Quest of the Fearless: A Science Fiction Story

In a solar system far, far from the sun, there was a giant ringed planet. Around that planet revolved five moons: Roa, Suti, Serath, Julta, and Cor. The largest of these was Cor, on which intelligent life existed.

On Cor there was a man named Andar who had three friends: Bortus, Sorn, and Cyro. One day the four men were looking up at the daylight sky. In that sky they could see the four other moons of the giant ringed planet, none of which had been explored by anyone.

“I hear the sound of a hundred trumpets blaring in my soul,” said Andar. “And they are telling me: go and explore that moon in the sky.” Andar pointed to the moon Roa. 

The other men thought this was a mere flight of fancy, but Andar, a natural leader, soon convinced them he was absolutely serious. Andar persuaded the other three men to join him in a bold attempt to be the first people from their moon to journey into space. The men spent years raising funds for a spaceship. No government wanted to support this project, but the men were able to raise the money from private citizens. When the spaceship was completed, the men named it Fearless. The four men entered into the spaceship and set off for the mysterious moon Roa.

To the Icy Moon Roa

Roa was a frigid moon, and the men hoped that when the landing vehicle of their spaceship landed on Roa, it would land on a big solid plane of ice. But as the landing vehicle approached the surface of Roa, there was a terrible surprise. As the men got very close to the surface, they found that what they had thought was a solid ice surface was really like a bathtub with twenty small ice cubes floating in it. Almost all of the surface of the moon was really icy water, and there was only an occasional small patch of solid ice.

“We're going to sink into the icy water!” yelled Bortus.

“I got this,” said Andar calmly. He landed the landing vehicle on a small chunk of ice.

Wearing a spacesuit, Andar then left the vehicle and went out to the edge of the ice chunk on which the vehicle had landed. He got ready to plunge into the icy water to search for signs of life.

“Not a good idea!” said Sorn. “You'll freeze to death in that water!”

But the intrepid Andar went ahead and jumped into the water. He spent hours swimming in the icy water, and photographed many strange forms of aquatic life. Finally he returned to the landing craft.

“I have photographic proof there's aquatic life on this moon!” exulted Andar. “And I even caught two types of strange fish.”

The landing vehicle then blasted off and returned to the Fearless, which then took the four men back to their home moon of Cor. The four men were hailed by all as the first heroes of space. They had proven that Cor was not the only place in the universe where life existed.

For a few years the men basked in the glory of this triumph. But then one day Andar, Bortus, Sorn, and Cyro were all together outside, and Andar looked up at the sky.

“I hear the sound of a hundred trumpets blaring in my soul,” said Andar. “And they are telling me: go and explore that moon in the sky.” Andar pointed to the moon Suti.

The other three men joined Andar in the second great expedition. After years of preparation, the four men blasted off in the Fearless, aiming to land on a very different type of moon.

To the Fiery Moon Suti

Suti was a fiery moon where many volcanoes poured out burning red lava. As their landing craft approached the surface of the moon, it looked for a while as if the craft would sink into molten lava.

“We're going to burn to death!” howled Bortus.

“I got this,” said Andar calmly. He landed the landing vehicle on a little island of solid rock, surrounded by red fiery lava.

Using a small telescope, Andar saw that 100 meters away in one direction was a hill, and on that hill were some glistening minerals.

“We should go explore that,” Andar said.

“Are you nuts?” said Sorn. “To get over there, you'd have to jump from rock to rock ten different times, leaping over fiery lava each time.”

“But the gravity of this moon is so weak, I should be able to do it,” said Andar. Then he performed the daring set of leaps. On the hill Andar discovered a treasure trove of priceless exotic jewels.

After doing the same set of leaps to get back to the landing vehicle, Andar said: “That's enough heroics for one mission. Let's get out of here.”

The landing vehicle then blasted off and returned to the Fearless, which then took the four men back to their home moon of Cor. The four men were again hailed by all as great heroes of space exploration. The jewels they discovered were made the main exhibit at a famous museum.

For a few years the men enjoyed the glory of their second triumph. But then one day Andar, Bortus, Sorn, and Cyro were all together outside, and Andar looked up at the sky.

