The Critical Factor

by Marianne J. Dyson

Instead of the life-giving shine of a yellow star, the ugly corpse of yet another smoldering, red dwarf reached the eyes of Trine. Recently awakened from conservation sleep by the ship's automatic systems, Trine rubbed his eyes furiously, hoping to dispel the reality displayed on the screen before him. As he watched, the once lively star seemed to cough blood red spicules, offering a last gasp of energy in blessing to the small beings come to pay respects. Greedily, the ship's hull absorbed the radiation. But Trine feared it wouldn't be enough. Even in suspension the crew needed energy, and it would take all that was left of this old star just to feed them and charge the propulsion.

Trine looked at the star map spherical display which once had twinkled with the light of millions of stars within range of their ship. Now, like a console full of red warning lights, only the long-lived, low-luminosity dwarfs remained. All other types had burned out one by one. The universe was dying.

Trine ruffled small wings out of habit and placed hands over his face, weeping. All he had ever known would soon be gone, even the poor red dwarfs would be swallowed up in the collapse. Ever since their sun had flared and engulfed the planet of his ancestors millions of years ago, leaving only a few to escape to the closest star, they had dreaded this day. The ship was all that was left, and even the hope that they could somehow absorb enough energy to wait for a new creation seemed as dim and distant as the ancient light now reaching him from across the galaxy. As long as they had energy, Trine's people could live forever, and he could pretend bravery and belief as he navigated from star to star with the crew in suspension. But with nothing but dwarfs left within range of their ship, still thwarted from crossing the barrier of light speed, he could no longer hide from the unknown

course ahead.

Chest heaving, Trine's toes uncurled from the perch below the viewscreen, and he drew knees to a hairless chest. He couldn't face this reality alone.

Flapping his small wings, he entered the leader's holding room. Even with skin white as starlight due to the suspension, Yachem was magnificent to look upon. One of the originals, his wings were the color of a warm sun, his hair black as space. As his name implied, Trine was merely a third generation clone, a copy of an original with standard olive skin and wings the color of a young blue star, for which they searched in vain.

Trine keyed the code to awaken Yachem. The light beams responded, illuminating the naked body held in place by straps at the wrists and ankles. The suspension field wrapped Yachem in light, warming him. Trine watched as the winged leader's skin darkened, absorbing energy directly to quicken his pulse, open his oval eyes. Yachem's head turned toward Trine, and fingers groped to release the straps and turn off the light. As a leader should, he never allowed himself to indulge in the glow of a little extra energy, even though he knew as well as Trine that conserving those few extra ergs would not do much to change their situation.

Yachem reached for Trine with still pale hands, and Trine blushed, ashamed of his own dark green color. He offered Yachem fluid, but he refused.

"You have awakened me, young one. What do you require?"

Trine felt awkward in the presence of the one who had conceived of the plan to survive through the collapse of the universe. He therefore said only, "Come," and gently guided Yachem to the Navigator's station in front of the large viewscreen. Yachem frowned as he gazed at the slowly dying fire of their last hope. They had journeyed a thousand light years to reach this place, but the star they had targeted had evolved into this decaying nightmare even while they traveled.

Yachem cycled the map arrays, shoulders drooping, wings quivering in anticipation. At last he raised his eyes to meet Trine's. "You were right to wake me. The end is indeed near. Soon all the bodies of matter will be in collision."

Trine shivered and moved closer to Yachem, so that his shoulder brushed against the cool flesh of his leader. Both stared at the faint sun, which, like an ember among ashes, would probably continue to put out its feeble light until the long fingers of a black hole's night closed over it forever.

Cosmology taught that the universe had a beginning in a large explosion, billions of years ago, and that eventually, it would collapse, and therefore have an end, at least locally. Even though Trine had done the observations that proved the fate of their sun had not been unique, that stars were no longer being formed, that the last supernova was only a memory of ancient history, he did not pretend to understand it. But Yachem told him he must keep trying. For the sake of those who had died because they had not understood. A whole planet of people who had been secure in their personal eternity.

