Tonight we continue with Part Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Ensign Gary Orem is called upon; as well as others considered capable of resolving the issue with the missing matter pod. Gary programs the message pods which will alert the Nautilus; should her crew and captain ever find them, with news as to what has actually happened.
Meanwhile, B.J. brings in a team of star recruits in order to aid her in determining what might have happened to the missing device, as well as their chances of linking up with Nautilus in the year 2107. If it works; it will mean returning to Earth in the year 2109.
If it works, that is.
Tonight we continue with Part Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Ensign Gary Orem is called upon; as well as others considered capable of resolving the issue with the missing matter pod. Gary programs the message pods which will alert the Nautilus; should her crew and captain ever find them, with news as to what has actually happened.
Meanwhile, B.J. brings in a team of star recruits in order to aid her in determining what might have happened to the missing device, as well as their chances of linking up with Nautilus in the year 2107. If it works; it will mean returning to Earth in the year 2109.
If it works, that is.
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. Go online and check it out! 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 Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Ensign Gary Orem is called upon; as well as others considered most capable of resolving the issue with the missing matter pod. Gary programs the message pods which will alert the Nautilus, should her crew and captain find them, with news as to what has actually happened. Meanwhile, B.J. brings in a team of star recruits in order to aid her in determining what might have happened to the missing device, as well as their chances of linking up with Nautilus in the year 2107. If it works; it will mean returning to Earth in the year 2109. If it works, that is.
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 and listen to me read them to you.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Twin Paradox, Part Four: Heroes and Scapegoats. Chapter Twenty-two, Star Babes....
Ultimately three pods would be sent out, each with the same or similar message. The pair of astronomers working with B.J. projected the possible flight path of any interstellar object flying through the matter device line, then message pods were prepared for launch, with Ensign Gary Orem programming them. The opportunity to finally serve the mission’s objectives was just the beginning of what seemed to be the man’s turnaround. He proved to be quite dedicated and determined once given an important task to perform. Ozzie noted in his personnel file just how impressed he was. He also flat out told him so.
“Fine job Ensign. Couldn’t have pulled it off without you,” he said to the big fellow (one of the few who stood eye-to-eye with him). Gary nodded and smiled with satisfaction, then actually saluted Lt. Guerrero properly. That was a first. Usually he’d been a sloppy, unkempt “fuck-up” in the past. Now he was for the first time an asset. Ozzie found he never had to “bitch him out” – not once during the whole process.
Meanwhile, B.J. and her team of experts were just as dedicated and determined. It was in a sense what they lived for and they promptly rose to the occasion. Solving the mystery of what might be a viable cause for the disappearance of the matter pod was for a time, like a true crime thriller. One by one they examined each option. Elena Durrer, the bookish young Swiss woman from Cartography, pored over information left behind by her predecessor on the Away Team and advanced several theories. "Could it be something that no one could even see? Like a black hole for instance?," asked Young-Min Jo, the day following the disaster. It was not an absurd question.
“Black holes can indeed move through space,” answered Elena. “True, the really massive black holes at the centers of galaxies will remain in place unless something cataclysmic occurs, but much smaller black holes … created from the collapse of dying stars … they can move fairly quickly. This is due to them being propelled by their own original explosions. Collision with another galaxy, in the case of CID-42 … that’s one in particular that we already know of.”
B.J. knew immediately that she’d chosen well. Ensign Durrer was like an encyclopedia pertaining to celestial events. Natural phenomena that might have seemed unexplainable or impossible to grasp, fazed her not in the slightest. She could answer the most difficult questions and with a little patience on B.J.’s part, she too could understand the woman’s replies. It certainly was fascinating listening to her.
"Rapidly moving black holes streaking through space would be extremely difficult to detect, because encounters with other objects – due to the sheer size of space – would be rare at best," she would go on to explain. "What’s more, only the most gigantic of stars can produce black holes. No need to worry about a wandering black hole heading through the area in question however; not according to my research. It is my belief that this form of space anomaly should be eliminated as a potential cause.”
