Galaxy's Edge Magazine: Issue 3, July 2013 (9 page)

It is unimaginable that they would come, Lena and the dead, from the heart of the Galaxy Called Rome to tenant Ridgefield Park, New Jersey…but more unimaginable still that from all the Ridgefield Parks of our time we will come and assemble and build the great engines which will take us to the stars and some of the stars will bring us death and some bring life and some will bring nothing at all but the engines will go on and on and so after a fashion, in our fashion will we.

Copyright © 1975 by Mercury Press

********************************************

13-year-old Muxing Zhao, with this story, becomes the youngest writer ever to sell to a professional science fiction magazine. We understand that he is hard at work on his first novel.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF A WORLD IN THE TIME BEFORE THIS TIME

by Muxing Zhao

The Beginning

The Beginning of Time:
Once upon a time, 27.831 billion years ago, before even the Big Bang, there had been another singularity. It was a tiny dot and it quite enjoyed itself, passing its time by wandering about through the ocean of emptiness it liked to call home. This dot’s name was Dot, and it spoke a rather simple language: Dot Language. The language was not very creative, as you would probably expect from a dot.

Here’s a quick summary of the history of the universe in Dot language: “Wow! Did you see it? Hey, I’m impressed!”

The Birth of the Universe:
Dot was floating happily about, when suddenly it met its abrupt end—it exploded. From the explosion, a whole universe (though smaller than ours now) came into existence. This was known as the Little Bang. You’d think Dot would be quite unhappy at being blown up (if indeed it was still here)—but no! Dot had in fact split into millions upon millions of smaller dots within the universe, and together they were all very happy, as they were simple-minded creatures. Each one fattened up as time passed, growing larger and larger in the event known as the Great Formation. Finally they could not grow any further and settled for becoming massive worlds.

The Travel:
It was about this time that a group of rebellious dots who had refused to grow (and as a result, developed a single bacterium within each of them) decided to fly about, smashing into the worlds. Each collision released the single bacterium, and so each world began its own story of life.

The Ancient Epoch (Early)

Formation of Bacteria:
One calm day, on a world known as Alphabeta, a Rebel dot crashed into the surface, releasing a single bacterium. This little bacterium existed for only a few moments before loneliness overcame it, so it split itself in half and created a friend to keep it company.

Age of Bacterial Growth:
They found this process quite enjoyable, and proceeded to split themselves over and over, the population doubling with each split, until there were over a million of them. They were known as the First Bacteria. The First Bacteria were very cheerful with so many others to accompany them, but there was no way to talk and the silence was becoming excruciating. Thus the Ancient Bacterial Communication Dialect (AKA A‘
lC‘tnaoccimeirmleeuantnit’ciDacBation)
was created.

The Ancient Epoch (Late)

The Bacteria frolicked about for many years, oblivious to what was slowly happening beneath the world’s surface. Then one day something within the world erupted violently, causing earthquakes across the globe. The ground cracked and split, revealing a hole in the surface of the world beneath some of the Bacteria—and thousands of them fell helplessly into the dark abyss. As they passed through the seemingly endless chasm and the center of the world’s gravity, something deep within each of them
changed
.

Beginning of Evil:
When they finally passed through the Great Hole, they found themselves on the other side of the world. However, they did not care about this. They had become evil, heartless souls with a fierce, everlasting lust for the blood of their enemy. They had become the Viruses. The forces of Nature sealed the Great Hole shut, returning the land back to what it once was, thereby forcing them to find another way back. Across the land they ventured, their strong urge to kill motivating them onward.

Age of Virus:
As they traveled across the landscape, passing ominous mountains and dark valleys, they formed a language of their own, as they had lost their memory of their first language. Their minds had also been altered by the Great Hole, and so their language, Evilishly Formed Gibberish (AKA
EobvrbimeleridisF‘shhlGy’i
), was as its name states—complete gibberish, at least to some. Several long, tiring decades passed, and their quest was nearly complete. They had returned to the land of the First Bacteria. All they had to do now was to defeat them.

The Viruses ambushed the Bacteria, shattering the peace the First Bacteria valued—and the First Great War had begun. The two colonies clashed; the air turned red with blood. Tens of thousands of First Bacteria died at the hands of the Viruses’ poison, and the Viruses were clearly winning the battle. Hope seemed to have deserted the Bacteria, seeping away through cracks in their hearts—but it had not completely left them just yet. Years of being exposed to the poison of the Viruses had allowed the survivors to develop immunity to it, and so the tide turned in favor of the First Bacteria. The Viruses had become slothful as they had relied on their poison to do their work, and were nearly defeated before a truce was called. Both the First Bacteria and the Viruses saw the costs of the war and how it had blackened their hearts and clouded their minds. Realizing the countless lives it had taken, both sides experienced a change of heart. The two colonies joined together and lived side by side in a peaceful union for the many years that followed.

The Evolution and The Next Age:
As they lived together, they grew more advanced through the building of tools, and they themselves became more complex beings, evolving into the Next Bacteria. The two colonies’ languages mingled over time into one combined language, known as Highly Informative Jabber (AKA
HlfaebiyotJegIriarhnmvb
₆
). Their tools allowed them to build weapons and armor, and even musical instruments. Life was prosperous and all was well.

