Saturday, October 11, 2014

The Edge (Mission Impossible -10)


Unaware of what was transpiring with the Mescieans, Dranke saw that his crew had already plotted a path to another star system which was very close to the jump exit. The star system was unremarkable by itself, but something had attracted Fenie and Piteer's interest. It had a very strange exoplanet, which seemed to circle not the central star, but was circling another area a little way off from the star. By itself, the planet was unremarkable. But its very behavior was puzzling in the extreme. The exoplanet seemed to have a mind of it's own.

After looking for the elusive Hnnet in the nearby Sagittarius satellite galaxy,  Dranke, the captain of the Raven had pushed his crew to chase down the technologically superior aliens in the vicinity of the Milky Way galaxy. Starcommand had tasked the Raven and her crew to track down the alien species to their homebase, which was easier said than done. Dranke had chosen the Sagittarius satellite galaxy as the most likely candidate, and after visiting a number of planets, they had refined their search so that they could track down the elusive 'Ed'. During their explorations of a planet which had seemed to be an outlier, they were oblivious of having met an intelligent species called the Mescieans.

The star system sat on the edge of one of the arms of the galactic disk and right next to it was the Omega Centauri galaxy, which beckoned to them invitingly. Dranke almost decided to make the jumps required to leave Sagittarius behind. But he decided to follow the plan "Does the planet show any electromagnetic emissions?" He was getting to be a little testy from his tone. He caught himself. Dex was now in charge of the scans and he replied without looking up from his console "Pretty sure there is nothing. But it could be shielded." Dex always double-guessed himself in case he was wrong. Vaxe grinned "Dex is right. Nothing there sir. What should we do?" Dranke looked resigned "Land I guess. We need to strike this off too."

Fenie was already getting ready for landing, her face a study of concentration as she looked at the atmosphere composition, temperatures and external conditions. Piteer was busy getting suited up as the autopilot had taken over and he was now a veteran of landings, needing very little preparation. One was very similar to another. Dranke checked to see that the blue ringed exoplanet that swam into view was not a gas giant, but the core seemed solid. Time to suit up. He got to it.

They had found a good landing spot on a crater and Dranke and Piteer stepped out the airlock to see the crazy movement of the planet. Since it did not actually circle the central star, and it had a very fast rotation, it had very short 'days.' They noticed a faux 'sunset.' Sette, the new cadet was also suited up and out the airlock and she got to analyzing the crust. She turned to them both "This is weird. It seems that the crust of made of a single compound." Piteer rechecked. She was right. It was all Calcium Carbonate......chalk.

Fenie sent out a robotic probe though the airlock. the contraption was quite useful in geological surveys. Dranke picked a spot and 'shot' the probe into the ground using an air pressure expulsion tube. The probe was a small ball which had a tough shell and held nanobots which would disperse into the soil and carry out analysis deep into the crust. They 'ate' their way through the soft soil and scanned their environs, dispersing widely into the crust. In a short while, they were able to send a visualization. The scans were accumulated and reconstituted in the Raven's bridge in holographic splendor. Fenie was staring at the holograms in consternation as they spun around lazily in the center of the deck. Her voice carried in their suits as she said shakily "Captain, the planet is artificial. I repeat. The planet is artificial. The core is a construction."



Pic courtesy: http://goo.gl/Vg4iun (NASA Goddard Space Flight center. Artist's impression of Exoplanet HR 8799b).

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Mesc (Mission Impossible - 9)


Piteer lashed himself tighter to the Raven's airlock handle and waited as his shipmates came up to where he was hanging. Fenie stared beyond him "The shadow looked almost like a large bedsheet." Vaxe disagreed "I thought it looked like a manta ray." They strained to see anything in the gloom, which was accentuated by the methane clouds which made it look almost monochrome blue.

Dranke, the captain and his crew had pushed their darkmatter starcraft, one of the first of it's kind to chase down a mysterious species called the Hnnet. The aliens were highly advanced technologically, and starcommand had tasked the Raven and her crew to track down the alien species. Dranke had chosen the Sagittarius satellite galaxy as the most likely candidate, and they had begun their search.

Vaxe got out of the enclosed amphibian vehicle and got out an optical enhancement which was only visible-spectra dependent. It allowed for color and temperature differential. She scanned more closely. In a few seconds, a black giant teardrop shaped creature broke the surface of the methane sea and seemed to be studying her. Piteer stifled a cry and stared, his eyes wide. Fenie was the only one who moved. She slid her suited hand into the methane sea and looked at the creature. It came around to her and enveloped her hand! Vaxe whispered "Be careful."

Dranke came out of the airlock and closed it behind him carefully. Before he said anything, the shadow creature slid off Fenie's suited hand and 'flowed' over to Dranke. It covered his foot. It tingled. Dranke tried the normal spacecommand protocols for communication. It did not react. In a few minutes, it slid off his foot and disappeared into the methane sea.

Drake looked mystified "What does one make of this?" Fenie shrugged "It looks like a marine creature. Also it doesn't seem to want to communicate. At least not in a way we can discern." Vaxe agreed "Not much we can learn here."

Piteer untied himself and got into the darkmatter starcraft last. He was still looking a little uneasy. "Maybe we should try and get some more information? It seems to have some basic intelligence." Dranke grinned "It's not the Hnnet anyway. That was our task in the first place. Not this alien species. Anyway I will cover this in my report to spacecommand. If they want us to come back here, we can do that."