Trine shivered again, remembering those first years when Yachem had nearly gone mad with grief and guilt over the destruction of his home planet - watching helplessly from his observatory on the outermost planet. Trine had been a lowly servant then, as all clones were to originals. He had never been expected to think for himself, let alone challenge a Master Cosmologist. But after the sun's death, all that had changed.

Yachem had insisted that Trine ask him as many questions as possible, and always take the opposite point of view in a discussion, saying this helped him come up with new ideas and solutions. Trine had not been as good at this as originals Yachem had known, but he had always tried to do his best, repeating ideas learned from study. It was his greatest hope that someday he might have a truly new idea of his own.

One of Yachem's ideas was the plan that had saved them so far: to enter a state of suspension, soaking up energy until it took more to gather it than was worthwhile, like the rays from red dwarfs. Then, with matter collapsing toward them from all directions, he planned for them to chart the Final Course, avoiding being yanked into one of the large attractors that would collect into the cosmic egg. Yachem assumed that at some point, the egg would reach a critical density and explode again, creating a new universe.

Another of his ideas was to skim the final event horizon, taking advantage of the non-uniform distribution of matter to be the last item absorbed.

But not even the esteemed Yachem, with his ancient wisdom, could predict how long they could resist the collapse. Trine remembered the questions he had been compelled to ask: could they risk a swing-by of one of the attractors? What would it do to their energy and field equations? What value should they use for the ever uncertain dimension of time? No one could guarantee Trine would not wake to discover himself eternally dying as the ship crossed the event horizon of the egg's black death.

"Master, should we initiate the Final Course?"

Yachem turned golden eyes at Trine, a slow nod causing him to bob up and down in the weak spin field of the ship. "Yes, it is time. We must plot it together."

Trine took a deep breath, trying not to think of this as his last living act. Working almost on instinct, he quickly generated the appropriate spherical display, remembering how Yachem had praised him and another clone for their application of his idea to simplify individual masses with large gray balls representing centers of mass.

He watched as Yachem analyzed the velocities of each major mass collection, estimating the time until absorption by an attractor, then each attractor to the others to form the egg. At Yachem's nod, he changed the coordinates of the sphere and expanded it so that Yachem was at the estimated position of the final mass concentration.

Trine remained silent as the Master Cosmologist examined the directions of motion, accounting for collisions between now dark objects whose positions were based on millennia-old observations. The course must not pass within the influence of these large masses, or they would be captured, then crushed or squeezed into an unknown dimension as cold dark matter, black holes, and the remains of burned out stars fell one by one into a gravity well. A well so deep that only the force of a new creation could expel them from it.

Yachem drew a curving line in green light with the tip of his finger. The equation representing the curve was automatically entered into the ship's computer. Trine then suppressed the images of the mass centers, and generated the shape of the once smooth cosmic background radiation.

From the outside, it appeared like a partially deflated ball, the

pockmarks indicating those areas where the radiation, leftover from the creation blast, had begun to fall back to its origin, like a projectile that had not attained escape velocity. The mass of the universe was pulling all its scattered seeds back to itself.

Trine now caused the deflated sphere to collapse, carefully watching the course line until it poked through the boundary. He stopped the collapse, and adjusted the projection from the outside, making sure the course traveled the path of least energy. Yachem adjusted it from the inside, making sure that the line remained just beyond the event horizon, the point where not even light could escape.

Finally, they were both satisfied, and let the computer determine at what point the uncertainty in the collapse rate would require Trine and Yachem to be awakened for a course correction. If they had enough energy, none would be required since they could just account for the uncertainty by plotting for the worst case. But if not, then they would have to refine the course to a minimum energy, which would require reducing the uncertainty through observations and incorporating these updates at regular intervals, something Trine, as Navigator, would be awakened to do.

