Excerpt

Prologue

The oldest man on the Seeder ship Lost Sense sat alone in a room.

A loud burp cut through the room.

"Sorry," he said.

He said it to no one, since he was alone in the ship and had been now for over two hundred years. He commanded, was the Chairman of, and the only passenger of, the Lost Sense. The ship was big enough to house fifty crew, but easy enough for one to manage, so he and the others had decided only he would risk his own life on this mission.

His name was Larry Estrabrook.

He stood six-foot-two, had dark brown hair that was still thick, and muscles in his shoulders he worked on regularly.

As a Seeder, he had lived just over four thousand years and was part of the group of humans who were long-lived and were planning to spread humanity to other galaxies, just as they had done to many planets in the First Galaxy.

He knew a couple other Seeders who were older than he was, but he still liked to think of himself as the oldest man in just about any world and on any ship in any segment of the First Galaxy.

The Seeders called themselves Seeders because of the idea of not only seeding other planets with humans, but seeding other galaxies as well. It had seemed like a great idea at the time, although Larry had no idea what loony person had come up with it.

A galaxy was damn big and it took a hundred years to just get across the spiral First Galaxy. Why did they think they could seed other planets in other galaxies?

But not only did Seeders live a long time, it seems most of them thought of big ideas as well. Like this mission he was on. He was going to be the first Seeder to travel to another galaxy.

His mission was to test a new ship, new engine, and try to make it to the nearest satellite galaxy from the First Galaxy.

When in the new galaxy, he was also supposed to scout the small cluster galaxy and look for any sign of aliens. Seeders didn't want to mess with aliens.

The small cluster galaxy he was headed for was by far the closest to home and it was still going to take a four-hundred-year trip.

And if they were depending on him to send back information about the small galaxy, it looked like they might have to wait some more years beyond his scheduled arrival.

He was stuck.

Yup, stuck.

No idea how a spaceship could get stuck in the emptiness of space between galaxies, but he had managed it.

He was supposed to be in deep sleep for most of the four-hundred-year trip, but alarm systems had rousted him about two hundred years in.

Lost Sense was basically dead in a weird area of space. He couldn't see anything past the edge of whatever he had run into. His deep-space drive didn't work even though it was still in top condition, so he was going to have to use his sub-light-system drives to push himself out of whatever he was stuck in.

And that was going to take time.

At this point he had been working to get out for almost two years and maybe in another year he would reach the edge.

He almost thought about going back into cold sleep, but decided he needed to stay awake and pay attention for the years this would take.

Seemed like a good idea two boring years ago.

Not so much now.

He was working on some calculations and just happened to be sitting in his command chair in the three-person command center when things changed on the big screen in front of his chair.

There were thousands of small flashes of light along the surface of what seemed to be inside. And then, where a moment before it had shown a blank sort of nothingness, now the stars were back.

Lost Sense was back in regular space.

He jumped from his chair with both hands in the air and shouted "Yes!" Then he quickly went back to his instruments.

All his ship's systems were working.

Oh, wow, now he could have a good steak dinner, a glass of wine, and get back to sleep to complete his mission.

Only one big problem.

Nothing about space around him looked right.

Nothing at all.

At this point the small cluster galaxy should be filling space ahead of him, but there was nothing there.

The big spiral First Galaxy was farther away from him than he had lifetimes to return to, even if he was the oldest man alive.

None of this was possible.

None of it.

"Chairman Estrabrook?" a voice asked over his unused communications system.

Larry jerked. Looked around at the empty command center, then just sat back and laughed. He must still be in deep sleep and all of this was a malfunctioning sleep chamber causing him to dream. No one could be talking to him out here in literally the middle of nothingness.

"This is Chairman Evan West of the Seeder ship Rescue Two. Welcome back."

"Did I go somewhere?" Larry asked, wondering why this dream even had names in it.

At that point a ship so large it blocked out most of the stars on one side of his big screen flashed into existence and stopped.

He tried to get an image of the ship, but it was so large he failed.

He felt like a guppy next to a whale. He could tell that the new ship was in the shape of a bird of prey. He had heard rumors that the Seeders were going to design their ships like that, but it hadn't started when he left.

In two hundred years they had made a lot of progress, or something was really, really wrong.

"You were trapped in a Void Space Bubble," Chairman West said. "Time and space do not work the same inside of one of those, so we popped the bubble to get you out."

"Okay," Larry said, starting to feel a little panicked and starting to realize his mission was most likely over.

"With your permission, we would like to take your ship into our docking bay and get you to a Seeder Base. There are a lot of people who are excited to meet and talk with you."

"Why?" Larry asked.

"Because of how old you are," Chairman West said. "You have knowledge about the early days of the Seeders that has been long forgotten."

