THE GODS WERE HUMAN TOO

By Aydanur Polatel

2026

CHAPTER 1 — The Ninth-Dimensional World

Humanity, after thousands of years of development, had reached the level of the ninth dimension. This development had not only changed space travel or scientific research. The entire order of the world in which people lived had also been rebuilt over time.

From the planet’s energy systems to transportation, from production centers to healthcare services, most of the systems that sustained daily life were managed by robots. People no longer needed to remain constantly at the controls of systems for cities to function. Energy needs were met automatically, transportation networks regulated themselves, and needed products were prepared in robotic production centers.

Robots had long since ceased to be merely machines that carried out tasks given by humans. They monitored the infrastructure of cities, identified malfunctions as they arose and often carried out the necessary intervention before people were even aware of the problem. Most of the planet had been arranged in such a way that it could operate for long periods without human intervention.

For this reason, people did not need to work constantly in order to sustain their lives. Working was no longer a mandatory condition for making a living. People could pursue the fields that interested them, participate in scientific research or live their lives according to their own preferences.

Nearly all of the major problems that humanity had to solve on its own planet had been left behind. Energy, production, transportation and resource problems, which had once determined the future of civilizations, were no longer among the fundamental issues of daily life.

But the decrease in the number of problems left for people to solve did not cause research to come to an end. On the contrary, scientists’ attention gradually began to turn toward more distant places.

First the boundaries of their own star systems had been crossed, then other stars and galaxies had been explored. Humanity had long been able to travel through the accessible regions of its own universe.

After a while, a new question began to be discussed in the scientific world.

Was the universe in which humans lived the only universe that existed?

At first, this question was only the subject of theoretical studies. But with the development of ninth-dimensional technology, findings began to emerge showing that other universes might not be merely a mathematical possibility.

For the first time, humanity had before it a new field of research extending beyond its own world, its stars and even its own universe.

CHAPTER 2 — Seeing the Universes

Having reached the ninth dimension, humanity had long since ceased to concern itself only with its own planet. They had ventured beyond their own star systems, explored distant stars and galaxies, and sent numerous research ships to the accessible regions of the universe.

After years of work, a new field of research opened up before scientists. Some of the data obtained indicated that other universes might exist beyond the universe in which humans lived and that, when certain conditions were met, it might be possible to cross into these universes.

The first studies focused on sending small research teams. It seemed possible for a ship to cross into another universe, conduct investigations there and return with the information it had obtained. But before long, a much greater idea emerged.

Why should only a few research teams go?

Humanity had already explored a large part of its own universe. If other universes truly existed, there was a field of discovery before them far greater than a few ships could cover. Scientists, administrators and representatives of society began this time to discuss a long journey in which the entire civilization would participate instead of a single research mission.

But no one knew how long such a journey would take.

Reaching the first universe could take years. After the research conducted there, they could cross into another universe, and the journey could continue for centuries. For this reason, it was not enough for the system to be prepared to carry only a few generations. An order had to be established in which a large community of humans could live for a very long time without needing any support from outside.

After months of deliberations, a decision was made.

The journey would not be the mission of a few researchers. A great inter-universal voyage of discovery would be prepared in which the entire world population could participate if they wished.

This decision did not mean that people were abandoning their world. The planet would be left behind but would not be left unattended. Robotic systems would continue to keep the cities, energy centers, production facilities and all other infrastructure operational.

Nor was humanity’s goal to find another world for themselves.

They would see the universes, explore the places they encountered and, no matter how long it took, one day return to their own world after completing their voyages of discovery.

CHAPTER 3 — The Moving World

After the decision to travel between universes was made, the first major problem facing scientists was how people would make this journey. None of the research and exploration ships built before were suitable for such a mission. This time, what was needed was a vehicle capable of carrying not a few hundred or a few thousand people, but the entire human population of the world.

The design of the new ship began.

When the first plans emerged, it became clear that this would not be a spaceship in the ordinary sense. People needed to be able to live here throughout a journey of unknown duration. For this reason, not only living quarters and control centers were built inside the ship. Cities, production areas, science centers, healthcare units and all the structures people might need in their daily lives were added to the design.

Large areas were also set aside for natural life. Areas where plants could grow were created. Water and air systems were arranged so that they could be continuously renewed. The aim was for the people living on the ship to be able to continue their lives on Earth as much as possible.

One of the most important issues was energy. Since it was unknown how long the journey would last, a system that depended on the ship obtaining resources from other planets or star systems could not be established. Systems were developed that would produce their own energy, recycle the materials they used as much as possible and operate for a very long time without external support.

Robots would take on major responsibilities in the operation of the ship. Most of the maintenance, production and repair systems were designed to operate robotically. A malfunction occurring in one section would be identified by the systems, the necessary parts would be produced and repairs could be carried out without the need for human intervention.

As construction progressed, it began to become clear that the structure taking shape resembled something other than a ship.

Inside it, people would not merely be transported from one place to another. They would be born, live, work and when necessary spend their entire lives here. When Earth was left behind, almost everything human civilization needed would move with them.

After years of work, the final sections were also completed. The energy systems were activated, the living areas were inspected and the robotic maintenance units were brought online.

Humanity had completed the largest spacecraft it had ever built.

What had emerged was more than a giant ship carrying people.

It was a new world capable of moving through space.

CHAPTER 4 — We Will Return

After the giant ship was completed, the calculations for inter-universe passage were reviewed once again. People would not be able to cross into another universe whenever they wished. Conditions between universes did not remain constant, and suitable periods during which passage could be made emerged at specific intervals.

By examining data collected over the years, scientists calculated the next suitable time for passage. The date on which the ship needed to leave Earth was determined accordingly.

The launch day was announced to the entire world months in advance.

This time, it was not only the ship that needed to be prepared. Everyone on Earth had to reach the ship within the designated period. Transportation vehicles departing from cities, transfer centers and entry points to the ship were organized under a single system. Population records and transportation plans were continuously compared to ensure that no region was left behind.

As preparations continued, it was also decided what would happen to Earth.

People would leave their planet but they were not abandoning Earth. For this reason, shutting down cities or stopping energy systems was not considered. During the time people were absent, the planet’s entire infrastructure would continue to operate.

This task was assigned to robotic systems.

Robots would continue maintaining the cities, keep energy grids operational, monitor water systems and continue operating the necessary sections of production centers. Problems that might arise in buildings, transportation networks and other infrastructure would be identified and repaired.

In a world without people, there was no need for everything to operate in the same way. Unnecessary systems would be reduced to the lowest operating level, but all infrastructure necessary for reopening the planet to human life would be preserved.

Because this journey was not one-way.

People would explore other universes, see places they did not know and no matter how long the journey lasted they would eventually return to their own universe.

In the final days, the materials to be transported to the ship were checked. The records of the science centers were transferred. The transportation schedules of the final groups of people were finalized. The last assignments were sent to the robotic systems that would take care of Earth.

As launch day approached, the planet slowly began to empty of people.

But the world being left behind was not being shut down.

With its lights, energy systems, water networks, production centers and cities, it would continue waiting for them.Because humanity’s shared conviction had not changed.One day they would return.

CHAPTER 5 — The Last Day

When departure day arrived, transportation systems prepared in different regions of the world began operating at the same time. People were taken from the cities where they lived to predetermined centers, and from there they were transferred to vehicles that would reach the giant ship.

