Chapter 2

WHERE NO MAN HAS
GONE BEFORE

"Wouldn't it be something to watch, to be a part of,

To see it happen all over again?"

Kirk to Spock, in Bread and Circuses¹

---

It was an age of global restlessness.

Mankind pushed north, east, west and south following a strange, insatiable hunger for a brave New World.
It was the generation that married a worship of nature to astro-theology, a generation of proud and unyielding ambition -
the generation that founded The Project.²
The Project.

What was it, this massive, futuristic construct -Engineering combining topology and cabalistics
Utilizing high-level esoteric sciences to manipulate a level of reality
only just now beginning to be understood and explored beyond
the conceptual limits of our twentieth-century technology?
They built it because they knew
That hidden in the linking equations of astrophysics and cosmic realities
Were somehow concealed the keys to the true nature of the Universe.

For all the genius of our modern technology
We have been like children experimenting with a long-suffering automobile
And by much pushing, pressing, and testing we have found repeatable sequences Until with obvious delight and smugness, we say to our wondering friends,
"See! I know what makes it go!"
But this generation asked more stubborn
questions. And united in purpose
Filled with pride and ambition
They bent their talents and their genius to conquer the world of matter, space and time
to search out and master the secrets of the stars
to take hold of the reins of the very Universe itself.³

(Ah, we miss you, U.S.S. Enterprise -
Your five-year
aborted
refitted
renegotiated mission -
We miss your sweeping odyssey into uncharted realms of space and time,
Your crew pushing you to the warp edges of imagination - and beyond.)

"To boldly go where no man has gone before."

But the direction in which we are going
Is determined largely by the point from which we are coming
And more important to the rest of the Universe than boldly going to, perhaps
Would be where, exactly are we coming from?

The Ancient Book records the genesis of two great beginnings.
Two great, opposing philosophies of the cosmos
Two far-reaching
fundamentally-different approaches
to boldly going where no man has gone before.
They divide all Mankind
as indeed, they divide the whole Universe into two diverging streams
two adventures so absolutely unlike
two power-sources so incompatible
that those who cleave to each will never meet again at the end of the journey
in this, or any other world
Two Kingdoms.

One began with Earth.
It acknowledged only
itself
its own power
its own wisdom
Its code was - "Man must learn to live in harmony."
Its truth was - "And every man for himself."

And in an uneasy unison
founded on mutual
pride
greed
and ambition
It attempted to build a beachhead from Earth to the stars.⁴

The Other Kingdom began in a lonely silence When, to a man who stood alone, like a rock in a shifting sea of selfishness
A Voice from beyond the stars spoke to him and
against all sense
against all possibility
against all odds made him a promise -

"Your children will fill the Universe."⁵

Both Kingdoms are still with us.

The first suffered a temporary but major disruption of ambition
when the Project was visited in a cosmic retribution
All communications were shattered and fragmented
All self-centered construction was reduced to absolute confusion
And all work on the Project was, for the time being, abandoned.6

But its children lived on
And today, new plans are being drawn up
The old evil has been resurrected
The itch to extend its reign to the yet uncharted worlds.

But the children of the other kingdom,
The Alternate Kingdom, are here with us also -
Though they have always been a small
misunderstood
and despised race -
A people that did not fit into the easy, accommodating answer
A people making all nations their home And yet, belonging, in their heart of hearts, to none.⁷
These are the people with the unsatisfied satisfaction
the great unfilled Restlessness
And the echo of that ancient promise still rings clearly in their minds.
And they are convinced, that despite the great sweep of time that has passed
That promise made long ago to them will one day be fulfilled.⁸

You would like Charles Mustchin.
He is a man with a great history -
It sits on shelves in his comfortable frame home in Australia -
A home where he hosts writing men and women from all over the world
For Charles has one of the greatest science-fiction collections on earth.
Some time ago, I spent a wonderful day with him
Browsing through all the layers of sci-fi history on his walls
Looking with awe and appreciation at some of those irreplaceable first editions -
War of the Worlds
Metropolis
Tarzan
Perelandra

They were all there, from Asimov (Issac) to Zenna (Henderson)
A room that had hosted Arthur C. Clarke and others of his ilk for its contents
They had come around the world to talk, to reminisce, to laugh
But I had come also to ask a question.

