Tonight we continue with Part Two, Pioneers and Explorers. At this point we've met all three of our space twins: Ozzie, Shamiso, and Young-Min Jo. We've also learned how Kelvin (with a little help from his new friends Helga and Steffen - not to mention an outstanding effort from his old pal B.J.) has made just the right connection in order to get himself selected to the crew. That is, if he can get clean and pass the drug test. Not to mention getting himself back into shape ... and passing the entrance exam.
Meanwhile, there is something very few people know about the maiden voyage of the Santa Maria. Only top level scientists within the upper echelon of Space Programme - and barely a handful of high level officials within the government itself - have been informed. An exciting development within the world of science will soon alter the average person's understanding of long-distance space travel; and with it mankind’s potential for eventually conquering and settling the galaxy.
Tonight we continue with Part Two, Pioneers and Explorers. At this point we've met all three of our space twins: Ozzie, Shamiso, and Young-Min Jo. We've also learned how Kelvin (with a little help from his new friends Helga and Steffen - not to mention an outstanding effort from his old pal B.J.) has made just the right connection in order to get himself selected to the crew. That is, if he can get clean and pass the drug test. Not to mention getting himself back into shape ... and passing the entrance exam.
Meanwhile, there is something very few people know about the maiden voyage of the Santa Maria. Only top level scientists within the upper echelon of Space Programme - and barely a handful of high level officials within the government itself - have been informed. An exciting development within the world of science will soon alter the average person's understanding of long-distance space travel; and with it mankind’s potential for eventually conquering and settling the galaxy.
Hello, and welcome back to Twin Paradox. I'm King Everett Medlin and what you're hearing is a SciFi trilogy I wrote four years ago under the pseudonym Purple Hazel. Twin Paradox follows my first podcast series entitled Deathwalker Colony, which is now a full length novel available for purchase on Amazon. It's on sale today in E-book format, as well as the first two books in the Rijel 12 Series, The Rise of New Australia and Return of Anarchy.
Tonight we continue with Part 2: Pioneers and Explorers. At this point, we've met all three of our space twins: Ozzie, Shamiso, and Young-Min Jo. We've also learned how Kelvin - with a little help from his good friends Helga and Steffen - not to mention an outstanding effort from his old pal B.J. - has made just the right connection at Space Programme in order to get himself selected to the crew. That is, if he can get clean and pass the drug test, naturally. Not to mention getting himself back into shape ... and passing the entrance exam.
Twin Paradox is a SciFi series encompassing three full length novels; all of which will be read in their entirety during the coming weeks. You can go online and download the E-books ... or if you prefer, tune in each week and listen to me read them to you. Will Kelvin make it onto the crew? Let's find out.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Twin Paradox, Part Two: Pioneers and Explorers. Chapter Nine, Non Mais Allô Quoi ....
Unbeknownst to the public, there was something very few people knew about the maiden voyage of the Santa Maria. In fact, if Steffen and Helga Schwarz had known of this they would have gladly told Kelvin and B.J. all about it. Kelvin would have been thrilled too! But reality was that only top level scientists within the upper echelon of Space Programme - and barely a handful of high level officials within the government itself - had been informed up to this point. It wasn’t discussed openly outside top-secret closed door meetings.
The higher-ups over at Space Programme weren’t quite ready to reveal it just yet. But a new and exciting development within the world of science was about to surface which would change practically everything about the average person's understanding of long-distance space travel; and with it mankind’s potential for eventually conquering and settling the galaxy.
Among the things folks did know however was that cryopreservation had come a long way since its infancy back in the mid-20th century, when humans had to have been pronounced dead before they could be “frozen”. Cryonics had by now evolved into a sophisticated science, involving cryoprotectants injected into the bloodstream which would prevent ice formation during preservation. These functioned by lowering transition temperature of blood cells and tissues, also forming hydrogen bonds with biological molecules while water molecules were displaced during the process. Because of this, cryoprotectants would replace water molecules and the biological material within the human body would maintain structure and function. In this cryptobiotic state all metabolic processes would cease, preventing development, repair, or reproduction. Thus, humans preserved in this “stasis” would not age a day during flight. This fact about the mission was already widely known. The media had covered it extensively.
