#before ejecting the extra planets from the system | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mindfulwrathwrites · 2 years

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Starless

Words: 4,248 Warnings: Death, existential dread

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There are stretches of the cosmic ocean so dark and cold that the only way to detect something is to run into it. This is not ideal when the thing in question is a planet.

Our gravity sensors caught it about ten thousand kilometers out and kicked us out of warp so hard that they overloaded the inertial dampers. By the time we’d gotten our concussions to the med bay and our systems back online, the Itinerant had already fallen into orbit. If you pressed your forehead to the windows and made a viewfinder with your hands, you could just make out the surface when we were at periapse. Most of the time, the planet was nothing more than a hole in the sky.

Ilya got a few of us together to make a plan of action. First, they asked me whether there would be any point in sending a message to our destination at Xuange.

“Not unless the warp core’s busted,” I said. “If it’s not, we’ll get there long before the signal does. If it is, it’d be at least five years before anybody even heard us.”

“And is the warp core busted?” Ilya asked Valerie.

He shook his head. “But the inertial dampers....” He made a face that said: don’t ask me about the inertial dampers.

Ilya didn’t ask him about the inertial dampers. Instead, they asked Regina about our heading.

“The nav systems can get us back on course,” Regina said, “once they’ve figured out our relative motion against the background stars.”

“How long will that take?” Ilya asked.

“A few hours.”

“I have a feeling the science team might want to stick around a little longer than that.”

They raised an eyebrow at Mozzie, who was vibrating in his chair.

“I cannot even begin to describe to you the incredibility of this opportunity,” he said.

“Yeah, guess it’s pretty rare for a planet to be wandering around with no star,” Yuko said.

“No no, entirely the opposite,” said Mozzie, revving up for an info-dump. “It’s common for a planet to be ejected from a system. The trouble is finding them once they’ve gone. Only a few hundred have ever been detected, and none have been directly observed, it’s all by gravitational microlensing. And when you think of trying to get to one to study it—!”

“It’s an opportunity we shouldn’t take lightly,” Ilya said. “But we also have injured crew aboard, and their needs might take priority. Yuko?”

“Bumps on the head and broken wrists, mainly,” said Yuko. “We’ll be short-handed while they heal up, but unless shit gets dire, I don’t think it’ll kill anybody.”

“How long could we hold out before a resupply?”

Yuko wrinkled her nose and swiveled her chair. “On my end? Lemme see, couple weeks, probably. We stocked up pretty good on assorted hormones back at Seginus—your T, your E, your insulin, your thyroid—but we’re a little thin in the heart-disease department. Yeah, call it two weeks of sitting, plus the last week to Xuange, unless shit gets dire.”

“We have about six weeks’ worth of food, and we just got the water recycler repaired,” Jae chipped in. Ze glanced at Valerie and scrunched hir nose. “I don’t know about power, though. Could we sit in the dark for two extra weeks?”

“Oh, yes,” Valerie said. His smile elaborated: the generator on this ship will outlive all of you.

Regina was shaking her head. “If we follow this thing for two weeks, it’s going to take us two months to get to Xuange.”

“Say what?” Yuko cried, whipping her feet off the table.

“It’s hauling significant ass. In two weeks, we’ll be in the middle of that giant molecular cloud we specifically plotted around. Unless we want to turn the whole ship into a fine mesh, we cannot jump to warp until we’re out of it. Two weeks: two months.”

“That,” Ilya said, with a sharpness around their teeth, “is not ideal. How long could we spare, then?”

“However long it takes to fix the inertial dampers, if we want to be safe about it,” said Regina. “A week, if we’re feeling spicy.”

“Valerie, how long will it take to repair the dampers?”

He wrinkled half of one lip. “Two, three days.”

“Wellp,” Yuko said. “Mozzie, y’all better measure as fast as y’all’s little hands can.”

“I’ve had some deadlines in my time,” Mozzie said, brittle, “but this really takes all.”

“I’ll set the radar to science,” I offered.

Ilya set their palms on the table. “Our best course of action is for everybody to get as much done as they can, as quickly as they can. Let’s get to work.”

Which was, of course, when we received the first transmission from the planet.

It was sent at such high power that it came straight through our communicators. Everyone in the room jumped. Ilya was the first to figure out what was happening.

“Get to comms,” they said to me, “and run that signal through every damn translator we have.”

I sprinted all the way to comms. By the time I got there, three more stations had started transmitting. Over the following hours, we were bombarded by transmissions. We pinpointed stations by infrared as the high-power signals heated the frozen surface. We threw all the computing power we could spare behind our translators.

After two and a half hours, they pieced the messages together. There were hundreds of transmissions in dozens of languages, all variations on a single theme:

Help us. We may be the last survivors. We have retreated deep underground to protect us from the cold. Our means of survival are not sustainable. Help us. Help us. Help us.

After three hours, one by one, every signal went quiet.

Ilya asked Mozzie how long the planet had been drifting.

“There’s no way of knowing that,” he said. He gestured to the window, to the circular hole in the grid of stars. “The surface is nitrogen ice. It used to be an atmosphere, I don’t know how thick, but it all froze out. That could take—it depends on the thickness of the atmosphere, how hot the planet started out. Decades? Centuries? I don’t know.”

“How far is the nearest planetary system?” I asked Regina. “Can we back out how long it’s been traveling by how fast it’s going?”

“We could,” she said, “if we knew where the nearest system was. There could be a brown dwarf a few billion klicks from here, and we’d never know. We don’t have the telescope power.”

“They could be auto signals,” Valerie said. He looked at me, seeking confirmation.

“They could,” I said. “Whatever they were transmitting with, it was ludicrously high-powered. And if they went underground—it would make sense to have a system set up to detect a ship in orbit and only fire off a signal if you get a blip. Saves power, but makes sure the message gets heard when it counts. It could be automated.”

Valerie made a face and turned out a hand, approximating: a dead man can scream once if there is air left in his lungs.

“But it could be not automated, too,” I said.

“Is it,” Ilya said, “in anyone’s professional opinion, remotely possible that there is a single living creature left on that planet?”

We all looked at each other. Regina chewed her lip. Valerie shrugged eloquently.

“Possible,” Mozzie said, mostly to himself. “Even without tidal heating, the interior would stay hot for... possible. Possible.”

“Possible it is,” Ilya sighed.

The Itinerant had three shuttles: a main, a backup, and a lifeboat. The crew decided that we'd take all three down. I was on one, and Jae was with me.

Our headlights found a mountainous terrain of blinding white snowdrifts. Sublimating nitrogen buffeted our shuttle. When we found solid ground, it was at the bottom of a crater in the snow.

“Holy moly,” Jae said, as our lights caught a radio antenna the size of the Itinerant. Rime ice bristled on the edges of the dish.

“They weren’t messing around,” I said. I went to land the shuttle. Jae grabbed my wrist.

“Are we going to be able to get back out?” ze asked.

“I don’t see why not,” I said. “Even if it freezes overhead, we’ll just make a new hole on the way out.”

“Are you sure?” Jae pressed.

I chewed on it. I opened the comms.

“Mozzie, what are the odds of us getting frozen in?”

The comm link hissed, filled with static discharges from the nitrogen snow.

“Very very low,” Mozzie answered. “Your shuttle is warm, the snow is very cold, it will all sublimate whenever you get near it. But—Valerie says if the shuttle gets too cold for too long, it will seize. I wouldn’t recommend to let that happen.”

The station was smaller than the dish above it, but still built to double our scale. Jae and I suited up and stepped out together. Our suits spilled enough heat that the nitrogen snow gave us a wide berth. The doorway to the station was so cold that the metal latch shattered with a single blow from a rock sampling hammer.

Inside, the floor was covered in black dust that crunched like gravel under our boots—frozen hydrocarbons, Mozzie told us. Bulbous shapes loomed in the spilled light of our headlamps, terminals or statues or frozen corpses. Jae and I stuck close to each other, seeking the heat of active machinery, lights or sounds, the entrance to whatever subterranean refuge the inhabitants had fled to. We called out, banged our fists on the cavernous walls, swept the dust with our feet and our lights. The cold pushed needles through the fabric of our suits.

Our voices dimmed down the farther we went. Every fine detail was cryogenically preserved, leaving a facility that looked like it had been occupied only days ago. Artifacts of convenience dotted the space: brightly-colored signage, organized storage, a waste bin. We didn’t dare to touch any of it. We searched for twenty minutes before finding the portal downward.

It was sealed over, edge-to-edge, with an opaque layer of grimy ice.

“Mozzie, what is this?” Jae asked. “More hydrocarbons?”

It took an agonizing ten seconds for a reply to come.

“Sorry, I’m here, I am here,” Mozzie said, breathless. “What was the question?”

“More ice,” I said. “It’s blocking the way down.”

“Use your spectrometer, please?”

Jae pointed hir infrared spectrometer at it. Mozzie tsked at hir to hold still, until he stopped doing that and took a slow breath through his teeth.

“What?” Jae said.

“Water ice,” Mozzie said. “A little dust, but mostly water.”

“Mozzie, don’t say it like it’s the end of the world.”

“So we’re good to smash through it?” I asked.

“You’ll never get through it,” Mozzie said. “The temperature is so low—no, you’ll never get through it. Come back, we’ll send you to the next one.”

“Hell with that,” I said. I reeled back and struck the ice with my hammer.

It was like striking a mountain. The hammer, brittled by the incredible cold, shattered. A piece of it chipped my visor. The impact jarred all the bones in my arm. I would have fallen over if Jae hadn’t caught me.

“Oh,” I said eloquently, while Mozzie demanded to know if I was okay, while Jae propped me back up on my feet. The cold sank a little farther through our suits. Our headlamps flickered. There was a small white spot on the ice where the dust had been disturbed.

“We’re fine, Mozzie, everyone’s okay,” Jae was saying. “Go ahead and send the coords to our shuttle, we’ll head back now.”

“No,” I said. My lips were numb.

“Okay, I sent them,” said Mozzie. “Also, Valerie’s saying that your suits will seize before the shuttle, and the electrical components will probably start to go first, so if you’re seeing any flickering in the lights, that’s a good sign that you need to—”

“No,” I said, more firmly. “We just—we just need to be methodical about this. We can’t just give up.”

“We don’t have any other options,” said Jae.

“There could be people in there,” I insisted. “They could still be alive. We could get to them if we just take the time to figure out how.”

Jae’s face was washed out in the light of our headlamps. Both flickered again. For a moment, the tremendous darkness of the universe closed around us. I heard my life support stutter. My feet were cold.

“Ellis,” Jae said, “we don’t have time.”

“But—”

But there were no buts. There was no way we’d get through the ice before our suits or our shuttle succumbed to the cold. We could move on to another station, one that might be more accessible, or we could die trying to save this one.

“Okay,” I said.

For four and a half days, we searched. Valerie and the engineering team had the inertial dampers ready to go by the end of Day Two, and were immediately conscripted to work out how to get through the ice sealing every single entrance to the subterranean refuges. The science team were of two minds: some concluded that this had been an ocean world, and the frozen hatches were the tip of an iceberg that ran miles deep; others speculated that humid air leaking from sealed airlocks could have built up a thick, insulating layer of ice as the planet hurtled away from the warmth of its star.

In four and a half days, we got through thirty-six of the one hundred and seventy-nine stations. I barely slept. I was lucky that when I fainted, I was on the ship for a resupply run. Juniper Lee, one of our engineers, wasn’t lucky. While Yuko was tidying up the cut where my head had pinged off a doorframe, Juniper Lee passed out on the surface and smashed the visor of her helmet when she fell.

Later, we would all reassure each other that it had been, at the very least, a fast way to die.

In the immediate aftermath, Ilya came with Regina to the med bay. Valerie was in shock, being cared for by people who hadn’t been devastatingly close to Juniper Lee. Yuko and I were no longer arguing about whether I should sleep before going back planet-side.

Regina informed us that we were passing into the diffuse outer edges of the giant molecular cloud. Two shuttles were still searching the transmission stations. The engineering team had scrambled together a heated drill that could push through a few inches of ice every minute.

“How long can we hold out?” I asked Regina.

“Not long. The deeper we go into the cloud, the more we risk losing nav altogether.”

“Has anyone heard anything, or seen anything, or...?”

“Zilch. The science team thinks they might be too far underground to pick up our hails.”

I turned to Ilya. “Not if we use the interstellar antenna.”

“Out of the question,” they said quietly.

“We get one message. If they don’t answer—”

“Then we have wasted our one call for help.”

“And if we don’t, we leave everyone down there to die!”

Yuko grabbed my shoulder. “Stay down, dumbass!”

I didn’t stay down. I lurched onto my feet and dragged her with me. “We don’t have time to check every station and drill through to every door. If nobody down there is going to hear us unless we scream at the top of our goddamn lungs—”

A wash of static filled my vision, a roar in my ears. Next I knew, I was back on the bed with Yuko cussing at me gently.

“We don’t have the time,” Regina was saying. “Whatever we do next, it has to be the last thing we do.”

Ilya rubbed their forehead. They sat down on one of the other beds, rested their elbows on their knees and their forehead on their knuckles. They let out a long breath.

“What is the absolute latest we can leave here that will still get us to Xuange before the medicine runs out?”

“One day,” said Regina.

“I might could stretch the meds a little longer,” Yuko offered. “Buy us another day or two. It shouldn’t hurt nobody, so long as Mozzie lays off the caffeine.”

“One day,” Regina insisted, “or I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to find our way out.”

“One day,” Ilya sighed. “So: we’ll ping them with the interstellar antenna, and wait twelve hours for an answer. If they answer, we have twelve-plus hours to effect a rescue operation. If we get no answer, we will conclude there is no one left to rescue. Does that sound fair to everyone?”

We all admitted it was the most fair thing we could do.

“Regina, thank you for all your hard work to ensure we make it to Xuange,” Ilya said.

“Thank you for listening to me,” said Regina.

Ilya turned to me. “Ellis, would you like to do the honors?”

Word spread quickly that we would be firing the interstellar antenna. All thirty of the crew gathered to witness it, idling in nearby rooms or hovering in the corridor. Even Valerie came, the crowd parting to let him into comms. He watched with heavy eyes as I positioned the system.

In the slump of his shoulders, the clench of his jaw, there was the quiet question: why not sooner?

“Can we spare the power?” I asked him.

He nodded. I checked everything one last time, and hit go.

The lights flickered and dimmed. My stomach rose as the gravity field weakened. The ventilation sighed out and forgot to inhale. Without it, you could hear the particles of the giant molecular cloud striking the hull, a sound like snowfall. In the corridor, the rest of the crew shuffled and muttered.

The message was as simple as we could make it. With dozens of languages to choose from, we’d opted for no words at all. We sent blasts of white noise grouped into the Fibonacci sequence: one, one, three, five. We could only hope it would be understood.

We heard you. We’re here. Help us find you.

We transmitted until the antenna burned out. When it died, the ship breathed in again. The lights came back on, gravity settled, the air stirred. The comms screen danced with reflections from the planet, then softer return signals from the cloud, then nothing. The mutter in the corridor rose to a gabble. I got to my feet. Ilya helped me stay upright.

“I need a nap,” I said.

“We’ll wake you up as soon as we hear anything,” Ilya promised.

By the time my alarm went off, ninety minutes later, you could hear the molecular cloud from anywhere in the ship. I went straight back to comms and found Regina with her head in her hands, Mozzie pacing and singing under his breath, Ilya staring out the window.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“We can hold out for two more hours,” Regina said, sickened. “That’s all. That’s all I can give you. And we’ll still be flying blind, but....”

“Not far enough to get lost,” Ilya said.

“We hope, we hope,” Mozzie said. “Should have looked at the density gradient. I’m sorry, we were so busy looking at the planet, we should have thought to check the density gradient of the cloud. If we’d turned our head even for a second—!”

“It’s not your fault,” Regina said.

I looked to Ilya.

“No answer,” they said.

“I guess that’s good.”

“I’m sorry, Ellis,” they said anyway.

I shrugged, helpless. “It’d be a pretty grim irony to get them off the planet just to die on the ship.”

Jae came into the room then, with Yuko behind hir. The two of them reported that the shuttles were docking, our cargo tied down, the concussed crew secured in the med bay in case of incident as we de-orbited.

“Has anyone seen Valerie?” Ilya asked.

“Down by the shuttle bay,” Jae said.

Ilya thanked hir and excused themself from the room. We stood around looking at each other, our hands empty.

“We got through one of the ice walls while you were asleep,” Jae mentioned to me. “There was some kind of airlock behind it. We... decided not to open it. I mean, we opened the first door, when we were pretty sure there was another door behind it, and we banged on the inner door and yelled and sent signals from there, but—you know, even if nobody was alive on the other side, the chance of explosive decompression....”

“Yeah,” I said.

It’s amazing how much silence you can fit in one little room.

A few minutes later, Ilya came over the shipwide, informing us that we were beginning our de-orbiting maneuver. Soon, a low rumble filled the Itinerant. I watched out the window as the light of our thrusters cast a perishingly dim glow on the surface of the planet. I watched it disappear into the starless darkness of the giant molecular cloud.

Valerie came into the comms room at some point during the maneuver. His self-deprecating shrug said: I got kicked out of my own engine room. Jae offered him hir chair, and he took it.

We traveled in darkness, only the rumble of the engines and the hiss of the giant molecular cloud around us. Though none of us stayed put, we all continually drifted back to comms like silt returning to a lakebed. Four hours after we de-orbited, the stars became visible again. Regina monitored the nav computers from her portable workstation—they had our coordinates locked within seconds. We made a minor course correction.

An hour after that, Ilya came on the shipwide again: T-minus one minute to warp. I kept staring out the window, even though there was nothing to see but the great dark cloud behind us.

“We left a beacon on the surface,” Jae said. I tore myself away from the window. Ze smiled at me. “The highest-powered one we had. As soon as we get to Xuange, they can dispatch a real rescue vessel.”

“Won’t it be froze up by now?” Yuko said, glancing between hir and Valerie. “Every damn thing we sent down there was struggling inside of a couple hours, how’s the beacon gonna keep kicking long enough for anybody to find it?”

Valerie’s face was stone.

“The snow could act as an insulator,” Mozzie offered lamely.

“And we know its position and heading,” Regina said. “Even if the beacon dies, we might still be able to find it.”

Jae nodded, relieved. Mozzie rocked gently from side to side. Valerie lifted his head like he’d heard a familiar voice in an unfamiliar place.

Ilya came over the shipwide one last time: T-minus ten seconds to warp.

