The Astronomer's Discovery: Bedtime Tale

This is a bedtime story about you working as an astronomer. You are working on a large telescope, high in the mountains. You observe something curious in an unusual nebula. After your shift, you head home. You decide to continue to check out that nebula from home. You learn about a secret government programme. You investigate and discover that there is a secret base on the far side of the moon and a portal which orbits the Earth at a point which keeps it hidden behind the moon from the perspective of Earth. You get to that moon base and see the portal in space. Spaceships are being created on the moon and launched to the portal. You learn about aliens visiting Earth thousands of years earlier and how their ship was discovered which led to learning how to build the portal and connect it with the portal in that nebula.

Transcript

So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.

And as you begin to comfortably drift asleep.

I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster to the sound of my voice.

Or whether it will be to the spaces between my words.

And as you comfortably drift asleep.

I'm just going to tell this bedtime story in the background.

And you're high up in a mountain range.

Working on an enormous telescope.

And when you're not looking through the telescope.

You're wandering around.

Taking in the fresh air.

So crisp and cool.

Gazing up at the night sky.

The dusting of stars stretched across that sky.

Watching as those stars gently twinkle.

The sky here so incredibly clear.

No sounds other than the occasional whirring sound.

As the telescope moves position to focus on another object.

And you're holding a warm drink between your two hands.

Feeling that warmth as you stand in the cold.

Enjoying the warmth of that drink when you put it close to your face.

You feel the warm steam rising up.

You feel the warmth through the cup.

Pulsing gently into those hands.

The warmth of the liquid.

As you put it to your lips and gently drink.

And just enjoying the silence of this location.

And while walking around.

Your feet crunch on the stones underfoot.

And the rough coarse grasses up here.

And the peaks of the mountains surrounding you.

Almost glow in the moonlight.

The way the snow catches that light.

And while moving and walking around.

And looking at those peaks.

It's like they're diamond encrusted.

And after taking a break for a while.

Breathing in that cool fresh air.

Noticing the difference between breathing in the cool air.

And drinking the warm drink.

You head back into the observatory.

You walk to that observatory.

Climb steel steps to the entrance.

Tap a key card which beeps.

Hear the latch click unlocked.

And with a gloved hand.

You open the door.

Step inside and close it behind you.

And you feel the warmth of this space.

You hear the sound of different machinery.

Beeps,

Whirs,

Hisses.

Sounds of computers.

The sounds of servers.

The gentle hum of lights.

And this room is very white.

And you sit at your desk.

A large computer screen in front of you.

And at your fingertips.

Is a keypad.

With raised keys.

And the keys almost seem to click as you tap them.

Then you punch in.

Your ID.

You log in to the computer.

The screen changes.

Showing you the view through the telescope.

And down the side and along the bottom of the screen.

Is information about the image you can see.

And in the top left of the screen.

Is some numbers that seem to constantly be changing.

And there's four numbers.

With a dash between each set.

And two sets of numbers.

A red and two sets of green.

And they're constantly changing.

To show the alterations in real time.

That the computer is making.

To the image from the telescope.

To make subtle adjustments.

To steady the image.

To cancel out the dancing.

That the image does.

Due to the turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere.

And this telescope is so high up.

That there's significantly less turbulence.

Than you'd get if you're at sea level.

But that adjustment means that.

The image you see on your screen.

Looks incredibly sharp and steady.

And gone are the days where you'd go manually.

Move the telescope.

And point it.

At a location in the sky.

You punch in some coordinates on the computer.

You wait a minute or so.

As the telescope moves into position.

Adjusts its own focus.

And then in real time.

Tracks that object.

Keeping the object in the centre of your view.

And if the object is perhaps a comet or an asteroid.

The telescope will be steadily tracking.

At a faster rate.

Than if the object happens to be.

A specific star.

Galaxy or nebula.

And a different rate again.

If you're tracking a planet.

And for now.

The telescope is pointed at Jupiter.

And you're gazing at that screen of Jupiter.

And you're analysing the clouds on Jupiter.

How the clouds at different latitudes.

Are moving.

How they seem to move differently.

Among the different bands.

You're noting down any anomalies.

