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the side by some bright source.
If that was so, only about a quarter of its dark surface was
visible. There was no doubt that this was a real object and one
that was either much closer or much larger than the dots in the
background. He could even make out some details on the lighted
surface, although they were only hazy patches. He quickly found a
second sphere farther to the west. This one was slightly larger and
almost thirty percent of the surface was lighted. MaxNi was
stunned. Nothing existed outside of ObLa. Everyone knew that. There
was never any indication the there was anything at all in the sky,
but now MaxNi was staring at two, and perhaps hundreds of
objects.
    Excited and almost fearful, MaxNi
started to look through the pictures taken shortly before the
balloon fell. One image had a deep purple band spread along the
eastern edge of ObLa. That band transformed into a deep red streak,
and then a much brighter orange patch grew in picture after
picture. The camera was not far above the clouds at that time.
Light could be seen shining through pristine white layers that were
separated by deep glowing crevasses whose bottoms were lost in
shadow. The eastern horizon continued to brighten as he went on and
then an intensely lighted sphere suddenly appeared. It was too
bright to record even with the highly attenuated camera. The
emergence of the star, for that is what it was, corresponded to
increases in temperature on the balloon. MaxNi had found the source
of the light of day. Not a lighted patch of mist, as most thought,
but a bright hot sphere that moved across the sky, day after
day.
    For the million years that they
had existed, all on ObLa knew that it was the one and only world in
existence. There was no sign of, and no belief in, any place that
they could not lean forward and sink their mitts into. The familiar
fog and clouds circumscribed all that was known and all that was
knowable. Now he, MaxNi MaxRo, alone among all who lived and all
who had ever lived, knew of a universe of other worlds. Numb with
wonder he turned off his screen and left his office to walk beneath
the unseen stars.
    A week later, MaxNi rose to
present the mission’s findings. The government officials that were
responsible for the Center for ObLa Weather had been invited. Most
of them knew that MaxNi MaxRo had been conducting high altitude
balloon flights, and they held some hope that his talk would be
more interesting than the usual COW drivel.
    MaxNi was ushered into the main
conference room where a large chart of the light meter data had
been printed up and stuck to the wall. He started with an
explanation of the mission and its goal to study weather patterns
and the composition of high altitude gases. This only succeeded in
igniting the audience’s apprehension. They feared another wasted
evening, but their interest was retrieved when MaxNi showed them
the puzzling data obtained at the highest altitudes. Very high
light levels had shown up in the middle of the night, and as the
light-of-day was predicted to begin, a patch of light appeared that
was so intense that it burned out the sensitive instruments. There
was a buzz that might have been taken for excitement, except for
the fact that these were Senior Government Officials, who would
never admit to that emotion, but when MaxNi told them that the
flight had been equipped with a directionally controlled camera,
they actually leaned forward in anticipation. Everyone likes a good
puzzle. Maybe the balloon had reached the wall of light
itself.
    MaxNi knew his audience and his
data. He would show the pictures of space, rather than drone on
about the technical information that had been gathered from the
flight. That could wait. He put up three pictures of the white
spots and explained how they determined that these were images of
some light emitting objects rather than artifacts. He then stepped
back from the stage and let the remaining pictures appear one after
another. A murmur spread