![local group sort of.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/deeanndmathews/23swaAK75v488aL956yM8E5ttqqrpFR6DHWomMx3FMxUeivA8krwiuduPUCPrTTcaF5Px.png)


When Kirk and Dixon Shipping really became a thing – that is, when my partner Marcus Aurelius Kirk Jr. and I had time to stop and realize we had built a real business that was a booming concern – that we had done what we set out to do – both of us realized we needed to seek support.

Mark had married young, and his wife was a fleet admiral in addition to his Cousin J.T. being the most famous fleet captain *ever,* and Mark still knew he needed a support organization.  

So, I'm more of a loner, but I had to be humble as a businessman, and so eased on over to Sable Captains and Commanders and joined.

Enter Captain Benjamin Banneker, named for the brilliant ancestor who designed the capital of the United States of America, and equally brilliant, among the finest scientists and science officers the professional fleet has ever had.  He founded Sable Captains and Commanders to provide support for his fellow fleet commanders of African descent, and opened the doors to commercial and travel captains as well.

New members to Sable Captains and Commanders at about the time I joined always had the same assumption: the fact that Captain Banneker retired a captain, not even a commodore, indicated the problems with racism that still lingered in the 23rd century.  He elevated our entire lives out of certain worries that went with that with his consistent explanation:

“That's not what happened,” he said.  “I was injured several times over the course of my career, and so lost years on my career track toward higher promotions.  So instead of fighting the system to make up for lost time, I chose to be the mentor to a dozen commodores and admirals – the *maker of commodores and admirals* – as opposed to striving so hard to be one of those myself.  The highest science officer in the fleet today is my protege, Full Fleet Admiral Vlarian Triefield [Mark's wife!] – and her father is Black, so she's a member here too!   

“Don't worry so much about title and position and the men who hold them.  Remember instead how much earlier the sons and daughters of Africa started out in civilization, and in exploration of the earth and the mapping of the stars, than anyone else.  You are *those heirs,* and the galaxy is big enough for all of us to find our proper place.  Find *your place* among the stars.  Your place is held for you by the Maker of the heavens and the earth – *go get it.*”

After his retirement, Captain Banneker divided his time between younger commanders and reconsidering the great scientific questions he had encountered in his career on a more leisurely and in-depth basis.  Thus it was that admirals and commodores still consulted him on many matters. I joined the queue, knowing that Captain Banneker had been had been the fleet captain who had organized the rescue at Bijalee after one of the intended colonists there had tampered with the Uppaaimar technology there and turned the whole atmosphere of the planet into the lightning storm that it still is today (thus its name from Gujarat: lightning, or, Bijalee).

Captain Banneker had lost both legs in that rescue, and had lost two years in his career, recovering and relearning to walk on the bionic legs he still had.  However, that had given him more time than average to consider all that had happened, and I wanted to know if he thought what I thought about the Uppaaimar Warp-Canal – that the fleet's attempt to tamper with it had caused a personalized response as opposed to an automatic fail-safe built in and triggered after centuries dormant.  

Captain Banneker called me when he read my request.

“Come to the front of the queue and go to the head of the class, Captain Dixon.  Come by my home.”

Now *this* was an unexpected honor that told me the answer to the question, but it was too explosive for the airwaves.

I knew instantly that it was Captain Banneker's opinion that the Uppaaimar *were still alive, and active in the Milky Way.  The ancient civilization wasn't gone after all.*

“Of course,” Captain Banneker said when I arrived in his beautiful home in Washington D.C.  “I have known that since Bijalee.  From our archaeological work on the Uppaaimar homeworld that your discovery of the last key to the warp canal opened up, we know that the Uppaaimar were generally a benevolent civilization, and of course intensely powerful.  They lived on their homeworld until both stars going into full shed mode made it uninhabitable, so we can imagine the engineering they must have had over the whole planet.  From their records and those of cultures equally ancient, we know that they shared their technology often in the assistance of others.

“But we also know they were ferocious defenders of themselves and their allies, and their ideas of crime and punishment were forbidding to the extreme.  In short: you did not mess with the Uppaaimar, their friends, or their stuff.  Their own rare criminal element couldn't deal with the consequences when caught, so no civilization of lesser strength had a ghost of a chance.  We will NEVER get Bijalee's lightning fully out.  That world is totally lost to humanoid settlement, although its native plants and animals have recovered nicely.”

“Still, when a careful handler worked with that same box that triggered that whole nightmare – my first officer – the box triggered a safe path to the horizon, or technically, a mini-transporter canal to the nearest ship – mine.   I thought about that over the course of my recovery.  

“I forgot that I had bionic implants in my legs already before going down into an electrically charged environment, which is why my first officer had to take over planetside – a mistake that could have cost me my life.  But there was not a bolt of lightning around me for a country mile, Captain Dixon, and even the thunder was dampened and the interference left off so I could be beamed up and my first officer beamed down. Somebody saw what I was trying to do, just like somebody saw what my first officer was trying to do – so, we were allowed to do it.”

