Marc remained standing, in front of the window, to contemplate the unlimitedness of the space which spread out in the infinite in front of its eyes. Even the very great speed of the vessel could not compensate for the disconcerting immobility of each of the stars. Legends bring back(report) that human beings would have, there is very for a long time, tried to give a name to each of these brilliant points bursting(wearing out) the cold black curtain that is the universe. Marc sketched a smile by thinking of it. But that bothered him(it) especially, it was this blue spot, still tiny, that it fixed at the moment to discern the peculiarities of it. A growing excitement gained(won) him(it) because the journey of all the life succeeded finally.

Marc had been born on Syracuse, this first-rate vessel which had taken away(gained) numerous battles during the war thanks to the courage, admired all, his(its,her) crew. His father, the lieutenant Cooker, was arrested and made prisoner. It dies, as well as its woman(wife) and all the crew, during the last attack of Syracuse against its enemies a bit further: it was the sacrifice necessary for the stop(ruling) of this useless war that had caused so much human and material losses. Once more, any more nobody knew exactly the circumstances in which had begun conflict and none of the belligerent parties was taken out of it winner(conqueror). The only happy were probably first dead which were delighted not to have been the only ones sacrificed on the altar of a vain cause to imbecile consequences.

Marc, so, was orphan very early. But, having escaped the slaughter of the war thanks to the self-abnegation of its relatives(parents), it(he) dedicated a real cult to the peace now and his(its,her) only desire was to find the planet of its ancestors and his(her) race: the Earth.

Oral traditions bring back(report) that originally, about two thousand years ago, a handle of adventurers would have left for the Earth to begin a long journey and to find other hospitable planets so that the man can live there. The Earth was indeed governed by a totalitarian regime which gave all the same the choice enters to undergo its yoke and to leave for the unknown, to return there never or even to die before having discovered would be it that a single livable meteorite.

The ancestors of Marc were so a part of the race of these madmen who prefer to run(roam) all their life to try, in vain mostly, to catch up the movement of earthly rotation rather than to wait stupidly that the planet made a supplementary tour. Marc said to himself that at least journey(running) gave a sense(direction) to its life (that of the movement!), but that if the existence amounted to the movement, it(he) could reach(affect) never the objective and savor finally taste lost of the rest. What would it(he) make when it(he) would be over there, on this growing blue spot which, it was now convinced of it, embodied the Earth that it(he) had so for a long time pursued of all the desires and on whom rested the hopes?

It(he) had a shudder when he wished, during a flash of lighting of second, when it was not the blue planet of its ancestors. The idea that it(he) can have had such desire, after so many years of search, frightened him(it). Fortunately Lydie arrived. She(it) was very shy and did not dare too much, usually, to approach him(it) only. But this time, purpose so close to the journey supplies him(her) an excuse.

-You have anxious air(sight), does she say, that it(he) arrive at you, you are not happy to arrive safe and sound soon ?

The young man seemed embarrassed by this remark and, as to give an excuse to his musing, answered that he would believe to know that on the Earth sunlight was enough only to light(enlighten) all the people.

-It seems to me ridiculous, it says. Look at all these stars which surround us. You believe really that the sun, which is a star, could light(enlighten) us, while all those gathered(reunited) do not make more light than a single firefly.

By leaving for their impossible collection formerly, the ancestors of Marc had taken with them, such Noé with its arc before the torrent, a complete sample of the earthly ecosystem. No animal, no plant, no insect failed. And often, Lydie liked walking among the immense gardens navigating in the universe in a speed close to that of the light. It was necessary to light(enlighten) at intervals these gardens according to a rather complex program, recorded(deposited) in the memory of an accurate computer, and nobody was moreover capable of understanding(including) the objective of what diurnal and night-phases were called. But nobody dared or wanted either to dispute the hegemony of ancestral traditions. To what it had it(he) moreover served?

It was the night that Lydie liked roaming in paths and the prairies, watching scrupulously for fireflies in their lovemaking. Oh! Which spectacle that these dusts of stars which pull(entail) you in a fervent ballet. It was as if these celestial bodies had gained(won) in humanity and alive what they had lost in size. But to appreciate the delicacy of a star, and to see her(it) dancing such as a firefly, it would have been necessary to be conceived on the scale of a galaxy. Fortunately, every creature possesses its satisfactions and its trump cards in its scale(ladder). The whole is the good to understand(include) that it is vain to consider as positive to want to increase, because it is enough to open eyes to find the same thing(matter) by remaining small.