Decision made, they got the Raven prepared for launch. It was harder to launch from a liquid methane sea, but they had some experience with the protocols now. The crew moved in unison and got the Raven ready, while Fenie was already mapping their way to the next port of call. The star system they had chosen would have to be a flyby. They were going to study emissions from space and look for telltale signs of electromagnetic emissions, the signs of civilization.

On Mesc, the Mescieans were 'chattering' to themselves using vibrations..... they flowed over each other as they communicated.

oo..The aliens were looking for the Hnnet, this must be the species called humans...oo

oo..Their skin was made of metamaterials, we have melded a similar kind of cover into our own skins at the last molting..oo

oo..Strange how they cannot read us by touch..oo

oo..Must not be very advanced..oo 




Pic courtesy: By Darya Rios (Own work) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Shadows (Mission Impossible - 8)


Raven had been loaded with the instructions for the route to the next star system which Fenie had built into the route map. The jumps had been automatically recalculated by the computer on-board systems and Dranke had finally signed off on the parameters for the jumps. The mission was progressing on the darkmatter starcraft and Dranke was cautiously optimistic that things were looking up.

The Raven, the newly named darkmatter starcraft, and the Captain and his crew had been exploring the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy in hope of finding clues to the Hnnet, who had been on a mining expedition which had come close to Sol before traversing the galactic disk of the Milky Way. They had played a cat-and-mouse game with the alien fleet in hope of learning about them, but had been confronted by the vastly advanced extraterrestrials who had beaten them at their own game. An alien calling himself 'Ed' had met with them, leaving both the crew of Raven as well as spacecommand with more questions than answers.

Fenie and Piteer were arguing about something, just out of earshot, and Dranke saw multiple starmaps being pulled up and marked with different colored tracer lines which were route maps which were based on the current overlay. There was a lot of gesticulating from Piteer. Dranke sighed "What is it?" They looked up, surprised. They were in their own world. Piteer shrugged "We can't be sure if we want to jump and stop and scan the area or scan the area without jumping." Dranke grinned "Whatever is faster. Run the simulations." Vaxe walked in and without missing a beat said "Sette is already on it. And Dex is running the scans. But it's taking time." Dranke thought about it "In the meantime do you have a candidate? Instead of waiting around, maybe we can stretch our legs on a planet." 

Fenie pulled up another starmap.... It was beginning to look crowded with all the holograms jostling for space and getting overlaid on the bridge. She pointed "We got this planet.... it's not Earthlike, but it has an atmosphere, mostly liquid methane. We can't see any EM, but the planet is bathed in methane clouds. It's worth a look." Dranke stood "There you are. Lets take a look around."

The crew had gotten much better at looking at potential planets where alien life could exist. They had shortlisted them by type, emissions, suspicious megastructures or moons and any clues they could find in the neighborhood. Size and temperatures were also inputs, but secondary. Fenie thought nothing of it as she and Vaxe kitted up. Piteer would stay near The Raven and the captain would stay with the ship this time around. They kitted up.

After visiting over thirty planets, the protocols had got much smoother. They were ready in a few minutes and the ship was at alert as the planet came into view. It was beautiful. The methane gave the planet a bluish green appearance. And they quickly went through the outer clouds. Fenie sampled the atmosphere. "As expected, it has a high methane concentration. All other gases are trace." They waited for the ship to drop. The pinging told them they were close to the planet surface. It was a gooey muck of blue-green, with very little visibility. Dranke checked "Can't find solid ground, we are going to have to land in the methane sea. Use the amphibious craft for planetside exploration." They listened and adjusted their apparatus. They had seen all this before. It has been a long time since they had first set foot on an extraterrestrial planet.

Fenie and Vaxe were in their amphibious outfits and the craft closed over them like a skin. They waited for Piteer to step into the airlock and they closed the hatch for the air to cycle out. Without much ado, they were floating on the methane sea. It was surreal. The 'water' was methane. The sky had thick methane clouds, and in the sea, there were methane-bergs... it was over a hundred and fifty degrees below freezing. They looked around and scanned the horizon. Nothing. 

Piteer looked like a dot on the huge darkmatter starcraft. He was precariously positioned near the hatch, but Fenie knew he was securely stationed there. She waved out and scanned him. Just behind him was a shadow... and then it was gone. It had been fleeting. She told him to look and they started back to where Piteer was lashed to Raven.

When they reached him, he looked nonplussed. "Can't see anything around, and the sensors are not recording any activity. What did you see?" Fenie described it. They waited... In a few minutes, they saw another shadow. It would not resolve. This time Dranke said "I saw that too, but nothing on the sensors. What is it?" They did not see the shadow again....






Pic courtesy: Charles Strebor (Photographer and Artist)
Via http://fract.al/39266 and linked post http://goo.gl/ya1PFE

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Raven's Flight (Mission Impossible - 7)


Dranke stared at his screens showing a simulated approach to the Planet which resolved to be more brown than purple. Maybe it was something in the atmosphere which reflected light in the purple area of the visible spectrum. He checked with Fenie.

"Sir, atmosphere analysis is ongoing. But we did not sample the outer atmosphere since it was not relevant." She looked rushed, and Dranke decided to leave her alone. Piteer moved to the pilot's chair as he switched on the standby systems to account for any surprises. Vaxe had moved into Piteer's seat as she kept a close eye on the outer hull.