“Wow,” I said.  “May I ask an irreverent question?”

“Certainly.”

“What were you thinking, sir?  I ask because I know you as such a precise, careful man.”

Captain Banneker never hesitated in his answer.

“I was in love and the person I loved was in harm's way at Bijalee.  I would have and did give anything to get her out of harm's way.  Like I said, my intention was known, and I was spared and she was spared.”

“I haven't encountered that level of love, but I suppose two legs given where your heart was already given is no big deal.”

“You have the proper attitude about it, young man.  It will happen when you least expect it, and it may cost you everything – but if you do the right thing, you will have no regrets.  I have none.”

Captain Banneker had never married.  He still had no regrets.  That part I didn't understand.  I had too much respect for the man to pry any deeper, and he turned on his bionic heel as he moved on from the thought himself.

“Come into my study, young sir – I have made something for us to consider the question of the day with.”

Captain Banneker invited me into his study, and showed me a quilt representing the Milky Way Galaxy on the floor.

“So, we know that it is at least 100,000 light-years across, and we think in terms of traveling across it like sailing on the surface.  Put in the power of warp drive – we can bunch up small portions of it and skip across the bunches at beyond light speed – but even then, if all you can do is sail across it, each quadrant is 25,000 light-years.  Even at trans-warp, which we are not sure works yet, that's just a bit more bunching that does little with a distance that great.

“It will be the 24th century before we even get to the Beta Quadrant, and unless there is a stable wormhole or an analog to the Uppaaimar Warp-Canal, it will be centuries more before we see the Gamma or Delta Quadrants – and even then we will hardly know all there is to know about the Alpha Quadrant which is our own.   And after all that is done, presuming we have not reached the utter limit of our ability long before, we still will only have traveled across the Milky Way, one of millions and millions of galaxies.  Life is too short and the distances too great to allow us to do better than that.”

“It is kind of depressing,” I said, “until you realize the wonders in just the Solar System, to say nothing of the Alpha Quadrant.”

“That's the right attitude, young man,” the elder captain said with a smile.  “George Washington Carver found a great portion of work we still marvel at in a single peanut, so no one is missing things by staying within our bounds.  But I said all that just to say how we live and travel.  The Uppaaimar are completely different … please go to the Alpha Quadrant to represent us, and I'll go on the diagonal to represent our friends we haven't met yet in the Delta Quadrant.”

I went and he went.

“Now, about how far is that, given that this particular ellipse has 100,000 light-years on its major axis?”

“Oh, wow … .” I said.  “I do remember the formula, but I can't do that kind of thing in my head any more.”

“It doesn't matter,” he said.  “We are thinking in Uppaaimar terms.  What would they do?”

Then, it hit me … they had a way to “fold” space time.

Captain Banneker picked up his corner, and I picked up my corner, and we walked toward each other until the two corners touched each other.

“If you had the ability to fold any two corners or portions of space-time until they touched, would the distance even exist, functionally?” he asked me.

“No, not as a functional matter.”

“Suppose the two corners were the Milky Way Galaxy and Andromeda – or the Magellanic Clouds – or even M31.  Does it even matter?  Let's spread this back out again.  Take the whole Local Group of galaxies –.”

And he tapped a command on the nearest computer console, and revealed the view you see above.

“Does the distance across the Local Group of Galaxies even matter?”

“No.”

“So, from anything they left behind, presuming they are still alive – how far away are the Uppaaimar?”

“They're not,” I said.  “Leaving aside humanity's entire concept of the size of the universe, and distance, and all the rest – the evidence says they are not far away from *anywhere.*”

“The fact that I was able to do my rescue at Bijalee suggests the same thing,” he said.  “We know they fully conceptualized at least the Local Group, so they could be anywhere in there and STILL close enough to know that Bijalee had been triggered and to get back there to allow a rescue.”

“So … if I go ask them to go turn the fire off in the Uppaaimar Warp-Canal … ?”

“Only one way to find out, young man.”

“Wanna come, Captain Banneker?”

“I'm already packed, Captain Dixon.”

“You're a bachelor for the same reason I'm a bachelor!”

“Not quite, young man – and I don't recommend it for you unless absolutely necessary.  But, HEY, I do love being able to get up and go and run around with you young men without worrying about who I might leave behind!  One thing we need to consider, though – we like to think of the Uppaaimar Warp-Canal as a canal, but bear in mind: it's not a canal, but a *permanent fold* in the Milky Way.  That's what it is!”

Then it hit me: presuming the Uppaaimar were still around, they were a group of beings powerful enough to make a permanent fold in the fabric of the universe and then set it on fire – and I was going to lead a mission to ask that group of beings to just please turn it off … 

“Make out your will before we leave, Captain Dixon!  You own half interest in a company – get your affairs all the way together!”

*This represents another RARE occasion in which I went into Apophysis 2.09 looking to create a vision of galaxies orbiting one another in the Local Group, which is home to the Milky Way Galaxy ... this is not a perfect illustration, OBVIOUSLY ... I have a few too many Magellanic Clouds in there ... but, it will do for now!*