"How much time has passed?" Larry asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but it was starting to seem that if this was not a dream, he was going to have to face the answer.

"Just over seven million years," Chairman West said.

Again, Larry just laughed.

No way he could even begin to grasp seven million years.

But that explained the galaxies not being where they were supposed to be.

"And it was some of your friends who were also trapped in Void Space Bubbles that suggested we go looking for you."

"I have seven-million-year-old friends?" Larry asked.

"They were trapped for millions of years, just as you have been. Many of them always wondered what happened to you. So they told us, as best they could, what path you took and we found you."

"Thank you," Larry said.

He would have to ask later exactly what it took to find him and rescue him.

"Chairman Ray would like to talk with you for a few minutes," Chairman West said. "He is sort of the person who runs all the Seeders and has now for millions of years. Would that be all right? We'll bring you aboard and get your ship on our hanger deck. With your permission."

Larry just laughed. "Seems like I have no choice. Even at full speed, it would take me another million years to get back to the First Galaxy. How long will it take with you?"

"Five minutes," Chairman West said.

Larry once more laughed until he realized Chairman West was perfectly serious.

Larry took a deep breath and looked around. Nothing holding him here.

"Sure, I would be glad to talk with Chairman Ray and catch a ride home."

"Great," Chairman West said.

A moment later, with no feeling at all of movement, Larry found himself standing in an ultra-modern, yet surprisingly comfortable conference room with a long table and eight chairs, facing a man about Larry's height with a large smile on his face.

"It is an honor to meet you," Chairman West said, stepping forward and shaking Larry's hand.

"I think the honor is all mine," Larry said.

At that moment a man appeared next to Chairman West. He had long gray hair, perfectly straight that ran down his back, and wore slacks and a dress shirt that looked like it was right out of Larry's time.

Actually Chairman West wore about the same thing, so looked like fashions for Seeders hadn't changed much.

"I am Chairman Ray," the man said and stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "It is an honor to meet you, Chairman Estrabrook."

"Why is it an honor to meet me?" Larry asked. "You rescued me, from what I am starting to understand. This should be all my honor."

Chairman Ray smiled and nodded to West who brought up an image on the screen. It was of the First Galaxy and the surrounding smaller galaxies that orbited the First Galaxy.

"When you left on your mission," Ray said, "the First Galaxy was about half seeded with human planets."

Larry nodded to that.

"Where you were headed is now called The Misty Galaxy. When you were lost, your name became lore and a warning of the dangers of moving between galaxies in deep space. You were considered a hero."

"Well, I slept for two hundred years until I got stuck," Larry said. "I suppose that's heroic."

Chairman Ray ignored him and just went on. "Then a few thousand years after you were lost, one of the first of what we call Mother Seeder Ships with over four million souls on board, headed toward the Misty Galaxy. It also vanished without a trace into a different Void Space Bubble."

"We just found that ship last year," West said. "And it was many on board that ship that suggested we search for you. We will be taking you to the same base where most of them are at now."

Larry just nodded and said, "Thanks."

"Now let me show you what has happened since you have been gone," Ray said. "And what you started."

"All five of the satellite galaxies around the First Galaxy were seeded finally," West said.

The image on the screen pulled back to show all of them colored in a soft gold color.

"Then we moved out," Ray said, "and we ended up seeding almost one thousand galaxies at this point and are still expanding."

Larry again just laughed as the image pulled way back showing the orange points of light that represented full galaxies with billions and billions of stars in each one.

"There are millions and millions of human planets in each one of those lights," West said.

"A new Seeder Mother ship is now coming online every few weeks," Ray said, "and we are finishing the seeding of a new galaxy now about every three months."

Larry just moved over to a chair and sat down, shaking his head. He just felt tired and totally overwhelmed.

"We'll be docking in the SunWorld Seeder Base in a minute," West said.

"Where is my place in all of that now?" Larry asked, indicating the screen.

"Spend a few years learning what is happening now," Ray said, "see what is even possible, talk with some of your old friends, get used to being so far into your future."

"Is this possible to get used to?" Larry asked.

West laughed. "It is. And if you need help, we have it for you. Millions are going through what you are experiencing right now because once we discovered Void Space Bubbles and how to rescue those stuck inside them, we have been doing so regularly."

"And we hope you will spend some time with some of the Seeder historians," Ray said. "Help them fill in some holes in history."

Larry just laughed. "You mean my former world."

"Exactly," Ray said. "But isn't that the way it is for all of us as we age through all of our lives? Our worlds become former worlds. And those former worlds become history."

"Got that right," Larry said. "For some of us just a little quicker than others."

Both Ray and West had to agree to that.