Every stage of the plan prepared over the course of months was monitored by robotic systems. Every person entering the ship was recorded and the total number was compared with the world’s population records. The goal was not only to ensure that people were transported to the ship. No one in the world could be forgotten.

As the hours passed, the number of people remaining in the cities decreased. Groups arriving from remote regions reached the ship one after another. After each new entry, the system checked the numbers again.

Departure time was approaching.

Most of the last transport vehicles had reached the ship. As the centers used to transport people completed their duties, they were shut down, and management of the remaining systems was handed over to the robots that would stay on Earth.

In the ship’s control center, two separate times were constantly monitored. One showed the time set for departure, and the other showed the time window during which the transition between universes could be carried out.

While everything was proceeding as planned, an unexpected warning came from one of the transportation systems.

A vehicle carrying a small group of people living in one of the remote regions of the world had stopped on the way to the departure center.

The robotic system immediately identified the problem. According to the initial assessment, the malfunction was not serious. Maintenance robots in the region were directed to the vehicle and the repair process was started.

The personnel in the control center recalculated the transportation plan.

Despite the delay, it was thought that the group could make it to the ship.

As the minutes passed, all the other transport vehicles completed their duties. The last passengers were also taken aboard the ship. When the world’s population was compared again with the number of people aboard the ship, it was seen that only the group in the disabled vehicle was missing.

The maintenance robots continued their work.

But the problem had taken longer than initially estimated.

The time indicators in the control center were recalculated. The time required for the ship to leave Earth, reach the transition zone and carry out the transition between universes was now much more important.

It was still possible to wait.

But how long they could wait was now being calculated in minutes.

CHAPTER 6 — A Small Robotic Error

While repairs to the transport vehicle in the remote region continued, preparations aboard the ship had reached the final stage. All the vehicles expected from other regions of the world had arrived, and the passengers had been taken aboard the ship. Only the small group in the disabled vehicle remained.

Under normal circumstances, the ship’s departure would wait for these people to arrive as well.

However, at that very moment, a small record-keeping error occurred in the robotic system performing the population check.

The identity information of the people in the disabled transport vehicle had already been sent to the system. Before the vehicle reached the departure center, the passenger list had been transferred to the main population system, and it had been planned to verify these records as the people entered the ship.

But because of an error in the system, the verification process appeared to have been completed without being carried out.

The records of the people who had not yet reached the ship were added to the records of the passengers who had been taken aboard.

The personnel in the control center were unaware of this.

As the time set for the transition between universes approached, the ship’s administrators requested a final population check. The robotic system compared the total number of people registered in the world with the number of people shown as having been taken aboard the ship.

The two numbers matched.

The system reported that there were no missing passengers.

The check was performed once more to confirm the result. The same records were compared again and the second check did not produce a different result either.

The entire population of the world appeared to be aboard the ship.This information was transferred to the departure system. The transportation network used to transport people was considered to have completed its task and management of the planet was left, as previously planned, to the robotic systems that would remain on Earth.Yet the vehicle in the remote region still could not move.The people inside had not reached the ship.And the record showing that they had remained on Earth was no longer in the system.No one aboard the ship was aware of this.When the expected time for the transition arrived, all checks appeared to have been completed. The ship’s energy systems were brought to full capacity and clearance for departure was given.It was believed that no humans remained on Earth.For this reason, the ship’s departure was not delayed.

CHAPTER 7 — Those Who Left and Those Who Stayed

After the final checks were completed the giant ship left the world. Passing through the systems surrounding the planet it began to move toward the region where the inter-universal transition would take place.

The people aboard the ship were watching the world they had left behind for the last time. Some were thinking that for the first time they would be away from the planet where they were born for such a long time while others were focused on the journey ahead of them. However none of them knew that humans remained in the world.

The ship reached the transition region at the designated time.

The systems were activated and the inter-universal transition that had been prepared for years was carried out. The giant ship left its own universe and passed into another universe.

Then the transition region closed again.

Meanwhile in a remote region of the world the maintenance robots finally completed their work on the malfunctioning transportation system. When the vehicle was able to move again the small group inside still thought they could catch up with the ship.

They set out toward the launch center.

But when they arrived there was no vehicle waiting for them.

Most of the systems at the center had been shut down, the transportation network had been transferred to robotic management. When they looked at the area where the ship had been they saw that the giant structure was no longer there.

At first they thought the launch had not been delayed. Then they tried to get information from the systems.

The ship had left the world.

After a while they learned the more important truth. The giant ship had also completed the inter-universal transition.

Those left behind tried to establish contact with the ship. However they were no longer in the same universe. The transition region had closed and it was impossible to establish communication with another universe using the systems in the world.

At first they could not understand why they had been left behind. They knew that all humans were supposed to be counted before the ship’s departure. When they checked the registration systems shortly afterward they saw that their own identities were also among the people recorded as having been taken aboard the ship.

Then they understood what had happened.

No one had deliberately left them in the world.

The system had thought they were aboard the ship.

Learning this truth did not change the situation they were in. They could not reach those aboard the ship. The inter-universal transition had closed and they did not know when the next transition would be possible.

They had only one option ahead of them.

They would remain in the world and continue their lives here.

In the first days they did not think this would pose a major problem. After all the place where they had been left behind was not an uninhabitable planet. The cities were still functioning. There was energy. The water systems continued to operate. The production centers were capable of providing everything that was needed.

Moreover there were countless robots left behind to maintain the world.

Most of humanity had gone.

But the world left behind was still a ninth-dimensional world.

CHAPTER 8 — The World of Robots

After the giant ship’s departure the small group remaining in the world did not have to establish a new order to continue their lives. Although most of humanity had gone the order of the planet had not changed.

The energy systems in the cities continued to operate. The water networks continued to function, the food and other materials needed were prepared in the production centers. The transportation systems could be used, the robots continued maintenance work in the cities and other regions of the planet.

There was very little that humans needed to do.

When a malfunction occurred in a system the maintenance robots identified the problem and carried out the necessary repair. The production centers met their needs, the energy systems performed their own checks, the infrastructure of the cities continued to function just as it had when humans were in the world.

For the first generation left behind this order was not unfamiliar. They had all been born and raised in the ninth-dimensional civilization. They knew what the systems around them were for, could communicate with robots and could use the technology they needed in their daily lives.

However another problem soon emerged.

The number of humans remaining in the world was very small.

Although there were people among them with knowledge in different fields it was impossible for a small group to carry all the scientific and technical knowledge of the ninth-dimensional civilization. There were thousands of different fields of expertise from energy systems to robotics, from medicine to space research. In most of these fields there was not even a single expert among the humans remaining in the world.

The first generation began to teach their children what they knew. But what they themselves knew was only a small part of the knowledge of the entire civilization.

The main education centers were aboard the giant ship.

Most of the scientists, engineers, doctors and other experts had also set out on the journey. It was no longer possible for the humans remaining in the world to access their knowledge or raise their children within the same educational system.

Even so no serious consequence of this was seen in the early years.

Because the robots were still doing the work that humans did not know how to do.

Even though they did not know how an energy system was produced energy continued to flow. Even though they did not know how to make all the parts of a robot the robots continued to work. Even though they did not fully understand the infrastructure of the cities the cities continued to live.

For this reason it was not yet apparent how important the knowledge that was beginning to disappear was.The world was still running on its own.

CHAPTER 9 — Diminishing Knowledge

As the years passed, children began to be born to the small community that remained on Earth. They were the first generation that had not seen the departure of the great ship. They had always known the world with its silent cities, functioning systems and robots that did many tasks in place of humans.