The British astronomy whiz she’d recruited, Margo Ebunoluwa, thought similarly.
“I tend to agree with my colleague … no chance of meeting up with one of those, Lieutenant. They don’t go flying across space eating up planets and solar systems like in science fiction novels,” she observed. “But let’s not eliminate asteroids – even a very small one – as the culprit.” Margo proceeded to point out that asteroids move due to forces of gravity. They move through space and continue to move until acted upon by a competing force. They’re formed from something really, really big … like an imploding star, as in the case of a supernova. Dust clouds from the explosion collect, combine, stick together, and as they move through space, essentially nothing can stop them. The only force that can affect them is gravity, which pulls on them, you see?” When she said that, she pressed her fingers together and yanked them downward to demonstrate her meaning. “So they generally move in orbits. That’s essentially their m.o."
"Which makes it unlikely we'd see one out here in deep space, so far from the nearest star system," observed Elena, and her colleague knew immediately she was right.
"Yes, I'd have to say that's logical," conceded Margo, crossing her arms. "Wouldn't see one roaming around these parts, I'd have to say.”
So were there other options to consider? B.J. figured they might as well rule out nothing. For example, "how about meteoroids?" This she posed to the two scientists.
“I don’t see that as a possibility, do you?” asked Margo. B.J. shrugged her shoulders with her eyebrows raised as if to say, “don’t look at me, Honey.” Elena was already shaking her head:
“Nein,” she replied. “Meteoroids move within solar systems … they don’t hurtle across galaxies. Most are simply debris from an asteroid belt that breaks off and penetrates a planet’s atmosphere.” This didn’t necessarily rule out meteoroids as a potential cause of the breach, but both felt it wasn’t the prime suspect.
That only left comets as a possible answer to their dilemma – that and possibly a solar flare from the nearby Kapteyn sun. Solar flares were not completely eliminated from contention; but the chances of one reaching the location of the missing matter pod was a tiny one at best. Once again, Ensign Durrer:
“Can’t see it happening – not with what I’ve studied. Nothing’s ever been confirmed in space that would lend to that conclusion."
B.J. held back a smirk. Elena sounded like a typical astronomer fielding a naïve question from an uninformed news reporter; like when they’d bring on some nerdy scientist to explain a concept that common folk wouldn’t be able to digest anyway and the poor journalist would be overwhelmed trying not to seem totally baffled.
After considering all possibilities, comets were the best option, and B.J. soon learned why. Comets can on occasion be ejected with enough speed to escape a sun’s gravitational pull. Thus that same comet will continue to fly across interstellar space until it is pulled into the gravitational “well” of yet another star, as Ensign Ebunoluwa was happy to explain.
“Say for example Machholz 1,” opined the Brit, as she sipped from a bottle of converted drinking water generated by the ship's electrolysis system. “If it were travelling at 43 kilometers per second, leaving Alpha Centauri system which is the closest to Earth, it would take about 19,000 years to get there, but it could eventually move into our solar system and become captured in our sun’s gravitational well.”
B.J. sighed. “God these bitches can talk.” Only Margo wasn't done.
“Unless it collided with something and broke apart, of course. If so, debris from it could spread across our system and particles might enter our Earth’s atmosphere. Actually, that might be our pincher right there. Might have been nothing more than a 10-meter wide object - might be even smaller, but the good news is that it most likely hit our matter pod and obliterated it. I shan’t worry that it attached to the little bugger and carried it off into oblivion. The force of impact would shatter the shell and smash it to bits. There’s little chance it would still function.” Elena agreed.
“Ja, that’s most likely what occurred, I’d wager. Chances are our poor matter device is no more.”
To be safe, as they eventually identified and tracked the debris trail that seemed to reveal the direction in which the device had been taken, a message pod was quickly launched toward that general vicinity. If the message canister did reach it, or somewhere near it, Captain Stehter could only hope that his counterpart in command of the Nautilus might intercept it, and with that information plot a course to locate the next position in the remaining pod line. Once Nautilus triangulated a course for it that is. Once they’d even figured out what the hell had happened to them! Assuming those things was at best a shot in the dark, but they had to at least try. Steinhart could only imagine the turmoil which might occur on board Nautilus when her captain and his crew discovered the mess they were in.
