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Nov. 5th, 2002 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transmothrayay! looks like meat-thing.com is nearly back online, tho' transmothra.com has yet to go live once again... keeping me fingas crossed...
chapter two of Pioneer nearing completion; more meat. here is an excerpt (minus formatting):
So I started this as a sort of journal, to tell the world what I did in the event that I cannot. I meant to tell a little bit more of the story before I dozed off last night, but I didn't… well, what can ya do, huh? So I guess I'll just phone this one in and have the computer tack it on to the end of the last part. Right. Let's get down to details, shall we? I need to sort everything out before I go any further with this thing. I've got all the time in the world at this point anyway.
Okay… where was I? I already told you I was going out into space. And I've mentioned that nearly every habitable planet out there has already been well documented. According to G-DECS, that is. There's one that they don't know about, and I found it.
But first, a history lesson!
In the year 2153, space travel took a massive leap forward with the breaking of the String. Uberphysicists all over the world had been working on solving the problem of faster-than-light travel for well over two centuries, even before the advent of uberphysics itself. (Before 2039, all physics were grouped into separate realms of study, until Hiroki Takamura discovered the key to the linking thread of what was then only called String Theory.) As it turns out, by literally unravelling whole sections of the bolt of string-fabric, something deemed impractical until someone accidentally tripped over a complicated piece of lab equipment, starting a miraculous chain reaction that accomplished just this, and in a meaningful, useable way (the part that baffled skeptical theorists), space itself can be torn open; this allows for movement in and between higher dimensions. Now, by moving in, say, the fifth dimension, you can traverse the same distance as you can in three dimensions, only in a fraction of the time. The actual fraction is pretty complicated, but think of this: as a two-dimensional "flatlander," there is no way to get to the other side of your sheet-of-paper universe without travelling at some point in at least a third dimension. However, once there, it takes nearly no time at all; it's merely a matter of alignment. And by travelling in dimensions higher than four, space itself warps up until you get a sort of folding of your sheet of paper (at this point, the two-dimensional representation of the universe will suffice better than a three-dimensional model would, for the purpose of clarity in mental visualization), whereby you could literally jump from one side to the other without travelling the actual [three-dimensional] physical distance.
We call this "tweening" space.
This process got off to a rocky start, but it's since been refined quitea bit. It's now considered to safest way to travel. It's still a bit slow, owing to the fact that it's only been in practical human use for about a quarter of a century. But faster than light it is! In fact, the distance to, say, Sirius (the so-called "Dog-Star") can be travelled in just a little over three years now! That's well over twice the speed of light, and a marked improvement over the early phase of tweening, when only about 2c (twice the speed of light) was thought to be practical initially. In another thirty years, we'll probably be tweening across space at 5c!
Enough about that. What I really wanted to tell you is this: a little over ten years ago, in fact it was the exact day I retired, or the day after (something like that anyway!), my friend Xanther and I went in together on some parts for building our own tweenboat. Xanther has since moved away to Germany, and I haven't heard from him in years, but that's no matter because he sold me his share of the bundle just before he left. I've been putting this thing together now this last decade, and has it ever been a learning process! Things have changed, even since the last time I went back to college. I finished it last night. It's been mostly functional for a few months now, but I needed to do a little testing and adjustments and all that business.
So there's my ship, and there's its engine. You finally know the How, and the Why. Now let me tell you about the Where!
Sixteen months ago, I was in my backyard observation booth, another project of mine and Xanther's. I caught a signal from somewhere near the constellation of Cancer… it turned out to be a complete fluke, but as I was realigning the telescope, I passed by a faint object up there. I still find it hard to believe I actually caught it again, going back trying to make it out. Of course, I couldn't actually see a thing, but the meter gave me the impression that there was something out there around the star G 51-15, otherwise known as DX Cancri, a tiny and cool red dwarf not quite 12 light-years away.