The computer would have to iterate the course solution over millions of years. Trine waited impatiently for the response. Yachem surprised him with an offer to drink.

"We will soon sleep longer than ever before," he said. "We must load ourselves with fluid, so that minimal energy will be required to sustain us."

Trine nodded and sipped the clear liquid, feeling its coolness radiate throughout him. His wings fluttered in pleasure, opening slightly. Sensing Yachem was inviting conversation, Trine asked, "Master, do you think there are other beings in other universes who have done what we are doing?"

Yachem smiled. "I do not know, but I hope so. We only explored a very tiny piece of our universe, and though we encountered no other beings, it still seems hard to imagine that we are unique. Just as there were many stars, I think that our Final Attractor is but one of many."

Remembering a question on one of the cosmology tests, Trine asked, "But, Master, then why don't we see light from these other universes?"

Yachem affectionately stroked the top of Trine's head as he answered. "Because they also are expanding and collapsing, just like ours. Think of a universe as a super black hole, and ourselves hidden inside."

Trine twisted his mouth trying to understand. Yachem tried another approach. "Perhaps all the attractors are separated exactly so that they do not overlap one another in time or space, like you and your original."

Trine wondered what it would be like to be free of time's direction. "Do you think there could ever be a universe that is not bounded but finite? One that does not have enough mass to collapse?"

Yachem shook his head, causing his black hair to form a halo around his pale green face. "If such a universe existed, its first light would eventually reach us, first as a bright spot, then a deformation like that caused by two intersecting spheres. We have never observed such a phenomena. Instead we see objects in all directions that are of a generation with us, meaning if we could travel there instantly, we would find nothing but red dwarfs, not the third generation yellow stars whose light is just now reaching us. Remember, you yourself verified that there are no longer any supernovas or quasars."

Trine nodded. "But it could be that we have just not been observing long enough."

Yachem smiled again, obviously enjoying this exchange with a younger, still inquisitive mind. "That is true. We are young in terms of the age of even our own universe. Perhaps if we had unlocked the cage of mortality a billion years earlier, we might have observed the flash from such a thing."

He stared out the viewscreen as if looking for a distant light that was no longer there, then continued, "Let us postulate that such a universe existed, and beings such as ourselves evolved there. What would they do once they discovered this fact about their universe?"

Trine inhaled quickly. He didn't remember the answer to this question, so he restated the question. "You mean that it would continue to expand?"

"Yes."

Trine tried to imagine himself in such a situation. He speculated out loud, as Yachem had taught him to do. "They would realize that their energy resources would get farther and farther apart, and eventually burn out. They would not have the option of waiting for a new creation." He indicated the viewscreen image. "Even the red dwarfs would use up their fusion sources eventually. Therefore, they would either die or . . ." Trine flapped his wings in excitement. "Or find a way to cross over to another, younger universe!"

Yachem nodded, and Trine could see by the shine in his eyes that he had reasoned his way to an acceptable, if not totally unique, answer. "Yes, and since the constant expansion would spread resources thin, they would have to spread out in all directions. It is likely that at least one other universe would intersect their expansion at some time."

Trine burst out, "It could even account for our own appearance in this universe!"

Yachem fluffed his wings and tilted his head to look at Trine from a new perspective. "If you could devise a test of this theory, it could qualify you for promotion to Cosmologist."

Trine smiled and bowed his head, proud but embarrassed. It was their people's highest honor to originate a new theory that could be tested, something a clone had never done.

The computer choose that moment to announce completion of their time plot. Yachem and Trine checked the figures several times, then embraced. According to the calculations, they had enough energy to sleep through the collapse plus a million years into the expansion, assuming the explosion occurred as soon as all the mass was within the event horizon.

Trine saw to it that Yachem was secured in his holding, then he attached his own wrist and ankle supports, and drifted into suspension, dreaming of blazing quasars filling the heavens once again.

