Chapter 57 Finale: 20001

... As throughout the galaxy they found nothing more precious than intelligence, they did their best to help it grow everywhere.They became farmers among the stars, who sowed and sometimes reaped.Sometimes they also have to bite the bullet and weed. Only in the past few generations have Europa dared to venture into the "far lands", away from the light and heat of their never-setting sun, into a wilderness where the ice that once covered the entire world may still be preserved .Fewer still dared to stay there, to face the short but terrifying night after the cold, bright, heatless sun sank below the horizon.

However, that handful of persevering explorers discovered that the universe around them was stranger than they had ever imagined.Sharp eyes honed on the bottom of the dark ocean endow them with a remarkable ability to see the stars and other celestial objects that move across their skies.They began to lay the groundwork for astronomy, and some bold thinkers even speculated that the magnificent world of Europa was not the only creation of the Creator. Shortly after they emerged from the ocean, in the forced bursts of evolution during the thaw, they recognized that the celestial bodies could be clearly divided into three types.Of course, the most important thing is the sun, which some legends—although not many people take it seriously—claim that it did not exist, and its sudden appearance brought about a brief era of catastrophic change. species became extinct as a result.If that is indeed true, it is a small price to pay for the benefits of a feeble but inexhaustible source of energy high in the sky.

Perhaps the cold sun is its distant brother, banished by some sin—driven to circle the heavens forever.It doesn't matter, only those eccentric Europas who love to ask silly questions about facts that all sensible people admit. It must be admitted, however, that those eccentrics have made some interesting discoveries during their adventures in the dark "Far Lands".They claim—although this is hard to believe—that the entire night sky is shimmering with countless tiny points of light, smaller and fainter than the cold sun.Their luminosity varies, and although they also rise and fall, they never leave their fixed positions.

Against this background, there are three moving celestial bodies, apparently subject to a complex law that no one can fully understand.And unusually, they're pretty big—although they're constantly changing in shape and size.Sometimes they are discs, sometimes semicircles, and sometimes slender arcs.They are significantly closer than other celestial bodies in the universe, so their surfaces show extremely rich and complex and changing details. The theory that they were other worlds was eventually accepted—though no one, except a few visionaries, believed they were as big, or as important, as Europa.One of them is close to the sun and is in constant turmoil.Dancing flames can be seen on its dark side—a phenomenon beyond the comprehension of Europa, whose atmosphere is still oxygen-free.Occasionally there are gigantic eruptions on its surface, violently blasting clouds of debris.If this sphere near the sun is indeed a world, then it must be an uninhabitable place, perhaps worse than the dark side of Europa.

The two distant ones are also farther away from Europa. There does not seem to be such intense movement there, but in some ways it is more mysterious.They also show some glowing regions when night falls on their surfaces, but they are quite different from the rapidly shifting flames of the inner furious orbs.They glowed with a fairly constant brightness, and were concentrated in only a few small areas—although these areas expanded and increased in number over the generations. But the strangest of all were the little points of light, as bright as tiny suns, which were often observed moving between the two worlds.Recalling some of the glowing organisms in their oceans, some Europas speculated that they might be living creatures, but their luminosity belied the idea.But a growing number of thinkers believed that these points of light—the fixed and moving little suns—must be the outward manifestations of some strange life.

However, opponents also hold extremely convincing arguments.If they're living creatures, why don't they ever come up to Europa? But there are some legends.Thousands of generations ago, shortly after the conquest of the land, it is said that once those points of light—but always exploding in the sky—suddenly came close together—brighter than the sun.Strange, hard metals, some of which are still objects of worship to this day, spilled on the ground. Nothing, however, is more sacred than a great black monolith that stands on the edge of eternal day, with one side facing the motionless sun and the other facing the land of darkness.Ten times taller than the tallest Europa—even as he stretched his tendrils as high as he could—it became a symbol of mystery and remoteness.Because it has never been touched, it only accepts worship from afar.There is a resistance circle around it, which can prevent anyone from approaching.

Many believe that it is the same force that keeps moving bright spots in the sky from landing.If this force fails, they will raid this virgin territory, sucking up Europa's ocean, and their intentions will finally be revealed. They would be amazed if Europa understood that the same minds that moved the dots were also bewildered by the black monolith.Over the centuries, their automated probes have been carefully lowered from orbit—always with disastrous results.Monolith will not allow any contact until the time is right. When the time came -- when the Europas had probably invented radio and detected the messages constantly beaming to them from such close range -- Monolith might change tack.It may—or it may not—choose and awaken some being within its slumber to bridge the gulf between Europa and the race they once belonged to.

Perhaps such a channel cannot be established, and these two completely different consciousnesses may never coexist.If this is the case, only one of them can have a solar system. What will happen, God does not know - so far.