All things must start somewhere. As does this.

It starts with a planet. Not a particularly large planet, nor one of vast strategic or metaphysical interest to anybody beyond those who live on it. It’s merely just a planet, orbiting a sun, third in a line of others. It has one moon, and while it’s not a large moon nor as numerous as the varying other neighbors, this planet adores its little moon. It loves it so, lends the moon the guiding hand of its biggest resource. Liquid water coats this planet, and as per the agreement made when chunks of another planet broke from impact on this planet millions of years ago. As a form of penance, the moon gets to guide the tides of this planet’s vast array of water. Could be worse, the moon considers. Sure it’s not a glamorous place, sparse and dead like the first planet in the system, it’s not as interesting as its neighboring moons but he’s doing something. Beats being frozen solid.

The moon orbits around the planet while said planet spins on its axis, enforced by magnetic fields from both its sun as well as its core of molten metal. This constant spinning makes the days and nights of the planet move at a relatively rapid pace, keeping everything living on it on their collective toes/paws/appendages in regards to schedules. Time has never had such an effective metaphor as this rotation and night. As the planet spins, so too does the night overwhelm the day for sections of this world, spinning out of the light of the sun and towards the back that faces the rest of space. The moon is the only thing that can be seen, alongside the stars in the sky and with a keen enough eye, the neighbors of this planet far off in the distance. Before too long, this darkness that has plunged into this area is bathed in the light of the sun once more, and thus the spinning continues.

As this planet spins, a new day dawns upon it. Across many places in this world, life that seems so rare anywhere else in the galaxy but so plentiful on this planet arises from their slumber. Across millions of miles of land and sea, from the cold edges of this planet’s axis to the warm and humid center the closest to its sun, the planet awakes to a new day. Creatures dot this planet, simple and complex in equal measure. Some of them are microscopic, barely legible to even the finest of optical observing devices, and yet these small creatures are said to be the baseline of all life on this planet. Every single being evolved from one of these single celled organisms, who over time erected larger and larger organisms for their own collective survival. Much as any primitive group of people create tribes, so too did these cells make their own tribes and bond together. Gathering themselves larger and larger before they would dot the planet that they now call home. They’re one of the more powerful forces on this planet, being the reason for why it has a proper atmosphere via the constant conversion of carbon dioxide into oxygen and nitrogen that make up the breathable air of this planet. Suffice to say that it’s impressive for any being to do such proto-terraforming, especially one as small as that. Had we the ability to award a medal that small, we would.

Said beings were not content to merely make their planet more livable. No, that wasn’t just it. Why do the simple, why stick to a formula when you can expand upon it and soon become more than the sum of your parts. More tribes of these little cells banded together, making larger and larger networks before the networks became their own independent beings. Automatic function soon made these cells operate in line, becoming the first assembly line production in this planet's history. These were animals, true animals and not a falsified version made to prove a point. Naturally occurring, multiplying and diversifying. Initially these animals limited themselves to the vast oceans of their world, focusing on a constant battle to consume one another for survival and thriving. The cycle of eating food, producing young and living long enough to do it all again remained until one had an idea. Sparking in the nerves and synapses of its amphibian brain, one of these animals called the bluff of its rivals by producing its spawn outside of terrestrial waters. Have fun trying to eat its young when it’s threading onto the land to do so. A bluff that worked well until one creature grew the ability to go onto the land and eat said young. And then another. And another realizing that all of the plants on this ‘land’ were plenty good eating on its own.

From there life continued on as animals spread onto this new ‘land’ and diversified themselves. Those who were in the warm equator maintained their cold blood to survive high heat and humidity even as the temperatures of the planet fluctuated and the various landmasses shifted under volcanic activity. Plates as large as moons adjusting positions until one was more comfortable and easing it, destroying several thousand lives in the process. The battle for spawn and food continued on land and in sea, and it would continue a biological arms race with itself for the next millenia. Small cold blooded creatures became large, their competition larger and larger and these are known to the inhabitants of this world as the dinosaurs. While they toiled in their constant war, other areas diversified their holdings in a way to hedge their bets. Some developed other ways of acquiring the nutrients they needed to live, and others thought having other genetic advantages would save them time. Such as warmer blood in case the wind got chilly. And it did, especially when a meteor collides with the planet and utterly devastates the former heads of the hierarchy. The bear market of life soon became a bull for those warm blooded creatures who survived, and soon they spread across all of the varying landmasses of this world. Even as the plates found their position uncomfortable to their back and moved yet again, this life survives the slow move away from their large continent into several smaller ones.

