Chapter 3
Opal was starting to long for the vast, expansive universe and the stars among it. He began asking himself, where could he go once he left this place? His mother had come from someplace else in space. Her spaceship was battered, broken, and mottled with rust. She appeared to be the only passenger on the vehicle. He wasn’t sure why she gave birth to him and never managed to leave B-11.
He left the mines earlier than usual the next day, barely managing to hold back his excitement when he got to Lektor’s shelter with the stellar chart in hand.
He dragged another ore-filled trolley with him, but found the cave to be empty.
“Lektor!” Opal called out.
Lektor stood on the far-reaching stone field, his cape billowing against the wild wind that swept across the sky.
He simply stood there, unmoving.
Opal watched him for a few moments from afar and noticed that Lektor seemed to have held this stance for a long time.
After a full hour, Lektor opened his eyes and turned.
“What were you doing?” Opal asked.
“Meditating,” Lektor answered.
“Meditating?”
“Projecting one’s thoughts and consciousness outward to explore the unknown.”
Opal nodded with not-quite understanding. The two worked together and poured the ores into the nuclear reactor. “Three and a half percent,” Lektor stated.
“This is all I could get. These ores aren’t that pure.”
“Did the foreman give you any trouble?”
“He doesn’t care. It’ll get traded in for food in the end anyways. I only told him that I planned on purifying the ores myself.”
He sat with Lektor outside the cave. Opal held up the stellar chart and mapped the stars in the sky. “Which one is your home planet?” He asked.
“I’m from a place that isn’t labelled on any stellar charts. It exists on the Central Axis[1] that extends from the origin of the universe after its initial expansion and formation.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Do you know how stars are formed?”
“No. Haven’t they always been there?”
“Of course not. They only began existing 20 billion years ago. The universe was a singularity then. There was no time, nor space. Then, there was an explosion and time followed from its outward expansion. In the first seconds of the explosion, energy was converted into matter to form a variety of celestial bodies. And thus, stars were born.”
“What were they before they were born?”
Lektor smiled. “There was no time before they were born, so it won’t matter what came before it.”
Opal looked a bit confused, but Lektor continued, “Under normal circumstances, time exists along a single axis. When you asked about what happened before, you have to look along the line to determine where you are. But once you’ve returned to the starting point of the line, there’s nothing before it for you to find. Because without the creation of time, there was no time. And thus, it won’t matter what came before it.
“The beginning of time was defined by humankind. You can imagine spacetime as a planet similar to B-11. What would happen if you keep heading south? Try to think about it.”
Opal still looked confused, so Lektor tried again. “You would eventually reach the south pole. The concept of ‘south’ is similar to the idea of ‘before.’ You continue heading in one direction until you’ve reached the point of origin. And thus, when you’ve landed on the south pole, there would be nowhere more south than that point. So asking what’s more south than the southernmost point is like asking what it was like before the beginning of time. Rather meaningless.”
Opal was simultaneously beginning to understand and becoming even more confused. Lektor went on, “The place I’m from is called the Sanctuary of the Stars. It exists on the Axis extending from the Big Bang. The origin of the Big Bang is a fixed point. The stellar chart I gave you yesterday uses a different set of coordinates as its centre compared to the universal stellar charts commonly used.”
Opal’s mind was already all jumbled,but his next question came out almost reflexively. “How are they different?”
Lektor answered obligingly. “The stellar chart in your hand uses the Sanctuary of the Stars as its reference point. The first Star Knight thought that this was the centre of the universe. Other civilizations use a different reference point called ‘Earth’ from which all other coordinates on the stellar chart are measured from.”
“Does Earth move?”
“Compared to the movements of nebulae, its own motion in space is considered negligible. But if you use the stellar charts made in the Republic or the Empire, you may sometimes find that a given star is not where it should be. That’s because of the error produced as a result of the Earth’s rotation, the motion of celestial bodies within the solar system, as well as the rotation of the Milky Way.”
Now Opal was completely lost. He attempted a new topic, “What do you usually do?”
“Learning. Fighting. Annihilating all forms of instability in interstellar space,” Lektor answered.
“Like how your enemy tried to annihilate you? Would you kill him?”
Lektor hummed in agreement and became lost in his own thoughts for a long time after. “How did you guys fight?” Opal asked again.
Lektor’s brows knitted ever so slightly like he was trying to find a way to explain. He responded after a few moments, ”Killing and annihilating are two different concepts. He’s a Star Knight who’s been corrupted by dark energy. He has a long lifespan and has mastered powers unknown to me. I set out from the Sanctuary and searched for him for quite some time. Eventually, he plotted an ambush. We were battling near a nebula and, in the end, I lost. That’s all. I’ve been thinking about how to defeat him ever since.”