DX Cancri was discovered roughly 200 years ago, in the year 1972. Not much was ever really known about it, except that it is a cool little brown thing not a tenth as massive as Sol. Nobody expected there to be any planets in orbit around it, much less a body suitable for exploration. Yet according to my own studies, there exists at least four small planets and one large, gaseous jovian. The second planet, moreover, not only receives enough radiated heat from DX Cancri, but even sustains its own oxygen-rich atmosphere! It is, in my view, fully capable of sustaining life of some sort. At least on the one side. You see, DX Cancri 2 doesn't so much orbit around its host as hovers in a circle. Only one side has seen its own sun in at least several million years. On this side, temperatures average close to that of the Earth, with extremes only ranging from about -2'C to 42'C. I think I'll have not a bit of trouble there, although I really have very little data on the actual weather systems on the planet. Size-wise, it appears to be very roughly a third the size of the Earth's moon, requiring no extra men on my mission for a nice basic plotout. There also appears to be an environment featuring both plants and possibly animals, as the typical elements found in such an atmostphere are all in order as well. Of course, on a planet this tiny, I shouldn't have to worry about running into anything larger than a cat. Just in case, I've brought a maser.
Well, that about takes care of that. When and if I am able to return home, I'll fill in all the blanks later on. All that's important right now is that I've got a destination that no one else knows exists, and when I come back, I'll be quite possibly the last great space pioneer! History, here I come!
"Well, Jimmy… I guess this'll be the last time I see ya… it's kinda weird, bud. I never knew anyone who went out that far!"
I laughed. "Oh, who knows, Den? You're only 91 now, in 18 or 20 years I'll prolly come back and you'll still be out there, tinkering with your plants, same as always!"
Dennis smiled, but there was a wistful look in his eye. "Jimmy, you know as well as I do-," he started to say.
"Den, you can beat the odds… you can always beat the odds! Besides, you know damn well you have at least six or seven more good years… isn't that what the doctor said? Well, shit, in that time they'll have a solution for you. Look, buddy, you just keep up your atomics therapy and I'll see you when I get back, okay?"
"…okay, Jimmy. All right." I could tell he was just humoring me, but then again, I was only trying to lift his spirits anyway. We both knew the awful truth. It was enough for us just to pretend our way around it. Just so we wouldn't have to break down on the phone like blubbering idiots. "You're probably right, Jimmy."
"I know I'm right. Take care of Sparky for me. Remember to keep his meals rotated; he hates having the same dinner twice in a week."
"I thought his name was Max?" he chided.
"You asshole!" We both had a good laugh, and then it was time for me to go and get ready. Just as Dennis was hanging up the the line, he tilted his head just enough so that I could see a startling thing. Behind him, on his ugly green leather sofa, was the most beautiful young woman I ever saw.
"Whoa, hold on! Dennis!"
"…oh. Yeah, Jimmy?" He almost looked annoyed, like he picked up what I saw and knew what I was going to ask. I had to laugh, and could hardly even ask.
"Oh that's just Kim. What? What??!"
"Who's Kim, Denny boy?"
"Don't worry about it. We've been together now for, what? Two months now? Something like that."
"Wow, I think you're setting a personal record!"
"Shut up, you old man. I don't need you to jinx this. Remember the last one?" I did. She hated me, and the first chance she got she let me know it. Eventually, she left him because I was always over. Can you imagine the nerve!
"Oh, it'll be all right!" and then I chuckled at him, real quiet-like, so that in his brain the translation would go something like this: 'Dennis, you old dog!'
"Listen, I'm no dog, this is serious," he said, damn near startling me out of my laughing fit.
"You think so, huh?" I almost couldn't believe it. But then once, a long time ago, he had been serious, so I knew it was possible, if not probable.
"This is The One, Jim." He never called me Jim, either. Always Jimmy, and if he was being a wise guy, it was James.
I gave him a look. He had it coming, although maybe now he didn't exactly deserve it so much.
"Okay, James, this is The Next One. There! You happy?"
A pause. Then all of a sudden, we both just crack up.