Some roamed the planet, some survivors of those cold blooded dinosaurs found solace in the skies of their former domination and the sea continued unaware or unconcerned with the actions of the land dwellers. All was good until a combination of things in a certain continent led to interesting results. Large predators swept across the vast and large plains of this continent, taking advantage of well developed leg muscles and scent to track and run down their opponents at any given moment. To their small meals, they were nightmares. But they were nightmares who couldn’t really jump. This calling of the bluff of jumping has been reverberated for millennia after the fact, and it worked. These smaller beings made their homes in the trees of the plains, awaiting their time in the sun when their larger predators would be driven out. And one day when those predators left, a few of these beings had a discussion relating to the concept. Some were hesitant to make a movement, remembering their days of their fathers and forefathers being mauled by anything from the down below place. And others wanted more. They wanted more food, more water, more of everything and for the sake of nothing but their own desires. They yearned for more than what they had, and when they got the courage to do so, set foot back on the ground. And in that moment, the die was cast and the planet now belonged to the tree dwellers. Their desire to do things outside of the realm of logic, for the sake of themselves and their own well being would soon spread across the planet. Evolving more and more advantages, and evolving across many breaths of the world. From the far cold to the hot and damp jungles, these new creatures, the hominids spread.

Many still do not agree with the spread of homosapiens across the planet, and some of those are even homosapiens themselves. For those who hold such ideas, they always cling to a world where nothing happened and their side prevailed instead of the homosapiens. They’re invariably still angry at losing the evolutionary war to a bunch of monkeys who one day elected to leave their tree and take over the planet by proxy. This coping mechanism did not stop these homosapiens, advancing and evolving further and further. Various offshoots of them would crop up as they spread, and invariably they’d either die out from disease or war, or elect to preserve their genetics by ‘re-integrating’ those genetics into the gene pool. This integration doomed them long term, but it did give the homosapiens more and more superiority. After more millenia, they had become the dominant species by outrunning the others. Not by actually running mind you, but having enough forethought to not waste all their energy and wait until their opponents were out of steam.

It’s not brave or interesting, but it worked.

Like their cell forebears, and so on through the evolutionary chain of events, these homosapiens developed their own small tribes and from there soon a world began to unfurl from that. Many questions these humans had for their new world as they explored it, and they’d explain it away in any way they could. Some made sense, others didn’t but it worked well enough and soon these foundational steps would lead to a terrifying newer concept. These new humans would learn the ways of reason yet again and begin making newer things. One takes the soupy but structurally sound earth beneath them and makes a house, and then invites his tribe over to do so and make their own houses. Huts upon huts make up towns upon towns upon towns and soon these tribes are nations, forged with their own languages, cultures and arrayed explanations for why their world works around them. Some with more malicious ideas in their minds use this to alter the explanations to fit their goals and needs, others choose pragmatism and win in the long haul. One learns of this grass that makes good food when ground and grows it, cultivates the good and uses the bad as fertilizer. Soon wheat is everywhere, farmers reap large harvests that feed their towns and cities.

Explanations were made still, operating on reason to make sense of things like why certain goods were more expensive than others and why certain people remained in power than others. These cliques of humans became leaders and they led their tribes to nationhood, empires and soon fell. But with every fall came more elements of themselves spread wider for others to pick up and continue on with. Empire began a new empire and soon the world was covered in said empires, spreading their own reasons for why they exist and sowing the seeds of wheat and more nations behind them. To those tribes who did not understand what these were, they’d either learn or die and re-establish the hierarchy of violence yet again. And with that these nations feuded, both intellectually and physically. Some had better reasons than others for why the world worked, some boasted about it in pride, others used it as a chance to teach their ways of world function. Knowledge was born properly, stored in writing and spread. Now nothing was lost simply to time, but to negligence. This is considered by many humanity’s finest bit of reason and soon leads to advancement. Bar incidents of accidental loss involving beer or fire, nothing was ever able to vanish as it did. And now these empires died, leaving behind proper legacies to follow. Some leaders spread their influence across wide amounts of continents, establishing new orders and people along the way.

