Timeline, Part One

 

First part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing. 

Timeline

Part One

Enter your cut contents here. (This primarily concerns the Local Great Cluster but includes some events involving other Great Clusters as well.)

13.78 BYBP Event One*.

*Other names include When All Began, The Big Bang, The Start, The First Thing, Time Zero and The Initial Exhalation.

Event One to 9.3 BYBP The Precursing Interval, extending from what humans usually call the Big Bang to the ascendence of the Pertarn. While there were many starfaring civilizations during this period, none spread widely enough or lasted long enough to be considered important. This period finally ended - or, more properly, the next one began - with the emergence of the first of the great pangalactic level civilizations known of in all of the Local Great Cluster, the Pertarn. 

Note that at the end of this period the universe was both less than half its present size and the balance between "normal" matter, dark matter and Dark Force was very different, with matter predominating and with far more dark matter present than Dark Force.

13.65 BYBP Z (redshift) = 30. First stars form. A few of these still exist.

13.6 BYBP Reionization era begins. 

13.5 BYBP First known point masses form. 

13.3 BYBP Massive burst of star formation. The universe rewarms. 

13.2 BYBP First known galaxies form. 

12.9 BYBP Reionization era ends. 

12.85 BYBP Oldest known quasar.

12.7 BYBP Oldest exoplanet known to pre-contact humans.

12.6 BYBP The Milky Way forms as a distinct galaxy. 

11.4 BYBP The Milky Way halo forms. 

11 BYBP Star formation rate peaks. Universe temperature peaks at 13,000 K and begins to cool. 

10.5 BYBP Oldest Population 1 stars form. These are the first stars abundant in metals. 

10.4 BYBP Oldest life-friendly star systems form. These have early multi-generation stars, usually in galactic cores or large clusters, where several generations of large stars have formed and died explosively in only a few million years each.

A small, unusually compact galaxy later named Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage is captured by the nascent Milky Way. Over hundreds of millions of years it orbits closer and closer, until its path is completely inside the larger galaxy. Even today a cluster of stars left from this body orbit in a retrograde manner which also takes them well out of the galactic plane. 

~10 BYBP What would later be known to humans as the Andromeda Galaxy brushes past the future Milky Way Galaxy. A flurry of star formation results in both bodies, creating the foundation for an unusually high concentration of habitable planets in the early universe. Several satellite galaxies are also drawn from both, some of which break free of the gravitational attraction of their parents.

Possibly in connection to this, the proto-Milky Way captures a smaller galaxy, later termed Gaia-Enceladus. Many of the stars in this go on to form a significant part of the Thin Disc. 

The central bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy begins to form.

9.9 BYBP Oldest galactic clusters form. 

9.7 BYBP Observable universe reaches 1/3rd of the present diameter.

9.6 BYBP Milky Way star formation rate stabilizes. 

9.35 BYBP Barnard's Star forms. 

9.3 BYBP The Pertarn become a starfaring species.

There is some evidence the Pertarn were uplifted by one of the last technological cultures to rise in the Precursing Interval. 

Vicious and species-centric, the Pertarn deal harshly and thoroughly with any intelligence not their own. Since they consider themselves supreme in all of Creation, no other culture receives respect from the Pertarn. They not only don't learn from other cultures, they make a determined effort to erase any sign of other cultures, with very few exceptions. Nearly all other sapient species they encounter during their reign - even some which are older and more technologically sophisticated - are either destroyed or completely subjugated. This extreme prejudice may be a reaction to their treatment by their uplifters, if that origin hypothesis is correct. Their ruthlessness and intelligence result in them quickly (within a hundred thousand years) spreading through the mostly empty galaxies in the Local Great Cluster. There is evidence they may have established outposts or even multi-system colonies in other Great Clusters, which were vastly closer then than they are today.

With few heavy elements present in large amounts outside galactic cores and dense stellar clusters, habitable planets are rare during the reign of the Pertarn. Long before the species moves out of their home system most of the Pertarn population is in artificial space habitats. This practice continues as the Pertarn spread. Today, a scattered few of their enormous habitats still have viable ecosystems. 

9.3 BYBP Oldest known evidence for Dark Force.

9.25 BYBP The Pertarn are the undisputed rulers of the Local Great Cluster. Only a few other isolated, independent starfaring cultures remain in the volume they dominate, most of them because they have escaped the notice of the Pertarn. When one of these is discovered, its remaining life is measured, at most, in centuries. However, without the stimulus of competing as equals with other starfaring cultures the Pertarn stagnate. Their technological development is essentially frozen by the middle of this period, and their culture becomes increasingly rigid and unable to deal with - or even acknowledge the existence of - anything not already routine.

8.9 BYBP The Strangers - a vast fleet of several billion sapients of five different species - arrive from outside the Local Great Cluster. The fragmentary remaining records suggest their culture evolved in a small galaxy or large globular cluster isolated from any of the large collections of galaxies known as Great Clusters. Their fleet was assembled to escape some all-consuming catastrophe, perhaps a gigastellar singularity which passed through their home space. What is known is that their journey was long and difficult, and they arrived without sufficient resources to resume it. Fortunately, they were in a section of the Local Great Cluster which the Pertarn had previously wiped clean of "other life" and no longer paid close attention to. The Strangers therefore had a chance to both learn something of their new home and prepare for the eventual confrontation with its rulers. 

The Strangers quickly become worried due to the remains they find of destroyed starfaring civilizations. Few clues as to the cause exist, but those all point to a deliberate effort by some intelligent agency. This is difficult for them to accept, but they do, and they begin preparing for the inevitable confrontation. They become more discreet and secretive, and send stealthy probes outward, well ahead of their own expansion. Their fears are realized when they find the Pertarn. Though they remain hidden, the depredations of this hostile culture offend them deeply. Unable to leave and unwilling to simply give up after all they've been through, the Strangers reluctantly take the role of liberators of the Local Great Cluster. They prepare for war. They are almost ready when their existence is accidentally revealed. 

The Pertarn are surprised, alarmed and even frightened. They react appropriately; or, rather, in a manner they consider appropriate. Their initial response is so fierce, so brutal, that they make huge progress before the Strangers rally. Driven by feelings of fear and revulsion as intense as those of the Pertarn, the Strangers soon regroup and begin fighting back. 

The diversity and competition (and perhaps sheer desperation) of the different species among the Strangers combined into one culture drive them to a much higher technological level than that possessed by the Pertarn, despite the latter apparently being far older and long firmly entrenched through multiple galaxies. Though vastly outnumbered, the Strangers are soon winning. 

After bloodying the collective noses of the Pertarn, the Strangers offer an armistice. This insult is met with hysterical violence. Realizing that attempts at peaceful coexistence with the Pertarn are futile, the Strangers resignedly resume their campaign. Their fight is long, slow and difficult. However, their triumph is inevitable, given their flexibility and initial technical advantage, and the conservatism of the Pertarn. More and more of the small, extant native technological societies which have survived to this time join with the Strangers in open revolt against the Pertarn. 

8.89 BYBP Faced with defeat and the prospect of being forced to treat others as equals - or even superiors - the Pertarn execute a "scorched worlds" policy. Rather than yield, they take as much else of the known universe with them as they can. Weapons are applied with the sole intent of destroying habitats, both natural and artificial. Planets, stars and even entire globular clusters are disrupted in many different ways. In their last, terrible spasm, the Pertarn develop a technique which stimulates quark-to-lepton conversion and use it to cause electroweak reactions in stars of a particular mass range. With this they turn first dense stellar clusters, then galactic cores, then entire galaxies into raging infernos. The result is something resembling a quasar, only spread over many galaxies. This action is so completely unexpected and irrational that the Strangers and their allies are caught completely by surprise and are unable to defend against the attack. 

In what is later termed the Great Burn, radiation spikes to lethal levels through most of the Local Great Cluster. The Pertarn, the Strangers and probably all other starfaring cultures extant during this period in the Local Great Cluster are apparently completely destroyed in the resulting conflagration. The effect is as if an entire Great Cluster went nova. Even those parts of other Great Clusters near the Local Great Cluster were adversely affected, though tens of thousands of years later, of course, when the radiation reached them. Those civilizations which can, move away. A large volume of the universe is literally sterilized. Though a few isolated enclaves survive in places sheltered artificially, naturally or through some combination, intelligent life is effectively gone from the entire volume. These remnants linger on, in some cases for thousands of years, but are so collectively disheartened that they simply don't try very hard to survive. 

