Uru was stammering in embarrassment.

He had indeed memorized most of Conti's theory from repeated reading, but the great scientist himself wasn't sure about the speed of origin – he merely laid the foundations, and mankind only managed to get a glimpse into this mystery once the world stabilized after the flux war and went back on track to building a better future. Uru was thus sifting through his memory, hoping to find a link between the theory and all the knowledge currently available due to technological advancements and state-of-the-art experiments.

After all, Conti's intuition already told him that infinite speed and instant travel were unrealistic and unnatural, so he prepared a few examples pertaining to the consequences of such a reality to give the future generations a starting point for scrutiny. The boy now needed to take each of them and analyze their requirements for providing a confirmation, then see if science had developed the means to satisfy them yet, all the while stalling for time, since he doubted the indignant Dr. Date would just graciously give him a few minutes to think.

Poor Eleanor looked guilty witnessing his predicament, but Uru didn't notice. He was staring at the floor, working hard to recollect all the missing data.

"Well, Mr Uruloki? That's not even a hard question. All applicants to dimensional majors would find it trivial. Or is that not your subject?" the man insisted obstinately, messing up Uru's thoughts and forcing him to talk.

"Alright. Conti first estimated that the speed of origin must be at least billions of times faster than light and despite the lack of evidence supporting an infinite value, there was also no way to disprove it." When Uru realized the strain was making things impossible, he decided to start from the basics and then make his way forward. He took a deep breath and began enumerating the cases.

"Initially, Conti ascertained the spikes of origin energy resulting from the assimilation of spatially unstable dimensions to be responsible for the increasing rate of acceleration of the expanding universe, since he postulated that on the grand scale this rate should be decreasing together with the thinning out of said energy. So if its speed was infinite, the time frame in which its influx offset its dilution within the expanding space would be zero, meaning the speed of expansion would get an occasional bump, but the rate of acceleration itself would invariably diminish. This would conflict with our observations and take away the possibility of explaining them by positive adjustments to origin density. Unfortunately, the expansion processes are not wholly understood even today, so this reasoning cannot be considered a proof," Uru spoke very swiftly. Although he wasn't quoting the theory, he had no trouble summarizing it.

Some faces changed slightly. They were all experts here, and they'd immediately know if someone was reciting from memory. Uru was certainly formulating it all on the fly, and very fluently at that. Though Dr. Date was still seething, Eleanor saw a ray of hope and balled her fists in tensed anticipation, while the rest of the kids were a bit confounded – some of them already treated him as a cheat and were sure he was done for. But Uru didn't wait for anything.

"Furthermore, the temporal shift equation states that the time dilation of a closed-dimensional shift is constrained by the speed of origin and would be infinite if the speed of origin was infinite, suggesting that time would stop in the apparent universe if a group traveled to the past of an isolated and undetermined dimension until it caught up to the present, opening a window for all the returnees to converge in a single location in time and space, no matter their point of departure. It's unclear however, whether this would create a paradox, or simply a cataclysm."

Dr. Date's brow raised a little, and it was spotted. The children looked at each other with uncertainty, while Eleanor cheered on quietly.

"You're nearly there!"

"Then, there's the problem of collapsing dimensions. Since the origin energy is responsible for establishing and binding space, this collapse has to happen at the speed of origin. If it was infinite, that would mean an instant influx of origin energy to the apparent universe. It would just spontaneously emerge, without a flow. Conti speculated, that each collapse corresponds with the creation of a bridge – be it a singularity or a gradual spatial connection – through which the mass previously erased from the universe is replaced by an equal amount of origin energy." Uru was in a trance, he had all the information at his figurative fingertips, and was skillfully juggling it to keep the arguments flowing smoothly, while seeking possible breakthroughs. Regrettably, Dr. Date had enough.

"That's all well and good – I see you've studied a bit, and you're very articulate. But that doesn't negate the fact, that you failed to answer the question, Mr Uruloki," he reminded in a somewhat more cultured manner.

This had a catastrophic result on Uru, whose trail of thought was forcefully derailed. He faltered and tried to get back on track, when an unexpected daredevil intervened – probably the last one on anyone's list.

"If it was infinite, flux detectors wouldn't pick up any signals."

Silence descended, while everyone turned to the brave speaker. It was the tall youth at the 5th circle.

…

"Tell me, Bernard. What do you feel for my Ellie?"

The woman's tone was gentle and soothing. It wasn't actually warm, but nonetheless it stood in stark contrast to the one she regarded him with earlier. It was almost... motherly.

"Are you for real, you damn butcher?! You've just crushed my lungs, and now you expect me to speak?"

The broken archmage didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The first one might hurt, so better not. She was graciously suppressing his nervous system and injuries, allowing him to unwind and breathe easily, but he didn't want to risk it anyway. He was never hurt this badly before, despite having to fight for his life on multiple occasions.