Mozzie dropped into a chair and braced himself. Regina shut her work station and her eyes. Valerie and Jae steadied themselves on the walls. Yuko took her feet off the table.

Every communicator in the room screeched at once. The rumble of the thrusters was overtaken by the upswinging whine of the warp drive. I grabbed my communicator and lunged for the window. I couldn’t tell you why.

The Itinerant hit five times the speed of light before my foot hit the ground.

Our communicators cut out. The universe drifted past the window, glowing blue towards the front of the ship, utterly dark behind. The whine of the warp core reached a pitch that not even Valerie could hear. I braced myself on the window. It was warm.

Mozzie was the first to move. He said something about sample curation and headed for the door. He hesitated on the threshold.

“It was probably a reflection,” he said. “The transmissions were all so powerful. We caught one coming back the other way after it bounced off of something.”

“Right,” I said.

“That’s all it was,” said Mozzie, and he left.

Regina got up next. She put her hands flat on the table and spoke to them.

“We gave it as long as we could,” she said. “We were hailing them from orbit for five days and heard nothing. It’s been seven hours since we fired the interstellar antenna. Whatever that was—” she gestured to space at large— “it wasn’t an answer. It was too late to be an answer.”

She settled herself with that, then walked out, too.

“Yeah, it’s like Valerie said at the beginning,” Jae said. “All the transmissions were probably automated. Maybe that one just had a longer-range detector, or... something.”

“That was probably it,” I said.

“Well,” said Jae. Ze fidgeted. “I’m—I’m just going to go and check on the... the greenhouse. Make sure nothing got tumbled on the way out of orbit. I’ll... see you around.”

Yuko was next, stopping chuck me on the shoulder and say: “Hey, don’t beat yourself up. It was already a million years too late when we got there.”

“I know.”

“Try and get some sleep,” she said. She followed Jae out.

In the silence that remained, Valerie came to stand by me. His face was waxen, his eyes heavy and bloodshot and staring into the immense emptiness outside. He said nothing.

But he put a hand on my arm, just for a moment, just gently, and it said everything.

#12 Feb 2022 #sci-fi #horror #original writing #original fiction

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i-like-plan-m · 3 years

Text

the wind on another star

[On Ao3]

Lan Zhan wondered if pirates, of all things, were going to succeed where dozens of far superior fighters had tried and failed to kill him before.

The wide open void of space mocked him. Millions of escape routes within sight, and all worthless to him with a sabotaged hyperdrive and navigation system. The Hanguang-Jun was stranded in the middle of nowhere and caught in the crosshairs of a rather established band of mercenaries who doubled as pirates when they were between paid jobs.

Lan Zhan stood at the helm of his wounded starship and watched the empty escape pods drift away with so much fury he half expected them to explode.

Su She had conned his way onto Lan Zhan’s ship, hacked the navigation controls to drop them out of hyperspace and straight into the heart of a company of heavily armed mercenaries, and taken the only escape pod that he hadn’t already ejected into space.

Lan Zhan’s crew was trapped. Lan Zhan was trapped-- his ship’s weapon systems were mostly offline, brought partially back to life only by Lan Jingyi’s sheer desperation and skill. It wasn’t nearly enough to keep a dozen fighter planes and two cruisers at bay.

“Ambush,” Mianmian said tightly from beside him. “This was carefully planned, Captain.”

“What did we ever do to piss off these guys?” Lan Jingyi asked over the open comms, an edge of panic to his voice that made Lan Zhan’s mouth twist. It was his fault that his cousin was here in the first place, after all; he’d offered him a position on his ship due in part to Lan Jingyi’s skills and also to get him out of Lan Qiren’s hair. Apparently a too-clever, loud mouthed teenager trapped in the peaceful City of Clouds in Gusu had driven everyone up the wall.

He’d reminded Lan Zhan of Wei Ying-- the irrepressible character, the frequent mischief, a voice that ricocheted off of steel walls like a blaster shot. He was joy and humor and noise, a welcome change from the solemn silence aboard the Hanguang-Jun. It made him think of things loved and lost, bittersweet memories that perhaps made him more lenient with Lan Jingyi than his family would approve of.

And Lan Zhan had brought him straight into a trap, likely to be picked off by power hungry mercenaries or held as a hostage.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, the control panel beeped urgently, warning him that the cruisers had locked their missiles onto the Hanguang-Jun.

So they had decided to kill him after all.

His brother would be devastated, Lan Zhan thought distantly.

“I’ve still got the sonics,” Mianmian said, strapping herself into the copilot’s seat and reaching for the weapons controls. As his security expert and weapons master, Mianmian had seen them through insurmountable odds before; she remained as cool as ever under the flashing red warning lights. “I can pick off the missiles as they come, unless they unload several at once on us.”

“Can we use them to hit first?” Lan Jingyi asked, breathing heavily as he worked in the overheated mechanical room. “No one in the galaxy can counter Lan sonic tech.”

“They’re out of range,” Mianmian said regretfully.

“They haven’t attempted to hail us?” Lan Zhan asked, staring the largest cruiser down as it loomed over them in a blatant attempt to intimidate them. He suspected there was more at play here-- cruisers like this cost serious money, and even if simple mercenary crews got their hands on one, they didn’t keep them long. But two? Lan Zhan knew a set up when he saw it.

Lan Jingyi-- their mechanic and communications officer, because he was “skilled like that”-- made a sound of disgust. “No. So much for intergalactic law, right?”

“So many for just us,” Mianmian said, scowling out the front shield. “That’s half a damn army out there.”

The Hanguang-Jun had a reputation, though. Lan Zhan and his tiny crew went where the chaos was, and recently they’d taken on a number of jobs that had required the full force of their combined skill and strategy to survive. Except they’d not only survived, they’d demolished multiple bands of the rogue mercenaries that wandered the galaxy, terrorizing the helpless colonies too small or poor to defend themselves.

Someone had been paying attention, it seemed. And they had gone so far as to plant a spy-- Su She, hired only a week ago as extra support-- to lead them to an ambush in the middle of nowhere.

No one would know of their deaths for some time; the largest cruiser had an active jammer to block any distress signals, and Lan Zhan wasn’t due for a check in with his family for weeks.

He regretted the deaths of his crew. His friends. The loss his brother and uncle would soon face. And, privately, Lan Zhan regretted that he would never find Wei Ying. The bright, brilliant boy who’d vanished entirely after the Sunshot Wars, wherein the galaxy had come together to bring down Wen Ruohan before he could harness a sun’s energy to demolish entire planets.

So much left unsaid. But Wei Ying had broken the Wen remnants out of a prison world and disappeared into the darkness between the stars. No one knew where he’d gone. If he was alive. If they’d ever see him again.

Lan Zhan, it seemed, would never find out.

“Our shields?” He asked quietly, gripping the sleek rail separating the pilots’ seats from the rest of the control room so tightly his knuckles were white.

“In tatters,” Lan Jingyi said, trying to sound brave and landing somewhere around apprehensive. “I’m doing my best, Captain, but…”

“It’s alright,” Lan Zhan said gently. “We will try the sonic cannons.”

Mianmian’s eyes flickered to him, but she kept quiet. They both knew it would only take one missed shot to destroy their ship, and they were laughably outnumbered. But the comms were open and Lan Jingyi was listening intently from the engine room, so they kept their mutual understanding nonverbal.

“Well. It’s been an honor, Captain,” she murmured, too low for the comm line to pick up.

“For me as well,” Lan Zhan said, and dropped his hands to the pilot controls. He would try to help Mianmian dodge missiles as best he could, despite the futility of the situation.

The beeping became frantic, screaming in urgency as the second cruiser locked onto them. The cockpit was dim, lit only by the flashing warning lights that cast them in hues of red.

They waited, braced for the first burst of light that would signal a dispatched missile, surrounded on all sides, caught in a killing field with no way out.

Three bright souls on the cusp of darkness, facing a death that would leave them floating adrift in the eternal expanse of space. Not so terrible an end, he supposed, for a crew of wayfarers.

Mianmian suddenly jerked in place. “What the...?”

Lan Zhan’s attention snapped to her, wondering if he’d missed the beginning of the execution. He followed her baffled gaze, and then froze at the sight of a mid-sized, battered red cruiser dropping out of hyperspace, right on top of the armada.

He knew that cruiser. Had seen it only once, when a small collection of Wen prisoners had boarded it in the midst of a fierce storm with a slender, defiant figure guarding their escape.

The Yílíng Lǎozǔ drifted casually along, drawing the attention of the armada when its heavy artillery cannons dropped into active position. Half of the mercenaries turned their starships around to face the new threat.

“Is that who I think it is?” Mianmian whispered. Lan Zhan could not answer, though the hope in her voice matched the rising sun of his own.

“Is what who you think it is? What’s happening?” Lan Jingyi asked. They didn’t answer, too focused on the Yílíng Lǎozǔ and its unhurried course through the mercenaries’ ranks. Neither took much notice when he skidded into the cockpit to join them, breathing hard with wide, fever-bright eyes.

MianMian made a noise low in her throat when one of the cruisers disengaged their missile lock and turned it onto the Yílíng Lǎozǔ. “They’re going to get blown into pieces, why aren’t they moving out of range?”

Lan Zhan didn’t even notice the moment he stood, so tense his bones felt as though they’d shatter into pieces at a single touch. Wei Ying, what are you doing?

As if in answer, the largest cruiser angled to give chase to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ-- and exploded so abruptly and violently that Lan Zhan nearly staggered back in shock. Mianmian swore in mingled fear and delight, and Lan Jingyi exclaimed similar feelings at the top of his lungs.

“They dropped mines, did you see that?” She asked, leaning forward with bright eyes. “Completely off the radar-- we didn’t get so much as a blip, and this radar’s the only damn thing that is working on this ship.”

“Wei Ying has always been inventive,” Lan Zhan said, chest tight with something huge and undefinable.

“Fucking brilliant is what he is,” Mianmian said, and then made a face. “Don’t you dare tell him I said that.”

That implied Lan Zahn was going to see him, which promptly overrode every other thought in his head and made him feel as though he’d been struck in the head with a Lan sonic cannon.

Debris from the destroyed cruiser littered the battlefield, briefly hiding the Yílíng Lǎozǔ from sight.

“They won’t fall for that trick twice,” Mianmian muttered, leaning forward. “Careful, now.”

And then, so suddenly Lan Zhan and Mianmian made twin noises of shock, the starships closest to the Hanguang-Jun exploded. He thought at first it was another trick with the mines, but--

A ripple of darkness rocketed past the nose of their ship, far too fast to track. It was utterly undetectable except for the trail of destruction it left behind. The starship moved at impossible speeds; not even the Nie’s most advanced fighters could move like that, and they were the foremost engineers in the galaxy.

It took another moment, during which starships blew up like a pre-planned chain reaction, for Lan Zhan to realize there were two of these ships-- starfighters, combat aircraft built for speed and stealth. They worked off of each other like they were a hive mind, targeting clusters of enemy ships and annihilating them with some unknown invisible weapon that pulverized the ships into fragments.

A series of explosions along the remaining cruiser nearly tore it in half. Lan Jingyi whooped as it careened wildly out of control and erupted into blinding light.

Lan Zhan’s focus, though, was drawn inexplicably to the shimmer of darkness flitting through the ranks of the armada, slipping into impossibly narrow spaces, performing acrobatics that only someone absolutely fearless would even dream of.

Wei Ying had always taken “attempt the impossible” to heart.

“Look!” Lan Jingyi exclaimed, pointing outside their windshield to a furrow in the black void of space. A third ship, this one hovering just beside the Hanguang-Jun as a clear threat-- come any closer, and you’d be decimated like the rest of the ruined armada. Lan Jingyi waved, and the ripple of black dipped low and then back into place.

“What kind of weapon is that?” Mianmian wondered, watching in awe as a single shot from one of Wei Ying’s starfighters dissolved a starship into particles.

Lan Zhan remembered Wei Ying’s theories on dark matter, and he wondered.

It did not take long for the battle to end. None of the ships even had a chance to escape, and any that tried were chased down within a few heartbeats and destroyed.

The communications system blipped as the two starfighters finished off the remaining enemies. Lan Jingyi looked at Lan Zhan in question, who nodded and waited for him to open the channel to say, “This is Lan Zhan, Captain of the Hanguang-Jun.”

“Hello, Captain,” someone replied. A young man, by the sounds of it, and politely cheerful. “Our captain has asked me to escort you to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ, if you are amenable.”

That was almost certainly not the way Wei Ying had likely worded it. Lan Zhan found himself wanting to smile. “I am amenable,” he said. “My ship is badly damaged and in need of repair.”

“We can help with that,” the boy replied, and was then interrupted by a voice that made Lan Zhan’s stomach swoop violently.

“Lan Zhan! Are you really going to let me put my grubby hands all over your shiny ship?”

He closed his eyes, emotion swelling in his chest. “Wei Ying can put his hands on anything of mine he wishes,” he said calmly, and meant every word.

He heard a squawk, a faint crash followed by an angry beep, and then a third voice calling in concern, “Wei-gongzi!”

“I’m fine, Wen Ning,” Wei Ying said hastily. Lan Zhan eyed the small piece of debris spinning away into the void, as though it had been clipped by the wing of a starfighter, perhaps.

“Ah,” Wei Ying laughed. “Lan Zhan, I didn’t expect you to have jokes now! I’ve missed a lot, it seems.”

“I have missed more.” Too much, if Wei Ying had made advancements like this; he’d clearly discovered some secret to the universe and left the rest of them far behind.

Lan Zhan had let him slip between his fingers once before. He was tired of being left behind.

“Wen Qing is bringing the Yílíng Lǎozǔ to you,” Wei Ying said with more warmth than Lan Zhan deserved. He had, after all, let Wei Ying down all those years ago. “I’ll see you soon, Lan Zhan.”

“Soon,” Lan Zhan agreed, and let the comm line fall to silence.

Soon. He felt his heart skip a beat in anticipation. Soon he would be face to face with Wei Ying again, the boy he’d loved and lost before he truly understood the potential for what it was, too busy being offended by the concept of his own stupid infatuation.

Soon, Lan Zhan thought again, and his tiny, hopeful smile was witnessed solely by the blanket of darkness and the glittering, luminous lights of a nearby star. A secret of his own, held between him and a universe full of possibility.

#my fics #my writing #the untamed #wangxian #wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #lan wangji #space drama #lan jingyi #mianmian #luo qingyang #wen ning #wen qing #wen yuan #a yuan #lan sizhui #mdzs #ficlets

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sciencespies · 3 years

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Simulations reveal the most likely place for a galactic civilization in the Milky Way

https://sciencespies.com/space/simulations-reveal-the-most-likely-place-for-a-galactic-civilization-in-the-milky-way/

Simulations reveal the most likely place for a galactic civilization in the Milky Way

The Milky Way is 13 billion years old. Some of our galaxy’s oldest stars were born near the beginning of the Universe itself. During all these eons of time, we know at least one technological civilization has been born – us!

But if the galaxy is so ancient, and we know it can create life, why haven’t we heard from anybody else?

If another civilization was just 0.1 percent of the galaxy’s age older than we are, they would be millions of years further along than us and presumably more advanced. If we are already on the cusp of sending life to other worlds, shouldn’t the Milky Way be teeming with alien ships and colonies by now?

Maybe. But it’s also possible that we’ve been looking in the wrong place. Recent computer simulations by Jason T. Wright et al. suggest that the best place to look for ancient space-faring civilizations might be the core of the galaxy, a relatively unexplored target in the search for extra terrestrial intelligence.

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Above: Animation showing the settlement of the galaxy. White points are unsettled stars, magenta spheres are settled stars, and white cubes represent a settlement ship in transit. The spiral structure formed is due to galactic shear as the settlement wave expands. Once the Galaxy’s center is reached, the rate of colonization increases dramatically. (Credit: Wright et al.)

The Churn

Older mathematical models of space colonization have tried to determine the time required for a civilization to spread throughout the Milky Way. Given the size of the Milky Way, wide-scale galactic colonization could take longer than the age of the galaxy itself.

However, a unique feature of this new simulation is its accounting for the motion of the galaxy’s stars. The Milky Way is not static, as assumed in prior models, rather it is a churning swirling mass. Colonization vessels or probes would be flying among stars that are themselves in motion. The new simulation reveals that stellar motion aids in colonization contributing a diffusing effect to the spread of a civilization.

The simulation is based on previous research by Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback et al. which proposed that a hypothetical civilization could spread at sub-light speeds through a moving galaxy. The simulation assumes a civilization using ships travelling at velocities comparable to our own spacecraft (about 30 km/s).

When a ship arrives at a virtual habitable world in the simulation, the world is considered a colony and can itself launch another craft every 100,000 years if another uninhabited world is in range.

Simulated space craft range is 10 light years with maximum travel duration of 300,000 years. Technology from a virtual colony was set to last 100 million years before dying out with the opportunity to be resettled should another colony drift into range by galactic motion.

The results are dramatic. The galaxy’s rotation generates a wave or “front” of colonization. Once the front reaches the galactic core, the core’s density catalyzes a rapid increase in the rate of colonization. Even with very conservative limits placed on the speed of the space craft, a majority of the galaxy could be colonized in less than a billion years – a fraction of its total age.

Line of Sight

The simulation’s results reaffirm past proposals by Vishal Gajjar et al. to search the galactic center for signs of life. Not only can the center of the galaxy be rapidly colonized, but also efficiently scanned for technology.

We have a direct line of sight to the galaxy’s center which encompasses the densest region of space relative to us. And since the galaxy formed from the inside out, the center is filled with older planets which provide more time for life to evolve.

The center also serves as a logical place to “talk” to and from – a central focal point of the galaxy. If you wanted to get a signal out to the rest of the galaxy, you could do so from the center to blanket the disk of the Milky Way. Likewise, if you wanted to find a signal, you might look to that same center.

Gajjar et al. also hypothesize that an advanced civilization may be capable of tapping into the energy of the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole to power a galaxy-wide signal beacon. Talk about a powerful “hello!”

A view toward the galaxy’s center from Earth captured in the Mojave Desert. (Matthew Cimone)

Then Why so Quiet?

Still, none of this answers the previous question – where are they? In fact, the speed at which the galaxy could be colonized complicates why we haven’t heard from anybody.

Furthermore, Caroll-Nellenback et al. also note that during colonization, an advanced civilization might develop new propulsion technologies shortening the time needed to spread. And yet, preliminary radio scans of the galactic core haven’t revealed any signals.

Perhaps the silence itself is an answer. The galaxy is so old with so much time available for life to spread that some believe the silence dooms any hope of meeting anybody.

But there is still hope!

