The Beginning

Hi, I’m Donald Hall. Pleased to meet you. The beginning of my story starts on
Jupiter in the year 2018. I was strolling along in a forest when I noticed
something that looked like what we would call a mushroom on Earth.

The plant-like thing was similar to a mushroom with its dome shape top. The
central part of the crown was an ivory color with outer edges that looked like
auburn-color paint had been lightly air brushed on.

The similarities ended there. This mushroom type of growth had sheer sides to
it that were ivory colored with tiny auburn spots. It stood several inches
high, nearly a foot I’d say and it also had a definite sheen to it. There were
no flaws what-so-ever, no dents and no scratches. It looked like a miniature
piece of art.

Curious, I touched it and the thing started jiggling. Its movements reminded me
of jello. I watched the plant wriggle for some time. When it stopped, I
touched it again, fascinated to see what would happen. Again the mushroom did a
jello-like dance that lasted many minutes.

Intrigued by the fluidity and the fact that there was no noise, I reached out to
touch the little toadstool again when suddenly a shutter flung open on the flat
plane of the structure. Eyes opened wide, I scrambled backwards as fast as I
could while staring at that object that just came alive.

But, I think I’m getting ahead of myself. This story has an earlier beginning
to tell you the truth. I was in my garage on good old Earth a couple years
earlier, working out how to travel to the stars without using big contraptions,
fuel or solar. I wanted a solution that equated to near instantaneous travel.

I had this idea rolling around in my mind for a number of years. Initially I
was intrigued by the black hole theory because of the possibilities that it
posed. Because of science fiction stories, science itself had tested out the
prospect of traveling through the solar system by utilizing, and in one instance
that I read of, creating, a black hole in order to get from one point to another
instantaneously.

The idea of traveling through black holes was shelved by the science profession
but the idea of the near instantaneous travel had stayed with me. It just
seemed that traveling to the distant planets, moons and stars in the solar
system did not have to take years to accomplish. The attempts that had been
made thus far were mind boggling with strange contraptions to ensure there was
enough oxygen and air sealed beds to sleep away the years that it took to arrive
at a distant planet. There had to be a simple solution. Finding out what that
solution was took up a majority of my time.

Studying the solar system went from a hobby to an honest study where I started
applying my theories. One of the biggest discoveries occurred when I realized
that I sometimes saw a path or stairs in the planet alignments. Through many
experiments, I found that one could just walk that path or climb that stairway,
if only he could see it.

Ahh, I’m getting ahead of myself again. There is an even earlier beginning to
this story that I need to tell you so that it makes sense and you can understand
how I wound up on Jupiter.
In February of the year 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft sailed by Jupiter,
taking photographs, on its way to Pluto. Something tugged at my heart when I
saw those photographs. That was when my hobby turned to an actual quest to
locate a way to travel rapidly in space because I had to get to Jupiter.

Thing was, I’m not a young buck.
overweight, wear glasses that are
sprite. With my “qualifications”
Never mind the fact that the only
system were run by robots and the
just a dream.
I’m in my mid fifties, semi-bald, slightly
nearly an inch thick and I’m certainly not
I would never pass astronaut requirements.
craft that have gone out that far in the solar
solution to get man to the stars was still

That didn’t stop me from my vision of getting to Jupiter. I got high resolution
prints of every picture that I could get a hold of with Jupiter in it. I found
out that the NASA Cassini spacecraft took some fantastic photos of the Jupiter
mosaics. I even ordered images from NASA’s Sky Image Lab. I studied each one
of those photographs under a magnifying glass hundreds of times over. I became
the Jupiter expert.

In my weekly budget, I included science equipment and as many photos as I could

get of the solar system. I ordered the topmost quality microscopes. I
installed the best telescope that I could find in my garage and even made a
bubble in the roof that opened to the night sky so that I could study the stars
first hand.

I alienated some co-workers as time wore on because all I could speak about was
Jupiter this and Jupiter that. Finally, the only person that stuck by me was my
wife, Lana. She is a very organized lady who became engrossed in cataloging
interesting tidbits that I found. She created a software program that would
cross reference the bits of information which made a workable reference.

Lana never got tired of my mission and for that, I gratefully thank her because
it was her organizing help that lead me to an interesting conclusion about
dimensions.

