/sci/ - Science & Math

At first entry, this level appears almost empty. Organized in a regular grid of wide, high arched-ceiling tunnels with circular intersections, the thick vitrified rock wall linings had stood up to time quite well, with few cave-ins. The contents of these spaces hadn't fared so well. Geological movements had opened the inevitable faults, so even here in this deep relatively stable basalt formation, moisture had worked its tireless destruction. Repetitive mounds of rust and slimy residue along the floor edges of the passages told few tales, until coaxed with microscopic and chemical analysis. This rust was once simple, modular steel shelving. Miles of it. Layered with the rust are vast bulks of a local plant-derived substance equivalent to cellulose, and even vaster quantities of its complex metabolites via assorted decay organisms, as you'd expect. Faint traces of numerous other organics and inorganics, molecular fragments of what were likely pigments, for eyes sensitive across the yellow to near-UV spectrum. This had been a library.

Acres of it, millions of books. Given the context, very likely a collection representing the entire history of cultural and scientific works of these people. All gone now, of course. Much, much too late for any chance of data reconstruction from the residue. As usual. The probability of arriving 'in time' is so vanishingly small. I'm lucky enough to find it now, before crustal plate subduction had a chance to work its crushing, melting magic and erase all traces of this place. Not lucky enough though, to arrive within the so-brief data integrity lifespan of paper. Given the presence of moisture and mildew that would be a few hundred years at most. A mere blink of an eye in the greater scale of things, and as always I'm too late. Looks like about 300,000 years too late this time, which is frustratingly close and much better than my running average of about 8 or 9 million years too late, but still definitely no cigar.

>>2746753

>>2402561

Don't worry Little Timmy, some day you will get to flutter out among the stars like a mad bird, a bird embodied with an intellect, with the stars and the exhaust plume of a fusion drive all spinning around you, while hundreds of the passenger's robotic disembodied cocks simultaneously cum all over you and you rub them on your vacuum-hardened nipples.

>>2011631

Awesome video =)

45,000/67,300: The Expansion Age

Driven by an economic Golden Age brought by the Commonality, relativistic exploration of the galaxy begins. Fake saints, true morons, bold explorers, believers and people trying to get rich, all embark on the expeditions to new worlds.

67,300/89,700: The Galactic Age

Most of the Galaxy has been colonized. This era has a sense of widespread “Galactic Community”. Few sentient alien species have been found, and the Commonality has enforced peaceful First Contacts with as many as possible, although this could not be guaranteed on all cases.

89,700/100,000: The Exploration Age

Exploratory missions are sent to the nearby galaxies, dwarf galaxies, using a network of faster-than-light Krasnikov tunnels that posses negative energy densities. These connect the long-distances between galaxies, star clusters, and satellite galaxies and dwarf galaxies, but they do not reach into the stars within a galaxy: Slower-than-light travel still remains a constant within the galaxy, but people got used to it.

But it did not matter, because David Valk was alive, a redshifting radio wave source fluttering out among the stars a few light-days out.

Some said the Singularity had happened. After all, who could have predicted that the seventh decade of the Century of Wonders would have 800 people living off-world, immortality, full-immersion virtual worlds, electrodynamic tethers extended through Jupiter's magnetosphere to satisfy the power-hungry colonise, furry rapist geneticists, and genetically-engineered super-furry part-human part-tiger part-leopard women dating astronauts? Who could have predicted polyfullerene strings extending into space from Earth's surface: True space elevators, or spiders genetically-tricked to produce strands of Carbon nanotubes?

The AI determined that it was no longer necessary for the crew compartments to remain habitable, so it returned the thermostat setting to 50 degrees. A ’bot moved through the ship, cleaning up after Gillis. It left untouched the thirteen ledgers he had completed, along with the fourteenth that lay open upon his desk. There was nothing that could be done about the paintings on the walls of Module C7 and the ring access corridor, so they were left alone. Once the ’bot completed its chores, the AI closed the shutters of the windows Gillis had left open, then methodically turned off all the lights, one by one.

The date was February 25, 2102, GMT. The rest of the flight went smoothly, without further incident.
--- Einde ---

>>1738569

To all of you bitching about 'hurr durr Obama cancelled NASA':

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20100415