The simulation shows it’s possible that some parts of the galaxy are never settled despite eons of time. It’s a matter of efficiency. Remember, you want to colonize at the shortest possible ranges.

As time passes, some colonies die out and are lost perhaps from resource exhaustion or cataclysmic event. Rather than reach farther out into space, colonies choose to reinhabit a dead colony at closer range.

Clusters of inhabited colonies form surrounded by uninhabited planets that are never colonized. A “steady state” is achieved where regions of the Milky Way’s habitable worlds are simply too inefficient to colonize.

There are other possibilities to explain the silence as well. Perhaps long-lived civilizations are governed by sustainability to grow more slowly than anticipated. If there are multiple colonizing civilizations perhaps they are competing for resources or keep a distance from each other.

Perhaps civilizations take care to not interfere with inhabited planets such as ours (similar to the Prime Directive in Star Trek) or are cautious of potential biological incompatibilities faced on other worlds. All these possibilities may explain why we have yet to meet anyone… unless we already have… no, seriously.

A Buried Past

Carroll-Nellenback et al. consider a “temporal horizon” – a point in history beyond which Earth would no longer retain evidence of previous colonization. Let’s say, for example, a galactic alien civilization landed on Earth billions of years ago, lived thousands of years, then died off.

After all this time, virtually no evidence would remain of their presence. So “we” haven’t met an alien civilization, but it’s possible Earth itself has.

The simulation shows that, given our location in the galaxy, there is an 89 percent likelihood that at least a million years could pass without visits from interstellar ships – potentially enough time to erase signs of previous colonization.

The point is that between the galaxy being completely colonized, or being completely empty, the simulation demonstrates that there can be middle grounds – valid responses to the silence which still leave room for technological extraterrestrial life even without contact.

Globular Life?

While the center of the galaxy is an ideal future realm for SETI research, there are other regions of the galaxy which mimic the same favorable conditions as the center – globular clusters.

Globular clusters (GC) are ancient massive collections of stars orbiting about the center of the galaxy at distances of tens of thousands of light years. Relics from a period of intense star formation catalyzed by galaxy mergers, there are about 150 known GCs in the Milky Way ranging from 10-13 billion years old.

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GCs are incredibly dense with stars much closer to each other on average than found in the disk of the Milky Way. When considering interstellar travel or communication, we are typically talking about millennia.

However, a civilization within a GC would experience travel time between stars on the order of just a few years with communication times of months or even weeks. Problem is that the densities of GCs may negatively impact planet formation as well as the orbital stability of planets.

R. Di Stefano and A. Ray calculate what they call a “GC habitable zone”. We generally use the term “habitable zone” to describe the distance a planet needs to orbit a star to maintain temperatures for liquid water. Earth resides in the habitable zone of the Sun (good thing for us). Rather than a 2 dimensional radius like the orbit of a planet, a GC habitable zone is a three dimensional shell orbiting around the center of the cluster itself.

The inner part of the shell’s thickness begins where the GC density drops to where solar systems can survive the gravitational interference of nearby stars. The gravity of a nearby star might pull apart planetary dust rings disrupting the creation of planets. Another star passing near a system could also eject a planet from its parent star.

The outer edge of the shell’s thickness is defined by where the density becomes so low that the average distance between stars is greater than 10,000 AU (astronomical units, representing Earth’s distance from the Sun at about 150,000 km). 10,000 AU is equal to about 2 light months.

After this point, the advantages of being in the cluster – namely the short travel and communication times to neighboring stars – diminish. The zone encompassed by the shell is what Di Stefano and Ray call the GC “sweet spot” for colonization – star systems that are close together facilitating quick travel/communication but not so close that they tear each other’s systems apart.

We want the GC sweet spot to encompass mainly lower mass stars which live the longest. Serendipitously, low mass stars also have the smallest radius solar habitable zones. The closer a planet orbits its parent star the less likely it is of being torn away by another star.

Globular cluster M13. (Howard Trottier/SFU Trottier Observatory)

GCs also experience a phenomenon called “mass segregation” where the most massive stars – and therefore the least favorable to habitability in the cluster – find themselves gravitationally drawn toward the center. This segregation then naturally sorts the cluster from least to best choice systems from core to periphery.

The results are favorable. In a hypothetical GC approaching 100,000 solar masses, the sweet spot encompasses 40 percent of G stars (yellow dwarfs like our own Sun) and 15 percent of K and M stars (orange and red dwarfs) in the cluster. That’s a lot of stars.

There is even the possibility that planets which have been ejected from systems could still host a civilization because of the combined ambient energy the planet receives from all the stars in the cluster – especially if the civilization has advanced solar energy capture technology. A free-floating world of space aliens.

Just throwing out numbers, Di Stefano and Ray suggest that even if only 10 percent of GC stars have habitable planets, 1 percent of those support intelligent life, and 1 percent of those host a communicating civilization, at least one communicating civilization could exist in every GC in the Milky Way.

Similar variables assigned to the Milky Way itself – with far lower stellar density – would result in… one communicating civilization (probably us). Changing the percentages to be slightly less conservative would mean more civilizations could exist in the diffuse disk but would be separated by massive distances upwards of 300 light years.

If you were located in a GC, you may try to communicate with the distant disk of the Milky Way. We, unfortunately, have yet to find any direct evidence that planets even exist in GCs. Our techniques for finding exoplanets are impaired by the distance to and densities of GCs. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility. If a civilization does exist in a GC, with quick access to thousands of stars, Di Stefano and Ray say the civilization would essentially be “immortal.”

We’ve actually beamed a message to a GC – the beautiful M13 Hercules globular cluster. Located in the constellation of Hercules, the cluster is 22,000 light years away, 145 light years in diameter, and is comprised of about 100,000 stars.

In 1974, a message was sent to M13 from the Arecibo radio telescope (RIP). The message contained the numbers 1 to 10, chemical compounds of DNA, a graphic figure of a human, a graphic of the solar system, and a graphic of the radio telescope itself. Total broadcast time was 3 minutes. Still has a few thousand years to get there.

Likely the low resolution message won’t be discernible by the time it arrives at M13. But perhaps one day we will make contact with a galaxy-spanning civilization. Or, perhaps WE will become a galaxy-spanning civilization. For that story, I’m eagerly awaiting the upcoming screen adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation series!

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

#Space

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wisdomrays · 3 years

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TAFAKKUR: Part 256

WHAT MAKES THE PLANETS REVOLVE AROUND THE SUN? : Part 1

The Sun consists of three parts: the interior, the outer layer, and the solar atmosphere. The outer layer of the Sun is similar to the boundary that exists between the Earth and its atmosphere. The core is denser than the outer layer. It is possible to observe the outer layer of the Sun, but it is not possible to observe the interior. Therefore, any knowledge about the interior of the Sun is dependent on interpretation of data collected about the events that occur on the outer layer. The interior consists of three parts: the core, the radiation zone, and the convection zone. The Sun is made up of matter that is not in a solid, liquid, or gaseous state; rather it is in the plasma state of matter. In the plasma state, due to the very high temperatures, the electrons move away from the nucleus. The elements in this plasma state are charged particles (electrons and protons), which are inclined to react with magnetic and electrical fields. The ionized gas, in the state of plasma, magnetizes the magnetic field of the Sun, increasing its potential by twisting it and forming magnetic field lines. In certain zones in which the magnetic field is strong, the magnetic fields, which are similar in shape to a loop, independently break off and are scattered throughout the solar atmosphere.

More than 99% of the matter in the universe is in a state of plasma. The energy that the Sun distributes comes from the core, which is like a blast furnace; here matter is pure energy or is converted to energy. In the core hydrogen atoms are combined and helium is created through nuclear fusion, which occurs at very high temperatures. During nuclear fusion, enormous amounts of energy are emitted. The total capacity of the Sun’s outer layer that emits energy is around 3.86 x 1,026 watts. However, only 1,368 watt per m2 comes into the orbit of the Earth. This energy results in the light that we see when we look at the Sun. The core of the Sun is 160 times denser than water on Earth. The temperature in the core is about 15 million °C. If the Sun had not been created at this density and high temperature, such a great amount of energy could not be produced. The energy produced in the core is conveyed to the radiation zone, so called as energy here is conveyed by radiation. The energy produced in the core heats everything while moving to upwards and when it comes close to the outer layer, it loses heat and energy. For instance, there is 1-2 million °C of heat that is dissipated before the end of the radiation zone. At the point where the radiation zone ends, the density of the matter is equal to the density of water on Earth. The energy is conveyed by radiation in the interior part of the Sun, while being conveyed by convection in the outer layer. The source of energy that maintains the light and heat of the Sun is the furnaces at the core. The heat decreases in proportion to the distance from the core. Curiously enough, when moving away from the photosphere (radiation zone) towards the corona, one might think that the temperature in the solar atmosphere should decrease, but in fact it increases. The interior of the corona is almost as hot as the core of the Sun, but the temperature decreases in the outer part of the corona. The cooling process that begins when moving away from the core stops at the corona and the temperature rises from 100,000 °C to 1-5 million °C. Scientists have not yet resolved why the corona has this very high temperature.

The outer layer of the Sun is very stormy. We can compare the events in the outer layer to water boiling in a kettle. This layer is known as the convection zone, which is kept in place by the magnetic field in the corona. The gas pressure in this zone is relatively higher than the magnetic field pressure. Therefore the magnetic field retreats inward and is twisted as a result of the turbulent movements of gas. These movements fulfill the role of enlarging the magnetic field lines of the corona. In the corona, the magnetic field pressure is higher than the gas pressure. It is possible that the extra energy conveyed to the magnetic field is transferred to the plasma in the corona. The energy, in the state of hydromagnetic waves, is squeezed and converted into energy. But we do not know exactly how the energy in the magnetic field is converted to heat in the corona.

The most interesting research topics at the moment are the transfer of energy to the corona and the storage mechanisms for this energy. Matter is heated in the convection zone and expands and rises to the surface. It cools as it rises to the outer layer, becoming denser and then, in a plasma state, sinks down again. This cyclic movement, consisting of a rise and fall, is what is meant by the term “convection.” This movement is conducive to the conveyance of energy from the base of the convection zone to the top. The matter approaching the top cools down and becomes denser here, distributing its energy to the environment. The rising and falling movements of matter in this convection zone are similar to the circular movement observed in water boiling in a kettle. These movements cause the formation of strong magnetic fields in the outer layer of the Sun.

The extremely hot gas in the corona moves away from the Sun. When this hot gas mass heads to the planets it is known as “solar wind.” Solar winds are the officers in charge of changes in the climates of planets. This activity in the solar atmosphere causes atmospheric air currents that bring about snow and rain. There are relatively few magnetic fields in the outer layer of the Sun, while there are a number of magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere. The interplanetary magnetic field is formed as a result of the Sun’s magnetic field. Coronal mass ejections expand away from the Sun at speeds that measure as much as 1,250 miles per second. These blasts carry up to ten billion tons of plasma away from the Sun. It may take a few days for the matter, which covers distance at a speed of 60-600 miles per second, to reach the Earth. Solar flares move at the speed of light and can reach the Earth in eight minutes. If coronal mass ejections reach the atmosphere of the Earth, they can create geomagnetic storms. Auroras (radiation that can be observed in Polar zones) are the atmospheric events related to the coronal mass ejections. Large geomagnetic storms can cause electrical power outages and damage communication satellites.

Astronomers record the xrays that emanate from the Sun in the same way that a doctor records the occurrences of pain in patients. It has been discovered that there is a strong correlation between the density of solar flares and the pains of those who suffer migraines. Even if this correlation is statistically meaningful, more controlled research needs to be carried out to understand if there is any biological significance. The storage of magnetic energy in the solar atmosphere and the ejection of the same, like a sudden explosion, cause solar flares. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. During such an explosion, radiation is emitted across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The amount of energy released is the equivalent of millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time. Considering how just one hydrogen bomb is enough to destroy the entire world, we must thank the All-Powerful God Who placed the Sun at an ideal distance, protecting us both from freezing and burning. The energy released during a flare is typically to the order of 1027 ergs per second. This energy is ten million times greater than the energy released by a volcanic explosion.

The system in which magnetic fields are produced in the Sun can be the cause of some changes on Earth. For example, between the years of 1600 and 1850s solar activities decreased and low temperatures (a minor ice age) were recorded on Earth, especially in much of Europe and North America. Therefore, solar activity carries out its duty on the order of God and works for the adjustment of climates on Earth. It was determined that the temperature differences measured at 6 miles above the North Pole (in the boundary of troposphere/stratosphere) were related to a eleven-year cycle of sunspot explosions. The stratosphere heat over the Polar zones is relatively less cold when the Sun is active, depending on the stratospheric winds. However, the physical mechanisms have not yet been determined.

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julez-the-great · 4 years

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Life—Poe Dameron x Reader

Here you rested, on the cold, hard ground. You felt light as a feather and your heart beat was slow and steady. The sky above you was calm and quiet as there was no more sign of the battle just fought.

‘We did it,’ your mind repeated to itself thousands of times. ‘The First Order is gone. We’ve finally won.’ Your vision was blurry and you can smell the smoke from your crashed X-Wing laying thirty feet away. Luckily enough, you were able to eject just before crashing and had a broken leg along with a nasty gash on your abdomen. You were lucky to have injuries that you could recover from, that is if you were found in time.

Your side ached as you coughed and your adrenaline high was vanishing, making the reality of this situation even more serious.

‘I gotta find help.’

You sat up slowly and assessed the damage done to your body. The left side of your abdomen had a large hunk of metal lodged into it and your right leg was bent in a way that it should not have been able to do. On the ground to your right were some shrapnel and you knew from basic training how to create a splint. You took a few deep breathes before moving your leg so that it was in the correct position. You yelled in agony at the movement and was immediately launched into survival mode.

“Where is (y/n)?” Poe asked through the radio system while piloting his X-Wing over the battle field. He had known that this battle was rough, but he couldn’t stomach the thought that you might be dead. After a few moments of silence, Veronika answered.

“I saw her go down, Poe. Haven’t been able to check it out because I’m low on fuel.”

Poe’s heart sank. He had to find you, whether you were dead or alive. No man left behind was Poe’s motto and he will be damned if he goes against it.

Exogol was a bland planet and there was only so much that could be used to hide a downed ship. Sure, all of those ships that Palpatine resurrected crashed down, but from what Veronica specified, you went down far off of where any of those ships would be.

Poe flew to where it was said you were and he saw your X-Wing. It was on fire and it could bare my be called something that flies anymore. Poe was beginning to panic and he landed by your ship.

“(Y/ n)! Where are you?!” He yelled. He then walked around the damage and noticed that your seat wasn’t there.

‘She ejected, of course!’

Poe pulled out his binoculars and surveyed the area for anything the would resemble a person. In the distance he noticed something red, something to contrast with the bland gray of this foresaken planet. He began running.

—

Consciousness is a funny thing, really. When you’re conscious, you’re not totally aware of how fragile and malleable your life is—only focusing on what’s happening now. But when you become unconscious, there is no awareness, there isn’t anything. Not black, not empty, just nothing. You kept thinking about your fate and contemplating the wonders of life between your cycles of going unconscious. It was philosophical and a point for you to focus on what was important.

“(Y/n),” you heard someone say, no, yell. It was a deep voice, one you had recognized. Your eyes began to drool again as you heard footsteps. He pat your face to wake you up and you saw, through blurry vision, that it was Poe. “Poe.”

“Come on, you have to stay awake so we can get you home. You need to come home,” he said, tears threatening to escape his eyes. He took off the shirt he was wearing and wrapped it under your body and around the wound tightly. You were so out of it that it didn’t hurt that much. He lifted you and ran to his ship.

“We won, Poe,” you said softly, chuckling in the process. You were happy for that and now that the help found you, you were ready to fight to live. “We really stuck it to him.”

“Yeah, we did. Are you comfortable?” He asked. Poe has placed you into the cargo hold immediately behind the cockpit. He placed a headset on your head and then strapped you in tight. You hummed.

“I’m going to get you home, but you have to talk to me,” he said as he began the ship. It lifted up and Poe immediately warped to light speed.

“I’ve been thinking about everything and nothing. The mechanisms of life is a mystery and now that I’m near death, I can focus on how clear it really can be,” you stated. To Poe, it just sounding like some ramblings coming from too much blood loss, but to you, you now knew what the purpose of life was.

“Explain it to me,” Poe said. You smiled and hummed once more. You were in nirvana. “Let’s hear it (n/n).”

“We only live to die. Why do we fear it when it is the most natural thing to happen to everyone?” You paused, relishing in the moment and looking for your words. “We live our lives to be happy, to be productive, to be ourselves. All of it is natural. So no one should fear the inevitable.”

You were so tired when the ship landed. Your eyes were struggling to stay open and the next moments all happened in a haze. Were you being carried off or floating away? Was Poe around? How’d you get here?

—

Poe was a mess. He was worried for your well being and it inhibited the celebration of victory. There was nothing that he could do after dropping you off in the infirmary except to wait. The state that you were in when he left you was on the very edge of death. You were confused and rambling about the force, Palpatine, and the deeper meaning to life. To a healthy person, it didn’t make sense.

It had been two hours before the doctor informed Poe about what happened in the operation and what he had to do to make you better. It was a tedious operation and it included several blood transfusions to get you through it. The recovery process should be easy to get through since it was a lot of bed rest. Now only to wait for you to wake up.

—

“What happened? Where am I?” You asked. Your voice was hoarse and you were cold. “I’m cold.”

“Good to see you awake. Your in the infirmary on the base. How much do you remember?” Poe gathered you another blanket as you answered his question.

“I remember launching off and following everyone to Exogol, but I don’t remember anything that happened after that,” you grumbled. The extra blanket brought the warmth that you needed. As you moved to bring it up, you felt the pain in your stomach and the stiffness of your leg.

“You got hit, but before you crashed, you ejected and ended up getting a really deep gash and a broken leg. You lost a lot of blood. I thought you were going to die because of how much you were rambling. There was a while on the way back when I thought you were gone, but then you began to ramble again. I’m glad you’re here right now, I don’t know what I would do without you. The doctor said that once you’re checked out, you can go rest at home. Oh, and we won.” You were in awe of all that had happened.

“Oh you’re finally awake,” the doctor came in. “Let’s just change your bandages and then I’ll send you on your way.”

After your check up, Poe helped you into the wheel chair and pushed you to your room. He helped you into your bed and put the crutches within your reach so that you could be mobile. You were tired.

“If you need anything, call me and I’ll come. Now sleep,” Poe said as he placed a telecom onto your desks and stroked your hair. You smiled as you fell asleep in the presence of your man.

