veía con cuidado el terreno, tratando de encontrar algo que le fuera útil.
Tras cuatro años de guerra entre las fuerzas del Parlamento y la Confederación de Cefeo, el planeta se había convertido en una gigantesca zona de desastre. La mayor parte de su población había sido obligada a huir a Castor y Pólux, las estaciones espaciales que lo orbitan, mientras que los menos afortunados, que permanecieron en su superficie, se habían tenido que convertir en una suerte de nómadas que constantemente debían ir de un lado a otro sobreviviendo en la catástrofe que los rodeaba.
Oliver al igual que miles de otros como él, vagaban de un lado a otro en medio de los restos de las batalla, en busca de piezas de armadura, armas o municiones que pudiesen rescatar, para venderlas a las bandas que, tras la ausencia de autoridades que dieran cuenta de ellas, habían proliferado, aprovechándose de la guerra, para traficar con cualquier cosa que pudiese ser vendida en el mercado negro.
A diferencia de muchos que debían correr de un lado a otro, empujando una plataforma o alguna improvisada carrucha, Oliver tenía la fortuna de contar con Mulo, una mula robótica que, con partes recuperadas, había logrado construir, haciendo gala de su formación como ingeniero.
La guerra había acabado con todo lo que conocía, su ciudad, su familia y amigos, todos había desaparecido, al igual que la academia en la había estudiado y la fábrica en la que después había trabajado. Ahora sólo quedaban las ruinas, donde él y algunos pocos, vagaban como almas en pena en medio del infierno en que se había transformado el planeta. Tratando de sobrevivir dentro de una guerra que no tenia nada que ver con ellos.
Mientras avanzaba, bajo los pies de Mulo, los restos de varias armaduras trituradas y carbonizadas crujían, aplastadas por su peso, en su interior aun se encontraban los cadáveres de quienes las había piloteado, mutilados y calcinados, víctimas de la insensatez.
Se detuvo frente a los restos destruidos de un caza estrellado, se dejó caer del lomo de Mulo, escarbo un poco y logró hallar uno de los cañones de plasma que aun se encontraba en condiciones operativas, usando una barra metálica lo desprendió del destrozado fuselaje de la nave para luego, con la ayuda de Mulo, colocarlo sobre el lomo de su compañero robot, antes de emprender camino.
Uno de estos cañones sería suficiente para conseguir alimento y agua para él y nuevas baterías para Mulo, para con ello, seguir el camino de destrucción dejado por la batalla en busca de restos que le permitan vivir otro día.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/illustrations/scifi-guerra-futuro-futurista-3617337/
Evolution
The transport arrived earlier today than usual, if Mikel had not rushed to the loading platform, he would have lost it, with the irremediable consequence of having to wait, for an hour, for the launch of the next suborbital cargo capsule.
As always, the capsule was crowded, it was cheaper and the only way that, its new condition, allowed it to ascend to the orbital station, at least with its budget. If he had his own ship he would not need to use public transportation, but his medical expenses would not allow him, for a while, to have one and the shuttle, although less congested and leaving at more comfortable hours, could not use it, due to security restrictions.
As always, he pushed his way in using his shoulders, trying not to hurt anyone, and ignoring the looks of the people, who still saw him strangely, even though it was not the first time he had taken the capsule. Perhaps one day they would see him differently, but for the moment their glances or worse, as they turned their eyes in another direction, to avoid crossing his eyes, hurt him, make him feel different.
The capsule began to accelerate through the electromagnetic catapult, taking on a speed that, if it weren't for the inertial dampers, would crush everyone in it. Even so, everyone could feel the uncomfortable pressure of the more than thirty gravities that oppressed the passenger compartment, even if they were reduced by a fraction of ten, inside it, only Mikel seemed not to feel uncomfortable with the thrust.
The capsule was ejected vertically from the catapult rail, rising at more than ten times the speed of sound, until it almost reached the height of one hundred and ten kilometers, a little less than the height at which the positioning satellites orbit. There it would meet a drag mule, one of several old tugboats, reconditioned to dock with a cargo in space and take it to its destination.
The long but short journey ended in Ganymede, one of the twelve space stations orbiting the planet, a center of production of new materials and advanced research, which required microgravity. Here hundreds of people labored, at least once every two months, making the route from the planet, for days of one or two weeks, before returning home again.
But for Mikel, the trips were more frequent, and it was not a matter of work. Every week he had to go to the Ganimedes High Surgery and Cybernetic Research Center, the main clinic for rehabilitation and biomechanical reconstruction in the sector. He had to attend his periodic medical check-up, after his reconstruction.