Later cultures which learn of these events refer to them as the Extinction War. By the time new civilizations capable of uncovering this history arise there aren't enough clues left to learn for certain where the Strangers came from. Even billions of years later, no trace of them has ever been found among any of the civilizations of the other Great Clusters with which occupants of the Local Great Cluster have contact. 

Also unknown is whether the Pertarn intended this level of destruction, or planned a more controlled effect and miscalculated. The fact that the technique only directly affected the largest stars implies the latter. However, evidence exists that when the first applications of the effect failed to defeat the Strangers and their allies, the Pertarn grew desperate and applied it more widely. 

Thus begins the First Quiet Interval.

8.8 BYBP The Milky Way's thin, inner disk starts to form. 

Evolving on a homeworld sheltered from the fading radiation of the Extinction War by several dense clouds of dust and gas, the Demmit S'Tee become a starfaring species. Developing without interference because of the vacuum left by the Great Burn, they are free to explore, learn and become what they want. Due to a combination of factors - including their own enthusiasm for living and learning - they are soon predominant of the few interstellar societies present during their early days. Their culture spreads not only through their own Great Cluster, but to several others nearby. (Note that the Great Clusters were much closer to each other at that time than they are today.)

  The Demmit S'Tee are the only known civilization to significantly surpass the Strangers in level of technology. This is in part due to having surviving examples of the technology of the Strangers available for study, which gave the Demmit S'Tee an early boost. They are also the only culture to successfully colonize a Great Cluster not their own. (Here not counting the Strangers as being successful at this, since they were destroyed in their attempt.)

The first mention of chronostasis is from this period. However, at this time no-one had more than the basic version of this technology, which can last no more than a few hundred million years. No chronostasis bubbles from this era or earlier have ever been discovered. At least, none have been reported. It is possible that knowledge of chronostasis existed before this and both the records of the process and whatever was preserved have been destroyed or simply lost.

8.5 BYBP Lalande 21185 forms. 

8.4 BYBP Lacaille 9352 forms. 

8.1 BYBP The rate of expansion of the universe begins to increase. 

8 BYBP The Milky Way's star formation rate begins to decline.

7.8 BYBP Mizar forms. 

7.5 BYBP Arcturus forms.

7.4 BYBP Chronometric Research Station #2453 (later renamed Patience Base) enters chronostasis when attacked during a minor skirmish in an internal conflict between various Demmit S'Tee factions. Due to a miscalculation with the experimental stasis effect they developed they do not emerge after a mere few centuries, as planned. Instead, their long-forgotten base eventually becomes incorporated into a planetesimal which later in turn becomes part of Earth's Moon. By the time the chronostasis waveform collapses on its own over 4.2 billion years have passed.

7.28 BYBP The Talpia become a starfaring species. A mediocre culture by the standards of their time, they had the poor luck to develop starflight in a period when there were already nearly a dozen civilizations spread through the Local Great Cluster. As a result, for their entire history they experience a significant inferiority complex. This drives them in several directions, primarily the pursuit of technological supremacy. Of the known modern starfaring species only the Vig would compare favorably with their level of technological competence towards the end of their existence. 

Even with that edge, however, they do not displace any of the more senior cultures ruling the Local Great Cluster at the time of their emergence as a starfaring species. 

The advanced chronostasis technology previously developed by those in Chronometric Research Station #2453 is rediscovered. 

7.275 BYBP The always-trying-too-hard Talpia make deadly enemies of an elder civilization who exterminate them within two thousand years. Towards the end they are sincerely regretting breaking off their alliance with the Demmit S'Tee five thousand years earlier. The Demmit S'Tee are castigated by others for simply watching without helping their former allies, but they are old and becoming tired and listless and simply ignore the criticism. 

Something happened to the Demmit S'Tee a few centuries before this. Something which broke the culture's collective spirit. They never mention this, but the change is obvious to other senior species. It is known - both from contemporary accounts and surviving examples - that late in their history the Demmit S'Tee made a technological breakthrough which has apparently never been equalled by any other culture. Some of the few surviving devices from that period are considered miraculous today, even by such senior masters of current technology as the Vig. Whether this discovery was connected with their decline is unknown.

Timeline, Part Two

Second part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Two

 

( Read more... )

7.1 BYBP The microwave background cools below 5 K.

The Demmit S'Tee reach the end of a slow retrenchment from interstellar society. They withdraw to a handful of worlds and soon begin fading away. Within a hundred thousand years they will be extinct. 

Through the next few hundred million years all the other senior species in the Local Great Cluster follow the Demmit S'Tee to extinction. A few of the younger species move into some of the niches thus emptied, many repeatedly jumping tens of thousands of years in technological development by scavenging equipment and information left by their predecessors. Major wars are fought over these scraps, and some otherwise promising civilizations die, through violence or exhaustion, because of the conflicts. None manage to equal the departed societies. 

7 BYBP Growth of large galaxies slows. 

6.8 BYBP Alpha Centauri forms. 

The Shebreel become the dominant culture in the Local Great Cluster. Though their tools are advanced and their domain vast by current standards, they are, for their time, unremarkable. Moreover, much of their technological competence is derived from skillful scavenging and careful analysis of recovered artifacts and databases left by previous cultures. Once established, they do little with their realm besides slowly enlarge and consolidate it. This cultural inertia results in their rule lasting less than four million years. They are eventually conquered, and their conquerors conquered not long after, in a pattern which lasts nearly half a billion years. Eventually one culture - the Aubottle - manages to acquire and retain power for a period approaching that of some of the earlier Great Societies, but they also do little with it except maintain the status quo. Finally they, too, fade away as newer, more aggressive species develop first starflight then rapidly expanding domains.

Over the next billion years several major starfaring species rise, become dominant, then slowly fade or quickly die. None manage to equal the Demmit S'Tee in technological development or endurance or even breadth of physical extent controlled. Indeed, the trend is for each dominant culture to be less sophisticated and technologically advanced than its predecessor while controlling a smaller volume of space. Even the Aubottle were a shadow of the Shebreel. Finally, there is no culture left capable of managing all of even one large galaxy.

6.5 BYBP The Milky Way begins spiralizing.

5.8 BYBP The Second Quiet Interval begins. No technologically or socially significant species arises for most of a billion years.

5.75 BYBP A supernova enriches a dense molecular cloud and greatly speeds its collapse. This eventually results in the formation of Sol System. 

5.5 BYBP The Solar nebula starts collapsing.

~5 BYBP The cosmic expansion rate increases.

4.9 BYBP The Second Quiet Interval ends with the emergence of an alliance of four young starfaring species (the Aeurl, the Ebletg, the Loren and the Nolek) which developed relatively closely together at nearly the same time. The Four-Part Alliance divides first their home galaxy, then the entire Local Great Cluster evenly between themselves. Forays are made into other Great Clusters for the first time since the prime era of the Shebreel, but these are extensive exploration missions rather than assimilation or colonization projects. All such efforts which survive return, leaving no long-term settlements. The universe has grown larger, and the distance is simply too great for the technology available to allow practical conquest or commerce.

At their height, the technology of the Four-Part Alliance will come close to that of the Shebreel, actually exceeding it in a few specialized applications.

4.85 BYBP Proxima Centauri forms. 

4.62 BYBP A low mass supernova disturbs the cloud of gas and dust which is already collapsing to form the solar system. The resulting impulse shapes the proto-Sun and surrounding disc where the planets coalesce. 

4.59 BYBP A star slightly smaller than Sol flies by at about 90AU distance from it, significantly reshaping the nascent stellar system. What becomes known as the Solar System begins to achieve a distinctive form. 

4.57 BYBP The Sun begins fusion.

4.54 BYBP The proto-Earth forms. 

4.53 BYBP The proto-Earth is struck by a body later named Theia. The collision destroys the far smaller Theia and severely alters the early Earth, forming a synestia. Additional - though smaller - collisions drive more of the proto-Earth's crust into space, increasing the mass in the orbiting ring. Much of Theia and parts of the proto-Earth's crust eventually coalesce to form the Moon. The heat released drives off a significant portion of the lighter volatiles from both bodies, preventing the Earth from developing a dense, Venus-like atmosphere. Chemical reactions with much of the remaining water and that brought by comets further reduce the carbon dioxide content. 