“I love you, (y/n).”

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron #poe dameron imagines #poe #dameron #star wars rise of skywalker #star wars #x reader #reader insert #reader #insert #cute #caring poe #fluff at the end #enjoy this #hope you like it #hope you enjoy

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sirtravisjacksonoftexas · 4 years

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Does the Bible Teach That Aliens Do or Do Not Exist? Um, None of the Above, and Moses Will Show you why:

The 1980’s was a great decade to grow up in. Even today, I’m still in love with the rock, pop and country music that came out of it. MTV got its start in the 80’s (and to anyone who was born afterwards; yes, Music Television DID have music during the 80’s). This was the decade of Atari and Nintendo, of games like “Asteroids” and “Super Mario Brothers”. This was the decade that saw Ernest P. Worrell become a house-hold name, the decade that saw children collect Garbage Pail Kids trading cards (I miss those things). Arguably the best science fiction and fantasy movies were made in the 80’s (“Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”, “Dune”, “Labyrinth”, “Dark Crystal”, “The NeverEnding Story” etc). Kids had cartoons like “Thundercats”, “He-Man”. There were also great TV shows like “FraggleRock” and “Punkie Brewster”.

And, of course, who could forget Alf?

For those of you who are 80’s challenged, “Alf” was a TV show about an alien named Gordon Shumway (aka Alf) who crashes into the garage of a human family called the Tanners. They take Alf in and keep him hidden from the US government. Though he gets into mischief and occasionally tries to eat cats, he nevertheless becomes a member of the family. I’m still a fan, having all the Alf episodes on DVD. From childhood to now, I often imagine what it would be like if Alf and other aliens like him truly existed, roaming across the universe in search of adventure and discovery.

But do aliens exist?

This has been the subject of intense study by scientists for decades now. Indeed, there is a scientific field dedicated to the study of extraterrestrial life forms (called “Astrobiology”). Though we have not yet found life beyond earth, scientists expect to eventually do so, and soon.

But does this subject belong to science alone? Can other fields of study answer the question about whether there is life on other planets?

Surprisingly, many a Christian theologian and apologist has considered the possibility.

And what did they say about it?

Aliens don’t exist.

Some will dismiss the scientific case for the possibility extra-terrestrial life as pure bogus. Others will tackle the subject of UFOs, saying that they’re either natural phenomena, misidentified secret aircraft or both. Some will even go so far as to say that both UFOs and supposed alien abductions are actually demonic instead of alien in origin. There are books, documentaries and even movies that support this latter idea. Some theologians say that when the rapture occurs, people might invoke aliens as an explanation for it; people will say that the earth has had a mass alien abduction. We’ve had decades of supposed alien abductions, as well as Star Trek shows where people are beamed up from a planet to a space ship, both of which could lead people to mistake the rapture for alien activity. Many see this as evidence that aliens therefore don’t exist (which is a complete non-Sequitur, but more on that later). Some will even say that if aliens exist, then there is a conundrum; how can they accept Christ as Lord and Savior? Christ died for fallen humanity, for humans who suffer from a sinful nature, due to Adam and Eve’s sin. How could aliens be saved, since Christ didn’t die for them as well? How could their sins be forgiven? Should we believe that Jesus was incarnated on countless worlds and died for them too? This would seem highly unlikely, and this is supposed to make us conclude that aliens therefore don’t exist. Some will also bring up the many requirements for life to exist on earth, and say that all of these factors would be highly unlikely to exist on other worlds. The chances of that happening, according to some Christian theologians and apologists, would be astronomical.

So, are they right? Can one make a Biblical or theological case that ETs don’t exist?

Um, NO, and here is why:

1. ARGUMENT FROM SILENCE.

Does the Bible say that Extra-terrestrials exist?

No.

Does the Bible say that they don’t exist?

No.

Does them Bible mention them at all?

No.

This should make one logically conclude that the Bible is silent on the issue, and nothing more. One could speculate on why God would be silent about the idea, but one couldn’t go from speculation to fact when it comes to this question, especially considering that the Bible is not a total revelation of all facts. Instead, it is God’s love letter to humanity, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.). However, many will use this silence as an argument that aliens don’t exist, because if they did, then surely God would have told us in his word, right?

Wrong.

To argue such a position would be to commit an “Argument from Silence” logical fallacy. It’s basically arguing that absence of evidence is evidence of absence, and it’s an error of reasoning that people often make. For example, let’s say that a “historian” (we’ll call him “Richard”) says that no one mentioned Jesus Christ during the time when Jesus lived on earth. If nobody mentioned Jesus at that time, then therefore, according to Richard, Jesus never existed. However, this kind of argument is unbelievably faulty; The vast majority of written documents from the ancient world didn’t survive to the modern era, many historical figures have no contemporary writings about them (Thales of Miletus, Boudicca, Zoroaster the Prophet, Buddha, etc), some historical events have no contemporary written accounts about them (the Pompeii disaster), most people who lived in Galilee at the time of Christ were illiterate (most people in the ancient world were), and historians do not discard a person as a historical figure because they have no contemporaneous accounts about them. No, to be fair, there are some circumstances where you can get away with using an argument from silence (though even then, the argument would be circumstantial), but you have to meet several criteria in order to use is properly. Would God have a good reason to mention aliens in the Bible (If you say yes, then why? What would be the good reason? Are you simply assuming? Remember, assumption is the mother of all screw ups)? Is the subject relevant to God’s purposes in scripture? These are but a few questions one would need to ask themselves before trying to make an Argument from Silence about the question of ETs and the Bible, and just getting one wrong could lead to a fallacious argument.

And guess what the answer is to the questions I just asked?

NO!

Like I said, God doesn’t reveal everything in his word. Not every scientific fact is found in the Bible. Indeed, there are numerous things that we know exist (including on other planets) that the Bible never mentions:

1. Black Holes

2. Volcanoes on other planets (like Olympus Mons, a 16-mile-high Martian Volcano)

3. Mountains on other planets

4. Canyons on other planets (Mars has one that dwarfs the Grand Canyon).

5. Moons orbiting other planets (Jupiter alone is now known to have 79 moons).

6. Water on other planets and moons (Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have water ice. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all have water vapor. Mars may have liquid water underground, and used to have oceans. Pluto, a dwarf planet, has water ice. Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, has an underground ocean that may have more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Europa, another moon of Jupiter, is covered in ice, and may have either an ocean or slushy ice beneath it. There is water ice on our own moon. Such moons are far from unique in our solar system when it comes to water ice. K2-18 b, a planet in another solar system, has water vapor in its atmosphere).

7. Dust devils on other worlds (Mars has dust devils that can reach 5 miles high, dwarfing those of earth)

8. Skies on other planets (the only planet in our solar system without an atmosphere is Mercury.)

9. Weather on other worlds (Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has lasted for at least 150 years)

10. Saturn’s rings (which are made of particles that are more than 90% water ice. These rings were discovered in 1610 AD)

11. Gamma Ray Bursts

12. Coronal Mass Ejections (when the sun spews both plasma and a magnetic field. It’s basically a solar burp).

13. Radiation

If the Bible doesn’t mention any of these things, and yet they have nevertheless been proven to exist…then why would we say that there is no life on other planets because the bible doesn’t mention them? Can you imagine a theologian saying in the 19th century that “The Bible doesn’t mention other planets having mountains, volcanoes, canyons, water, atmospheres, dust devils, weather, and so on, and thus they don’t exist! If they did, God would have told us!”. What if one said “The Bible doesn’t say that Black Holes exist, or that Gamma Ray Bursts or Mass Coronal Ejections exist, therefore they do not exist! Otherwise, God would have surely told us!”? That would be an absurd line of argument, an argument that would have a very poor track record, considering all the things that the Bible doesn’t mention that turned out to actually exist.

But notice, in particular, how many things are found in and around other planets…that the Bible never mentioned. Water, mountains, canyons, volcanoes (including the largest in the solar system), skies, weather, and giant dust devils. They all exist…and yet the Bible never mentions them. Moons exist around most of the planets in our solar system alone (let alone ones in other solar systems), and yet out of all of them…only one moon-ours-is mentioned in the Bible. All of these marvels of God’s creation…and not one of them is mentioned in the Bible.

If the Bible doesn’t mention mountains, volcanoes, water (including ice and oceans), skies and weather on other planets…why would it mention life on other planets?

Now, to be fair, some may object, saying that all of these other things were indeed mentioned in the Bible, albeit not specifically. Instead, they are mentioned in a general, collective sense in Genesis 2:1;

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

This passage is a continuation of the creation account in Genesis 1. It indicates that God created the heavens, earth, and all the “host thereof”, which some would comfortably include planets and everything on them.

However, if some of my fellow believers do so, then they just shot themselves in the foot, for just as the passage indicates that the earth has “hosts” (including living things)…and since the heavens have hosts of their own…then one can conclude that living things on other planets (planets are in the heavens)could possibly be mentioned here in a general sense too! True, the “host of heaven” or “heavenly host” usually means the stars in the bible, nut the passage in question relates that earth also has hosts, which indicates that stars alone are not indicated here. One may try to say that angels are in view here, for they are at times referred to as the “host of Heaven” (1 Kings 22:19) or “heavenly host” (Luke 2:13), and angelic beings (as well as demons) can be found both on earth and in the heavens (Genesis 3:24, Ephesians 2:2, 6:12, Revelation 7:1, 19:14-15). However, there are several problems with this idea. You see, not only is the creation of angels never mentioned in Genesis 1 or 2 (Or anywhere in the Bible), the creation account of Job 38:4-11, when combined with the Genesis creation accounts, indicates that angels existed prior to the 6 days of creation, and thus could not be referenced here in Genesis 2:1 as products of the creation week. True, the creation of aliens is never mentioned in Genesis either, but neither is the creation of land, seas and skies on other worlds, and yet they can be placed within Genesis 2:1 in a general sense.

Why not aliens?

Also, as I’ve written in a previous article, the first creation account in Genesis was not meant to be taken as a literal scientific account of origins. Therefore, it should NEVER be used to dictate or argue scientific truths, including on cosmology and astrobiology. Thus, it doesn’t really answer our question about whether aliens exist or not.

Plus, we need to keep in mind that the ancient Israelites didn’t know that other physical worlds truly existed, let alone had mountains, volcanoes, water, etc. Indeed, the planets in the night sky were thought to be wandering stars, and no one knew in the ancient world that stars were physical objects. None knew that other planets besides those in the night sky also existed, let alone those that orbit other stars (extrasolar planets are yet another thing not mentioned specifically in the Bible, yet are known to exist). Many ancient civilizations thought that planets were gods. Some ancient Jewish thinkers thought that stars were angels, and “morning stars” (usually planets) were personified as part of the angelic or heavenly host by ancient Israelites (special note: though angels were at times called “stars” (Job 38:7, Revelation 12:4), the Bible itself doesn’t teach that stars are angels. This was a non-biblical teaching, and Genesis 1 shows that stars were no personal beings, but simply parts of God’s perfect creation). Thus, while we can conclude from the creation account that God truly made all things, we cannot conclude that the ancient writers of scripture had modern scientific discoveries in mind when they wrote scripture, or that God likewise had them in mind when he was communicating through that very scripture. He was talking to ancient people in a way that they could understand, not in a way that modern people would desire him to.

2. DEMON THEORIES AND THE RAPTURE

Many of my fellow Christians accept the idea that some UFOS and most, if not all, alien abductions are demonic in nature. Many will bring up the fact that some UFOs seem to defy the laws of physics, pulling off maneuvers and speeds that would be supposedly impossible for even advanced alien technology to do…yet possible for supernatural beings to pull off. Many also cite similarities between alien abductions (along with several other kinds of supposed “close encounters”) and demonic activity. For example, both phenomena are at times associated with a sulfur smell (sulfur aka brimstone). This is a great way to scare some Christians away from the subject of life on other planets for sure. To be fair, I wouldn’t put it pass people to mistake demons and even angels as UFOs, nor would I put it past demons to masquerade as UFOS and or aliens in order to jack with people, pull pranks or even lead people away from Christianity (there are UFO cults). Indeed, there are many similarities between alien abduction and Fairy Abduction

(according to European folklore, if a person stepped inside a fairy ring (a natural occurring ring of mushrooms), then faeries would party with him or her, keeping the individual “prisoner” for a considerable time before letting him or her go free. Like flying saucers, fairy rings are circular. Like Greys (grey skinned, black eyed aliens), faeries were said to be smaller than human beings…).

Given these factors, should we conclude that aliens don’t exist, that only demons and angels are beyond the wild blue yonder?

Um…nope.

Remember, one can accept the existence of life on other worlds without accepting that UFOs or “Alien” Abductions are extraterrestrial activity. Indeed, most mainstream scientists disregard both UFOs and alien abductions as bonafide evidence of aliens, yet they accept that ETs are a possibility. But let’s dig deeper into these arguments, shall we?

To say that advanced alien technology cannot pull off the stunning feats of some UFOs is shortsighted, considering the many times in the history of science where the “impossible” was proven possible. People once thought that you couldn’t sail around the world because it was flat, yet long before Columbus people started to realize that that wasn’t the case. They said that we could never land people on the Moon, and that the sound barrier could never be broken. Indeed, while scientists accept that the speed of light will never be broken (and with FAR better reason than those who thought the sound barrier would never be broken), they accept that its possible to warp space so that two locations can temporarily come far closer together. You could potentially travel across an entire galaxy in mere moments instead of many, many years. This kind of tech would be a loophole around the light barrier. Imagine what other loopholes technology could achieve if an alien race was centuries, millennia, even millions or billions of years ahead of our technology? Thus, this objection has no merit.

But what about alien abduction?

Sorry, folks, but alien abduction has less to do with demons and more to do with the waking mind.

The symptoms of alien abduction are strikingly similar to sleep paralysis, a condition where a person awakes and is paralyzed. This occurs when the mind awakes before the body. Our bodies are designed to limit our physical movements when we sleep. This is why most of us don’t run in real life while we dream of running, or why we don’t punch our pillows when we dream of being in a fight or a boxing match. This is a safety mechanism, keeping us from harming ourselves and others while we sleep. However, some people have trouble with keeping their bodies in check while they slumber (sleepwalkers). Those who suffer from sleep paralysis have the opposite problem; they have trouble regaining their ability to move when they first awake. This symptom would be frightening enough on its own, but there is another eerie symptom that comes with it.

Dreaming while awake.

People who suffer from sleep paralysis will at times hallucinate while paralyzed, and such hallucinations can be frightening. Indeed, what you end up seeing can be influenced by the culture you grew up in. Europeans in the Middle Ages would see incubus or succubus demons, while people in other ages might see djinns or old hags.

In our culture, you’ll most likely see aliens.

True, demons could potentially jack with our dreams, but why should we invoke demons in every case of sleep hallucination that involves aliens? You don’t have to invoke the supernatural when it comes to nightmares, let alone those that are caused by sleep paralysis. Thus, this objection has no merit.

Neither does the rapture-alien theory.

Just because people may blame aliens for the rapture after it occurs doesn’t mean that aliens therefore don’t exist. It’s a non-sequitur. Indeed, many have come up with other potential explanations for the rapture. I’ve heard laser beams being invoked before as a possible way to explain away the rapture. One can invoke a physics disaster at CERN or the cumulative effects of radiation from nuclear testing (the latter explanation was used in the Left Behind films). Nobody would thus argue that laser beams don’t exist, or that nuclear tests therefore don’t produce radiation.

Why then use such an argument against the existence of extraterrestrials?

3. MISSIONARIES…IN SPACE!!!!!!

If aliens exist, how can they be saved? Surely if they do exist, they would need to be saved, for they’d be sinners like us, right (remember what I said earlier about assumptions?)? And what other beings apart from humans exist that don’t need Jesus’ gift of salvation?

Well, other than angels, animals, plants, fungi, microbes…

True, angels long to look into the subject of salvation (1 Peter 1:10-12), but they are nevertheless not covered by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. Indeed, angels did not descend from Adam and Eve, and thus didn’t inherit a sinful nature. They have the potential to sin (case in point: Satan), but they are nevertheless not burdened with a sinful nature that can only be overcome by the death and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, though animals have a spirit (Ecclesiasts 3:21), they likewise did not descend from Adam and Eve, and thus didn’t inherit their sinful nature. Indeed, they are incapable of sin (and please don’t bring up the Serpent in the Garden: even in ancient times, that was known to have been a supernatural being, not a legit snake).

If aliens exist, if other life forms were created by God on other worlds, then they likewise would not have descended from Adam and Eve and thus would not have inherited their sinful natures. Could they sin? Possibly, just like angels (who have no sinful nature) could potentially sin. This doesn’t mean that they would need Jesus to die and rise from the grave for them, just as angels don’t need Jesus to die and rise from the grave for them.

Indeed, who is to say that alien life would be able to understand right from wrong, let alone consciously chose to do evil? Who’s to say that there will be sentient life elsewhere? What if other worlds are only inhabited by animals, plants, fungi, microbes and perhaps other forms of life we haven’t even imagined yet, none of them intelligent? Indeed, some scientists, such as the paleontologist Peter Ward and the Astrobiologist Donald E. Brownlee, believe that the universe is populated with mostly microbes, and that multi-cellular life like our own is exceptionally rare. This view is called the Rare Earth Hypothesis (which both the above scientists wrote about in their book “Rare Earth”). I sincerely doubt that there are microbes that understand right from wrong, or that sin against God (more on the Rare Earth hypothesis later).

But let’s say that there are alien species out there who are sentient, and who are intelligent enough to chose to obey God or not. Once again, the angel example has to be considered in such cases, but we need to ask another question as well:

Who is to say that aliens likewise had a fall?

Who is to say that all sentient alien species chose to eat forbidden fruit?

Could there be intelligent alien species out there that never suffered the stain of sin? Could there be alien Adam and Eves living in other-worldly Edens?

Also, what if God made at least some aliens species that already had the knowledge of Good and Evil from the beginning? Humans obviously weren’t ready for it in the Garden of Eden, and it led to a sinful nature that was passed on to Adam and Eve’s descendants, but who is to say that a sentient alien species wouldn’t have been initially made not only with that knowledge, but with the maturity to handle it?

And even if there are sentient alien species whose ancestors had a Fall, whose is to say that God would chose to save them in the exact same way he chose to save us? Whose to say that he wouldn’t cover them under a different kind of grace? Indeed, who is to say that the ultimate ancestors of sinful ETs would have passed on a sinful nature to their descendants like Adam and Eve did with theirs? Wouldn’t their “Falls” be different from that of Adam and Eve? Would it really have involved forbidden fruit as well?

