(Science Fiction)
“Love and hatred are needed to overcome the fear of death, but when there is no death, neither love nor hatred is necessary. The line that separates love from hatred is so fleeting that it cannot be distinguished. My civilization overcame death, and since no one dies, we do not need either love or hatred,” said the humanoid before the astonished gaze of the woman.
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“Where do you come from and who are you?” Patty asked, surprised, with her usual blue-eyed stare.
“I am a Swick, an inhabitant of a planet located in the galaxy GN-z11. We are positioned at the farthest point that human-developed technology can reach, also the oldest they know, but beyond that there are infinitely more,” replied the strange being, humanoid in shape but strikingly different.
“GN-z11 was formed when only three percent of the universe existed, 400 million years after what you call the ‘Big Bang,’ which gave rise to the false legend of a great explosion that originated the belief about the origin of life,” the entity added.
The woman was stunned. She realized that the being was not speaking with a physical voice, but through telepathy, as it made no facial movements nor emitted any sound.
“Why are you here, what do you want from us?” Patty asked, still overwhelmed.
“Our galaxy GN-z11 is located 13.4 billion light-years from Earth. The electronic signals emitted by humans may never reach our galaxy in time. You are lost in an immense cosmic ocean, isolated. Only fragments of inert rocks will be found along the way, dead and empty worlds, without biological life,” the entity said.
“Then how did you get here? What do you want?” she insisted.
“I am not a living being. I am an artificial intelligence that has traveled at a speed greater than light. One who travels in a spacecraft experiences different phenomena. Before explaining the journey, you must understand that when we travel at speeds close to light, our clocks move more slowly. From the perspective of an external observer, even if it seems the same to us, the speed at which we travel changes everything, including space and time,” it explained.
“Time is not universal. It moves throughout the universe at different rates, depending on velocity and gravitational fields. Each of us has our own time as we move at different speeds. The greater the speed and gravity, the greater the time dilation. That means that to age more slowly than your peers, you must keep moving, travel constantly. Remaining still is the best way to age.”
“Explain it better,” Patty said.
“Don’t you understand?”
“No.”
“Very well, listen:
A journey through interstellar space in a spacecraft traveling close to the speed of light happens almost instantly, contrary to what humans believe. Traveling at light speed is faster than you imagine. Now I will explain what happened after I left our galaxy.
On the way, I crossed the Andromeda galaxy, which is 2.5 million light-years from the solar system. That means its light left 2.5 million years ago, so from that point it would take more than 2.5 million years to reach Earth.
However, when traveling at light speed, the distance between objects shortens. This is called length contraction. Although it is 2.5 million light-years away, from the perspective of a spacecraft traveling at 99% of the speed of light, Andromeda could be just five light-minutes away.
This means that from Earth’s perspective, it would appear that I took 2.5 million years to travel from Andromeda to Earth. However, for me, only five minutes passed.”
“Explain it better, I don’t understand,” Patty said again.
“This often causes confusion. Traveling to an object two million light-years away at the speed of light does not mean it will take two million years, because humans ignore length contraction, a relativistic effect that requires complex mathematical and quantum calculations.
Time and space behave differently at near-light speeds. At 99.999% of the speed of light, I could traverse the entire universe because everything contracts. Everything is much closer than it appears.
As I approached another galaxy that from Earth seemed one billion light-years away, strange things occurred. The galaxy disappeared and shifted position. From Earth, you see the past. As I approach its present, everything changes.
Objects are no longer in the same positions. I am discovering a universe never seen before, encountering larger galaxies, unknown objects, massive clusters and superclusters.
After three months of travel, I should have reached the end of the universe, but it appears to have no end. The expansion of space itself has exceeded the speed of light. It is impossible to reach its boundary.
From Earth, you see the past. The universe now is completely different. There are more stars, more galaxies. After months traveling near light speed, I have crossed 3 billion light-years.
If I were human and retraced my path, I would feel nostalgia for Earth. If I turned back toward the Milky Way, its light would appear rapidly, like a fast-forward film. Within minutes I would reach it.
But by the time I arrived at the solar system, the Sun would have been consumed, Earth would be a burning inferno with no life, and humanity, if fortunate, would have migrated to another star system—or perished in the eternal galactic fire.”
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