I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.

I was born in 12.046 G.E. (Galactic Era), on the planet Terminus, somewhere on the outer rings of our Galaxy. My planet was one of the millions that formed the Galactic Empire. It was a small planet, and our Sun was a G4 class star that shined with an orange light over the desert lands of Terminus. Nearly 2 billion people lived on the planet at that time. The Empire was a quiet and peaceful place, too peaceful in my opinion.

It’s been 32 years since then, but the situation of the Empire remained unchanged. There hasn’t been any war for almost 300 years. The Empire had spread with help of raw strength and knowledge for nearly 10.000 years. Wars were common for our ancestors, as there wasn’t a moment when at least one planet would try and fight the Empire, in order to gain its independence. But in the last 300 years, no other planet had opposed the Empire, in order to stop it from its expansion. The Empire seemed satisfied with the current situation, as there had been no riots or wars during the last three centuries. The Planetary Unions were now joining the Empire peacefully, thus gaining an economic power greater than ever before…

But there was another thing, something that had been obsessing me for a long time… the problem of the origin of our race. As there was no other form of intelligent life in the Galaxy (and we had searched all of it), it was hard to believe that human-form organisms had evolved on different planets in such a similar way, thus many people accepted that life originated form one planet, also known as The First One. From that planet, the human race had spread all over the Galaxy, expanding its dominion and it’s knowledge everywhere. But there were no historic documents that spoke of The First One. They must have probably vanished in some of the wars humanity had fought over the centuries. There were only legends and myths that spoke of a distant planet, known as Earth.

And that is what I wanted to discover – Earth. Many others had tried, but they failed. That was no reason for me to abandon my search. But where would I start? What was the first thing to do? Then I thought: “Trantor”. That was it! Trantor – the capital of the Empire, situated almost at the core of the Galaxy, was the place from where the Empire was ruled. And that’s where I decided to go…

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it. It looked like a huge metal sphere, floating in the void. The planet consisted in fact of a huge city covering its entire surface. Thousands of spaceports waited outside its borders for the visitors to come and go as they pleased. I eventually landed and so I decided to walk for a little while and study the planet.

It was a great computer-controlled environment. The whole planet was covered in metal, so its inhabitants could never see natural daylight. The computer controlled everything, even the light. The light’s intensity increased and decreased periodically, in order to simulate a day-night cycle. It wasn’t too bright or too dark, it was just fine… the air was filtered at every moment and there were small flying probes everywhere, in order for the computer to know the current temperature, pressure and wind speed all over the place, and to adjust it according to the human needs.

Its inhabitants lived in great underground vaults, where all the activity on the planet actually was. The surface was only a tiny part of the buildings, streets and life on Trantor. Everybody was very pleased with his own life life, as there were no social gaps between the citizens. Of course, that was not the case of the Emperor and its Elite Guard, but the Emperor was also the most powerful person in the Galaxy.

The food for all the inhabitants was provided daily from more than 20 farming planets, which came with huge transport ships from the nearest stars. This way, the food processing industry on the planet was almost inexistent. Trantor only provided workplace for some of the greatest minds of the Galaxy, as this was the place where all the great Universities were, and it was also the residing place of…

The Galactic Library. This was the main reason for which I had come here in the first place. This was the place where all the knowledge of humanity was stored. History, science and astronomy – everything you would ever search was here. And I hoped I could also find information about the Earth…

I was heading towards the Galactic Library when I heard the news… The computer made sure that all those who were interested could hear it. It said that a wormhole that had suddenly appeared near the solar system of Kalgan provided us a strange visitor that claimed to come from another period in time. The “visitor” was human and his language was an ancient dialect of our Standard Galactic Language. I didn’t really pay attention to the news at first, but as I was heading towards the Library, strange thoughts passed through my mind. If that “visitor” has come from the past, would he know something about The First One? I felt I had to see him. But how?!…

While looking at the old documents in the Galactic Library, I was still thinking at a way to contact the “visitor” directly. I was reading one of the legends about The First One, when suddenly, I shouted: “I know! I know where Earth is!! I found it!!!” All the people around me started asking me questions about it, where it was, how I had discovered it… One of the people present said, “The Emperor must know this! Take him to the Emperor…”

The next thing I know is that I was standing in front of the Emperor of the Galactic Empire. We were in a huge round room, with twelve columns sustaining the ceiling. The Emperor was standing in front of me, and several guards were waiting near the door.
“So, you’re the one who claims to have discovered The First One…” he said.