Millennia passed, and the ship containing Trine and his people followed the course, maintaining separation from the accumulating masses that were gradually pulled to the Final Attractor. The event horizon and the boundary of the cosmic background radiation became one. When the last of the radiation spiraled into the singularity, nothing remained to use for a course reference, so the ship's computer awakened Navigator Trine.

Trine felt the warm glow of sunshine pulling him to wakefulness. He imagined himself basking in the light of a hot, blue sun. He smiled and groped for his wrist supports, eyes barely slits. His heart rate quickened with excitement. Had they arrived? Had the new universe been born?

He hastily flapped to the viewscreen. His vision refused to cooperate though, and he was forced to take long, deep breaths. It came to him that the air was thin, as it was supposed to be when they were all in suspension. The ship should have adjusted the oxygen ratio before his wakeup. A momentary panic seized him. Were they so low on energy that it couldn't? He breathed deeply again and his eyes finally cleared. No, the air was fine now. He'd just rushed things too much. His skin hadn't even had time to turn green.

He decided the viewscreen had simply failed. It couldn't be that the universe was a black void.

He entered the time of his last waking and had the computer show him how the universe had actually collapsed compared to what Yachem had predicted. The Master had been amazingly accurate. In fact it appeared his only mistake was underestimating the density of some of the dark matter contributions. Therefore, the universe had collapsed at a slightly higher rate than predicted. By now it should be on the way to producing quasars, but it hadn't re-exploded. Trine rushed to awaken Yachem.

Soon Yachem had also replayed the collapse, convincing himself that the model had been accurate in all but the smallest details. He then had Trine create a model of the Final Attractor. Since they had no way to probe beyond a horizon they could no longer define, they assumed a perfectly spherical ball of mass, with their ship creating a minutely thin gap between the universe's horizon and the Final Attractor's horizon, the two of which would become one as soon as their ship ran out of energy. Yachem ran his hands over the image, as if stroking one of his lovers, hoping for a reaction. He drew lines with his fingers, twisted them into strings, pinched them, hurled them at the singularity.

But the ball remained spherical, unchanged.

Yachem signaled for Trine to discontinue the image. He grasped both Trine's hands in his and stared as if trying to read Trine's thoughts by studying his face. Finally Yachem's eyes overflowed with emotion. He whispered, "It is stable."

Trine had not seen such emotion on his master's face since the destruction of the home planet. "Stable?"

"This is no time for questions! I said stable!" Yachem shouted, face changing colors, wings flapping erratically.

Trine placed a hand on his leader's shoulder. "Master, please, you must calm yourself. You will waste precious energy becoming angry."

Yachem glared at Trine, then nodded, wiping a hand across his brow. "Forgive me. I am but one person, and could not think of everything.

"I made an assumption, one that was obviously wrong. I assumed that since the mass of the universe was sufficient to cause the initial bang, that once it collapsed again, it would have to re-explode: like the critical mass of a nuclear explosion, or the critical density of a star that goes supernova." He pointed to the black viewscreen. "But it is stable! Perfectly stable!"

Arms circled one another as Trine pressed his chest against Yachem, like he used to do in the first years after the destruction. Now he understood the consequences of this discovery - they would eventually run out of energy and die while the universe remained dark and folded in upon itself.

Trine felt the hope draining out of him, and limply released his hold on Yachem. Falling into old habits of taking the other side of an argument, Trine mumbled, "There must be a way to make it unstable."

Yachem, who hovered in front of the viewscreen, eyes unfocused, jerked as if Trine's words had struck him a physical blow. He grabbed Trine by both shoulders so strongly that it hurt. "Did you say make it unstable?"

Trine squirmed out of Yachem's grip. "Yes."

"Yes," Yachem repeated. "Yes! It must be our mass that is the critical element needed to start the bang!"