When I finally hung up the line, I think he was starting to believe that he could outlive his profile. I was thinking that, too.
comments and/or criticism most welcome, and appreciated....
chapter two of Pioneer nearing completion; more meat. here is an excerpt (minus formatting):
So I started this as a sort of journal, to tell the world what I did in the event that I cannot. I meant to tell a little bit more of the story before I dozed off last night, but I didn't… well, what can ya do, huh? So I guess I'll just phone this one in and have the computer tack it on to the end of the last part. Right. Let's get down to details, shall we? I need to sort everything out before I go any further with this thing. I've got all the time in the world at this point anyway.
Okay… where was I? I already told you I was going out into space. And I've mentioned that nearly every habitable planet out there has already been well documented. According to G-DECS, that is. There's one that they don't know about, and I found it.
But first, a history lesson!
In the year 2153, space travel took a massive leap forward with the breaking of the String. Uberphysicists all over the world had been working on solving the problem of faster-than-light travel for well over two centuries, even before the advent of uberphysics itself. (Before 2039, all physics were grouped into separate realms of study, until Hiroki Takamura discovered the key to the linking thread of what was then only called String Theory.) As it turns out, by literally unravelling whole sections of the bolt of string-fabric, something deemed impractical until someone accidentally tripped over a complicated piece of lab equipment, starting a miraculous chain reaction that accomplished just this, and in a meaningful, useable way (the part that baffled skeptical theorists), space itself can be torn open; this allows for movement in and between higher dimensions. Now, by moving in, say, the fifth dimension, you can traverse the same distance as you can in three dimensions, only in a fraction of the time. The actual fraction is pretty complicated, but think of this: as a two-dimensional "flatlander," there is no way to get to the other side of your sheet-of-paper universe without travelling at some point in at least a third dimension. However, once there, it takes nearly no time at all; it's merely a matter of alignment. And by travelling in dimensions higher than four, space itself warps up until you get a sort of folding of your sheet of paper (at this point, the two-dimensional representation of the universe will suffice better than a three-dimensional model would, for the purpose of clarity in mental visualization), whereby you could literally jump from one side to the other without travelling the actual [three-dimensional] physical distance.
We call this "tweening" space.
This process got off to a rocky start, but it's since been refined quitea bit. It's now considered to safest way to travel. It's still a bit slow, owing to the fact that it's only been in practical human use for about a quarter of a century. But faster than light it is! In fact, the distance to, say, Sirius (the so-called "Dog-Star") can be travelled in just a little over three years now! That's well over twice the speed of light, and a marked improvement over the early phase of tweening, when only about 2c (twice the speed of light) was thought to be practical initially. In another thirty years, we'll probably be tweening across space at 5c!
Enough about that. What I really wanted to tell you is this: a little over ten years ago, in fact it was the exact day I retired, or the day after (something like that anyway!), my friend Xanther and I went in together on some parts for building our own tweenboat. Xanther has since moved away to Germany, and I haven't heard from him in years, but that's no matter because he sold me his share of the bundle just before he left. I've been putting this thing together now this last decade, and has it ever been a learning process! Things have changed, even since the last time I went back to college. I finished it last night. It's been mostly functional for a few months now, but I needed to do a little testing and adjustments and all that business.
So there's my ship, and there's its engine. You finally know the How, and the Why. Now let me tell you about the Where!
Sixteen months ago, I was in my backyard observation booth, another project of mine and Xanther's. I caught a signal from somewhere near the constellation of Cancer… it turned out to be a complete fluke, but as I was realigning the telescope, I passed by a faint object up there. I still find it hard to believe I actually caught it again, going back trying to make it out. Of course, I couldn't actually see a thing, but the meter gave me the impression that there was something out there around the star G 51-15, otherwise known as DX Cancri, a tiny and cool red dwarf not quite 12 light-years away.