At first, these ideas about Edens and Falls on other worlds seems impossible, considering that the Bible teaches that all creation suffers due to humanity’s sin (not alien’s sins) in Romans 8:18-22. However, this could be hyperbole, over-exaggeration used to prove a point. It seems hard to understand how galaxies countless lightyears from earth could be affected by human sin. Indeed, how could Pluto or Mars be affected by it? True, one could imagine that Adam and Eve’s sin may have spread physical death across the universe…but that’s where things get very, very complicated…

You see, some may bring up the supposed “fact” that Adam and Eve’s sin brought death into existence (1 Corinthians 15:20-21), and that death is only mentioned as being on earth (Romans 5:12). However, this is faulty for several reasons.

1. Just because the bible mentions death only on earth doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist on other worlds. If I say that soccer is played in Brazil, does that mean that it is not played elsewhere? If I say that black bears inhabit Texas, does that mean that Texas is the only place were black bears can be found? If I say that monotheism, the belief that there is only one God, was a major tenet of ancient Israelite religion, does that mean that the concept was not known in other cultures (for a time, ancient Egypt worshipped Aten the Sun Disk, and no other God)? If I say that Pizza is Italian food, does that mean that pizza is only found in Italy?

2. Whenever we look at these passages more closely (as well as another connected passage (Romans 6:23), we can see that it is relating to humans, not other creatures. Now, animals, plants, microbes and fungi die as well as humans, and yet…humans are the subject of the context of the passages in question.

Why?

Because these passages are not talking about physical death, but spiritual death.

This is confirmed in Genesis 2:17 and 3:2-7. Let’s look at the first passage:

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (emphasis mine)

Now let’s look at the second passage:

“And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (Emphasis mine)

Now, compare this to the rest of Genesis chapter 3.

Um, notice that Adam and Eve are not killed?

Wow, was the Serpent right after all? Was God fibbing when he said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate the forbidden fruit? After all, their eyes were “opened” after they ate, just like the serpent said, and they lived over it. Was the Serpent actually telling the truth?

Only if God was referring to physical death.

God, however, was referring to spiritual death. He was referring to the separation that sin makes between God and man, a separation that can only be overcome by Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation.

That is the kind of death that these passages are talking about.

3. Death existed before the Fall.

As I’ve argued in an earlier article, death actually existed before Adam and Eve’s Fall. Not only were they not created immortal (they would have had to have eaten of the Tree of Life in order to live forever, and they never got the chance to do it (Genesis 3), the Bible never indicates that any animal ate of the Tree of Life and likewise became immortal. Indeed, the Bible indicates that the tree of life was not found anywhere else in the world (Genesis 3:22-24). If Adam, Eve and the animals were already immortal (they weren’t but indulge me)…then why would there be a tree of life, whose fruit offers immortality? It’s a tad redundant, don’t you think? Its on par with putting a tree whose fruit is designed to help people get thin at a supermodel convention,

or trying to sell fertility drugs to pregnant women.

In both cases, there is a product available to people who obviously don’t need it. Indeed, the fact that Adam and Eve had not eaten of the Tree of Life before or after the Fall, the fact that they were not immortal at the time means that, if they hadn’t sinned in the Garden yet still never ate of the Tree of Life…then they would eventually die. The potential for physical death was already there, implying that physical death was already in the world. Thus, physical death didn’t enter the universe because of the Fall. Spiritual death did. That spiritual death sentence didn’t spread to animals or angels, so why would it spread to aliens?

Another thing we have to ask ourselves is what do we mean by intelligent life and sentient beings? Non-human apes are actually both, yet they are not sinners. They are still animals and not as intelligent as humans, they are nevertheless intelligent, in some cases enough so to learn sign language. Indeed, some have argued that many animals have a more code, knowing “right” from “wrong” (though not knowing it intimately as humans, which wouldn’t have been the case before the Fall. There was a primitive sense of right and wrong that Adam and Eve knew of before the Fall (God allowing them to eat of the garden, but not of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There were right choices…and a wrong choice). Would aliens as intelligent and sentient as the great apes, and with a primitive sense of morality, need a savior?

No more than animals do.

But this brings up an important question: What makes man different from animals? The Bible indicates that, unlike animals, we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27). As I noted in another article, this does not mean that we are the only creatures with a soul. This is an eisegetical interpretation that has no basis in the historical and cultural background of the Bible, let alone merit. Indeed, ancient near eastern kings were often said to be in the image of a certain god. This reinforced their authority as kings over their people. It was a reason why they had dominion over them. Likewise, Adam and Eve are made in God’s image, and had dominion over their subjects, the animals. We are all in God’s image, and thus represent God to nature. We represent his authority to the earth. Hence, one major reason why God is ticked off when we sin; we violate the very image that we bear when we sin.

But what if aliens, even intelligence aliens, were not made in God’s image? What if they were never given a sacred dominion over their worlds? At first this seems impossible, for surely aliens with at least our level of intelligence would be the dominant life forms on their worlds as we are over earth, but then again…angels are likewise intelligent (FAR more so than human beings), and yet…where are they ever said to have been made in the image of God?

Name one Bible verse that says that angels are made in God’s image.

Indeed, angels rule in Heaven under God, just as we rule on earth under God, and yet angels are still not said to be in the image of God.

Also, the ancients already set down the basics for intelligent beings that weren’t made in the divine image; unlike the Israelites, many in the ancient near east thought that only their kings were made in a deity’s image. Everybody else, every other member of homo sapiens, the most intelligent life form on earth…was not. And yet they would have recognized humans as the dominant life form on the planet. We likewise might see intelligent ETs in a similar light. They can have dominion over their planets, but not one based on the divine image of God. Indeed, there would have been other ruling authorities in ancient near eastern kingdoms (such as queens, princes, etc), yet they neither had the power of a king nor were thought to be in the image of a deity. Aldo, dinosaurs practically ruled the earth for millions of years, and yet they were not made in the image of God (or for that matter remotely intelligent, save for a few species). Same goes for the Theraspids or mammal-like reptiles who were the dominant land animals before them, and other animals which dominated the earth before mankind was created.

Thus, if intelligent aliens sinned from the beginning, yet weren’t made in God’s image…would they still have passed on a sinful nature to their descendants? Would their sin be as grievous as ours? Would it necessitate the death and resurrection of Christ? These questions are even more interesting considering the fact that there is Biblical and other evidence to show that Adam and Eve were meant to not just be intelligent life forms in the Bible and have dominion over earth, but were also to be a priest and priestess of God, respectively (both a priestly and royal role, like Melchizedek and Christ himself). Would aliens have likewise has such a priestly role initially? What if they didn’t? What if they also weren’t made in the Image of God? Would they still need a death and resurrection of God the Son in order to enter Heaven…or would they be under a different kind of grace? Seems like the latter would be far more likely. If aliens didn’t have a priestly and kingly role, would humans actually have more authority than them, at least in some way? Not impossible. Though they weren’t the most powerful tribe (and unlike the others, had no land appointed to them), the Levites where in charge of religious matters and the Tabernacle (later Temple). Due to Adam and Eve’s priestly role, would we likewise have religious authority over aliens? Would we have even more authority? Were we meant to be a priestly race? It’s interesting to note that not only are Christians a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), but one day, we as believers in Christ will judge even angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).

4. MATH, CHANCE AND THE RARE EARTH

Some Christians have taken to the rare earth hypothesis, which as previously stated is the idea that complex life is exceptionally rare. The reason why some scientists believe this is because there are supposedly at least 152 parameters needed for life like our own to exist on earth, including having a moon of the right size, having only 1 moon, having a specific tilt and volcanic activity. Indeed, if we calculate the chances of another planet like ours having all of these parameters, it would be 1 in 19 with 193 zeros behind it. To put this into perspective, the estimated number of planets in the universe is 10 with 22 zeros behind it. In other words, the chances aren’t good for advanced life forms like ours to exist on other worlds. The chances that one world-ours-would have all these parameters would be astronomical, let along if there were at least one other which likewise beat the odds. Ours would be a universe filled with microbes, but not animals, fungi, plants or sentient beings. This is an intriguing possibility, but it has several fatal flaws.

1. If you are a Christian (Like I am), then you believe that all life, including human life, has something in common with every other aspect of creation; it was all created by God, not chance.

Indeed, creationists will argue against the idea that life on earth came about by chance and certain circumstances (stating that it would be impossible for chance and circumstances alone to do it. You’d need a supernatural creator to explain how life began), and yet when it comes to life on other worlds…they will invoke chance and circumstances as an argument against it, without considering God. That would be the equivalent of an atheist saying that just because there is no contemporaneous accounts of Socrates or Thales of Miletus doesn’t mean that they therefore didn’t exist…and yet later say that there are no contemporaneous accounts of Jesus Christ, therefore he didn’t exist.

If God made us, why would aliens be made by chance and circumstances?

Is God incapable of overcoming the mathematical odds? Since when did he become weak? Since when did he become incapable of overcoming math?

You cannot use a Double Standard as a logical argument, and the chance argument is being used in such a way.

2. Most scientists do not hold to the rare Earth Hypothesis. Indeed, in science, the term “hypothesis” is used in the same way as we use the word “Theory”, while “Theory” in science is a scientific explanation that has withstood a lot of testing. This doesn’t make scientific theories absolute (some theories have been discarded), but it does mean that it has past enough tests to be considered a theory. Hypotheses, however, have not withstood a lot of testing yet. Thus, the Rare Earth Hypothesis, though interesting, is not as powerful an argument against advanced alien life as many believe it to be.

3. The parameters needed for our form of life (or even for planets like earth and solar systems like ours to form) are not as rigid as you think. For example, contrary to purveyors of the Rare Earth hypothesis, life on earth would actually be possible if earth was 2-5% further away from the Sun and tilted on its side like Uranus. Indeed, it could be 1.4 times further from the sun and tilted, and still have our kind of life if an intense greenhouse effect were present. Likewise, there is biological evidence to show that not having a big moon would not have made complex life impossible on earth. Indeed, the idea that complex life couldn’t be on earth if it rotated faster is bogus, considering that it rotated more than 10 percent faster during the Ordovician Period (490-443 million years ago).

The days in the Ordovician were 21 hours long, not 24. Though there were few living things on land at the time (lichens), the seas were filled with animals like trilobites, sea scorpions, armor-plated fish and Cameraceras, the giant orthocone (see below).

Indeed, the rotation of the earth has been constantly slowing since that period of time, until we attained a 24-hour day. This means that the rotation of the earth was faster in the Permian period (the time of Dimetrodon), the Mesozoic period (the time of the Dinosaurs), and through all the ice ages afterwards.

Obviously, a faster rotation wasn’t a problem for complex life back then. Why would it be a problem for potential life on other planets with a faster rotation than earth? If modern living things couldn’t survive on an earth with a faster rotation (I don’t believe that, but let’s indulge the idea for a second), then obviously animals, plants, fungi and microbes that lived in eras where the earth had a faster rotation were obviously adapted to survive in an environment than living things in the modern world are not.

Just as alien life forms could be adapted to survive on planets with faster rotations.

4. What if, during ancient times, the Fijians of the Fiji Islands sailed down to Antarctica? What would they have thought about that vast region of ice and howling winds? Its obviously not suitable for the animals and plants that are native to Fiji, such as the Monkey Face Bat (aka the Fijian Monkey-Faced Flying Fox), Coconut Crab, Fiji Crested Iguana and Coconut palm. It’s too cold, has too great a wind chill, has no plant life, no true summer or spring, none of the marine species familiar to Fijians or their terrestrial wildlife, little if any fresh water (and what would be there would be too cold), etc. Antarctica doesn’t meet all of the parameters needed to sustain animal and plant life native to Fiji.

Would the Fijians conclude therefore that no life exists on Antarctica?

Perhaps they might…until they saw penguins there.

Likewise, just because most, if not all worlds in the universe don’t meet the parameters to sustain our form of complex life doesn’t mean that they don’t have complex life on them. Remember, we didn’t come about by chance, but by God, and God is a master artist with an unlimited imagination. Want to see proof of God’s great imagination? Look at a Duck-Billed Platypus. Look at a Giraffe. Look at a Crown of Thorns Starfish or a giant tube worm. The latter alone lives on the Pacific sea floor, in an environment without plants. It never experiences sunlight, has no stomach or true mouth, and yet “feeds” off Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Sulfide, poisons which would kill most other animals on earth. Once these gases are inside it, they are consumed by bacteria, which make up half of a giant tubeworm’s weight. Once these bacteria “poop”, the giant tube worm consumes their excrement. Oh, and by the way; they live near underwater volcanoes, withstanding temperatures that would make a Texas summer seem cold! Such an environment doesn’t meet the parameters needed for surface or even marine life that lives far above the habitat of the giant tubeworm, and yet…the giant tubeworm, along with other life forms at the bottom of the sea, survive and thrive.

And that, of course, is far from the limits of what God, the Artist of Artists, could come up with.

Indeed, at one time, it was thought by scientists that the deepest parts of the ocean could not support life. After all, it didn’t meet the parameters needed for life to be there; no sunlight (thus no plants), extreme cold and unearthly pressure should have made life (like ours) impossible, and it’s true, such an environment was not suitable for land animals or even animals that live in shallower waters. This concept was known as Azoic Theory, and it would be accepted by a scientific consensus for years.

And yet…it was overturned.

Several expeditions were finding evidence that the theory was wrong. The final nail in the coffin came in 1960, when the bathyscape Trieste reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans (11 kilometers).

There, Jacques Piccard, the Trieste’s pilot, spotted both a shrimp and a flat fish.

In other words, God made what was thought to be impossible to exist.

Our God is a God of the impossible (Matthew 19:26)!

True, the parameters needed for our kind of life to exist on other worlds could potentially be staggering (though as seen above, not as staggering as you think), but that assumes that life on other world would have to be like our kind of life, that God wouldn’t design living things to exist on different planets with far different environments. Why would God limit himself? After all, he’s made purely supernatural life forms (angels), so why not make biological life forms on other worlds that differ from those of Earth?

By now, we can see that such arguments against the idea of ETs are flawed. Indeed, its quite interesting that a lot of my fellow Christians try to use science to debunk the concept, even though science supports the idea that life exists on other worlds, and that some alien life will be complex. One could understand if Evolution was the subject, but alien life is the subject, and the Biblical message isn’t harmed by either the existence or non-existence of ETs (though as I’ve mentioned in another article, even evolution fails as an argument against God, let alone Christianity).

Indeed, as I’ve mentioned, the Bible doesn’t say yeah or nay on the issue.

Why?

Well, once again, the Bible isn’t intended to give all knowledge; its intended for us to know that God loves us. As Galileo once said “The Bible tells us how to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go.” It’s also seems obvious that God didn’t consider life on other planets important enough to mention, just as he didn’t consider mountains on other planets, volcanoes on other planets and ice on other planets as important enough to mention. God’s word isn’t a science treatise, but his message of love and reconciliation with mankind.

So, since God doesn’t say yeah or nay on the subject, how can we use the Bible to figure out whether there is alien life or not?

We can’t.

Indeed, if you study what the Bible says about such unclear matters, you would not even make the attempt.

Why?

Read on…

5. THE SECRET THINGS…

Moses gave a lot of speeches to the Israelites. In one of these, recorded in Deuteronomy 29, he goes over some of the recent history of the Israelites, as well as warning them not to stray from God’s word, from his teaching.

At the end of his speech, he says something quite perplexing:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Read that passage several times…then consider the fact that aliens are never mentioned in the Bible, that it never states whether aliens exist or not. Do this several times, then ask yourself…is the existence (or non-existence) of aliens a secret thing that belongs to the Lord? It obviously has to be, if God doesn’t say yea or nay on the issue. If God chose not to reveal the answer to this question, then it truly is a secret thing that belongs to him. This doesn’t mean that we can’t study this question scientifically (remember, the bible doesn’t mention ice, volcanoes, mountains and canyons on other worlds, yet we know they exist on them. We learned this because we studied this scientifically, not theologically). However, this does mean that God chose not to answer this question in his word. The Bible has FAR more important things to teach us, including Jesus and his gift of salvation. When it comes to aliens, we must never say that the Bible indicates that they exist or don’t exist. The Bible is unclear on this, which indicates that it is a secret thing that belongs to the Lord. We cannot therefore be dogmatic on the issue, saying that they exist or don’t exist for theological reasons. If we want to answer this question, we need to scientifically figure it out. God gave us the minds and the abilities to do this, and whether the ultimate answer to this question is yay or nay, either way we will learn more about God’s creation, and give further glory to God in the process.

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vulpinmusings · 4 years

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Ski’tar and Friends part 19: Bringing the House Down

This week, Ski’tar, Vemir, and 6 head to the Drow planet, Apostae, to catch a thief.

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Our next mission was given to us by Venture Captain Niaj, a pale-skinned gnome. We met her in a room lit entirely by holo-maps of various planets, including a few that Vemir, 6, and I had personally visited. Niaj explained that her primary purpose right now was tracking the Starfinder Society’s trade connections old and new, and that included the recent weapons deals. After the false deal we’d just dealt with had been flagged as suspicious, the Society had cut a new deal with a more reputable source: one of the largest Drow families on Apostae.

Apostae is a real charming world. It has little to no atmosphere on its surface, is honeycombed with networks of barely-explored tunnels made by some ancient extinct race, and the entire planet now basically belongs to those creepy subterranean demon-worshiping elves known as the Drow. I’ve heard that the Drow aren’t as bad as they were back in the pre-Gap days on lost Golarion, and they do have a somewhat reputable weapons trade running out of Apostae.

I still dislike them strongly.

The plan had been for us to accompany Niaj to Apostae to help guard the weapons the Society had bought, but a complication had arisen: someone had stolen the weapons. And for some reason, Niaj didn’t feel up to personally joining us on the new mission to locate the thief and get the goods back. With very little to go on, Vemir, 6, and I were shuttled off to Apostae.

Security around the planet was rather tight – our perfectly legitimate shuttle was scanned by a squad of fighters once we got into orbit, and as soon as we’d stepped out of the ship we were rounded up by some security Drow and escorted to the office of the head of the Drow family we’d bought the weapons from.