Anything which stands out as changing or different.

Anything you notice.

That just draws your attention to it.

And while staring at that image of Jupiter.

You find it's almost like your mind.

Focuses so hard.

On what you're doing and what you're looking at.

That your peripheral vision darkens.

Almost as if.

You've got telescopic vision.

Of the image from the telescope.

And so you.

Spend a number of hours.

Carefully noting down your observations.

The computer capturing images.

Every couple of seconds.

After studying Jupiter.

For perhaps four hours.

You punch in the coordinates.

For the next destination you need to see for the night.

And how it works is.

The different science groups around the world.

Submit proposals.

For how they would like to use the telescope.

What they would like you to observe for and how long.

And then when a certain night comes around.

You follow what's listed.

As the night goes on.

Finding the object.

That you need to be pointing the telescope at.

Writing down your observations.

While the computer.

Takes images and records.

What's being observed.

And that at a certain time.

It'll be time.

For the next observation.

Which will be for a different science team.

And you'll see.

What that observation entails.

You'll type in the code for the location.

The telescope will move.

And observe that location.

And normally it's fairly standard.

You get used to the codes for the different locations.

So just reading the codes you know what the telescope will be looking at.

But occasionally there'll be.

Coordinates you don't recognize.

And sometimes there'll be observations you're told.

Not to record anything about.

The computer will take the images.

And you'll program it to automatically.

Send those images to a specific location.

And not to store them.

And you'll see.

What the telescope sees.

But you won't be allowed to talk about it.

Or record anything about it.

And sometimes the observations.

Strike you as quite boring.

Perhaps looking just like.

A pitch black.

Area of space.

With nothing at all going on.

Other times they'll be on an object.

Or a location that gets your interest.

But you don't necessarily know.

Why that recording.

Is being gathered.

And why the secrecy.

And with those ones you don't get to find out.

Who wants the data.

It automatically just sends to the correct people.

And tonight after looking at Jupiter.

Absorbing yourself.

And that image of Jupiter.

And taking notes on what you see.

You punch in the code.

The telescope.

Carefully moves to its new position.

And on the screen.

You see what looks.

Like a nebula in the shape of a spider.

And there are pinpricks of light.

Like stars stretched along the spider's legs.

And larger glowing orbs.

Through the body of the spider.

And you have this feeling like that nebula.

Is moving.

Almost pulsing.

And you just sit and observe.

Because you're not allowed to take notes on this one.

And you wonder what it's being observed for.

And you notice.

In the heart of that spider nebula.

The pulsing which looks like it's buried within clouds.

Is gradually speeding up.

And it seems to be almost sending ripples or waves.

Through that spider shaped nebula.

And the nebula.

Is in colours of reds and oranges and some blue.

With the orange,

Yellow and golden light.

And the diamond like stars.

On the spider's legs.

And the pulsing continues to increase in strength.

And you're curious what this is.

And then in the heart of the spider.

Around the centre of the pulsing.

A dark spot appears.

And you watch.

As that dark spot gets larger and larger.

And at first the dark spot.

Looks just like a puff of air passing through a cloud.

Like a rough edge carefully moving out from the centre.

Then as you continue to watch.

So it becomes more uniform and circular.

And then in the heart of that pitch black spot.

Is a pinprick of light.

That flashes to life.

Like a beam stretching out across the galaxy.

And you see that beam.

Reaching out from the heart of that spider.

And around the beam.

Appears to be a gentle electric blue.

Almost like strings of lightning.

Travelling along the beam.

And you try to judge.

The distance to that nebula.

You try to work out its size.

You try to work out.

What is perspective versus reality.

Like are some of those stars you see.

Around the legs.

And through the body.

Are some of them nearer to you.

They're just lined up with a nebula.

Or are they actually.

In the location they look like.

And you feel like.

What is happening.

Based on your estimates for the size of the nebula.

Would be almost impossible.

To have that much movement from this much distance.

As if the movement would be happening.

Almost as fast.

Perhaps even faster than light.

Which you know would be impossible.

But then you know.

That shadows can travel faster than light.

And that some things are about perspective.

And you continue watching.

And within that beam.

