The Bridge

amart29 (68)in #esteem • 7 years ago

Greetings to everyone, the following story was inspired by the digital art of @xpilar, I invite you to visit his blog. The picture that motivated this story is the following.

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The Bridge

That morning everything suddenly changed in Cassiopeia, on one of the peculiar almost circular plateaus that bordered, regularly distanced, the northern coast of the largest of the continents, a bridge suddenly appeared.

That region of the continent, was scarcely visited, most of the population is located in the other three continents, its lands are more suitable for cultivation and its climate more kind, while the greater continent, it is believed that it was product of the impact of some object of great size, in the period immediately after the solidification of the crust of the planet, it is a gigantic plain of rock in its most vitrified part.

Had it not been for particle-tracking satellites, its presence would have been noticed so quickly. Less than two hours before dawn, the alarm was triggered by an intense source of neutrinos coming from that region. Immediately the expeditionary force of the army, based in Yone, one of the moons of Cassiopeia, sent a reconnaissance drone to check the area, finding the peculiar image of a bridge floating a few hundred metres above the top of one of the plateaus.

Cassiopeia was a newly acquired world, its cities were just under five hundred years old, and its population about a hundred years before that. It was the world furthest from Heracles and the closest to the outer edge of Orion's arm, its discovery and foundation is due to the Icarus Fleet which was exploring and creating a route to the outer arm.

It was immediately ruled out that the bridge was created by humans and its location, size and sudden appearance also denied the possibility that it was a natural event. It is well known that the Einstein-Rosen bridges do not manifest themselves naturally on a macroscopic scale, much less within the gravitational influence of a massive object such as a planet.

The bridge, about two hundred meters in diameter, reflected on its outer membrane what appeared to be the surface of a sea and some strange circular structures on it, so it was understood that the other end of the bridge was also located within the atmosphere of a planet.

The expeditionary force set up a surveillance post one kilometre from the object and drones and robot probes were sent to guard its perimeter.

Information was received from the Icarus Fleet that the Inus, the apparent new friends of humans, were completely unaware of the origin of this bridge, and that with the authorization of humans they would send a ship with one of their nodes, to facilitate the exchange of information, for the investigation of its origin.

For the following month a robotic probe was sent to enter the bridge and send information about what was on the other side.

-ROBERT reports your status before entering the bridge, -said the communications operator at the checkpoint in Cassiopeia.

-I am fully operational, in-line deflectors, reactor, antigravity engine and active plast and PEM emitters at one hundred percent of their capabilities, - replied ROBERT in a jovial tone. -And don't worry about me, I am a probe I don't feel fear, anguish or apprehension, although I do have a strange feeling of uncertainty.

-Thank you ROBERT, please report everything you perceive during the entrance, and once inside do a full scan of the area, -said the operator.

-Well, I am about to enter the bridge, given the size and location of the bridge within a gravitational field larger than yours, I will ignore the procedure of entering by making an orbital approximation and I will do it in a straight line.

ROBERT entered the bridge, as if it were a bubble, at first the nose of his tapered hull touched the surface and after seeming to remain static for a few fractions of a second, could be seen reflected on the outer membrane of the bridge, as it reappeared flying in the direction of the strange structures that could be appreciated.

For several hours he waited for ROBERT's data package, only he could make the decision when to send it his operation was totally autonomous. At the end of the afternoon, he emerged from the bridge, activating the alarms of all the surveillance probes, a projectile with the first data package.

The facilities, whatever they were, were abandoned, it was not any known structure or technology, it was not Inu, much less Goei and of course it was not human, the tour made by ROBERT did not show until now the presence of land on the planet, however, his search had only covered a radius of two hundred kilometers. And the most shocking came in a video recording, narrated by ROBERT's own voice.

-The environmental conditions of this planet are similar to those of Cassiopeia, that is to say, it is habitable for humans, no type of microbial life form is detected in the atmosphere, nor of nanometric and quantum machines, but the most important thing is that here it is already night, and the celestial vault has a configuration of stars completely unknown to me - explained ROBERT, while showing a diaphanous night sky with scarce stars shining in it.

-But this is the most interesting thing of all, -explained ROBERT, showing what appeared to be a recognizable galaxy, although seen from a different plane -. Do you know which galaxy this is? Its configuration and the identification of several of its stars indicate to me that it is Andromeda, the neighbor of the Milky Way- he said in a gloomy tone -. But that's not what's interesting.

The image that ROBERT showed next presented a spiral galaxy, accompanied by two other smaller galaxies, clearly distinguishable and other even smaller varies, almost unnoticeable, bordered by what seemed to be a torn veil of stars and gas, which seemed to indicate a galactic collision.

-I have managed to identify at least eight thousand stars in that barred spiral galaxy, -ROBERT continued to relate -. According to my conclusion, this is the Milky Way. -he said sombrely -. I still can't identify where this planet is, but I can assure you that it is outside our galaxy.

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, September 2019

The Bridge

The Bridge

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