Dranke smiled. This team of young space recruits were acting in concert like a well-oiled machine as they orchestrated the delicate landing process. It was the first time a darkmatter starcraft had been made to land on an exoplanet. And watching them, he knew his team was what he had hoped it would be when he had first stepped on the Raven's deck.

His musings were interrupted as they passed though the last of the thin atmosphere and the planet's topography became apparent. The Raven's wings were now extended for the first time as they glided down to the surface.... it was a perfect landing. And they had landed on what looked like a tabletop mountain. Fenie was scanning for anything around. "Is the atmosphere breathable?" Dranke asked. Fenie shook her head "No. We need to be careful. Oxygen is non-existent. Vaxe and Piteer were already in their suits and they looked like a pair of fish in the form-fitting metamaterial outfits. Dranke grinned "Wait for me." He kitted up quickly and the three of them went through the tedious airlock cycling procedure.

It hit them hard. The planet was a desert. There was no vegetation apparent. Just the same rough unbroken terrain. And a pinking hue in the sky. No water bodies were apparent. It matched with their inability to ascertain any electromagnetic emissions from space. Dranke was already relaying information which would help them filter things in advance.

The lip of the table top was just a few hundred meters away and they walked over to check if there was anything of interest down in the 'valley' area. A few minutes and they realized it was just the same. Vaxe had established a link and she uploaded images, spectrographic analysis and hard data to the ship's memory banks.

Dranke did not waste any more time. Any advanced civilization would have been easily discernible. He led the way back. The awkward gait in the slightly higher than Earth gravity made them look like a trio of clowns. Fenie welcomed them back. In short order, Fenie was retracting the landing gear and the ship was tilting upward. The wings were swept forward for the launch and in a few seconds, the propulsion systems pushed the Raven upwards and the ship righted itself as it flew into the higher atmosphere. Dranke said "We need to be able to scan planets better. Piteer and Fenie can work on the parameters I uploaded while planetside. Get Dex and Sette to work on trial runs. And lets do a sweep before we decide to land." They crew nodded soberly. They understood that the Captain did not want to waste any time and effort.

The trip had been wasted, and it was impossible to comb every planet this way. The sensors should be able to give them a better idea if a planet was likely inhabited. They were in a high orbit around the planet and they planned their next jump.

There was so much to do! Dranke looked forward to it......they were just beginning their adventures in exploring the Galaxy. Ed had been right!




Pic Attribution: "Protoplanetary disk". Via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protoplanetary_disk.jpg



Sunday, September 21, 2014

The Search (Mission Impossible - 6)


Fenie had been up beyond 'nighttime', which was the simulated shiptime. The darkmatter starcraft had seemed to hum in the night, though that was clearly her imagination. The humming would have only occurred just before a jump. Not a constant hum which she seemed to hear all night. She had finally been able to plot a spidery line to the nearest galactic disk... after traversing the dwarf galaxies which had seemed like little pearls. They had crossed incredible distances. Sagittarius dwarf lay ahead, it was a satellite galaxy. They would visit this first, since the Hnnet seemed to come from there. Extrapolating the vector backward was not the best approximation, but they had nothing else to go on. Fenie had almost passed out from exhaustion. She had left a ping for Piteer to clear the flight plan with the captain and had staggered off to bed.

Piteer was just getting dressed in his fatigues, and he rushed though a quick breakfast of pills. Always the pills in space. He hurried off to his console just as ship 'day' broke and the lights brightened. He felt fresh and rested. Dranke was already at the bridge, checking their progress, He looked up "Hey Piteer. Get yourself caught up on our flight plan which Fenie has mapped and lets get to business. I want to scan planets which could be likely targets. Look for unexplained radiation emissions." He went back to his dark coffee analogue and his screen as he spoke. Piteer nodded unnecessarily "On it boss."

Dranke and his team had quite the adventure, finding an alien fleet on a path which seemed to go to Earth. Instead, it seemed that the alien fleet was a mining expedition which just happened to come close to the Sol system, before traversing the galactic disk of the Milky Way. The aliens had confronted Dranke's darkmatter starcraft; and raised more questions than provided answers. But now spacecommand knew there were extraterrestrials out there. They would not rest till they found them. Dranke and his crew were tasked with tracking them down.

Piteer pulled up the starmap and drew lines across the grid pattern overlay "I have over ten thousand solar systems which could be targets. We need to filter them Sir." He looked at Dranke in askance. Dranke sighed. "It's hard to eliminate targets based on Goldilocks zones. The aliens obviously do not share our physiology." He pondered the issue. "Instead of planets, can we look for artificial structures? Anything that could be a power source for example." Piteer nodded "We have only about twenty outliers. Something strange in all of them. Let me plot a course to the nearest one.

In merely a day, they would traverse a distance which all of humanity had not been able to do in all history put together. And ahead lay a nondescript solar system. The only strange thing was it had a trinary star system. And multiple planets. Piteer had chosen well.

Two new crewmembers Dex and Sette were being trained on the starmaps and feeding in variables for the mapping of routes. They were working well together. It was a game for them. It was always that way for new recruits. After spending three years on simulators and game consoles that prepared them for the darkmatter starcraft, they knew how it all worked. But the reality was something they had to come to grips with. That piloting the ship involved real dangers, and jumping into a star would not just end with joshing in the mess, but would be fatal.

