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History of the Future

History of the Future: Installment 2

Science Fiction Serial for Wednesday 05/30/2007 Breaking the Biological Bond!

Necessity for Diet Change:
Reason #1: Our dependency on feeding from the biomass is preventing what should be a very long life span.
Reason #2: We carry a lot of pathogens that would be deadly to life forms that are not of this world.

The Liver: We have a marvelously complicated organ in our bodies that makes it possible to feed on the biological elements of Earth. Think of it, whenever you eat a piece of meat, you're also ingesting a lot of different biological matter. It is the liver that breaks down the fat, metabolizes the carbohydrates and proteins, synthesizes cholesterol, breaks down hemoglobin into metabolites, detoxifies the toxins and drugs, stores different nutrients for later use, and manufactures red blood cells in early fetal development. Yes, this wonderful organ makes it possible for us to feed on the biological bounty of Earth.

New food: Our new food would have to replace a lot of the liver products that are produced from ingesting organic food. For instance, we would no longer need fat or carbohydrates if we were to include the simple sugars that are processed from fat and carbohydrates. What would we gain? That piece of meat that we just ingested, are a lot of substances that are not wanted or needed. These would include the meat cells waste products, a lot of the fat, viral and pathogen elements, and other byproducts of the meat that we don't or can't use. Over time, we clog our arteries, over indulge in certain vitamins that can cause blood clots, and/or ingest so much toxin that the liver can no longer perform. Toxins come mostly from what we ingest, but it can also come from what we breathe in and what is transmitted to us via a bite.

Separation: Mankind will be divided over the issue. The population will be divided into 2 different camps, the traditionalist, and the adventurers. The traditionalists will follow the old ways and remain loyal to the biosphere, while the adventurers will become those who venture out into space able to live long life spans and explore our Universe. The dividing line will be absolute, because with time, Earths biosphere and its creatures will become toxic to the adventurers.

Part 2: This concludes part 2 of the series and I hope you enjoy these fanciful excursions. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events. Only time will be the true judge of all such prognostications. Part 3 of this preface will take up the terrible spiritual wars that determine the overall disposition of man and religion.

History of the Future: Installment 3

Science Fiction Serial for Friday 06/01/2007 The Spiritual Wars

The Contenders: Basically, the world at present can be divided into 3 spheres of influence: 1.) The Secularist and Atheist, 2.) The Benign Religions, and 3.) Muslim.

Secular and Atheist: These two are joined at the hip. The Secularists want total control over their domain, while Atheism protects the authority of the Secularists by denying God. Secularists see God as a competitor for being the absolute authority over humans. The Secular Elitist goal is to become the rulers of the so-called "regular folks". They put themselves in lofty positions of power. Classification: Semi-Aggressive.

The Benign Religions: This group is all religions not classified as aggressive. They do not demean other religions or use force conversions. However, all will defend themselves if pushed. Included in this group are Christians, Hindus, Buddhist, Taoist, Tribal Religions, Jews, and the many others that are willing to be tolerant of other people?s belief.

Muslims: A militant form of Judaism. Muslims surrender all power to their Mullahs. This religion has spread largely using forced conversions. It is incumbent on the Muslim Holy Men to inculcate the children about this religion. The process amounts to 'brainwashing' but the process effectively keeps control over its believers. Whether the Muslims are peaceful or not depends on a Mullah's ambition or degree of fear that others are tempting his flock. Classification: Aggressive

The War Nobody Wanted: The seeds for this war were sewn long ago in Ancient times. Hostilities deepened the cultural divide during the Crusades. Hard feelings remain even after centuries have passed. But fate has interfered in a way that has rekindled deep resentment for Westerners within the Muslim lands. Even if there wasn't a Palestinian mess, the world was headed for trouble. Beneath the sands of those deserts lies the energy that propels the Western economies, OIL.

Religion? Oil? The simplified version: The oil discoveries pleased everyone in the beginning. The West had their energy, and the East gained enormously in wealth. Marriage made in Heaven? The unforeseen events once again open up the divide between East and West. The first was the growing cultural exchange. The manufacturing economies now saw the Middle East as customers for their goods. They sold their trinkets to them with abandon. It was like a new universe to the inhabitants of Arabia and the rest of the Muslim nations. However, the Muslim purists and the Mullahs saw that the effect of Western influence was eroding their power, and they began to rebel against the West.

Token Opposition: The resistance was small in the beginning, but the cold war between the United States and Russia carried over to these oil-producing countries. Russia sought to undermine the influence of the U.S. in the region, and if successful, could crush the economies of the Western Nations. Because of the importance of maintaining the oil supply, the U.S. had to respond. As a result, the Superpowers started arming the Arabs who were under their respective spheres of influence.

Resentment for the U.S.: Russian influence was predominant in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, while the U.S. had the most influence with Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran. From the Arab perspective, the U.S.-Israeli connection hurt the U.S. The Israeli-Arab wars of 1967 and 1973 saw the U.S. take Israel's side in those wars and further seeded the resentment held by Muslims towards the U.S. Whether the cause was just or not seems to have little to do with the Arab hostility towards America. Just the presence of foreign troops in the Muslim world made the Mullahs feels threatened. Feeling their power threatened, the Mullahs began preaching their rhetoric condemning the West as defilers of their lands, and infidels.

The West: Nowhere in the democratic countries was there an answer to the agitated hatred by Muslims for the West. When the West installed Democratic Government in Iraq, it was the last straw for many Muslims. It took 7 years of Jihad to rally all of Islam to take up arms against the West. It wasn't pretty; France was one of the first Western nations to fall to the Muslims. Germany and Britain held on but just barely with the help of the U.S. Islamic Jihad was rampant in all Western nations. Russia involved herself by supplying the Muslim countries and was directly responsible for America to use Nuclear weapons on the Arabs and Russian missile sites. Nuclear exchanges devastated Iran, most of Saudi Arabia, and Russian missile sites. During the fierce activities, China decided that while the world was occupied, that they would capture Taiwan. Taiwan had nuclear secrets of their own and devastated the Chinese army in their attempt to forcefully overrun Taiwan.