The second of the three message pods was then saved for when they reached the supposed location of the next matter pod. This one Young-Min Jo had also worried might have been damaged or demolished. As for B.J.’s team of “astronomer chicks” as she casually referred to them (or “star babes” as she also loved calling them), the two gals dismissed this as “highly improbable”. B.J. couldn’t resist a bit of playful sarcasm at that point – knowing her teammates wouldn’t get bent out of shape if she didn’t go too far.
“That’s astronomer-speak Lieutenant. I’ll translate: It ain’t fuckin’ likely,” commented B.J. and everyone chuckled, even the bookish Elena.
“It’ll be there, Lieutenant, don’t worry yourself,” commented Ensign Ebunoluwa to the worried young fellow, and Ensign Durrer nodded in confirmation.
“Ja … you’ll find it, I’m sure. This random debris we are speaking of was not so big as to cover an area so large as a half a light year. Comet Hyakutake’s tail only stretches out 500 million kilometers and that’s the largest ever recorded.”
To this Margo Ebunoluwa added, “Right; what she said. We’ll be fine Lieutenant. You can come up for air.”
********
Finally, the third message pod was prepared for launch. Once again Gary Orem assisted in programming the destination and helped Lt. Guerrero with the task of firing it toward Earth. This pod contained essentially the same information, with specific messages to the folks back at Space Programme, along with all they thought they knew about the cause of the disaster. It would take nearly a year to reach Mission Control, and when it arrived, it would soberly explain their rapidly-compiled conclusions: "Interstellar debris, likely thrown off a speeding comet, made its way across the path of the matter pod line and collided with one of them, just as Santa Maria was approaching its anticipated rendezvous point with the Nautilus." As to whether the missing matter pod might still be functioning and derail the Nautilus from her course, their theory was this was “doubtful”. Just in case they’d assumed incorrectly, "a message pod has been sent toward its projected location as a precaution," the captain noted in his report. "As for our own situation," as Captain Stehter further stated in his recorded transmission, "Santa Maria will be proceeding toward Earth as before, praying for the safety and success of Nautilus and her crew, and projecting new coordinates for a possible intercept."
After that, came the tricky part. B.J. was called upon to do her own little bit of magic. It was up to her to calculate a possible link-up point; and she based this on the assumption that the missing matter pod had been destroyed. She merely calculated a probable intersection of the two ships during the seventh light year of Santa Maria’s anticipated route home. This proved to be challenging, what with so many variables to consider, but B.J. never doubted it could be done. She worked up the numbers - for the most part in her head - then checked her math using the ship’s computer. Satisfied, she presented her results.
“It’s nothing but a kick ass algebra problem really,” she boasted. "Based on what we know about the auxiliary propulsion system on the Nautilus, it'll take two and a half years for them to travel to the next expected location. After that her captain should be able to reactivate its ADM Drive and fly at ten times the speed of light, same as before, right? She paused for a reaction. "Well then, during the time they're struggling to get back on track, Santa Maria will have covered about 2.25 light years. That's 'cause we never stop. Based on that, we could reach light year six quite easily while they're still catching up to us."
From there she deduced that Nautilus, having found their message and engaging its warp drive, would "scoot past Santa Maria, once again flying with the pod line to its port side to avoid a collision, and reach light year six in roughly two months and twelve days." It could reach light year seven in three months and 18 days using the same equation, so that location was where she concluded they should meet up. Allowing for any delays or setbacks, this gave both ships "plenty of wiggle room." Thus, light year seven was the best choice for intercept.
“Year seven, Captain,” she stated proudly. “We can meet up there and fly home with our new friends in about … oh … eight months and 12 days - give or take an hour or two. What do you think?” Steinhart sighed and thanked her. It was such a longshot he couldn’t begin to picture how they’d succeed. Yet he had to admit she and her team of 'Star Babes' had gone above and beyond.