Fenie was up and getting a hot beverage. The pills were never enough. She ignored the fact that all liquid had been recycled. Some of it was used to protect them from space radiation and filled the walls of the ship. Other water was cleaned, filtered and reused. They were literally an ecosystem by themselves. She plodded to her console and looked at the approaching trinary system. "Captain, are we planning to land?" Dranke looked up from his console and nodded "Soon now." It looks like there is no electromagnetic emissions from the planets in this system, but my plan is a quick in and out on one of the planets." He marked out the planet he had chosen.

The darkmatter starcraft approached the looming planet. It did not have water and looked like a brownish-purplish ball. Fenie worked on the logistics and landing protocol. They would find out soon enough. The all hands message went out as the first of the logistics drill and the ship came to life as the crew scurried over to their consoles or positions. It was the first time the darkmatter starcraft, now named Raven was landing on a planet...



Pic courtesy: "Kepler11" by NASA / Tim Pyle - New Planetary System image: . Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_system#mediaviewer/File:Kepler11.png

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Home (Mission Impossible - 5)


The blue planet rose in the viewscreens as they all gathered around to watch 'Earthrise.' It was a purely artificial construct, but it was still amazing to watch. They had been in space for almost six months and Dranke and his crew were looking forward to some downtime at home. Spacecommand was floating in a distant Earth orbit, but for once, they would not be docking there. Instead, the ship docked at the maintenance yard which was in a near Earth orbit. The crew filed out as they exited one airlock and entered another. The maintenance docks were huge and they stared at the scale of operations as they trooped towards their waiting capsule.

Dranke and his team had been involved in some notable firsts over their last mission. Having tracked and chased an alien fleet clear across the galactic disk, they had continued on their original mission, only to find that the fleet had doubled back after giving their trackers the slip and ambushed them. What the aliens had wanted was not very clear, but it seemed that they were on a mining expedition originally. After they found that Dranke's darkmatter starcraft was tracking them, they had in turn given chase to the ship and confronted Dranke and his crew. It had been quite a shock.

Vaxe and Fenie talked animatedly as they discussed the encounter with the alien and Dranke walked silently to the capsule, shadowed closely by Piteer, who was talking away. Dranke heard none of it, he was too caught up in his own thoughts. The 'capsule' was a sheathed vehicle, thickly layered and powered by lasers. They stepped inside. It moved off almost immediately. A bank of 200 high-powered lasers were aimed at the bottom of the capsule, which was protected from below by a reflective surface. The capsule moved downwards and soon they were on the ground. A Sargent led Dranke, Vaxe, Fenie and Piteer to where General Selin was waiting for them. The rest of the 20-odd crew were allowed to carry on to their debriefing officers.

General Selin was dressed in his battle fatigues, which was a surprise. Dranke shook hands with the General and introduced Vaxe and Piteer. Fenie had already met the General in cadet school and she saluted smartly. The general returned the salute perfunctorily "I read the report. You needed to get more detail on the aliens. Were they a threat. What did they seem to be like. I need everything."

Dranke supressed a smile "We couldn't read the alien. It transformed from a orb-like shape to a quasi-human shape, which was obviously supposed to put us as ease. They are extremely advanced, far beyond what we can imagine." He went on to tell the details of the meeting, the kind of docking which was done with an extrusion of the ship's walls and the liquid-like alien fleet which seemed to be almost ethereal. "They seemed to know we are just beginning to explore, and they did not give anything away. In my opinion, they don't seem to be aggressive. Just curious." The General nodded absentmindedly "You have a week off officially, but we need to know about these Hnnet. Was the alien you met in contact with someone while talking to you?" Fenie said "Ed. He asked us to call him Ed. Though his alien name was something else. But to answer your question, Vaxe was unable to figure out if they had any communications. Our own systems were jammed completely." The debriefing with the General seemed to last forever. He asked for details every few minutes. Finally their story was accepted. The General's aide had recorded everything and he walked away with his data, which was sure to be replayed time and again.

General Selin was not amused. He dismissed them with a parting shot "It seems like the aliens want to talk to you and your crew. So for better or worse, your crew has been chosen to gather intelligence for us."

Dranke decided to give them the day off, and they all left excitedly to enjoy it. It had been some time since they had been able to relax completely, and all too soon, they would be back marking time as they traversed this galaxy and the maybe all the neighboring ones too. It would make for interesting times!

Before very long, they were called back to the Earthbase to rapidly leave for their next mission. Fenie was the only one grumbling as she hadn't quite been able to attend a concert which she been looking forward to. Vaxe shrugged, "we knew it was going to be short notice. The boffins are jumpy."

It was a familiar feeling to be back on their darkmatter starcraft. The bridge had been cleaned and the full ship had been serviced. They settled down and prepared for the long voyage. Fenie said "lets name the ship." Dranke grinned "Let's have a vote." They jumped. And jumped again. And again... leaving the Sol system in the distance.


Pic Courtesy:By NASA (Great Images in NASA Description) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mission impossible 4 - 'Ed'


Vaxe had the coms ready. Since the aliens were only able to use text, She would have to manage to convey what they wanted to the alien fleet in a similar mode. Dranke stared at the screen, frozen in time. How should one answer? It was too open a question. Thoughts of cliches like We come in peace ran through his head and were discarded. Maybe it would be better to say Hey, how are you. We are humans. Nothing seemed appropriate.

After a long chase from the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, Dranke and his crew had tracked the alien fleet due to their suspicious trajectory which had seemed to take them straight to Earth. When Dranke had found that the aliens were not headed to Earth, the chase had taken on a new complexion. They were then tracking the aliens to see where they were headed. The aliens had given another darkmatter starcraft the slip and sneaked up on Dranke's starcraft without warning. The last message they had sent was "Who are you?"