In the Americas: The Muslim uprising did considerable damage in America. Thousands were killed and many thousands were wounded. Thousands of Jihadists came up from central America and up through Mexico during Mexico's war with Venezuela. These Jihadists did great harm to the civilian population until the American Military was able to restore order. America finally sealed off it's border with Mexico but not until thousands were killed. Canada also had a bad time of it with their large Muslim population.

Aftermath: Islam is crushed, crushed in a way that it can never recover. The Mullahs, who promised victory, had lost all credibility, especially in light of the millions who had sacrificed themselves to achieve it. China sued for peace with Taiwan. The only way the Chinese were going to have Taiwan was to destroy the Island, at which point it would be useless to them. So they decided that peace was the best route. Mexico finally defeated Venezuela with help from the United States.

Part 3: This concludes part 3 of a series that I hope you will enjoy. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Part 4 will finish the spiritual wars when the benign religions take on the Secularists.

History of the Future: Installment 4

Science Fiction Serial for Friday 06/01/2007 Spiritual Wars Aftermath

Islam Vanquished: The survivors of the previously Islamic countries predominantly became Christians, although some became Buddhists and Hindus. The effect on their culture was almost immediate. Their world was now optimistic rather than fatalistic. They learned fast. Peace, it was discovered, had many more rewards than what war and Jihad had brought them. It was truly a miraculous transformation. They cleaned up the mess that the war had brought them, and finally after more than a thousand years of suppression, began to truly understand what freedom was.

The United States: The war left the United States dazed and confused. The Atheists and Secularists made much of how religion had caused such mayhem. They accused the Christians of being the root cause of the war and were able to capitalize politically using their antireligious rhetoric. So it came to be that their majority was able to do away with the safeguards for religious freedom that had been a hallmark of the United States since it?s founding.

Cultural Changes: The changes were subtle at first, but became very noticeable after a decade had passed. Without the constraints of faith's incentive to live according to scripture, the population became base and selfish. It took an ever-increasing size of a police force to maintain order. Chaos was so bad that neighborhood watches had to be posted to spy on their neighbors so that mischief could be avoided. Most of the post war population was in a downward spiral. All that is, except the small enclaves of Christians who maintained their faith throughout the ordeal.

The Christians: A person couldn't help but notice these Christian enclaves. They were well kept, the people were disciplined and there was very little crime. Those who lived within the secular world marveled at the differences between the conditions that the Christians lived and that shared by the rest of the population.

Conversions: The population was attracted to these enclaves. Even the Elites who ran the Country had to admit that the Christians were far less trouble than the Non-Christians. But being paranoid about losing power meant that the ruling elites kept a weary eye on those Christian enclaves. People were joining the Christians because of the failure of Secularism to deliver on their promise of a peaceful, and honorable society. In the Secular Society, there was no reason to be a model citizen. The best a person could hope for was a mild punishment when you broke one of the many laws instituted to keep order. There were laws for everything. It came to the question of getting caught or not. In Socialism, there is no incentive for good behavior, just punishment if you are caught.

Policing the Population: Progress as a Nation was grinding to a standstill. So much of the National attention was being squandered on policing and control of the population, that meaningful advances in science and other technologies were squeezed to the point that they could no longer provide the United States with the edge in economics that had been enjoyed for so long. Internal turmoil kept the Nation in a Chaotic State. The Nation had become paranoid. So many laws were instituted to maintain control that nobody could know if he was breaking the law or not. Only when your neighbor reported that you had broken a law or you were arrested suddenly for unknown reasons would you realize that you had broken a law.

Corruption: Making matters worse were the public corruption that was rampant in all levels of "Population Control". If you had money, you could buy your way out of about any situation. Bribery was a way of life when dealing with the system.

Relief Slow: The one saving grace for the United States was that they still had a democratic system. So one by one, the ruling elites lost power. However, the lessons learned during the Islamic war about religion were not lost on the population. Most thought better of becoming a religious state, but did return to Constitutionally protecting religious freedoms. There were some exceptions, and those were embodied in a set of declarations known as the "Anti Fanaticism Tenets". These declarations made it clear that preaching to incite, practicing faith healing, or soliciting money over the mass mediums was prohibited. These declarations strengthened the local churches and took most of the arguments from the Atheists.

At Peace: It took 27 years after the Islamic War to finally shed Communism, Socialism, and Theocratic ruling systems. The next great event to shatter the tranquility was the food question. Burgeoning populations now put everyone at risk of going hungry. Would the human population change their dietary ways and turn to the synthetic foods?

Preface: This concludes the Preface of this series and I hope you've enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Part 5 takes up the Historical account as chronicled by the Coalition Historian, Kolor.

History of the Future: Installment 5

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 06/11/2007 Learning About Sustenance The Adventure Begins

Genesis? The great food debate could have never happened if not for the efforts of Baylor Universities Tom Silter. Tom was a dedicated biologist who trusted his instincts implicitly. From the outset of his research, he was working on the theory that maybe the Bible wasn't far off the mark in its description of the "Tree of Life". His theory was that Adam and Eve had unwittingly chosen to eat food that limited their lifespan. He wasn't sure what the "Tree of Life" could have been, but his assumption was that there had to be a perfect food that wouldn't corrupt the human body. He dedicated himself to finding if such a food existed.

Investigation: Tom had made many observations about the aging process. Important to his research was the findings of how our bodies feed at the cellular level. Every cell is contained within a membrane that acts as the feeding tube to the cell. Nutrients have to pass through this membrane by a process known as osmosis. Waste material exits the cell in the same manner, that is, through the cell wall. His research centered on the cell wall itself. Over time, the cell takes in nutrients, converts these nutrients to energy and expels the residue of the chemical exchanges back into the blood stream. However, his observation found that after the cell got what it needed from some nutrients, the waste product of the cell was too large to pass through the cellular membrane. These large waste molecules, instead of being released into the blood stream for cleansing and elimination, collected on the inside of the cell membrane.