The first generation tried to pass the knowledge they possessed on to their children. Systems that could be used for education were utilized, the children were taught about the world’s past and the basic operating principles of the technology around them.

But it soon became clear that this was not enough.

The knowledge of the ninth-dimensional civilization was not small enough for a few people to learn and pass on to the next generation. The science that had developed over thousands of years consisted of countless interconnected fields of expertise. Understanding how an energy system worked required knowledge of other sciences, while producing it required people specialized in very different fields to work together.

There were no people in the small community that remained on Earth who knew all of these things.

The first generation taught their children what they knew. The children in turn passed what they had learned on to those who came after them. However, with each generation, a portion of the knowledge was lost.

Some fields of science disappeared completely within a few generations.

People knew how to use the systems around them but they no longer knew how these systems were produced. They could operate a vehicle but could not build the systems inside it from scratch. They could obtain what they needed from production centers but could not explain all the details of the technology these centers used.

In later generations this gap grew even wider.

Now what was taught was not how some systems worked, but only how to use them. What people needed to know was which command to give, which section to use and how to request what they needed.

This was not considered a major problem.

The robots were still carrying out their duties.

The energy systems were working, production continued, the cities were maintained and malfunctions were repaired by robots. People had no compelling reason to relearn the knowledge they had lost.

They could use a technology without knowing how to make it.

This situation continued for generations.

While people grew a little more distant from the knowledge of their own civilization with each passing generation, the world around them continued to function in the same way.

For this reason no one noticed for a long time how far the decline had progressed.

CHAPTER 10 — The First Wrong Intervention

A long time passed.

The new generations living on Earth now knew most of the technology their ancestors had used only as a part of daily life. The robots worked, the production centers met their needs and the cities’ systems continued to perform their duties.

However, over time situations began to arise in the behavior of some robots that people could not make sense of.

Maintenance robots working in one region periodically closed certain structures to use, reopening them after the inspections were completed. This process had long been carried out automatically. The first generation knew why this was done. Later generations only saw the process taking place.

One day the maintenance robots disabled one of the systems used in the city.

The people living in the region thought this was a malfunction. They waited for the system to be restarted but the robots did not allow it. Those who tried to examine the inspection records could not understand most of the information they encountered.

Eventually a few people decided to intervene in the system themselves.

Using some commands they had learned from old records, they removed the restriction imposed by the robots. The disabled section began operating again.

At first the problem seemed to have been solved.

But there was something the people did not know.

The system they had intervened in did not operate on its own. It was connected to other parts of the robotic network that maintained the world. The reason the robots had temporarily shut down that area was an adjustment that was to be made in another system.

The new command given by the people changed the task sequence in the robotic network.

After a while some maintenance robots working in other regions became unable to complete the tasks sent to them. The system had begun receiving commands that conflicted with one another at the same time.

When people saw the new problems they did not make a connection between them and the first change they had made.

This time they intervened in other systems.

One section was restarted, the task sequence of another section was changed and some robots were given new commands directly. After each intervention there was a brief improvement, followed by a new problem appearing somewhere else.

The robotic systems that managed the world had been designed to carry out thousands of different tasks in an interconnected manner. People no longer knew all of these connections.

The more they tried to fix the problem the more parts of the robotic network they affected.

The world had been designed to function without needing constant human intervention.

But this order had not been designed to withstand intervention by people who no longer understood it.

The balance of the ninth-dimensional world that had been established over thousands of years had begun to break down for the first time.

CHAPTER 11 — The Unraveling Order

After the first mistaken intervention the world did not suddenly change. Most of the robots continued their duties, the energy systems continued to operate and for a long time no major difference was seen in people’s daily lives.

But as generations passed the same situation began to occur in other regions as well.

The new generations knew what the robots around them were doing but no longer knew why they were doing it. Some robots were thought to be doing unnecessary work. It was decided that systems operating in regions people did not use were wasting energy for no reason. Some robots were shut down, while attempts were made to have others perform tasks different from those they had been designed for.

Every change affected another part of the robotic network.

It was later discovered that the robots shut down in one region were actually not responsible only for the maintenance of that region. Some of the systems these robots monitored were connected to energy and production centers in other cities.

But people no longer knew about these connections.

Over time the number of systems that were not maintained increased. In some sections robots became unable to reach the malfunctions that occurred. A system shut down in one place prevented a robot operating elsewhere from completing its task, and the uncompleted task affected another part of the robotic network.

The first serious problems appeared in the energy systems.

Short-term outages began to occur in some regions. At first the problem was resolved by redirecting energy from other centers. But as the same situation was repeated in different regions the usable energy network began to shrink.

Then some of the production centers stopped operating.

People turned to the centers that were still operating. They now had to obtain the food and materials they needed from more distant regions. After a while problems also emerged in the transportation systems.

Vehicles that had previously been able to reach every region of the world could now be used only in areas where the systems continued to operate.

The robotic network was trying to preserve its own order. It created new task routes around malfunctioning sections, transferred energy to functioning systems and directed usable robots to more important tasks.

But human interventions continued.

A change made to solve one problem prevented another task from being completed, and when that task could not be completed the system tried to create a new solution. People, unable to understand why the robots had begun to behave differently, intervened again.

The system that had once kept the entire planet operating within a single order gradually began to break apart.

First some cities lost their connections.

Then the production centers dwindled.

Energy could be supplied continuously only in certain regions.

The transportation network shrank.

The world was still filled with technologies left behind by the ninth-dimensional civilization.

But the order that held those technologies together was slowly unraveling.

CHAPTER 12 — Backward

As the world’s technological order unraveled people’s lives also began to change.

In the early periods they continued to live in functioning regions. They moved to cities where energy was available, made use of production centers that continued to operate and tried to preserve the robots that remained usable as much as possible.

But the number of functioning systems decreased a little more with each generation.

When a production center stopped there was no longer anyone who could restart it. When an energy system shut down people moved to another region, and when a transportation system broke down they looked for different routes they could use.

After a while there was nowhere else to go.

For the first time people had to produce the things they needed by their own means.

This was much harder than they had thought.

For thousands of years their ancestors had not had to produce food, build shelters or prepare the tools necessary for daily life with their own hands. There were systems that did all of these things. For this reason even some of the simplest production methods once known to humanity had been forgotten over the generations.

People began to learn again.

They tried to understand which plants could be eaten. They learned to work the soil, reach water and make use of materials found in nature. For a long time they made use of structures in the nonfunctioning cities but when buildings that were not maintained became unusable over time they had to build their own shelters.

Accessing the knowledge of the old world was also becoming increasingly difficult.

Most scientific records depended on energy and systems that no longer operated. Some record centers had shut down completely. The information found in the few centers that continued to operate was too advanced for people to understand.

After a while the education system also disappeared.

Children were no longer taught ninth-dimensional science. Knowledge necessary for survival was passed on. Where to find water, which plants could be used, how to build shelter and which regions were safe became the knowledge new generations needed to learn.

As the years passed the old world began to change in people’s eyes.

Structures that everyone had once used were now remnants whose purpose was unknown. Nonfunctioning robots stood motionless inside the cities, and vast energy centers rose as incomprehensible structures.

The number of those who knew that the people who had built them were their own ancestors also gradually dwindled.

Centuries passed.

Then thousands of years.

Cities collapsed, roads disappeared and nature once again covered most of the old settlement areas. The remaining traces of the ninth-dimensional world began to disappear beneath the soil, plants and time.