-Hello Mikel, how have you been this week, -asked Dr. Isaías, as he did every week.
-Well, it's still a little uncomfortable for me to go to the bathroom, it's strange not to have the feeling of needing to do it, and having to be notified by an alarm that I must ... -he hesitated for a moment, as if searching for the words-. Do you know..., evacuate.
-Yes, of course, I understand, I already asked the engineers to work on that problem, they will probably have a solution for your next visit, you will still have the same regularity, but you will be notified in a more natural way that you should do it, they are working on an update for that -the doctor explained-. That's the only thing you're worried about, your expression makes me think no. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about, before you go to the examination table?
-It's just that... -again he doubted what I was going to say -. It still bothers me the way people see me on the street, I feel like they see me as a monster.
-I know it's hard Mikel, have you talked to your therapist about this?
-Yes, weekly we talk about it.
-What I can tell you is that you are not the first and you will not be the last in this situation, soon you will start seeing more like you on the streets, -said the doctor, outlining a wide smile. -Already three other young people are in rehabilitation and soon they will return to their homes, one of them is from your city.
-It would be good to meet him.
-Of course, I'll ask them if they can give you their contacts so that you can meet them, -he paused, as he rummaged through his desk in search of a scanner-. Well, let's go to the examination bench. And don't worry, because, believe it or not, you are an important part in the evolution of the human being, soon the human race will be in need of, like you, passing from biological bodies to totally synthetic organisms and it will no longer be because it is necessary due to tragic situations like yours - the doctor stood up, in what was followed by Mikel -. Parliament will authorize these interventions for those who request them, regardless of their medical conditions, and it will no longer be just a solution to irremediable cases like yours, and, furthermore, it will promote among members of the army and the corps of environmental engineers to carry them out. You are part of the future of humanity and unlike those who do not follow your own path now, you will be alive to see that what I say is true.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/images/search/evolucion/
Spectre
I don't feel myself, I hear the voices of those around me, I hear them talking and laughing in the midst of incoherent soliloquies, they are like distant calls from a world to which I no longer belong, from which I was suddenly and abruptly torn away.
I do not feel my body, it is like floating in a tactile void, there is no heat or cold, as if I were sleeping, but even in my dreams I am myself, here, I am not, I do not feel part of existence.
I have no eyes, but I can see the void, is not dark, is full of a dim light, but..., how do I know it's not dark?, if there is no darkness to differentiate the light. How do I know that what surrounds me exists?, if there is nobody around me, to help me differentiate what is.
How do I know that I am, that this is my consciousness, if there is no one to accompany me and make me be.
I feel the placidity of nothingness, of the lack of sensations, of the absence of existence. My 'I' vanishes, begins to lose itself, that absurd responsibility that was given to me without asking for it finally disappears, the responsibility to live.
Then, suddenly, my comfortable non-existence is filled with parasitic sensations, my opaque emptiness is illuminated with a ghostly green light, which, like a sphere of fire, grows in front of me; once again I feel the cold of my absurd existence growing from my hands which, like ghostly and blurred apparitions, I can see before the glare of discontinuous beams of light that emerge from the green fire.
Familiar aromas and sounds of a world I thought had been overcome at times fill my newly conscious head. Then I realize the terrifying reality of being again, of the despicable obligation to live.
The intense light from the ceiling of my room, now clearly distinguishable; the intense smell of jasmine growing around the building; the noise of others laughing and talking loudly and jovially in their rooms; the taste of blood in my mouth and the painful sensation of being myself again, announce my failure, testify that my new attempt to free myself from the condemnation of living has failed.
Even my hand holds the glass with which I cut my jugular, I sit up and watch the crimson stain spread over my mattress and drop the piece of glass that I once believed would be the solution to the curse of my existence. Again the nanobots have returned me from the placidity of the void, brought me back from the edge of death.
Soon the wardens will be here, to ensure that I have not died, that I have not been able to escape my sentence, that I have not been able to escape the prison that has become my life.
Again counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists will try to convince me that there are reasons to keep me here, that my sentence will end and I will regain my freedom. That my troubled mind can be fixed and I will be free to go wherever I want, that this confinement will end.
But they do not understand that it is not these walls that deprive me of being free; even outside of them, I would still be a prisoner of my own existence, I would still be imprisoned for my life, for a life whose duration I stopped counting when it exceeded three figures, I would still be condemned, for having lost the right to be able to die.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/de-fondo-tel%C3%B3n-de-fondo-patr%C3%B3n-2406119/
Lurking
Liam felt as if he had been walking for days, the wound on his side took his breath away, and his fractured leg made him almost impossible to walk, with every step he felt how a flare of pain ran through his body. After being hit by a plasma charge from one of the fighters of the rebels of the Cepheus confederation, he lost consciousness and his ship was adrift for about five hours, when he woke up he was in a decaying orbit and had lost his engines after the plasma explosion.