Over Time: with the knowledge of the many dissections of humans of all ages, he was able to make some conclusions about human aging. Those large molecules of cellular waste that were too big to pass through the cell wall, accumulated on the inside of the cell membrane. Over time, enough of these molecules would start to inhibit the cells ability to nourish itself. Those waste molecules formed a barrier of sorts that prevented an adequate supply of food, and the cell slowly starved to death. Cell division helped, but eventually the cell(s) would succumb to the slow starvation. By the time a cells 'Telomere' (the physical ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes) has been exhausted, the cell is ready for the scrap heap anyway.

Aging and Eating: We are what we eat as the old saying goes. This is also true with the human aging process. Cell growth had always been considered the major trigger for cell division. But Tom discovered that a cells ability to supply itself with nutrition was the main factor that drove cell division. Tom's theory was that cells should live longer and divide less often. One of the factors that dictate the number of divisions a cell can make is its 'Telomere'. Because of the telomere, a cell only has a finite number of times it can divide. The Professor needed to come up with a way to feed the cells that wouldn't stimulate cell division, and then a cells life could be extended. Such a diet would thwart the aging process that not only clogs up our arteries, but our cells as well. He felt that our bio-fuel was the main reason for corrupting our bodies. Tom's task was to figure out a way to give the body the necessary fuel it needed without creating those large waste molecules that were clogging up the works in our cells.

Tom's Quest: Professor Tom Silter worked tirelessly to find out exactly which nutrients were causing the problem of aging our cells. He carefully dissected and analyzed those large waste molecules so he could make determinations about exactly which nutrients were creating those large waste molecules. What he discovered amounted to the discovery of the ages. He was able to isolate the problem. What he found was that whenever we eat anything organic, we were getting the whole enchilada. When we eat organic cells, we get the waste, the membranes, the cell innards, any fat residue, and sugars. Our body does a good job of sorting out all of the unwanted components, but for some reason some of those fatty proteins make it into the bloodstream and are taken in and used by the cell. It is the waste of those fatty proteins he found to be wreaking havoc with our cells.

Organic Substitute: Tom was certain that he was on to something, and he pressed his students to help find substitute nutrients that the body could use but wouldn't harm the body. The many concoctions they made and the detailed notes they took were a tribute to the research undertaken by Professor Silter. They examined blood for any traces of nutrients and synthesized them for trial and carefully noting in their records the results. After several years of trial and experimentation Professor Silter and his students finally found a solution to the problem. They named their concoction "Baylixer" after Baylor University and the fact that it was a drinkable elixir.

Baylixer: The mixture was patented and presented to the scientific community for their evaluation. Professor Silter was a celebrity. Everyone hailed his achievement and what it might do to the human lifespan. Meanwhile other researchers were busy experimenting with Baylixer and found that there was a dark side to using the stuff.

Part 6: This concludes Chapter 5 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 6 will diagnose "Baylixer" and all of its effects.

History of the Future: Installment 6

Science Fiction Serial for Tuesday 06/12/2007 Eating Baylixer

Happiness! The discovery of Baylixer by Dr. Tom Silter and his team was greeted with enthusiasm. Silter was regarded as a 'Savior' and accorded rock star status. But in all fairness to the professor, as a Scientist, he knew that the verdict was still out about the consequences of a prolonged diet of Baylixer. And, if the use of Baylixer really caught on, there was going to be a problem with manufacturing the stuff. Tom knew that all of the ingredients in Baylixer were not 100% synthetic. Some of the complicated proteins had to be manufactured by customized bacteria, and then purified.

Tied to Biology: Unless a method for synthesizing these proteins from elements is found, the human tie to the biological world would always be necessary. This tie to the Biological world weighed heavily on the good Professor.

First Reports:
Several laboratories were experimenting with Baylixer. The human liver, the second largest organ of the body, second only to skin, seemed to be the most effected by the inorganic food. Hepatic functions were lowered across the board as time on the diet of Baylixer was increased. This wasn't totally unexpected because so much of the workload for the liver had been removed. One of the largest problems that the researchers encountered was in the dosing of the Baylixer. Too much of it at one time could create a 'sugar shock' to the system, so encapsulating certain ingredients with 'time dissolving coatings was essential in getting the body to adjust to the synthetic food.

Cell Waste: All tissue samples showed no accumulation of additional waste molecules lining the cell wall when compared to the control group being fed normal food. What was remarkable though, was that the rate of cell death and division slowed dramatically with the groups being fed Baylixer. The cause for this phenomenon was determined to be that one of the triggers for cell division must be linked to the amount of waste build up within the cell wall.

Cellular Stress: When the cells felt stressed because of being slowly choked by the accumulating waste within the cell wall, one of the defense mechanisms was to reproduce. By reproducing, the cell halved whatever accumulations were trapped within the cell wall. The other defense mechanism was to grow larger and thus reducing the density of this accumulated waste.

Aging: With each cell division, the DNA structure lost a little of the Telomere and would reach the end of its ability to replicate itself whenever the Telomere was consumed. Without the ability to renew itself, the cell dies. A diet of Baylixer however, interfered with this process and enabled cells to continue for long periods without replicating. The result was a much longer lifespan.

The Down Side: Literature is replete with example after example that illustrates cause and effect. Prolonged ingestion of Baylixer was not to be an exception to the rule. Baylixer so alters the human body that it cannot return to digesting organic compounds. So a person who begins a diet of Baylixer must decide at the beginning that he is abandoning organic food period. The reward is great, but in the beginning, those who chose to follow the Baylixer diet had no idea what the result would be. The helpful bacteria that we normally depend on for a lot of processes are now pathogenic to the Baylixer user. It was as if the biomass of Earth rejected the followers of the Baylixer diet.

Next Installment: Is man finally going to be able to shake the nurturing Earth? A lot of debate, riots and religious arguments will decide if man chooses to embrace the new future. Chapter 7 will deal with the arguments and conclusion about the great food debate.

Chapter 6 Conclusion:This concludes Chapter 6 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 7 will look at the arguments for and against the use of Baylixer.

History of the Future: Installment 8

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 06/18/2007 The Humans

Our History: the Historians maintain the historical record of Humans in detail. It is their solemn duty to make sure that all Adventurers know and understand who we are and how we came into existence. They record all explorations and detail all contacts with other beings. Though not privy to the births and deaths on Earth, they do maintain a record of the achievements of the Traditionalist. No the Traditionalist and us are not enemies we are just different.

