Starry Night

The first interplanetary colonization efforts were in motion.  Rapid technological progress had erupted in the last few months after a renaissance of thought, the likes of which had never been seen.  The rapid pace of advancement had fortunately dissuaded mankind from sending anyone via colony ship, as had originally been planned since, with such rapid advancement, everyone was now well aware that such a trip would be destined to arrive at a planet that had been long since inhabited by humans who had teleported there, in the near future in Earth terms, but from the arriving ship's perspective the civilization would have been in place many years already.  Rather than doom these first colonists to being the last to the party that was galactic colonization, they opted to delay the efforts slightly while portals and wormholes were perfected, which hardly took any time at all.  Now the first colonists were in position to take that trip to a planet that was found to be habitable based on more precise measurements of light and heat readings, augmented by a new kind of detection.  The precise position of the planet and general evolution of the bio-dome could also be calculated with accuracy, and so they had found one in the vicinity of the Orion nebula, in order to satisfy a kind of ancient desire and hope of mankind, with the very first trip.  The colonists would be sent with materials to craft their own return portal, but such an endeavor would take months with limited supplies, and so in as much as there were risks these days, this was definitely one.

The colonists prepared to enter the portal, supplies in tow. There was a massive line, thousands of colonists long, each with their own supplies.  The world would be raw, and the colonists knew they could not expect what kind of animals might be living there, so stun guns of all kinds were brought, in addition to food replicators and the like.  The Governor of Orion Prime stepped through first with his guards- a brief swirling surrounded him.  He knew to expect this sensation from the practice jumps on Earth, but what he did not realize is that the time spent on this journey would be virtually the same length regardless of the distance traveled.  A moment later he emerged, guards with stun guns aimed in precaution, and then they all dropped their aim and stood mouths agape.  They found themselves in what looked to be a mix between a concert hall and a museum, with posters and statues lining the walls all around them, of themselves preparing for the mission.  The Governor walked up to a particular animated poster of him getting sworn in back on Earth, and was trying to wrap his mind around it, when a voice came over some kind of loud speaker. "Time travel."  Guns went back up, everyone still nervous in their confusion, but the soft female voice sounded clearly human and spoke in their native tongue.  "You failed to account for time travel."

The Governor considered this for a second, and then motioned for them to lower their guns. A moment later a beautiful woman who appeared to be about 30 walked into the room from around a bend, with a friendly smile.  "We've been expecting you for some time, Governor."  She walked up and shook his hand, she was dressed in a stately fashion, politely muting what would have likely otherwise been beauty to a distracting degree. "You must have questions."  He nodded, starting to gain some idea of what had happened, just enough to trust that his senses were not playing a trick on him, and willing to hear this woman out about the specifics.

"Within 5 years of you teleporting to this planet, humanity developed time travel and we truly spread to the stars.  Only a few missions such as yours had been sent before we realized we must have truly unlocked the capability.  At first we were concerned the missions had failed somehow, as no return portals were being built.  Then we tested a portal on Mars and found the same thing you must have- the time spent in transit was nearly identical, but not precisely identical, regardless of the length of the trip.  Our scientists began working out why, and quickly determined time travel would be possible after the same fashion. We had discovered what they sought at Babel: the 'portal to God' or at least a domain outside of time and space, where we soon found that a simple redirection could place one anywhere in time, as well as space.  God, this time, seemed quite excited to aid us in our endeavors, and soon we realized it would not be just us traveling, but countless new species of humanoids and fanciful things, all stemming from the DNA found in life already on our planet.  In good faith we sent seeded life, augmented by a divine signal for multiplication, to the far reaches of a universe we had come to know was not dead, but had not yet been brought to life. Humanity has been a single germinating seed in fertile soil, yeast in the dough.  As soon as each of these first seeds went out, a new visitor would arrive, having traveled back to us by their own means, in order to thank us for the genesis of their world.  It was a wonderful time indeed.  Whole star systems began blooming in front of our eyes, as new lights began shining and new signals were received. These beacons indicated that not only had we started the intended seeding of the new beginning, but that seeding every star would not be solely our responsibility either- each beginning was initiating several of its own as well.  This first species indicated that they knew of others, but could not share any details, as this next phase of human development was fundamental to all life now known in the universe.  They even explained that these others, like us, made sure to only go back so far as to be undetectable by past humans, so as not to interfere with human development, or their own genesis.  As copies of copies sometimes do, and troublesome children sometimes are, there were some that tried to break this covenant, feeling they could alter their position in the natural order of things, but the angels acted as the final arbiters in such matters, ensuring no edits were made to this timeline for earth, from beginning to new beginning, until it was finished.  The warring factions of the stars kept most attempts from getting this far though, and only a few bold and forgiving species were granted any access at all to observe and assist up close as humanity reached its final hours before emerging."

The Governor had no idea how to respond.  His men stood, with mouths still wide open, as aliens of numerous kinds walked into the room to shyly wave while their visitors were still getting their bearings.  The Governor simply said "Go on."