Fenie was working on a reply as instructed by Dranke. She said "How about this... we are Humans from a the Sol cluster. We were curious about you." Dranke chewed on that for a few seconds and then nodded. They were too far from Earth for anything approaching real-time communications, but he asked Vaxe to send a tracer com to spacecommand appraising them of the situation. She turned back from her screen "I can't send a message to spacecommand. The aliens have jammed all coms except to themselves."

Dranke stared at the visuals of the alien fleet. They looked beautiful. Ripples seemed to pass over the spaceships as they idled. The material was fascinating. Almost hypnotic in it's beauty. What was he supposed to do? Maybe he should just tell the aliens he had no authority to speak to them. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. He would have to wing it. He was actually speaking to the first extraterrestrial intelligence in the known Universe! He let that sink in. Fenie was looking at him and gesticulating. He looked at where she was pointing "Explain Humans."

Dranke asked Fenie to send a long message explaining what Humans were about. This was in the spacecadet manual. Much easier to have the standard spiel which spacecommand had given them. At the footer he asked them to release their communications from the jammer.

The Alien fleet remain impassive in the viewscreens. The next message said "Prepare for boarding." Pushy chaps was the first thought which entered Dranke's mind. He signaled for the airlock to be circulated as one of the alien ships came close. It ignored the airlock and a liquid extrusion of one of the innocuous rounded edges docked with the darkmatter starcraft. It extended right into the ship! The alarms went off. Fenie looked at Dranke significantly as she turned off the alarms. Dranke, Fenie and Vaxe waited near the edge of the liquid gateway which seemed to ignore all matter. The technology was way ahead of theirs. A round globular structure rolled towards them. English words were imprinted on it. "We are Hnnet. From the Hnnet Galaxy. Humans know Hnnet?" Dranke was just not prepared for this. He stared "No we thought we are alone in the Universe." The typing changed to gibberish imprinted on the globe. Then came the sound of a woman laughing. Then a man laughing. "Sorry, we are learning from your data and ship. Almost upto speed now." The globe changed to a man-like shape, mimicking Dranke. "You can call me Ed." It extended it's facsimile 'hand' and Dranke shook it. It fell cold and resilient to the touch.

Dranke could not shake off the feeling of the whole thing being part of a prank. "Good to meet you Ed. Is that your real name?" Again there was a muffled sound of laughing "No. You could not pronounce my name. We are on a mining expedition. You followed us."

Dranke said "Yes, we did not know there was another spacefaring species." He shrugged, just before remembering that body language was probably lost on the Hnnet. He smiled and the Hnnet smiled back. It kept smiling. "We would like to inform our planet of our encounter." Ed continued to smile "Of course. We would like to board your planet too someday." Fenie grinned at the awkward turn of phrase. Ed continued "You have just discovered space travel. I should let you explore." He turned, still smiling, and collapsed into a globe. Dranke yelled "Wait. We want to  know more about you." Ed said distantly "In due time Human." The liquid extrusion pulled away rapidly, leaving no trace it had been there just a few moments ago. The alien fleet jumped away rapidly. They were alone again.

Dranke asked Vaxe to make a full report as they jumped back home. This was more of an adventure than he had imagined in his wildest dreams. He let it sink in. What a mysterious meeting! Spacecommand was going to go apeshit. He smiled wickedly. It would be amusing to talk to General Selin. He imagined his face when he read the report....



Pic Courtesy: "Fomalhaut planet" by ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI) - Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Fomalhaut. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Mission impossible 3 - Contact


Fenie had pressed Vaxe into service to ensure as close to real-time communications with spacecommand as possible, but there was still quite a lag. Even with quasar-assisted communications, they had to wait for responses. Vaxe indicated that she had managed to establish a secure link with a hand signal.

After chasing an alien fleet across the galactic disk; no mean feat, even for a darkmatter spacecraft, they had realized the alien fleet was not aimed at Earth as they had first suspected. Instead the fleet had continued traversing the galactic disk and diverged from the path which led to Sol... and Earth.

General Selin from spacecommand was speaking 'We noticed the alien fleet around two days back and pressed one of the other darkmatter starcraft which is still following the fleet, albeit from a distance which is at least three jumps away. It's going to be hard to be unnoticed."

Dranke felt an anger coming over him, but he had to wait for the General to stop speaking "Sir, we have been tracking this fleet for some time now. Permission to track." He hated the idea of some other captain getting the chance to meet the first aliens encountered by humans.

Fenie looked at him - part in amusement and largely in agreement as she nodded. This was theirs. By any yardstick. He grinned to break the grim tone on the bridge, even though he was seething inside. General Selin replied after a few minutes "Niket's starcraft is already on the job. It is even more important that you continue on your original mission now. Except we need to trace back to where the alien fleet originated. We have to know."

Piteer walked across the bridge to where they were gathered and pulled up a starmap.. showing an estimation of the path taken by the alien fleet. But there were too many variables and red lines snaked across a number of galaxies. There was no way to be sure. They needed to know more. Dranke took it all in "Sir, based on a preliminary study, it looks impossible to be sure. It would be like searching for a needle..." The General cut him off, obviously transmitting simultaneously "We know that. I guess we are grasping at straws. I'm sorry. Your orders are to continue on your original mission." The transmission cut off with the standard signal for end of communication. Dranke looked annoyed "You heard the boffin. We go back from where we came and triangulate our best guesses for point of origin."