DX Cancri was discovered roughly 200 years ago, in the year 1972. Not much was ever really known about it, except that it is a cool little brown thing not a tenth as massive as Sol. Nobody expected there to be any planets in orbit around it, much less a body suitable for exploration. Yet according to my own studies, there exists at least four small planets and one large, gaseous jovian. The second planet, moreover, not only receives enough radiated heat from DX Cancri, but even sustains its own oxygen-rich atmosphere! It is, in my view, fully capable of sustaining life of some sort. At least on the one side. You see, DX Cancri 2 doesn't so much orbit around its host as hovers in a circle. Only one side has seen its own sun in at least several million years. On this side, temperatures average close to that of the Earth, with extremes only ranging from about -2'C to 42'C. I think I'll have not a bit of trouble there, although I really have very little data on the actual weather systems on the planet. Size-wise, it appears to be very roughly a third the size of the Earth's moon, requiring no extra men on my mission for a nice basic plotout. There also appears to be an environment featuring both plants and possibly animals, as the typical elements found in such an atmostphere are all in order as well. Of course, on a planet this tiny, I shouldn't have to worry about running into anything larger than a cat. Just in case, I've brought a maser.
Well, that about takes care of that. When and if I am able to return home, I'll fill in all the blanks later on. All that's important right now is that I've got a destination that no one else knows exists, and when I come back, I'll be quite possibly the last great space pioneer! History, here I come!
* * * * *
Everything this morning went off without a hitch. I called Dennis, who is going to be taking care of my dog Sparky. Dennis and I go way back. He got me my first job, and through these long years, we've been pretty good friends. He asked if there was anything I needed. I told him no, everything was all set."Well, Jimmy… I guess this'll be the last time I see ya… it's kinda weird, bud. I never knew anyone who went out that far!"
I laughed. "Oh, who knows, Den? You're only 91 now, in 18 or 20 years I'll prolly come back and you'll still be out there, tinkering with your plants, same as always!"
Dennis smiled, but there was a wistful look in his eye. "Jimmy, you know as well as I do-," he started to say.
"Den, you can beat the odds… you can always beat the odds! Besides, you know damn well you have at least six or seven more good years… isn't that what the doctor said? Well, shit, in that time they'll have a solution for you. Look, buddy, you just keep up your atomics therapy and I'll see you when I get back, okay?"
"…okay, Jimmy. All right." I could tell he was just humoring me, but then again, I was only trying to lift his spirits anyway. We both knew the awful truth. It was enough for us just to pretend our way around it. Just so we wouldn't have to break down on the phone like blubbering idiots. "You're probably right, Jimmy."
"I know I'm right. Take care of Sparky for me. Remember to keep his meals rotated; he hates having the same dinner twice in a week."
"I thought his name was Max?" he chided.
"You asshole!" We both had a good laugh, and then it was time for me to go and get ready. Just as Dennis was hanging up the the line, he tilted his head just enough so that I could see a startling thing. Behind him, on his ugly green leather sofa, was the most beautiful young woman I ever saw.
"Whoa, hold on! Dennis!"
"…oh. Yeah, Jimmy?" He almost looked annoyed, like he picked up what I saw and knew what I was going to ask. I had to laugh, and could hardly even ask.
"Oh that's just Kim. What? What??!"
"Who's Kim, Denny boy?"
"Don't worry about it. We've been together now for, what? Two months now? Something like that."
"Wow, I think you're setting a personal record!"
"Shut up, you old man. I don't need you to jinx this. Remember the last one?" I did. She hated me, and the first chance she got she let me know it. Eventually, she left him because I was always over. Can you imagine the nerve!
"Oh, it'll be all right!" and then I chuckled at him, real quiet-like, so that in his brain the translation would go something like this: 'Dennis, you old dog!'
"Listen, I'm no dog, this is serious," he said, damn near startling me out of my laughing fit.
"You think so, huh?" I almost couldn't believe it. But then once, a long time ago, he had been serious, so I knew it was possible, if not probable.
"This is The One, Jim." He never called me Jim, either. Always Jimmy, and if he was being a wise guy, it was James.
I gave him a look. He had it coming, although maybe now he didn't exactly deserve it so much.
"Okay, James, this is The Next One. There! You happy?"
A pause. Then all of a sudden, we both just crack up.
When I finally hung up the line, I think he was starting to believe that he could outlive his profile. I was thinking that, too.
comments and/or criticism most welcome, and appreciated....