We were left waiting in a dim and grimly-decorated office for several minutes before Seobarn Zeizerer deigned to show up. While he said he was sorry that the weapons had been stolen, he felt it was not his business to help us locate them and deal with the thief. The thief in question happened to be a former member of House Zeizerer who had been disowned and ejected for just this sort of deal-interrupting behavior, and as Seobarn explained that to us we all saw that the situation weighed on him more than he was admitting. We reasoned, cajoled, and stole peeks at his computer screen until he admitted that he would very much like to punish the traitor properly and would give us leave to act in his name so long as we didn’t dally. He pointed us to a couple possible informants and, for good measure, gave us twenty-four hours of carte blanche to use his name to get whatever resources we needed, so long as we got the weapons and got off Apostae by the end of that period.

Twenty-four hours seemed like a lot of time to work with, right up until we tried to hunt down the first informant. It took us five hours just to navigate the dome-city of Nightarch and find the guy. Sixer intimidated him into revealing what he knew: the thief was named Violet, and he’d taken the weapons to a warehouse underneath an empty club.

Now realizing that our time was of the essence, we split up to apply our specialties to gathering more information. I hacked my through the planet’s computer network to get a floor-plan of the club and warehouse and spent several hours manually translating Drow in a search for information on Violet’s possible associates. Vemir inquired at a bounty office, got some useful information, and decided to rent the services of a few Orc thugs to give us some extra muscle in case of a fight.

I was not feeling inclined toward fighting our way through the building, so I came up with a plan: once we got to the club, I’d hack into its security system to find where Violet’s gang was hanging out and where the weapons were located. On the assumption that the gang would be hanging out in a central location, I would wire up bombs to blast the floor out from under them and leave us free to just waltz out with the weapons.

Considering my history with conflict-avoidance plans, it should come as no surprise that things did not really go my way.

We requisitioned explosives using Seobarn’s authority and hired some vehicles in order to get to the club faster. We had no difficulty getting past the simple chain-link fence around it. I knew from the floor plans that there was an exterior door that would lead us straight to the freight elevator down to the warehouse, and that door was unguarded. As it turns out, it didn’t need a guard because the lock on it involved some dark Drow magic that I had no idea how to hack through. So, we would have to go through the front door, and that would involve beating up a guard and walking through some hallways.

The front door was guarded by a single Drow, who fell quickly to the fists of Sixer and our Orcs, and the hallway was clear so we had no trouble getting to the elevator. I was still sour about failing to get past that first door, so I hurried everyone along and slammed the button to take us down.

The warehouse was packed with rows and rows of loosely-piled crates. As we stepped out of the elevator, we were greeted by some sort of sulfur-smelling flying imp thing. Vemir fed it a line about us being newly hired help, and it vanished without giving us any more trouble. I, still grouchy, proceeded to stalk through the aisles with reckless determination to get things back on track, and stumbled right into a magical trap that wrapped me up in shadowy tentacles and slammed me around.

It was at this point that I realized I had completely forgotten to figure out where Violet’s gang was before dragging everyone down into the warehouse.

With the grouchiness thoroughly beaten out of me and resigned to the fact that this probably wasn’t going to go smoothly anyway, I decided to just wire the entire ceiling to blow and take down the entire building, just to be sure. These Drow deserved nothing less for making me come to their planet to do extra work just to pick up weapons the Starfinders had bought fair and square.

It turns out we weren’t alone in the warehouse. Triggering the trap had caught the attention of a few Orcs who were overseeing a forklift robot several aisles down. One of those Orcs had been heavily modified with far too many tentacles (assuming there’s a normal number of tentacles for an Orc to have). Between my friends, Toosie, and our own Orcs, I didn’t think my own efforts were needed in the fight, so I resolved to sneak around and check out the forklift bot. As the team dispatched the first Orc with ease, I tried and failed to climb on top of one of the crate stacks and opted to just squeeze through it rather than run all the way to the end and around to the forklift. When I emerged into the next aisle, I saw 6 and Vemir shooting and slashing the tentacle-infested Orc while Toosie traded light blows with the remaining normal Orc. Our own Orcs were busy trying to get to good positions, and one spotted another of the traps like the one I’d set off. Tentacle-orc was thrashing about, and despite all the damage it took it just wouldn’t stop moving. Intrigued, I ran over to see if my decoupler pistol would do the job that knives and cryo-guns couldn’t. Short answer: no, it couldn’t.

One of our Orcs managed to get up on some crates and shot Toosie’s opponent through the head, and about the same time the tentacle-Orc, which was more goo than living creature now, made one last attack that knocked me and Vemir for a loop and then evaporated.

With that problem resolved, we went over to the forklift robot – Toosie in the lead in case of any more traps we couldn’t spot – and checked its load. The box it had been moving was full of weapons with Starfinder insignias roughly scratched out. So, hey, target acquired. As I was instructing the robot to move the box to the elevator, everyone split up to start setting up the bombs. Sixer triggered another trap in the process, but he took it like a champ. Vemir walked by a comm unit just as it turned on to broadcast the voice of Violet Zeizerer asking what all the noise was about. Vemir had one of the Orcs try to bluff that the forklift had just dropped its load, but Violet wasn’t fooled. Turns out he actually knows the voices of the Orcs that work for him.

In what would turn out to be a less than wise move, we tried to intimidate Violet into letting us just walk out by alerting him to the bombs we’d set up. The guy decided to send goons down anyway and get himself out of the building while we were occupied. I set the forklift robot into motion and we all hustled to get good positions before the elevator arrived. There were four Orcs and two Drow inside. Vemir and 6 opened fire to mixed results, and then the enemy Orcs piled out and engaged our trio. One of the enemy Orcs got the bright idea of climbing up the nearest stack of crates to remove the bomb that was stuck to the ceiling there. Using its hammer. The resulting explosion reduced the Orc to chunky salsa and collapsed some of the ceiling. The Drow team were not deterred by this; one of the Drow lobbed a grenade that killed one of our Orcs and harmed one his own and his buddy. I stepped out my cover and shot my laspistol at the grenade-thrower.

As Vemir moved in front of me to line up a shot, one of our Orcs bashed in the skull of one of the Drow’s Orcs, bringing the Orcish numbers back into balance again, while our other one shot grenade-Drow square in the chest with its cryo-pistol to great effect. The Drow who had been hit by the grenade tried to punch 6 and broke his hand, then stumbled backward into one of our Orcs, who’s gun went off right into the Drow’s spine. It would have been awesome if I could have seen that first hand, but Vemir was blocking my view. As Vemir related the sequence of events to me, laughing, the remaining Drow and one of the enemy Orcs took advantage of his distraction to hit with him a one-two blast of sonic and cryo guns. Vemir was hurting bad and wisely withdrew into cover to drink several healing serums while Toosie and I advanced to finish the fight.

Sixer engaged one of the remaining Orcs with his word, and the Orc responded by trying to shoot him. By luck, the bullet ricocheted right back into the Orc’s head, taking another enemy out of the fight.

I was starting to think 6 had suddenly become some sort of android demi-god the way things kept going perfectly his way.

The forklift robot was approaching the elevator at this point, dragging the mushed remains of our earlier fight along with it, and our current fight was pushing back into the elevator. Things were about to get a bit tight.

As the forklift loomed ever closer, 6 and the remaining Drow entered the elevator and struggled over the buttons while also trying to kill one another. Toosie and our Orcs pushed the remaining enemy Orc into the forklift’s path by accident while I missed my shots repeatedly. Our Orcs cleared out of the forklift’s path in time, while Toosie had to dodge away at the last second. The enemy Orc didn’t get away in time. 6 and the Drow were unaware of their impending death by forklift, so I told our Orcs to rush in and pull the Android out. They couldn’t shift 6, but their effort alerted him enough to avoid being completely crushed as the forklift, undeterred by all the viscera, dutifully completed it route. The Drow and one of our Orcs were utterly squashed, 6 was pinned painfully against the wall, and the last of our faithful Orc thugs managed to get out of the situation mostly unharmed.

Violet had apparently been watching the show via some remote security feed, as while were riding the elevator up he commed to inform us he was long gone and that Drows never forget.

So that’s another enemy that may show up again later.

Once we were clear of the building, I triggered the detonator. The blast erupted through the middle of the club, and then the whole structure collapsed inward into the warehouse below. It was a wondrous sight, but a small part of me was disappointed that the building had been fully vacated first. The point had been to take out Violet in dramatic fashion and maybe earn some points with Seobarn. Still, we had what we’d came for and just enough time left in our diplomatic immunity to get to the spaceport and away with minimal questioning by the authorities.

On the journey to the spaceport, 6 and Vemir got it into their heads to bring the surviving Orc back with us rather than return him to Apostae’s slave market. The Orc was quite reluctant to accept the proposition, having been raised in the system and quite well trained, but eventually my buddies brought him around. I stayed out of the whole argument since I honestly didn’t care one way or another.

The return trip and reporting to the bosses went off without much of note. Zigvigix was willing to take our Orc on as an Exo-guardian recruit and was glad to finally have some actual weapons for his teams. Niaj gave us a basic congratulatory debrief, and we went off for post-mission drinks. At the bar, a Drow approached us and gave us a card. Inside was fifty credits and a note from Violet reminding us that he was still out there and that we were on his list.

Drow are weird.

#ski'tar #Starfinder #Vulpin plays

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per-ineptia-ad-astra · 5 years

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Star Trek Gold Key #30: Death Of A Star

Our story begins with an old woman doing something mysterious, which on its own wouldn’t be terribly foreboding, but of course, we can’t possibly start a Gold Key comic with anything less than imminent danger lest the readers feel they haven’t gotten their money’s worth, so she’s also about to explode. Or so Kirk tells us, anyway. How he came to this conclusion I’m not sure.

[ID: A comic splash page titled STAR TREK: DEATH OF A STAR PART 1. A narration box at the top reads, “Trapped on a veritable keg of cosmic dynamite, Captain Kirk and the Star Trek crew become an unwilling captive audience to the most shattering spectacle in all the galaxy: a star going nova! But the natural cataclysm takes on tragic overtones when a mysterious old woman’s life is mystically linked to...a strange cosmic force!” In the foreground Kirk and Chapel are holding their arms out, facing away from the camera and looking toward Spock and an old woman wearing orange and yellow robes, who is touching Spock’s forehead; swirls of red and yellow are spiraling away from the old woman. Chapel is saying, “Captain! What is happening to her?” Kirk is saying, “I’m not sure, Nurse, but I think she is going to explode!”]

Kudos to the narration box up there for its use of the excellent term “a veritable keg of cosmic dynamite” although “But the natural cataclysm takes on tragic overtones when a mysterious old woman’s life is mystically linked to a strange cosmic force!” sounds like a sentence that someone started out saying without knowing quite how it was going to end.

So, what’s the Enterprise crew done now that’s somehow resulted in an old woman spontaneously combusting? It begins, as usual, with a captain’s log. “Our mission,” Kirk tells us, “is to study and record, from a safe distance, the final death throe of the star Isis. According to our calculations, this gem of space has only 48 hours before it explodes, destroying everything for billions upon billions of cubic miles. Fortunately, its solar system is uninhabited!”

So a star is due to go supernova and they’re going to park somewhere at a safe distance and watch the fireworks. Cool. How close is a safe distance? At least billions upon billions of cubic miles away, apparently, since, sure, we definitely measure astronomical distances in cubic miles. I sure don’t know how far back you have to stand from a supernova to avoid getting turned into a cloud of nicely toasted atoms, but apparently the material being ejected from the star can travel at speeds up to 10% lightspeed, or about thirty thousand kilometers per second. Exactly how fast the various warp factors are is all over the place, but we know warp one is lightspeed. So the Enterprise can outrun a supernova, if it gets going in time. Let’s give a generous safety estimate and say it takes a minute to go to warp. At thirty thousand kilometers a second, in the space of that minute the ejecta, or in scientific terms, the Big Hot Cloud of Death, could travel about 1,800,000 kilometers, so theoretically they’ll be safe if they hang farther back than that. For comparison, one Astronomical Unit, defined as the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, is about 150 million kilometers. Astronomically speaking, they could get within spitting distance of this star and call it a safe point. I mean, they probably shouldn’t. But they could.

Anyway, while they’re hanging out waiting for the show to start, Sulu suddenly reports that he’s getting “readings of humanoid life-forms from Isis III!” Spock is dubious.

[ID: Two comic panels. In the first, Kirk is sitting in his captain’s chair saying, “What do you make of that, Mr. Spock?” Spock, standing next to him with his hands on his hips, is saying, “Highly unlikely, captain! Earlier, and much more thorough sensor scans suggest no such signs of life!” In the second panel Kirk is saying, “But you don’t deny that these readings are genuine?” and Spock replies, “Most likely a malfunction in the system, captain! The chances are 87.663125 to 1 in favor of it!”]

love Spock’s pose in the first panel there

Kirk isn’t having it. “When that ‘1’ may be a human life, I consider the odds even!” he declares, somehow jumping to the conclusion that because the life signs are humanoid they must be human, even though practically everybody in this galaxy is humanoid. Point is, he intends to check this out, so he tells Uhuru to get a fix on the sensor readings. Which is not her job, and also, not her name.

[ID: Kirk half-turning to Uhura, who is sitting at her station, and saying, “Lt. Uhuru, get me a fix on those readings!” Uhura says, “Roger!”]

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME, GUYS, COME ON IT’S JUST NOT THAT DIFFICULT

Kirk then orders Sulu to set a course for Isis III. Spock quite sensibly points out that even if the sensors are right and there are people down there, they can’t evacuate a whole planet in the forty-eight hours before the star blows. Kirk isn’t having that either.

[ID: Kirk pointing at Spock, whose ears are drawn abnormally large in profile, and saying, “We can try!” Someone off-panel is saying, “Captain?”]

“Captain, that statement is so ludicrous it made my ears stand up straight!”

So last issue, the scanners reported no life signs, so they sent a landing party down to check. This issue, the scanners are reporting life signs, which Spock says must be a malfunction, so they’re going to send a landing party down to check. I’m starting to wonder why they even bother scanning for life in the first place if they’re so determined to go down and check anyway.

Meanwhile, Uhura has a report on the upcoming planet. I’d question how she got sensor data at the communications station, but as this panel demonstrates, whoever drew this clearly never saw the actual bridge set, so perhaps it’s a bit much to expect whoever wrote it to remember what everyone’s jobs are. Or their ethnicites. Not only is Uhura white once again, they didn’t even color in her earring separately, which results in a somewhat disturbing image.

[ID: Uhura, colored with a pale Caucasian skin tone, looking out over the bridge, where Kirk is sitting in a bright pink chair, and in front of him two helm officers are sitting at a control panel. A viewscreen is visible at the end of the bridge, with several computer screens below it. Uhura is saying, “Class M planet, sir! Capable of supporting human life! Sensors indicate a massive life-force, suggesting a large population! I don’t understand how Federation probes could have missed them!” Her large hoop earring is colored the same as her skin, making it appear to be part of her ear.]

Man, gauges got kinda extreme by the twenty-third century.

Uhura goes on to report that she has a fix on the life signs, but it’s weird, because “All the life-force is emanating from one spot as if the entire population were on the head of a pin!” “Perhaps that’s why your earlier probes missed them, Spock!” Kirk comments. “They’re either midgets...or angels!” Spock then starts to give the odds against this before Kirk cuts him off. Yes. Hilarious.

Kirk tells Uhuru (sigh) to get ready to beam down with him and Spock, and to inform Chapel that she’s coming with too. “She has proven to be of invaluable assistance on past missions!” he explains, and I use the term ‘explains’ loosely.

The unorthodox landing party is soon ready to beam out, although that might prove to be difficult because apparently a terrible transporter accident has fused the bridge and the transporter room together.

[ID: Two panels. In the first, Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Chapel are standing on the transporter pad, with Sulu and Scotty looking at some screens in the foreground. Kirk is saying, “Sulu, how much of a safety factor do we have?” Sulu replies, “24 hours, sir!” In the second panel, Kirk is leaning in and saying, “Scotty, I want you to wait precisely 23 hours, 59 minutes for us and then warp out of her immediately!” Scotty, who is sitting at what looks like one of the bridge stations, says, “Aye, aye, captain!”]

WHERE ARE WE

So...unless it took them twenty-four hours to get that landing party ready, they still have forty-eight hours before the sun goes nova. I’m not sure exactly what Sulu’s ‘safety factor’ means, but I’m guessing he means the buffer of extra time they’ve allotted to make sure they can get out of there before things get really dangerous. Which means Kirk is telling Scotty to leave...one minute before they have twenty-four hours before the sun explodes?

Having left those baffling instructions in their wake, the landing party beams down, and has the perfunctory exchange of comments.

[ID: Chapel, Uhura, Spock and Kirk standing against a dull purplish-gray sky with some foliage creeping into the panel on the right. A narration box says, “Soon…” Chapel is saying, “Wow! I’ll never get used to that sensation!” Uhura says, “Nor to the sight of a new world! Amazing! That sky!” Spock says, “Atmospheric conditions are caused by pre-nova solar activity!” Kirk says, “We’re not here to sight-see!”]

Wow, that sky. Breathtaking. Incredible. I’m in awe.

After reminding everyone that they are not here to sight-see, they’re here to save a WORLD! Kirk asks Chapel where they should be going, since their landing site is mysteriously devoid of all the people they were expecting to find there. Chapel says she doesn’t know because the atmosphere is scrambling her equipment. Dang Federation technology gets scrambled the moment you take it out of the packaging.

Uhura and Spock then have a baffling exchange in which she comments that she “feel[s] like we’d been plopped down on a “Doomsday Earth” movie set!” and Spock replies “For all intents and purposes, we have, Lieutenant!” I’m not sure if Spock understands what a movie set is. Or possibly I don’t understand what a movie set is, or at least what a “Doomsday Earth” movie set is. Ultimately it’s irrelevant though, because the conversation is cut off by Spock getting attacked by a giant cloud of spray cheese.

[ID: A tall panel in which Uhura is yelling, “Look out!” and pushing Spock out of the way of a beam of yellow energy strikes down from the sky in front of him with a “PHFFAZZZ!”]

Kirk declares that “Whatever we do, we better get out of HERE, fast!” and takes off running, but Spock grabs him and pulls him in the other direction; turns out that somehow in the past five seconds or so that Kirk was occupied, the rest of the landing party found a path. Which Kirk is pretty sure wasn’t there before, but there’s no time to deliberate on that, with more spray cheese energy bolts on their tail.

[ID: Kirk, Chapel, Uhura and Spock running through some woods with bolts of energy striking all around them, making “PAHZAZ!” “PHFFFZING!” and “PAHZOWIE!” noises.]

“Don’t ask, captain! Just keep moving!” Spock says. But Kirk, of course, isn’t going to let a little thing like running for his life distract him from asking questions. “I don’t like it, Mr. Spock!” he declares as they charge through the bolts. “This path from nowhere! These bolts just missing! It’s as if someone were herding us somewhere! But where?”