"Ahh, it's so nice being treated by a woman. I could get used to this," he fantasized. It was a wondrous thing – one could climb the tallest mountain and despair endlessly, unable to aim any higher, torn apart by the cold winds, having to always look down and minding not to trip. But if they fell into a dark pit, and someone came along to carry them back into the light, the relief was so blissful. If only he could forget that his current anguish was caused by that evil gorgon …

Her diagnostic tools were far superior to his personal life support skills. He tried not to focus on what she was doing and delved into a relaxing apathy in order to drown out the sounds coming from his body. Though he was a battle hardened man and saw a lot of mutilation, it was still unsettling to have someone move his broken bones about.

"I've asked you a question, young man. Don't pretend to be asleep," she reminded sternly.

Bernard goggled and glared at her as if she was mentally challenged. "What is wrong with you, woman?!" He really wanted to throw this in her face, but he couldn't utter a single word right now. She was also surprised by his reaction, when a realization dawned on her. She was so exasperated that she leaned back and sat down on her heels, before putting her bloodstained hands on her hips.

"Don't tell me you haven't learned the neural interface yet?" She sighed deeply and shook her head. "What do the warlords even write manuals for?" she complained to herself. Poor Bernard was taken aback with embarrassment.

"I've tried, but it's not so easy, okay?!"

There were a lot of pressing matters, and his time was limited. Sure, the ability to talk to the AI through a virtual messenger could prove immensely useful, as brain implants had demonstrated over the centuries, but to people of their stature those became more of a liability as a consequence of cyberwarfare, since talented fluxers were able to remotely manipulate electronic devices at an unprecedented level, so – unless the situation called for it – they usually opted for more conventional audio-video links, which they had more control over. That's why substitute flux structures were developed, but mastering them was arduous, and Bernard had to prioritize.

"Madam Director, is there something I can do?" the domineering man Uru bumped into at the match stepped into the ring and offered.

"Hmm?" The woman glanced at him, and then at the audience. "What are you all still doing here? You've had your fun, now go back to your business," she ordered casually and resumed her work. Everyone exchanged unsure looks, and nobody else was moving, so …

"Do I need to stand up?"

Well that did it. There was no brave one here daring enough to defy such a bloodthirsty monster. They neatly filed out of the stadium in no time at all, and only the male warlord on the stage remained.

"Do you have trouble hearing, or understanding? I meant you as well, in case you didn't get it," she clarified.

"No-no, I merely thought that if there's anything you might need help with–" he attempted to sway her.

"You think I need your assistance, whelp?" she interrupted. Although she spoke in an impartial tone, the accusation was painfully loud.

"I was just–"

"Scram."

And so the humbled powerhouse did. But not before he locked eyes with Bernard, took on a solemn expression, and gave him a double thumbs up. That truly was a glorious fight. Or last stand, rather. Any man could be proud to go out this way. This one however was more than his subordinate, he was a friend, so he hoped Bernard would be fine, and was genuinely scared seeing the extent of the damage. He already experienced how brittle grandmasters could be once he broke through and was forced to teach one a lesson – he nearly killed the unfortunate wretch, because he was convinced the guy was pretending. And the woman was far stronger than him, while Bernard wasn't quite a grandmaster yet.

Finally, they were alone.

After patching up his shattered rib cage and making sure his lungs were functioning properly, the mighty warlord proceeded with her interrogation.

"Now, spill your guts, if you don't want me to do it for you," she demanded threateningly, though it was probably just her sense of humor. Probably …

"Do you really … oh."

Bernard wasn't expecting this at all. His voice was rather hushed, but perfectly distinct. The terrifying woman's skills were certainly up to par.

"What do you … want me to say?" he asked with annoyance. "That I love her? You should know me … by now." His breathing was shallow, so he didn't push himself.

"Oh I do know you, little rascal, that's why I worry. You're lucky to be alive after all those stunts you pulled. You should have died many times over. I'm not afraid about you outliving her, but the other way around," the old matriarch admitted earnestly, and Bernard had to agree that she was correct. Acting on impulse was in his nature, and it put him in dire straits on a regular basis. Whenever he saw something wrong and brute force was an option, he couldn't sit still, he had to get involved. In retrospect, it was often very unwise. He stared at the ceiling for a long time.

"I can't stop … being a man," he eventually declared.

That prompted another vexed sigh out of his caretaker, stopping her yet again. She closed her eyes and drooped her head, but Bernard didn't want to give her a chance to comment, so he continued.

"All I can do … is try to … do right by her." He then looked deeply into the woman's eyes.