Age and Wisdom: One of our sharpest differences is our unwillingness to get into any type of life and death struggles with our own or other beings in the Universe. We know that on Earth, the traditionalists still have conflicts where there is a huge loss of life. But for adventurers with long lives, there is less likelihood of petty disputes. We become more protective of ourselves as we age. The other inhabitants of the Universe feel the same way. All Cosmic Races have the ability to do great harm in the event of a conflict. However, there are concerns. Beings in neighboring Universes have been detected, and the Cosmic Coalition has devised a warning system with defense capabilities if they ever intrude with hostile intent.

Other Beings: We have made contact with four other races. We are the youngest race to emerge from a nursery planet. It is recorded that our first contact was wonderful. We were technologically dwarfed by these other beings, but they accepted us and we are now included in the Cosmic Coalition. The oldest Race the "Gabrial" says they were the first to emerge, and have seeded several planets. Some of those planets were just impossible and the seeding failed. However, others were successful. Three of those seedings successfully emerged, the "Laka", the second oldest of the four, the "Tanlo" and us. The Lakas claim several seeding successes, but these haven't emerged yet. A close vigil is maintained over those planets much as a parent watches a child. Neither the Tanlo nor Humans have done any seeding.

Origins: The Gabrial is very forthcoming. They truly want to help with the understanding of life's origin. To begin with, all races are bipedal with similar characteristics. There are other similarities too. The Gabrial says that the traditional story of Creation was originally given to them early in their planet bound days. They in turn passed it on to their seeded creations when the seeded civilizations were in their infancy. The Gabrial believe that they were seeded, and the creation story was given to them. Yet, they or any of the other emerged races have met any other Race. Likewise, the Lakas also passed this creation story to the arising civilizations on those planets that they seeded.

Lifespan : As stated earlier, the Humans are living several thousand Earth years now provided they don't meet with tragedy. The Tanlo are next, living a bit longer to 1300-1500 Earth years. Lakas have achieved a lifespan of over 10,000 years, while the Gabrial haven't recorded a natural death in over a million years. Some of the differences lie in the different levels of technology and the length of time away from the nursery planets. It has also been suggested that the life spark is influenced by entropy. The entropy theory is not widely accepted, but is noted as a possibility. The counter to entropy depletion is that lifespan for all of the younger races increases with each generation of existence.

Baylixer Revisited: The original formula developed by Professor Silter has been improving with time. There was a time when the formula was served in a bulky mass using different flavors to leave the diner with that 'full' feeling of just having devoured a good meal. The problem with satisfying that atavistic notion of a full stomach and a nap was a lot of waste. The solution was to modify our DNA slightly to do away with the urge for a full stomach. By modifying the DNA, we were able to maintain the need for sustenance, and do away with the need for a full stomach. Now, human waste products are minimal, with waste discharges an annual event instead of a daily occurrence. The large alimentary canal has been reduced to just a shadow of what was found in early humans. Waste discharge is roughly the same as that of an Earthly pigeon. The new formula for food is so efficient that it is almost entirely consumed. The food formula is given in very small amounts. No more than a spoonful provides enough energy for at least a week. This spoon of food formula is further divided for daily consumption.

Chapter 8: This concludes Chapter 8 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 9 begins with a historical look at the Human space explorations and our first encounter with the Gabrial.

History of the Future: Installment 10

Science Fiction Serial for Tuesday 06/20/2007 Tales of the Gabrial

Gods: The wide gulf in technology always resulted in the Gabrial being cast as Gods. No matter what the Gabrial did or however innocent the interface, humans regarded them as Gods. Direct visits to Earth were avoided unless necessary, such as doing the DNA work to enhance their bipedal creation. Any such visits mandated that the Gabrial be in pressurized air suits to keep the local microbiology from attacking them. But, as the Gabrial put it, "There were occasions that we wanted to interface directly, so we came up with novel ways to communicate."

The Pyramids: Mental stimulation was one of the many failed methods of idea planting. The humans always interpreted the result on their own terms. For instance, there were the Pyramids. What the Gabrial wanted was a four-sided pyramid built to certain specifications. The pyramid would then act as an energy resonant chamber and enable the recharging of the small flying craft that they used to get about the planet. Having such a recharging station on Earth would have saved the Gabrial a lot of time and effort in maintaining their vigil over early man. But as in most of the communication schemes to interface with the humans, this effort too failed to yield the proper results. The Egyptian that was chosen for the task interpreted the mental communications as messages from the Gods. To him, the Gods were showing him a way to secure the burial of the Pharaoh and set him on the path to the underworld. He also incorporated features for burial that were not planned for by the Gabrial. Mental imagery always ended up as an incorporation of the human's world. Try as they might, the Gabrial just couldn't convince the Egyptians or the South Americans to just build an unadorned structure set in a true north south direction.

The Burning Bush: Another of the novel ideas to communicate directly was the "Burning Bush". They built a 'bush' out of metal tubing attached to a gas supply. Then they added a small resonant chamber that contained an igniter attached to a control valve. Each time the valve would close and reopen, the igniter would ignite the gas, and there was an audible pop as the gas ignited. Modulating the valve and igniting the small puffs of gas that filled the small chamber could then simulate speech. It was crude, but it enabled direct communication with the human. (Remember the Gabrial are not vocal communicators.) And the 'bush' could be remotely controlled. It was through this device that the Gabrial were able to free the Israelites. It was very important to the Gabrial to introduce a moral pathway into Earth's many cultures. One day the humans would emerge to join the Gabrial. So the morality of the humans was very important. The thought of a sadistic, tyrannical race emerging was the last thing that the Gabrial wanted to have happen.

Races and Cultures: The success or failure of a culture on Earth depended on whether or not a culture was corrupt or tyrannical. The corrupt cultures by nature made themselves weaker as they indulged themselves. Self-indulgence always led to a weakening of that society. Tyrannical regimes were a different story. They had to be physically dealt with by coalitions of those who fear tyrants. Often the Gabrial planted the seeds for the destruction of these tyrannical regimes. The most useful of their tools to destabilize a Tyrant was to enhance his feeling of power using mental stimulation. This method created a situation where the Tyrant, full of confidence would overreach, and stimulate retaliation from those aligned against him. Only once in their history with man did the Gabrial involve themselves directly in mans affairs.