Fortunately we don’t have long to wait for the answer to that question, because in the very next panel Chapel points out a rather attention-grabbing landmark up ahead.

[ID: A full page containing mostly one large panel with two smaller ones, inset at the top and bottom. In the top panel, Chapel is pointing into the distance and saying, “Perhaps there, captain!” while Uhura, behind her, says, “Goodness!” In the main panel, the landing party is looking through a tangle of trees towards a large angular pyramid-like building with two flights of steps leading up to the top and a door inset under an archway in front. A yellow triangle with an eye symbol in the middle is hovering above it. Uhura is saying, “What is it, captain?” Kirk says, “I was just going to ask Spock that!” Spock says, “It appears to be a religious temple!” In the bottom right panel, the group has gathered around the door of the building. Uhura is saying, “It reminds me of ancient temples to the sun!” Chapel is saying, “Captain! My sensor’s going crazy! There must be an army inside there!”]

alright, who summoned Bill Cipher

I appreciate that Kirk’s first reaction to seeing this thing was going to be asking Spock, who has exactly the same amount of information about it as Kirk does, what it is. Which I’m not sure is a great idea in this case, because Spock’s over there leaping to some big ol conclusions. Sure, that could be a religious temple, but it could just as easily be a tomb, a dwelling, a government building, hell it could be an artfully decorated grain silo. There’s no way to know just by looking at the outside of it! Geez, keep this guy away from archaeological sites.

Kirk declares that they’re going inside the temple, since that’s quite obviously the intended way to advance the adventure. Chapel protests that they might be walking into a trap, but Kirk says they don’t have much choice—the path they came by has disappeared again. Oh, so this is definitely a trap, then. Kirk orders them all to put their phasers on stun and aim them at the door, presumably intending to stun the door into submission. But before anyone can fire, the door opens on its own.

[ID: Two panels. In the first, the landing party is gathered around the doors, which appear to be opening on their own, while a voice from within calls, “WELCOME! BEINGS OF EARTH...AND WATER!” Chapel says, “That voice! Like a light in my head!” In the second panel, we see through the doors to where an indistinct robed figure is sitting in a tall chair surrounded by curtains, saying, “Enter the temple of the sun! Home of the sun-god incarnate! Enter crew of the Enterprise!” Someone offscreen says, “Incredible!”]

Huh.

Foregoing all thought of this being a trap, Kirk strolls on in through the door, the better to put his hand to his chest dramatically and say, “You—you know us???”

“You are not the only ones with “eyes,” captain!” the robed woman replies, in a rather disconcerting use of quotation marks. “I saw you out there...watching! You were curious about me, so I, in turn, am curious about you!”

Kirk asks if she’s aware that she and the rest of her people are in some serious danger, but she’s not fazed in the least: “I know that my time grows short! As does everyone’s and every thing’s!” “But you don’t have to die!” Kirk says. “We can save you! We can take you aboard our...boat in the sky! And take you to a safe place!” Smooth, Kirk.

The woman only says that she did not summon them there to save her. “You wished to see me die,” she says, “I give you your chance!” This thoroughly baffles everyone in the landing party, since last time they checked no one summoned them here at all. Evidently they’ve missed something.

[ID: Kirk approaches up the steps towards the woman sitting on the throne, who is draped in a yellow cloak with a red head covering. Kirk is saying, “Look, I don’t know where you got the idea we came to watch you die, but maybe the rest of your people aren’t so eager! Where are they?” The woman says, “Alas, they left but moments before you arrived!”]

Or we could just decide the old woman is the one who’s wrong, that works too.

Kirk asks where all these people left to, and the woman points off somewhere and says, “There! From whence they came!” Helpful. Kirk wonders if this means they’re all dead and buried and the woman is the last of her race, but Chapel says she’s still picking up a huge amount of life-force from around the temple, more than one person could account for. I’m still trying to figure out how the heck their sensors are quantifying ‘life-force.’ I mean life signs, I could understand life signs, I could understand detecting, say, heartbeats or respiration or a thermal signature, but apparently Chapel’s just straight up got some kind of aura reader over there.

Kirk—very dramatically—asks the woman just who she is. She tells him.

[ID: The landing party stand in a line looking at the woman, who is extending her hands upward and saying, “I am the warmth! I am the light! I am the giver! I am the protector! I am Isis, the god of the sun!” Kirk is thinking, “You’re also a warp four loony!”]

Nice, Kirk, very diplomatic thought bubble there. The use of ‘warp four’ there also implies a scale of looniness that goes up to at least seven.

Kirk asks Spock what he thinks of Isis. Spock refrains from giving any rankings of looniness, only speculating that perhaps she was left here as a sacrifice. So we’re just dismissing the god theory out of hand, huh? Ordinarily that would be considered a reasonable enough decision, but you guys have already met several beings who may not necessarily have been divine from a theological standpoint but sure had enough power to make that pretty much a moot point. I’m just saying, if I’d personally encountered folks like the Metrons, the Thasians, Trelane and his parents, etc, I’d at least take a minute to hear out anyone else who told me they were a god, just to save any nasty surprises down the line.

But instead, Kirk tells Chapel to stay with Isis—not for any particular reason that he feels like explaining—while the rest of the party goes out to look around some more. “The other inhabitants must be around here someplace,” he says as they walk outside, “and we are going to find them!”

Uhura points out that the path is still gone, but this doesn’t bother Kirk. Not because it is usually actually possible to walk through woodland without a path (sometimes unpleasant, but usually possible) but because hey, they’ve got phasers, so they can make a path. He tells the other two to set theirs to ‘heat blasts. I didn’t realize that was an option for phasers.

[ID: Spock, Kirk and Uhura firing their phasers into a copse of trees with a ‘PHFFFIZZZZZLE!’ Kirk is saying, “Fire!” Spock says, “Captain! Nothing! Our phasers don’t fire!” Uhura says, “I think….we’re being….surrounded.”]

And evidently, I was right about that.

I don’t know what Uhura thinks is surrounding them that requires such heavy use of ellipses, but Kirk yells for everyone to get back inside, then throws his phaser at a tree for good measure. But once back inside, they find Chapel passed out on the floor. Uhura, who is not a nurse or doctor, and is using no tricorder or other medical equipment, nevertheless manages to instantly identify the problem as sunstroke. Kirk is so distraught by this that his hand starts mutating.

[ID: Kirk gesturing towards Spock with one arm bent in an unnatural position to put his hand on his head, his thumb inexplicably large and also at a wrong angle. Kirk says, “What’s going on around here??? Has this world gone crazy! Beam us out of here, Spock! Now!” Spock says, “I can’t captain! Solar flares are interfering with communications to our ship!”]

you okay there buddy

“I fear we are trapped here, Captain!” Spock declares. Oh, what a surprise.

[ID: A splash page titled STAR TREK: DEATH OF A STAR: PART 2. It shows the Enterprise orbiting a planet with a bright sun in the distance. A narration box at the top reads, “Captain’s Log, supplemental: While the Enterprise orbits helplessly overhead, due to interference from the near-nova sun, we are trapped on a planet marked for doom! Our desperate search for Isis III’s mysterious inhabitants has only led us to a strange old woman! But now I have a more immediate concern than saving the lives of the inhabitants—namely, saving the lives of the crew and myself!” Below that a smaller narration box reads, “On the Enterprise...” Two speech bubbles are coming from the Enterprise, one reading, “Are you sure about these figures this time, laddie?” and the other one, “I’ve checked and double checked everything, Scotty!”]

Part two begins with Scotty harassing Sulu in an exchange so generic you could probably stick the dialogue into a good half of all TOS episodes with barely any variation. “I hope you reach the captain before it’s too late for all of us!” Scotty says, to which Sulu replies, “I’m trying but something down there is interfering!” Having established this very important bit of information about what the people back on the ship are getting up to, we immediately leave them behind again and get back to the planet.

Kirk helps Chapel up, or at least, he kneels beside her and says, “Are you feeling better, nurse?” Yes, Chapel says, she’s fine now, but she doesn’t know what happened—she just fainted. No worries, low blood sugar happens to the best of us.

But Kirk isn’t satisfied with that. “You!” he shouts at Isis. “You’re behind all this, somehow, aren’t you?!” Unconcerned as ever, Isis replies, “You have come to record my death! So be it! But on my terms!”

Rather than make any effort to engage with her to figure out what she means, Kirk declares that this whole thing is hopeless-- “trapped on a sinking ship with a lunatic!” That’s what I love about Kirk, he’s so sensitive and respectful. But Spock has had an idea. Maybe, he says, when Isis said her people were “down there” she meant it literally. Perhaps they’re underground, in some sort of shelter. Wait...you mean, it’s possible that Isis could actually have meant what she said? I dunno about that, man. I mean, what she said didn’t immediately make sense to us, so I’m pretty sure it must be total nonsense.

But there’s not much else for them to do, so Kirk has Uhuru (sigh) and Chapel stay behind to try and get “some sense out of Isis” while he and Spock go looking for some kind of passage or tunnel around this joint. It takes all of one panel before Spock locates the incredibly obvious switch on the wall that opens a secret door.

[ID: Kirk and Spock standing in a long stone corridor, facing the wall. Spock is pressing on a large panel engraved with a triangle-eye symbol, which makes a CLICK! He says, “Captain! Come quick! I believe I have found a way to our “Lost Isisians!” Between him and Kirk a door is opening in the wall with a ‘HYMMMMMMMM MMMMMM’.]

For an extremely loose definition of ‘secret’, anyway.

While Spock and Kirk are off making their Perception checks, Isis, having finally gotten rid of that annoying guy who keeps shouting at her whenever she tries to say anything, leads Uhura and Chapel out on a walk in the garden, because “There is much yet to say and little time to say it!” As they head outside, some mysterious lights appear.

[ID: Chapel and Uhura flanking Isis, each with a hand on her back, leading her down a path through some greenery. A line of sparkling orbs is snaking around the three women.]

That’s probably fine.

Meanwhile, Spock is showing off his discovery to Kirk, when suddenly...uh, actually, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. I guess either the switch opened up the door in the wall and then a second door in the floor underneath them, or else they both just tripped and fell through the first door.

[ID: Three panels. On the top left, Kirk and Spock are looking at the door opening into the wall. A narration box leads, “Suddenly, while Mr. Spock investigates...” Kirk says, “What is it, Mr. Spock? What have you found!” Spock says, “Very simple, Captain. This “eye” seems to operate some kind of…..” On the right, a long panel shows Kirk and Spock falling into an abyss, Spock yelling, “...TRAP DOOOOR!” while Kirk yells, “WE’RE FLOATING! SPOCK!” On the bottom left, Kirk and Spock have landed in a cave. Spock says, “Though the odds were against it, there must have been a second passageway below our feet!” Kirk says, “Odds or no odds…..”]

What do you mean, the odds were against it? Spock, I don’t know if you’ve been playing too much Oblivion lately or what, but the architectural features of most buildings are not randomly generated. People either put doors in places or they don’t, there’s not just like a 30% chance of a trapdoor spawning in any given location.

But regardless of how the passage got there, they’ve clearly happened upon something significant. Or, as Kirk puts it:

[ID: Kirk and Spock look out through the cavern at a large underground city in the distance. Kirk puts his hand on Spock’s shoulder and says, “You’ve hit the jackpot, Mr. Spock!”]

Any hopes of locating a friendly NPC and getting some exposition about this weird place are quickly dashed, though, because closer examination reveals the city to be a thoroughly abandoned ruin. As they explore, Kirk wonders once again where everyone went, and why they left Isis behind. Luckily, Spock happens to stumble upon a room that has exactly what they need.

[ID: Three panels. On the top left, Spock is beckoning Kirk into a room that contains a pile of tapes and other junk in the corner. Spock says, “Perhaps these will tell us, captain!” Kirk says, “What have you got there, Mr. Spock?” In the right panel, Spock and Kirk look towards the tapes, each with a glowing spot on their forehead. Spock says, “They appear to be history tapes, captain!” Kirk says, “I can hear them, see them inside my head!” In the bottom panel, the light on Kirk’s head projects an image of a planet in space with a sun shining in the distance and a triangle with an eye hanging above the planet. A disembodied narrator says, “At first there was only “the eye”, Isis!”]

Well that’s an unorthodox method of data storage.

The tapes go on to explain how Isis—represented here by an Eye of Providence for some reason-- created life on the planet, inasmuch as the word ‘explain’ can be used to mean ‘somehow made things even more confusing than they were to begin with.’

[ID: Four panels. On the top left, a red sun is shining above a jungle, with the pyramid floating above it all. The narrator says, “And ISIS looked down on our world and saw that there was no light!” On the top right, the pyramid floats above the planet with a stream of tiny yellow eyes falling from it onto the planet, while the narrator says, “So Isis seeded the earth with her eyes!” On the bottom left, the eyes fall onto the ground, and a fuzzy red humanoid figure emerges from the earth. “And there-in rose up a people called Isisians!” On the bottom right, the figure looks up at the sun, which now has the pyramid in it. “And when they looked up there was light! For Isis now lived among them!”]

I’m...assuming this is some kind of metaphor, but it might make just as much sense either way.

Anyway, the Isisians (try saying that one three times fast) built the temple to house Isis, who proceeded to stay there to be with her children on the planet. Everything was great for a while, but “all things must pass! Even peoples! Even suns!”

[ID: A panel showing several figures gathered around the temple as the pyramid jumps up into the sky while the narrator says “And thus it came time for Isis to return to the sky, taking with her the gifts of life and light!”]

“alright my children it’s been fun but I gotta bounce byyyeeeeee”

The narrator (do you think they got some famous Isisian VA to do this?) concludes by relating that “in the twilight of our race, we have groped blindly underground to make this our final resting place! Yet we are not bitter! We are sad! For one day Isis too must give up the eye and pass! Thus ends our story! Thus ends our race!” So, what, they recorded their entire history and just left it laying around on a tape in some random room before they all went extinct? Were they intending for someone to come find this someday as a last record of them or did they just do it for kicks?

Well, anyway, Kirk is impressed. “Am I correct in assuming, Spock, that we have heard the legend of a people long since extinct?” he asks. “25 million years extinct, Captain, if my estimate is accurate!” Spock replies. Your...your estimate? Your estimate based on what, exactly? Did you just look around the city and go “hmmm yeah this looks about 25 million years old” or what? Also, that is one hell of a sturdy record tape that’s still fully functional 25 million years later. Can I get one of those anywhere? Cause I’ve had this harddrive for like five years and it’s starting to go on me.

Back up on the ship, Sulu is being pointed at so dramatically he’s having to lean back to get out of the way.

[ID: A panel showing the Enterprise bridge, with a narration box reading “Meanwhile, on board the Enterprise...” Scotty is pointing dramatically at Sulu, saying, “Still no luck, Sulu?” Sulu, only his head visible at an awkward angle in the corner of the panel, is saying, “No sir!”]

Scotty proceeds to explain to Sulu, who presumably already knows all this, that “Ya got tah raise ‘em, laddie! When the captain beamed down we told him he had twenty-four hours! But that was a mistake! That blasted star could go at any minute according to our new figures! If we stay, the whole ship’s in danger! If we go….” That’s all in one panel, by the way—there’s barely room for his head left under the speech bubble.

Having delivered his exposition, there’s not much left for Scotty to do but tell Sulu to keep doing what he’s been doing. Meanwhile, we’re told that Spock and Kirk “returned to the surface via the transport tube.” Ah yes, the transport tube. The transport tube that was definitely clearly established before that panel. That transport tube. Oh, and Uhura tells them she no longer wishes to change Isis’s mind.

[ID: Spock, Kirk, Uhura and Chapel standing in front of some trees and bushes, while Isis stands in the right corner. Kirk is saying, “You what??” Chapel says, “We no longer wish to change her mind, captain! We respect her right to die!” Uhura says, “She has a kind of nobility, sir! A soul! I have a tremendous empathy for her!”]

What, did you not think she had a soul before?

Kirk, apparently, takes quite a hard line on the whole right to die debate, because he immediately accuses Isis of bewitching his crewmembers. “See if you can reason with Isis!” he tells Spock, having made absolutely no attempt to reason with Isis. “I give up!”

Spock says he’ll try, but “logic rarely works on humans!” He then confronts Isis on how she earlier claimed that her people left just moments ago, “Yet there have been no humans on this world for millions of years! How do you explain that?” Which is an odd thing to say, considering that the images of the Isisians we saw were quite clearly not humans, yet Spock’s first statement rules out the idea of him using ‘human’ as a catchall term for sapient lifeforms. Evidently Spock’s definition of ‘human’ is ‘everybody in the galaxy that’s not a Vulcan.’

“So you have heard the legend of Isis?” Isis says, still as unperturbed as ever. “What do you think of it?” “An interesting folk tale!” Spock replies. Evidently this was not the right answer.

[ID: Spock and Isis stand in the background, Isis with one hand on Spock’s forehead, as she says, “Your logic is a cage, Mr. Spock! Come closer and let me set you free!” Red and yellow swirls are extending out from her in all directions. In the foreground, Chapel, Uhura and Kirk are watching. Uhura says, “Captain? What’s happening to her?” Kirk, leaning away in alarm, says, “I don’t know! It looks like...yes! That’s it!”]

What? What is it? What’s happening? Is she...no, she couldn’t be...

[ID: A tall panel showing the pyramid of Isis at the top with red and yellow light/flames emanating from it as the four landing party members float in the air. Isis says, “Farewell! Kirk says, “ISIS IS EXPLO...”]

Hmm, still not sure what’s going on. Could we get that confirmed one more time, please?

[ID: A panel on the Enterprise bridge, with a narration box reading, “On the Enterprise...” Sulu is standing up from his helm panel, saying, “The planet is exploding right now, sir!” Scotty rises from his own chair and says, “Then it’s...”]

cool thanks

Before Scotty can get the bagpipes out for a funeral dirge, our brave heroes are whisked onto the bridge, remarkably unexploded. For another few seconds, at least.

[ID: Three panels. On the top right, a narration box reads “At that exact instant...” above Chapel, Uhura, Kirk and Spock appearing on the bridge in a flash of light. Scotty, in the foreground, exclaims, “Captain Kirk! Spock!! Uhura! Chapel! How??” Someone in the landing party says, “Oooo! What’s happening? Am I dreaming?” On the bottom left, Scotty throws out his hands towards Sulu, saying, “Sulu! Warp eight! Immediately!” while Sulu says, “It’s...too...” On the bottom right, Sulu yells, “...Late! Ugh!” as explosions rock the bridge with ‘OOF!’ and ‘EEEEEEEEE!’ sounds and the helm shorts out with a ‘BZZZZT!’]

well maybe we would’ve had time if Scotty hadn’t stood around shouting the names of every single person in the landing party

And then the planet explodes. Hang on, I thought it was the sun that was exploding? Man, supernovas are confusing.