"Ehh, men … foolish men …" she kept shaking her head, exhausted, crying to the heavens. "What would we do without you?"

…

Ortiz was standing proudly with folded arms, trying not to exhibit any ostentation, so as not to overdo it. But inside, he was rejoicing. "Ha! What a chance to redeem my face!". The kids around him appeared to finally get it, as if realizing how easy it was.

"Heh, I didn't think there was anything under that thick skull of yours, Baldy. It seems a couple leftover gray cells yet survived!" His sister patted him with unnecessarily solid hits on the back, while addressing him using the hateful nick she invented. Baldomero was always so fond of his name, which stood for brave and famous. It would be shortened to Baldo, omitting the fame and only leaving the bravery behind. It changed, though, when that nasty tease came up with her version, claiming it sounded more English. Naturally, she intended to ridicule him with it, and since he remembered his father's receding hairline before the treatment, he was very much afraid of it happening to his beautiful hair in the near future, and thus resented his sister whenever she called him that. And yet now, amazingly, he didn't mind. The previously humiliated youngster was grateful for an opportunity to benefit from someone else's downfall. However …

… Uru merely gaped at him like he saw an idiot, and scanned the crowd in search of salvation.

"Is that so, Mr Ortiz?" Dr. Date asked neutrally. Uru ignored him, and just kept surveying the other teens pleadingly, turning to the girls in the end.

"Seriously? Nobody?". His tone was desperate by this point.

"Ehm, flux detectors measure the flow of origin energy, not signals or pulses …" Steffi Hartmann was the first one to risk it.

"Thank you!" Uru gratified her with an embellished gesture, expressing his utter relief.

Baldomero was evidently angered by this development. That little punk was shamelessly tarnishing his already ruined reputation! Plus, he didn't believe he was wrong.

"If the speed was infinite, there would be no flow to sense!" he added with a scowl. How was this not obvious?!

Uru sighed sympathetically.

"The flow would still be very much the same, because origin isn't a fundamental particle in the quantum sense, it doesn't leap or jump, but is present in the space it defines, therefore its propagation is fluent. If it wasn't, then even if it was slightly faster than the speed of light, which also stands for the speed of causality, registering the flow would be impossible," he clarified mercifully, which fortuitously jogged his memory. "Oh! Of course! The sinkhole effect!" he shouted excitedly, to which Dr. Date now raised both brows. The consternation was real, and Eleanor was taken aback as well, while the miserable Baldomero no longer knew what to say and just stood there with an open mouth and jammed brain.

"If space got punctured in a way that origin energy flowed through the opening endlessly and its speed was infinite, then the pressure on both sides would instantly equalize. Otherwise, it would pour at a rate determined by the difference in pressure on both sides, and its speed would limit the amount of origin around the hole. And because origin has no spatial quantity or mass, can be compressed without limit and flow through tiny holes just as fast as through large ones, the outcome would be an initially exponential increase to the volume of the flow, until it was offset by the drop in pressure or – more realistically – until the other space filled up. Experiments with superbly stable and calibrated cores have shown the charging rate to rise logarithmically over time. Although the changes are infinitesimal, they more or less correspond to the useful receptiveness of the given cores, agreeing with the premise," Uru explained victoriously in only a few breaths, to Eleanor's soundless clapping and puzzled faces of the remaining adults.

Dr. Date seemed surprisingly appeased.

"Yes, that's–"

"Oh, and moreover! Density of origin practically wouldn't matter for the purposes of ambient regeneration if its speed was infinite, as long as the examined values don't go below the effective receptiveness of the vessel in question – which even for the most extreme cases would mean a concentration so thin, it would be almost nonexistent compared to the present. There would continuously be a sufficient amount of origin within the perception range to grasp and summon at any given time. In other words, restoring energy would be effortless, since pulling it would not cause any resistance. Which is not true – one needs to 'tug' at the energy around them, thus exerting a negative pressure on it, and it was proven, that environments with increased origin density significantly lessen the amount of 'sucking' force required when recovering," the boy finished just as rapidly, not allowing any interjections.

It was Dr. Date's turn to sigh.

"That's a very roundabout way to solve a simple problem, but I have to admit, that it's acceptable." The man's outrage no longer showed, while the other scientists nodded in satisfaction. Eleanor beamed, all her worries alleviated, and all the children – all but one – regarded Uru with newfound respect.

The hero of the day, however, saw none of it. Roundabout? Simple problem? "Wait a second …" He remembered his chat with Eleanor at the comfy restaurant. How he told her his troubles with Conti's theory, which he all but memorized. Why would she put him through the wringer like this … ?

"So you do have some substance," Dr. Date acknowledged amiably. "But if you think we'll let you skip six ye–"

"The bridge!" Uru suddenly shouted after inhaling with a jolt and facepalming himself, interrupting the man indifferently. "The greater the distance, the longer it takes to establish! Although the informational throughput is another factor, aggregating it with the distance still yields a definitive answer, that both matter!"