It was also understood that during the mission the crew of Santa Maria - expected to be numbering 150 at the time of launch - would be divided into an Away Team and a Return Team, with another fifty slated for the task of remaining behind to colonize the surface. One hundred crew members would be assigned to the Away Team, just like Steffen had said. The other hundred would be frozen during the voyage to Kapteyn B, with fifty of these forming the Return Team and charged with putting the original Away Team into stasis until the ship returned safely to Earth.
Technically this would require 14.2 Earth years to travel out there, and the same amount of time to make the journey home. That said, pretty much anyone following the story knew by now that during the voyage the Away Team would experience time differently than people back on earth, aging at half the rate of Earth-bound humans. Such information had been disseminated by the media. Adding in about a year to set up and construct a colony for the exploration and exploitation of the planet - including the time necessary to assemble a massive solar laser capable of activating the Star Shot system on the Santa Maria - would mean 29+ years would have passed by on Earth, with transmissions sent from Kapteyn B taking 12.8 years to be received.
The media reported that the crew traveling to and from Kapteyn B would only age about eight years biologically, give or take a month or two. This would occur because all of them, including the brave new colonists remaining on the surface, would be cryogenically frozen for one full leg of the flight. Those eventually chosen for the mission could therefore figure on returning to Earth not even a decade older, while their friends and family back home would have aged well over twenty-nine years (29.44 to be exact).
That’s what they thought they knew, anyway. In truth, the geniuses over at GU Space Programme had a much better idea in mind.
********
Sure enough, Kelvin was chosen for the mission and was later slated to join the Away Team - upon Steinhart Stehter’s recommendation. Steffen Schwarz helped out as best he could, by seeing to it that Kelvin’s application and letter of reference from Herr Stehter made it to the “top of the stack” whenever the selection team logged on during the day to consider candidates. For weeks, he sorted and re-sorted the database so that Kelvin’s file would appear in their queue. One by one the selectors could either approve him, reject him, or pass over his application until they were ready for new placements within the crew’s available positions. The trick, Steffen knew, was to keep Kelvin's name at the top of their queue each morning until he got picked. That’s about all he could do really. As for the selectors themselves? No one was to ever know their true identities.
Of course most everyone in Steffen’s section thought they knew who the selectors were. Rumors of who was and who wasn’t persisted for months right up to launch date. But eventually Kelvin made the cut, and the delighted young fellow from Virginia was informed by text one morning right as he awakened in the corporate dormitory back at Magellan Aerospace. He ran screaming down the hallway, banging on doors to let everyone know. By the time he got to B.J.’s room she was already at her door, standing there in peppermint-striped panties and a University of Colorado hooded sweater congratulating him, then hugging him around his neck. In her mind, he’d earned it. Which he had.
All his hard work, after they’d returned from Darmstadt, had ultimately paid off. It had been quite an effort! Thirty long days of sobriety he’d endured. Thirty days involving three-a-day workout sessions in order to get back in shape. Thirty days without sex. Thirty days of high vegetable protein meals and drinking gallons of mineral water to flush out toxins. He had done everything he could to pass the rigorous physical fitness exam he’d been told about – as well as the medical testing he knew they’d put him through. Yet throughout his arduous training it had been B.J. right there (most of the time anyway) goading him on like she was a one-woman fan club.