People continued to live.

But they no longer lived like the people of a civilization that traveled among the stars, that could cross into other universes.

With each generation they went a little further backward.

In the end a small branch of humanity that had once reached the ninth dimension began to transform into a primitive community sustaining its life with what it found in nature.

CHAPTER 13 — The Ninth Dimension in the Stone Age

Thousands of years passed.

Countless generations were born and died after the last people who had seen the civilization of the ninth dimension with their own eyes. Each generation carried only a small portion of the knowledge left by the one before it. Over time the last knowledge of what the old world had been was also lost.

The people now living in the world no longer knew who their ancestors were.

They lived in small communities. They used tools they made from stone, hunted and made use of the plants they could find around them. They settled in places where they could sustain their lives, building shelters near water sources.

Very little remained of the robots that had once met all of humanity’s needs.

Some had stopped thousands of years ago, some had fallen apart, while others had been buried beneath the soil. Most of the cities had collapsed and become covered with vegetation. Traces of the roads had vanished, and the energy networks had stopped working.

However not all traces of the world of the ninth dimension had disappeared.

Some large structures were still standing.

People passed near these structures, sometimes entering them but not knowing what they were. They could not read the signs they saw on their walls, nor could they understand what purpose the devices they encountered had been made for.

To them these were not technology.

Some communities regarded the large structures as one of the natural parts of the world like the rocks and mountains around them. Others believed that the ruins, whose builders were unknown, had existed before humans.

None of them knew that these structures had been built by their own ancestors.

Nor did they know that they were the children of people who had once been able to reach the stars in the sky.

Their ancestors had traveled to other galaxies, discovered passage between universes and built a ship large enough to carry an entire civilization.

Now their descendants were making tools from stone.

Humanity had regressed from the ninth dimension all the way to the Stone Age.

But not a single person remained who remembered this.

CHAPTER 14 — The Ship Returning from the Universes

While thousands of years passed on Earth, the giant ship’s journey had continued.

People had passed from one universe to another, exploring the star systems, galaxies and structures they had never known before that they encountered. Most of the people who had been aboard the ship when the journey began had long since completed their lives, and new generations had taken their place.

But life aboard the ship had developed differently from what had happened on Earth.

The education centers had never closed. The knowledge of the scientists had been passed on to subsequent generations, and all scientific records had been preserved. Robotic systems had been maintained, new systems had been developed and the technology humanity possessed had continued to be used throughout the journey.

Every generation born aboard the ship grew up learning the knowledge left by the generation before it.

Moreover humanity’s knowledge had not merely been preserved.

Research conducted throughout the universes had revealed new knowledge. People had encountered physical structures unknown in their own universe, studied different star systems and reached a far more advanced level in passages between universes than they had been at when they began the journey.

The journey lasted thousands of years.

Eventually it was decided that the research program was complete.

In the giant ship’s records the final stage of the journey had been clear from the very beginning.

Return to Earth.

Most of the people had never seen Earth. To them the planet was the place their ancestors had departed from and left to be preserved until they returned one day. Old images, city records and the state of Earth on the day of departure were still in the ship’s archives.

Preparations for the return began.

After the final passages between universes, the location of their own universe was determined. Old star records were compared with new measurements and the coordinates of the system containing Earth were found.

The giant ship entered the final part of its long journey.

After a while their ancestors’ star appeared in the ship’s observation systems.

Those aboard reopened the old records. Images of Earth from the day they had departed were brought up on the screens. The cities were standing. The energy systems were working. The production centers were continuing their operations.

According to the records not a single person had remained on the planet.

All maintenance of Earth had been left to robotic systems. Until the humans returned, the cities, energy networks, water systems and other infrastructure had to be preserved.

For this reason those aboard did not expect any major problem with the Earth they would encounter.

Thousands of years had passed but the robots they had left behind should have preserved the world.

The giant ship entered the old star system.

Before them now was the planet where the journey had begun.

The people thought they would find their world just as they had left it.

CHAPTER 15 — The Gods Arrived

When the giant ship approached Earth the first detailed scans of the planet were initiated.

Those aboard first waited for contact to be established with the robotic systems. The main network responsible for maintaining Earth was supposed to recognize the ship and send thousands of years of status records for the planet.

However the expected connection was not established.

Thereupon the surface systems began to be scanned directly.

When the first results came in the personnel in the control center had to review the data again. A large part of the planet’s ninth-dimensional infrastructure was not functioning. Most of the energy networks had shut down, production centers had stopped and the cities had lost their old order.

Of the robotic system that was supposed to protect Earth for thousands of years only a few functioning sections disconnected from one another remained.

The investigations were expanded.

This time an even more unexpected result emerged.

There was human life on Earth.

According to the ship’s records this was impossible. In the final population check conducted before departure it had been confirmed that all humans had been taken aboard the ship. There should not have been a single human left on Earth.

At first it was thought that another human community might have arrived on the planet later. When the settlements on the surface were examined however no advanced transportation system or spacecraft that would indicate this was found.

The humans lived in small communities.

It was decided to send the first research team to the surface.

When the team landed in an open area near one of the settlements the people nearby saw the craft coming from the sky. At first they watched from a distance. Then when they noticed the humans emerging from the craft they backed away.

The team from the ship began to examine those before them.

At first glance what they saw was clear.

These humans did not belong to an advanced civilization.

They used tools made of stone, lived in simple shelters and sustained themselves through hunting and food they gathered from their surroundings.

While those on the team tried to understand the situation they were seeing the sight before them had another meaning for the people of Earth.

A structure larger than anything they had ever seen before had appeared in the sky. Then from a craft descending from the sky emerged humans who resembled them but used tools and systems they could not understand.

Some prostrated themselves on the ground.

Some moved away in fear.

At first those from the ship could not understand why. After a while they realized that the humans before them did not see them as another human community.

In their eyes these humans who came from the sky were gods.

As the research team examined the surrounding ruins they encountered another reality. Beneath the soil and among the plants were pieces of structures belonging to their own civilization. They could recognize some of them from images in the old records.

In places where cities once inhabited by millions of people had stood there were now small human communities.

Those who had returned knew Earth.

But the Earth before them bore almost no resemblance to the planet in their records.

CHAPTER 16 — We Are Human Too

In the first days the research team that landed on Earth had difficulty approaching the humans they encountered. Some of those living in the settlement moved away when they saw them, while others waited prostrated on the ground.

The vehicles used by the newcomers increased this fear even more.

Thereupon the research team decided not to enter the settlement with advanced vehicles. To reduce the distance between themselves and the humans they carried only the necessary systems with them and tried to communicate as directly as possible.

The first problem was language.

The language used by the people of Earth did not directly resemble any of the old Earth languages aboard the ship. Over thousands of years words, sounds and meanings had changed. The language analysis systems began recording conversations. By comparing repeated words, movements and objects in the surroundings a framework that would allow basic communication was created in a short time.

The first thing the newcomers tried to explain was who they were.

They were not gods.

They were human.

They pointed to themselves, then indicated the humans before them and tried to explain that they were the same.

The people of Earth had difficulty accepting this.

The humans before them had come from the sky. They had devices that could identify illnesses in a short time. They used systems that worked without being touched, traveled in vehicles capable of moving through the air and communicated with machines they could not understand.

It was not easy for them to think that someone capable of doing all this was the same kind of human as they were.

The research team meanwhile was searching for the answer to another question.

Where had these humans come from?