Direct Involvement: It was during the time when the Gabrial were shepherding the Israelites. Communicating was still a problem so they furnished the Israelites with 'communicators'. These were simple devices but would enable the Israelites the ability to get the attention of the Gabrial. To build their confidence, the Gabrial undertook a one time direct involvement in mans affairs. After instructing the Israelites to parade around the city of Jericho, the Gabrial turned their energy beams on the walls of that city and destroyed them. The result of this action made true believers of them in the Law that had been given them. Rescued from slavery, and in possession of the Ark of the Covenant, they were finally on a path that would enable their stability.

Man's Achievements: The progress made by man was entirely his own. The Gabrial never divulged any technology to humans. Even after contact with them was made. Mans achievements and those of the other emerging seeded worlds can only be realized through the time honored system of need and discovery.

The Gabrial and God: The Gabrial was asked if they believed in God. Their surprising answer was a resounding yes! At the time of their emergence, they realized that they were not unique. They found a relic of other intelligent beings in space, but none of the owners of the relic. They are also sure that they were the product of seeding and that the originator of life on their home world was probably scattering life's components into other Universes. They believe that this creator is responsible for life. As stated previously, evidence has been found for life in our neighboring Universe, but no contact has been made yet. Traveling to the other Universe at this time is beyond the technology in possession.

Physical Traits: The Gabrial communicate mentally, however they are capable of making sounds. These sounds are unintelligible to us, and they are not willing to share with us the meanings of these sounds. They can and do listen to us though. They seem to have a great knowledge of our different languages.

Appearance: They are bipedal, slender and possess a rather large head. Their vision is more acute than ours, and has a much broader view of the spectrum. They can see a lot of what is invisible to us. Their eyes are a bit larger than ours and literally take on the appearance of the drawn representations made of them so many years ago.

Sex: Sex is enjoyed recreationally. When a couple desires to raise a child, they go to one of their reproduction managers who works out the characteristics of the child they want to raise, assemble the proper DNA strands for that child and implant the DNA mass into the birthing machine. The whole process takes only about 3 of our weeks to produce the child. Upon receiving the child, the parents and the child are sent off to one of their family centers where bonding takes place. They live and interact with the child until the child is ready for formal education and training. Separation then occurs, and they will not reunite until the end of the education period. The parent-child bond remains strong throughout their lives. We were unable to determine if the Gabrial can conceive children naturally, and they refuse to discuss the subject.

Chapter 10: This concludes Chapter 10 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 11 begins the search for a new home planet. Not one to be seeded, but a new planet for the Adventurers.

History of the Future: Installment 11

Science Fiction Serial for Thursday 06/22/2007 A Journey Begins

Home Worlds: What we learned from the Gabrial changed our focus from one of sharing the home world to that of looking for another world to call home. All of the emerged peoples had to find a place that wasn't toxic to them such as their home world where very elaborate means had to be taken so that isolation from the native biosphere could be maintained. The population was growing and needed a place that they could be free to move about without the threat of being taken over by microorganisms.

Help From the Gabrial: The issue of finding a home world was a pressing one that presented a real problem. Finding a suitable planet could take centuries if not a millennium or more. The vast distances involved meant time and lots of it just locating a planet fit for habitation. Fortunately for us, during the seeding days of the Gabrial, they had located a rocky world with liquid water that we might use. When the Gabrial first found it, they worried that the planet was so young that it was still too vulnerable to asteroids and other cosmic debris. But that was millions of years ago and it is possibly the closest planet available that might work out as a new home.

Fastest Scout: The fastest ship in our possession could speed along at about half the speed of light (That s about 335 million miles /hour Earth Miles), and the planet in question was about 30 light-years away. The question was, to send the Scout Ship and wait out the 100 or so years for a report, or just take their chances and pack up bag and baggage and take most of our people with them. It would take a minimum of 20-30 years to build the necessary fleet and accumulate the necessary supplies to make the migration.

Latest Reports: The last report from the Gabrial about this planet was that their scout had reported the planet was sterile yet, and its Solar System was a lot calmer than when they first discovered it. However, this report was still over a million years old, and it was unknown if one of the other emerged races had found it. The potential for a dispute over a planet not yet registered was cause for concern so a meeting of the 'Cosmic Coalition' was called where discussion about this planet were conducted. Indeed, we found out that the Laka had found the planet, but were too busy with their seeding projects to incorporate it into the registry. So we presented our case for a home world using this planet and an agreement was reached. The agreement with the Laka was that we would deliver our first discovered planet suitable for seeding to them in exchange for the unnamed planet.

Work Begins: The fleet to be built was huge. Our scientists had been working on a new type of propulsion that would eek out a few more hundred thousand miles per hour. That speed increase saved us at least a year in travel time so it was a welcome development. The plan called for an array of smaller ships to traverse the unknown space about a day ahead of the fleet to detect and destroy any space debris that could have harmed our ships.

The Fleet: The building of almost a half a million vessels was taxing. Even the robot assemblers must have gotten tired. Most of the metal came from Mars. The mining and smelting operations there were first class, and their ability to cast durable alloys is unrivaled anywhere. Mars, as it turned out was a treasure trove of metallic minerals. We have had mining and smelting operations there for hundreds of years. All efforts to transform the Martian landscape were exercises in futility. The gravity wasn't enough to maintain a suitable atmosphere for open travel there. An army of robots kept the place going; the robots built our fleet. They operate where we cannot and follow precise instructions on what to do and how to do it. Human robots are "dumb" and cannot perform without being programmed. Long ago our High Council heeded warnings about building super intelligent robots, and humans have been spared the fate of the Tanlo who had to forcefully destroy their intelligent mechanics.

31 Years Later: The fleet finally finished, mankind was ready to embark on their greatest adventure ever. The project was so massive, it would take at least another 6 months to ready and load the supplies that they would need for the 50-year journey. The freighters were the only massive vessels of the fleet. They carried the necessary goods to sustain us after we arrived. The people transporters were large but not massively so. Each carried a maximum of 1500 excluding the crew. There were provisions aboard each carrier for the 50 years of travel, along with plenty of diversions to occupy the time of the travelers. None of the vessels were designed to land on the new planet but instead orbit the planet and the shuttle service would be used to transport the people and needed supplies to the surface.