How could he have forgotten something so glaring?

This peak triumph of unleashed intellect, tying up the mastery of flux energy manipulation with Conti's discovery of space-time bubbles, the proverbial cherry on top of the cake. He was preparing for a whole month before the trip, and couldn't miss the opportunity to learn about the mind-boggling process. And today he finally experienced it – he stepped in on one side, and stepped out on the other.

Inter-dimensional quantum substitution, aka 'the swap', aka interstellar – with the prospects of being intergalactic in the future – teleportation!

…

Flux energy was discovered at the dawn of 22nd century, and it was only possible thanks to an explosive advancement in conquering space.

But!

This still wouldn't have created any miracles without the main ingredient – human ingenuity. It was indeed a miraculous fruit – one that inevitably came from the marriage of curiosity and perseverance.

…

Due to cascading reduction to the costs of space flight by consecutive orders of magnitude, several monumental international efforts to further the understanding of the laws governing the world were made, pioneered by mankind's desire to explore, which led to the construction of a virtually autonomous, permanent Moon base, and ever bigger space stations through its rapidly developing infrastructure, supplemented with precision tools from Earth. And despite the depressing facts, that scientists found no traces of life anywhere else in the Solar System, space tourism's promise of profit turned out to be a joke, and the attempts to colonize other celestial bodies failed spectacularly and were pretty much banished into the distant future following thousands of casualties dying horrifying, slow deaths – Moon was doing just great, simply because it was merely a couple days ride from home, and nobody feared accidents or malnourishment with such a congested traffic.

Its crust made for the perfect habitat – deep underground was safe, convenient … and cold. Which was a good thing, since the excavators, foundries, forges and reactors produced a lot of heat waste. The empty caverns were sealed off and pressurized with oxygen extracted from the lunar soil via molten salt electrolysis to form cheap, humongous living quarters, subsequently filled with water from the poles and seeded with plants. Although carbon, nitrogen and various trace elements rare on the Moon had to be imported from the planet, the abundance of silicon, iron, aluminum, titanium and other metals meant there was never going to be a shortage of construction supplies. After a few decades of arduous collaboration, the annual output of the entire network of bases was already counted in millions of tonnes.

Courtesy of its shallow gravitational well and lack of atmosphere, the Moon kept spewing raw materials and later even prefabricated parts back into Earth's orbit from electromagnetic and pneumatic mass drivers installed in old mine shafts. There they were picked up by the space stations, initially only to expand them, but eventually to build the first real spaceport with artificial gravity – "Corona Terrestris".

It looked beautiful with the spaceships docked along the outer rim. Especially before it was finished and the middle was filled with a solid, cylindrical dome, when one peered from a slightly higher orbit through the center of its ring-shaped structure at the blue planet while the stainless steel glowed gloriously in the sun, the image was breathtaking. In fact, it became the new symbol of unified humanity, cultivated as a sign of hope by many, but – unfortunately – as an expression of bottomless hubris by the rest.

It was by far the most expensive undertaking in history at the time, thanks to private involvement due to there finally being large scale industrial and service opportunities. The static outer hull provided the ideal surface to park countless vehicles and facilitated hundreds of cargo flights every day, while effectively shielding against impacts and harmful radiation; the multiple nuclear reactors located in separate extensions supplied limitless energy; the thermal electric generators got rid of all excess heat by transforming it into additional power; lastly, the inner spinning frame housed thousands in an environment of close to 1 g, with enough room to accommodate greenhouses, hydroponic farms and various recreations.

The gigantic non-rotating dock's prime aim was not building space ships – this task was far easier and cheaper on the surface of the planet. What could not be accomplished there, however, was putting together and lifting into orbit precision equipment surpassing the launcher capabilities. Those massive halls on the other hand, suspended above Earth in zero-g, allowed for manufacturing unseen before telescopes, detectors, and deep space probes – so huge, that the ones sent to LEO (low Earth orbit) appeared like planes in the sky, and every single one of them on its own dwarfed the cumulative size of all those down below.

Their gargantuan dimensions combined with them operating in constellations then allowed to gather incredible amounts of invaluable, precise data. People were captivated by the new, magnified images of stars, galaxies and nebulas, and especially the nearby exoplanets, ever on the lookout for extraterrestrial life. But this was merely the fun part, whose main purpose was satisfying the public and stirring imagination of the new generations.