Opal tried to imagine what Lektor would look like during a fight. He’s never seen space and has no idea how powerful Lektor and his opponent were. Even after turning the idea over and over in his head, the only imagery he could conjure in his mind were miners exchanging blows. Except, in the case of Lektor’s fight, the battle that Lektor described happened at a slightly bigger scale.
Lektor smiled yet he said nothing. Until Opal asked another question. “How old are you?”
“A few thousand years old.”
“No way! You’re that old?”
Lektor looked up at the bespeckled night sky in fascination, its countless stars reflecting in his eyes. Opal put down his stellar chart and wondered aloud, “How long can I live? They say that humans don’t live past a hundred.”
“Everyone’s lifespan is different. Its length is not what matters in the end. The most important thing is what you’ve done with the limited lifespan you have. What you’ve experienced. There’s an intelligent life form on Ephimera[2] in the Beta Andromedae system, whose lifespan lasts for only half a second.”
Opal was shocked to hear about the Ephimeran’s lifespan.[3]
Lektor curved his lips, his smile making him look handsome yet gentle.
“Doesn’t that mean they’re dead the moment they were born?” Opal asked.
“Ephimera happens to be a neutron star.[4] These creatures are about the size of a microorganism and can move at nearly the speed of light. They can also process information incredibly quickly. A second in our time is equivalent to two hundred years in theirs. The scholars at the Ivory Tower deep in space once tried to communicate with them using a particle-wave converter, but failed.”
“Why?”
“Some people think that Ephimerans have knowledge of some ultimate universal law about the existence of beings, but they’ve refused to communicate with other intelligent life forms. In addition, they die so quickly and exist so briefly that it makes communicating with them extremely tricky. Because in one second you’d be talking to an Ephimeran and in the next second it takes for you to bat an eye, they would have already propagated several generations of offsprings. For every second that passes on Ephimera, twenty more generations will have replaced the last.”
Opal laughed, then suddenly thought of something. “Doesn’t that mean they’d have a far longer history?”
“That’s right. Which is why some have speculated that Ephimera might contain the most advanced civilization in this entire universe, so much so that it may well surpass those of any given society in existence. Even as we speak, their history would have already made tens of thousands of years’ worth of progress.”
“That’s fascinating,” Opal remarked.
“Go home and rest. You’ve been working so much and should have an early night. Come find me again tomorrow.”
Opal nodded and waved him goodbye.
Opal went to work as usual the next day, but his head was brimming with all sorts of whimsies about the stars deep in space. Perhaps to Lektor, his life was also very short—he was kind of like an Ephimeran.
What would I need to do to live just as long as him? He couldn’t help ruminating on this one question, but it also led to new ones. What would I do if I could live for thousands of years? Mine, sell ores, and trade for food every single day, over and over again? Digging in the mines for several thousands of years is definitely worse than only digging for a hundred. No… he didn’t even want to continue for one more minute.
He was right. The most important thing is what you’ve done with the limited lifespan you have. What you will have experienced in the short span of a hundred years.
“Hey, did you know,” Opal said to his friend Locke, “that some people can live for thousands of years. Can you believe that?”
“Of course. What can’t you do with money? The foreman said so the last time he went drinking. If you saved up enough money, you could find a company in Ignitis that specializes in life extension therapy and have them inject you with revitalized genes to modify your body. As long as you have the money, you could live forever!”
Opal wrinkled his brows. “But for how long?”
Locke shrugged. “How would I know? If you can keep the cells dividing like they used to when you’re young, it’s possible to live for two hundred, three hundred, or even a thousand years.”
“How much would that cost?”
“Apparently a single round of genetic surgery costs several million Energy Units. You might already be dead before you’d even saved up that much. Worry about saving enough money to buy a spaceship ticket first.”
Opal’s thoughts returned once again to the fleeting lifespans of Ephimerans that would last only half a second. Until the magnetic drill came to a stop.
There were barely any more crystals left to be extracted along this tunnel. The miners took off their gloves, looking troubled.
“I need some more bread and water.” Opal said to Locke, “Can you help me get some more?”
Locke eyed the foreman standing afar. “How come you’ve been eating so much lately? I heard you found a man in the middle of the desert? Where’s he from?”
The miners spoke to one another as they passed the two of them.
“Another auction for mining planets is about to start.”
“It’ll all depend on the higher-ups. I think this year’s gonna be rough. B-11 won’t have much more crystal ores left. See, it’s almost completely depleted. It’s not like anyone would want it even if it were to change hands.”
“But the entire outer planetary system was auctioned off during last year’s tendenering. In comparison, there are fewer competitors in this part of space.”[5]
Opal signalled to Locke to keep his voice down. “He’s from outer space, I don’t know much more beyond that. He’s injured.”
“Tell him to come and work in the mines.”
“No, he wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“What would he do otherwise? Food and water are expensive.”
