You slowly start to disconnect the various wires and interfaces connecting you to the glass table beneath you, and as you pull out some of the plugs, portions of the glass screen change color, and some go dark entirely as the readings of your various vital statistics stop being fed into the system. You find that with a little effort, you are able to get used to the lack of gravity in this room, and you are able to use your table, and then eventually various other pieces of machinery nearby, to hoist yourself down and then propel yourself over to the entryway nearest your medical bay.

As you enter the next room, you recognize many of the same sorts of monitors as had been attached to you previously, and then over at the last table in the corner you see one of the strangest looking life forms you could ever conceive of. The being working by that table most closely resembles a slug among all the animals you are used to seeing on Earth, although this one is far larger, probably the size of two of you. Perhaps the most offsetting thing about this lifeform, though, is the lack of any eyes, or any sensory organs at all to speak of. Where you would have expected the head to be, in its place is simply a greenish blob, setting off an eerie glow against the black backdrop of the room.

As you ponder your next move, the being flinches, and suddenly in your head you experience the phrase Welcome, earthling. This is not something that you hear, like with your ears, but rather you simply experience it, directly into the center of your brain. Before you can react, the "talking" inside your head continues.

I am Thaun-of-Marichol. I have called you here because I need you. We need you -- all of life needs you. We need you to save the universe.

"Who, me?" you ask, more than a little taken aback. You volunteered for an exploration mission, not any kind of hero's work. "And what do you mean you called me here? I volunteered for this mission, as brought forth by my system's representative to the Milky Way Federation."

Thaun's voice in your head continues. The planetary system where I come from is far more technologically advanced than Earth, and our scientists have recently discovered that the universe, which has been expanding nonstop ever since what you earthlings call The Big Bang, as finally reached the end of its blowout phase. The universe as we all know it is on the cusp of major change, and our scientists predict that within just weeks, the expansion of the universe will have reached its maximum, and like the pulling of a rubber band, once the expansion ends, the necessary consequence in the universe will be a strong attraction back towards the center. After 15 billion years of unrelented growth, the universe will begin to fall back within itself, and the space between everything will begin to shrink. In a cosmic sense, the switch will happen slowly, but the effects of the change from universal expansion to contraction will be swift and disastrous, in a cosmic sense. My planet's life forms took it upon ourselves to notify all known galactic federations and to ask them to provide volunteers to help fight the inevitable.

You are stunned that you could have been played in this way, that you could have been used so thoroughly. "How would this be Disastrous?" is all you can manage to ask.

In an innumerable number of ways, many of which will mean the end of life as we know it in many corners of the known universe. When the universe begins to contract, the first signs may be little things, temporary effects on gravitational strength in many planets, an occasional irregular planetary or galactic orbit, etc. But once the snapback is complete and the universe is in full-on contraction mode, most everyday facts of science, history and other common knowledge will likely cease to exist. Our science shows that once contraction starts, all galaxies, all stars, and all planets orbiting those stars, will reverse their patterns of both revolution and rotation. Planets like your Earth will begin to spin in the opposite direction, as will your Sun, and the entire Milky Way galaxy. And the effects of this mass switchover throughout the universe will be swift and forceful. A planet like Earth, so delicately held in balance between the heat of your Sun and its distance away, will be thrown off. Earth, with its atmosphere suddenly shifted from East to West instead of West to East, will see almost immediate climate change throughout the planet, most of which is likely to become unusable desert as the heat of the Sun will be directly concentrated on much more of the planet than has ever been seen before. Moreover, the sun's switch in polarity will cause solar flares to shoot out, many overtaking Earth completely, and within days of the switchover, all life on Earth will cease as you know it. Given your proximity to the center of the known universe, the entire quadrant in which Earth's system resides today is expected to completely break down within a matter of weeks, with the millions of suns in the Milky Way either quickly burning themselves up or spinning violently into new orbital patterns, their planets each spinning out into their own random paths towards new systems, and new stars. Although no one will be alive on Earth to experience it, the planet will spend its last billions of years in a frozen state, drifitng between stars until it either collides with another planet or star in a colossal space collision, or worse yet, simply spinning out, dead and alone, until the universe's collapse back to a single point in space is complete. Either way, your world and those of many others just like it will be gone, and any chance of the delicate balance that is required for life to exist as we know it will be eradicated.

This is all too much for you to take. You did not sign up for this. "How much time?" you ask. "And what can be done?"

Although this has not happened for some 15 billion years, my species is one of the oldest forms of life in the known universe, which is why we have stationed ourselves here, within the ICT, to govern the travels of those other species who come to know of the existence of this method of inter-galactic transportation. Our scientists have compiled a trove of research and data, dating back almost to the Big Bang itself, and unfortunately the forces at work are so large, far too large for anyone to be able to do even the slightest thing to stop them. The expansion of the universe will be completed within a matter of days, and within a couple of weeks of Earth time, the ill effects of universal contraction will already be being felt on your and many other planets among the universe. However, there is one area, out on the fringes of the known universe, known as the Free Zone, that our science indicates is likely exempt from most effects of universal expansion and contraction. Due to the presence of excessive dark matter and negative energy in the Free Zone, the universe seems to expand and contract right around this area, leaving the Free Zone basically untouched and unaffected as the rest of the universe swells and shrinks around it. Historical evidence we have been able to obtain in our millenia of study show that most of the Free Zone has been intact for nearly 100 billion years, far longer than the current cycle of universal expansion, and far pre-dating the Big Bang. The Free Zone, it seems, has been existence literally forever, since the very first Big Bang that started it all.

It is to the Free Zone that you must go, and you must do so immediately. Find out the Free Zone's secrets, and perhaps you can share them with the universe in enough time to salvage some of the miraculous life that has blossomed throughout over the ages. Maybe there is a way to move some of the civilizations that have sprung up across the depths of space to the Free Zone to survive the switchover from universal expansion to universal contraction. Or perhaps we can mimic the qualities of the Free Zone that make it impervious to universal contraction, and save some of the universe's life in that way. But if you do not act now, mostly all life in the universe will almost surely be destroyed.

You are shocked. Amazed. Appalled. And most of all, scared. Scared of not knowing where you are, scared of being stranded a trillion light years from any place you have ever called home. Scared of jetting off to some unknown area of the universe, where so little is known about who (or what) may reside there. But most all, scared for Life. For human, sure, but from what this sounds like, this is about so much more than just the human race. This is about the end of all races of life as we know it. But you do not know anything about the Free Zone. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to take some time to study Thaun's research and the research of his species about the Free Zone? Pore through his species's data, review everything there is to know about the Free Zone and the systems contained within it? You know that Thaun has made things sound quite dire, but it is hard to imagine how a few extra days now could jeopardize the entire mission to save life from universal extinction.

Should you get moving to the Free Zone right away? Take what information and assistance Thaun can give you now, strap yourself in for another trip through the ICT, and get jetting?

OR

Do you stay within the ICT and study the Free Zone, looking for any and every clue you might find to help you come up with a solution to give Life a path to survival?