“I hear the sound of a hundred trumpets blaring in my soul,” said Andar. “And they are telling me: go and explore that moon in the sky.” Andar pointed to the moon Serath.

The other three men joined Andar in the third great space expedition. After years of preparation, the four men blasted off in the Fearless, aiming to land on a very different type of moon, the moon Serath.

To the Rocky Moon Serath

Serath was a flat, dry, rocky moon where it was perfectly safe to land. The main danger of the moon was its very frequent earthquakes.

Andar landed the landing vehicle on Serath with no difficulty. Almost immediately after landing, the three members of the landing party felt a seismic tremor.

Andar decided to go exploring the rocky surface with Bortus and Sorn. The surface of the planet had deep crevices, narrow faults formed by geological processes that had split open the rock surface. Andar had the theory that at the bottom of those crevices, life might exist. 

 

Andar went to the edge of a crevice, and tied a rope around his waist. He requested that the other two men hold the rope. Andar was going to lower himself down into the crevice.

“This is too dangerous,” said Bortus. “If something goes wrong, we'll never be able to get you out of there.”

“I got this,” said Andar calmly, and lowered himself down into the crevice. Lowering himself fifty meters deep, he reached the bottom of the crevice.

They felt another tremor. “Come up now!” cried Sorn.

“No, I have to look for life down here,” said Andar.

Finally after hours of exploration at the bottom of the crevice, Andar found the life forms he was looking for. After photographing them and taking some biological samples, he asked the others to pull him up to where they were, at the top of the crevice.

The tremors got worse, and the men hurried back to their landing craft. Feeling a full-scale earthquake starting, they lifted off from the moon, and entered into orbit, where they docked with the Fearless. The men then happily returned to their home moon of Cor.

The Last Hurrah

After returning home and touring their homeland to the greatest acclaim and applause from their admirers, Andar, Bortus, Sorn, and Cyro decided they were now too old to go on any more space missions. They had once dreamed of exploring the last unexplored moon in the sky: Julta. But they knew that moon was more dangerous than all the others, so they gave up that dream.

After writing a book which made them much money, and after going on a long speaking tour, the four men retired to a home for the aged. They received many visitors who asked them about their exploits.

The four old men sat one day in the garden of their old folks home. Then Andar looked up at the sky with a facial expression he had displayed three times before.

“Uh-oh, I think we're in trouble,” said Bortus. “I've seen that look in your eye before. Don't tell me – are you hearing the sound of a hundred trumpets blaring in your soul?”

“No, I am not,” said Andar. “This time I hear the sound of a thousand trumpets blaring in my soul. And they are telling me: go and explore that moon in the sky.” Andar pointed to the moon Julta, the one moon none of them had set foot on.

In a frenzy of excitement, Andar started barking out orders and encouragement.

“Bortus, what were you hoping, that you would die in a bed of some old folks home?” said Andar. “Lift up your old bones, and start contacting people, so we can revive our ship Fearless.”

“Sorn, you still got some juice in that old head?” said Andar. “Start working on a plan for us to land on Julta.”

“Cyro, you old fossil, you still got any courage or skill in that wrinkled body?” said Andar. “Then start raising some funds so we can go on one last mission.”

Andar looked up at the heavens again. “Sky, we're old as hell, but we're not finished with you!” he shouted. “We have one last moon to land on!”

The brave old men were all persuaded to go on one last mission, to the most dangerous moon of all, the mysterious unexplored moon Julta.

Somewhere in their minds they all suspected that their previous luck would not hold, and that they would end up freezing to death in icy waters, or burning up in a river of lava, or crashing into a mountain.

But they also knew in their hearts and their bones that they had to go on one last voyage into space.

Marriages of the Future: More Permutations Ahead?

For most of human history there has been only one type of marriage: a marriage between a male and a female. But now we have same-sex marriage, which has been supported this week by a ruling of the US Supreme Court. With the recent advent of same-sex marriage, we now have three possible permutations for marriage:

1. A marriage between a male and a female
2. A marriage between a male and a male
3. A marriage between a female and female

I have a suspicion that (for better or worse) there are still additional permutations coming.