“Run; you wuss!” she’d shout at him during wind sprints - or when he’d run the steps over at Lamport Field. She’d locate herself somewhere in the stadium nearby and taunt him mercilessly from up in the bleachers. She really pushed him hard. Cheered for him, jeered at him; drove him crazy more often than not. And just to show her support (on top of everything else) she also went completely sober for the whole month he trained! Didn’t drink or smoke dope. She cleaned up, ate better; started feeling rejuvenated as the weeks passed. Her loyalty to her friend and dedication to his success was duly appreciated too. Kelvin regularly sent messages via the macronet back to Steinhart in Germany about his training regimen and at every opportunity told him all about B.J.’s efforts.
B.J. even joined in for one of his three daily workout sessions - just for fun. Before heading off to work at Magellan, she’d take the train with him from Mississauga and work out with Kelvin and his personal trainer. Got her legs in spectacular shape. Got her body all wiry and fit. She looked incredible by the end of the month, just like Kelvin did. And when she got the call (from a still-grateful Captain Stehter back in Germany) encouraging her to apply, she went online and completed the application to join Space Programme. She thought it was more of a joke than anything else at the time and told Kelvin so, assuring him she was merely going along with Steinhart’s instructions (“because he was so sweet to me,” as she put it).
But gradually … as Kelvin’s enthusiasm for making the final cut started inspiring her … she began accompanying him during the evenings for the more brutal nightly sessions. “The Grinder” is what their trainer liked to call it. This one-hour ordeal started promptly at 20:00 hours and was specifically designed to cross-train their bodies (and minds) into that of modern-day warriors. It was grueling and emotionally draining – focused specifically on toughening them up in both body and spirit. They suffered through it together.
“I’m doing this for you, asshole!” she’d torment him breathlessly, whenever they were struggling through drills. “You know that right?”
Kelvin by way of comparison was all business during workouts, especially as the month progressed. This was the first time in six years he’d been in tip-top shape and as his body changed into that of a blonde Adonis with sinewy biceps, thicker calves, and bulging pectorals, he transformed emotionally into a young man she hardly knew anymore. And yet, B.J. had to admit, she kind of liked this new Kelvin!
Even when the testing was completed (a team of selectors flew to Toronto to examine them both shortly after B.J. applied), Kelvin remained a changed man. In fact, only after hearing the delightful news that he’d been chosen, did he finally relent and join B.J. in a ceremonial bong hit. He stopped however; after only two feeble drags off the purple hand-blown glass contraption smuggled into Canada by B.J. after college. To everyone’s surprise he then waved them off the next time the bong was passed to him.
“Nah. I gotta back off this shit, guys,” he said, causing Robin to chuckle sarcastically.
“Niggah please. Really?” taunted the transgender, befuddled by his young friend’s abstinence. B.J. jumped in as well.
“Still turning over a new leaf, are we?”
She respected his decision nonetheless.
Then, not to be outdone, and to the surprise of everyone there, she would subsequently match her best friend’s determination by bravely choosing to go straight, this time permanently. Neither Günther nor Robin could believe it! She wasn’t quite sure herself. She just up and quit smoking pot for good that day. It was a watershed moment.
“Well then … you know what asshole?” she retorted, only half-jokingly, “Fuck it. I’m done with it too. Robin, take it … I’m passing the torch on to you honey. It’s yours.” She then handed the bong over to a shocked and confused Robin who took it from her, shaking his head sadly.
“Shit … you mutha fuckas are serious, ain’t ya?” he remarked. “You’re really goin’ straight, the both of you.”
B.J. smiled kindly and said, “Yep. We are. Both of us.” Kelvin admonished her for doing such a thing, temporarily reverting to his old self.
“Wait, wait … dude … that ain’t necessary. Go ahead ‘n have fun. Get high if you want. Fuck if I care. It’s just that they got plans for this ‘ole Southern boy, ya’ know? I better stay clean.”