The ship’s records were examined again. They showed that the entire population of Earth had been taken aboard the ship on the day of departure. If the records were correct the ancestors of the humans before them must have come to Earth from somewhere else.

The quickest way to investigate this was genetic analysis.

Samples taken from the people of Earth were sent to the laboratories aboard the ship. The initial analyses had already confirmed that they were human. But the researchers did not want to learn only that. Their genetic structure began to be compared with the records of the humans living aboard the ship.

When the results came in the research team encountered a situation they had not expected.

The genetic similarity between the two communities was extremely high.

The examinations were expanded. The old genetic records aboard the ship were opened and data belonging to humans who had lived before the departure from Earth were also added to the comparison.

The result did not change.

The humans living on Earth were not another human species.

Nor did they resemble a foreign human community that had later come from another planet.

Their origins reached back to the same place as those of the humans who had left Earth thousands of years ago.

The researchers now had another question before them.

If all humans had been taken aboard the ship, how had the ancestors of these humans remained on Earth?

CHAPTER 17 — Record of the Day of Departure

Following the genetic results the direction of the research changed.

It was now known that the ancestors of the people living on Earth had not come from another planet. Their origins went back to the people who were alive when the giant ship left Earth.

But according to the ship’s records this was still impossible.

The final population check carried out on the day of departure had confirmed that all the people living on Earth had been taken aboard the ship.

The researchers opened the archives that had been preserved for thousands of years.

All the records from the day of departure began to be examined again. Earth’s population at the time, the records of the transportation centers, the passenger lists sent to the ship and the information used in the final population verification were extracted separately.

The initial examination revealed no problems.

The number of people registered on Earth was the same as the number of people shown as having been taken aboard the ship.

This time the researchers did not look only at the totals.

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The physical entry record created as each person boarded the ship was compared one by one with their record in the population verification system.

The comparison among millions of records took a long time.

Eventually the system identified a small discrepancy.

A group of people had population verification records but no physical entry records.

At first the researchers thought the records might have been damaged over time. Information about the same people was searched for in other systems. When the records of the transportation network used on the day of departure were found the situation changed.

These people had never reached the ship.

While they were being taken from the remote region where they lived to the departure center a malfunction had occurred in the transportation systems. The vehicle had stopped and maintenance robots had been sent to the area.

Then the record cut off.

Despite this the identities of the same people appeared shortly afterward among those who had been taken aboard the ship.

The operations performed by the robotic population system that day were examined in detail. Eventually the error that had occurred thousands of years ago was uncovered.

The information of the people in the transport vehicle had been transferred to the system before they reached the ship. Because of a recording error these people had been considered to have boarded the ship without their physical entry being verified.

When the final population check was carried out the population of Earth matched the population shown aboard the ship.

That was why the ship had departed.

After identifying the people who had been left behind the researchers made one final comparison.

Genetic samples taken from Earth’s people were compared with the thousands-year-old genetic records of this small group.

The results came in one after another.

The connection was certain.

The people living on Earth at a Stone Age level had not come from somewhere else.

They were the descendants of the small group of people who had been unable to reach the giant ship on the day of departure.

Humanity had set out on an inter-universal journey believing it had left Earth empty.

Yet Earth had never been completely empty.

CHAPTER 18 — Two Futures of the Same People

When the examination of the records from the day of departure was completed the researchers aboard the ship no longer had an unanswered question before them.

It was known who the people living on Earth were.

The research team decided to explain the information they had obtained to Earth’s people. But it was not easy to explain a history spanning thousands of years to people who could not yet understand ninth-dimensional technology.

They began with the things they knew.

It was explained once again that the people who came from the sky were not gods. It was explained that they too were born, lived and were human just like them.

Then they tried to explain the connection between the two communities.

Thousands of years ago there had been a single human civilization on Earth. Those people had achieved highly advanced technology, traveled among the stars and eventually decided to explore other universes.

For this purpose a very large ship had been built.

Earth’s people were told that the giant ship they saw in the sky was not a newly built vehicle. That ship had left this world thousands of years ago.

Their ancestors had also been living on Earth that day.

The transportation problem that occurred during departure and the recording error that then occurred in the robotic system were explained as simply as possible. A small group had been unable to reach the ship, but the system had recorded them as being aboard the ship.

For this reason the ship had left Earth without waiting for them.

The ancestors of Earth’s people were those people who had been left behind.

The people before them were the descendants of those who had boarded the ship.

This truth was not easy to understand. Earth’s people had long believed that those who came from the sky were beings completely different from themselves. Now they were learning that the people they had thought were gods were their own distant relatives.

For the researchers the situation was at least as surprising as it was for them.

Thousands of years ago people who lived on the same world and belonged to the same civilization had been split in two in a single day.

One group had boarded the giant ship.

The other group had remained on Earth.

Those living aboard the ship had preserved their educational systems, scientific records and technology. Through the research they conducted across universes they had advanced the knowledge inherited from their ancestors even further.

The descendants of those who remained on Earth had followed a different path.

The first generations had continued to live in a ninth-dimensional world, but over time knowledge had been lost. Incorrect interventions in the robotic systems had disrupted the order, and as technology disappeared people had been forced to meet their basic needs again by their own means.

At the end of thousands of years the two human communities had met again.

On one side were people capable of traveling between universes.

On the other side were people making tools from stone.

Yet the ancestors of both were people of the same civilization.

The researchers knew they could help Earth’s people develop again. But it was not possible to eliminate in a few years the difference that had formed over thousands of years.

The two branches of humanity that had departed from the same point had reached two futures so far apart after thousands of years that they could almost no longer understand each other.

CHAPTER 19 — What Happened to the World?

After the history of the people of the world was uncovered, the researchers turned their attention to the planet itself this time.

The world they had left behind thousands of years ago had been set up to operate on its own. Robotic systems were supposed to maintain the cities, energy centers, production facilities and other infrastructure in the absence of humans.

Despite this, before them was a world that had largely collapsed.

To understand how this had happened, the parts of the old robotic network that were still operating were located. Some centers had been completely destroyed. In others, it was not possible to access the records directly because the power had been cut off.

Using systems brought from the ship, the old record centers were examined one by one.

It was not possible to recover all of the data from thousands of years. However, when records obtained from different centers were brought together, much of the change the world had undergone began to emerge.

The first breakdowns had not occurred immediately after the ship’s departure.

The robots had continued their duties normally for a long time. The energy systems had operated, production had continued and the cities had been maintained.

The problem had begun in later generations.

The first humans who remained on the world were familiar with the technology they used. But as generations passed, this knowledge diminished. Later humans continued to use the systems but understood less and less about how they worked and how they were connected to one another.

The first significant interventions in the records were also seen during this period.

People had shut down some robotic systems they thought were problematic, changed the duties of some robots and given direct new commands to some sections.

They did not know the consequences of their interventions.

A system operating in one city was not merely part of that city. Energy, production, transportation and maintenance networks were interconnected. A change made in one section could prevent tasks in other regions from being completed.

The robotic network had tried to adapt to these changes for a long time.

New connections had been established around nonfunctioning sections, usable robots had been reassigned to other duties and energy had been directed to functioning centers.

But as human interventions continued, it had become increasingly difficult for the system to cope with them.

After a certain point, the problem was no longer a matter of individual malfunctions.

The system that kept the world running had fallen apart.

Maintenance that could not be completed over the centuries had caused new malfunctions, centers that could not receive energy had shut down and some of the robots had gone out of service because parts could not be produced. The deterioration that began in interconnected systems had grown over generations and eventually spread across the entire planet.