That's protruding from the heart of the nebula.

You think you can see little dots.

Travelling within the beam.

And a part of your brain.

Tells you perhaps.

These dots are ships.

Maybe this is some kind of a portal.

But then you know that when you look at things in space that are unexplained.

It's never aliens.

So you put the idea out of your mind.

And after a few hours of observing.

The beam seems to just suddenly shut off.

And the nebula goes quiet.

And the gas and dust.

Seems to fill in that void.

To the point you wouldn't even know.

What had happened if you hadn't seen it.

And after about four hours.

The observation moves on to something else.

The last couple of hours.

Nothing much really happened.

Those dots that you could see.

That were the faintest of dots in the beam of light.

Just looked like they continued drifting.

In the direction they were travelling.

But you don't know now.

Whether those dots.

Were as you saw them to be.

Something which came within the beam of light.

Or just something nearer.

That happened to line up with the beam.

But it isn't for you to say.

And when the time is up.

You punch in the next coordinates.

And the final four hours of your shift.

You watch Saturn in the sky.

At an angle where its rings.

Are highly tilted.

Towards the telescope.

Giving an incredible view of those rings.

Really highlighting them.

And the computer takes its pictures.

And you write down your observations.

And after twelve hours.

Your shift comes to an end.

And the sleeping quarters are in some buildings.

Nearby to the telescope.

And in those sleeping quarters.

There isn't a microwave.

And there's very limited technology allowed.

To ensure that there's nothing to interfere with the telescope.

And twelve hours is a long time to be staring at a screen.

As you always look forward.

To going to bed.

And you head out of the building.

You head through the cold air.

And into the staff quarters.

You say hello to other staff.

Who are milling around.

Some who finished their shift.

Some who are just about to head off to bed.

And you head over to start their shifts.

And you have yourself something to eat and drink.

Before going to bed.

And drifting peacefully and comfortably asleep.

And after sleeping about eight hours.

You pot around the staff quarters.

You play a game of pool.

With another member of staff.

You're not allowed to talk about your observations.

Despite the fact that you really want to share.

What it was that you saw.

You head outside.

Just as the sun is rising.

And the sun peaks its golden head over the horizon.

Barely warming the landscape.

You enjoy a number of hours.

Of relaxing.

Before your next shift.

And at this time of year.

In this location.

The sun barely rises.

And only shows its head for a few hours.

Before setting again.

To many of the observations.

That are made through the night.

Unless specifically requested otherwise.

Start with observations.

In the opposite direction to the sun.

And as the night sky gets darker and darker.

The further from sunset.

The more the observations can be made.

In the direction of the sun.

And this night.

As with the previous night.

Most observations were standard.

Nothing particularly special.

But one observation.

Was to look back.

At that spider nebula.

And you're curious when looking back at the nebula.

How it'll look different tonight.

Most of it looks the same.

But while looking at the nebula.

The same thing occurs as happened the night before.

Only this time.

It looked like.

Those dots were moving towards.

The nebula.

And so you.

Watch the experience unfold.

Making mental notes.

But being unable to make any physical notes.

And knowing you'll be unable to talk to anyone.

About your observations.

And after your time period up here.

Observing through the telescope.

You head down the mountain.

You catch a train.

Coming from the foot of the mountain.

Which weaves and passes.

Through long tunnels.

Carved within the mountain range.

Working their way from.

High up north.

Gradually weaving southward.

And the train journey.

Takes many days.

Until you finally arrive at a destination.

Where you can catch a flight back home.

And you catch a flight.

Back to your home.

And once home.

You start researching.

And looking into what it is you might have seen.

You've memorized the coordinates.

And so you try to use.

Your large telescope you have at home.

To see if you can see.

That nebula and what's going on there.

And your telescope at home.

Is significantly smaller than the one you work with.

But you can just about make out.

That nebula.

And you wire up your telescope to your computer.

And you set your telescope.

To track the nebula.

And your telescope tracks the nebula.

Whenever it's dark each and every day.

And although the resolution.

Isn't as good.

You frequently find yourself sat at your computer.

Watching.

What takes place at that nebula.

And most of the time.

Nothing seems to happen.