B.J. couldn’t help but see how much Kelvin had changed. He had a purpose and a direction in his life. Same dashing, handsome young man. Same golden-haired hunk she’d come to know. Only now he was clearly a new person. Dedicated to becoming something great. Determined to make history. It impressed her, and within her own self she suddenly saw a few things that could stand improvement. The thought now occurred to her: maybe she could better herself as well and follow Kelvin’s example (however absurd that would have sounded only months earlier). Maybe it was time for this free-living, fun-loving gal to put down the bong and reevaluate. Reinvent herself perhaps.
“I’m serious guys. I’m givin’ it up too,” she confirmed. “Marijuana, I mean. I think I’m gonna put it down for a while.” They could see it in her eyes what she really meant. She was quitting for good.
After that exchange Robin and Günther kept the bong out of the breakroom and supported their friends’ sobriety by concealing their indulgences whenever in Kelvin’s or B.J.’s presence. And by sheer coincidence it wasn’t long after that – about a week after Kelvin was selected - that B.J. (Ariel as they would later address her at Space Programme) got the early morning text from Steinhart back in Germany. He was transmitting a message telling her to “watch for a letter coming very soon”. He also alerted her that he had “reliable information” that she could expect a “pleasant surprise” arriving in her electronic mail. He was right. It was later that same day when she too got an official transmission from Space Programme headquarters in Darmstadt. This is what it said:
“You have been ordered by the Global Alliance of Nations to report to Mission Control in Florida, North America, at 08:00 on the 29 November, 2086.”
That’s how it began. It would be the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in America. B.J. was floored.
“Well, how do ya’ like that?” she mused, as she sat alone reading her orders. In less than a year, she and her buddy Kelvin had gone from corporate lackeys and part-time stoners to new selectees for the crew on board a galactic exploration ship. How could it have come to this? Either way, she had no choice - the transmission from Space Programme was abundantly clear. Applying to Space Programme had been optional - defying orders from an agency of the Global Union was not. "Guess I'd better call mom and dad. Looks like their baby girl is goin' into space," she sighed.
What an amazing ride! They’d all sat together in that musty-smelling common room only months earlier – just like they’d done a hundred times before - and dreamed up a scheme to get Kelvin chosen by the selectors. They’d gotten high on weed and playfully conspired with each other to apply a silly 175-year-old physics theory to a modern experiment using live humans. Only Kelvin was serious about it at the time. And yet, using the connection with Günther’s father, they had drawn the attention of Space Programme itself. A lucky break along the way, getting to meet the future captain of the Away Team (not to mention some skillful manipulation on the part of B.J.); now they were both going to be bona fide “astronauts”. Their whole lives were about to change.
Günther was not selected. Didn’t even apply. His father wouldn’t allow it. Robin of course had no interest whatsoever. It was just Kelvin and B.J. who’d be on that ship, with that brave crew, making history together as crewmembers on the maiden voyage of the Santa Maria. She had to hand it to him. Kelvin had made it all happen – with a little help (actually a lot of help) from Helga and Steffen Schwarz. Today working stiffs at Magellan Aerospace; unknowns in a vast world of Eight-to-Fivers, people you’d pass by on the street and never know their names. But tomorrow? Everything would be different. The eyes of the entire world would soon be upon them.
********
During this time, the three twins selected by Helga and her colleagues over at Space Programme, enjoyed a veritable fantasy world filled with delightful experiences. Given VIP passes to “Disney Universe” just outside Orlando – a network of amusement parks that now spanned an area the size of Orlando itself – they saw for the first time a world they’d never known.
Their “free day”, provided by and supervised by their instructors, was most impressionable. This was the life of the elite. The children of government employees, successful entrepreneurs, or folks who’d saved up all year long to afford taking their families there. Now the twins could finally “see how the other half lived”. Bitchy, self-entitled kids could be seen slogging through the Florida humidity that summer as launch date approached. With hundreds of overheated rich kids whining to their parents in nine different languages, the three exceptional children got to view besieged moms and dads lose their minds from time to time, all the while longing for being able to have just what those ungrateful children seemed to be so jaded with. In Young-Min’s case he’d never known his parents. Didn’t recall coming to Toronto with them ten years ago. Oswaldo couldn’t remember his “Mamá” either and had never met his own father. He and Práxido had been taken from their mother when they were only two.
