Into the dark void they stared, knowing there would be no escape. It seemed that there would be no way for the crew of the ship to escape with their lives. The crew assembled in the main bridge of their ship, the Pelonum. The lighting in the room was dim, and most of the light came from the many computer displays scattered throughout the room. Ordinarily, the room was in full light, but on this day the lights were low because of the extra strain on the engines. The room was full of the feelings of fear and anticipation, "What news would the captain bring?", the people wondered. The captain, as if summoned by the peoples thoughts, stepped up to the front of the room. He looked around with the face of one that has dire news to tell and began to speak.
"My honorable crew, which has served me so well for so many years. I am afraid that the news, which I am about to tell you, is not very good. I'm sure that you have all heard rumors about our situation, and I'm afraid that most of them are, likely to be, essentially correct. The reason we have arranged you here is to tell you exactly what is going on.
"About two universal hours ago, the ship dropped out of our trans-warp conduit unexpectedly. Apparently our computer detected a possible danger and brought us out to avoid it. Immediately after dropping out, our navigator noticed that were being pulled away from our course, and attempted to make the necessary engine changes to avoid it. He was unable to do so, and on that path we have continued to travel, with our speed increasing as time passes. Now, as you can see, we are nearly at the source of the disturbance. Based on our observations of the anomaly, we are quite sure that it is not a black hole, what it actually is, we are unsure."
On that note, the silence of the crew was broken, and words of speculation once again began to fill the thinning air. While the captain proceeded to list off the standard emergency routines, John ElSolei, the ship's communications officer, was busy listening to the airwaves, hoping he could find a ship which might be able to assist them. But all he was able to hear was a mysterious signal emanating from the anomaly. He had the lurking suspicion that this signal was not simply a product of a natural phenomenon, but instead was extraterrestrial in origin. He discussed this with the captain, but the captain insisted that he ignore it and look elsewhere for help. Yet, even though he was disobeying orders from the captain, he could not keep himself from thinking about it. He was puzzled that he was having so much trouble listening to the captain's orders; usually obeying them came automatically to him. He began listening to the sound again, all he heard was tones repeated with varying spaces between them, with each tone slightly different. But he wondered what exactly was different about them? He tried recording a chunk of the signal and listening to it again at a slower speed. He heard that the tones sounded at varying pitches, lasted different lengths of time and were spaced out by different lengths of silence. It was difficult for him to figure out how he could interpret this signal to get anything of use. While deep in thought, for several seconds the world blanked out to him, startled, he looked around the room. Afterwards a single image manifested itself in his mind, that of a set of three-dimensional axis. John noticed that there were three factors which distinguished the tones in the signal apart. But how could he relate the pitch to the time? He would just have to use the time-tested technique of trial and error. He proceeded to program the computer to do what he desired. After setting the program in motion, within seconds, the screen was full of points, but he couldn't discern what it could be. Going back into the program, he changed it so that it would display the image, changing the ratio of pitch to time slightly every time the image was displayed. John hoped that he would be able to tell when the image was at the right ratio.
Feeling that he had done enough work for a while, and despite the time constraint, John felt he deserved a break. So he left his workstation and set off to his cabin. Once there, he stood looking out the small, porthole on the wall above his bed. Staring into the void seemed to give himself an immense sense of calm, greater than any he had ever experienced before. He was totally aware of the danger that the ship faced, yet it did not bother him. He lied down on his bed with his feet facing the pale gray wall containing the porthole. Looking out into space, he decided to rest for a few minutes and then get straight back to work.
After what he perceived to be five minutes of sleep, John was awoken by a large jolt in the ship. Deciding that he should find out what the jolt was, he arose and began to walk down the corridor back to the bridge. During the walk, he noticed that the ship was unusually quiet and the lights were once again at their full brightness. Upon arriving at the bridge, he realized with great surprise why the ship was under such a condition of silence-the bridge was completely empty. Yet, despite the loss of his shipmates, his remarkable sense of calm persisted. In addition to his calm, his mind felt totally clear, it was as if his mind had been elevated to another level. He sat down at one of the workstations facing the large view-screen at the front of the room. While contemplating what could have happened to the crew, he felt that the room was suddenly filled once again with people, yet there was still no one else in his sight.
The voices whispered "They are here."
The message went through John's mind, but he didn't give it a moments thought.
"You will become greater", they whisper again.
The room passed out of John's vision and realm of thought. All that existed in his mind was his body and the stars.
Whispering "The flesh is meaningless", the voices came again.
John no longer noticed the existence of his body. All he observed were the stars and the void.
"Thoughts are all"
John had entered the void, the great expanse. All that existed were his thoughts.
"You are the greatest being"
John realized that his thoughts had total freedom, he could know whatever there was to be known. His thoughts could be in any place at any time. But an element was missing, yet he did not know was it was.
The voices whispered "They are here".
This time he did notice the words of the voices, before he had ignored them, now they engulfed him, which is his thoughts.
"They are around you"
It was as if John's thoughts were opened, it was the same as opening your eyes in the morning to witness the sun's splendor. He saw that the void was far from an empty place, it was full of an infinite number of beings existing of purely thought, just as he had become. What element he had thought to be missing had now been found. He was now one with the voices, able to communicate with any of them. He asked what had happened to the rest of the people on the ship. They told him "The people on the ship will allow the rest of your people to become great." They showed him the bridge of the ship where most of the crew had arranged themselves around John's workstation where his program had displayed a clear image: that of a human body, with what appears to be energy emanating from its head. Thought the image was difficult to interpret, the voices made the meaning clear to the crew.
John's view changed to that of the whole ship. Directly in front of the ship, a point of light appeared. The light grew quickly into what he recognized as a trans-warp conduit. The ship entered, off to accomplish the new mission given to the crew by the voices. All that remained were the thoughts of John and those of the rest who had already become great.