The real breakthroughs came from the mundane work of astrophysicists and cosmologists, who furthered their research into the model of the universe based on – among others – the CMB (cosmic microwave background), gravitational waves and lensing, black holes, pulsars, the distribution and motion of matter, molecular composition of large objects as well as gas clusters, and revision of all the theories pertaining to the current expansion and early inflation of space, like the cosmological constant and quintessence, in pursuit of the ever elusive dark matter.

This involved two major problems: 'the lost baryons' and the 'baryonic asymmetry'.

Baryons (regular matter) and antibaryons (antimatter) were supposed to be created in equal amounts after the Big Bang, and thus should have subsequently annihilated each other completely, and yet not only people existed, but they could also see that almost all the matter in the observable universe was made of baryons, antimatter essentially gone, posing an inexplicable imbalance.

The lost baryons on the other hand came from the disparity between what the studies had shown about the constituents of the universe in its youth and the presently calculated ratios. It was the continuation of an old 'missing baryon' dilemma, which referred to the fact that the tallied amount of baryonic matter did not match theoretical predictions. Based on the constraints of BBN (the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, that is the process of multi-nuclei particle formation in the infant phases of the universe) and the data of CMB, the density of baryons yielded a theoretical value of around 5% of all matter in existence (leaving 27% for dark matter and 68% for dark energy), while directly adding up all the known baryonic matter barely exceeded 2%.

It was later surmised that the missing baryons were located in the WHIM, the warm-hot intergalactic medium, and for decades it looked like the trouble was resolved, but it all fell apart again when new measurements came in demonstrating the insufficient amount of intergalactic gas and – much more astonishingly – simulations of temporal CMB spectra suggested the ratios of baryonic matter to dark matter were never fixed and they used to be much higher in the past. So where did all that dark stuff come from, and how come visible matter was disappearing in its favor?

An unpopular theory was already proposed, that many black holes were actually made in part of antimatter, and that there were a lot more of them than could actually be seen, counting them as dark matter. If all the antimatter they consumed in their lifetimes added up to the same amount of mass as all the regular matter both inside them and outside, then there would be no baryonic asymmetry. Although the largest ones apparently weighed a hundred thousand times less than the galaxies they were centered in, mere specs on the cosmic scale, there was still an unlikely possibility of myriad primordial black holes (formed soon after the Big Bang and too small to be detected) as well as solitary black holes (those without sufficient accretion disks to emit detectable radiation) making up the missing part. The theory also made some outlandish assumptions, that from the ceaseless collisions of black holes over time, new and exotic particles which could not be examined must have been born, thus trying to explain dark energy. And while the latter part sounded implausible, the former one seemed viable for scrutiny.

Constellation of gigantic radio telescopes, each with unfolding dishes of many kilometers in diameter, was gradually built in solar orbit, resulting in a staggering aperture of over 2 astronomical units, more than 20 thousand times larger than the one comprised of satellites circulating Earth. Their main objective was to investigate dark matter, and this radical step finally granted a groundbreaking insight into black holes – they not only found countless new ones through gravitational lensing, but the comprehensive observations of those with biggest angular sizes, that is the highest ratios of diameter to distance from Earth, indicated that something inexplicably strange was going on with them.

It was as if they had a dual nature, based on the way they interacted with their accretion disks. The weirdest thing was, the vast majority of them was found towards one end of the spectrum, while the other end was almost deserted.

Despite new anomalies being found in gravitational interactions between them and their surrounding matter – bewildering the scientists and vying for verification, whether they were linked with dark energy or the lost baryons – the aforementioned theory of antimatter black holes suddenly gained a lot of traction.

Long, heavily incentivized and ludicrously expensive studies of antimatter in the OHC, the Orbital Hadron Collider, which was planned for decades and in the end became a peripheral add-on to the Corona Terrestris spaceport, far bigger than the ones on Earth, eventually allowed to generate enough antimatter, held in zero-g in the vacuum of space, to produce chunks visible to the naked eye, and extensively compare its nature to regular matter.

Ultimately, it was proven that there was in fact a difference between baryons and antibaryons, which was debated for most of the 21st century. Although they seemed to be exactly the same, only having opposite charges, a certain discrepancy was identified – it turned out that the quarks and antiquarks they were built from interacted somewhat differently amidst their own kind due to the spin of neutrinos, tiny fermions void of charge and some million times more discreet than electrons, which were otherwise identical to their antimatter counterparts. While antineutrinos were derived, among others, from the beta-decay of free neutrons, which had the half-life of about 10 minutes – neutrinos were derived from a similar process in free antineutrons, whose half-life was significantly altered by the reversed helicity of their seemingly inconsequential products.

Although this difference didn't affect antineutrons as much once they stabilized after pairing up with antiprotons to form atoms, allowing antimatter environments to operate virtually indistinguishably to the regular ones, only with some scant influence on radioactive decay, it sufficed to result in slightly more dynamic attraction between particles of antimatter at a time when it meant the most – during the primordial nucleosynthesis, when free neutrons and antineutrons were ubiquitous.