"But Master, you yourself have said that our mass is so insignificant, it cannot matter to the equation. And if we throw ourselves across the horizon, we will surely die!"

Yachem turned to Trine angrily. "We don't know that. And waiting, we die anyway, and the universe also dies! We cannot escape the time dimension."

He moved to the life support station. "I will awaken the crew. We will spend our last hours together."

Trine stared dumbly at Yachem, his master, his only true friend. When the home planet had been consumed, Yachem had suffered almost to the point of death at the loss. Trine and the other clones, who had been made at and never left the outpost, had experienced the grief second hand, like friends of a family who's loved one was killed by accident.

But this time was different. This time Trine felt a choking sensation in his throat, an overwhelming need to hold Yachem against him. He flew recklessly at his leader, knocking him against the control panel. "Wait!" he shouted. "This can't be the end! I won't let you die."

Yachem rotated in Trine's grasp, his face a mixture of query and hope. "You have an idea?"

Trine tried to think. The emotion in him was so strong it was like being heated on the inside. He took a deep breath, trying to cool the flames. He must use reason to deal with problems, as Yachem had taught him. "It is not logical that our tiny mass could be the missing element."

Yachem gently pulled Trine to rest next to him on the console. "Continue."

"But we know that something made the egg explode at least once. Therefore, there is a factor we are overlooking."

Yachem's eyes glanced at their low energy reading. Within the next few hours the thin shell of their existence would collapse onto the event horizon, like an atmosphere condensing onto a planet's surface. The thought gnawed at Trine, deep inside. His hands started shaking and his heart beat like it would explode from his chest. "Master, I cannot think, something is wrong with me!"

Gently, Yachem stroked Trine's face. "It is fear, my favorite one. Fear of death, of the unknown. Do not let it consume you. Thinking is what has caused us to survive. Think now. Think of the critical factor. What have we overlooked that would make the egg unstable?"

Trine shook his head, rubbing his own temples. Memories flashed through his mind in fast succession, stopping at the last waking. "Master, remember when we discussed how an expanding universe might intersect our own?"

"Yes."

"That would surely provide an instability."

Yachem shook his head wearily. "Perhaps, young one, but we will not last long enough to wait for one."

Trine focused on the problem, releasing his fear of death like holding straps. In his subconscious, an idea was forming. "No! We don't have to wait. They have already been here!"

Yachem gave Trine a puzzled look. "You are not making any sense, Trine. If they are here, then why is the egg stable?"

Trine burst into a full grin and embraced Yachem. "Because we are their last surviving descendants. We are the critical factor. Not our mass, but our life force!"

Yachem pushed himself back. "But as you said, as we cross the boundary, we will die."

Trine's mind was racing so fast, he had to struggle to speak clearly. "No, we won't because they didn't. Life always existed. We have maintained it, passing it from old to new cells, like the ancients passing flame from stick to stick. But we have never created it simply from the chemical elements."

Yachem nodded, stroking his chin. "It is true that, like gravity, we have only been able to manipulate life without knowing its true nature or source."

"Exactly. And the reason is that life itself was not part of this universe. The beings from an expanding universe, in search of energy, filled with the need to survive, entered our black hole egg, hoping to find energy within. The egg exploded, creating our universe."

"Yes," Yachem answered suddenly. "The theory is consistent with observation and offers a prediction, and a hope." The slits in his golden eyes grew wide and black with emotion. He heartily embraced Trine. "You have proven my theory that clones, given enough practice asking questions, will come up with new ideas of their own. I am so proud!" Trine thought if he cried any more this day, he'd have to drink again, but he had never been so happy.

"Your theory is worthy of your promotion to Cosmologist. You shall no longer be Navigator, but henceforth Cosmologist Trine. And we will test this Creation theory. I will awaken the crew, and we will cross the horizon without fear."

Trine struggled away. Another thought emerging from his subconscious. A warning of danger. "No, Master. Not all of us. Just me in a lifeboat.