The Feudal Epoch (Early)

Age of Separation:
Two parts of society slowly began to divide as their cultures grew further apart. They were the Knights and the Musicians. The Knights valued fighting and valor whereas the Musicians valued peace and harmony. Refusing to join their beliefs, the Knights declared that separation was their only option. A Great Disagreement ensued and the Split occurred. The Knights attempted to shut the Musicians out of their world completely, but the Musicians refused to allow that to happen. The Knights were furious at the opposition and sought to put an end to the Musicians. Declarations of war arose and the Second Great War began. Both sides had their advantages—the Knights with their superior fighting ability, and the Musicians with their ability to entice the enemy with their flowing music. The war raged on for many years with both sides suffering heavy losses.

Then one day (though of course they didn’t have days back then, or at least not as we understand them), the Musicians sent a small group of their most highly-acclaimed musicians secretly into the kingdom of the Knights. They infiltrated the vicinity where Leaders of the Knights sat in conclave and hid in the shadows and began to play their instruments. Their music filled the Leaders’ ears with mellow, silky wonder. Slowly, the music changed the Leaders’ thoughts toward the war. The group of Musicians slid back into home territory, and the following day the Knights declared a truce. The Musicians happily accepted the truce, but wished to stay separate. The Leaders of the Knights reluctantly agreed to the Musicians’ wishes, and peace came once more to the land. A barrier was erected between the two societies.

As the years trundled by, the two sides’ cultures had grown vastly different. The Knights continued to develop more and more advanced weaponry and trained almost all of their people in war. Their language evolved to become the Knights’ Language. The Musicians chose to develop their musical skills and instruments and created only a small army (just to be on the safe side). Their language became the Musical Notation Opus.

The Feudal Epoch (Late)

Far away on another world, technology had advanced considerably further than Alphabeta’s had. The first long-distance spacecraft had been created and a group of 50 of the native species were chosen to travel on its maiden voyage. Their destination was their neighboring world, Alphabeta.

(Now, back on Alphabeta, the population had experienced a major fluctuation, soaring past a hundred million. The Knights and Musicians stayed apart, and they were reasonably happy, except for the few who weren’t, and as you know there are always a few.)

Alien Age:
A dark object streaked through the clear skies, leaving a trail of smoke that scarred the air. All Alphabeta eyes watched as it flew down to their world and landed exactly between the two major cities. A panic instantly ensued. The Musicians huddled together for comfort and reassurance, and the Knights readied their weapons, preparing for whatever the intruder was. The Knights sent a group of scouts to check the landing site. Hours passed. The scouts never returned.

But something
did
come to their land.

The aliens, who had not expected to encounter life, were not especially well-prepared for battle, but they had a great advantage in technology and weaponry and had brought some weapons along with them, so they chose to see where the scouts had come from.

They were met by a small army of Knights who were quickly defeated. This annoyed the aliens, who then forced their way into the Knights’ city, destroying and killing everything they saw. The Knights sent more and more to battle against the aliens, but their efforts were futile. Finally, in utter terror, the Knights fled their homes and retreated to the Musicians’ land, where the two forces quickly united. The Alien War had begun.

Their languages were completely different from each other, creating enormous confusion throughout the people. The two quickly formed a new language called Knights Language Made Newly Overnight (AKA
Ov ‘lea’krn‡‘ngi†e‘mug†wa†h†ldgtTYE†S
). Both sides sent their armies out to fight, but the aliens’ weapons were too powerful, and the Knights’ and Musicians’ numbers plummeted to fourteen thousand. Still, their fierce, burning will to survive pressed them on, as their lives were in ruins now, and there was nothing more to lose.

The Alien Study:
Time passed, and more died. But after a short, deathly war, the Knights and Musicians finally emerged as the victors. They had lost over 90,000 valiant fighters, compared to a mere 22 for the aliens. The remaining aliens were captured and were put under strict watch, but after many years they were released and allowed to set up a colony of their own.

The Knights and Musicians sent researchers to search the alien spaceship. They returned with a considerable amount of never-before-seen equipment, and a project to study the aliens ensued.

Age of Learning:
The years following were far better than during the war. The renewed happiness along with the new technology brought a huge overhaul of advancement. Over time, the language of the aliens became part of some of the population, and this special part of the population became the Telepaths, who had traits resembling those of the aliens. Their language was one spoken through the mind, known as the Psychogenic Quantum Radio Signaling Tongue (AKA
g36V‘57HB9EF  h4Td61H  iQ356  jJB7Mb
₂
C5G  kEAGeP
).

The Information Epoch (Early)

Golden Age:
Life on Alphabeta was never better. Huge cities were created, spreading over many miles. The population boomed once more, surpassing not a hundred thousand, but a billion, and the citizens evolved greatly over this time. They became very complex beings, tens of thousands of times the size of their first ancestors, the First Bacteria. Technology allowed life to become easier and easier, and the people of Alphabeta began sending ships into space and discovering new worlds and their inhabitants. It was this technology, and the technology of the other worlds, that saved them from the next major event.

The Information Epoch (Late)

The Great Convergence:
The universe had done its growing, and its momentum had already completely stopped. The universe was collapsing in on itself, its own gravity becoming its downfall. Together, all of the worlds used their combined powers to slow the eventual, desolate End, and thus the effect of the Great Convergence was reduced significantly. All of the worlds connected into a single huge, rugged super-planet, and a large percentage of the total population of all these worlds was able to survive. A single language was created: Universal Verbal Wording (AKA
UVWneoirrvbdeairl’nag’l
). Cultures mingled, and so did their science, technology, population, and more.