The Stirrings of Something...Big (FT)

The Burninite race, a remnant of a remnant now, existing mostly cloaked wherever it decides to roam in the Korel galaxy on its craftworlds, is nevertheless one of the most technologically advanced peoples in the galaxy. Though outmatched in some productions technologies by the Rheans and in some military technologies by the Rutians, the Burninites retain dominance in teleportation, cloaking, and sensor technology.

It is with the last that we are at the moment concerned.

Burninite data terminals generally record the expansion of the known universe and clock its rate for the sake of pure science. And over the last month, the galaxies visible to Burninite sensor arrays continue to expand at the same rate. Well, except for the closest minigalaxy, which has pretty much halted its movement away from Korel.

And then there's the disturbing fact that the stars in Korel are actually moving towards the center of the galaxy now, not spreading out. Not quickly, but the trend is definite. Stars are accelerating towards the center of the Korel galaxy, not expanding anymore.

Dr. Thorgood decides that the matter is definitely worthy of further investigation, readies The Spotlight, and contacts Shein Darson of the Imperial Republic.

Not too long after the Burnites determine that the galaxy stopped expanding and began collapsing, a University of Planet team analyzing sensor data from their fleet of sensor vessels reaches the same conclusion. The University of Planet, being the paragons of freedom of information as they are, publishes the findings publicly, and allows it to circulate to the Galactic Net at large. In the meantime, they shift large numbers of researchers and computation power to try to determine what was going on, if anything actually was going on. They also send messages to other academic and scientific institutions to see if they have similar findings.

Researchers from the University of Athens and the Imperial Institute confirm the Chironite findings, relieved that they aren't imagining things and/or are suffering from faulty equipment. The general reaction was, "This should not be happening. There is a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy but as far as our understanding of black holes go, they do not 'suck' matter in, as the gravitational pull of the matter making up the black hole is no greater than the gravitational pull from a similar amount of matter distributed over a larger area."

The Dominion received the report through the Chiron's transmissions, though the government was restrictive to whom the information went to. The general public never got to see the article, as the Dominion refrained from publishing it on Dominion news service or any access point that a regular citizen could gain it from. The Dominion did, however, give access to several universities and other science institutes around the planet and teams began debating the findings for several days afterwards. Given their current level of technology, the best the Dominion could do would be the launched a starship and observe what the other planetary powers did as the Dominion did not currently operate any science vessels.

Still, while it was highly unlikely that the Veridians would be participating in any scientific venture that did not stop scientists from coming up with theories. While many were outlandish they were nonetheless plausible though highly unlikely. Most naturally, centered around the Veridian's understanding of the stargate and the worm-hole science involved.

Finding the Rutians busy with internal politics, Thorgood decided that the need for greater resources than could be provided by the Burninites alone was worth the risk that expanding this venture would expose them to.

So, the telegram was sent to all in general, though less explicit than those sent to the Rutians.

TO: All Spacefaring Peoples
FROM: Dr. Thorgood of Burnination

Any civilization that has noticed the paradigm shift in star and galactic movements in this galaxy and/or beyond it, and would like to create a scientific consortium to help us further understand the matter, please meet at the attached coordinates at the time and stardate also attached.

We are planning an expedition very close to the center of the galaxy. We also welcome the thoughts of the science of other cultures. One of you may just be right.

Sincerely,
Dr. Thorgood

(Attachments)

To: Doctor Thorgood of Burnination
From: Academician Prokhor Zakharov of the University of Planet

I and a few colleagues will come to the consortium on the behalf of Alpha Centauri. Currently, our theory on the matter is that it is a localized galactic contraction, or in other words, a miniature Big Crunch. However, we are still awaiting further analysis of the data and a reason as to why this would be occurring.

Respectfully,
Academician Prokhor Zakharov

To: Dr. Thorgood
From: The Hive

The Hive too has independently seen these changes going on around us. We are interested in understanding what this universe is doing and if it seems all is coming to an end. We will send a group of scientists your way to discuss these matters.

With respect,
The Hive

To: All Others
From: The staff of the Imperial Institute

While we weren't told how this would be solved, we can assure you through the known existence of time travelers from the far future that this isn't the end of the universe. We will persevere over whatever is causing this.

- The Imperial Institute

Thorgood and The Spotlight appear at the designated coordinates at the designated time. They've brought a large disc-like ship with a rotation that would simulate partial gravity were one inside.

They're a tad early, but they wait to see who else is going to show up for the expedition...

Zakharov and his colleagues arrive upon the Dimitri Mendeleev, the flagship of the University sensor fleet. It looks approximately like this.

(OOC: They may or may not have Veridian scientists aboard with them. I remember Veridia asking me in chat if he could bring his scientists on my ship, and I said yes.)

Dr. Servius was one of the Dominion's premier minds in the science community, though that really said little when compared to the minds from other civilizations such as the Chirons. Still, what little the Veridians had so far encountered, it seemed to them that their interest in the stargates were higher than those of other species which no doubt meant that they perhaps knew more than others at least in such technology. Whether or not that was true was yet to be seen but nevertheless, Dr. Servius was the only scientist sent from the Dominion.