Luckily for the Enterprise, it turns out supernovas are also remarkably like hurricanes.

[ID: A large panel showing the Enterprise caught in a stream of energy from the pyramid of Isis as rocks and flame explode out from it. A narration box at the top reads, “The Enterprise is buffeted like a paper airplane in a hurricane as the force of a billion atomic bombs washes over it! Yet, like a hurricane, there is a place of calm in the center of the violence and the Enterprise, as though guided by some unseen protector, rides out the storm...in “the eye” of the hurricane!”]

Or, to put things less poetically:

[ID: The Enterprise bridge filled with smoke, a narration box reading “Suddenly...” Scotty, looking up with a stunned expression, says, “It’s a miracle! We’re saved! We’re in some sort of space pocket!”]

is that like a hot pocket

Unconcerned by the smoke now filling the bridge, Scotty asks Kirk what happened down on the planet. “I’m not sure, Scotty!” Kirk says, speaking for the audience. He asks Spock what he saw when Isis touched his forehead. Spock replies that he “felt...er...admiration, captain! And I saw things...inconceivable things! And I saw that a star had taken on human form in its final hours, so that it could talk to us!”

“You mean that Isis really was Isis?” Uhura exclaims. “It does explain a lot of things, lieutenant!” Kirk says. “Like how she could use the planet’s resources against us! And how she was able to block communications!” ...does it explain those things? Can stars usually control planets? Did I miss that episode of Cosmos?

As the Enterprise flies off, Kirk wonders if this means that stars really are living beings. “From what I glimpsed, captain, they may be more “alive” than we are!” Spock replies.

[ID: The Enterprise flies away with star-filled space on its right and a blue sky with a large sun on its left. A speech bubble from the ship reads, “Mr. Spock, next time we’re in the vicinity, remind me to have a long chat with our “lucky ole sun”, will you?”]

I dunno man, it didn’t go super well when they tried it in that Doctor Who episode.

And so ends another issue, with yet another planet destroyed. There’s not gonna be many planets left by the time this series ends. At least they didn’t start any wars on this one first, although I’m sure if there had been more than one person down there they would have found a way.

#star trek #star trek gold key #recap tag #star trek gold key recaps #GK 30 Death of a Star

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 1 year

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The planet that could end life on Earth A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a UC Riverside experiment. UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane explained that his experiment was meant to address two notable gaps in planetary science. The first is the gap in our solar system between the size of terrestrial and giant gas planets. The largest terrestrial planet is Earth, and the smallest gas giant is Neptune, which is four times wider and 17 times more massive than Earth. There is nothing in between. “In other star systems there are many planets with masses in that gap. We call them super-Earths,” Kane said. The other gap is in location, relative to the sun, between Mars and Jupiter. “Planetary scientists often wish there was something in between those two planets. It seems like wasted real estate,” he said. These gaps could offer important insights into the architecture of our solar system, and into Earth’s evolution. To fill them in, Kane ran dynamic computer simulations of a planet between Mars and Jupiter with a range of different masses, and then observed the effects on the orbits of all other planets. The results, published in the Planetary Science Journal, were mostly disastrous for the solar system. “This fictional planet gives a nudge to Jupiter that is just enough to destabilize everything else,” Kane said. “Despite many astronomers having wished for this extra planet, it’s a good thing we don’t have it.” Jupiter is much larger than all the other planets combined; its mass is 318 times that of Earth, so its gravitational influence is profound. If a super-Earth in our solar system, a passing star, or any other celestial object disturbed Jupiter even slightly, all other planets would be profoundly affected. Depending on the mass and exact location of a super-Earth, its presence could ultimately eject Mercury and Venus as well as Earth from the solar system. It could also destabilize the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, tossing them into outer space as well. The super-Earth would change the shape of this Earth’s orbit, making it far less habitable than it is today, if not ending life entirely. If Kane made the planet’s mass smaller and put it directly in between Mars and Jupiter, he saw it was possible for the planet to remain stable for a long period of time. But small moves in any direction and, “things would go poorly,” he said. The study has implications for the ability of planets in other solar systems to host life. Though Jupiter-like planets, gas giants far from their stars, are only found in about 10% of the time, their presence could decide whether neighboring Earths or super-Earths have stable orbits. These results gave Kane a renewed respect for the delicate order that holds the planets together around the sun. “Our solar system is more finely tuned than I appreciated before. It all works like intricate clock gears. Throw more gears into the mix and it all breaks,” Kane said.

#space #science #Astronomy #physics #news #planetary science

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mleighlikes · 5 years

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M’L Instants Planet Zodiac Series #21 :)

Mercury…

Heavenly body celestial one, how small you are as you sit closest to our solar sun. Inner most orbit, short and sweet you spin not on an axis thus one side is toast which your other side is a deep freeze. Named for a god, carry messages to and fro, Mercury the sun will never let you go. Around our system of solar ellipsis you pass the quickest of them all. Marvel and wonder how you exist you this microwaved rock ball.

Venus…

Heavenly body celestial two, one of the brightest points in the darkened sky. Wrapped in clouds of smoke and fog, your mysterious ways remain all your own. Second from our sun you still feel it’s warmth and thus it’s glow. Named for a god of love and beauty Venus to watch you twinkle brings such joy, more than you’ll ever know. Turn as only you do wide and strong, crossing the paths of others is never wrong. For you get to see what others only dream, closer than further a space case dream.

Earth…

Heavenly body celestial three, hold on to all life our souls trusted to you to keep. Spin near our star the sun, not to far but not to close just right for everyone. From you witness the wonders of space all around, so near yet so far the stars, other worlds are only twinkles in our sky seen from the ground. Keep your orbit tried and true, Earth our life’s keeper we stand in awe, behold you. Turn bold turn free, never can you ever stop spinning. From oceans to mountains, stages of evolution’s zoo. Hold on to us all gravity keeps us bound to only you.

Mars…

Heavenly body celestial four, the last of the terrestrial spheres. Like Earth’s dirty cousin you spin I the cosmos. A little shorter in stature, slimmer around the waist. Less gravity can’t hold us in place. Sky’s of a reddish pink hue, kept safe by an atmosphere very lite but suits you. Sharing in wonders such as seasons, weather, and polar ice caps. Also keeping secrets of volcanoes, canyon’s and faces that wink at us from afar. We are coming to you very soon cousin, you are the systems twinkling red star.

Jupiter…

Heavenly body celestial five, everyone’s big brother it’s mass too hard to hide. Wrapped in clouds made of ammonia and water, floating on hydrogen and helium. A gas giant for all of the solar system to see. Surrounded by thin rings, circled by 67 moons. You spin so fast that for us your day is done by noon. We know your out there we can see your great red spot, this is the Mack daddy planet so cool yet so hot.

Saturn…

Heavenly body celestial six, another gas giant tilts in it’s orbit. Best known as the solar systems beauty, adorned by rings made of a moon coming in to closely. Seven rings in total make up your dress. Four main groups and three fainter, made from ice and water. Each ring is made up of thousands of smaller rings, like a tree it will never give away it’s age. In Earth’s sky a faint

pale star, yet up close it’s a fan favorite by far.

Uranus…

Heavenly body celestial seven, named for the sky, dim to the naked eye. Need a telescope to be seen. Like your fellow Saturn house many rings. Yet, faint like those of Jupiter, they make you lean to one side. You are said to role not orbit the sun due to your tilt, you are a darker more hidden planet shaken not stirred among the stars.

Neptune…

Heavenly body celestial eight, the ball of blue gas spinning faster than almost all the other bodies in the heavens. Like those before it, the planet holds five rings, an ocean in space named after the good of the Roman seas. It calms the fury of it’s main moon Triton, as it erupts in the silence of space. A cold, cool, beautiful planet full of poise and grace.

Pluto…

Heavenly body celestial nine, once part of the greater system of solar bodies now demoted to dwarf status. So small, cold, distant from our planetary star. Given the name that represents the Roman god of death, this guy has it so hard. The reverse situation of Mercury, Pluto freezes I it’s track around our great star. All who know it as a planet give it a shout out, let it know who you are.

PlanetDwarf…

Heavenly body celestial in number, to small to complete planetary status. A mass object orbits a star, not thought to be as impressive as the rest. Have you cleared the area around your orbit or do you get mixed in with the debris of space. A solar system full of possibilities, one day you will grow and be a planet once again.

PlanetRouge…

Heavenly body celestial rebels, fly through the solar systems of the cosmos, let nothing or no one keep to tied to their rules of orbit. Orbit only a galactic center, ejected from the systems in which they were formed. Set lose to roam on a path of their own, never standing still, taken in, made to conform to the boundaries set by a stars super Nova threats.

ExoPlanet…

Heavenly body celestial not within, formed, made, stands on the outside of a solar systems radius. Extra solar, pulsar planets made from the existing death of another solar form. Travel in no orbit around a star, but rather around a system. Gravity holds it, yet for only how long? Come into the walks, the system will welcome you. Yet, if they do how will there be after that enough room…?

Hey there Inter World, I hope you’ve enjoyed my last two Zodiac series. If you missed them please do feel free to scroll back and check them out. May you all have a beautiful and blessed day :) .

#planet zodiac series #mleigh #mlps #mlinstants #the planets #poem #poems #poetry #poetic #questions #thoughts #conversations

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didanawisgi · 5 years

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Abraham Loeb

`Oumuamua is nothing like we expected or seen before.

By Abraham Loeb on November 18, 2018

On October 19, 2017, the first interstellar object, `Oumuamua, was discovered1 by the Pan-STARRS survey2 within a sixth of the Earth-Sun distance. The experience was similar to having a surprise guest for dinner from another country. By examining this guest we can learn about the culture of that country without the need to travel there. Given the vast distance involved, it would have taken us a hundred thousand years to visit the nearest star using conventional chemical rockets. Surprisingly, our first interstellar guest appeared to be weird and unlike anything we have seen before. By the time we realized it, the guest was already out the door with its image fading into the dark street, so we did not have a chance to get a second look at its mysterious qualities. Below is a list of six peculiarities exhibited by `Oumuamua:

1. Assuming that other planetary systems resemble the Solar System, PanSTARRS should not have discovered any interstellar rock in the first place. In a paper published a decade ago3, we predicted an abundance of interstellar asteroids that is smaller by many (2-8) orders of magnitude than needed to explain the discovery of `Oumuamua as a member of a random population of objects. In other words, the population of interstellar objects is far greater than expected. Each star in the Milky-Way needs to eject4 about 1015 such objects during its lifetime to account for the inferred population, much more than anticipated based on the Solar System. Thus, the nurseries of `Oumuamua-like objects must be different from the familiar ones.

2.`Oumuamua originated from a very special frame of reference5, near the socalled Local Standard of Rest (LSR), which is defined by averaging the random motions of all the stars in the vicinity of the Sun. Only one star in five hundred is as slow as `Oumuamua in that frame. The LSR is the ideal frame for camouflage, namely for hiding the origins of an object and avoiding its association with any particular star - since stars typically move in that frame. The relative motion between `Oumuamua and the Sun reflects the motion of the Sun relative to the LSR. `Oumuamua is like a buoy sitting at rest on the surface of the ocean, with the Solar System running into it like a fast ship. Could there be an array of buoys that serves as a network of relay stations or road posts, defining the average Galactic frame of reference in interstellar space?

3. Most interstellar asteroids are expected to be ripped apart from their parent star in the outskirts of their birth planetary system (such as the Oort cloud in the Solar System which extends to a hundred thousand times the Earth-Sun separation), where they are most loosely bound to the star’s gravity. At these outskirts, they can be removed with a small velocity nudge of less than a kilometer per second, in which case they will inherit the speed of their host star relative to the LSR. If `Oumuamua came from a typical star, it must have been ejected with an unusually large velocity kick. To make things more unusual, its kick should have been equal and opposite to the velocity of its parent star relative to the LSR, which is about twenty kilometers per second for a typical star like the Sun. The dynamical origin of `Oumuamua is extremely rare no matter how you look at it. This is surprising, since the first foreign guest to a dinner party should be statistically common (especially given the larger than usual population inferred in the first point above).

4. We do not have a photo of `Oumuamua but its brightness owing to reflected sunlight varied by a factor of 10 as it rotated periodically every eight hours. This implies6 that `Oumuamua has an extreme shape with its length at least 5- 10 times larger than its projected width. Moreover, an analysis7 of its tumbling motion concluded that it would be at its highest excitation state as expected from its tumultuous journey, if it has a pancake-like geometry. The inferred shape is more extreme than for all asteroid previously seen in the Solar System, which have an axes ratio of at most 3.

5. The Spitzer Space Telescope did not detect8 any heat in the form of infrared radiation from `Oumuamua. Given the surface temperature dictated by `Oumuamua’s trajectory near the Sun, this sets an upper limit of hundreds of meters on its size. Based on this size limit, `Oumuamua must be unusually shiny with a reflectance that is at least ten times higher than exhibited by Solar System asteroids.

6. The trajectory of `Oumuamua deviated9 from that expected based on the Sun’s gravity alone. The deviation is small (a tenth of a percent) but highly statistically significant. Comets exhibit such a behavior when ices on their surface heat up from solar illumination and evaporate, generating thrust through the rocket effect. The extra push for `Oumuamua could have originated by cometary outgassing if at least a tenth of its mass evaporated. This massive evaporation would have naturally led to the appearance of a cometary tail, but none was seen. The Spitzer telescope observations place tight limits on any carbon-based molecules or dust around `Oumuamua, and rule out the possibility that normal cometary outgassing is at play (unless it is composed of pure water). Moreover, cometary outgassing would have changed the rotation period of `Oumuamua10 and no such change was observed. Altogether, `Oumuamua does not appear to be a typical comet nor a typical asteroid, even though it represents a population that is far more abundant than expected.

The extra push exhibited by `Oumuamua’s orbit could not have originated from a breakup into pieces because such an event would have provided an impulsive kick unlike the continuous push that was observed. If cometary outgassing is ruled out and the inferred excess force is real, only one possibility remains - an extra push due to radiation pressure from the Sun11. In order for this push to be effective, `Oumuamua needs to be less than a millimeter thick but with a size of at least twenty meters (for a perfect reflector), resembling a lightsail of artificial origin. In this case `Oumuamua would resemble the solar sail demonstrated by the Japanese mission IKAROS12 or the lightsail contemplated for the Starshot initiative13. An artificial origin offers the startling possibility that we discovered “a message in a bottle”, following years of failed searches for radio signals from alien civilizations. Reassuringly, such a lightsail would survive collisions with interstellar atoms and dust as it travels throughout the Galaxy. In contemplating the possibility of an artificial origin, we should keep in mind what Sherlock Holmes said: “when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. The Kepler satellite revealed14 that about a quarter of all the stars in the Milky Way have a habitable planet of the size of the Earth, with the potential to have liquid water on its surface and the chemistry of life as we know it. It is therefore conceivable that interstellar space is full of artificially-made debris, either in the form of devices that serve a purpose on a reconnaissance mission or defunct equipment. However, to validate the exotic artificial origin for `Oumuamua we need more data. As Carl Sagan said “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Interestingly, the possibility of a targeted mission adds some explanatory power. It is unlikely that 1015 solar sails are launched per star to make up a random population of `Oumuamua-like objects. This would require the unreasonable rate of a launch every five minutes from a planetary system even if all civilizations live as long as the full lifetime of the Milky Way galaxy. Instead, the required numbers could be reduced dramatically if `Oumuamua-like objects do not sample all possible orbits randomly but rather follow special orbits that dive into the innermost, habitable regions of planetary systems like the Solar System. `Oumuamua moves too fast for our chemical rockets to catch up with it now without gravitational assist from planets15. But since it would take `Oumuamua thousands of years to leave the solar system, getting a closer look of it through a flyby remains a possibility even if we were to develop new technologies for faster space travel within a decade or two. Interestingly, some interstellar objects which pass close to Jupiter can lose energy and get captured by the Solar System16. These are dinner guests who bumped into a wall on their way out and stayed around after dinner. The Sun-Jupiter system acts as a fishing net. If we can identify trapped interstellar objects through their unusual bound orbits with unusually high inclinations relative to the Solar System plane, we could design missions to visit them and learn more about their nature. Alternatively, we can wait for the next interstellar guest to show up. Within a few years, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)17 will become operational and be far more sensitive to the detection of `Oumuamua-like objects. It should therefore discover many `Oumuamua-like objects within its first year of operation. If it does not find any, we will know that `Oumuamua was special and that we must chase this guest down the street in order to figure out its origin. Studying interstellar objects resembles my favorite activity when walking along the beach with my daughters. We enjoy picking up sea shells that were swept ashore and learning about their different origins. Every now and then, we find a plastic bottle that indicates an artificial origin. Similarly, astronomers should examine any object that enters the Solar System and study its properties. There is no doubt that the six peculiar features of `Oumuamua usher in a new era of space archaeology. References 1. Meech, K. J. et al. Nature, 552, 378 (2017) 2. https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/research/Pan-STARRS.shtml 3. Moro-Martin, A., Turner, E.L. & Loeb, A., ApJ, 704, 733 (2009) 4. Do, A., Tucker, M.A. & Tonry, J., ApJL, 855, L10 (2018) 5. Mamajek, E. AAS Research Notes, Nov 23 (2017) 6. Fraser, W.C. et al. Nature Astronomy, 2, 383 (2018) 7. Belton, M.J.S. et al. ApJL, 856, L21 (2018) 8. Trilling, D.E. et al. AJ, 156, 261 (2018) 9. Micheli, M. et al. Nature, 559, 223 (2018) 10. Rafikov, R. arXiv:1809.06389 (2018) 11. Bialy, S. & Loeb, A., ApJL, 868, L1 (2018) 12. http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/ikaros/ 13. http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/concept/3 14. Dressing, C.D. & Charbonneau, D., ApJ, 807, 45 (2015) 15. Hein, A.M. et al. arXiv:1711.03155 (2017) 16. Lingam, M. & Loeb, A. AJ, 156, 193 (2018) 17. https://www.lsst.org/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abraham Loeb Abraham (Avi) Loeb is chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University, founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He chairs the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies and the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project.

#Oumuamua #Avi Loeb #Astronomy #controversy #debate #extraterrestrial hypothesis

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