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Our real life planetarium, that had been officially named The Thomas Jefferson Observatory, was always kept open to the 'public' whenever it wasn't required for navigating the ship or for mission related research. It was constructed somewhat like a theater. It consisted of a large room with twenty rows of seats that were facing towards a stage that was itself a giant mirror mounted over a window in the hull through which one could look out into space. Sometimes Natalia and I wondered if we were witnessing stars being created without being aware of it, or saw some dying out into oblivion. The thought was exciting, except we didn't know what to look for.
Actually, we could only see a narrow band of space. When we crouched down at the view port and looked straight ahead, the sky appeared totally black. The blue shift that results from flying into the oncoming light compressed the light waves, even the heat waves, into an invisible 'color.' The same was true for light coming from the rear, which we were running away from. Its color was stretched into total invisibility by the so-called red shift. Only the light that came to us sideways didn't get stretched or compressed, which we weren't flying into or away from. Of course, these effects could be corrected electronically. Indeed, so they were in real-time fashion for the use by the bridge personnel.
The planetarium could be linked into this electronic telescope system. The telescope itself resided inside a maneuverable module within the nose cone of the ship. At the planetarium the telescope's images were relayed to a screen mounted over to the top of the mirror. The images were the result of technological miracles provided by a high-speed, high-resolution video facility.
At the planetarium, the telescope was programmable via a hand held console, when control was relinquished at the bridge. The images could be computer enhanced, clarified, and also be adjusted to include a much wider spectrum than visible light, or be filtered to a very narrow band of a single specific color. We could see the Andromeda Galaxy in marvelous detail, measure its energy distribution and do all sorts of fancy things that seemed limited only by one's imagination that itself appeared to be greatly enhanced by the capabilities of this marvel of technology.
In a sense, Natalia and I realized that this was also what the ship's constitution was designed to do on the social level. It was the end product of a mental technology that allowed us to see and experience what would normally be hidden. Under its law the captain had no right to deny these broader horizons that came to the foreground by this new and wide open 'technology.'
One thing was certain, and the famous quote of Jefferson that was inscribed into the right wall of the observatory was appropriately chosen in this sense. The quote was inscribed in gold letters. "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Nothing seemed more certain than this, because our ship was the living evidence that he had been right, and that he had been able to inspire humanity to adapt this attitude.
There was also a second quote, by a modern poet, Baxter T. Tate, a poet and a humanitarian. He had contributed immensely during the worldwide fund raising for the ship. "In the free mind, origins and sanctions of ideas exist in the relations of people to each other, to their universe, and within the interplay of thought that experience generates."
I wondered at times if the captain had ever set foot into the planetarium and pondered over those words that were inscribed into its walls, as Natalia and I had.
One day I had come early for meeting Natalia there. I had come to the planetarium long before Natalia normally arrived. The place was empty, except for a single other person, a man in bridge personnel uniform whom I vaguely remembered as having seen at the time of the crisis in the pit. I joined him. I sat next to him and started a conversation. I mentioned to him the puzzle that Natalia and I had puzzled over, whether one could actually see stars being born.
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Stories about
Sex
from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche
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