Let me explain why I suspect this. Yesterday there was a news headline: UK may approve creating babies with DNA from 3 people. The story was about an exotic genetic technique that could be used so that certain couples with a genetic problem might have healthy children by having doctors splice in additional genes from a third person.

Now let's imagine if this process were to be legalized. The door would be open to cases of entirely healthy parents combining their genes with genes from a third person. Let's imagine Karl Karrington has some special genes that cause him to be a brilliant scientist or athlete. It might then be that John Doe and Jane Doe arrange to have some of Karl's genes spliced into the genes of their developing embryo, to improve the chances that their child will be a brilliant scientist or athlete.

The result would, in effect, be a child with three parents. The child would be sharing the genes from three people. Now if the world starts seeing children with three parents, what can you imagine will happen next? I imagine the next step would be a demand for a legalization of polygamy.

Think of it: John Doe and Jane Doe go on television and tearfully plea: why can't we marry Karl – he's one of the fathers of our child.

If the idea of legalized polygamy sounds outrageous, I may note that it is no more outrageous than the notion of gay marriage seemed thirty years ago. There have already been cultures in which polygamy was accepted.

If my suspicion about the future legalization of polygamy is correct, then in the future we may soon be seeing wedding invitations like this:

The Cryonic Investor: A Science Fiction Story

Al Kent had developed the strangest plan ever created for getting rich.

Al had got his idea while doing medical research on cryonics, which is the science that deals with preserving humans and animals at low temperatures. Al had worked for a large bioengineering company that was trying to develop medical techniques that could be used to put very sick patients into a deep cold sleep, until their condition had stabilized and a plan could be developed for treating them. Part of Al's job had been developing experimental techniques that could put animals into a deep, cold, cryonic sleep. The company had hoped that these techniques could one day be used to help save sick humans.

After a month of making particularly good progress on this task, one day Al had come home and thought to himself: what would it be like for a human patient to go into a cold, deep sleep for thirty years, and then wake up? After considering various ramifications, it had occurred to Al that this type of long deep sleep would be a great thing for the person financially. Because of what is called “the magic of compound interest,” Al calculated that if a person had $100,000 in an investment account earning 6%, and left the account untouched for thirty years, at the end of the thirty year period the investment would be worth about $574,000.

Then Al had thought to himself: wait a second, what if I did that myself? The scheme had then hatched in his mind: he could use his company's cryonic technology to put himself into a long, deep, cold, cryonic sleep. He could sleep for thirty years, and when he woke up, he would be rich. His investment portfolio would grow to a level of wealth about six times greater than when he started.

At first Al just kept this idea in his mind as a pleasant fantasy. But then he started to think about it more and more seriously. When Al had experimented with inducing cryonic sleep in animals, he had found that the long, deep sleep seemed to slow down their aging process by about 70%. Al concluded that if he went into a thirty year cold, deep sleep, he would wake up looking only about ten years older. Being only 33 years old, Al figured that he could go into a cryonic sleep for thirty years, and wake up looking only only about 43 years old.

One day Al was watching a television show called Revels of the Filthy Rich, and he looked with envy at the big, beautiful houses and shiny cars and exotic vacations of the people on TV. He decided right there and then to put his radical plan into effect.

Al bought some land in a remote area of the woods. He arranged for contractors to build an underground house there. He arranged for other contractors to install a fence around the house, and to install solar panels that would provide an uninterrupted power supply.

Then one day Al took a bunch of equipment and experimental drugs from his company, the same things he had been using to put animals into a long, cold, cryonic sleep. Al left a stack of fifty dollar bills to pay for the things he had taken. He took the equipment and experimental drugs to his underground home.

Using a combination of items he had taken from his company and items he had developed at home, Al set up a cryonic sleep chamber designed to keep him in a cold, deep sleep for thirty years. The chamber would be powered for 30 years by the solar panels connected to his house. Al set up a mechanism designed to slowly feed an experimental drug into his body by means of an IV drip. The drug would help slow his metabolic processes, so that he would not need food. Al set up another mechanism designed to occasionally supply a tiny amount of water to his body. In preparation for his cryonic sleep, Al had gained seventy pounds. He calculated that given the extremely low rate of metabolism he would have during his cold, cryonic sleep, his extra seventy pounds would be enough to last him for the next thirty years.