"You came expecting a struggle, I hope you do not find yourself too disappointed to find that it has been finished for you.  You have essentially shown up on the other side of an awesome precipice, on a planet that has been expecting your arrival for over 1,000 years.  The adventure is not over however, in fact, far from.  There are more uncharted planets teeming with life now than you could have possibly imagined when you stepped through that portal.  I call you Governor because another planet has been prepared for your intrepid band, should you decide to journey onward to it.  We could have just redirected you there with the technology we have now, but we felt you would appreciate knowing that your bold first steps are what led us to this point, and that if you did decide to go onward, you should be comforted and emboldened by the knowledge that you are establishing your own world in a vast sea of others, and that your descendants will quite soon join the stars when they are ready, on their own terms, as welcome additions, and honored guests wherever they chose to travel that can still remember the original history of Earth, seeded in the middle of all time and space."

He remained silent for a minute, still considering the weight of these words, admittedly more excited than when he first stepped into a museum conspicuously dedicated to his own recent history.  "Now, if your ancestors come from my future, you would already know what I decide to do here, would you not?"

She smiles with a slight look of knowing.  "It is true in this case. In fact it was I, and not my ancestors, who was there myself; but just because I know does not mean you will find out from me.  Time travel, at least in its initial form, was delicate to say the least, and you are one of the last from that opening birth of it.  I must admit to a bit of marvel here, I thought this conversation would feel much more scripted than it does for me, but it seems the natural instinct to revere the past was not only solid on behalf of all the species that came from this beginning, but also natural and required.  Essentially when you decide what to do, you will have exited the bubble, and the universe will once more be fresh and new.  Savor the experience Governor, this will be the first and last conversation where you know that the one you speak with knows more about your future than you do, but it likely is not the first time it has happened.  You see, time travel has since been partitioned into a kind of supremacy position in the cosmos.  Some species speak of an intermediate time where this was not the case, and epic wars were fought to erase whole timelines from existence in one fashion or another, until a victor was determined and a single timeline was once more reset to and established.  This timeline, necessarily, is still navigated by a select few who are aligned to keeping it as pristine and as good as possible. The changes they make are either undone by the others that also patrol the timeline, if made unintentionally, or considered canon if they were made intentionally. Either way, it is unlikely you will ever even notice, given the repercussions of making changes on such a level.  Below that there are many sanctioned uses for it, primarily for colonization and observation.  Suffice to say, this control remains firmly in the hands of God, and is managed by a select few of mankind, the originators and inspiration of the technology.  The rumors are that much of the wars fought were more to prove to those fighting that this was the one and only way it could be done, given life's origins, and that God was patient enough to let these struggles play out before revealing that this original timeline was the one intended and established from the start."

He smiled, now relaxed into the idea of this reality, so novel yet so logical at the same time.  "I think personally I would like to see the sky erupt, in those days, as the lights were coming on amidst the stars and humanity took in the full view of what they had been blessed to do."

She smiled once more with a bit of a blush. "I thought you might say that, the ship has been prepared." 

"Haha, yeah, I bet you did."  They walked to the portal, now fitted to travel along with the travelers, as the rest of the colonists busied themselves with merrymaking. It was a quite different reception than what they had anticipated for their first day on Orion Prime."

The two of them arrived at Canyonlands National Park, Utah, at dusk.  A single fire could be seen in the distance, as darkness was already covering the land.  "All you'll need to do is walk back into the portal when you're done."

"You're not coming back?"

"Oh no, my place is here." She pointed at the fire off in the distance.  "I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors on New Orion Prime, Governor."  She gave a bit of a telling wink, indicating that she already knew he had decided to press on.  He gave a smile that faded to joy and thanked her before she walked with a unearthly grace into the night, taking off her suit jacket as she did and shoving it into the bag that she carried, before pulling out a big coat and fading from view.  He noticed a chair had been set up for him, and he sat with his back to the portal, which was now dark, with a slight and comfortable hum to it.  A few minutes later the fire in the distance was doused and he sat in the enveloping darkness gazing up at the night sky.  He considered the stars and what all they now might contain, just moments from their inhabited nature being revealed, as humans elsewhere were preparing to seed the portals to the farthest reaches.  Some visible stars were 10,000+ light years away, he could hardly fathom what it would be like to meet a species from those worlds, with a history so rich already.  There would be time aplenty though, and he had always felt his place was establishing a world of his own, now farther from home than he could have first dreamt, but even more well suited than his original destination for the needs of his colony and their descendants.  He paused for a moment, and wondered when he might see something and what it might be.  With perfect timing, what looked like the Starry Night painting by Van Gogh flashed throughout the sky.  Brilliant colors emanated from all quadrants, like a familiar and unmistakable fireworks display, the likes of which had never been seen before and, for all he knew, would never be seen again.  The descendants of Earth had been preparing for this in some cases for millennia now, perfectly timing their own individual contributions to be lined up at this precise moment; they wanted to make sure the Earth was welcomed properly to the universe it had seeded. 

The display lasted for several minutes, until fading back into the night.  As one skilled in astronomy he could tell there were more points of light than before, some that seemed to alternate between light and dark differently than the stars themselves.  These must have been the beacons spoken of, lighting the way to friendly systems, in between the stars.  He looked forward to lighting his own beacon one day, in the far reaches of space, as he returned to the portal and Orion Prime, ready to be led to his new home.