When the researchers completed the information obtained from the last functioning centers, the reason for the world’s present condition had become clear.

It was not that the robots had failed to protect the world.

The interventions humans made in technology they no longer understood had made it increasingly impossible for the robots to carry out their duties.

Now, however, repairing a few centers was not enough to restart the system from thousands of years ago.

Most of the energy networks had to be rebuilt. Production centers had to be renewed, transportation systems had to be recreated from scratch and the robotic maintenance network had to be reconnected across the entire planet.

Restoring the world to its former state was no longer a repair job.

The technological infrastructure of the ninth-dimensional world had to be rebuilt.

CHAPTER 20 — No Longer Our World

After the examinations of the world’s technological infrastructure were completed, a new issue began to be discussed aboard the giant ship.

Humans had traveled for thousands of years to return to this planet.

Since the beginning of the journey, the world had been regarded as the place to return to. Even the generations born on the ship had learned of it as the world of their ancestors. No matter how long the research across universes took, it had been thought that at the end of the journey humans would settle on their own planet again.

Technically, this was still possible.

The technology aboard the ship was advanced enough to rebuild most of the world. Energy networks could be renewed, production centers could be built, cities could be rebuilt and the planet could once again be transformed into a world operating with ninth-dimensional technology.

But doing this raised another problem.

The world was not empty.

There were humans who had been living on the planet for thousands of years.

At first, those on the ship had seen them as an unknown human community they had encountered on the world. It was now known that this was not correct. These people were the descendants of the small group left behind on the day of departure.

They were not strangers.

They were another branch of the same people.

The researchers on the ship assessed whether the two communities could live together on the same world. But the technological difference between them showed that this would not be easy.

On one side was a civilization capable of traveling between universes.

On the other side were small communities living with stone tools.

The moment those on the ship settled on the world, this balance would disappear. Cities would be rebuilt, energy systems would be activated, production centers would be opened and robots would once again begin carrying out duties in every region of the planet.

It was impossible for the people of the world not to be affected by this.

Moreover, the researchers now knew what had happened in their past.

Their ancestors had once lived within advanced systems that met their needs. As knowledge was lost over generations, the technology had continued to operate, and people had remained dependent on systems they did not understand. In the end, when that system collapsed, they had been forced to rebuild their own lives.

Now, suddenly giving ninth-dimensional technology back to the same society could once again divert their development from its own natural course.For this reason, they did not discuss only whether the world could be rebuilt.They also discussed whether they had the right to do so.Those living on the ship were the descendants of the humans who had left this planet.But those living on the world were also the descendants of the humans who had remained on this planet.The only difference was that thousands of years ago one group had boarded the ship, while the other group had not been able to.In the end, those on the ship had to change the idea they had accepted as correct since the beginning of the journey.They had returned to the World.Before them was the planet of their ancestors.But the humans living on it had now created their own lives, communities and order.The fact that they had left this world thousands of years ago did not mean that when they returned they could once again consider it their own.Difficult as it was to accept, the conclusion was clear.They had returned to the world of their ancestors.But this world was no longer theirs.

CHAPTER 21 — The Second Departure

After the decision was made not to resettle on Earth, preparations began for the giant ship’s second departure.

But this time people would not leave the planet the way they had left it thousands of years ago.

On the first departure their aim had been to protect the world. They had not shut down the cities, stopped the energy systems or assigned the robots to continue maintaining the planet. When people returned they had wanted to find everything as they had left it.

Now they knew what kind of result this had produced.

The small community that remained on Earth had lived within ready-made systems for a long time. While knowledge diminished over generations technology had continued to function, and people had not had to learn to meet their needs by their own means. Later, as they interfered with systems they did not understand, the entire order had slowly collapsed.

They decided not to allow the same situation to happen again.

A broad scan was initiated across the entire planet.

Robots that were still functioning were identified. Centers capable of producing energy, usable production systems, transportation vehicles and other technologies left from the ninth-dimensional civilization were catalogued one by one.

It was decided that systems in working condition would be transported to the giant ship.

The robots were collected. Usable energy systems were dismantled. Production equipment and other technological components that could be restarted were taken to the ship.

But removing only the functioning systems was not enough.

Some structures that had remained unused for thousands of years still contained components belonging to advanced technology. Even if the people of Earth did not know what these were for at that time, in the future they might activate some of these systems or gain access to ready-made technology before completing their own development.

For this reason the unusable remains were also examined.

Components that could directly affect the development of Stone Age humans were dismantled. The technological sections of some systems that could not be transported were eliminated. Remains that had become part of people’s natural environment and no longer had any technological function were left untouched.

All the work was carried out as far away as possible from the settlements of the people of Earth.

The aim was not to take something from them.

Nor was it to punish them.

The ninth-dimensional humans did not think that the people of Earth should be deprived of technology. On the contrary, they wanted them to reach technology through their own knowledge.

One day they would develop agriculture themselves.

They would find ores, learn to work metals, make their own tools and begin to understand nature.

Their knowledge would arise from their needs, and they would know the reason for every new development.

Perhaps after a very long time they would reach the stars as well.

But they would do this not by using the ready-made systems of another civilization, but as a result of their own development.

When the final work on the planet was completed, the giant ship’s storage areas contained a large number of robots and systems that had once belonged to Earth.

On their first departure people had left behind the self-operating ninth-dimensional world.

On their second departure they did not repeat the same mistake.

This time they would not leave behind a ready-made civilization.

They would leave the people of Earth only their own world.

CHAPTER 22 — Leaving the World to Them

When the final work on Earth was completed, the people living on the giant ship were now certain of the decision they would make.

They would not remain on this planet.

If they wished they could rebuild the world. The technology aboard the ship was advanced enough to create new energy networks in place of the old ones, restart production centers and rebuild the cities from scratch at the ninth-dimensional level.

But they would not do this.

Because the world before them was not empty.

This planet was the world of the people who had been living here for thousands of years.

Moreover they were not a foreign community that had come from another planet. They were the descendants of the small group of humans who had failed to reach the giant ship thousands of years ago. They shared the same ancestors as those living on the ship.

What separated the two human communities was not their origins, but the thousands of years they had experienced.

One group had preserved its knowledge, traveled between universes and advanced the ninth-dimensional civilization even further.

The other group had remained on Earth, lost its knowledge over generations and eventually begun living at a Stone Age level.

It was not possible to eliminate this difference all at once.

If the people living on the ship settled on Earth the lives of the Stone Age communities would change completely. Ninth-dimensional technology would spread across the planet again, and the people of Earth would enter a ready-made civilization without experiencing their own process of development.

They had seen the consequences of this before.

For this reason the people of Earth were not taught agriculture. They were not told how to work copper. Advanced production methods were not shown. Even knowledge that humans could reach on their own in later ages was not given.

From then on they would decide for themselves what they would learn.

They would improve the tools they made from stone, discover how to cultivate the soil themselves, find ores and begin producing the tools they needed with their own knowledge.

They would know how every development had come about.

The same decision was applied to the old technology remaining on Earth.