"It is likely that I will lose my identity as I transmit my life to the egg. Let us not lose all that we have learned. I can be replaced with another clone, but you are an original!"

Yachem hugged him closer and whispered, "Never think that you can be replaced. You may have the same genes as your predecessor, but you are indeed unique, as you have just proven." He brushed tears from his eyes. "I will miss you as much as I miss the home planet."

They each unfolded a wing over the other's head, a gesture of deepest affection. Even though it may mean his own death through the loss of his memories, Trine knew deep inside that he had made the right decision. And to be promoted to Cosmologist! He could not stop the flood of emotion that rushed through the canyons of his soul to burst forth and flow from his eyes.

Yachem let Trine select a new navigator. He choose the clone who had helped him design the universal model. Yachem joked that this clone asked almost as many questions as Trine, and was therefore a good choice. They awakened him, and when Yachem explained the situation, the clone offered Trine a drink, like a servant to a Master.

As he accepted, Trine tingled with excitement, knowing his promotion would provide proof to all clones that they were as good as the originals from whom they were copied. Even if he was wrong about life being the critical factor, the others could face the horizon crossing with hope and dignity. Before Trine could have time to lose his courage, the three of them hugged, and Trine climbed bravely into the lifeboat.

Trine wasn't sure which direction to go since there were no references now, so he selected a velocity vector at a right angle to the one of the main ship. Trine watched the ship shrink to a tiny dot on his viewscreen, then disappear.

As time passed, Trine began to doubt. Maybe Yachem hadn't believed his theory at all. Seeing Trine filled with fear, he let him indulge in grasping at hope, like the rays of a red dwarf, unable to really save him. Promoting him to Cosmologist and then allowing him to feel that he was somehow sacrificing himself for a purpose, rather than dying an inevitable death. Beings from another universe? Had he been serious?

Trine considered returning to the ship, but realized he couldn't. It would take away the hope that he had given the others. No, he would face death alone.

It was many hours later when suddenly the blackness was pierced with flashes of light, so intense that Trine could see them even with his eyes squeezed shut.

Since he had spent all his life inside a black hole the size of the universe, it wasn't the thought of entering a black hole that scared him, but the transition, like a waterfall with water flowing easily on either side, that brought the fear of death. The flashes increased in frequency like rapids before the fall.

He felt like gravity was pulling his feet and head in opposite directions at once, spinning him in a whirlpool of fields. The fluid he had recently drunk was squeezed out through his skin like someone compressing a sponge, causing his temperature to rise dangerously. Surely death was not far into his future.

The boat systems chimed warnings that the hull was being saturated with energetic particles. The navigation system indicated there was no horizon, all directions being sensed the same. Trine discounted its objectivity anyway, sure the hull was magnetized and ionized since he was surrounded by a swirling mass of glowing plasma. His temperature continued to rise, and he felt pain for the first time in his existence. He jolted in and out of consciousness, each time wondering if he had died.

When his temperature rose enough to trigger the ship's computer, it sprayed him with fluid. Trine startled awake, disoriented and confused, wondering where the light was that was burning him so much, groping to disconnect nonexistent straps.

Once aroused, it occurred to him that perhaps he had just witnessed the birth of the universe, but then, how could he still be alive? He had expected to be torn to pieces, having his life force distributed throughout the egg the way cells were used to grow new clones. He imagined Yachem in his mind, taking the other side of the argument. He would remind him that to be valid, a theory must match observation.

He had caused the explosion. Of that he was fairly certain. Could his tiny mass really have done it? What else about him might be the critical factor? In his mind he saw himself telling Yachem he wouldn't let this be the end, he wouldn't let him die. He heard Yachem reminding him to think, that through thinking we survive. Thinking. Could that be the factor? Could thoughts provide a fluctuation that is somehow amplified throughout the egg, leading to the explosion?