"You know, as much as any man living, where it's come from.
But, where do you think it's all going?"

Now Charles is a hard-core man A technology-projected no-nonsense, stay-off-trips classical-format only forget-the-fantasy buff from way back

And I felt his disappointment
and perhaps a little frustration when he said in effect,
"Ah - a lot of it Is going towards the mystical stuff. It's getting away from technology and going into all this fantasy."

He was right, of course.
He's a historian of the form. That is where it's all going.
But after all, it can hardly go elsewhere.

It's been a long time since that unfortunate unmentionable stood up in a scientific convention to announce with sincere and studied deliberation
· that scientific research had just about reached an end
· that we had found out almost everything there was to know
· and that very soon, technological discovery would touch its outer limits.

How unfortunate
That his pontifical announcement
Was to be followed in short historical order by
The atom bomb The transistor and DNA

And the kind light of passing history Will smile somewhat mercifully at his somewhat megatonic
faux pas.

But in the realm of imagination
we are really running a low tide.

After all we've invented
anti-gravity
death lasers
time-jumped
transported
and phasored for donkey's years now
and in the world of ideas we're pretty much
up against the wall.

We long ago got tired of
BEMS⁹
and UFO's¹⁰
and Blobs That Ate Up Cities¹¹
let alone, heaven help us,
Godzillas
Rhodans
and Mothras!

We've been to the Planet of the Apes.¹²
Seen Beneath It
Returned To It
and Conquered It
until it mercifully rests in peace with its TV spin-off

Charleton Heston 's inarticulate girlfriend and Roddy Mc Dowall's make-up job.

Earth has been
Invaded
Conquered
Warned
and Destroyed
enough times to thoroughly learn its lesson a dozen times over

So where do we have left to boldly go to any-way?

Risk.

A good word, a trigger word, the underlying word built into the heart of a good plot, a good book, a good movie. A man, a woman, a child, takes a great Risk and runs a great Race, and hopefully, for the future of true Heroes, pulls everything off successfully.

To boldly go where no man has gone before.

And yes, my would-be Kirks, there is a new world to venture
A world where each adventurer will go, boldly or not
And there is certainty that they will never come back.¹³

The Risk in this Journey is Ultimate
The Risk requires our everything
The Risk shall have our all.

And all of us, one way or another are going on this Journey -
It shall have us all - ready or not.¹⁴

Two Kingdoms
Two diverging dreams
Two beginnings
and two ultimate destinies -
The Child of Earth or the Child of the Heavens.
Time is running out

The Project is being built and buttressed once again.
The fragmented voices and tongues are at last being unisoned around ambition
a breaking of those age-old protective barriers that have stood for centuries to prevent that dangerous coalition
And with skills learned by centuries of practice
ambition honed by a planet too small
and with a purpose fed by selfishness, the Earth Child's Kingdom
is again taking aim at the heart of heaven.¹⁵

But I have heard another Call
and know there is another Unity
and we know, oh Earth Child, what shall be your end.¹⁵

And I for one have made my choice
And launched my frail craft already
Into the stream of the Great Adventure
And it is One-Way and I will not be coming
back.

Will you join us, on this, the costlier journey?
Will you come with us, we who have heard the Still, Small Voice
and called Him Friend?
This generation may well be the last for the next time Heaven intervenes in Earth's meddling
That visit will have an utterly final quality about it.¹⁷

We may well be the last, but we also can be -
and must be - the best.

The Final Realm
The World beyond the worlds
remains at large, uncharted and unknown to
our generation,
ours to seek out
ours to explore
ours to inherit, the Final People.

Will you join us?
Will you come with us?
Will you do it?

To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Chapter Three - The New Musketeer