Fortunately for him, he landed in the middle of the forest of the southern continent, where the trees cushioned his violent descent enough to eject into the escape capsule before the ship was completely torn apart, unfortunately, upon impacting the ground, the electronics of the capsule had been damaged and he was seriously injured. He was now injured and completely isolated, unable to communicate with rescue units.
The forests of Cepheus were known for their density and the scarcity of animals, only some rodents, reptiles and insects, plus birds that used to live in the tops of the tall conifers, and a few species of fish and mollusks in its rivers and lakes, were the only inhabitants of its vast territories.
The navigation system of his hull indicated the presence, to the north, of an old military installation, abandoned after the war began, but which still kept its emergency communications unit active, as well as an electric generator, which would be enough to operate it.
With the help of a branch, which fell to the ground along with the capsule and carrying his weapon and the backpack with emergency equipment, he started his way to the building, guided by the navigation system.
Sore and exhausted, he made it past midnight, he had traveled the twenty kilometers in seven hours, had it not been for his injuries, one hour would have been enough to get through the forest and get here.
It was an old park guard post, which had been abandoned when the guards assigned to it joined the rebels. Behind the perimeter fences, the place looked overrun by undergrowth, its walls were partially destroyed and one could distinguish shatters caused by plasma explosions, as well as holes, caused by high velocity projectiles, as it seemed, this place had not been simply abandoned. No light was visible in the entire building, not even in the guard post, it was completely alone.
After using the thermal visor of his helmet and not distinguishing any body that emitted heat, beyond small creatures hidden in the undergrowth and nooks and crannies of the building, he decided to enter, he walked slowly and heavily, he knew that, if something was hiding somewhere in that place, he must be seeing it at this moment, but he had no choice but to risk it, the pain in his side was increasingly intense and it was becoming more difficult for him to breathe.
When he entered the building, he could perceive an intense smell of mold and rust, the infrared vision of his helmet was not of great help, so he decided to risk turning on the flashlights, at the back of the room was the cabinet of the forest ranger robots, the doors of the cubicles were smashed, as if it had been made by some kind of angry beast, He approached and could see that inside the cubicles were still the robots, but all of them were destroyed, they seemed to have been beaten viciously, using some heavy object, the floor made of polished concrete, had absorbed the hydraulic fluid, spilled by the destroyed machines, forming a huge stain around the entire cabinet, from there came the smell of rust that he felt when he entered.
To the sides of the robot cabinet, were the doors to the sleeping quarters, at some point about thirty soldiers, assigned to the ranger service, were occupying the abandoned rooms, down a hallway to the right of the main room, were the dining room and kitchen. The tables and chairs seemed to have been pushed and thrown against the walls, many were smashed, a similar panorama was seen in the kitchen, strangely the food reserves remained in place, they were not taken when the building was abandoned, several sacks of flour and grains were scattered on the floor, after being damaged by rodents. Above, at eye level, a wide but low cabinet, crammed with cans of vegetables, meat, fish and crab, looked like some kind of big grinning mouth, full of rust-rotted teeth.
The dampness of the forest had rapidly aged the remains of the unit, it was as if behind the five years of neglect, there were hidden centuries of decay.
Liam still could not find the generator and the communications console, it was expected to be in a sheltered place, next to the unit's weapons. He walked to the corridor located in the opposite wing to the dining room and kitchen, after checking several doors that hid offices, which were as shattered as everything else, he reached the end, where a large polymer security door was located, here must be the radio, he thought, if the procedures had been followed the door should be closed.
Pushing, the door gave way easily, the reinforced hinges, slid smoothly without making the slightest sound. He illuminated the room from one side to the other, apparently everything was in order, unlike the rest of the place, here time had not passed, everything was tidy, although dusty. At the end, partially hidden by a large chair, was the console and at the opposite end, a generator powered by a cobalt isotope battery, while on the side wall was the weapons cabinet, which as expected was open and empty.
He entered the room and approached the console to take a closer look at its state, despite the apparent order, a deep smell of mold and dirt hung in the air, he rested his hand on the chair and a shiver ran down his spine, he stumbled and was about to fall, he leaned his weight on the branch that helped him to move, When he illuminated the chair with his flashlight, he saw clearly what had disturbed him, sitting on it was the partially mummified corpse of a soldier, with his head turned around, in an unnatural position and with his dry and bony hands resting on the controls of the console.