He therefore decided to include that in the second two message pods. Year seven. For the crew flying on Santa Maria at ninety percent of the speed of light, they would experience only one year, seven months and fifteen days. That wasn’t all. If B.J.’s calculations were correct – and she usually was spot on when it came to math - this would put them back home in the year 2109. News of her projections spread quickly. Many rejoiced at the news. If it worked out they’d still be home roughly six Earth years ahead of schedule.
********
Unfortunately … at the same time there were plenty who chose to take this information with a grain of salt. Preferred not to get their hopes up. Knew they might be in space for much, much longer than they were being promised – however it pained them to think it. Enthusiasm faded quickly.
Within a few weeks, people grew cynical regarding B.J.’s lofty prediction of a 2109 homecoming. No one dared to believe. Discussions of things turning out that way were rarely heard in the corridors, hallways, the Virch, or the hygiene chambers. People weren’t buying into it. In the three months that followed, the crew’s morale declined markedly. Some fell into despair. They started to worry about how dangerous their situation was. The excitement of being on a spaceship, being a space pioneer, being part of something historically significant, and being part of a team of super-talented, highly educated individuals, had worn off years before, truth be told. Now their sentiments changed to those of apprehension and paranoia. That a random event in space could alter their destinies so easily … it frightened them. They had to wonder what else could go wrong. Maybe they'd never see their homes again!
Not everyone grew disheartened. Some were more philosophical regarding their circumstances. Some found religion, and Steinhart figured this was inevitable. Perfectly natural as far as he was concerned. Few among the crew were extremely religious at the outset of the mission, but it was a fine opportunity to foster unity among the men and women on board who wanted answers, especially when science could only explain so much regarding their dilemma. Were they being punished for their wicked ways? Was this God's judgment? To Steinhart it was completely normal for those experiencing hopelessness to simply want to know “why … why us?”
He encouraged such discussions. Participated in them whenever and wherever he could. And when they gathered in groups to pray for their own as well as the safety of the poor folks onboard Nautilus, he joined in. It brought folks together and soothed their troubled souls. Knowing they were eventually going to arrive back on Earth was a key factor in this; even if a few continued to feel they may be doomed. It pulled them through nevertheless. The difference was that Santa Maria could continue at its current pace using now out-dated technology and someday get home. It didn’t need nonbaryonic matter devices to power itself. If all else failed, it would simply soldier on, year after year, until the ship made it into Earth’s orbit. Everyone basically understood this. They were, after all, scientists and engineers. But Steinhart knew from experience that desperate circumstances required strong leadership and above of all guidance from the one person they would ultimately look to for direction. If Nautilus never showed up, even at light year seven of their journey, the crew of Santa Maria would get through this. A little older maybe, their families and childhood friends having aged a few more years and more than a few already dead and buried, yet they’d get there in one piece. Steinhart had confidence in them. They were the best and brightest Earth had to offer. Question was, what could he offer in return.
That's why Captain Stehter determined that crew members should have constant access to him from that day forward - talk with him in small groups or alone whenever they needed to. He changed the way he did things as captain; was more like their father, more like their priest rather than just a superior officer. B.J. was certainly going to continue doing all she could as Communications Officer, but Steinhart wanted to be more personable than before.
So that's what he did. He would tell them, whenever they’d bemoan their predicament, awash with guilt or recriminations, “No, there’s no one to blame here. Everyone has risen to the occasion whenever called upon. We had true heroes step forward and perform magnificently, right when we needed them. Everyone has done all that can be done.” And when he’d meet with the more religious among them, regardless of denomination, Muslim as well as Christian, he’d quote Exodus 14:13. “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”
Despite all their education and regardless of what they’d been through and regardless of what they'd done, this was for many a great comfort: to hear words of hope from their captain in their hour of need ….
This concludes tonight's podcast of Twin Paradox, Chapter Twenty-two: Star Babes. I hope you enjoyed it. Watch for episode twenty-three; which I'll be posting very soon.
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.
Go online and check 'em out!
I'm King Everett Medlin. Thanks for tuning in.
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