“Yes, Emperor!” I replied.

“Well, would you be so kind to share your knowledge with us?”

“I’m afraid that is not possible, Emperor”

“What do you mean?!” he said angrily.

“I don’t know the exact location, but I know how we can find it, Emperor…”

“And how is that?”

“I believe you have heard the news about the strange visitor that came through the wormhole near Kalgan.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well, I think he may know where Earth is. But I must have your permission to talk to him, Emperor…”

“If you think that you can find The First One, then you have my approval to take whatever actions you find necessary…”

“Thank you, Emperor…”

I left the room, satisfied that my plan worked, and that now I had the Emperor’s approval to go and speak to the “visitor”. So that’s what I did. I got on the first ship out and left for Kalgan.

Kalgan’s sun was slightly smaller than Trantor’s, but it was brighter. The rotation period of Kalgan was 22.3 Standard Galactic days. It wasn’t covered in metal, as Trantor was, and there was no computer-controlled atmosphere. The climate was slightly gentle than the one on Terminus, as it was closer to its star.

The people there didn’t live in luxury, as the ones on Trantor, but Kalgan was not a poor planet, as it had considerable resources of minerals that it exported. Anyone could afford a house, the basic family jet-vehicle and a decent life. The number of inhabitants was not much bigger than the one on Terminus, but it wasn’t passing 3 billion. Compared to the 57 billion people that lived on Trantor, one could say that the planet had a relatively small number of inhabitants.

I marveled at the beauty of the planet, as I saw it from space. The cities – massive urban crowds – could be easily noticed. They appeared as small, gray spots on the surface of the planet. The dark side of the planet was also magnificent. There, the cities appeared as small gatherings of light, twinkling in the night. I landed on the planet and asked to speak to the local Governor.

The Governor didn’t ask too many questions, as I was carrying the written approval of the Emperor to see the “visitor”, so I was taken to him immediately.

I asked for a translator, as the dialect he spoke was too old for me to understand. After a few hours of talking to him, I found out that he came from a time well before the Galactic Era. And as we were in 12.078 G.E., that was a lot of time. He spoke of only one world, and he called it Terra. He said that they only had the knowledge of one solar system – their own. He also said that a wormhole suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and so three people were sent through it to investigate. Unfortunately, he was the only survivor…I then went and took a look at the spaceship that carried him all the way here. It was a very primitive one. It was still working on internal combustion.

We hadn’t used internal combustion for over 10.000 years. It was obvious they had no knowledge of the hyperspace, thus their mobility was strictly limited to the speed of light. Then it suddenly dawned on me: if the wormhole was a connection to the Earth, as it was over 10.000 years ago, we could travel through it and find its exact location. Survival was no longer a problem, as our technology was far more advanced than theirs, so it was only a matter of will. Who would dare travel through the wormhole and go to a world so ancient that documents don’t even remember it? Then I suddenly realized I knew a person who could do this: ME!…

The next morning, the “visitor” and I were on a spaceship, getting ready to go through the wormhole. We took all the necessary precaution measures, and off we went…

What followed is something I think nobody can describe. Light and darkness, color, stars moving at amazing speeds, planets and asteroids – they were all moving, as the Galaxy itself was moving. It was moving back in time, and we were moving along with it…

Then it suddenly all stopped, as if it never was. We were drifting in space again, like we did before we entered the wormhole. I could see a white-blue planet, not too far from us. It was just amazing. I was looking at the planet where life emerged for the first time, the planet where humanity first appeared, the planet that was the origin of all humanity as I knew it, I was looking at Earth…

I was gazing at the wonderful thing that lay before me, when the computer announced the imminent closure of the wormhole. Before I could do anything, it was gone. I just stood there, with no other means to go back to my world…

So, here I am! – But that’s another story…