Robots that were still functioning were taken to the giant ship. Usable energy systems, production equipment and other ninth-dimensional systems were removed from the planet. Components that did not function but could give humans knowledge far beyond their own development if examined in the future were also collected.Only remains that no longer carried technological knowledge were left behind.A new age was not beginning for the people of Earth.In fact an old unfinished process was beginning again.For thousands of years their ancestors had obtained everything they needed from ready-made systems, and therefore had not felt the need to develop the knowledge that would allow them to sustain their own lives. Now their descendants would for the first time advance with their own needs, their own problems and their own solutions.The ninth-dimensional humans knew that this did not mean leaving them behind.On the contrary, they were returning to them their natural development that had been interrupted thousands of years ago.The final research teams returned to the ship.The ninth-dimensional systems on Earth were scanned one last time. After it was confirmed that the living areas of the people of Earth had not been interfered with, preparations for departure were completed.The giant ship rose from Earth for the second time.Below small human communities watched the structure receding into the sky. The people they had once thought were gods were going into the sky again.Those aboard the ship also looked at Earth one last time.On their first departure they had been certain they would return. They had entrusted Earth to the robots, left their cities operational and set out to see other universes.This time the situation was different.Earth was no longer the place they would return to.They were leaving it to the descendants of their own people who had remained here thousands of years ago.The giant ship began to move away from the star system.At the end of their first journey there had been a world waiting for them.On their second journey there was none.This time they were setting out into space not to return one day, but to find a new future for themselves.

CHAPTER 23 — The Giant World in Space

After the giant ship left the star system where Earth was located it began traveling through their own universe again.

This time there was no predetermined route ahead of them.

On their first journey it had been clear which regions would be explored, which passages would be used and where they would eventually return. Now however there was no world they could return to.

Despite this the humans did not urgently need to find a new planet.

The giant ship had been built to sustain itself for thousands of years. It had retained this capability during the long journey between universes, and with the new systems that had been developed it had reached a more advanced level than when it began.

It produced its own energy.

The food and other materials the humans needed were prepared in the ship’s production centers. The water and air systems were continuously renewed, and the living areas were maintained by robotic systems.

There was no need for outside support for maintenance.

When a problem arose in a system the robots identified the malfunction, produced the necessary parts and carried out the repair. The production centers aboard the ship could also build new robots and new systems when necessary.

For the humans this structure was no longer merely a means of transportation.

Inside the ship there were cities, science centers, production areas and natural habitats. New generations were born here, received their education and lived their lives.

The entire infrastructure necessary for the ninth-dimensional civilization to continue moved alongside them.

The giant ship had become their world in space.

But the humans’ goal was not to live inside the ship forever.

It was understood that a civilization established on a planet was not the same as an enclosed habitat moving through space. The humans wanted a world of their own again.

For this they could not settle on every planet they encountered.

The place they found had to be more than merely habitable. It needed to have conditions in which the energy, production and life-support systems of the ninth-dimensional civilization could be established. The star system needed to remain stable for a long time and the planet needed to be evaluated together with its own natural life.

For this reason the research systems were activated again.

The giant ship began moving forward by scanning the star systems in their own universe.

The humans did not know how long it would take.

But there was no reason for them to hurry either.

Their ship was capable of carrying them, sustaining them and preserving their civilization.

The world they had left behind however was now excluded from their research programs.

It had been decided that the humans living there would find their own path. It was possible that one day they would discover agriculture, work metals, build cities and perhaps reach the stars again in a very distant future.

But the ninth-dimensional humans would not decide when or how that would happen.

The giant ship moved farther and farther away from its old world.

The giant structure, carrying an entire civilization within it, continued searching for a new world among the stars.

CHAPTER 24 — Routine Patrol

The Galactic Federation patrol ship had been carrying out its routine mission in its own sector for a long time. The ship’s mission was to monitor known transit routes, identify unusual activity occurring in the region and conduct an investigation whenever any structure not found in Federation records was detected.

No unusual situation was expected during that day’s portion of the mission.

As the ship proceeded along the designated route one of the sensors detected a large structure in a distant region.

When the initial data was transmitted to the control center the officers thought it might be a natural celestial body. The measured structure was much larger than an ordinary spacecraft they might encounter in the region.

Federation records were opened.

There was no known planet, moon or other large celestial body at those coordinates.

The patrol ship changed course and began approaching the structure.

As the distance decreased new measurements were taken. First it was determined that the structure was moving. Then energy readings were detected.

The thing before them was not natural.

The sensors switched to a detailed scan.

The structure’s outer surface contained interconnected systems, energy centers and sections used for movement. After checking the incoming data several times the Federation officers determined what was before them.

This was a spacecraft.

However it was very different from the ships the Federation was accustomed to.

Its size was the first feature to draw attention. The structure did not appear to have been built merely to transport large numbers of people from one place to another. As the interior sections were scanned the reason for this began to become clear.

There were vast living areas inside the ship.

Production centers, energy systems, scientific work areas and sections that would allow a large population to live for a long time were detected. It could produce its own energy, and could provide most of the resources it used within its own systems.

One of the Federation officers transferred the incoming data to the main screen.

As the arrangement inside the ship was examined it became increasingly clear that the structure before them was not merely a means of transportation.

This ship had been built to be self-sufficient.

The humans living inside it could travel for a very long time without needing any planet.

The commander of the Federation ship waited for the other measurements to be completed as well.

There was no indication that the unknown ship’s weapon systems were aimed at the Federation ship. It had not made any sudden change in its course, nor had it shown any hostile action in response to the patrol ship’s approach.

The commander watched the giant structure before him for a while.

The Federation had encountered countless human communities and different civilizations in its own universe. However there was no information about this ship in its records.

Where the ship had come from was also unknown.

The commander turned to the communications unit.

“Try to establish contact,” he said.

The first communication signal was sent from the Federation ship.

CHAPTER 25 — The First Contact

The communication signal sent by the Federation patrol ship reached the giant ship.

The ninth-dimensional humans detected the signal immediately. Their systems analyzed its structure, transmission method and the information it contained. The signal did not match any of the communication systems recorded during their journey between universes.

However its purpose was clear.

The ship approaching them was trying to establish contact.

The giant ship had already detected the patrol vessel and begun examining it. Its size, energy systems and movement capabilities showed that it belonged to an advanced civilization. The scans also revealed that the ship carried humans.

This result was unexpected.

The ninth-dimensional people had encountered different forms of life during their journey, but they had not known that another organized human civilization existed in this region of their own universe.

The incoming signal was transferred to the communication center. At first the two sides could not understand one another. Their languages, communication systems and methods of transmitting information had developed separately.

The Federation patrol ship sent a second signal.

This time the message contained basic mathematical sequences, stellar measurements and visual records designed to establish a common means of communication. The giant ship responded using the same method.

The systems on both ships began comparing the signals.

As more information was exchanged, the first common communication framework was established. The translation systems analyzed repeated words, sentence structures and the relationship between the transmitted images and sounds.

After a while the first understandable message reached the giant ship.

The approaching vessel identified itself as a patrol ship belonging to the Galactic Federation. Its officers stated that the giant ship was not present in Federation records and requested information about its origin.

The ninth-dimensional humans prepared their response.

They explained that they had originated on a distant world in another region of the universe. Thousands of years earlier their civilization had reached the ninth dimension and developed the technology required to cross between universes.

They had built the giant ship to carry their entire population on a long voyage of discovery.

Their intention had never been to abandon their world permanently. They had left robotic systems behind to preserve their cities, energy networks and production centers until they returned.

The Federation officers listened as the history of the journey was transmitted.

The giant ship had passed through different universes for thousands of years. Generations had been born and had completed their lives aboard it, while scientific knowledge had continued to develop.

When the journey was completed, the ship had returned to its original world.

But the world they found was not the world their ancestors had left behind.