Other Preparations: It was determined to remain in communications with Earth. For that purpose they determined to set up relay stations along the way to preserve signal strength, and even then, the fastest a message could be sent would be 30 years. The new planet was approximately 30 light years away or 177 trillion earth miles. There were 80 ships dedicated to setting up these relay stations in orbit around designated planets as they passed near those systems. The Gabrial had shared with the travelers their charts and navigation data for the trip. It should be noted that the Gabrial had methods of interstellar travel, but declined to share their technology with anyone. It was just one of those things that the humans would have to work out on their own.

It's Time: The fleet finally put everything aboard and it was time to get started. First the scout ships headed out, a day later the people carriers, and bringing up the rear was the freighters. The total number of ships exceeded 500,000. The acceleration plan would have the entire fleet up to cruising speed within 6 months after exiting the Oort cloud.

Chapter 11: This concludes Chapter 11 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 12 chronicles the start of their journey through the solar system and traversing the Oort cloud.

History of the Future: Installment 12

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 06/25/2007 The Fleet Formation

Fleet Formation: The large fleet took over a month to achieve the formation that had been specified by the "Fleet Commander". The shape of the formation was more like a spear than a wall. The tip of the spear was the shield vessels taking care of any space debris. Flanking the sides of the formation were more of the shielding vessels to ward off any approaching threats. The length of the 'spear' after formation was achieved was approximately 1-angstrom unit, with the massive cargo ships bringing up the rear. The ships were required to maintain a minimum of 100 miles clearance between them. Even at that distance, the ships were to remain staggered to avoid being directly in the path of the ship that was both behind and in front. Although the ships were capable of manual control in emergencies, computers controlled them.

Command Structure: At the top of the command structure was the Fleet Commander. He had overall command of the ships, but he was under the direction of, and took his authority from the 'High Council'. The High Council was responsible for the decisions of overall goals, and it was up to the Fleet Commander to execute these goals. Poor performance on the part of the Fleet Commander could result in the High Council appointing a new Fleet Commander. The second tier commanders commanded the different category of ships. There was an overall commander for the Shield Vessels, one for the Cargo Vessels, Communications Vessels, and the People Carriers. The People Carriers were further sub divided into waves.

The Waves: The waves were the divisions of the landing order of the population on the New Planet. The first wave called 'The Pioneers' would be the first on the surface of the planet. They were to be trained during the long voyage to be able to handle the initial conditions that were anticipated from the details of the last scouting reports of the Laka. The Pioneers explored the planet and located the best spots to start building operations. The sites they chose were close to water and mineral deposits, and had an even temperate climate. After they mapped and approved a site, the Pioneers called in the second wave. The second wave was the known as the 'Constructors'. Just as their name implies, this was the group responsible for building the housing, stores, and roads. A completed constructed unit called a 'Borough' triggered the next wave called 'Settlers'. The Settlers were further divided. The first settlers would be those engaged in commerce for that particular borough, and then those designated for that borough would take possession of their dwellings.

Boroughs: All boroughs were actually a reflection of the neighborhoods that they left on Earth. Whatever borough a settler lived in on Earth, he would find those same neighbors on the new planet. The mass relocation of the population was highly structured, even to the extent of being a bit militaristic, but a return to normalcy was a high priority once the Settlers moved into their boroughs.

Trip Archives: A good place to find out information about the mass relocation of the "Adventurers" is the 'Hall of History' where the written record of all human history is kept. A good starting place is the records of the Shield Ships commander. Captain Mosam, the Commander of Shields entered the following:

"We were more nervous at the start than actually worried. We knew that our job was more precautionary than anything." Captain Mosam could make that assumption for several reasons. Not the least was the planning that went into developing the route. Beginning with leaving the Earth, the route did not challenge the solar disk with its compliment of planets and asteroid fields. There might have been a challenge in the Oort cloud, but the distance between the space objects there favored the fleet. , They would remain vigilant. The few objects that the sensors detected were well outside of the area that the fleet would be traveling.

The Oort Cloud: A spherical area of icy and rocky bodies. The Sun's influence here is slight. The Oort cloud starts about 50 Angstrom Units from the Sun (4.650 Billion Miles) and extends to as far as 5000-Angstrom units. It is made up of remnants of a Super Nova that is trapped by the suns gravity. With that thought in mind, it was no wonder that the fleet wanted to wait until they emerged from the cloud before accelerating to cruising speed. But it turned out to be a nonevent, as recorded in the Shield Ships logs their sensors recorded few hits, none close though.

Acceleration: The trip through the Oort cloud was a slow slog. Almost a year and a half had already passed and the fleet wasn't up to speed yet. They were traveling at the rate of 650,000 miles per hour. Now however, they were about to accelerate to nearly one-half the speed of light at 334.8 million miles per hour. There were cheers when the word finally came to begin acceleration. Getting to their cruising speed would not be instant. But just knowing that they were finally going to be covering the distance faster lifted all spirits.

Keeping Busy: Keeping everyone occupied was the hardest challenge they faced. Busy work filled most of the empty time, and recreation made up what was left.

Chapter 12: This concludes Chapter 12 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 13 describes the daily life of the Adventurers as they make the long migration. How they dealt with the stragglers from break down and mishap, and the communications being beamed up to them as they made their way towards the new planet.

History of the Future: Installment 13

Science Fiction Serial for Thursday 06/28/2007 The Voyage Part 2

Keeping Occupied: 50 Years confined in a spaceship to some would be considered uneventful. But to the migrants the time that it took to get to the 'New Planet' was golden. Everyone except the crews of the ships were engaged in school, work and training. There was much to accomplish before they arrived at their new home.