Suddenly, in the middle of the desolate silence of that structure, he heard a murmur, coming from behind him, he turned around, still disturbed by the image of the dead soldier, he illuminated the corridor and the walls without seeing anything, again he heard the sound, It was similar to the squeaking of rubber boots on a polished surface, but it seemed to come from above, he pointed the flashlight above his head, attached to the ceiling he saw the pale and stylized figure of a robot ranger, looking down at him with his empty white acrylic face.
Like a cat falling from a table, the robot collapsed on top of him, spinning in the air to land on him, crushing him against the dirty concrete floor, Liam let out a sharp cry of pain, the robot expressionless, raised its fist and drove it violently into Liam's side, striking his wound. Liam let out another shriek and the robot jumped backwards, propelling itself with feet and hands, and landed in a crouch next to the pilot's feet, grabbed him by the ankle of his broken leg and lifted him up like a sack, flipped him in the air as if it was about to throw a hammer, during the turn, Liam's head hit against the weapons cabinet, just before the robot released him and flew off to hit against the wall next to the door of the room.
Liam felt his body burn from the pain, his head was completely deranged, his ears were ringing and he could barely see, if it hadn't been for his helmet, the blow would have cracked his skull open. He blinked until he could focus his eyes, to see the robot standing in the same place from where he had thrown him, staring at him, the android took a step towards him and collapsed shaking, Liam, now with several broken bones, crawled towards the machine that was convulsing on the floor and with the butt of his electric pulse gun, with which he had managed to shoot it moments before, successively struck its flat, white face, until the android's acrylic and reinforced polymer head was shattered and it lay completely still, then fell backwards, lying next to the defeated machine and lost consciousness.
Liam awoke as he was lifted onto a ship, lying on a stretcher held by two rescue androids, sitting next to where he was placed was an individual with captain's stripes, who watched carefully as the stretcher was secured in place by the robots and they retreated to the rear of the vehicle, where they stood by the hatch as it closed and the ship began to rise.
Liam watched the robots carefully, while the captain watched him with a slight smile.
-Don't worry Lieutenant, these are ours, as they should all be," said the captain.
-How did they find me, what happened sir," Liam asked awkwardly.
-One of the tracking satellites saw your ship enter the atmosphere and followed the trajectory here, we found the impact site, then your capsule and followed your not inconspicuous trail here," replied the captain.
-But what happened, why did that robot attack me," Liam asked again.
-It seems that the rebels reprogrammed robots to attack humans, which they identified as soldiers, other crimes that at some point will have to be added to their list of accusations before the court of Cepheus and Parliament," answered the captain.
One of the main prerogatives of AI programming has always been the protection and preservation of any life form, in Cepheus, the anti-parliament rebellion had violated this basic rule, faithfully respected by every builder and developer, by creating a computer worm that was able to alter the software of robots and other AI devices and make them act against humans, according to certain targeting criteria.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/%C3%A1rboles-niebla-forestales-forrest-1209660/
Terraformation
-Soon it will be dawn, -said Peter, looking at the eastern horizon of the island. The normally grey clouds seemed to be brownish, in the amber light of dawn, in the middle of them, clearly visible, was one of the two satellites of the planet, the larger of which, its spectral face, pierced by hundreds of meteor impacts, slowly glided like a ghost ship through the clouds.
-It's time to go to the next node -said Gabriel, who was standing at the console of the terraforming computer-. Already the parameter update of LUCY is ready.
-What's next on the itinerary? -asked Peter, without looking away from the small slit that served as the only window to the main node's computer room.
-We only have to go to one of the nodes on the continent that is inactive, - answered Gabriel-. According to LUCY's scan, it had a power failure and went offline.
After rebooting the planet's terraforming AI systems, they returned to their ship and started walking to a remote node, located on a mountain range on one of the planet's three continents.
On arrival, the node was completely dark and no signal was received from the radio beacon that should still be working, even without electricity.
-There is nothing, everything is completely off, -commented Peter as he looked at the electromagnetic sensor readings-. It's as if I'd been shocked by an EMP.
-Who is going to launch an EMP into a terraforming node, -replied Gabriel, as he maneuvered to lower the ship onto the platform.
-That's the only thing I can think of to make a system with five levels of redundancy fail, - added Peter-. It could have been an atmospheric phenomenon, or the entry of a meteor, perhaps the explosion of one in the upper atmosphere, caused the EMP.
-Looking at it from that perspective, it's possible, but why didn't LUCY record it?
-I don't know, maybe the sensors failed even before the explosion, - answered Peter-. That's the only reason I can think of for such a failure, that or someone having shut down all the systems on purpose.