This is part of a major disturbance of the non-stellar bodies of the system, in what will later be named the Grand Tack. The largest bodies formed first, with Jupiter ahead of all the others after the Sun, forming about 3.5 AU out. Drag from the gas and dust around the Sun caused the massive gas giant to move inward, to about 1.5 AU. This movement inwards quickly (on a stellar scale) stopped, due to a resonance with Saturn. A tidal effect from other bodies - including the dense disc of gas and dust closer to the Sun - then caused the pair to spiral back outward. This cleared most of the smaller items from the inner Solar system, reduced the size of the forming Mars, created the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud and pushed the other gas giants outward. 

These events are studied and recorded by several extant starfaring civilizations. They are noteworthy due to the number of unusual occurrences, but the individual events themselves are common during stellar system formation. Apparently, no-one notices that Theia brought with it a large chronostasis waveform containing Chronometric Research Station #2453. Since the stasis bubble has a low density compared to most of the other materials which make up either colliding body, the Station gets sprayed out with the lighter debris. This ring of rock soon consolidates into the Moon. 

At roughly the same time, a similar massive impact forms the Borealis Basin on Mars. 

4.51 BYBP The Earth's Moon forms as a distinct body. Chronometric Research Station #2453 is incorporated in this.

4.48 BYBP An orbital resonance with Jupiter and Saturn shifts the orbits of Uranus and Neptune further away from the Sun while completely ejecting a similar small gas giant and several rocky bodies of various sizes. This disrupts asteroids and comets and eventually causes the Late Heavy Bombardment in Sol System. The planets are gradually assuming their current orbits through gravitational resonance.

4.4 BYBP The first oceans form on Earth. The oldest surviving minerals begin to form.

4.2 BYBP Earliest signs of magnetic field on Earth. Earliest signs of thick crust on Earth. Earliest potential signs of life on Earth. 

4.11 BYBP Late Heavy Bombardment begins. 

4 BYBP Hellas impact basin forms on the Moon. South Pole-Aitken basin forms on Moon. This last remains the largest surviving impact crater in the Solar System. 

Evidence of first large above-water land masses on Earth. 

3.9 BYBP The last universal common ancestor — LUCA for short - appears on Earth. There is speculation later by humans that the earliest living things on Earth developed from extraterrestrial spores brought by earlier impacts.

Imbrium Basin formed on the Moon by a 250 kilometer impactor. 

3.8 BYBP On the Moon, Tyrrhena Mons and other volcanoes in the highlands near Hellas begin to erupt. 

Late Heavy Bombardment in Sol System tapers off sharply, but continues at a low level for almost two billion more years.

On Earth, the oldest known band of iron oxide forms. 

3.7 BYBP The Oceanus Procellarum is formed on the Moon from a combination of continuing volcanic activity and a cluster of asteroid strikes. 

The Tharsis Bulge begins to form on Mars. Beginning of the Hesperian Era.

Oldest known soil on Earth formed. Earth's magnetic field begins to stabilize. 

3.6 BYBP The Lullusk become a starfaring species.

Valbaara supercontinent forms on Earth. First signs of photosynthesis.

The Meridiani region of Mars holds the last large body of water on the planet.

Gale crater formed on Mars by impact. 

3.5 BYBP The Four-Part Alliance begins to break down from a combination of sheer age and the stresses which come from the emergence of younger, more aggressive cultures in several parts of their combined empire. Due to these pressures the Alliance splits into two coalitions which blame each other for their shared troubles. Over the next several million years the four members switch allegiances - among themselves and with other species - repeatedly, but no-one ever manages to achieve a significantly dominant position to overpower the others. 

The situation becomes even more chaotic when local subgroups of the four still - if barely - dominant starfaring cultures begin making their own agreements, ignoring their supposed leaders. Eventually, the civilization ruled by the Four-Part Alliance dissolves into thousands of squabbling local entities, many commanding the resources of only a few hundred star systems. These continue to bleed each other to a slow death for another ten million years. However, with the remnants of technology they possess even these paltry remnants are capable of exterminating newly arisen starfaring cultures, many of which are only a few thousand years old when they encounter these failing splinters.

Eventually all these fragments of old glories fade away, mostly through losing the understanding of the tools of their ancestors. A huge portion of the Known Universe is left bereft of any civilization larger than tiny enclaves of no more than a few thousand star systems.

Oxygen on Earth rises to a peak. Other chemical signs left in rocks from that period strongly imply an already developed ecosystem. A 25 kilometer asteroid strikes what will later become northwest Australia. 

Atmospheric pressure on Mars is already under a quarter what it is on modern Earth. The evaporation of the planet's water is well underway.

3.48 BYBP Rocks with oldest known physical signs of life on Earth form in what would later become Australia. They and other fossils from that era show life forms which are developed enough and plentiful enough to imply that life has already been thriving on the planet for a good interval by this time.

3.4 BYBP The Known Universe enters The Third Quiet Interval. During this time the balance between dark matter and Dark Force shifts towards the latter, and the expansion of the universe begins to accelerate. What effect this might have on such a relatively minor and short-term phenomenon as civilization in something as small as the Local Great Cluster is uncertain.

Massive impacts on Mars trigger significant hydrologic events. 

3.3 BYBP End of the Hesperian Era on Mars. The air and seas are fading.

 

Timeline, Part Three

Third part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Three

 

( Read more... )

3.2 BYBP Chronometric Research Station #2453 emerges from stasis and frees itself from the Moon, excavating Eratosthenes Crater in the process, to the endless confusion of future lunologists. These last of the Demmit S'Tee look at the vast, empty, silent universe around them and despair. For about a day. Then they begin altering Earth and Mars and building space habitats to contain their soon rapidly-increasing population. They rename their station Patience Base, due to its long period in stasis and the philosophy of the leading contingent among them. 

Venus is close to the right size for Demi S'Tee habitation but seen as already requiring too much effort to make livable, due to the thick atmosphere, rising temperatures and too little water. With their technology, the Demmit S'Tee could alter it to suit them, but why bother when there are two better candidates handy? Earth should have been worse - at least in terms of atmospheric thickness - but the collision which created the Earth-Moon system removed much of the planet's atmosphere while its strong magnetic field and greater distance from the Sun allow it to retain long-term what is left. However, Earth is large for a habitable planet. Mars is closer to what the Demmit S'tee need in terms of size, but it is too small. Its magnetic field is already failing as its core cools, its air and water are evaporating or freezing. The Demmit S'Tee generally thought long-term, those from Patience Base typically moreso. They all realize that if they want to live in this system for more than a few million years they need both room and a stable planetary environment. 

They have much work ahead of them. Mars is nearly dead while the Earth is barely born. Mars receives the bulk of their attention early on, but the Earth shows the most promise for long-term habitability. One unusual advantage is that its large satellite greatly reduces its axial wobble, moderating climate changes. This is considered an adequate compensation for the unusually high gravity.

There is some argument about interfering with the primitive living things already present on these two planets and at a few other locations in this system. When someone points out that the natural changes of these environments will render most of those organisms extinct in a few million years anyway the dissent ends. For then. Earth is seeded and the oxygen content of the atmosphere begins to rise. One result is thick layers of iron oxide deposited in sediments.

Mars has its rotational rate and axial tilt adjusted and its magnetic field reinforced. These tasks are accomplished by inserting a large device deep into the planet's mantle through the Tharsis Plume. Work begins on increasing both the total density of the atmosphere and the oxygen and water content. 

Less than 10,000 years later the few million Demmit S'Tee in Sol System are wiped out in a civil war, sparked by a disagreement over plans for their expansion into the universe. The results of this activity are later mistaken by human planetologists as evidence of a very brief period of unusually heavy bombardment.