Trine remembered a theory he had studied long ago on the nature of thought. The philosopher had postulated that a thought was somehow a collapse of the quantum mechanical wave function to a specific state. He further postulated that unlike someone putting their finger in running water to reduce the temperature possibilities to one value, in the presence of enough space-time curvature, probabilities are reduced to an actual state without need of an observer. The other philosophers dismissed it as so much wing flapping.

Trine smiled. It might be as crazy as his idea of beings from another universe, but right now, it made as much sense as the ancient idea of heaven. Suddenly he laughed. Maybe that's where he was!

Trine shifted in his small ship, noticing the smell of his sweat, feeling the dampness of his skin. No, this wasn't heaven. No one is alone in heaven.

Alone? If he had crossed the horizon intact, then Yachem and the others could also!

He frantically scanned around him, but the navigation system indicated no collections of mass and the viewscreen showed only an even glow. Maybe they hadn't made the crossing yet, or maybe for them time was in limbo, as they fell toward the egg, the egg expanded, trapping them on the horizon.

Trine felt that burning in his throat again. Why hadn't he thought this through more thoroughly before leaving? He should have listened to Yachem instead of insisting that somehow he could save them. Then they would have all crossed together. This new universe was hell, that's what it was. Eternal separation from all that he loved! He would rather have died!

After hours, or days, with no sense of time other than periods of sleeping and waking, Trine abandoned any hope of locating the ship. With the rapid expansion, even if they had entered near one another, by now they would be light years apart, like dots expanding on the surface of a sphere, and the tiny lifeboat could never store enough energy to cross such an expanse.

Trine dwelled on thoughts of the past, returning to his earliest memories back at the observatory, the days after the destruction of the home planet, and the time Yachem had nearly killed himself.

But he hadn't. Instead Yachem had told them all that life was sacred, that it must be passed on, and they had an obligation to continue to survive.

They had never found life elsewhere in their universe. They had hoped to find life based on other chemicals, or life originating on another nearby world, but had not.

Now Trine had proof that they had been alone after all. For if life had been spread throughout the universe, the egg would not have waited for him before exploding. Otherwise, his life, or his thoughts, or spirit, or whatever could not have been the critical factor.

No matter how it had happened, Trine was alive, and he had inherited the obligation to survive. At some point, the universe would produce stars and planets, and Trine would have energy and water to make a clone. "No," he thought, "not clone." In order to increase the gene pool through evolution, he'd have to make both a male and female clone.

He put himself in suspension, setting the computer to wake him as soon as it encountered the energy signature of a home star. ***

Trine's lifeboat accelerated through space, pushed outward from the Final Attractor by the force of the explosion, then pulled gently by gravity into the bosom of a newly forming galaxy. At last the light of a young, yellow star, the color of Yachem's wings, formed in a swirling gas cloud. It shone on Trine's boat, signaling the computer to wake him from suspension.

Trine opened his eyes and studied the viewscreen. He gasped in awe and satisfaction as the heavens once again displayed the light of quasars. There was evidence of a supernova in a nearby cluster.

But Trine's attention soon focused on one planet orbiting the star. He knew at once that Yachem would have loved it, and this thought brought tears to his eyes. It sparkled like a jewel, blue and white and brown like the home planet only bigger. He ruffled his wings, realizing the increased gravity would make them useless.

Before descending to the surface, Trine scanned in all directions, a last unobstructed view of the heavens. The universe was old enough that the first light had been scattered and cooled so that he should see the same radiation in all directions, cosmic background radiation, hotter than in his old universe.

Trine gasped in excitement as the background radiation plot appeared before him. There was an anomaly! A "hole" as if something had absorbed the energy. Was it an intersecting universe, or a signal from Yachem?

Trine realized he might have to wait a long time to find out the answer to that question. He smiled. Perhaps he wouldn't be the one to figure it out.

Like Yachem had done for him, he would teach his clones to ask questions and think. Someday, they would create a new universe of their own.

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