“I’ll exchange for some with the ores from today. Help me trade them in. I don’t want Hicks to know.”
Locke took another glance at the foreman, Hicks, standing in the distance. He had a sullen look on his face, clearly in a foul mood from learning that the mines were nearly depleted.
“He’s gonna find out sooner or later. And when he does, he’s gonna deduct Energy Units from you.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
Locke shivered, but Opal continued, “Listen, Locke. Help me this one time. I’ll pay you back.”
“Nevermind that. Wait right here.”
Locke went over to retrieve the receipt as the foreman impatiently counted up a pile of ores. Opal had traded in extra ores, two truck loads of it, in exchange for quite a bit of bread. He needed to think of a way to deal with Lektor’s food and water needs in advance. There was no telling how long it would be until they found a new mineral source.
The long winter was headed their way. Trade ships from across the Ignitis system would land on B-11 once before then to sell winter-proof goods at an exorbitant price. In the remaining time before winter, Opal would follow his fellow miners and look for new ore deposits. The foreman, on the other hand, would head to a different planet to spend the winter.
“I don’t have any ores for you today,” Opal explained to Lektor, who was standing along a rocky slope. “I traded them in for some food. Winter’s gonna arrive soon.”
Lektor nodded. “Mn. You’ve worked hard.”
The rotational axis of B-11 formed a 23.5 degree angle orbital inclination, resulting in much shorter days in the winter and much longer nights. The temperature gradually dropped as Opal and Lektor sat on the cliff to eat their dinner. Opal only ate a single meal a day these days. Any remaining rations were given to Lektor.
Opal sneaked a few glances at the other man once in a while. He was feeling a bit awkward calling him by his name. Lektor was no doubt someone of status. On B-11, they referred to their foreman as Lord Hicks. As for the merchants that came from other parts of the planetary system, they must refer to them as sirs. But even then, they may still be unwilling to trade with the local miners.
“If you would like, you can call me ‘meister.’ But I do think that the two of us are equals and don’t differ in status,” Lektor stated.
His words startled Opal. “How could you possibly know what I was thinking?”
Lektor smiled gently. “Was that what you were thinking? Just something I thought to say. Meister means a person who mentors you and teaches you knowledge.”
“I know. Mom once told me.”
Lektor acknowledged with a nod. “What do you want to teach me today?” Opal asked.
“What would you like to know?”
“Tell me some more about stuff like the Empire and the Republic. How their people live their lives, what they do on a regular basis—”
“You’ll learn about those some day. That future is near,” Lektor maintained, speaking slowly as he lay down on the open ground at the top of the cliff.
Opal followed him and also lay down, turning to his side as he spoke, “Meister, how did you get to all those planets? Do you know lots of people? Do they respect you?”
Lektor didn’t respond immediately, but instead pointed a finger at the brightest star shining directly above them. “Did you know, Opal, that the stars that you see aren’t what they currently look like?”
Opal followed the man’s pointed finger with his eyes and hummed absently.
“The fastest thing in the universe is light. Nothing will exceed the speed of light.”
“That I did know. My mom had mentioned it too. Even the best spaceships can’t travel faster than light.”
Lektor nodded. “According to the ancient mass-energy theorem, anything with mass cannot move faster than the speed of light. Where we’re located is very, very far away from the Alpha Andromedae star that you see. It would require three million years even for light, the fastest thing in this universe, to get from the Alpha star to where we are.”
“….”
“Suppose that a long time ago, a beam of light was projected from the Alpha star and finally reached this planet, which would take three million years, passing into your eyes. That means that what you’re seeing is what it looked like three million years ago. Does that make sense?”
Opal nodded his head slowly so Lektor continued, “Even the fastest spaceship in the universe, Thor, traveling at sublight-speeds, would require a few million or even tens of millions of years to travel between galaxies.”
“So how do you travel?” Opal asked with a dazed look on his face.
Lektor answered, “Using Star Gates.
“Our cosmos is what’s referred to as four-dimensional space, with three coordinate axes representing three-dimensional space and the fourth dimension being time. This is the universe that we currently live in.”
Opal could vaguely understand some of it. “Is a Star Gate[6] like a door… Um, I meant like that you could enter from one side and exit out the other side, and you will have traveled very, very far?”
“You can think of it that way. Twenty thousand years ago, the ancestors of humankind discovered a connection to the fifth dimension. This is just a piece of history, so you don’t have to worry about the details. Just keep in mind that it exists.”
Opal listened on quietly as Lektor continued his explanation. “The cause of this discovery was a particle collision experiment conducted by a group of scientists. During the experiment, they discovered a particle that could travel faster than the speed of light. After several hundreds of years of repeated testing, they found that once certain conditions were met, the particle was able to enter into the fifth dimension for a brief moment. As it turns out, spacetime in the fifth dimension has very peculiar properties.