-And moreover, threw(launched) Lydie, if a single star could light(enlighten) a whole planet, then, seen that the universe must be infinite as by its dimensions what by the number of stars, why would it be black?

In fact, Lydie had had the idea of this joke to oppose and to destabilize Marc. In the heart of herself(itself), she(it) knew well that the young man had to be right and that the sun, this star even so mysterious, were to be able to light(enlighten) to him only a whole population.

The girl was not an idiot but she wanted that one is interested in her(it) and especially to obtain the favours of Marc. His(her) father had educated her(it) with care and appreciated that, girl, it is always on its knees. So it(he) lives on one very bad eyesight that she(it) turns away from him to be interested in the boys. Result was obviously the germination of complexes and shyness, so that Lydie did not really dare to give concrete expression to his(her) surrounding areas of fear to displease his(her) father. So she(it) crossed(spent) the most clearly of his(its,her) time to begin to educate itself to mitigate the clumsiness by the trump cards of learning and perspicacity. The favourite weapon against Marc was naturally teasing by appearing a little idiot, so that it feels upper and likes indeed to expose(explain) him(her) its experience(experiment) and its point of view. Then Lydie set of the assurance and fed the discussion of his(her) sometimes silly and insane ideas: it was its means in her(it) to shoe its companion.

Sudden a voice(vote) cut general silence in which evolved the vessel: " arrival is foreseen in five minutes. Get ready all. " One did not know what to expect during the approach of this unknown world which was maybe hostile. And effectively, some seconds after the slowing down, a sudden shock was smelt in all the device. By rushing in the window, Marc was able to to notice, stuns, that the blue planet went away now. " I ask for your attention all, please. Our detectors have just tracked down dense one coat(layer) of gas in the suburb of the planet. We preferred to deviate from our initial career temporarily to penetrate into this coat(layer) of gas with much more reduced speed. Please excuse us for the inconveniences that we were able to cause you. " Lydie smiles to Marc and they took place both in front of the great central glazed bay(berry) to better contemplate the spectacle of the landing.

The pilots had had the time selecting a zone which seemed to them desert: the vessel sank slowly into the air(sight) in gliding flight until the contact with the ground, which now appeared a platform covered with sand to the infinity. Which strange contrast with the small blue sphere of just.

If this planet possesses inhabitants, they were not probably able to acquire necessary recession to perceive that they live on a ball. And nevertheless the knowledge that they have of their environment is enough for them to live. Important is that they do not realize of error into which they are plunged. But if they are deceived, says to himself Lydie, that they see or at least what they believe to see, maybe we are deceived also by what we believe to see and to know! And even though would it be case, reality of these inhabitants would not be "as real" as ours? As far as "reality" is an invention of the spirit (the man calls real what he sees or what he deducts from reasonings that he makes from what he sees), it seems so licit to believe in the reality of a planet-board (for whom never are conscious of other thing(matter)) that in that of the planet - ball (others could(would be possible) show for example that we are deceived by a cunning game of light when we perceive the planet as a ball).

" Good short story "(piece of news), says triumphantly Steeve by interrupting the class(course) of the thoughts of Lydie. And by continuing to smile, he explained the object of his cheerfulness: " The gas which delayed by chance our landing is other than of the air(sight). We shall so be able to inhale him(it) and walk without combination(overall) seal(quench)! It would seem really that this planet is the Earth. It is formidable! " Usually, Lydie did not much love Steeve's primary reactions but there, she could not prevent the enjoyment from investing(surrounding) him(it) quite complete and answered cheerfully: " Well! What do we wait for to go out? Let us go, let us hurry to walk on him(it), this ground! " Marc, Lydie and Steeve were a part of the team of prospecting of the planet.

In their return in the vessel, after some days of campaign, they seemed affected by what they had just discovered. The other members of crew fussed around them, to know what they had been well able to see and what made them so worried. Answer seemed as simple as incredible. All that they had seen during these last days was inanimate. They had well identified what could be human beings and cities, but anything, absolutely anything, seemed to live or at least to possess the least movement: the planet seemed plunged into the torpor of a mineral world.

-Which madness! In the beginning, when I perceived a couple of young people, I called them. They did not answer me. Then I approached them and it is there that I noticed that they were steep, as deaths!

-You joke: they had to pretend.

-No, no, answered Steeve. You can ask Marc. All the beings that we saw were steep as male models, but it was not plastic or wooden male models: when I pushed the blade of my knife in their body, there be blood, of flesh and visible bones. They were as deaths but with an expression of intense life printed on all their body. It froze me the blood. I tremble still with it.

