One of the great speculations about the rediscovery of the Uppaaimarn civilization in the mid-23rd century concerned the records of their travel, far exceeding the power and reach of warp drive while humanity was still marveling at the first long-distance oceanworthy sailing vessels.
The scientists of the 23rd century had realized: the Uppaaimar likely made use of a fact known as early as the 20th century; cram too much matter and energy into too small a space, and a black hole is created. The difference between their thinking and human thinking was that they knew a black hole on one side led to a white hole on another --- in other words, the space-time continuum had passageways, hidden in the dark matter and dark energy that lay in the fourth dimension.
(For a detailed explanation, see the third story of the White Hole Saga I did with one of the LMAC Image Gallery contributors whose work I used – shoutout to @justclickindiva for inviting me to this contest!)
Apparently, the Uppaaimar had found a way to create a packing of time and space before them to create something like a mini-black hole big enough to accommodate their ships, and had the navigational skill to draw a straight line to where they would come out.
The question of the masses was of course: “Well, what do you see when traveling in the fourth dimension?”
Leading Uppaaimarn expert Dr. iMaru had two answers for that.
“Nothing: our human and humanoid senses do not have the capacity for sight in the fourth dimension, and that is why all the matter and energy is 'dark' to us.”
The second answer, however, he gave to himself.
“And it is just as well, humans, because you are not ready.”
The memory came unbidden to his mind of the closest call he had ever had on an Uppaaimarn convoy … coming out of the dark matter back into the third dimension, too close for comfort to a passing green meteor – still more than half a light-year away, but still … that whole line of ships, going through the passage, had to slow down enough so that the supercomputers could double-check the course … and also, capture the view from Dr. iMaru's viewscreen.
This had also been the day the Uppaaimar and their allies, heading through the opening back into the third dimension, realized there were “edge” creatures coming from the third dimension back toward the fourth dimension … or just sitting and watching, content at the edges.
The Uppaaimar had left the Milky Way Galaxy long before humanity had become a space-going civilization, owing to the transition to a Wolf-Rayet state of the second of their binary stars in what Earthlings considered the 18th century.
The Uppaaimar were planning their return … but not planning to pass on all the secrets that humanity was simply not ready for.
The green meteor and the ship seen edge-on going through the opening are both fractals made in Apophysis 2.09 by #lil contributor @justclickindiva
Justclickindiva's Green Comet, from the LIL
All the rest are fractals made in Apophysis 2.09 by me.
The Emergence
Ships 1 and 2
Ship 3
Ship 4
Edge Creature 1
Edge Creatures 2 and 3
Edge Creatures 4 and 5 (a pair!)