Just before sliding into the cryonic chamber, Al took a look at his investment portfolio. He was worth about $170,000. He figured that when he awoke thirty years later, he would be a millionaire.

Then Al pressed some buttons on his chamber, and went into a long, deep, cold, cryonic sleep.

___________________________________________________

Thirty years later, the chamber's timer went off, and Al awoke. He slowly climbed out of his cryonic chamber. He looked at his body. He had lost about 90 pounds. But since he had gained 70 pounds before entering into the chamber, he looked pleasantly thin.

Al immediately thought: what is my portfolio worth now? He grabbed his cell phone and tried to call his investment bank. But the phone was dead. Of course, thought Al; the phone bill hadn't been paid in thirty years.

Al then decided to go visit his investment bank face to face. He jumped into his car, and held his breath when turning the key. He was surprised to find that he was able to start the car.

Al drove into the nearby city, and parked his car on the street. He marveled at all the strange looking futuristic cars he saw on the street. He then walked to his investment bank, and asked to see an investment specialist.

“My name's Al Kent, and I need to check on the value of my portfolio,” Al said. The investment specialist complained that the company had not heard any word from Al in thirty years, and demanded some proof of his identity. Al produced the proof.

“Well, looking at our records, I see here that your investment portfolio is now worth $1,156,234,” said the investment specialist.

Al stood up. “I'm rich!” he exulted. “I'm filthy, stinking rich!”

Al walked out of the bank, and decided to get some food. He hadn't eaten in thirty years, and now that his metabolism was back to normal, he had regained a healthy appetite. Al walked into a small convenience store to buy something to eat.

Al picked up a sandwich, and looked at the price: $347.

Al thought to himself: what kind of a joke is this? Some computer must have goofed when printing the price tag, he thought.

Then Al checked other items at the store: a cup of coffee cost $115, and a can of beans cost $120.

Al thought to himself: what kind of a psycho store is this? He left the little store, and went to a large supermarket across the street.

Al checked the prices. A head of lettuce cost $95. A loaf of bread cost $249. A gallon of milk cost $429. Nowhere in the supermarket could Al find anything that didn't seem to be a hundred times more expensive than he expected.

Al walked out of the food supermarket, stunned. He sat down on the street curb, and asked himself: how could this have happened?

Then finally he figured it out.

INFLATION!

During his thirty-year cold, deep, cryonic sleep, Al's portfolio had grown at an annual rate of about 6%. But during that time the average inflation rate had apparently been much higher than 6%. So now Al was a millionaire, but his million dollars wasn't worth the same as a million dollars in 2013. It was worth something much, much less.

Using the prices he had seen, Al did some math in his head to estimate how much his million dollar portfolio was worth in 2013 dollars. He calculated that his portfolio was now worth about $10,000 in 2013 dollars.

Al was a millionaire, but his net worth had really dropped more than 90%. Instead of getting six times richer, he had gotten ten times poorer. With everything being a hundred times more expensive, Al would be lucky if his money lasted him another six months.

After figuring this out, Al was so sad that he bought himself a six-pack of beer to drown his sorrows.

The six-pack cost him $835.

The Top 7 Ways of Defending Earth From an Alien Attack

Because of other more urgent threats to our existence, defending the Earth from a possible attack by an extraterrestrial invasion is not a high priority. Until we get rid of the thousands of nuclear weapons on our planet, the likelihood of us blowing ourselves up is much greater than the chance of some aliens doing that. But imagine it is the year 2100, and man has removed the most urgent short-term threats to his existence, by solving the problem of global warming and eliminating the threat of a nuclear holocaust. We might then look at reducing the long term threats to mankind, including the threat of an alien invasion. What technologies might we use to defend ourselves from an alien attack? Below is a list of some of the technologies that could be used.