Schools: The schools were not for reading and writing, but instead how to survive on the new sterile world. On the new world, there was little free oxygen in the atmosphere, so until sufficient oxygen levels were reached; the population would have to live under domes. The first wave, the Pioneers would have to live out of their specialty landing craft, and wear special suits when they exited the crafts. Their land vehicles were also designed to function as a refuge when traveling on the surface. The schools taught everybody how to manage and care for their equipment. They also had to learn as much about the planet as the records could teach them. No one was exempt; everyone spent 3 hours a day in school. Since the humans would be the only biology on the planet, everybody had to learn how to repair and work on the huge oxygen generators, air scrubbers, mining equipment, food manufacturing equipment, and maintaining the domes. Their idea was to train everyone about the intricacies of all vital equipment. There were too many perils to be faced to depend on any small group of specialized people in an emergency.

Work: The effort was immense. Different ships were able to do different types of manufacturing. For instance, one was equipped to manufacture the synthetic material for making clothes, another was outfitted to make electronics, and so on. Every passenger ship was a designated source for some essential product that got distributed to the other ships. All such materials were on a five-year cycle. The daily chores consisted of cleaning the ship, doing the laundry, maintaining the ships hospital, food allocating, and repairs of all types. There was 1500 of these passenger ships.

Suspended Animation: Suspending the passengers metabolism was considered but rejected. Prolonged suspension left a person in a physically depleted state that could take months to restore to full vigor. It would have cost another year or more to wait on the restoration of two million people and another four to five years to train them before they could start to claim the planet for habitation. The manufacturing facilities were also vital to making the parts for the ships that broke down from normal wear. The fleet was enormous, with 500,000 total vessels. The vast majority of these vessels were the giant cargo ships that carried everything from the dome sections that would be assembled on the new planet to the raw materials for manufacturing. There was never a day that large numbers of people were not needed to maintain this huge fleet.

Daily Life: A tremendous effort went into making sure that there were plenty of ways to occupy a person?s free time. There were gyms for working out, 3-D movie rooms for watching the latest and greatest beamed up from earth, different hobbies were catered to in the special interest rooms, and not to be left out were the rooms for intimacy. Recreational sex was very popular with the travelers. The special intimacy rooms catered to the needs of those desiring intimate relations with each other. The rooms were stocked with mood enhancers, soft lighting and music. There were 3-D erotic movies and all manner of devices meant for titillation. For the readers, there was a vast electronic library. These shipboard libraries were also equipped with a feed from the 'Hall of Records', a fascinating array of information.

Not Isolated: Being assigned to any particular ship didn't mean that you couldn't visit another ship. Shuttles were available to take people from ship to ship for visitation or to get supplies from a cargo vessel. Fifty years in space is a long time and no effort was spared to make sure that those in transit had a productive life while in transit. However, there were those that the strain of the trip was too much. Counselors were kept busy tending to those in need, especially towards the end of the journey.

Gravity: The gravity on board the ships was maintained by the mass amplifiers, which worked by keeping a concentration of neutron-laden lead where 'down' was needed. The gravity effect isn't spectacular, but having some weight if only a few ounces was better than floating uncontrollably or wearing cumbersome tethers. Combining an electron with a proton within a lead body creates a much denser mass. The lead becomes denser because the 4 valence electrons are stripped away and combined with protons to form the neutrons. The mass concentrator machines found on board just for this purpose processed this work. The lead becomes strongly charged positive without the valence electrons and is made denser by forcing the lead ions into covalent bonding to emulate neutrality. The neutrons, which 'bulks' up the mass of the lead creates sufficient mass necessary for a weak gravity. The tricky part is to avoid accelerating the neutrons after formation or they would just pass on through the lead. This extremely heavy lead was the source of gravity on board the ships. The science was in its infancy, but the result was tangible with a modest showing of gravity.

Chapter 13: This concludes Chapter 13 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 14 continues the voyage and examines the process for slowing down and what it will take to begin the process of creating a new home world. These migratory humans also want to formally name their new planet, but decide to wait and get a better gauge on the settling process before getting too excited about the name.

History of the Future: Installment 14

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 07/02/2007 Preparations for Arrival

Braking Maneuvers: The slowdown from half the speed of light to that of orbital speed would start approximately 1 light year from the targeted solar system. The ion beam reverse thrusters on all ships were to be started simultaneously. Computer control assured a coordinated and accurate slowdown. The slowdown itself would take 3 years before the velocity of the fleet was slow enough to be captured by the target Sun. Once in orbit around the new Sun, the ships would continue to slow down until their velocity was slow enough to go into orbit around the new world. From the start of slowdown to planet orbit, 5 years would pass.

Anticipation: As the fleet neared the point to begin their braking maneuver, there was much anticipation among the Humans. Even with the greatest challenges ahead, the long years of travel was beginning to wear on everybody. The subject of the approaching braking maneuver was on everybody's tongue. Just knowing that an end to the long migration was soon to be in the final stages lifted all spirits. With the realization that only a few short years were left before beginning one of mankind's greatest adventures, attention was once again focused on the details of actually landing on the planet.

Critical Maneuver: Calculations of the fleets mass and speed would prove critical in reaching an orbital plane around the new solar system. Speed was always a relative measurement between bodies. The speed of the fleet approaching the solar system would determine if the fleet could attain the orbit that was needed. Armed with the charts of the Gabrial and Laka, they already knew the size details of this new sun, so as they approached, the image size taken at precise intervals gave the navigators an accurate reading of their approaching speed. If the fleet had overshot with too much speed, they would have had to continue their slow down before a turning maneuver could be executed. The delay would have been very long without the gravity capture by the New Sun. The Ion engines were only for braking and maneuvering, and not for main propulsion.

After Capture: Following capture by the New Sun, an orbit would be established to further the slowing down process. This orbit would allow passing the new planet and mapping its surface and gathering detail information about gravity, water, mineral deposits and habitable areas of interest. The fleet?s next maneuver was to close ranks and go close enough to the New Planet to be captured into an elliptical orbit around the planet itself. That orbit would decay until the final arrival into an almost circular orbit with the ships layered in altitude from the planet according to their mass.