A small group of people had remained on the planet because of an error in the robotic population records. Their descendants had survived, but the knowledge of the old civilization had gradually disappeared. Thousands of years later they were living at a Stone Age level among the ruins of the ninth-dimensional world.

The people aboard the giant ship had at first considered rebuilding their civilization on the planet.

They had possessed the technology required to restore the energy systems, production centers and cities. They could also have taught the people of Earth how to use the advanced systems.

But they had decided not to do so.

The people living on the planet had become a separate human community. Giving them a ready-made civilization would once again make them dependent on knowledge they had not developed themselves.

For this reason the ninth-dimensional humans had removed the remaining advanced systems from the planet and left the people of Earth to continue their own development.

The giant ship had then departed for the second time.

The Federation patrol officers recorded all the information they received.

They now understood why the unknown ship contained an entire civilization and why it was traveling without a permanent destination.

The Federation commander asked whether the ship was experiencing any technical difficulties or shortages.

The answer was negative.

The giant ship could produce its own energy, renew its air and water, manufacture the materials it needed and repair its systems with the help of robots. The people aboard could continue living there for a very long time without support from another planet.

They were not lost in space.

They were searching for a new world where they could permanently establish their civilization.

The ninth-dimensional humans did not ask the Federation to give them a planet. They only explained the reason for their journey and the conditions required for any world on which they might settle.

The planet had to be suitable for human life.

Its star needed to remain stable for a long time. Its natural structure could not be endangered by the establishment of an advanced civilization. Most importantly, it could not already belong to another human community.

The patrol ship did not have the authority to direct an unknown civilization to a new world.

The commander informed the people aboard the giant ship that all the information obtained during the contact would be transmitted to Federation headquarters.

The Federation would examine its records and evaluate the situation.

Until a response was received, the giant ship could continue along its present route. The patrol ship would maintain communication and send any decision made by the Federation.

The first contact ended without conflict.

Two human civilizations that had developed without knowing of each other had met in an empty region of space.

One belonged to the organized worlds of the Galactic Federation.

The other carried its entire civilization inside a single enormous ship and was searching among the stars for a world of its own.

CHAPTER 26 — The Federation’s Decision

All the information obtained following the patrol ship’s communication with the unknown ship was sent to the Federation headquarters.

Where the giant ship had come from, the history of the people living inside it, why they had left their world for a second time and how they had long been searching for a new place to live were entered into the records.

Federation officials began evaluating the information they had received.

The ninth-dimensional people had not asked the Federation for help. Their ship was capable of sustaining life for a very long time without needing any planet. It produced its own energy, created the necessary materials and carried out its maintenance largely through its own systems.

However the Federation knew that this did not mean they had no need for a permanent world.

These people were not stranded on a ship.

But they did not want to live on a ship forever either.

The Federation decided to examine the star systems in its own records.

It was not enough for the place they were looking for merely to be suitable for human life. It needed to have conditions in which a civilization that had reached the ninth-dimensional level could maintain its way of life, use its technology and develop safely over the long term.

There was another issue.

Within the Federation’s own territory there were human worlds at different levels of development. It might not be right to settle the ninth-dimensional civilization near one of them.

The technological gap was too great.

Even without the ninth-dimensional people directly intervening their presence could alter the natural progress of a society at a lower level of development. Their energy systems, production methods and other technologies could cause another civilization to skip its own stages of development.

Moreover the people living on the giant ship had seen in their own world how this could turn out.

For this reason the limits of the search were established.

The Federation excluded systems containing a developing human civilization from consideration. Planets being used as living space by another community were also removed from the options.

The remaining star systems were examined one by one.

Some had no habitable planets. The stellar structure of some was unsuitable for long-term settlement. On some planets it was determined that the existing natural life could be seriously affected by the establishment of the ninth-dimensional civilization.

The search continued for a long time.

Eventually one star system in the Federation’s records stood out from the others.

The system’s star was capable of remaining stable for a long time. One of the planets was suitable for human life and had the conditions the ninth-dimensional civilization would need.

More importantly, the planet did not belong to another civilization.

The Federation compared old and new records concerning the region. The orbital structure, the planet’s atmosphere, water resources, surface conditions and the other celestial bodies around it were reevaluated.

When the final checks were also completed the decision was made.

Through the Federation patrol ship a new message was sent to the giant ship.

The message contained the coordinates of the star system and all the basic information about the planet.

The place the ninth-dimensional people had been searching for among the stars for years had been found.

The Federation was not giving them a world.

It was merely showing them a place in its own records that it had determined was suitable for their level of development.

From then on the decision belonged to the people living on the giant ship.

If they wished they could continue their journey.

If they wished they could go to a new world where they could rebuild their civilization, in place of the world they had lost thousands of years ago.

CHAPTER 27 — Two Separate Futures

After the coordinates received from the Federation were transferred to the giant ship’s systems all the information about the new star system was examined.

The initial data confirmed the Federation’s assessment.

The final decision was made and the giant ship changed course.

The people began traveling among the stars again. But this time they knew where they were going. After the inter-universal journey that had lasted thousands of years and their return to their old world for the first time there was a new place before them that could belong to them.

At the end of the long journey they reached the star system indicated by the Federation.

As soon as the giant ship entered the system it began its own scans. The structure of the star, the orbits of the planets and their long-term changes were examined. Then they headed toward the planet identified by the Federation.

The planet’s atmosphere was suitable for human life.

There were water resources. Surface conditions allowed for long-term settlement. The energy it received from the star and its orbital structure showed that the ninth-dimensional civilization could safely sustain its life here.

The people did not limit themselves to examining only the current conditions.

Changes the planet might undergo in the future were calculated. Its natural structure was studied and the effects the new civilization to be established would have on the planet were evaluated.

The result did not change.

This was the world they had been looking for.

The first settlement teams descended to the surface.

Then the installation of the systems that had been carried aboard the giant ship for thousands of years began. Energy centers were established. Living areas were prepared. The first sections of the production and science centers were put into operation.

The people began moving from the ship to their new world.

They had not been able to resettle the planet they had left thousands of years ago to explore.

But now they had another world suited to their level of development.

The giant ship’s long journey had finally reached a destination.

On the old world life continued in another form.

After the ninth-dimensional people left for the second time no trace of the giant ship remained in the sky. The functioning robots, energy systems and usable technologies of the old civilization were no longer on the world either.

The people who remained were left alone with their own lives.

They had not been taught agriculture.

They had not been shown how to find minerals.

None of the tools they would use in the future had been left ready-made.

Now they had to find the things they needed themselves.

They tried to make better tools from stones. They changed the points they used for hunting. They learned that different stones produced different results for cutting, digging and breaking things apart.

Every new piece of knowledge emerged from their own experiences.

One day they would learn to cultivate the soil.

One day they would encounter minerals and understand that they were different from stone.

Then they would make new tools, establish settlements and leave new knowledge to the generations that came after them.

No one knew how far they would progress.

Perhaps in the very distant future they would reach the stars again.

But this time they would know how they had gotten there.

The descendants of the same ancestors now lived on two separate worlds.

On one world people had preserved thousands of years of knowledge, traveled across universes and begun to continue their ninth-dimensional civilization on a new planet.

On the other world their distant relatives were beginning the journey of civilization again from the Stone Age.

Thousands of years ago what had separated the paths of the two communities was a small robotic error.

Not anymore.

Two separate futures lay ahead of the two human communities.

And this time each would build its own future in its own way.

THE END