Life returned to normal pretty quickly and took on the usual boring space travel motif, Except for the spectacular views as they zoomed out of the galaxy with each successive jump. They went back to the usual shiptime cycle, mimicking the Earth's The card games which had taken a back-seat in the past few days broke out in full force again.

Dranke toyed with the idea of taking a wild guess at where the alien fleet came from. He stared at the maps again and again. Without any preamble the ship's red alert buzzer began ringing loudly. Fenie was running to her post, as was Piteer, followed by the navigation and piloting crew, who had abandoned whatever they were doing. They rapidly began to scan for the reason for the proximity alert.

They were being hailed. The alien fleet! It had doubled back and was now tracking them. Dranke felt a knot in the pit of his stomach as he realized what had happened. The alien fleet had seemed to evaded the other darkmatter starcraft and must have given Niket's crew the slip. He swore. He remembered that there had been a chapter on extraterrestrial intelligence in the cadet manual, but it assumed they would happen on some form of life on a planet.

Fenie looked at the hailing signal - it was gibberish - she could not discern any pattern . Not good. This would take the translators forever to crack. And that was with a lot of luck.

The alien fleet gleamed in front of them. The spacecraft seemed to be almost liquid. The shape blurred and flowed as if made from water. There was nothing to do but wait. They were outnumbered. Should they make a run for it? He was transfixed. Fenie yelled "They are accessing our systems. And the attack has shut down everything. Too late to run if that was in your mind."

Dranke had never felt so helpless. He was a man of action. Waiting was not his strong suit. He needn't have worried. The words on the screen which scrolled down were chilling, and seemed to echo in the ship, even though it was just in text "Who are you?"

Pic courtesy: http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1118a/ under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (Wikimedia commons)

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Mission Impossible 2 - Cat and Mouse


Jumping in space was a complicated business. It required triangulation of a group of stars, matching against the existing star system, taking into account the time taken for the jump, and avoiding any gravity wells during exit.

This made for a fun discussion between Dranke, his navigator Piteer and his Science officer Fenie. But their predictions did not evoke any merriment. The fleet of alien ships they had spied jumping inward towards the galactic disc had looked menacing. And they had seemed to be heading straight towards Earth. Home to humanity. Fenie did not know what to feel. All her life she had imagined aliens; and now they were heading towards her beloved Earth. It did not feel like an adventure. It felt like the end. She yelled out unnecessarily "Brace for jumps" as the black darkmatter starcraft jumped inward, mimicking the path the alien fleet had taken. It was a grim game of cat and mouse.

Dranke looked at the starmap with foreboding as he watched the jumps making a spidery trail towards Earth. It looked very similar to the alien fleet's path. He asked Fenie for an overlay. Fenie pulled up a larger starmap showing the alien fleet in red and the darkmatter starcraft in blue. Their paths intersected a number of times. Dranke swore and asked for further readings. They had been tracking the alien fleet for over two Earth weeks now, and it was getting to be a continuous war with sleep. He had to see this through!

They had shot off a communication to spacecommand, but for all practical purposes, it would only be received much after they reached Earth. It was a marker, Dranke consoled himself. It would be received by the other darkmatter starcraft in the area surrounding Sol. There were two others. Though Dranke's team was the only one to have left the galaxy.

He had headed off to bed. There was nothing more he could do. As he left he watched Fenie and Piteer were creating tracer lines on the starmap. They were looking at alternate predictions. He would get a few hours rest and plot the remaining jumps home. They were hot on the heels of the alien fleet now.

Dranke woke from his nap drenched in sweat. He had had a nightmare about failing in pilot class. He stretched and shrugged off the dream. He knew exactly what it meant.

Dranke threw on his comfortable soft battle fatigues and padded onto the bridge. Fenie had knocked off earlier. Piteer nodded an acknowledgement "We are just three jumps away from the aliens. We could push for larger jumps and catch up with them, but we lose certainty with longer jumps." Dranke processed the information without stopping "No, just keep plotting. We are almost in the vicinity of Sol now. I want to keep watching the alien fleet. Do not engage."

Piteer took his leave and Fenie took over the controls. They had to now work in rotation. No sense in losing people to fatigue. Fenie suddenly stared at Dranke as his face broke out in a huge smile.

Dranke looked at the starmap to see what she was indicating and before he could react, Fenie yelled out "They are diverging from the galactic disc.... heading past the Sol system." She was now grinning idiotically.

Dranke felt like an idiot himself. He scowled. "Track them and lets get some communications going with spacecommand. I'm sure they will be very interested to know there are other intelligent beings in the Universe." He slumped in his chair, the tiredness taking over as the tension seeped out of his muscles. He was glad it had been a false alarm. Then it sunk in.... humans were not alone in the Universe!

(Pic courtesy : Flickr / NASA / http://goo.gl/MkBrqy)

Mission impossible



Dranke watched the galactic disk in consternation. He was quite shocked by what he had discovered, but this was a first. For humanity as a whole. He studied the area where Sol should be crisscrossing the galactic disk (it would be 'above' as of now).

Dranke had been chosen from a field of young recruits. Since the time of human spaceflight, the issues had always been related to speed. Now, with the advent of the darkmatter starcraft, it was but natural they would send out emissaries to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Dranke and his team was the first to see the galaxy from 'dead space.' It was a shock to the system. The stars seemed to vanish.