Albeit it was minuscule, quantum supercomputer simulations showed, that – so long as the primordial black hole hypothesis was correct, and miniature singularities readily formed in the first moments after the Big Bang, preventing matter and antimatter from mutually annihilating each other out of existence within seconds of their birth – it was enough to cause an asymmetry in the average size of atomic nuclei between matter and antimatter. The latter turned out to be more prone to form larger particles, which led to the expedited formation of antimatter black holes. They then devoured the surrounding matter and antimatter trapped in their gravity well at a time when space was a lot more cramped, collided, and increased their mass to create some of the largest black holes of the current epoch.

This implied that nearly all the antimatter in the universe was trapped behind the event horizons of black holes and thus became unobservable, and only a fraction of the smaller black holes and precious few bigger ones were made primarily of regular matter. It also opened up a possibility, that there was a lot more baryonic matter hiding in the dark, far exceeding the initially calculated 5%.

This was seen as a massive discovery by the academic world, though largely underappreciated by the public. But the scientists were yet to have their moment of glory – because right then, as it often happened in life, one revelation revealed multiple new mysteries, and they were even more compelling.

Further simulations suggested, that if black holes started forming this early, then later in the universe's adolescence, when the reionization of gas began and galaxies and quasars started emerging, there should have been so many of them, that they would consume much more than they actually did, eventually turning the whole place into a graveyard. So why was there still so much free matter floating around? Or did they lose mass somehow?

Also, this discovery impinged on the topic of naked singularities, which were theorized black holes whose event horizons dissolved due to their internal forces – either spin or charge – counteracting the inward flow of space to the point where it's no longer faster than light. If that was possible, then general relativity would encounter foundational problems, since it could no longer interpret space-time, and all kinds of weirdness would be unleashed upon the world.

To oppose this concept, Roger Penrose formulated the weak cosmic censorship hypothesis in 1969, positing that gravitational singularities may not be observable and thus cannot occur in nature. While it was later confronted by the loop quantum gravity and other theories, it remained widely accepted among academics, in time cementing its stance after being somewhat verified.

Still, general relativity allowed for the existence of extremal black holes – those in which the internal forces are on the verge of halting the faster than light inward flow of space. And although singularities have no qualms devouring matter together with antimatter – since mass can be turned into energy or vice versa, and neither can escape the event horizon – collateral analysis from the OHC also showed, that provided a few far-fetched assumptions, annihilation could theoretically generate additional pressure, adding to the internal forces. At this point it was prudent to calculate a critical mass ratio of antimatter to regular matter within an extremal black hole, crossing which would result in tipping the scales, sending the black hole superextremal and stripping it of the event horizon. And such a critical ratio – on paper – was indeed plausible.

This raised an intriguing question. The dense clusters of mixed matter that collapsed directly into a naked black hole, or the extremal black holes that formed early in the young universe and subsequently ended up in the wrong neighborhood, which allowed them to consume more antagonistic matter than they could handle – what happened to them?

There was no exposed singularities in the sky, and general relativity was doing just fine, suggesting that if there were ever any naked black holes, they must have disappeared as soon as they formed. Did they explode, releasing all their energy and leftover mass in a supreme hypernova? Although that might solve one problem, the analysis of cosmic microwave background didn't support this hypothesis, and it was flawed on more than one level. So maybe they imploded? But where to? Either way, this sounded like complete absurdity from the perspective of classical science, relegating it to the realm of quirky suppositions.

On the other hand, there was still the annoyingly perplexing issue of the remaining dark matter to resolve, and mankind was ostensibly not coming any closer to an answer. But it had to be there, it was implied heavily by so many astrophysical studies. Galaxies appeared to lack the necessary mass to be held together and not rip themselves apart from the forces of their rotation and fly away into the void, they would not have moved the way they did or would simply not have formed in the first place. There was also the analysis of CMB, current structure of the universe, mass location during galactic collisions, motion of galaxies within galaxy clusters, and gravitational lensing.

The major obstacle in investigations was that dark matter couldn't be observed directly – other than through gravity it had to only barely interact with ordinary matter and radiation, if at all. And yet, no carrier particle was ever discovered for gravity, raising opinions that Einstein was right, and gravity was not a force, merely a property of spacetime itself. If it were true, this would make the reconciliation of quantum and classical physics – in view of the loop quantum gravity theory's and the string theory's failed attempts to solve it – a nightmare.

So what was space actually, and how was it formed? If baryonic matter was contracting it, then what was stretching it?