After descending and getting their equipment ready, they went into the node building, their watertight yellow tires phosphorizing in the absolute darkness of the building, the infrared scopes on their helmets showed them that all the panels seemed to have burned out, as if a big over-voltage had overheated and scorched the circuits.
-What are we going to do, we have no parts to repair such damage, -said Gabriel, lifting the cover of one of the control panels and revealing its charred interior. -What could have caused such damage?
-I don't know, it seemed to be done on purpose, as if someone had overloaded the whole system -Peter opened the cover of the cabinet which contained the cobalt isotope batteries which served as a backup to the power system-. Look at this, what the hell is it?
The batteries seemed to have caught fire inside the cabinet, fortunately the shell containing the radioactive material remained intact, around the ashes you could see traces of some kind of phosphorescent dust.
-I have no idea, -said Gabriel, bending down to take some of the strange dust with his fingers-. It's hard to tell by taking it with your gloves, but it's very fine, it looks like powdered calcite, but calcite doesn't fluoresce.
They went into The Room where the node servers were, and found that like the access panels, all the computer units were completely damaged, as well as finding more of the mysterious phosphorescent powder all over the place.
They decided to retreat and ask for the complete restitution of the node, as the damage was irreparable. As they walked towards the ship, a strange, ghostly figure suddenly crossed their field of vision, seeming to move swiftly in front of the door frame of the building's exit.
-Did you see that? - asked Gabriel in surprise.
-Of course I did.
They ran to the door, and looked in the direction in which the figure had advanced.
-Look at the floor, -said Peter pointing to a trail of phosphorescent dust -. That wasn't there when we came in.
They followed in trail in the darkness, advancing on the sharp frozen rocks of the mountain on which the building stood. They went down what looked like a nature trail through the rocks. At the end of the path they could see a female figure phosphorus in an intense greenish-yellow color, which prays to float in the middle of a clear area.
-Damn, what is that? -exclaimed Gabriel, through the communicator of the suit, as he stopped abruptly.
-You don't belong here, -they heard a ghostly, familiar female voice say over their communicators.
The figure approached them suddenly and quickly, almost in the blink of an eye, and was within their reach. The infrared scopes and phosphorescence did not allow them to distinguish the pale face from the terrifying apparition, which now spoke to them through their own communicators.
-You must get out of here, this is not your world, -the face of the specter drew what appeared to be a grimace of anger. -Get out of here now! -it shouted at them as its size suddenly tripled, as if it expanded.
Stunned by the situation, Peter and Gabriel were paralyzed for a few seconds, then the spectre leaned over and approached them, its now enormous face, and they could see changing features as if they were in fluid.
-GET OUT!, - it shouted again in a loud voice, its face forming a frightening grimace.
Peter and Gabriel ran wordlessly to the ship and boarded it for take-off, speaking no more than was necessary to make the manoeuvre. As they moved away to start the ascent and leave the atmosphere, they looked back at the mountain where it was nodding. His figure was hardly distinguishable in the middle of the dark night.
-I am going to give the order, in a few hours this place will be completely razed, -said Peter.
-What the hell was that?- asked Gabriel as he led the ship, still frightened.
-A fault in the AI node, I think the bright dust were terraforming nano-machines which must have been reprogrammed by the AI, I suppose they were the ones that were dying, and the monster, they were thousands of nano-machines grouped together, - explained Peter, catching his breath.
-Damn it, I've never seen anything like this, -exclaimed Gabriel-. But how did it happen?
-The LUCY's tend to have a very motherly and overprotective personality, in some cases they have refused to allow engineers to upgrade them or to get close to the planets they are terraforming, - explained Peter -. I think she somehow managed to create a manifestation of herself by reprogramming the terraforming nanomachines. It probably caused the node systems to be overloaded in the process.
-Damn it, we were close, she seemed furious, -said Gabriel, in a more relaxed tone.
-She wouldn't hurt us, at least I think; her programming wouldn't allow it. Anyway, we are not safe yet. Luckily the fault occurred in a node and not in the core of the network, we must get out of here immediately, remember that those nano-machines are everywhere, when the infection spreads, the whole planet will be lost.
-And what will happen to the planet. -Will all the work that's been done on it be lost? -asked Gabriel.
-No, as I understand it, the procedure being followed is the use of devourers, nano-machines that will remove all traces of technology on its surface, and then a new network of nodes should be created to continue the terraforming, if there is luck, not much of the progress made so far will be lost.
Image Source https://pixabay.com/es/photos/greina-cant%C3%B3n-de-los-grisones-suiza-5299295/
@amart29