He'd traveled with the Chrion delegation, after the Dominion requested such arrangement with the Chrion Embassy on Veridia Prime who helped the Veridians contact the University of Planets . The Chiron themselves seemed welcoming enough to have him along, having made a slight detour to pick him up before traveling to meet up with the other species.

Dr. Thorgood sends a communication to the ships that appear that the scientific investigation will occur from the strange disclike ship. He also messages that the scientists should meet there beforehand, by shuttle, because apparently teleporting is impossible in the disc, for reasons Thorgood does not explain in the message.

But anyway, scientists interested are to meet in the meeting ship there when ready.

The energy grew near the destination. In just a few moments a slipspace portal erupted from the blackness of space. Out from it came a small sized scientific vessal. So small in fact, the slipspace drive made up most of the ship's mass. However, it was unimportant since it was only a scientific vessal.

The ship cruised close to to the Burnian ship and soon an even smaller shuttle detached from the bottom of the small scientifice vessal. Inside was a team of five Princesses who's job had specifically been to monitor the stars.

A shuttle brings over Doctor Servius, Academician Zakharov and a handful of his Talent scientists.

OOC: Panpan?

Some faculty from the Imperial Institute and the University of Athens come by shuttle.

Once people arrive, they are also told that scientists only are to meet inside the small disc object. Whatever it is made of seems to prevent scanning, but Thorgood assures travelers from a radio communication from inside the object that it is safe.

Upon arriving, scientists find a table, a whiteboard up front, Thorgood, another Burninite scientist, and whoever else has arrived before them.

There is a representation of several galaxies on the board, seemingly with directional vectors, and Thorgood and the other scientist seem to be disagreeing over something.

Zakharov seems content to watch the Burnite scientists debate, and listens carefully to what they are saying while inspecting the whiteboard more closely.

Dr. Servius takes in his surroundings with some wonder. Leaving Veridia Prime was the first time he'd ever left the planet, much less the solar system. Everything seemed so new and exciting to him that he almost forgot for why he'd been brought to the conference, or sorts, in the first place. This euphoria would soon end when he realized that this was not a conference of human species. Thanks to the Chirons and the Rheans, the Veridians knew of non-human species but looked at them with suspicion and, more prominently, as less than human. Much as a white man would look upon a man of color in 1950s deep south, Veridians had little desire to mingle with non-human species and certainly did see any benefits of discussing anything intellectual with them.

Much like Zakharov, Sr. Servius said nothing at first upon entering. Instead he waited to hear what the more popular thoughts were before injecting his own ideas.

"No, that simply is impossible," Thorgood is saying. "It doesn't explain the contraction at all."

"Yes it does," the scientist says, waving his hand to stop Thorgood from cutting back in. "We're all quite aware that a simple black hole should not pull matter into it, per se, but it is theoretically possible that the density of the black hole here happened to reach such a point that it did something we cannot predict to the laws of physics, or even 'ripped' the 'fabric of spacetime.'"

"Zalenka, you are so far over your head, you can't point in the direction of the light of day."

"Both options strike me as a lot more probable than your ridiculous scenario!"

"Oh come now," Thorgood says, "you DO remember that we experimented with a matter bridge to alternate universes?"

"Of course. It doesn't work."

"Ah," Thorgood says, "not in THIS universe."

Once Zakharov sees that the two Burnite scientists have stopped talking, he inserts himself into the conversation.

"Excuse me, Burnite scientists, but I would like to share with the two of you our own theory on the matter. We suspect that somehow the dark matter in our galaxy is disappearing and as a result all of the atoms in our galaxy are being moved closer together in the core. However, for this to make sense, our calculations expect that our galaxy would have to be cut off from the outside... somehow. I can show a holodisk with the calculations, if you so prefer."

Thorgood seems to just notice the presence of the others in the room. His eyebrows furrow. "But other galaxies are indeed moving towards the center of this one, and/or stopped moving away. How can you account for this?"

"I still say this is all idle speculation until we get closer to the center point and actually take some readings," Zalenka sighs.

Zakharov nods at Thorgood, and says, "It's in the holodisk. Quite a length explanation, actually."

Then turning towards Zalenka, he nods affirmatively, and replies, "Yes, I feel that observations on the field would be rather more productive as well."

Thorgood takes the holodisk and makes something else appear, and appears engaged in the holodisk's contents.

Zalenka rolls his eyes. "Seriously though, can we GET some concrete data from really close to the center of this before we spin out of control here?"

For the moment Dr. Servius only continues to sit and listen into the conversation thus far. His universal translator was working far better than he thought. If only we could have come up with such a wonder he thought to himself, a bit off-topic of course. Trying to go a bit unnoticed, he did try and make attempts to look at the data that the Burnite scientist known as Thorogood was looking at. Fascinating he thought to himself, of what he could see without looking as if he were reading to document from other Thorgood's shoulder. Catching the last bit of the conversation from Zalenka, Dr. Servius found himself compelled to ask perhaps a more obvious question.

"I assume this ship or whatever manner of ship that is to be sent closer to the core is equipped to handle whatever gravitational stresses that may be being exerted from whatever phenomena that is causing this perplexing problem?"