As computer technology increased, the motion of every quantum particle and wave were detected and calculated such that it became possible to run perfectly accurate simulations of the universe so that any event in the past or future, no matter how spatially or temporally distant, could be viewed.
Distances became squashed and time became ambiguous. Every secret became known. Every mystery had been solved.
…
“You ever hear of Voyager?”
“Ancient probe… Yeah.”
“Watch.”
A hologram as solid as any real surface materialized, showing the Milky Way in a much more primitive state. A tiny mote of light appeared within the starry disk, brighter than any other single point, and the pair watched as the galaxy spun and the point of light oscillated above and below the disk.
After roughly three full galactic rotations the image slowed and zoomed in to the point of light, which grew larger and larger until it took the shape of the ancient probe. The hologram followed its path as it whizzed through space before being captured in the gravity well of a bright red star, orbiting it for a few million years, then crashing into the fifth planet from this stellar giant.
“So that’s where it went.” The second voice stated. “Interesting.”
“Yes… A planet that the natives referred to as Vee.”
“So it was inhabited?”
“Yes. At the time, Vee’s civilizations were undergoing an agrarian renaissance.”
The hologram zoomed in further. The probe grew in size until its physical features were far more obvious. Its body was rusted and twisted and had been pockmarked by countless micro meteors, and a large chunk of one of its corners was missing, but the gold disk adorning it was still mostly intact.
The probe briefly caught fire as it entered Vee’s atmosphere, then crashed into a forest of large mushroom-looking plants. The ensuing racket drew the attention of three nearby creatures that vaguely resembled praying mantises, who journeyed through the forest and to the edge of the newly formed crater. Even under the swirling green clouds that choked their sky, even in the faded light of the mushroom forest, even in the dimmer light of Vee’s native star, the glint of gold was obvious.
The trio took the probe and carried it to a nearby village. The villagers were enamored.
“Let’s move ahead.” The first voice said.
The hologram sped forward. The golden disk was carried to a larger village, then from there it made its way to a massive palace. The three who discovered it instantly became contentious figures, and their lives were quickly cut short. Due to the accumulation of cosmic rays over the past billion+ years, the disk’s high radiation count led to the death of one of them. The other two had grown quite sickly from the plate’s unseen poison, but because of the controversy they helped create, they were assassinated before biological degradation could claim them as well.
Death also claimed those in the villages and palace who had gotten too close to the disk. The item was thought to be a curse from some supernatural force and was ultimately locked away, but not before news of the object was carried to other villages.
Stories and myths formed. The golden disk… The golden disk… The disk that judges… The disk that came from the stars, and turns the worthy into stars as well.
Visitors journeyed to the burial plots of the trio who discovered the probe, the amount growing in number year after year… These three Finders of the Disk were seen as holy. Their graves were opened by unscrupulous opportunists, and their remains carted off. Pieces of them were distributed to others. Some were sold. Some were destroyed. Some were recovered by the newly formed Keepers of the Disk, who built large temples to display these remains, which themselves were heralded as being nearly as sacred as the Disk itself.
By this time, so many back deals and shadowy exchanges and silent agreements had taken place that the location of the Golden Disk itself had been lost to history. It was dangerous, of course, but it was still a precious treasure that many attempted to recover.
Everyone knew it had been buried…
…Or perhaps it had been locked in a vault…
…Or perhaps it had been encased in a statue?
Copies of the disk had been made, and for the most part these were said to be just as holy as the original. They did not carry the same celestial judgment, but in the absence of the First Disk, they were thought to be decent replacements.
Art was created, inspired by the golden Disk.
Education became common in order to better understand the Disk.
Scientific endeavors became the norm in the hopes that more mysteries of the Disk could be gleaned.
“We accidentally caused their civilization to advance far faster than it might have.” The second voice said, watching the hologram in wonder.
“Yes.” The first agreed.
The pair understood the implications. Uncontrolled advancement, without exception, was a danger to those who hadn’t earned it through their own slow development. Social evolution needed to progress at the same rate as technological evolution, otherwise a civilization would quickly gain the ability to destroy itself before understanding that it shouldn’t.
The pair watched as the generations passed. Fractures formed and mended in the alien society, though with each new fracture, the weaponry and devastation grew in magnitude. Finally the last fracture formed, and a lab-created bio-virus swept through the populace and killed all it met. Those who had avoided it were too far separated from one another to reforge society, or even mate, and the mantis creatures quickly vanished for good.
Their temples gazed upon an empty world.
Winds swept across the silent fields.
The bright red star shone upon apathetic forests.
The hologram increased in speed. Days passed…Then years…Then eons.
The star grew in intensity and baked the planet. The atmosphere was stripped away, and the surface sterilized. After millions of years of this treatment the star mercifully receded into a white dwarf, leaving the planet of the mantises nothing more than a dead ball of ice and dust.
“The gold disk is still there.” The first voice said. “Seems it’s just four-hundred and two feet beneath the surface.”
“You want to go get it?”
“Yeah… Could be a fun way to spend an afternoon.”
“Alright. Let’s go.”
The pair teleported from the space station.