Usually information about other dimensions could be located in science fiction

books. Some interesting thesis existed on the internet. There was one that
mentioned ten dimensions with an example that had nearly concentric circles
spinning in different directions. While watching it, the spinning seemed to
slow way down, but I realized that if I stared at that representation any
longer, I would’ve been hypnotized by it. That certainly wasn’t the solution
that I was looking for!

I turned to the dictionary next to understand the definitions of “dimension,” of

which there are many. I spent some time creating demonstrations of the
definitions in clay so that I would be able to truly understand what it was that
I thought was the solution to rapid space travel.

It was the organizational skills of Lana that turned out to be priceless. She
took digital photographs from many different angles of the clay configurations
that I created. Her photographs were taken from up high, from down below, to
each side and level with each display that I did.

I would stumble off to bed late each night. Early the next morning, by the time
I woke up and staggered back to my work table, she had already input the
photographs into the software. There were so many shots that she had been able
to create a three dimensional, spinning in the air view plus enable an overlay
of one image on top of another.

I was quite sleepy the morning that I saw the irregularity. I had stayed up
extremely late the night before and wasn’t totally awake. I was sitting in
front of the computer, rubbing the stubble on my chin and sipping a cup of black
coffee when I saw the anomaly. It wasn’t startling to me at first because the
variance appeared as if it could’ve been the way the lighting was in the
picture. But when I checked the individual pictures that made up the three
dimensional image, it wasn’t in any single picture. It only showed up when the
pictures were together.

I enlarged the image and was surprised to see what looked like a pathway. No
matter how hard I tried to adjust the image, it wasn’t large enough to actually
see it clearly.

Instead, I focused the image on the computer screen where I could see the
difference the best. Then I went to the table where I had the clay display of
one of the definitions of dimension. I walked all around the table, I looked
from every different direction that I could to no avail as I could not see that
anomaly.

Disappointed, I went into the house to shower, shave and change for work. All
day long I mulled over the incongruity while I did my job silently. Finally the
day was over. I felt sluggish as I had been working at two jobs all day long.
I had no idea how I was going to find that dimension in the real world but I was
totally sure that it existed and that the computer showed that it did.

The thought nagging me when I arrived at home, I grabbed something to eat from
the fridge and returned to my garage workshop to stare again at the image on the
computer screen. It really was there.

Pacing to the mock-up that I had created on the work bench, circling it
uncountable times, I still couldn’t see the anomaly but I was determined to find
it. When I was nearly ready to start pulling out the little hair that I had
left, I realized one very different exception in the clay model compared to the
computer model and that was: on the computer, there was no table. The computer
image was floating in air.

Also, the background on the computer version was black on all sides, top and
bottom. I cleared out an area and started working out how I was going to make
my clay mock-up imitate the image on the computer screen.

I created a wood box and painted the inside completely black. I slow dried my
clay pieces with clear fishing line through the middle. Then I suspended the
pieces in the middle of the box, ensuring that the objects would stay in
alignment top to bottom and side to side.

Proud of myself, I ducked my head inside the box, shut out any light with a
piece of black material and was in pitch black, unable to see a thing. Back to
the drawing board I went to let light into the box. Studying the computer
image, I saw that the diffused light came from the four corners. So, I cracked
open the edges of the box slightly, only to find out that it was too much light
and it needed to be filtered.

I realized that I could get the correct effect if I had some sheer black type of
material and ran in the house all a fluster to find such a thing. My wife had
gotten home by then, seeing my agitation, she asked what it was that I needed.
I explained while looking in drawers and on shelves for something sheer black.
She gave me a glass of water, indicated that I should catch my breath and
disappeared. Moments later she showed up holding black stockings and lingerie.
Laughing, with arms full, I returned to my project to create the perfect
lighting.

The black sheer stockings and lingerie did the trick. Before long I had just
the right illumination effect. I compared the computer image with my creation,
tweaked the mock-up a few times and was then satisfied that I had duplicated the
scene exactly.

I studied the image on the computer to understand the exact place that I needed
to look for the anomaly. Taking a deep breath, I ducked my head back into the
black cube, shutting out light from the opening with the heavy black material.