His science officer, Fenie stared in fascination. She was the one to have discovered the anomaly. And it was frightening. Dranke yelled unnecessarily into his com "Have we got a bearing yet?" The navigator, a fresh-faced teen was interfacing with the galactic map. He turned and shook his head "They are moving too fast. If we jump at this time, triangulation will be hell." He looked out of his depth.

Dranke swore in disgust. Why had spacecommand not prepared them adequately. He wondered. This was his third command, and he had not faced anything like this in the simulation. He needed more data.

He watched the computer screen again... the unidentified alien fleet was moving fast and with purpose. It looked like they were heading towards Earth. There was no way to send a message which would reach home before the alien fleet; if indeed they they were heading where Dranke feared they were. Even if it was a peaceful mission, it would not be a fleet of spacecraft. He gave orders for the crew to prepare to head home. One way or another, they would be needed back home.

Fenie did not need a second reminder, she was already plotting the jumps back, a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. It was cold on the bridge of the darkmatter starcraft, but that did not seem to make a difference.

(Pic credit: NASA / Flickr http://goo.gl/iXgh5Z )

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Obsolescence


Kerry was the first. The progenitor of the PV... the one who had made it all possible. And Kerry was now at the end of his useful life. But he had spawned a whole generation of PVs. Of smart, reliable and unbelievably advanced organo-metallic lifeforms. To call him self-aware would be a gross exaggeration. But then humans were still exploring what self-aware meant. It was enough to call him self-assembling for now.

Kerry's biological (mother?) creator or inventor, Carol Watkins was one of the true dreamers. She had used some of her own cells as the base for the artificial DNA which made up a lot of what Kerry was. And the materials science techs had been her partners in creating what was now a dying PV.

All this was not something which entered John's thoughts as he walked out his large roomy two bedroom cottage. It was his refuge. But today he would travel almost 200 miles out to get to his office. Of course his PV, one he had named Dee was waiting at the curb. He shared his PV with another house owner down the block, but they had different timings of use. Share-a-PV was just catching on. 

Dee waited patiently. Today she was dark blue. Nano scales were all she used to change color. No actual paint was used on her skin. John strode into the PV and told her where he wanted to go. She picked up the coordinates and without a word they were on their way.

John did not even look outside the window...

Carol was working on a way to preserve Kerry. Using a technique of reverting to a more basic cell design, she may be able to rescue the essence of Kerry. Though she knew this was of little real use, she was keen to see if it worked. It was this very curiosity which had set her on the path a lifetime ago...

Growing Kerry had been a long series of trial and error. Though once his DNA was coded, it was surprisingly smart. He had largely self-assembled. Once Carol had got the coding right. But the coding had taken most of her lifetime to perfect. It was incredibly hard and the difficulty had been in stabilizing the sequence. It was a fight with nature to damp down the random issues which kept cropping up. But once the PV was grown, it was able to harvest the Sun's energy and the wind and friction .... in fact all energy around it to move incredibly fast. It was the death knell for the automotive industry. And the change had been frighteningly fast. Within a few years, fuel pumps had closed down. And all research was now focused on creating the next growable tech. It was not easy; in fact it was incredibly hard. And it was going to take forever. But once people knew it could work, nothing was going to stop them. 

Dee was blissfully unaware of all this as she barreled down Superhighway 22. It would be a short journey as she was approaching 300 miles per hour. Without the risk of humans driving vehicles, PVs were able to travel at much greater speeds. Distances seemed shorter. John was at work before he knew it. With a gentle sighing, Dee opened an aperture for John to step out. She did not know that he was working on a concept which an amazing (almost prescient) engineer had made a blueprint for more than a decade ago. It was called a Hyperloop. And it was to replace her.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

An Idea worth writing about



Marge was quite amazed at the way things had gone. She was taken aback at the speed at which she was whisked away .... things were explained to the relevant people... and before anyone knew what was what, she was on her way through the dry Mojave desert. It was hot and they had the decency of giving her a sun hat and a bottle of cold water. Other than that, the breakneck drive in the desert through the testing grounds of the new United Space Agency (for obvious reasons it was not called USA, but UNSAC), were zipping past her vision.

The four wheel drive vehicle was powered by virus run batteries, and the only sound one could hear was the sound of the vehicle jostling over the temporary road. Marge looked around to the unsmiling Sergeant who was driving next to her "Is my paper that path breaking?" The Sergeant looked ahead "Way above my pay grade ma'am. I'm just the chauffeur."

She harrumphed and stared ahead as the UNSAC headquarters building made an appearance. It was short and squat. But above it a tower rose into the skies. An elevator took people to the top. There was a school group gawking at the height. Marge was whisked into a bunker and before she knew it there were a bunch of people in lab coats and pleasant smiles. They waved at her. She grinned back, hoping there was someone she could talk to. A tall lanky woman strode upto her "I'm Terebitha. No joke. Welcome to the brains trust. Your paper was picked up based on key  words. But the idea is terribly exciting. Marge blushed "All I did was think of how lasers can create a coanda effect to create a space elevator shaft". Terebitha smiled "The paper was much more, but we have a working model now."

She ushered Marge into a small capsule which had a huge circular ring around it. The reflective surface was useful in creating thrust and holding the capsule steady. But would it work? It looked terribly fragile. Marge swallowed and stepped into the capsule and Terebitha followed closing the door behind them. Marge suddenly noticed the black flooring pulling away, revealing a huge bank of lasers. Giant ones. It made the capsule look like a little toy; the bottom was a huge round depression with giant turrets. It was immense. The whole thing looked like a futuristic spaceport. Terebitha was saying "What a brilliant concept.... using a photonic cable to create a space elevator. I am in awe." She smiled.... she clearly meant it.