Shamiso however recalled hers vividly, and wept periodically as she and the other two ten-year-olds strolled through the assorted parks, rode the rides, and embraced the sheer magic of the place. Disney Universe was a far cry from her dreary orphanage in London. Almost surreal; even if it was at times depressing. These children she saw; griping about the heat, sweating in the summer sun ... they had something she’d never have: a real family. As for her only sibling, Shamiso was about to leave Earth and not see Rudo for many long years. That’s what the scientists had told her.
Maybe someday, she hoped, her sister Rudo would track down their “Amai” (mother in their native Shona) and forgive her. Tell her they were alright. Tell her they loved her. Shamiso believed she’d be nearly eighteen when she returned; while Rudo would be pushing 39. Their mother would likely be old and feeble by then. And, in that regard, the same thing would occur with her new crewmates’ families, friends, sweethearts, and former co-workers. They’d “age” only eight years biologically: fourteen years in space, yet advancing at only 50% the rate of their fellow Earthlings (not counting one full year setting to work building the colony, of course). Then those from the Away Team would be frozen in stasis for the return voyage.
That was how she and her fellow crewmates understood it, that is. Reality was to be something quite different, but Space Programme scientists had kept this secret from them. They spent hours in classrooms those three, studying college-level courses including chemistry, physics, and aeronautics. Played on the beach at low tide whenever the instructor assigned to them for the day let them out early. Shamiso, Oswaldo, and Young-Min became good friends during those weeks of intense study, even joined in with adult classes for newly selected crewmembers learning the design of the craft and their potential functions onboard.
B.J. and Kelvin were in some of those classes with them! And when Kelvin was struggling with chemistry or stuck on a physics problem, it was Young-Min and Shamiso who were occasionally able to bail him out. B.J. was amazing at math, so she contributed whenever she could, yet typically focused on young Oswaldo who already looked fifteen and was as tall as most of the female crewmembers! Fooled more than a few of them at times, he did.
The demographics of the new selectees were quite impressive. Over half were male, due to the requirements of the Away Team’s mission which became revealed as launch day approached. In regard to the Away Team in particular, it was predominantly male (71 out of 100). They hailed from around the globe: South Africans, Brits, Brazilians, Indians, Argentines, a few from Zimbabwe, several Chinese, a number of Germans and French, a couple of Belgians, some Japanese, a Russian or two; and quite a few Americans and Canadians to boot. Everyone in the group was “top shelf”: highly-educated, accomplished, and talented. This became apparent within a day or two.
But B.J. couldn’t help notice something peculiar: how most of the Return Team crewmembers were female. Well over sixty percent she calculated. She wondered if Steinhart might have had a hand in this. Careful not to make waves she discussed this one evening with her old friend Kelvin in private.
“Thirty-one women to nineteen men?” she observed. It was during that first week of training. “Come on. You know that can’t be a coincidence.” To this Kelvin smirked and shook his head dismissively.
“Who knows, Beej,” he replied. She’d expected more out of him at the time. Amazingly, the gender discrepancy didn’t seem to bother him (even if it should have). The old Kelvin would have been royally pissed off, finding out that men outnumbered women three to one on the Away Team while on the Return Team it was the complete opposite. But he was not. "I guess they have their reasons," he snorted, thus ending the conversation.
My, how things had changed! To her surprise she also observed over the next few weeks how Kelvin was remarkably chaste during all this condensed classwork and rigorous preparation. Dated a gal for a time, then the relationship faded as more and more challenging courses followed the core curriculum. Many were of an athletic, strenuous nature (just like Steinhart had forewarned), driving a determined Kelvin to best everyone he could at every task requiring sheer brawn or lightning-quick reactions. He was often the “winner” or achieved the highest rating when put through arduous tasks like repairing hull damage with welding torches inside “The Programme’s” massive zero gravity chamber out in Brook Park, Ohio. The Away Team were flown there for a day and Kelvin excelled in most drills.
