The novel is forthcoming:

The novel is forthcoming:

Before the beginning there were no voids. The dimensions were easily traversed. However there was no one, nothing to traverse them. All appeared to be perfect. A silent infinity. Not even the gods could say what happened next. Only that it did. Something did. A flaw perhaps. Two dimensions collided is another possibility. Then it happened. Billions of years before what humanity called the Big Bang, a cataclysmic explosion in the silence erupted. All that was perfect became flawed. The perfect order of what had existed for over a trillion years was irreparably altered. Things appeared. Energy. Matter.

It coalesced into irregular masses. Gravity discovered itself. Matter was attracted to other matter. In coming together in a dimensional need for closeness, the matter collided, grew, separated and collided again. In all that, something appeared. Warmth. Then light. The matter congealed into larger and larger masses. Whirling free like dancers on an open stage, it drew forth substance to that which had no name, not a void, but a universe. For so many billions of years this dance of chemicals and elements continued. Molecules created themselves. The first star was born. The light shedding any semblance of humility as it broadcast its radiance for the first time. Shadows appeared where there had been eternal dark.

Or was it the first time. Even the gods don’t know. Some don’t care. Others investigated but could not explore beyond that first singular flaw. All they knew was eventually the molecules themselves became part of the larger substance. The stars grew, other substances became dust, planets, dark matter and what was and is the universe. Unwritten history continued in a long long series of nows. On a turbulent planet near a white star, the liquid soup thrashed by vicious tempests mixed ingredients into amino acids, proteins and the first spark of life appeared.

It was theorized that this happened elsewhere, but the god’s history records this planet breaking free from mineral bonds to create the first active organic molecule. Another series of billions of years passed. Plants, animals, minerialians raised themselves up to gaze at the stars. The animals advanced, evolved. Intelligence added a new dimension in what came to be known as ‘life.’ The new dimension was self-awareness.

The first creature looked at its hands, seven-fingered claws that flexed and grasped. It saw its reflection in a pond, touching its face in wonder. Taking a deep inhale, it gazed at the surroundings for the first time. It uttered a tiny hum.

More eons came and vanished into the now that became the past. History was not something that was realized. Present and future concepts were invented and acknowledged.

The creatures developed civilizations, utopias that waxed and waned, populated and diminished, but always advanced. The creatures built vehicles, first to move across their planet, then to fly, then to travel at first to the close planets, then to the stars.

They learned, studied everything, absorbing knowledge with a thirst and hunger that was never quenched or satisfied. They discovered how the building blocks of matter and energy worked. How to manipulate the universe. They learned how to live forever, shedding the material forms for energy. They developed into beings without gender. Beings of incredible capabilities. In this new phase of their existence, they remembered everything. Who they were, the humble origins and the continuing evolutions. They moved from star to planet in an instant, conversed with each other across the astounding expanse of the universe. Exploring the galaxies, the stars and planets and sharing the information.

They were the first gods.

They didn’t think themselves gods. They had no concept of deities. That came after one experimented with energy and matter and created a rift, a bead of existence plucked at the fabric of their reality just beyond the present universe.

A new dimension was created. A new universe was born from that tiny hole beyond what was. The being reveled in its creation, sharing its progeny with the others. A trend began. Dimensions were drafted, each being the creator of its own universe to discover, explore and study.

Some of the beings took delight in their creations, building their own civilizations. Others worked with the mysteries of matter and energy. They found the ability to connect all dimensions with channels. What many billions of years later humans would call worm holes.

Then they discovered a dark truth: possessiveness. Most beings welcomed citizens of their kind as visitors to their universes. Others kept theirs to themselves, jealously guarding their creations. Since the first days of physical life, violence occurred. A war broke out between the beings. Entire universes were destroyed, the work and studies of many eons reduced to the basic elements of matter. Some of the beings themselves were destroyed.

A sorrow came over the dimensions. Word was sent out for all of the beings to convene in the First Universe. They met as an immense globe of light and energy. With much consternation, they established guidelines for themselves and their universes. Permission to gain access to universes not that of a creator being would be required before entry. Those who entered without leave would be subject to banishment. Some of the beings took this as freedom to perpetrate acts of violence to those trespassers. Jealous of their creations, they set vicious traps at the worm holes. Even the newly created emissaries were captured and destroyed. Many of the creator beings drifted apart from the others.

Still others welcomed visitors and extended invitations. The emissaries became a necessity.

Some of the beings would visit other universes, leaving theirs to tend themselves. Freely growing or diminishing, but always in flux. Sometimes they returned quickly, sometimes after long absences, sometimes never.

One of the beings created a universe and became devoted to it. Nurturing and watching, it observed with delight the evolution of life. Inviting others to watch, they marveled at the proliferation of life on the many planets orbiting the many stars.

A neighboring being designed his own universe, one that satisfied his desire to grow and process worlds of creatures. What that being wanted was to be left alone with his creation. She wasn’t malevolent, just desired his own company. She didn’t set any traps, didn’t attend the periodic conventions of creators to share information on his universe or to learn about the others. She just wanted to exist in the existence as he created.

In the neighboring universe, the creator watched the worlds evolve. This deity looked forward to observing their interaction when they began journeying to the stars and planets. She spaced many of the organic worlds apart enough that they would become well developed prior to seeking and finding the others. Other life-birthing worlds were closer together. This allowed the potential of interaction between species. Many of the planets developed plants, but no animated life forms. Some evolved, grew and destroyed themselves. A number possessed a proliferation of life that remained without sentient form, a collection of predators and prey, fauna and grazers on land and in the sea. The other groups developed civilizations. Some mighty. Some modest.

On one planet on the rim of a galaxy, the planet Earth grew and developed. Periodically the creator would visit and observe the progress, record everything then check on neighboring inhabited worlds. These rounds were irregular, sometimes thousands of years passed, sometimes millions. The creator was disappointed when her crop of reptiles all but perished from the impact of an asteroid. The subsequent visit caught her attention when a new breed, the mammals, dominated the planet. The simians had much promise. She observed for many eons then went on her route, like a gardener tending rows of crops.

When the simians developed their own life-energy and awareness, she visited, communicating and learning from them. She appeared in a similar form, partaking in interactions and learning their philosophies and giving them snippets of information regarding their universe. Only enough to tempt them into seeking out more. The inhabitants developed their own theories on the evolution of the universe. So many tribes with so many different theories. The creator delighted in this diversity.

On other worlds, the inhabitants had no theories, on some they were nearly exact on figuring out what had occurred. She wondered what would occur when these different groups met. This gave her, now billions of years old, something to look forward to. For her, time had little meaning. She existed, remembering all that had existed and that was enough.

Other creators were unable to adapt to seemingly eternal life and extinguished themselves, or had gone insane--far worse by her standards. Others, bored, created mischief with neighboring universes, wars, split dimensions that enveloped each other to the mutual destruction or sometimes galaxian collisions ruining billions of years of effort and creations.

On the rim of one of her galaxies, the little planet Earth spun and orbited the single yellow star. The inhabitants continued their lives, progressed and evolved. They made peace, waged wars, created and invented. They journeyed around their planet, to the nearby moon, other planets where they set up colonies in harsh climates.

The Creator of this universe knew someday they would journey to the stars. She would wait and watch. Someday, perhaps, she’d meet them in person in her own form.

The Interstellar Explorer Vessel Rebek began her maiden voyage with much fan faire. Her crew of sixty-eight, composed mostly of scientists and engineers, had the exuberance matching the celebrations of the launch from the space port.