The Annals of the Heechee by Frederik Pohl

Author:Frederik Pohl [Pohl, Frederik]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Non-Classifiable
ISBN: 9780575041493
Google: hikgAQAAIAAJ
Amazon: 0394325656
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 1987-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

"What happened?"

"Why, the Big Bang just banged," said Albert in surprise. "That's what you saw. I thought you'd recognize it. The universe has started."

"It has also stopped," I said, beginning to recover, because the great burst had frozen.

"I've stopped it, yes, because I want you to see this point. The universe isn't very old yet-approximately ten-to-the-minus-thirty seconds later. I can't say much about anything earlier, because I don't know anything much. I can't even tell you how big the universe, or that what-do-you-call-it that existed before the universe, was. Bigger than a proton, probably. Smaller than a Ping-Pong ball, maybe. I can tell you-I think-that the dominant force in there was probably the strong nuclear force, or, possibly, gravity, maybe-because it was so compact, the gravity was of course high. Very high. So was the temperature. How high I don't know exactly. Probably as high as possible.

There is some theoretical reason to believe that the highest possible temperature is something of the order of ten-to-the-twelfth Kelvin-I could give you the argument, if you like-"

"Only if absolutely necessary, please!"

He said reluctantly, "I don't suppose that particular point is absolutely necessary. All right. Let me tell you what else I can't say. I can't even say anything much about the stage you are looking at now, except to point out a few things that may not be apparent to you. For instance, that fireburst you are looking at contains everything. It contains the atoms and particles that now constitute you, and me, and the True Love and the Watch Wheel and the Earth and the Sun and the planet Jupiter and the Magellanic Clouds and all the galaxies in the Virgo clusters and-"

"And everything, right," I said, to stop him. "I get the picture. It's big." "Ah," he said, in satisfaction, "but you see, you don't. It isn't big.

I've taken a few liberties, you see. I've magnified it a lot, because the Big Bang wasn't very big at all. How big would you say that fireball was?"

"I have no way of telling. A thousand light-years across?"

He shook his head and said thoughtfully, "I don't think so. Smaller.

Maybe before the Bang it had no size at all, because space hadn't been invented yet, and it's not far from that now. But it's definitely small. And yet it contained everything. Have you got that so far?"

I just looked at him, and he relented. "I know this is dreary for you, Robin, but I want to make sure you understand. Now, about the 'bang.' There wasn't any sound, of course. There wasn't any medium to carry sound. For that matter, there wasn't any place to carry it to; that was just another little liberty I took. More important, the Big Bang wasn't the kind of explosion that starts from a firecracker and spreads out into the air as the gases expand, because-"

"Because there wasn't any air, right? Or even space?"

"Very good, Robin! But there's another way in which that bang was different from all other bangs.

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