That said, B.J. did remarkably well too – at suppressing her hyperactive libido that is – and finished her exams or field tests with flying colors. Perhaps she was growing up a bit, she mused to herself once or twice, as she quickly taught herself to channel her pent-up sex drive into other, more constructive activities.
Steinhart was around the Cape quite often naturally. He took her out on the town over in Cocoa, Florida whenever the Return Team was given “shore leave” and there they'd grab a hotel room for the night. It was Steinhart who got her selected, she surmised, and as expected he did indeed get chosen captain of the Santa Maria’s return voyage. Thus it became pretty obvious that his young love interest had been “moved up” for consideration primarily because of his desire to have an intimate companion available for the flight home. This was easy to rationalize.
“Hell … who can blame him … shit, I can’t,” remarked B.J. when Kelvin in a rare moment of candor pointed this out one afternoon. “When I wake up on Kapteyn B, I sure as hell know what I’m gonna be needin’. First thing I’m gonna be lookin' for is some hot sex.”
A humored Kelvin, for once letting his guard down, then commented “After breakfast and a hot shower, that is. Right, Beej?” B.J. just crinkled up her nose and shrugged, forming a naughty grin.
“Not if the good captain is already awake. If he’s up and about; I’ll never even get to go pee. The guy’s an animal.” To this her old friend cackled loudly, just like he used to before he’d gotten so serious about getting chosen for the mission.
Yes, this was a rare occurrence for Kelvin, lately the professional /dedicated type. He’d lighten up on occasion of course - everyone had to from time to time. Go blow off some steam. Get really drunk out on Cocoa Beach. But Kelvin had bigger plans. He knew those eggheads and science nerds, now turned scientists and astronauts, would excel in every category requiring a deep understanding of mathematics, chemistry, or physics. He could keep up with them to a degree, especially in aeronautical engineering (which he’d technically majored in back at MIT). However, it was vital that he surpass his colleagues – all in their twenties or early thirties due to the duration of the voyage – in every other way possible, and this he sincerely believed he could do. Subsequently the newly chosen captain of Away Team, a Brit named Thomas Berwick, took notice of the young man. He saw the effort. Saw the mental focus he’d been told to expect by his counterpart Captain Stehter whenever describing the brash American. He could see the championship athlete within and was impressed. He told others about this as well.
“That’s a First Mate in the making right there,” he told his colleagues. “Too bad he’s a little slow on the uptake with all that electrical engineering they’re studying.”
That was indeed Kelvin’s Achilles Heel, no matter how B.J. and her “gal pals” from the Return Team tried tutoring him. Captain Berwick knew full well that knowing the ins and outs of the craft and all its functions and vulnerabilities was going to be crucial. For there was new information being revealed every day to the men and women preparing for the journey to Kapteyn B. It wasn’t just going to be a mission to land on an alien planet and colonize it, like they’d thought. It was much more than that. They were actually going to “prepare the field” so to speak by laying a 1.3 quadrillion-kilometer flight path for something even bigger to follow! This “path”, as they’d soon learn, would be made up of non-baryonic matter conversion pods capable of “fueling” a future supply vessel being designed at this very moment by astronautical engineers back in Noordwijk. It was in class one day when they found out, both to their surprise and their delight. The foundation was already being laid for the launching of a much larger craft capable of traveling at upwards of ten times the speed of light. When finished, they were told, mankind would then be able to fly nearly thirteen light years across space to Kapteyn B … in a little over thirteen months.