For a while, though, things go well. Proper long-term habitats are built, both in space and on Mars, Earth, the Moon and a few other bodies, including asteroids. In addition to newly constructed defense facilities, Patience Base is heavily modified. Originally an important research station with integrated defensive capability, it is converted into a powerful fortress. There is little sign of advanced technological activity outside Sol System for as far as they can determine without doing something to draw attention to themselves. However, these surviving Demmit S'Tee are understandably very cautious. They are almost certainly the only ones of their kind left and they intend to change that fact. As they learn more from additional research and exploration, they constantly improve Patience Base. 

 

Later actual, physical expeditions outside Sol System are made covertly by the Demmit S'Tee. These voyages are primarily intended to uncover what happened to their culture, and secondarily to catch up on the rest of the universe. Determined to keep their presence secret for the foreseeable future, they quietly explore dead worlds in dead systems, long-unoccupied habitats and scattered other constructs. Discovering the fate of their own civilization and subsequent ones - especially the Four-Part Alliance - sobers even the normally optimistic Demmit S'Tee. 

The more enduring chronostasis methodology developed at Patience Base was recreated later by other Demmit S'Tee, helping increase what these expeditions recover. (They are so thorough in their scavenging they greatly reduce what is left for later searchers to find.) Particularly valued is a handful of data caches from well after their own period. Two of these are each part of large collections of Demmit S'Tee artifacts - including memory archives - from not long before the species' initial disappearance. Additionally, they find a Demmit S'Tee non-fugitive automatic archival backup from a civilization-wide communications system. This was created millions of years after Patience Base entered stasis. It continued working long after their species vanished, with the last actual backup made shortly before the network finally collapsed from neglect. These items and other stores of information help those from Patience Base upgrade to the level of technology later members of their culture reached before the mysterious collapse of their civilization. Some of the technological developments described in these records are so extraordinary they alarm the Patience Base leaders. They also serve to further polarize the three primary factions among the Demmit S'Tee in Sol System. 

The smallest faction - the Rapid Advancement Proponents - wish to use the advantages of these technologies to quickly build a huge power base and conquer by force; the second smallest - the Let Nature Take Its Course group - advise abandoning the dangerous rediscovered technologies and erasing all record of them, and giving up the terraforming projects and migrating to several other systems with already habitable worlds but no intelligent life; the third faction - the dominant one - intends to stay in Sol System and increase their numbers and power base for a few millennia, then begin spreading outwards through immigration and peaceful assimilation. Due to the war none of these factions wins, and the Demmit S'Tee are soon truly extinct.

 

In one of the last acts of the the war, the Rapid Advancement proponents attempt to destroy the device deep in the martian mantle which is used to control the rotational rate and axial tilt of the planet and reinforce its magnetic field. Their attack is deflected and diffused, instead vaporizing much of the surface of Mars' northern hemisphere. The device is damaged, however, and its self repair capacity cannot completely correct this. The loss of function allows the continued deterioration of the natural core dynamo. Radiation from the Sun begins to slowly blast away the atmosphere, effectively undoing the environmental engineering previously performed on the planet. The device continues to function but incompletely, so that the planet's axis wobbles far more than desired. Also, the waste heat from its operation is no longer properly disposed of. This accelerates the formation of the Tharsis Bulge. Today the device is almost completely nonfunctional. However, that is mostly due to waiting for directions to help it deal with a situation which is now far outside its intended operational parameters.

Another result of the attack is radioactive contamination of the entire planet. To this day, the surface and atmosphere - especially certain small areas - of Mars contain anomalously high levels of uranium, thorium and potassium, churned out from deep in the lithosphere by the blast. 

None of the far less sophisticated starfaring species native to this era notice either the arrival of the Demmit S'Tee or their departure. Neither do any of these societies encompass more than two million stars before failing. Soon, they are also gone, and this portion of the universe is again quiet.

Most of the effects of the terraforming projects quickly fade, leaving little trace. The impact on Terran native oxygen producers is sufficient that the element begins to decline in the air and oceans of Earth. Mars resumes its long, slow death, though for the next billion years there are intermittent periods which are warm and wet, at least in some areas. Life declines, resurges and declines again, until finally all but the most robust organisms on Mars die out. All that remain today are various species of cave slime.

While the progress of life on Earth continues, it is profoundly affected. Due to the initial changes, the original life forms were largely wiped out, while the lack of deliberate continuation of the terraforming means that most of the introduced life forms also die. An uneasy balance is maintained for millions of years before the descendants of the surviving original strains achieve ascendance, completely replacing the intruders. Today only a few odd fossil traces remain of the introduced organisms.

Many of the Demmit S'Tee artifacts in Sol System which survive the war are destroyed by impacts with planets or other bodies or by environmental forces present on these bodies, or simply by long exposure to radiation and micrometeoroid impacts in space. A few survive intact, mostly on Mars.

Later civilizations which explore Sol System quickly notice the signs of planeforming, and piece together the basics of the story behind the system's strange history. However, the details remain elusive for hundreds of million of years. Slowly, the efforts of various cultures uncover much of what happened in Sol system. Currently, the Archives have a fairly thorough timeline from the emergence of Patience Base and the actions of its inhabitants until just before their end. They even have records of the traces left by some of the searches the Demmit S'Tee from Patience Base performed in several parts of the Local Great Cluster. However, the majority of the story from the beginning of the final war until its end is only very sketchily known. This seems partially due to the passage of time, partially due to the understandable collateral and even deliberate damage of war, and partially due to another factor. The hints remaining of what this last factor was are so worrying that all evidence and analysis of same are ordered hidden by The Management. 

Of Patience Base there is no sign. Those who have studied these events almost uniformly believe the installation was destroyed by the rebels. Yet some still search for it. The South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon is repeatedly targeted for examination as the hiding place for the base, due to its anomalous metallic mass concentration. However, each new survey quickly eliminates the area as being much too old to be a feature of the war which saw the end of the last of the Demmit S'Tee.

One of the most lasting geophysical features of this last civil war is the creation of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest known explosive volcanic deposit in the solar system. This becomes the source of the majority of dust on Mars to current times. 

3.08 BYBP Just over a hundred million years after the Demmit S'Tee vanish the Dolran leave several cubic kilometers of their own equipment and personal belongings and recovered Demmit S'tee artifacts in a repurposed Demmit S'Tee habitat. This is preserved with a second-stage chronostasis enclosure not far from Tharsis. This is soon buried by the eruptions which form Olympus Mons. Why the facility and finds were abandoned is unknown. Presumably they expected to return and access the installation or they wouldn't have used a Demmit S'Tee stasis unit to preserve it. By the time later cultures discover Sol System and its treasures the huge stasis bubble is beyond easy reach. Worry over the cache containing living Demmit S'Tee discourages many of those who otherwise might undertake the effort to reach the object. 

One result of the thorough scavenging by the Dolran is that later cultures acquire fewer examples of Demmit S'Tee technology and records. Most of these are from that culture's first period of activity.

3.0 BYBP The Third Quiet Interval ends with the advancement of the Napit into a galactic level society. They soon fill their own galaxy and spread to those closest to it, less conquerors than missionaries for their way of life. They recruit through persuasion and example, enticing other societies to join theirs by offering technology, trade and mutual protection pacts. They are, however, definitely able to defend themselves against those who use aggression to promote their own cultures. Within a hundred million years theirs is the primary governing entity in the Local Great Cluster by a considerable margin.

They create a bureaucracy which - while it does not actually survive their rule - serves as the model for great cultures into the present time. 

Amazonian Period begins on Mars. Olympus Mons begins to form. The results of these events temporarily create a warmer, wetter climate. 

A prolonged burst of star formation lasting roughly a billion years begins sometime during this period. No records from the earliest part of this event survive which note this beginning. Attempts to attribute it to one particular cause - including some event connected with one or more starfaring civilizations - have not been successful. Most likely the peak was due to a combination of factors, such as the Milky Way ingesting several smaller galaxies in a short time.

2.9 BYBP Tides on Earth decline below 300 meters as the Moon continues to increase its distance. 

Kenorland supercontinent forms. 

Oxygen-producing photosynthetic cyanobacteria begin to flourish in what will eventually become South Africa. Atmospheric oxygen levels begin to increase, though they will not reach a tipping point for nearly another half a billion years. 