Humanity advanced, forward and upward despite these falls. Sure certain cliques of them complain about how long it took 1,000 years of societal and historical advancement to occur as it did, a dark age of learning that the romantic and pedantic complain of. But soon the world continued advancing. The explanations of the world around them became simpler, more refined and more effective. They got closer to root truths of function, and propagated it with their institutions of knowledge and learning. And the willingness to learn regardless made humanity flourish. Soon those years of darkness faded, first towards a moderately modern age before more changes followed along. Ever upward did humanity go, literally speaking as well. For now that the world was theirs, humanity had a curiosity that needed satiation. They wanted to know more, see more, be more and go to more, regardless of what that more was. It was a desire that flirted in the minds of the small and the large, of intrepid explorers mapping out the planet's vast oceans and the leaders funding these teams to search the globe and find that ‘more’ that they wanted. In this endeavor they succeeded, conquered and expanded outwards. Nothing lasts forever, but they would succeed with humanity dotting almost every island, peninsula and continent on Earth. But one thing remained unchecked. Realms beyond the veil. The stars beyond that twinkled once their sun faded as the planet spun. They wanted to know what was beyond. An innately human drive, to learn for the sake not of simply just themselves, ego or intelligence but for collective goodness. They wanted to see what was beyond the veil of their planet, see into the stars.

An idea flirted with for centuries, some conjuring their tales of the forbidden realms beyond their simple blue planet and telling wild stories about life forms beyond their own but similar enough to which they could satiate their interest and curiosity. This was a curiosity that led them to conclusions of great power, harnessing the power of everything from the terror of combustion to the splitting of atoms, advancing little tribes into global powers and making pushes in technology that advanced them to levels unforeseen in their entire galaxy. True, there wasn’t much competition in said galaxy but that wasn’t the point. They wanted to know and so they knew faster and faster. One day they did the impossible. Breached the bubble, sent man made objects into space. The first were flukes, attempts that while failure riddled, proved a point. And a point others would prove again and again. Some died for this point, animal and human life sacrificed for the concept of moving away from their home that they had grown from. Humanity was to move on, and it proved it with landing on other bodies and worlds, sending out probes and satellites wide. Sure some skeptics called it nothing but nationalistic peacocking between superpowers, but the aims were similar. And once they had called a victory, landed the first visitors to the moon and brought them back several times over, long term plans came into being.

In their year of 1977, in the month of September and on the 5th day of said month, their first long shot was created. It was a satellite, a probe to explore the deepness of space in a safe but scientific manner. It came with gyroscopes and thrusters to guide it towards realms humanity hadn’t been able to reach, past the home planet and out. They powered it with their split atom, using fizzling plutonium to guide it into the depths and gave it as much radio connection as possible. Like a worried parent watching their child leave, they didn’t want to simply just lose this probe. It was important both scientifically and to a modest extent, emotionally. They dubbed it a name, both in form and in function. Like a king granted their chosen explorers titles, so too did these scientists give this probe a name. Voyager. And soon this voyager would begin its voyage. It entered space loaded with cameras, sensors and even a record. A record upon which could be found many things. Music and sounds from this world, alien and unknown to anyone who might encounter the probe. It played from a myriad of centuries of Earth cultural development, in a myriad of languages and styles. It contained images of humans, and star charts upon which someone could find their way there. Should they want to. Many made chide jokes at that inclusion, but no one was going to stop it from happening. Even cynics need something to believe in.

Voyager 1 was followed by Voyager 2.

Both continued their missions long after their creators retired and passed on. The legacy of their work passed down the line, a testament to humanity’s knowledge and transfer of it. Despite their age, the Voyager’s continued their work and so too did the planet.

And so too did other aspects of the wider universe.