That was a very exciting day for the trainees when they finally learned of it. Space Programme had been carefully concealing this secret project from the public and there was good reason in doing so. To be fair, the very idea of traveling faster than the speed of light had ALWAYS been believed to be scientifically impossible. Most scientists had never believed it could be done. Luckily one individual, many years earlier, did.
It had been a pipe dream at best, the concept of cruising at multiples of the speed of light. “ADM”, or Alcubierre Drive Metric was once a mere speculative theory in which a spacecraft might reach faster-than-light speed travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of a vacuum (e.g., negative mass) could be created. The concept merely required exotic matter or basically some form of non-baryonic matter not made up of protons and neutrons. That was one of the big problems with it anyway. Such matter that deviated from the norm had always been proposed to exist out in space, but almost a century earlier, Professor Miguel Alcubierre suggested using a Casimir vacuum to fulfill the negative-energy requirement for his controversial Alcubierre Drive to function properly. Placing ordinary matter under high pressure, he’d stated many years ago, might result in dramatic changes in their physical and chemical properties. A Casimir vacuum might accomplish such a task.
The “Drive Metric”, as it came to be called, would cause a “warp bubble” to appear suddenly in flat space time then move away at superluminal speed. Within the interior of this “bubble” inhabitants would sense no acceleration. Because objects and people inside the bubble would not be moving faster than light, the mathematical formulation stood consistent with the laws of relativity. These laws established by Albert Einstein maintained that an object of any mass cannot reach or surpass the speed of light. But with ADM, conventional relativistic effects like time dilation would now simply no longer apply … not when compared to conventional motion at ninety percent of the speed of light.
Over ninety years had passed since this revolutionary concept was created, with decades of research into both this and other alternatives being considered. From this, scientists arrived at the irrefutable conclusion that ADM technology must be the best solution. What’s more they would have about 14 years to perfect its application! Scientists had secretly begun work on it in years prior and a blueprint for creating a craft big enough and advanced enough was probably less than ten years away. Naturally this posed a bit of a quandary to the young scientists and engineers that day in class when they were informed.
“So then why are we taking the slow lane to “B”, queried Kelvin, using the popular nickname for Kapteyn B. “Why don’t we just use this ADM thing and arrive there in thirteen months?” By now he’d won over most everyone in the Away Team section and had stepped up to speak for them on many an occasion – especially when it came to challenging classroom instructors. Many of his more timid colleagues appreciated a brave leader like him to represent them as a unified group whenever they needed someone to be their “voice”.
The reason given for this was merely because for a warp bubble to be created it would first require someone had already begun work on “warping” space from Earth all the way to its destination. Eighty-seven years ago, Serguei Krasnikov had proposed that if exotic matter like tachyonic particles could not be “found” in space then the solution was simply for objects arranged along the path of the vessel to be placed in such a way that the required “field” would be created. Thus … and this was the key … an ADM vessel could only travel routes that, just like with the old transcontinental railroad of 19th century America, would first have to be equipped with the necessary infrastructure.
At the time, sitting in on the lecture was Young-Min Jo, and when this was detailed, it immediately made sense to him. Coolly, and with the maturity of a grown man, the bright ten-year-old stated “and that’s where we come in, right?” Chuckling, their instructor raised up her eyebrows and replied “Precisely.”
“The crew existing inside the bubble are disconnected basically … and thus cannot carry out actions outside of it,” clarified the instructor. “The engineers on board this newly proposed vessel cannot place infrastructure out ahead of the bubble while in motion, you see?” She then rose from her desk and added bluntly, “Think of it like this, students: crew members on an ADM ship cannot control, cannot steer, cannot even stop the ship until it has completed a path already programmed into the ship’s computers. Any mistake made in constructing their route would thus send them off into unknown space; and likely lost for many, many years with only their fusion reactor to propel them at sub-light speed. It will be your jobs to create this “railroad” and see to it everything is in place. Clear it up any?”
At that point a lone voice out in the audience of trainees mimicked a train whistle sound (“choo-choo”) and everyone broke up laughing.