2.8 BYBP Neoarchean Eon begins. Valbaara supercontinent breaks up. 

2.66 BYP A rapid oxygenation event occurs on Earth. The higher oxygen level lasts less than fifty million years. Analysis of deep rock layers reveals the activity of certain marine microorganisms which use oxygen to form nitrate compounds, and other microorganisms which use this nitrate for energy. (The data collected from nitrogen isotopes sample the surface of the ocean, while the deep ocean was likely anoxic, or without oxygen, at the time.) The presence of selenium suggests there was free oxygen in the air of ancient Earth. Analyses of sulfur isotopes from Archean rocks confirm the event. 

There are multiple increases in the oxygen level over the next 360 million years, sometimes followed by declines.

2.5 BYBP Distinct tectonic plate movement begins on Earth. Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria leave fossils in a layer of chert located within the Kaapvaal craton of South Africa. Shale deposits form which show thorough oxygenation of oceans. 

2.48 BYBP Oldest evidence of oxygen breathing land organisms on Earth. 

2.4 BYBP Huronian glaciation starts. First snowball Earth period.

The Earth's atmosphere begins a rapid rise in atmospheric oxygen as native oxygen generators become more abundant.

The Earth experiences the Great Oxygenation Event.

2.3 BYBP The Grand Coalition is formed, largely by the Napit, bringing about the highest peak in technical and social development since the fall of the Demmit S'Tee. This is also one of the most peaceful eras in the records. The Napit are strong believers in the philosophy of not starting fights, but definitively finishing them.

2.229 BYBP Ancient asteroid impact in Australia creates what is now known as Yarrabubba crater and ends the glacial Proterozoic eon.

2.2 BYBP Oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere reaches 1%. Ozone layer forms. 

First continent - later named Columbia - begins to form on Earth. 

2.15 BYBP Huronian glaciation ends. 

Oxygen levels approach half the current value.

2.1 BYBP Mid-Proterozoic era. Oxygen levels on Earth continue to rise. First evidence of multi-cellular organisms and their locomotion on Earth. This is followed by a deoxygenation event 2.083 billion years before present.

A multi-species investigation of the odd biological developments on Earth uncovers incongruously young Demmit S'Tee artifacts in Sol System. Their age and technological advancement alarm the Napit and others. Eventually, a thorough search and analysis of the records about the Demmit S'Tee left by previous cultures convince the current masters of the Local Great Cluster that all members of that mythic species are indeed long gone. Still, concerns persist over what happened to some of the more significant constructs mentioned in the records found in Sol System, including Patience Base itself. Is it still out there, somewhere, again in stasis? If so, it would - by itself - be more powerful than anything short of the combined resources of the entire Napit culture... if even that would be enough.

This realization generates a search - conducted intermittently over hundreds of millions of years by members of thousands of societies - for Patience Base. Some want its power for themselves; some for their culture; some to keep it from being used by their enemies; others from being used by anyone. Following this initial surge, interest gradually fades. However, off and on for nearly a billion years someone will find mention of Patience Base in the records of some ancient culture and spark another search for it. Patience Base remains elusive, and even most of those who seek it eventually decide it is long destroyed in the civil war which killed the last of its builders.

Though the main prize is never found, these efforts are far from fruitless. Many surviving Demmit S'Tee artifacts are uncovered, both in Sol System and in the vaults of earlier researchers and scavengers, as well as a few items and caches remaining from the first era of the species. Mars is given particular attention and thoroughly scanned for stasis bubbles. Most of those remaining on or near the surface of the planet are recovered and opened. Some are deemed not worth the trouble, including the largest inclusion, which is already buried deep under Olympus Mons. (A large part of the reason it is left unopened is fear it may contain living Demmit S'Tee.) The vast majority of the items recovered are unique and cannot be duplicated by current technology. 

However, even supposedly innocuous items can cause major disruptions far out of proportion to their size and intended use. This is only partly due to their sophistication. After all this time of unsupervised existence their situation is outside any parameters their builders foresaw. When a test of a damaged power generation unit causes a vast dieoff of life on the young Earth the policy is adopted for the current dominant culture in the Milky Way to strictly regulate access to Sol System (something later made official and overseen by The Management); for its own protection, if no other reason. 

 

Timeline, Part Four

Fourth part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Four

 

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2.0 BYBP Andromeda galaxy strips nearly 20 billion Solar masses of stars, dust and gas from smaller galaxy M32, leaving that body a pale shadow of its former self. 

1.9 BYBP Earth's atmospheric oxygen exceeds 15%.

A natural nuclear reactor forms in Oklo, Gabon. 

1.8 BYBP Columbia finishes forming and begins to slowly erode. Beginning of the Boring Billion period of life.

1.58 BYBP The Ipanit become a starfaring species. Their appearance is a bit of a surprise; their world of origin has already sent two species to the stars, the second of these being the Napit. Part of the reason for their rapid cultural evolution is the demands placed on them from being a young society on an old and tired world. 

Early on the Ipanit have much in common with the stereotypical mad scientist. They tend to become preoccupied with a project to the point of ignoring the consequences it might bring. Often, even when sternly informed by older cultures that Bad Things Will Happen if they continue, they shiver for a moment in contemplation of possible consequences, then charge ahead, considering the Bad Things worth experiencing to see the project to completion. They aren't evil or stupid; their priorities simply are such that the threat of Bad Things rarely deters them. Their promise and their potential to cause trouble both encourage older species to oversee them during their developmental period, helping the Ipanit to reach an acceptable level of maturity before they are unleashed upon the universe. Still, there are times when the Napit and others collectively mutter - not entirely rhetorically - "Remind me again why we let them live?" 

1.575 BYBP The Ipanit are welcomed into the Grand (later Old) Coalition. 

Due in part to the technical competence of the Ipanit, and in part to what is learned from recovered Demmit S'Tee artifacts, the Grand Coalition becomes the last society to match the overall technical sophistication of the Strangers. More than a billion and a half years later, remnant products from this period are still highly valued. For the first time, a single (if broadly defined) multi-species culture comes to dominate most of the Known Universe.

1.55 BYBP The first known expeditions in over three billion years are sent to other - generally now much more distant - Great Clusters. Nearly everything in them has changed in the interval, though some remnants of natural or deliberately-created features mentioned in the old records remain. Friendly contact is the rule, though there are exceptions. Scholars note that the pattern of societal development and decay have followed the same general pattern in these Great Clusters as in the Local Great Cluster, and begin to understand why. 

This understanding casts a chill over those who have it.

The Napit as a species commit ritual suicide. This is not a quick decision, but an action which results from long discussion and much contemplation. Once they decide, there is no persuading them to change their minds. They make certain all their affairs are in order, then all of them die, peacefully and painlessly, in a matter of months. They do not explain why.

Speculation over the reason for this bizarre action provides no firm answer. The consensus is that something they learned from the information gathered by the expeditions to other Great Clusters caused them to become depressed and/or fatalistic, but exactly what is not certain.

On Earth the Columbia supercontinent breaks apart. 

1.5 BYBP Crystallization of Luna's iron core becomes noticeable, primarily in the reduction of the Moon's previously strong magnetic field. 

 

1.49 BYBP The Earth begins forming an inner core of solid iron. The planet's magnetic field strengthens.

1.45 BYBP The Underway is created by the Grand Coalition. It never sees the level of use for which it is intended, and within three million years is completely forgotten except by a few hobbyists and historians.

1.4 BYBP A sample of ancient oxygen, later teased out of a 1.4 billion-year-old evaporative lake deposit in Ontario, shows that the Earth's atmospheric oxygen levels were a tiny fraction of what they are today.

1.31 BYBP The Grand Coalition loses the last of its founding species as the Yuan formally resign their membership. They retire to a few hundred worlds and gradually fade away over a period of eight million years. There are no new senior civilizations available to replace them, and none of the hundreds of young species with starfaring capability are considered fit to join by the remaining Coalition members, since none are over half a million years old. The Ipanit, with a trace of their old gusto, attempt to raise some of the young societies now extant to their own level. The oldest of them are insulted by the offer, and the youngest are incapable of handling what the Ipanit have to offer.

1.26 BYBP The Grand Coalition is formally disbanded by the last surviving member species, the Ipanit. A few of the older starfaring societies lament the passing of the institution, but most of the rest are surprised to learn it ever existed.

