Originally Posted by Antarctica!

"Not quite. Galaxy and galactic plane are synonymous in this instance as we ourselves are inside one of the spiral arms on the plane. The galaxy has been removed because it is irrelevant in the context of this image."

He waited patiently until the girl's stream of words had become a silence delta.


Risu twisted his neck around to glance up at the image. Then he realised what Gold was talking about. "Oh!" He shook his head, smiling. "No, that's of no importance at all. This is a copy of a picture appearing in a glossy conference round-up I have in my possession. Most of the pages were black to give it a more, er, space-like appearance, including the one this picture appeared on."

He raised his eyebrows. "Black dwarfs? The hypothesised end state of a white dwarf. Hmm. Fascinating but speculative science, to be sure..." He shook his head again. "No, this image shows no dwarfs of any colour. Nor the Degenerate Era, which is something that lies in the future entirely. Er. Possibly. Science has come a long way, but so far we cannot take pictures of things that are going to happen billions of years from now."

Risu wondered briefly just how much Gold knew about his subject. She seemed to be able to come up with far-reaching answers to every question. "This image," he continued, "is of something far removed from our own time, but in the opposite direction. More than 13 billion years in the past." He waved an expansive arm in the prefect's direction. "But please, by all means, Miss Laksh, ramble. Something fascinating will come of it, I am sure." He smiled. "Miss Flores provided some groundwork for you."