The cosmological constant, introduced by Einstein in 1917, which he later called the biggest mistake of his life, after Hubble's discovery of the expanding universe in 1931, and since 1998 speculated to actually have a real, non-zero value due to the rate of this expansion accelerating, was already an ancient problem at the time. It's rival concept for explaining the accelerating expansion of space, a scalar field called quintessence, deriving its name from the ancient aether, the 'fifth element' postulated in middle ages to fill the cosmos, was the more prevalent theory at this point, but still imperfect and constantly having to be patched by newly arising contradictions.

To top it all off, inconsistencies in the rate of expansion of space riddled the researched timelines. Vast amounts of data came from giant arrays of microwave detectors dispatched to various places in the solar system and beyond it, sent to Earth via the 'space internet', which was a relay of space probes forming a net in the orbital plane of the solar system – they were continuously catching signals, amplifying them and sending them towards their requested receiver, thus allowing for unseen before upload speeds even from the cold dark of the Kuiper Belt. After processing the information it could be inferred, that the rate of expansion kept fluctuating!

Nobody could make sense of it. All those dilemmas were giving astrophysicists strong headaches and sleepless nights.

…

One day, an unparalleled genius arrived. A man of unwavering dedication, Stefano Conti. His wild, allegedly drug-induced theory, was about to change the world as people knew it.

He was an exceptionally bright child, a true prodigy, predicted to have a limitless future. He finished school and went on to get his degree and PhD in theoretical physics at a record-breaking young age. The doors to the pavilions of scientific elites and celebrities were wide open for him. Unconcerned with the opinions of others, he fearlessly made his grand entrance to the salons in a passionate, zealous fashion.

Awe and fascination followed his every step, because unlike most other savants he was very outspoken and socially active. Despite being an introvert by nature, his ability to vanquish the opposition and convince the skeptics helped him develop an assertive character. His articulate arguments earned him recognition among the top scholars, and he even became a prominent figure in the media, where his expertise and presentation were highly valued.

And then it all fell apart …

He was considered to be awfully eccentric, and it was alright as long as he was seen as a driven, determined titan and kept forging on with his achievements. But when he grew up and started official work, he came to many conflicts with his colleagues and superiors. Inspired by great philosophers and theoreticians ever since he was capable of abstract thinking, he wanted to pursue the unified theory of everything no matter the cost, and wasn't at all interested in 'wasting time' on other, more pressing matters, which could have immediate practical applications.

The mundane aspects of life held even less allure to him. He fell out with the establishment, then with his family, and ended up in misery, disparaged and completely alone. Stricken by poverty, he took part-time jobs that allowed him to do them automatically, and drifted off to focus on contemplating the world. But whenever he believed he finally had it, a new revelation came and made a hole in his model. He kept patching them up, but that process never stopped.

Eventually, he became so disillusioned that he turned to drugs, which only made his suffering worse. Luckily, he never stopped pondering. Contemplation was the sole thing that never failed him – it was a wonderful medicine that took all the pain away.

One night, he woke up lying on the inclined roof of his attic, emaciated, broke and delirious. He watched the stars, reflecting on all the old theories and recent discoveries, deliberating about the origin of existence, higher powers and philosophy. Merely groping in the dark, imagining fantastic worlds, no longer stressed or in a hurry, just musing for fun. He tried bridging it all together, attempting many guesses.

At some point his mood improved and he began to sober up. Not willing to lose this frail thought, he focused all his attention and kept at it until dawn. In the end, when people started waking up and making noise, he jumped to his feet, almost falling from the building to his death because of stiff legs, and clambered back up in order to go to his room, where his only remaining possessions were some books and papers. But that was enough.

For he finally had something that made sense!

And so he wrote. For a very long time, making plenty of corrections and revisions. There was no citations, no references, he just drafted everything from memory, stating it all as facts.

He nearly starved to death, barely surviving on some modest scraps provided to him by the old housekeeper, who found the pitiful Stefano when he had already collapsed to the floor from exhaustion. He wanted the rent, which was long overdue, and wished to evict the good-for-nothing troublemaker for a while now, send him away to some rehabilitation center, or anywhere actually, just to be done with him.

But when he spotted the papers on the desk, which he anticipated to be filled with useless scribbling, he saw an impossibly eloquent, beautifully written despite a trembling hand, scientific document. He was no expert, but he could feel that all those letters and numbers made sense, such was their impeccable harmony. That shocked him greatly, and he decided to give the man another chance and see what he makes of it.

With his support, the unrealized scientist kept writing. Whenever the housekeeper brought him food, he would cordially express his gratitude and try to explain what he was doing, with a beaming countenance and great fervor. Though the old man didn't understand much, he was sure of one thing – Stefano was genuinely happy. It was a first. Even if the grandiose nature of the paper meant it was bound to be a wild goose chase and nothing more, he let the young man continue. And when Stefano was done, he scanned the material and helped him submit it.