1.25 BYBP Oldest fossil evidence of photosynthesis on Earth. 

1.24 BYBP The New Grand Coalition (later just Grand Coalition) is formed. It soon breaks down into a squabbling mass of younger cultures demanding more from the older members. The Ipanit refuse to have anything to do with it. Somehow it staggers on for over half a billion years. 

1.2 BYBP On Earth the Rodinia supercontinent forms. 

1.12 BYBP The Ipanit create the Stimulators, with the cover story of making a mistake with an uplift project. The first of the Challenges occurs within a hundred thousand years. Gradually, their scope and effect increase, and their mission drifts away from its original purpose.

1.11 BYBP The Ipanit retire to 35 worlds, scattered through 15 galaxies. They manage to hang on for another four hundred million years before the last vanish. The fact that the Challenges now scour entire galaxies nearly free of technological life roughly every ten million years may encourage this decline. 

1 BYBP Luna's magnetic field is by now almost completely faded, reaching 0.1 microteslas. 

 

1 BYBP - 700 MYBP The cumulative effects of the Challenges - known by most sapients aware of them in this period as the Cleansings - transforms civilization in the Local Great Cluster from a broad and nearly homogenous form to scattered empires of - at most - a single large galaxy and its satellites. Technology and trade suffer, with many regions undergoing long periods of barbarism. During this span of time the Cleansings become increasingly smaller and less frequent, and finally cease for hundreds of millions of years; memory of them fades to a dim, cautionary tale. Remnants of the second Grand Coalition survive, guttering like a candle in a fitful wind.

930 MYBP Earliest known fungi on Earth. 

800 MYBP Chemical changes in the oceans more than 800 million years ago almost destroy the oxygen-rich atmosphere which paved the way for complex life on Earth.

An otherwise unknown starfaring culture explores Demmit S'Tee artifacts on Mars and at other sites in the Solar System. 

770 MYBP Kaigas glaciation begins on Earth.

750 MYBP Rodinia supercontinent breaks apart. 

720 MYBP Sturtian glaciation begins. 

702 MYBP The Ainavru become a starfaring civilization. 

Partly due to their tradition of valorous individual warriors and small, elite military groups they specialize in combat spacecraft of enormously concentrated capability and small crews. 

The Ainavru - through a combination of conquest and tributes - rapidly become influential through a large proportion of the Local Great Cluster. They give every indication they will be the next ruling culture, masters of the volume. Most other cultures of that time and place are dreading this.

700 MYBP An enormous volcanic event on Venus greatly increases the density of the atmosphere and poisons it with large amounts of carbon dioxide. 

695 MYBP The Adagentai become a starfaring species. Ambitious, intelligent, well-organized and very pragmatic, within their sphere of influence they bring about a period of peace and plenty. Eventually, their dominion will involve a volume of space unmatched since the heyday of the Old Coalition. Their reign will become known as the Adagentai Dominion of Prosperity, an appropriate name.

They soon attract the attention of the Ainavru. Even though the two civilizations are based in separate - though relatively close - galaxies, the Ainavru make a point of harassing the Adagentai. This includes direct military confrontation, sabotage and underhanded economic maneuvering. Eventually, overt war breaks out.

The breakpoint occurs when the Ainavru send a vast, conquering and colonizing fleet to the home galaxy of the Adagentai. They take over multiple habitable worlds and construction facilities from their rightful owners. These are used to create an even larger fleet, as well as building living facilities for millions of their kind. Entire systems are stripped of quickly accessible resources to build or alter cities and make factories for producing their war materials. The invaders make a huge amount of headway before the extent of their effort becomes apparent. Most extant cultures expect the Ainavru to win quickly and decisively. 

694 MYBP In a brief, violent conflict, the Adagentai decisively defeat the Ainavru. The "secret" of the Adagentai victory is application of a greater concentration of resources using superior tactics, striking where the Ainavru are least strong. In large part, major engagements with the outrageously powerful ships of the Ainavru are avoided. The Adagentai go around the Ainavru fleets to conquer and occupy or simply destroy their worlds, leaving the ships with no place to return to. When direct conflict is unavoidable, the Adagentai simply pour on so many ships that their opponents are overwhelmed. The Ainavru culture has grown so inflexible and conservative they cannot adapt to these tactics. Unable to understand how they were beaten when their ships - many of which remain both operational and formidable today - are so superior to those of these young upstarts, the Ainavru commit communal suicide from shame.

684.8 MYBP The Underway is rediscovered by Adagentai experimenters. All knowledge of it is immediately classified and its use restricted to special government couriers. Because of this it is again forgotten within a few centuries, except to a handful of covert Adagentai agencies.

During this same period the Adagentai begin experimenting with using multiple FTL drives in individual ships. The technique was of course tried many times before, going back billions of years, but the development rarely persisted operationally due to being perceived as wasteful and unnecessary. Over the next few centuries, the Adagentai fine-tune the technology, to build the fastest craft ever to ply the skies. Even direct intergalactic travel becomes routine, to the great financial benefit of the Adagentai and their allies and trading partners. 

684 MYBP The second Grand Coalition falls apart, unable to deal with the Adagentai and other vigorous, young cultures which are entering the scene. However, by this time some members have helped form the Preservationists of Civilization. This is done with help from the Adagentai and some other newly-dominant cultures. These are groups or individuals who see the value of remembering the past. 

The resources of the Preservationists are distributed through hundreds of thousands of installations, most of them on worlds where the natives agree to protect them and their contents in return for access to the knowledge the Preservationists gather. There are also hidden caches, their locations - and even their existence - known to only a few. More important than the artifacts, or even the knowledge, stored at any one installation is the communications network created to support the project. This, combined with sophisticated automatic data sharing algorithms, means that information entered into the system is never lost, whether through accident or deliberate attempt. 

The Preservationists should, at first thought, become the target of every ambitious species capable of interstellar flight, since they possess information and equipment which are of inestimable value. However, those societies sophisticated enough to know of the group understand all they have to do is ask politely. The Preservationists, happy with the attention, are more than willing to share. All they ask in return is to be supplied with information and modest resources for storing and sharing it.

Eventually, information becomes the universal medium of exchange in the Local Great Cluster.

The Adagentai combine two of their own previous projects, using multidrive ships to take elaborate instrument packages far into intergalactic space. These are used to monitor deep subspace conditions, reporting back periodically. However, as the effort proceeds ships begin to go missing. Patrols sent to search for them either find nothing, or themselves go missing. 

683 MYBP The Purifiers begin a new series of Cleansings which repeatedly tax the Adagentai, but end up leaving them stronger each time. During this period the Umpal'tec^ Revision - a major update to a long-existing inter-cultural agreement on technological standards - makes power regulation modules mandatory for all pandimensional systems. The Revision also bans the use of multiple drives in FTL craft, a measure sponsored by the Adagentai. This abandonment of such obviously superior travel technology puzzles later historians, as the reason is lost in time. 

Following the prohibition against multidrive ships, the Adagentai and many other species establish major research and development programs to improve single drive propulsion. Though significant progress is made, none of the craft using the new singleton drives are quite as fast as those using the banned multidrive concept. Worse, Purifiers capture ships with these new drives and soon incorporate the technology behind the best of them.

666 MYBP Inspired by the communications network of the Preservationists, the Adagentai construct a military early warning system for the Milky Way and its closest neighbors. Surviving portions of this are incorporated into the Grand Monitoring Network in 387 MYBP. The system has ties to the Preservationists' network, and also accesses the information provided by the deep intergalactic probes previously placed by multidrive ships. Similar systems planned for other galaxies in the Local Great Cluster are only partially constructed, due to a long period with no Cleansings.

650 MYBP Marinoan glaciation begins on Earth. 

640 MYBP Oldest molecular signs of animal life on Earth.

583 MYBP The Adagentai withdraw to a handful of worlds in the Milky Way - mostly their oldest colonies - and gradually fade away to extinction over the next 21 million years. A few may still exist in isolated, self-contained habitats - or in stasis - but there have been no verified finds in nearly a hundred million years. 

In preparation for their withdrawal from mundane affairs the Adagentai establish a self-supporting bureaucracy which continues little altered to this day. It will survive several major changes in rulers (that is, which society is currently predominant and setting policy) much as the bureaucracy of ancient Egypt did. This entity is known by many names, some of them quite profane. It is most commonly called The Management. 