Before Marge could even reply and thank her, the windows of the capsule darkened and she felt the familiar feeling of the Gee forces which one feels in elevators. She heard a metallic voice say "Strap in" before she almost fainted with the sudden acceleration. And then they were away.

The feeling of ascending was endless. They were in a spaceship. A capsule. A flying saucer. An elevator. It was fascinating. "We are soon to dock with the ISS" said Terebitha, waking Marge from her reverie. Marge grinned "Wow that was fast", while remembering the 'ISS' stood for the International Space Station. She had expected the ascension to take much more time. They unstrapped themselves as the acceleration dropped gradually. Soon Marge heard a soft hiss and the top of the capsule slid away showing the ISS airlock.

They were greeted by a whole lot of astronauts and researchers, who grinned and shook her hand. She was a star to them. This was much bigger than she had thought. They were talking about building a base station in space. It would beam another capsule right to the Moon, and then another base station with lasers to be built on the Moon... and onwards. The enormity of the idea was just beginning to sink in. Humans would be space travelers. Soon!

Pic courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ISS-with-S0-S1-P1.jpg

Friday, April 4, 2014

Quantum Dreams - II

Hamil was determined. After months of following his own dream of the quantum nature of particles, he was convinced he had hit upon something. The underlying geometry of the how an incident beam would react was now burned in his brain. But he was missing something. Something vital. And he did not remember what the particles had told him in his dream. The elusive answer bothered him.

He sat hunched over his desk, doodling on a scrap piece of paper while he stared at the wall lost in his thoughts. Radha walked in and saw him daydreaming. She leaned against the table and grinned "Bet you're thinking of how the Xylem and Phloem work." Radha, a biologist of some note, was his long-suffering better half. But she enjoyed ribbing Hamil mercilessly. Hamil smiled back "Of course, how did you guess?" He got up and they got around to doing the chores which they almost always relegated to last place; to be done only when alarms started to sound.

After dinner, Hamil was back at it. This time he decided to study a line of work which had fascinated him, cavitation of bubbles. The short-lived nature of the bubbles was something that had mystified researchers for some time... and worse, the intense heat of cavitation was something which had been even more of a mystery. He was reading of the times bubble fusion had been debunked, and he dug ever deeper into the story. A number of scientists had tried and failed to explain the phenomenon. He put on an audio file and closed his eyes as he listened to the result. Fusion was mentioned and then discarded.

Hamil had drifted off while listening. He nodded off....

Radha was working on her computer, updating her blog on a recent finding in the field of photosynthesis and decided to get herself a cup of tea. She wore her soft slippers and padded off to the kitchen and noticed Hamil with his head on his desk. She shook her head affectionately and smiled. Chamomile tea would be excellent. She would add honey to sweeten it. "Honey why don't you get into bed."

Hamil awoke with a start... He got it! He remembered his dream! He grabbed a pen and started to write on his desk furiously. It was so clear to him! He wrote for about half an hour. It had exhausted him mentally. He got up stared in fascination. One line stared at him.... "Each bubble is an expansion or inflation akin to the Big Bang." It sounded incredible.. even to him. It implied that each bubble was a universe!

He would have to bounce this crazy idea off Radha. Would he be able to explain it even to her?

Friday, March 21, 2014

Quantum Dreams

Hamil dealt with the very small. Small things bring up images of atoms and molecules, of electrons and sub-atomic particles. But Hamil dealt with fundamental particles... their manipulation, their properties and their uses. It was fascinating to him, and he spent endless hours playing with the possibilities. Did Fermions have properties which could be exploited? Were these massless particles something one could manipulate? He wondered.

Radha, his patient wife of twenty years, stared at Hamil as he sat on his study chair and rotated his chair absentmindedly; his thoughts a million miles away. Or maybe they were a million times smaller.... jumping into the quantum nature of the very, very small. Did the fundamental particles repel his hand as he gripped the arm of his chair? No. It was the very opposite. It attracted his hand. That was the nature of the friction which let his hand stay on the arm without slipping off. He examined the small ridges on his fingers... they were the fingerprints which helped with the grip. The very molecules of matter which created a charge. He smiled. It was more than just that. His mind went to the nature of the Bose-Einstein condensate and it's attraction. It was a mystery he needed to wrap his head around. Radha snorted, sure he would not even notice. She was a biologist, and was sure Hamil had no idea about how the Universe ordered itself in the biological world.

Hamil got distracted by a new video link sent by a friend. It was about the nature of quantum perturbations. He watched it while he nibbled on some biscuits. Time passed in his universe.... and shortly he fell asleep at his desk, the video presenter still droning on. It was a peaceful sleep.

When Radha woke Hamil, she was shaking him awake as gently as possible. He muttered as he slowly awoke to the shaking. He remembered seeing the particles shudder as he stood amongst them. They had told him they were not particles. Or waves. It was something ..... the nature of these had been revealed to him in his dream. Or he had dreamt of something really important. Though the secret was just beyond his recollection. It was frustrating. He was so close!



The mathematics was graphic in nature. It was akin to fractals.... beautiful designs... geometrically arranged and created. He was sure then. More than he had ever thought he could be. It was artificial! He just knew it. But no-one would believe him. He had to get proof.