I patiently waited to get my eyes adjusted to the dimmer lighting. Then located
the position I was looking for that was the same in the cube as on the screen.

Nothing!

I saw nothing!

Not willing to swallow my disappointment, I persisted. Realizing that slight

variations could be left, right, up or down, I quickly devised a plan to shift
ever so slowly a fraction of an inch from where I was. Once in the new
location, I slowly moved to every combination that I could think of. Failing to
see the nexus, I slightly changed places to try again.

Finally, after what seemed like hundreds of position changes, I saw it

fleetingly off to the left. Holding as still as I possibly could, I shifted
around until I saw it again. It looked just like a mirror in a pitch black
room, like another dimension.

Amazed, I stared for a moment. In wonder, I reached my hands to that special

place and was surprised to find that it felt solid!

Gaining a little courage by taking a deep breath, I moved forward slightly and
ducked my head in to see what the nexus was all about. To say the least, I was
not prepared for what happened next.

It was like a wind tunnel. I ducked my head in with my breath held and whoosh!
I was pulled entirely into the new dimension and started sailing toward who knew
where. I was mesmerized by the scenery as it passed rapidly by. It looked like
neon outlines of squares, every one of which was a different color and each one
was askew without a single one in alignment with any other.

I seemed to be going down a long tunnel of these juxtaposed boxes, but I wasn’t
tumbling. Instead, I was sailing! The wind sucked me forth so strongly that I
couldn’t even reach my hands out in an attempt to halt my progress.

Just as fast as it started, the trip in the different dimension stopped. I flew
out into some new space, tumbled in the air and landed precariously teetering on
my toes and wind-milling my arms in order not to fall down. Thinking quick
while looking around at the new environment that I found myself in, I realized
that I couldn’t move until I marked the area where I landed so that I could find
my way back home.
Gaining my balance, I stooped down to scrape together stone markers that I saw
lying on the ground around me. I built a little tower that would be seen from a
distance.

As I stood up, I looked at how I was dressed and had to laugh. Here I was
standing on what I believed to be foreign soil wearing an old t-shirt, jeans and
my most comfy slippers. I certainly didn’t fit the picture of a space traveler.
The good news was I could breathe here. I just had to figure out where here
was.

Standing fully up, my first view was of a magnificent planet that seemed to fill
up the darkness in front of me. I was admiring the colors and swirls that I saw
on the face of the planet when I realized it was good ole Earth. I was so
astonished! I actually did it! I followed my hunch and found myself somewhere
looking at the planet that most folks thought that they were bound to.

After my astonishment started to wear off, the scientist in me took over. I

collected up samples of rocks and dirt. I jammed my jean pockets full. I still
didn’t know where I was and hadn’t paid any special attention to the fact that I
was able to breathe without any additional apparatus.

Plotting my course with Earth as my guide, I wandered slightly away from the
landing space. I just strolled along, kicking dust up with my slippers as I
went. After exploring for only a few minutes, I realized that I was standing on
the moon as I recognized the large dark plains, highlands and craters that I had
seen through my garage telescope. I didn’t know the moon too well as it wasn’t
as interesting to me as Jupiter with her moons, but knew it well enough to
figure out where I was.

I decided to end my midnight stroll on the moon and head back to the nexus and
home, if it was possible. I did have some anxiety because proving my theory
right would never make any headlines on Earth if I couldn’t get back. Problem
was, I had no idea how to.

I stood facing the direction that I thought that I came from. I measured out
the approximate distance from where I thought the nexus was, where I did my
aerial spin and where I actually landed. I searched ever so slowly with my inch
by inch, top to bottom, side to side method that I did at home. My apprehension
of maybe never finding my way back grew with every passing minute.

My alarm was escalating as time passed. My heart pounded, I started sweating

and blood pumped through my veins rapidly as anxiety turned to terror. Hands
shaking, vision blurring, I kept up my pattern of moving a fraction and
searching in every direction, then doing it again in yet another place.

With my tension rising, I felt as if I would burst. I started even questioning

my calculations as to this being the correct spot to be looking for the doorway
to get back home. My entire body started shaking, I was so nervous.