The Management does not govern, and it does not set policy or goals. Instead it handles the paperwork, maintaining the rule of law through the making of regulations and handling the associated legal procedures. The neutrality and detachment of The Management are both blessed and damned by thousands of cultures down through the aeons.

580 MYBP The Gaskiers glaciation turns the Earth into a giant snowball.

575 MYBP On Earth the Avalon life diversity explosion begins. Ediacaran fauna emerges.

565 MYBP On Earth, the planet's magnetic field begins to weaken. 

Evidence of the first deliberate locomotion, developed by the Ediacarans. 

558 MYBP Oldest multi-cellular animal fossil.

542 MYBP On Earth, an extreme weakening of the planet's magnetic fields leads to mass extinctions of the Ediacarans. However, ongoing changes in the planet's core soon strengthened the magnetic field. This leads to the Cambrian Explosion.

541 MYBP Cambrian explosion begins on Earth. 

527 MYBP Youngest known iron banding oxidation event on Earth.

520 MYBP On Earth, plants begin colonizing land. 

510 MYBP On Earth, volcanic eruptions across a vast area of what is now Western Australian and the Northern Territory cause the first known rapid mass extinction of complex life forms on Earth. 

500 MYBP Earth experiences a major increase in atmospheric oxygen in the late Cambrian, leading to the radical new species of the Ordovician. This is later known as the Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (or SPICE) Event.

490 MYBP The Ordovician Period begins on Earth. 

466 MYBP An asteroid collision between Mars and Jupiter eventually blankets the Earth with dust. The resulting reduction in sunlight brings on an ice age. This makes like very difficult on Gondwana and in the oceans around it. However, as life recovers there is an explosion in the diversification of sea life. 

444 MYBP Late Ordovician Mass Extinction occurs, most likely due to a fall in atmospheric oxygen at the boundary between the Hirnantian and Rhuddanian geological stages. Sea life is especially hard hit with roughly 86% of all ocean species going extinct. The effects last over three million years. 

440 MYBP Ordovician/Silurian transition. 

401 MYBP Last recorded major attack by Purifiers. There is little organized opposition, but for some reason they do not expand from their early successes and instead soon withdraw. Smaller incidents continue at gradually increasing intervals for nearly 250 million years, with a few unconfirmed sightings as recently as 58 MYBP.

Timeline, Part Five

Fifth part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Five

 

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Timeline, Part Six

Sixth part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Six

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Timeline, Part Seven

Seventh part of a timeline I created as part of the background for some science fiction stories I'm writing.

Timeline

Part Seven

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100,000 YBP Symbolic items - including carved shells, engraved ocher and ocher-processing kits - are left in Blombos Cave in South Africa. 

93,000 YBP The Management is persuaded by the Kulkong - with support from the Vig - to allow limited sociological monitoring of early humans, and also non-invasive exploration of Demmit S'Tee (and other ancient) artifacts in Sol System. The P'Thaliani howl in protest (literally) since they believe they have the only rightful claim to both the life forms and the artifacts, having (according to their own inerrant records) discovered them when all others were blind to their presence. However, with the Vig not only supporting the work but having a small presence on the job, the P'Thaliani don't dare take military action. (Truthfully, they would have very little chance of success against even the Kulkong.)

83,500 YBP The Dekabor build a substantial research vessel to explore hostile environments, such as the volumes around very active stars and stellar remnants. They pack the thing with multiple new technologies they are developing, including a potentially sapient computer. They do not register the computer with the Management as a person (as required by law) planning to do so after they evaluate its performance. 

During the ship's third mission, the computer begins doing and saying things which worry the crew. They physically disconnect it from the ship, then discover that they've been locked out of the control systems. They use auxiliary craft to push the ship into a highly elliptical orbit, most of which is too close to the white dwarf being studied to make salvage easy, then escape in the smaller craft. All mention of the ship is removed from official records and the crew conditioned to never reveal any information about it. 

81,000 YBP The Tsalt become a starfaring species.

75,000 YBP The Bergal become a starfaring species. 

Block of ocher with inscribed geometric patterns left in Blombos Cave in South Africa. 

Oldest known shell beads.

71,000 YBP Scholz' star passes within 50,000 AU of Sol, disrupting several large bodies in the Oort Cloud. It captures a few of these while losing a few of its own. Millions of years will pass before any of the disturbed bodies in the Oort Cloud reach even as close as the orbit of Neptune.

65,000 YBP Neanderthals leave wall paintings in La Pasiega, Maltravieso, and Ardalesand other caves in Spain and other parts of Europe.

63,000 YBP Oldest known carved ostrich eggshell. 

43,000 YBP Drilled fox tooth necklace ornament made by unknown Neanderthal. 

40,000 YBP "Lion Man" carving created, left in Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave.

Oldest known hand stencils, in a cave on Sulawesi Island. 

Oldest known flute - made from a griffon vulture bone - left in Hohle Fels Cave.

39,000 YBP First painting in Altamira Cave in what would later become Spain. This consists of several abstract symbols. 

37,000 YBP Stencil handprints left in El Castillo Cave. First period of human occupation at Chauvet Cave begins. "Horse Panel" and "Great Panel" drawn in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc.

35,000 YBP Oldest known "Venus" figurine, from Hohle Fels Cave in what would later be Germany. 

Ivory carvings of horse and lion heads left in Vogelherd Cave, in Germany.

33,500 YBP End of first period of human occupation at Chauvet Cave.

31,000 YBP Second period of human occupation at Chauvet Cave begins. 

28,000 YBP Second period of human occupation at Chauvet Cave ends.

26,000 YBP Ivory carving of stylized human head and stone "Venus" left in Véstonice, in the Czech Republic. 

25,000 YBP Miniature ivory bust later known as the Lady of Brassempouy created from a mammoth tusk. Found in southwest France.

19,000 YBP First animal paintings in Altamira Cave. More would be occasionally added for the next 4,000 years. 

13,000 YBP Syrian prehistoric village of Abu Hureyra and its immediate surroundings destroyed by airburst of cometary debris. Temperatures on the ground immediately under the fireball reached 2400 kelvins. The comet had fragmented before entering Earth's atmosphere, and impacts are spread widely over much of the planet.

Long theorized, late in the Twentieth Century the event is found to be recorded in the long-buried ruins of the Göbekli Tepe temple in modern Turkey.

12,850 YBP The Younger Dryas period begins after a series of major volcanic eruptions across the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. 

 

12,000 YBP The Heerg become a starfaring species.

8,000 YBP The Plokt become a starfaring species.

1589 YBP The Tierra Blanca Joven eruption in Central America devastates Maya communities in what is now El Salvador.

1477 YBP A major volcanic eruption by a high-latitude volcano lowers temperature across the Earth. This may have caused the notorious Plague of Justinian.

Three years later, a major volcanic eruption of Ilopango, a now-dormant volcano in El Salvador, causes an extreme cooling in the Southern Hemisphere and equatorial region. The Maya, in particular, are adversely affected. 

1180 YBP A volcano erupts in what would become Mount Churchill in Alaska. Ash from this reaches as far as part of Europe. Due in part to this, the Dene native tribes undergo a diaspora, with many tribes winding up in what would be the US southwest. This includes the Apache and the Navaho. 

1100 YBP Due to multiple factors - the most significant a prolonged, severe, widespread drought - the Mayan Empire comes to an end. 

768 YBP The Yeval find their planet under bombardment by comets and asteroids disrupted from their normal orbits by a brown dwarf entering their system. 

751 YBP The Yeval complete a project to move their world to a new star, but too late. Only a few thousand survive, in various underground bases. They start their world on its journey, then enter suspended animation. 

A few weeks later the Yeval homeworld arrives in the Alpha Centauri system. The automated controls put it in a polar orbit around the star. As planned, over the next few decades organisms are released from suspension in a carefully planned sequence to reestablish the ecosystem. However, due to a mistake in the program code used to regulate the Yeval's own suspension chambers they do not awaken when planned. 

