Time passed. I didn't know how long I had been here. Maybe Hours? But it didn't matter. Because on those shelves – in these books, magazines, data carriers and hologram archives – was the greatest truth I had ever found. And she was... inconceivable.
I was just leafing through an old, digital archive, which in a translated menu simply reads.
"The History of the Federation – Origin and History of the United Federation of Planets"
I paused.„Star Trek. Das... ist unmöglich.“
//Star Trek. That... is impossible//
And yet it was.
Databases, maps, biographies, starship classes, political structures, agreements with various governments. It was all there, but not as a fantasy, but as a historical record. I swallowed dry as I skimmed over the next entries. Nothing was quoted, nothing was told, but reported. As if it had really happened. And that was not the only discovery. Before that, I had leafed through old books with titles like:
"Memoirs of Kirito and Asuna"
"Chronicle of the Jedi Order"
"Report from the Apocalypse: The Umbrella Corporation"
"The Search of the Rings – Real Historical Analysis"
Area 11 – How the Japanese survived the Holy Britannian Empire?"
I had gained the realization, that Fiction, has become the new Reality. How, when or why? Nothing about that was written here. Well, at least I could not find out anything about it until now. Maybe it was a singularity, a cosmic event? A power that existed beyond space, time or logic!? I leaned back. My fingers rested on the edge of another book. The world I entered was not only foreign. It was a mosaic of what we humans had created. From our Imagination. From dreams. Out of fears, hope. And now it was up to me to understand how far this new universe reaches.
Maybe after the tenth book or the hundredth article, I started to Accept it.
This world. This reality. As strange as it is, I had stopped fighting it. Because what was once Fantasy I could now touch. And all this felt more real than anything I had ever experienced on earth. I got up from the reading table, stretched briefly, and began to roam the library with a new look. No longer as a stranger, but as someone who was willing to understand.
My gaze fell on a round area in the middle of the hall – separated by a kind of transparent energy band. I stepped through. In the middle stood a table that slowly stands out. Elegant, dark, shiny. A hologram table, but not just an. As I approached, it came to life. A blue light flashed through the room – and then appeared: outer space. Not just a symbolic image. It was a dynamic, interactive star map. Solar systems, nebulae, rings, red dwarfs, stars. I waved the display, and my breath caught in my throat. It showed tens of thousands of Galaxies, each of them was recorded in detail. Spiral shapes, elliptical structures, pebble clusters – each with names, dates, information that could be retrieved via a complex system of symbols. I stood there as if petrified, but it got even better. I enlarged the scale – and the representation retreated further. And further, and further. Until I saw it: The universe. A network of galaxy clusters. In between: connecting lines with portals. I saw colored markers, smart filters, timelines, dimension levels. This was not a map but a tool. A navigation interface for a multidimensional universe.
I leaned on the table. And whispered."What... is this actually here?"
//Was... ist das hier eigentlich?//
I stared at the gigantic web of Stars, Galaxies, Universes and cosmic structures that stretched in front of me above the hologram table. It was overwhelming, but I wanted to understand it. I had to understand it. Slowly, almost carefully, I put my hand on the surface. The hologram layer reacted – a slight vibration, a short glow. A user interface opened up in the air – strange characters, but also some familiar elements: magnifying glass symbols, directional arrows, scale controls.
I navigated through the map.„Okay... Schritt für Schritt.“
//Okay... Step by step//
Galaxy by galaxy. At first, I groped rather blindly through the vastness – I zoomed in, zoomed out, lost myself again and again in the infinite structures. But the longer I worked with it, the more intuitive it became. The system learned with me. The more I searched, the better it responded. I tried entered a destination, with hesitation.
I whisper.„Milchstraße. Irgendwo muss sie ja sein... “
//Milky Way. It must be somewhere... //
I continued. The search may have lasted hours, I lost track of time – immersed in a cosmic puzzle that slowly began to fall into place. And then... a quiet ping. A light flashed. A spiral arm appeared. A marker sat down. And there it was: The Milky Way. My galaxy. I stared at the name as if I were seeing an old friend again.
I whispered."Hello, Milky Way... "
A strange feeling came over me – relief.
Nostalgia. But also: a new question. When she's here... what about the Earth? I was still moving, my gaze gliding over the galaxy as if I were rediscovering an old map.
Then... I hesitated. I raised my hand, glided the cursor over the system – and typed. Three letters://SOL//
A tiny search box appeared, and for a moment there was nothing. Then... Movement. Slowly, almost reverently, the map began to zoom. Star after star flew past me, arms of the galaxy turned until the image stabilized – and there it was. Sol. Our Star system. A luminous dot surrounded by tiny markings. I recognized her. Familiar. Calming. Genuine. A smile crossed my face.
I murmured softly.„Na endlich.“
//Finally//
I zoomed in further, to look at Sun. She seemed... Golden, as I knew them it. And yet – something was different. The longer I looked at her, the more it gnawed at me. Bigger than before? A little... Intense? Not directly dangerous – but strange. I activated an information display, had the data displayed to me. Diameter. Mass. Activity. The values seemed familiar – but slightly... postponed. No dramatic change, but: It was no longer exactly the same sun. Or... perhaps it was her. But in a world where fiction had become reality, could I even be sure that my sun was still the same? Or better, is this my Sol? My Milky Way!?
I stayed with the sun for a moment. She shone calmly in the center of the system – warm, golden, as I knew her. But I wasn't done yet. I wanted to go home.
Hesitantly, I opened the search field again and typed.//Earth//
A loading bar appeared. It dragged on... slow... agonizingly slow. I frowned.
I then shouted loudly into the empty room.„Was soll das!?“
//What going on!?//
I typed again, but no reaction. Frustrated, I ended the search and switched to manual control. I zoomed a little bit out of the Sol system, looked at the well-known planetary orbits: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. I counted inwardly because I knew where she had to be. Between Venus and Mars. I pulled up the map, rotated it, searched again. There was... nothing. No marking, no designation, no orbit. No earth, not even the Moon.
I blinked. Stared at the blank space.„...was... ?“
//...what... ?//
I kept looking, searching in sub-entries, data points, alternate views, but Nothing. No hints, no symbols, not even a single pixel pointing at her. The Earth... was not there. An ice-cold shiver ran down my spine. Destroyed? Unrecorded? Simply... obliterated, or... forgotten? I took a step back from the table. My breathing went faster.
I stared into the projection.„Das... das kann nicht sein.“
//That... that can't be.//
A reality full of fictions where DIFFERENT EARTHS have become real. And my own earth... is gone. I just stood there for a whole minute. Motionless. The place where the earth should have been was empty – as if it had never existed.
Then I shook my head.„Nein.“
//No//
I approached the terminal with determination. „So einfach gebe ich mich nicht geschlagen.“ //I won't give up that easily//
Reopened the search. This time I disabled the automatic system filtering. No reference to the known structure, no data consistency.
Just the word.//Earth//
And there it is. One hit, a quiet ping. My heart skipped a beat. I walked slowly towards the hologram, my pulse rising with every step. Then – ping. A second hit.
I muttered cautiously. "Oookaaayy... "Then – another. And another. The hits began to multiply. First every minute, then faster. Ten per second, a new Earth every two seconds. Then per second, an endless stream. Planets, all with the name Earth.
I slowly backed away. The hologram table flashed, beeped, vibrated, overflowing with markers that overlapped. An earth here, one there, another and another. I stared at the chaos, to which a single thought broke through the noise in my head. Not a question, not a emotion. Just this one, naked word. Like a crack in my mind that slowly but inevitably opened.
„Was... ?“