“I believe we can now grasp your train of thought,” quipped another, and this elicited a few groans.
Nevertheless, the young crewmen and women of the Away Team got the point that day. The real reason they numbered twice as many as the Return Team was quite obvious now. They were being charged with paving the way for a resupply ship with additional materials and settlers to land on Kapteyn B roughly two years after the soon-to-be obsolete Santa Maria had departed the new colony.
So this begged an even bigger question, and by the time the crews from both teams had assembled in the mess hall for evening chow, many were already voicing it. Could the “resupply ship” return to Earth in the same amount of time? Of course it could, following the same route home, and everyone seemed to agree with that. Same thing with electronic transmissions. These could be sent at post-light speed using the same technology and inform Earth that the flight path had been completed.
“Well then … does that mean they’ll intercept us on the way back? Or can they I mean?” asked B.J. to a group of excited female colleagues. She was quite popular among the women of Return Team and loved to shock them with her wild stories from college, as well as her amorous adventures with men she’d met in Toronto.
“Absolutely!” replied one of her brainy friends.
Another one added, “It would merely mean programming their destination to coincide with an acceptable rendezvous point … but I can’t see why not." Hearing this, B.J. began calculating equations in her mind.
“Okay then, let’s see … we arrive at Kapteyn B in 14.2 Earth years … supply ship leaves Earth ... what, say two years later ... after receiving our transmission that the line is nearing completion?” She then craned her head back like she always did when calculating something in her head. “Arrives in 1.3 years ... lands … offloads more settlers, offloads supplies, ‘n whatever else it does….” Her bright crewmates started nodding and murmuring affirmation. “Then,” she continued, “supply ship departs Kapteyn B - say one year later just for the sake of argument - and intercepts Santa Maria at …ummmm.” Suddenly one of the gorgeous Brazilian ladies from her team finished her sentence.
“About four light years into the return voyage, would be my guess,” she said. This caused more than a few excited whoops and whistles from the other women at their table. That’s when a young Belgian woman from the team quipped, “Non mais allo quoi! Do you see what ziss means? We could be home in like … 5 years.” B.J. then sighed, realizing she should have accepted by now that others among her crew were just as quick with mathematical calculations as she was. Not that it quelled her enthusiasm.
“Heck yeah, ladies - five Earth years – and guess what? We’ll all still be in our early thirties!” exclaimed the brunette.
The women cooed exuberantly. A nearby table with some male crew members had overheard this and joined in with the discussion. An even larger crowd began to form around them.
“Seriously?” said one.
“Five years?” clarified another. “Cool! That means my ex-girlfriend will only be … uh … forty-four.”
One of his table mates then explained how the woman had dumped him soon after he got selected to Space Programme. “Wasn’t his idea,” the fellow chortled.
To this, B.J. laughed some more then said, “Well dude, you’ll have to go look her up again once we get back, won't ya'? Statistically speaking, given the latest data on the longevity of marriages, she’ll most likely have been married and divorced by then.”
This concludes tonight's podcast of Twin Paradox Book One, Chapter Nine: Non Mais Allô Quoi. I hope you enjoyed it. Watch for episode ten; which I'll be posting very soon.
I wrote Twin Paradox books one, two, and three, four years ago under the pseudonym Purple Hazel; and each book in the trilogy is organized into parts. What you've just heard is the last chapter of Part Two: Pioneers and Explorers. The entire trilogy can be found by googling Twin Paradox ... Purple Hazel. Buy it today on Amazon; or if you prefer, simply listen to me reading all three books.
Also, and don't forget, my latest full-length novel ... Deathwalker Colony ... is available right now in E-book format and can be downloaded today on Amazon.com, along with the first two books in the Rijel 12 Series, The Rise of New Australia and Return of Anarchy. A link to these can be found in the transcript for this episode.
I'm King Everett Medlin. Thanks for tuning in.
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