The story that made Steeve of the investigation did not miss(fail) to surprise his(her) interlocutors. But it(he) was right, because other teams had established similar observations. It that seemed the most surprising was these objects that stayed in the air(sight), as this stone which had begun(affected) its fall of a cliff but which did not desperately want to reach(affect) the ground, congealed in its movement. Only objects resulting from the vessel submitted themselves to the classic laws of the mechanics, Earth' attraction and finally human reasoning. These laws had been tried(felt) aboard the vessel thanks to a device of artificial gravitation for a long time, conceived not to confuse the man in the space, and seemed the most natural of the world to all the crew now.

During the two months when lasted the methodical investigation of this inanimate "Earth", one was not able to to notice the presence of any life or even any movement. It was all the more distressing as civilizations populating the planet had apparently many common points with that of the vessel. The experts were all the same able to discover of halls filled with books(pounds), opened or impossible to open. The pages of all these works remained steep, they also.

Generally speaking one could not influence the objects of the Earth as those of the vessel. Their behavior did not answer the same logic: they were not subjected to the gravity, or even déformables. It is moreover surprising in these conditions that Steeve was able to plunge his(her) knife into the intestines of a Countryman, thing(matter) of whom nobody of another one managed moreover to renew... Always it(he) is that thanks to accessible(approachable) papers, the moment of "freezing("frost") of this Earth was able to be estimated(esteemed) on December 2, 1984.

-It makes me fear, says Marc to Lydie an evening of return of investigation, this damned planet with his(her) more immovable people still that the stone.

Of some side, Marc was not dissatisfied with these discoveries because, as it, his purpose was not reached(affected) and it could again look somewhere else for the object of its greeds: the real Earth.

Lydie seemed fond by this confession, unusual for brave one strapping such as Marc. For time, it was not she(it) that appeared in position of weakness in search of comfort, but well him.

-Yes, to me also, she answered to relieve him(it) by making understand him(her) that her fear was shared. Fortunately that we retort for the space soon. Oh! You was right, for the sun: it lights(enlightens) indeed to him only a part of the Earth. But what we did not know, it is that another part is plunged into the most total black. Finally! This observation seems well few things in front of the sad reality of time on the Earth!

And yes, time seemed suspended on all the planet. So, the vessel started again in search of the real blue planet because the crew was persuaded there now: what it had discovered(found) could not be the real Earth. This time, search was going to turn out easier and faster(more well-to-do and faster), thanks to the acquired experience(experiment) during the first investigation. Two hyperspaces were moreover enough to localize another planet answering the popular description. After an approach without blocks, now mastered, and a more excellent landing, the investigation of the second planet was able to to begin.

The teams returned with a gloomy humor because, in spite of the change that they had been able to notice with regard to the other planet, notably at the level of the civilizations which seemed sharply less numerous and developed---they lived almost bare---, the same report, as distressing as the precedent, had been recorded(deposited): this Earth seemed as immovable as the previous one.

Marc, this time, seemed morally more reached(affected):

-Would our former(ancient) have made a mistake? Their comments would have been deformed? Why did we find only immovable administration? Are we very alive, no?

-Oh! That yes! Says Lydie by pinching Marc to the cheek to a little annoy him(it), while returning him(it) to the reality of the life. That in it hold! We are going to retort and to to look still for our planet. After all, it is maybe necessary to deserve her(it) this Earth, the planet of our forefathers!

And finally hope got back to the crew and this last one recovered in search of the so much desired planet. Searches made even faster and results were eloquent: every investigated blue planet showed always the same signs of congestion in the immobility, although every time the dates of stop(ruling) of time, when one had been able to collect on legible papers when it had been possible, varied.

Once nevertheless, during the investigation of the ninety-third planet, one realized that the date of stop(ruling) in the time of this last one preceded that of the eleventh visited planet of one second. And, makes more remarkable still, the states of these two planets seemed to follow each other, as if the same life had animated(stimulated) them until time stops(arrests) fatally for the two but, for the ninety-third planet, one second earlier when for the eleventh.

This disconcerting discovery restored a little of power in the crew which began to lose patience after all these years of fruitless attempts. Prospecting made faster and more pushed and not less one thousand blue planets was needed before finding another fact more remarkable than the others.

-It seems very established now that all these planets are immovable and without life, as if time had stopped(arrested) for each of her(it) at the different moments, pointed out Lydie to Marc.