But he didn't account for one thing. After all, he couldn't have known how worn out Stefano was. He wasn't aware the lunatic kept writing all day long, every day, filled by unending euphoria. The ruined genius felt great relief, when he finally sent the results of his life's work in. Ultimately, a wave of exhaustion hit him with full force. He went back to his bed, laid down, and fell asleep.

And he never woke up …

The poor old housekeeper would never stop beating himself over it. He could have prevented it, if he acted in time. Out of guilt, he regularly asked Stefano's old university about the outcome of the peer review, but he kept getting roundabout answers, that it was a slow process and could take a while. Eventually he realized that something was amiss. He already found out about Stefano's life from his family at the funeral, so he suspected that the paper might be ignored out of spite. So he went to check – that was the least he could do.

He was initially told off, but he didn't relent. After a few consecutive visits, he bumped into an old colleague of Stefano's and mentioned the situation. This rattled the other man, and sparked his curiosity when he heard about the unusual recounts of how the paper came to be. He immediately took a look, and undeterred by his great deal of bafflement, he sent it to all his contacts in diverse fields. After all, the paper encompassed quantum mechanics, general relativity, astrophysics and higher mathematics, as well as a great deal of philosophy.

And then all hell broke loose.

Because, despite its completely speculative nature bordering on madness, it all made sense. Whenever a potential contradiction was raised, someone else would soon find a theoretically viable solution within the framework of the theory. More and more scientists started getting involved, and soon the media caught a whiff of it.

Within days, all outlets around the world started reporting about Conti's possible explanation to the existence and inner workings of the universe, and his tragic life. But it was still just a conjecture, there was yet to be a single piece of evidence proving it.

At this point, however, the incentive was already there, and it was irresistible. The whole scientific community united and moved as one to verify the hypothesis, dropping whatever they were doing at the time. Telescopes and detectors were directed to look for clues in the deep space, mathematicians and physicists got together to validate the equations, and labs collaborated to run large scale experiments. Billions were appropriated and moved, promising to change people's lives forever.

Soon, reports from all over the globe started flooding in – confirmations of the various aspects of the theory. All the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the secrets of the universe had been uncovered at last. The international commission assembled to give a verdict unanimously agreed – the long awaited unified theory of everything was real!

Conti's name was instantly elevated under the heavens, above all the other titans of the mind that came before him. The Nobel prize could not be given posthumously according to its statute, but nobody even considered the fact that it wouldn't be the first exception in history – the public pressure and the sad, inspiring tale of the unappreciated genius were simply too much.

For his dedication to the truth, Conti was titled the hero of mankind. From now on he would become an idol to all the future generations of intellectuals, shining hope like the sun itself.

…

The world stirred, gasped, and dreamed about what the future would look like.

Because one point remained unproven – the nature of dark energy, which according to Conti could not be 'touched' with regular matter at all. Although it was just a byproduct of the unified theory, it was also its main ingredient, the glue that held it all together. And Conti declared mysteriously, that it shall bow down to human will, and manifest as desired.

Despite most people laughing it off as a madman's eccentric fantasy, an unnecessary addition, without which the core of the theory would still work, there were also many who took Conti's word as an unquestionable fact. The division arose due to his spiritual approach to life. The physical realm presented no value to him, he merely considered it an image of a higher reality – the reality of feelings. He advocated classical values like truth, justice, virtue, humility, and despised the world for what it had become, moralizing against mindless consumption and animalistic behavior. It was thus natural, that the perverted vile filth didn't like being exposed and judged.

Further research into dark energy was vulgarly protested and boycotted for the most absurd reasons, but the other fraction of Earth's population saw these attempts for what they really were, and their numbers were more than enough to continue. Over a billion people were willing to contribute and see Conti's pursuit fulfilled, many companies and private ventures joining in on the opportunity.

Ultimately, their combined budget overshadowed the Corona Terrestris project, and the exerted effort produced millions of documents. The techniques to peer into the human mind had progressed by leaps and bounds, dwarfing the previous accomplishments in this field tens, hundreds of times over.

Few years later, the funds and spirits were already running low, most support had dropped out, and the lobby of deviants was shamelessly laughing out loud in victory. All the minor discoveries and achievements were insignificant in comparison to the expenditures. It seemed this was just a pipe dream all along …

… and then a lightning struck, as the first fluxer appeared. Though what he demonstrated wasn't even as flashy as a parlor trick, there was no gimmick to his defiance of the laws of physics – in principle, it was real magic.

The triumph was overwhelming, the proof undeniable. 'Origin energy' indeed existed and could be harnessed.

Shock and awe. The implications were colossal and inconceivable.

Mankind was about to cry rivers of blood …