“If you manage to successfully enter this fifth dimension and advance a short stretch within it, you’ll discover that, upon returning to our four-dimensional space, you end up having traversed a far greater distance…. Look closely. I’ll show you an analogy.”
Lektor tapped his wrist to produce a ray of light that projected from his bracelet and onto the cliffside opposite them, and began explaining in a casual tone. “Imagine the precipice opposite as a two-dimensional plane. Note the spot of light is to our left right now. Where we stand is a three-dimensional universe, one dimension higher than two-dimensional space.”
“Mn.” Opal nodded along.
Lektor flicked his wrist ever so slightly at an angle and the light spot instantly moved up several hundred meters, landing on the edge of the cliff to their right.
“The light is a projection[7] from a three-dimensional universe onto a two-dimensional plane. I only had to make a tiny move in a higher-dimensional space for the angular velocity to move it several hundred meters in only half a second. Once this projected relation between the two dimensions is successfully established, a mere two centimeters in three-dimensional space can directly result in two hundred meters of movement on the two-dimensional plane.
“Similarly, once a projection from the fifth dimension is established with four-dimensional space, you travelling a kilometer within five-dimensional space would be the same as having travelled several light years in four-dimensional space. This is the principle behind the projection of angular velocity across multidimensions.”
“I get it!” Opal exclaimed promptly.
Lektor grinned as he spoke, “In order to explore our universe, leveraging higher dimensional spaces is a necessity. The principle behind Star Gates is that they let you temporarily enter into the fifth dimension and create a tunnel between two Star Gates. Then, after a short trip, you exit from the corresponding Star Gate, and you and your spaceship might have traversed millions, if not tens of millions of light years in four-dimensional space.
“This theory was put into practice in ancient human civilizations. The day that navigating through the first set of Star Gates was made possible marked the beginning of anno lucem,[8] the Era of Light. The ancestors of humans developed spaceships with jump drive capabilities and began exploring the entire universe and building primitive Star Gates. It led more people to leave Earth to establish interstellar colonies that spread amongst the stars. It is currently the year 20103 AL. The state of human technology, having undergone 20,000 years of development, has finally become what we see today.”
Opal’s widened eyes were illuminated with wonder.
Neither of them spoke. It was a long time before Opal began asking questions again. “If I were to roam through space, would I have to pass through a Star Gate? Where is it?”
“There are ten of thousands of them in the Ignitis system alone,” Lektor answered. “Spaceships all carry IPS[9] devices. Star Gates have created an intricate crisscross network across every galaxy. Once you’ve entered space, you’ll see them everywhere. In fact, there’s one about seven and a half light minutes[10] away from here, but few people seem to use it. Most might not even know about the existence of this portal.
“No specific procedures are required to enter into or exit from Star Gates. But if you wish to land on any planet with a developed civilization, then you’ll need a special travel pass in order to cross its outer atmospheric space station. Travelling in space is extremely difficult without these passes.”
Opal let out a gentle sigh and let his eyes fall shut. The wind has grown chilly into the night. After a while, he began to doze off unwittingly.
Lektor didn’t tell him to go back to his hut today. Instead, he lifted him up and carried him into his dwelling in the cave, where the nuclear reactor cast a tender, orange glow.
Translator’s Notes:
Ivory Crescent 
wow.. great work translating all those scientific terms! Must have took a lot of research
Definitely a lot of information dumped upon us this chapter, gives me a lot to think about XD
Thanks for translating! looking forward to seeing how the story will develop ❤
Lektor is a good teacher. His explanations are simple and easy to understand. And Opal is a willing student, after all.
What kind of fate awaits to these mineros when the mine is depleted, I Wonder. Nothing good, I guess.
Thanks for the chapter!
Wow, I’m dumb when it comes to physics but Lector’s way of explaining is easy to understand.
And you have my utmost respect translating this!! Thank you!
You’ve work hard to translate this chapter. I really appreciated it. Really, I am. (It’s me that being dumb for not be able to capture the lesson from the start 🙃)
Thank you for your interest in this translation, and for dropping by and leaving a comment 🥰. If there is anything in the translation that is unclear please don’t hesitate to let us know!! We’re always happy to retranslate/reword/edit things to make it more easily readable to our readers 💖💖💖
I really love the world building going into this story. Excellent job on the translation and translation notes btw! ❤️
AKLDF;LAKJDFLAKDJSF AHHH thank you for your kind words Cy!! 🥺💖 I hope you enjoy the rest of this story 💞
I really am enjoying this so far! 😍 You’ve really managed to capture a sci-fi/fantasy feel to the story with the way you’ve translated names and the overall feel. Thank you so much! 😘 (After reading Can Ci Pin, I am suddenly in the mood for more good sci-fi!)