But every now and then.

It seems to pulse to life.

A beam seems to emit from it.

It's as if.

Which are barely noticeable.

At this resolution.

Seem to come from the center of that nebula.

And then hours later.

The same thing will happen.

And it'll look like dots return.

And then nothing will go on.

For some time.

And then the same process will happen again.

And again.

Only you can't get enough resolution.

To make out exactly what's happening.

And what kind of phenomena this is.

And so you begin to reach out.

To contacts you know.

You try and be vague.

What you're really doing.

Trying to see if there's a way to get a better resolution image.

Without drawing any attention to yourself.

But as you do this.

You seem to have drawn.

Some attention from someone.

Because one day you receive a brown envelope.

Unmarked.

Posted.

You open that envelope.

And what's written inside.

Alerts you to a secret program taking place.

And tells you that what you've observed.

Is the exit.

Of a wormhole.

That the government have been working.

With other governments.

On some technology.

That's allowed them.

To create a wormhole.

That can be opened and used.

To travel to a specific location.

And the source who wrote this.

Said they didn't know.

Where the information and the knowledge came from.

To build the wormhole.

Or to build the ships that are used.

To travel through the wormhole.

But the other end of the wormhole.

That which you see in that spider nebula.

Has existed.

For millions if not longer.

Years.

And that the plans.

The governments were provided with.

Has allowed them to be able.

To explore.

A whole new area of space.

Tens of thousands of light years from earth.

But they've had to create a wormhole.

At this side.

Of the galaxy.

They've had to create their own wormhole in space.

And so to create it and hide it.

From people.

They created it.

At a specific distance.

Beyond the far side of the moon.

A distance that means that.

That wormhole.

Rotates around the earth.

Remaining hidden by the moon.

For its full rotation.

And so there's never an opportunity.

For humanity from earth.

To see the wormhole created.

By humans.

But there are some lunar orbiter.

Images.

Which have been pixelated out.

Or shown as corrupt.

Within the collections of released photos.

And it's thought that.

These corrupt images.

Aren't actually corrupt.

They're intentionally corrupted.

To hide the wormhole.

To hide this secret project.

And within the paperwork.

Was a specific code and location.

And so being curious.

You head to the coordinates given.

You hang back.

And it's in a deep.

Deserted part of the country.

And you watch.

And you see.

That there are people coming and going.

To a facility here.

And you wonder.

How they get ships.

To that wormhole if there is one in space.

And you watch.

Keeping hidden for a number of days.

Analyzing those arriving and leaving.

You notice different patterns.

And you formulate a plan.

A way of sneaking in.

You notice there's something unusual about this base.

That to maintain anonymity.

No one shows ID.

But they do all dress a very specific way.

And they do all talk in a very specific way.

And so you mimic this.

And you arrive.

And within yourself you have a little anxiety there.

But it's the kind of anxiety.

That could equally.

Be a little excitement.

And you get yourself into the base.

And once in.

You begin to snoop around.

And you find a room.

Where you can hear the crackling of sparks.

The electricity.

You sneak into that room.

And you can see a person sized portal.

Sparks flashing around the portal entrance.

You confidently walk through the portal.

And exit in a different room.

Within a dome.

And you realize looking out through the dome.

The landscape.

Is the moon.

And hanging above you.

Way off in the distance.

You can see that portal.

And you realize this base on the moon.

Is enormous.

And seems to contain factories.

For building spacecraft.

Where all the required elements.

Are mined on the moon.

And this all takes place.

On the far side of the moon.

And you see that.

There's a launch pad here on the moon.

And watch as a craft.

Blasts off from the moon's surface.

And silently travels.

Towards that wormhole.

It arrives at the wormhole.

And as it nears that wormhole.

So the wormhole.

Pulses to life.

A bright blue cloud.

Erupts in the heart.

Of that machine.

A beam seems to form.

And the ships pass.

Along the beam.

And you imagine.

That if you were looking at the monitor right now.

To your telescope at home.

Or the one in your work.

You'd see a beam appear.

In that nebula.

And you explore this base.

You access a computer console.

And find that nothing is particularly secure.

As if they don't expect people to be here.

