The Rossem Project is close to success, and will allow a hand picked expedition to explore other worlds, searching for the threat that faces the planet Tharia, but as they begin their mission they discover that there are many other threats out there...
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An hour later, the Jules Verne was alongside the portal, which could now be seen to be nearly a mile wide. From their distance of five hundred yards, half the sky was filled with a dull, translucent red through which the brightest stars could be clearly seen. The stars of another universe. As they watched the stars abruptly changed. One starfield replaced by another, as quickly as the blinking of an eye.
Haskar explained that that happened every eleven minutes, forty eight seconds exactly. “It cycles through all four hundred and ninety three universes in ninety seven hours before returning to the first universe,” he said, “so you can determine which universe you pass into by choosing when you enter.”
“What about coming back?” asked Strong.
“Coming back the portal comes and goes, but when you pass through you always return to this universe,” replied the felisian. “This universe is like the hub of a wheel. The other universes are like spokes radiating away from it.”
“This must be the universe in which the portal formed then,” mused Saturn thoughtfully. “Something to do with the red sun. It can’t be a coincidence that the portal is located in a direct line between the two suns.”
“Can the portal be closed?” asked the Captain. “That would be one way to end the threat of the Shipbuilder civilisation.”
“In principle it should be possible,” replied the wizard. “Other naturally formed portals can be closed, but this one is vastly larger than any portal I’ve ever heard of before, as well as being unusually long lived. Naturally formed portals usually close spontaneously after a few years, but this one must have been here for several hundred years at least. Maybe thousands of years. The amount of magical energy necessary to close it may be beyond us.”
“If our universe is the hub,” said Karog, “then any other civilisation using the portal must pass through our universe in order to enter another.” He turned to face Haskar. “In all the years you’ve had a ship stationed here, to mark the location of the portal, have you ever seen any other ships coming and going?”
“No, never,” replied the felisian.
“Then no-one in any of those other four hundred and ninety three universes is currently travelling between the worlds of the sheaf,” said the trog. “That’s powerful evidence that the Shipbuilder civilisation is no longer in existence, or at least has gone into decline. We may already have succeeded in our mission and proved that that threat to our world no longer exists.”
“We’ll know that for certain when we’ve found the Shipbuilder world and seen with our own eyes what’s happened to it,” said Saturn, though. “The mission proceeds. With the Captain’s consent, that is.” He glanced at the Captain with a sly smile.
“The mission proceeds,” agreed the Captain, giving the wizard a sharp glance. “Our own world has known the rise and fall of many civilisations. Even if the Shipbuilder civilisation has fallen, it may rise again and pose a new threat to us. We must see their world for ourselves. Haskar, how long until we can pass through into your universe?”