Present To maintain the fiction that humans are alone in the universe, the Management - under the direction of the Vig and with the help of the Kulkong - are very careful to keep any of their activities in Sol System hidden from the primitive but surprisingly capable human space exploration efforts. This occasionally means interfering with probes, even to the extent of disabling those headed to Mars when there is noticeable activity there. Humans half-jokingly ascribe the results of these actions to "The Great Galactic Ghoul," a mythic entity which eats space probes bound for Mars. There are also tall tales about the Martian Defense Force. None of those propagating these myths realize how close their jokes are to the truth.

50 YAP A human expedition to Mars encounters a Kulkong archeological expedition (with seven Fliring advisors and a still-physical Vig observer). The members of this three-species project were studying artifacts left there by a forgotten civilization which roughly 800 MYBP was studying the Demmit S'Tee artifacts present. Representatives of the three starfaring cultures agree that interfering with automated probes was one thing, but affecting the lives of sapient creatures would not be allowed. The Management later (after several decades of studying precedents and regulations) concurs. While attempts are made by the nonhumans to mask their presence (unsuccessfully; the human explorers prove surprisingly perceptive and inventive) the human vessel is left alone, and its crew discovers the aliens. 

After considerable discussion, the three older species sign a treaty with humans to become co-wardens of the planet Mars and its resources. The same treaty is later expanded to the entire Sol System, making humans co-wardens of any other archeological artifacts uncovered there. Excluded are the artifacts and remains of ancient humans on Earth, which remain in the charge of the natives. Humans are allowed to develop any resource in their home system not directly involving the co-managed remains. The Kulkong further promise to recognize humans as full partners once they develop their own FTL drives and prove they are capable of handling themselves in interstellar society. Until then, the Kulkong have the responsibility of protecting them from predators. Once news of this agreement is released the P'Thaliani do some more howling.

80 YAP The Kulkong are actually pleased - and act much like proud parents - when humans make their first FTL journey in near-record time. Adding to their delight, the trip is made not by agents of a human government, but by a team of social outcasts who use a drive from a cancelled research program. Other species accuse the Kulkong of helping their wards, but the Vig certify this did not happen. Indeed, some of the theory behind FTL flight was derived by humans decades before the fateful Mars expedition was launched. A few cultures begin to wonder if the encouragement of humans by the Fliring, Vig and Kulkong is safe. The Fliring, Vig and the Kulkong all understand that the safest course is not always the best one.

An unauthorized human FTL trip to Alpha Centauri by a private group leaves both human and alien bureaucracies floundering in confusion. Due to the wording of the treaty between humans, Vig and Kulkong, the group is allowed to determine the form of bureaucracy which will represent humans before the rest of the universe. This accident of history amuses the Kulkong no end. Even the Vig are said to have an occasional quiet chuckle over these events. Both species appreciate the dual meaning of the name the colonists give their new world: Asylum. Meanwhile, the Fliring collectively and figuratively roll their eyes over these events and the reaction of their bosses, the Vig, who are old enough they should act in a more mature fashion.

83 YAP A rogue faction within the UN covertly redirects military equipment and personnel in an attempt to seize the Centauri colony. The faction has the mistaken notion that whoever is in control of the colony will be recognized as the rulers of humanity. The colonists manage to hold out until the Kulkong can arrive and force the UN to recall the troops. This eventually causes the revelation to the general human population of the existence of aliens and FTL travel and the agreement between their governments, the Kulkong and the Vig. 

85 YAP The UN sends expeditions to over a dozen nearby star systems, looking for habitable planets. Or, rather, that is what the general public is told. What they actually do is use information from both terrestrial astronomers and the Kulkong to choose planets possibly suitable for human colonization. That contact has been made with intelligent aliens, and that the first extra-solar colony was organized without authorization by a non-governmental group are kept officially secret (though millions already know at least some of the truth). So is the fact that the Asylum colonists have been given the authority by The Management to regulate interaction between humans and the rest of the universe. 

Besides Alpha Colony on Asylum, there is only one potentially suitable world within reach of the early human ships, and it is in the Delta Pavonis system. A colony is established by the UN, but after losing a third of their number within eighteen months the survivors are evacuated. Meanwhile, two more colonies are established on Asylum by the non-governmental group which produced the first colony there.

These new settlements are far enough from the original - and each other - that most natural disasters would only affect one group at the most, but close enough for people to commute between them with a few days of ground travel. (The colonists don't inform the UN that they have a method of underground travel, using the old subtrain system left by the original inhabitants. Neither do they tell Earth that they have found hundreds of the original inhabitants in cryogenic suspension. They instead work with The Management to develop a program to revive the original occupants of the planet safely.)

90 YAP The United Nations renames itself United Humanity. This follows a major shakeup in the UN, as the rulers of member nations discover what their representatives in that body have been doing without telling them.

153 YAP A human archeological expedition to Mars opens the largest stasis enclosure there after traversing several kilometers through a lava tube to reach it. At the wall of the enclosure they discover the remains of a Betped who reached it before them but died after being stranded by a rockfall. Other bodies from that same illicit effort are later found under the rockfall. 

160 YAP Humans become a widespread starfaring species with surprising speed. The fact that they are used to dealing with multiple, often quite different cultures among themselves helps greatly with this. As promised, the Kulkong recognize their sole rule over Sol System (except for the non-human archeological sites) as well as responsibility for their own defense. Friendly relations between the two species continue as humans assume a rapidly rising position in their home galaxy.

Human communities are soon established on over a hundred worlds. However, only five of these are actual colonies established by humans. Life-bearing worlds are scarce, and there are few not already occupied by other starfaring cultures. The Management long ago declared that worlds where intelligent life was developing were not to be colonized, further reducing the opportunities. (Of course, that also protected the Earth and humanity.) Humans are beginning to understand why most species with space travel have so much of their population in sealed domes on lifeless worlds and in orbiting habitats.

Earth, Mars, Asylum and a few other natural bodies and some artificial objects in Sol System and Centauri System continue to be protected by the Kulkong, with a few Fliring and an occasional Vig also staying on both the red planet and Asylum. This second presence greatly reduces the temptation by other cultures to test the primitive early defenses humans establish. Many would find the human efforts trivial to overcome, and might also be willing to take on the Kulkong, but very, very few are willing to challenge the Fliring; forget about risking the ire of even an individual Vig. Nearly all starfaring cultures have the policy that if the Vig are involved, just walk away, whistling casually and thinking peaceful thoughts. 

The heart of human starfaring bureaucracy is based on Mars, but policy is still determined by Alpha Colony.

165 YAP Someone recommends that the human government contact the Threlk. Their system is located over twenty thousand light years from Earth. However, a trip using the Linked Rings requires only a little over twelve hundred light years of ship travel between there and Sol System, which takes a bit under an hour by civilian transport. The Threlk are stalled in their recovery efforts, and humans desperately need the experience of dealing both with non-human cultures and advanced technology. At their peak, the Threlk were technologically well beyond where even the Kulkong currently are.

Humanity and the Threlk reach a mutually beneficial agreement. The biggest problem the Threlk have encountered is that of closing the gap between what needs to be done to restore them to a true starfaring society and bringing their infrastructure to the level necessary for accomplishing that. Most worlds only get one industrial revolution. Since humans have recently learned how to take the first steps in this process themselves, they can sometimes interpolate between what they know how to build and what the Threlk did in the past. Both cultures learn from this process and the Threlk resume mass production of pandimensional equipment within a century. Meanwhile, human technology makes several leaps forward.

Additionally, the cultural benefits to both species prove significant. Exposure to the young and enthusiastic humanity stimulates the Threlk to increase the pace of their own efforts. Humans in turn are inspired by Threlk persistence. 

185 YAP During a period when all Vig and Fliring are absent from Sol System and there are only a few Kulkong present, the P'thaliani organize a fleet to capture Mars and "recover the valued remnants of our illustrious predecessors from the grasp of the primitives." The fleet disappears somewhere along the way. The Kulkong refuse to comment, but secretly are baffled. A few individuals in the Kulkong government know what and why, and understand the need for secrecy. They are still young as Civilization counts time, and the secret could aid them as well. Key individuals among the Fliring and Vig also know what happened, and are a bit worried about humanity having such a big gun.

220 YAP An illegal human expedition to the Osran homeworld runs into trouble. 

320 YAP The first confirmed Cleansing in nearly three hundred million years begins.