1. Defensive Space Ships

A defensive space ship is probably the first thing that comes to most minds when they think of defending Earth from alien attack. It is easy to imagine a space ship armed with some kind of laser cannon or guided missiles or even conventional cannons. Such a ship could move close to any invading alien ship, and launch an attack against it. However, such ships might not be the most effective way to defend the planet. The hot rocket exhaust of a spaceship gives off an infrared signature that would be very easy for any invading alien ship to detect. It would probably be very easy for an alien space ship to detect some other ship that was approaching it, and launch a counterattack that would stop it.

2. Earth-to-Space Ballistic Missiles

This type of defensive weapon would be easy to construct using technology only slightly different from existing intercontinental ballistic missile technology. Instead of traveling from continent to continent, the missiles would travel from the ground to an orbit around our planet. The missiles would be designed to blow up a nuclear bomb near an alien spacecraft that had started to orbit our planet. The weakness of this technology is that the hot rocket exhaust of such a missile would give off an infrared signature that would be very easy for an alien ship to detect. So an alien ship might be able to detect the missile's launch, and blast the missile into pieces while it was rising through the atmosphere.

3. Orbiting Nuclear Bombs

There is currently a treaty that prohibits placing nuclear weapons in orbit. But if that treaty could be modified, we could put into place a simple and reliable system of planetary defense by placing a host of hydrogen bombs at various different orbits around our planet. If we were then attacked by an alien ship, we could simply send a radio signal causing the satellite bomb closest to the ship to explode. That would give no warning, and would therefore be hard to defend against.

4. Defensive Lunar Mass Drivers

According to the wikipedia.org article on mass drivers, “A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds.” Mass-drivers were originally conceived as a way of catapulting lunar materials towards the earth, to provide materials that could be used in the construction of space colonies. Robert Heinlein in his novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress imagined that a lunar colony rebelling against Earth could use a mass-driver to pummel the Earth with rocks that would strike our planet with a devastating kinetic energy.

Lunar Mass Driver Hurtling Rocks Into Space

It is easy to imagine lunar mass-drivers that would serve as defensive weapons to attack invading alien ships. The mass drivers would shoot a hailstorm of small rocks at any ships that were trying to orbit our planet. A mass-driver might be able to launch hundreds of rocks every minute. Each one would hurtle through space with enough kinetic energy to cripple an alien spacecraft. Even if the ship had some kind of defensive technology, or “hull breach sealing” technology, it might not be able to defend against an onslaught of hundreds of rocks being propelled every second from a large group of mass drivers on the moon.

5. Asteroids with Mass Driver Weapons

Just as it would not be very hard to construct a mass-driver on the moon, and turn it into a weapon for destroying invading alien ships, the same technology could be employed on near-Earth asteroids. Imagine an alien ship has reached orbit around Earth. The ship detects an asteroid coming within 20 miles of our planet. This seems like nothing to worry about. But then suddenly the asteroid starts shooting a hailstorm of small projectiles aimed at the alien ship, and a similar rocky hailstorm shoots out over and over again. That type of ambush would be very hard to defend against.

6. Radio-controlled Asteroids with Nuclear Bombs

Another possible weapon against alien invasions would simply be an asteroid that had been hollowed out and filled with one or more nuclear bombs. Such an asteroid could be discreetly provided with a propulsion system, which could be created either through a small rocket or a mass driver designed to produce a propulsive effect, in accordance with Newton's Third Law.  If a hostile alien ship appeared, the asteroid could be ordered to approach to within a certain number of miles of the ship, which might attract no attention, as it might appear to be a natural motion. The asteroid could then ignite its nuclear weapons, destroying the alien craft.

7. Directed Energy Beam Weapons

Powerful as they may be, the types of weapons mentioned above all would travel much more slowly than the speed of light, possibly allowing an alien ship some chance of defending against the attack. For the purpose of an ambush, the most effective weapon would be one that operated at the speed of light. One such weapon would be a powerful laser beam weapon. Such a weapon might be hidden on the surface of the moon. A laser beam weapon shot from the moon would give an alien ship orbiting Earth only two seconds to defend itself. That would be pretty much the ideal ambush.

Do we have any of these types of weapons now? No. We are sitting ducks, ripe for conquest. So if you ever look up in the sky and see a star in the sky far brighter than any you have ever seen before, you had better say your prayers that the arriving visitors mean well.