Who shouldn't be.

As if somehow.

They feel that having things that can be hacked.

Encourage people to hack.

And so instead.

They have everything.

Offline.

But you suspect that every click.

Every button push.

Is still tracked.

And you can tell these rooms are filled with cameras.

And so if anyone gets suspicious.

They'll be able to check.

And find evidence of tampering.

But you sit down.

You're used to working at these kind of consoles.

Based on the work you do.

It all looks very familiar to you.

You access information about the project.

You find information.

About a race of aliens.

Which had come to earth.

Thousands of years earlier.

They'd been colonizing.

The galaxy.

And creating wormholes.

And some aliens decided to remain here on earth.

And they blended in.

And they were treated as gods.

And although they had incredibly long lives.

Much much longer.

Than a human lifespan.

They eventually passed away.

And were treated.

As deceased gods.

As per their instructions.

But their ship which they'd arrived on.

Remained hidden and buried where they left it.

And they thought nothing of it.

Because humans were so primitive.

They had no thought.

About humans having technology.

In the future.

And happening to find the ship.

At the point that they would have the technology.

To know what to do with it.

And so thousands of years after they passed.

They passed away.

Deep in the heart of Egypt.

While searching for a tomb of the gods.

They accidentally stumbled across.

What looked like a void under the ground.

But was actually.

The ship.

And the void was just the inside of the ship.

And they descended.

Into that ship.

Gained entry to the ship.

And within the ship.

Was knowledge.

A wealth of knowledge.

From a thousands of years old civilization.

Including details.

Of the wormhole system.

And there was no wormhole.

Near enough to earth.

For humans to reach.

Based on our current technology.

But in the same way that humans.

Have shared to the internet.

A wealth of all knowledge about everything you could possibly ever.

Want to know or learn.

The same holds true for other civilizations.

And so on the ship.

Was all the information needed.

It took a little understanding.

And some great minds.

But they're able to create.

A space station on the far side of the moon.

And use that.

To make the required ships.

And then craft.

The wormhole.

And the wormhole connects.

To the network of wormholes.

But the only code that they had.

Was the code for this one wormhole.

And that location that looks.

Like a spider nebula.

And so for now.

All they can do.

Is travel.

From here to that spider nebula.

And in these new ships.

Which are a significant upgrade on anything humans have ever created.

They frequently trip to the location.

Explore space in that location.

Trying to find other planets.

Other star systems.

That these aliens had visited.

To try and connect up with the aliens.

And see if they can work out.

The codes.

To open the wormholes.

In different locations.

And so far the few trips through this wormhole.

Have come up empty handed.

With no sign of aliens remaining.

As if perhaps.

They haven't been around there.

For a very very long time.

And so they're still looking for artifacts or anything.

Which will reveal.

The other wormhole locations.

Hoping perhaps one day.

They'll be able to travel through a wormhole.

That comes out onto a thriving.

Alien civilization.

And they don't know.

Whether there's just one alien civilization.

Or whether there's more.

Whether that one is still around.

All these years later.

And after you've gathered the information.

That you're after.

To learn what this secret.

Program is all about.

You shut everything down.

Just as you had found it.

You find your way back out from the moon base.

Through that portal.

And then out of the base in that desert.

And you find your way back home.

And a part of your mind is curious whether anyone.

Will notice you're ever there.

You haven't given any reason.

To do so.

And you head back home.

And you know that this knowledge.

Is going to shape.

How you do your job.

How you perceive your observations that you make.

You know that you're going to continue.

At home to observe.

That spider nebula.

Being curious about how things change over time.

And what you can learn about the project from afar.

Without drawing any attention to yourself.

You know you're going to stop.

Reaching out.

To try to connect with others who might know.

More information.

And you'll just do it as a private.

Project for yourself out of curiosity.

But it does get you thinking.

About that alien civilization.

Why those aliens came to earth.

What they saw in the planet that made them want to stay here.

Why they never shared their technology.

And what else might be out there.

And at the end of the night you head to bed.

And you'll be back in work.

In a few days time.

And in bed you relax down.

And you drift and float so peacefully and comfortably.

Relaxed asleep.

Into slumberland.

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