For some reason, I looked over my right shoulder and found that I was staring at
the opening. I didn’t have a chance to think about anything else as I was so
close that I got sucked in. It felt sort of like tendrils grasped onto me to
pull me inside the vortex. Once inside, it felt like a vacuum clenched me in
its clutches as I hastily sailed forth, unable to stop, hoping that it was the
correct route to take and that I would wind up home.

One never knows what “home” really means until he travels so far away in an
adventure that may never take him back. I pondered this point as I torpedoed
along in the tunnel that I found myself in. Instead of the neon square outlines
I traveled through to get to the moon, I found myself in a dull blur of colors
with no discernable shape.

Almost as soon as the surprise trip began, I was kicked out of the tunnel with a
loud audible popping sound into a nearly pitch black place. I lifted my head
and cracked it on something. Dazed, I held still for a minute to adjust my
sight to my new surroundings. Taking the moment to re-group and plan for any
possibility, I felt around in my new environment and realized exactly where I
was.

Keeping my head at the same level, I backed up a little bit so that I could
stand up properly in my garage workshop. I went down on my knees and touched
the floor. My little ceremony over, I took my pants off to empty the over-
stuffed pockets.

Not being patient, I dumped the contents on a work table and ran without pants
into the house to find Lana, wondering how much time passed by. She was sitting
in the livingroom reading a novel when I arrived. Looking rather puzzled, she
asked “what’s up? Where are your pants? Do you need more stockings?”

It took me a moment to realize that she thought that I had just been inside
asking for help with black material. “I’ve been to the moon! C’mon, let me
show you what I brought back.” She dropped her book and followed me to the
garage as I excitedly told her about my trip to the moon.

The next night, I brought her with me to the moon and we became the first couple
from Earth to travel together into outer space. Lana took her camera and it
worked. I had no formulas that I could codify as to how we traveled, how we
were able to breathe without apparatus or how a camera could work, but we were
doing it.

Enheartened with my success, I studied in earnest the pictures of space in order

to find the anomalies for the different planets.

Together with Lana, we broke the code. First I would locate in a space image
what looked like stairs or a path and then would create a model of it. Lana
would do her magic by taking the photographs of the clay mock-ups that then were
entered into the software. Then, black box models were built with the careful
search in each for the nexus for one then many planets and moons to visit.

Traveling became a very fun thing to do for Lana and I. We eagerly teamed up to
do our parts to make a new trip a reality, then off we wandered in the universe
with camera in hand. We created a scrapbook for every trip, filling it with
samples and photographs.

Finally on a cool autumn night in Autumn of 2018 we took our picnic basket
filled with food and wine. We then departed on our long awaited trip to
Jupiter. The trip was the same as dozens of others that Lana and I had been on
with the spin through a colorful vortex, and then we landed.

Strolling along on the surface of Jupiter was magnificent. We held hands as we

looked towards earth, and then turned to smile at each other.

While exploring, we found a small pathway that wasn’t wide enough for one, never
mind two, so I was in the lead as we went out to discover what was that way. I
noticed a plant-like thing that was similar to a mushroom with its dome shape
top.

Bending over it, I admired the coloring as it seemed so perfect. The main ivory
color had an auburn-color paint that appeared as if it had been lightly air
brushed on to create a flawless painting.

The similarities to an earth mushroom ended there as this one had sheer sides
that were ivory with tiny auburn spots. It stood several inches high, nearly a
foot I’d say and it also had a definite sheen to it. There were no flaws what-
so-ever, no dents and no scratches. It looked like a miniature piece of art.

Curious, I touched it and the thing started jiggling. Touching it again and
again, it jiggled more.

Intrigued by the fluidity and the fact that there was no noise, I reached out to
touch the little toadstool again when suddenly a shutter flung open on the flat
plane of the structure.

I was shocked! I backed off rapidly to stare at the thing while realizing that
I was just about to meet an intelligent creature from another planet. Tana
reached out her hand to help me to get up. I did, then both of us stood arm in
arm waiting to find out what would happen next.

A blast of light hit us. It was both powerful and bright. It emanated
something at us and pushed us backwards to oblivion.

It was February 12 2007. I started on a quest to locate a way to travel rapidly

in space because I had to get to Jupiter, for some reason it tugged at my mind.