The Greatest Commodity (First Draft)

Seeking Knowledge

The rocky hills towered into the sky, bathed in the amber light of a dim sun. The bulk of the Small Magellanic cloud hung above.

The lone traveler, Xf39b, stood upon the mountaintop, staring out upon the orange-tinted landscape. Great plains of shimmering ice all the way to the horizon, nearly as clear as glass. The traveler took in the vista with great interest; no one else had ever before visited this planet, no one had ever climbed these mountains, no one else knew about this world or its unmistakable beauty.

Eagerly, Xf39b spent the night on this summit, taking record of every detail, learning all to be learned. The starry sky slowly turned above him as the world spun in its fast thirty-two kilosecond rotation.

One would think the stars in the sky would be countless, but that is untrue. Someone else indeed counted them, another piece of knowledge. But still, there were plenty.

When it came time to leave at noon, Xf39b jumped off the summit, with no air to slow him down, he accelerated to the bottom. He landed on his feet. with impact, an audible vibration carried through in the form of a 'thump' sound, it rippled through the ground and into Xf39b's audio sensors, he heard the vibration as a sound.

He ran in the direction of his travel pod, his bare feet making slapping noises against the icy ground. With a velocity that Classicals would consider 'inhuman', he crossed several hundred kilometers of smooth plains and jutting mountains to reach the pod. It took him only point-nine kiloseconds.

The travel pod was a smooth, egg shaped, craft; pure white in color. Xf39b touched his hand against its surface, and it suddenly became a liquid, it kept its shape despite this.

Slowly, he inserted himself into the pod, pushing his body into the fluid. When he'd gotten partway in, the pod sucked him in the rest of the way. The pod rotated him into the right position, and manipulated his limbs into their rightful positions, he did not resist. When it was completed, the pod solidified again, and it instantly became a part of his body.

With a thought, he took off from this planet and accelerated away from it. He quickly picked up speed and was soon going at a tenth the speed of light. The feeble star and its icy companion zoomed away behind him. He could feel the faint stellar wind subside. Then he put on another burst of acceleration, picking up speed without g-forces, he reached a speed close to C, the nearby stars all began to move, he could feel dozens of megaseconds going by rapidly; he wasn't just flying through space, he was flying forward into the future. every parsec put him further ahead, luckily not much ever changes at these slow velocities.

In his mind, he already knew that the entire Small Magellanic Cloud had been explored save for the system he'd just visited, and one more. He accelerated further, gigaseconds now went by as the galaxy itself began to move. The wispy nebular clouds suddenly became alive, ribbons of color rippling and stretching and colliding; isolated clouds dissipating over time, bright flashes in their midst as young T-Tauri stars ignite to fusion and blow away their cocoons.

The stars flew by rapidly now, like streaks. But one star straight ahead didn't move, it grew slowly brighter. He knew little about this star, no examination had been made by anyone prior, it was merely a speck.

Getting close now, he slowed down to point-one C, the animation of the galaxy was suddenly frozen. Upon inspection he could distinguish its color, class-G; a few seconds later he got the full spectrum, G7, a yellow dwarf. Another few seconds and he entered the system, the transition from peaceful interstellar medium to harsh solar wind was jarring, he felt a moment of discomfort before his senses adapted and the feeling became milder. He began to discern planets, eighteen worlds; seven planets of rock, five of ice, six of gas.