After The Second Jump

Poul Anderson, The Avatar, XXXII.

Brodersen sees:

a remote T machine;
starless space;
one blue-white spark surrounded by a pearly haze;
faint points of light;
a few small glowing clouds.

Chinook accelerates around the blue sun for Doppler measurements, sampling of conditions and detection of any planets. The sun has a lesser yellow companion. The points of light turn out to be widely separated star clusters whereas the clouds are nearby nebulae. Instruments detect more nebulae and a large region violently radiating in invisible wavelengths.

Chinook has arrived ten to twenty billion years ago in the embryo galaxy where there is no reason to stay.

The Others may have originated on a planet that coalesced very early. They traveled to this pre-galactic period, bringing materials for a new T machine and maybe also to construct a scientific station although Chinook does not detect the latter.