-Yes answered Marc on one your dreamer. To believe that another life will be found never that ours in all this damned universe.

-And nevertheless, we do not dream us! We are alive many(well) and our ancestors were him, them also! It(he) indeed must exist another alive planet, from which we result.

-It makes me fear. If it turns out that it is indeed about our vessel, with our ancestors with edge, which is on this planet and that the team of investigation tracked down yesterday, then maybe time stopped(arrested) on the planet that we look for since our ancestors left there .

-But not! It is an idiot that you are telling. If time stopped(arrested) on our planet, how could our vessel still be there? If time had stopped(arrested) while our vessel had not yet taken off, then we would not here be torturing ourselves spirit and seeing our hopes collapsing under the sad weight of the reality: we would not be even conceived! The vessel tracked down yesterday can not so be ours. It is not conceivable!

-Unless answered Marc by appearing to have an idea. Unless we reason with forgery. In less, for example, that there are several parallel, strictly identical worlds but time of which is stopped at the moment or in another one.

-It is not an idiot. But then, it would mean that our lot(fate) is maybe suspended from that of a clock. Maybe are we going to become, also, immovable?

-Yes! It is it that frightens me. In that case, there are certainly other vessels, which are moreover our vessel, and that look them also for the Earth. And others are probably already immovable...

-At least, I hope that we reason with forgery, ends Lydie of a peremptory tone which cut court in any discussion.

Two other events finished nevertheless convincing the crew on the situation in which it was.

The first of these remarkable events was the discovery of a very particular link between three planets. Two of the planets carried(wore), at some moments near, same(even) date " of temporal stop(ruling) " (and so the crew had taken custom to name immobility everywhere met planets) and this last one was upper than that of the third planet of one hour(o'clock). But the most remarkable was that suite given to an event of the " the youngest " planet was not the same on the two planets of the same date of temporal stop(ruling): a rocket followed a career completed in a case and had crashed in the another one. This fact was moreover the only one who allowed to differentiate two twin planets.

So so, there be several parallel worlds, but that carried(wore) versions different from the life before being interrupted by the temporal stop(ruling). It(he) existed so an infinity of possible fates and all the eventualities became possible: it(he) so had to exist an infinity of planets; in certain cases, the vessel had taken off from the Earth for a better world, in another cases, there was no vessel.

Second event was that of the discovery, as had anticipated her(it) Marc, of their own vessel with edge of which the crew was present completely but stayed of marble. The temporal stop(ruling) had taken place two hours before the discovery. A growing excitement overpowered the crew now which, in the same time, perceived fatal danger on their head of a hypothetical future temporal stop(ruling).

-No doubt, it is indeed me that I saw aboard the vessel, exclaimed Marc whom the fascination to have seen its copy as in a mirror left pensive.

-And it is indeed me that was in your arms, two hours ago according to my watch! Answered Lydie with the joyful air(sight) by thinking that in a parallel world at least, she had conquered the heart of her beloved.

-There is all the same a point which still intrigues me, says Marc with a maintaining air(sight) worried and diverting so the conversation of a subject that it did not want to approach.

-Oh yes! And who?

-Well! It seems to me that we crossed that stopped lives net, and never we discovered(found) a single form of life and movement other than ours. And nevertheless, if our hypothesis of temporal stop(ruling) on parallel worlds holds, we should meet much more, or at least as, of planets in movement as of immovable planets. Indeed, it another must stay infinity of planets not still allocated by the temporal stop(ruling), and that will be it in the infinite time some day which remains still to pass by from now on.

-Unless...

-Unless what!

-Unless we are the only human beings of all the universe of parallel worlds. Or rather not. Maybe that there is effectively an infinity, at the moment even, other parallel worlds alive, but this life is special: time does not exist.

We have the impression(printing) of time when our consciousness passes of an immovable world to other whom follows him(it) at once (of who(which) the artificial " temporal stop "(ruling) is at once upper than that of the previous world). So, in an instant when I speak to you, our consciousnesses "visit" several inanimate worlds, but succession of which gives us the impression(printing) of time. According to the succession of worlds " embrochés " by this artificial "time", an event occurs or not.

We shall find so never life such as we looked for her(it), that is in the time, because she(it) exists only in the movement of a world in another one.

Yes, the key is maybe there: time is in fact only an impression(printing) due to the movement. Exactly as a film film: it is the movement of an image in another one of the film that gives the impression(printing) of a succession in the time of these images.

The universe is maybe only an immense film and time is maybe only movement...

-Yes, maybe...