Shuttle Craft: The master key to getting both personnel and cargo to the surface was the shuttlecraft. There was a time when orbital speed used the friction of the atmosphere to slow the craft down for a soft landing. But the new anti-matter engines made it possible to land the craft using engine power to slow the craft rather than bring the craft in faster than a speeding bullet to collide against the planetary atmosphere. The craft also has enough power to make several trips to and from the planet. The compact accelerators aboard these craft generate an almost endless supply of anti-matter positrons, which in turn give up a lot of energy when they collide with their electron counter parts. Hailed, as a great discovery on Earth a long time ago, but science was unable to generate enough of the positrons to be useful until recent times. Anti-matter engines brought the fleet from Earth to the New Planet.

Circular Orbit: The real work started when final orbital positions were attained. The passes by the new planet during slow-down gave a lot of insight as to the geology and locations that they wanted to explore further. Atmospheric probes were launched to determine the density and make up of the atmosphere and as expected, the free oxygen level was too low to support humans. However, there was an increase over what was recorded by the Laka. This indicated some activity on the planet that was enabling oxygen formation. There had been no indications of biological activity, so the oxygen increase was determined to be a product of both solar winds and electrical activity from clouds.

The Pioneers: Equipped and ready, the first wave was ready to do their job. The entire fleet was very anxious and ready for the colonization to begin. Everyone felt a form of cabin fever. More than fifty years in space ships had them ready to burst at the seams. And so it was when the Pioneers departed in their shuttles to begin the odyssey of colonizing this planet.

Chapter 14: This concludes Chapter 14 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 15 chronicles the adventures of the Pioneers and their efforts to locate suitable building sites.

History of the Future: Installment 15

Science Fiction Serial for Thursday 07/05/2007 Surface Surveys and Beginnings

On the Surface: It was on the tip of all their tongues, "This was no doubt a weird place." There was a waterfall but no plants or anything green to be seen. Samples from the water indicated no bacteria, or life of any stripe, and yet it was starkly beautiful. Other than a little silt in the water, it was as pure as you could make it. The temperature here ranged from the middle 60's at night to the upper 70's during the day. Everyone wished that they could have removed their pressurized suits and feel the air on their bodies. But that would have to wait.

Marking out Sites: First things first. Each dome cluster was charged with production of the materials needed for a permanent colony. That translated into a dome clusters to manufacture different metals, some for food, and more for synthetic materials. The list was long and these surveys would determine which clusters would go where. In order to accomplish this, they needed an accurate survey of the raw minerals and ores available at each site. Preliminary data from passing by and in orbit gave indications of what was there, but core samples and ground penetrating radiography would quantify these essential materials. Upon identifying a site that would serve a purpose, they called in the appropriate constructor crews.

The New World: The new world is certainly a wet world. Measuring a little bigger than Earth, about 11,000 miles in diameter, but strangely, approximately the same mass. Gravity is only slightly higher and the human body can't detect the 1% more weight. The Sun shines at a bright yellow, only slightly lighter in shade than Earth's Sun, and the new planet follows a slightly elliptical path in orbit around the Sun. The annual circumnavigation of the Sun takes a fraction more than 405 days, which is again highly comparable to Earth's trip around the Sun. The closest approach (perihelion) the new planet makes to the Sun is 104 million miles, while the longest (aphelion) is 118 million miles. The weather is temperate in wide bands from the equator north and south. Frigid poles are more circular than that of the Earth as the tilt of the planet is less than that of the Earth. Three-fourths of the surface is water, and there is a lot of rainfall in the temperate areas. Atmospheric electrical storms are common, but do not pose a threat to the settlers.

Location of Sites: Access to water and minerals would prove to be the most important qualities for a settlement site. However, there were other considerations such as the load bearing ability for the massive domes to be built. The men struggled to accomplish their goals to find locations suitable for establishing the colony. Their shuttlecraft acted as temporary quarters while they drilled and sampled the topography of the new planet. The best locations tended to be in the northern temperate band. Four ideal sites were found for the giant oxygen generators that would start the process of enriching the atmosphere with oxygen. Numerous sites were selected for the establishment of the domed cities that would eventually house the 2 million immigrants. The first such site found and determined to be suitable was cause for celebration and is still observed today as 'Founding Day'.

Site Alpha: Just as the name suggest, "Site Alpha" was the first approved site for construction of a settlement. Constructors were called in with their heavy equipment. The first structure to be built on the new planet was for housing of the constructors. The building was prefabricated and needed only a good flat surface to erect it. This first building is still maintained for succeeding generations to marvel at. It's oxygen generator, pressurizing unit, storage unit and supply vehicle air lock are still operable and maintained as a proud remnant of humanities first ever home away from Earth.

Construction of Alpha: Years of practice assembly during the long voyage from Earth gave the workers experience for the task. Worker robots did the core of the work that had to be done in the open. Otherwise, these tasks would have to have been done in pressurized air suits. Humans and robots worked symbiotically to get the foundation and floor laid down. Then simultaneous construction on the quarters and housing for the oxygen generator saw the first walls of the compound start to extend skyward.

The Atmosphere: It wasn't that the atmosphere was toxic or poisonous to the Humans; it just didn't have enough oxygen to support life. Some of the few deaths recorded during those early days spoke of how the victims never realized they were in danger, breathing the air gave them no warning, and after about 5 minutes of breathing the atmosphere they just passed out. When help wasn't readily available to administer oxygen, death occurred in about 30 minutes. Scientists had developed an artificial gill that could be worn by humans that could extract enough oxygen from the air to maintain life, but it was large, heavy, and hampered a person from doing most activities. However, it did help with rescue and retrieving broken robots for repair.

Oxygen Generators: Most of the planets oxygen was locked up in sulfates, CO2, and water. The oxygen generators were designed to take advantage of all three, with the sulfates being the main contributor. The planetoid oxygen generators, those generators exclusively made for enriching the planets atmosphere used various sulfates as their only source. Because of this limitation, only four such locations in the beginning were found to support the volume of sulfates necessary for oxygen production.

Chapter 15: This concludes Chapter 15 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 16 continues with energy sources, and readying Domed City Alpha for habitation.

History of the Future: Installment 16

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 07/09/2007 Building Alpha

Chapter 16:

Focus on Alpha: Construction sites were all similar. The construction path starts with the compound for the construction crews, and then comes the oxygen generator and power station. Since Alpha was the first, this chronicle describes its construction but the same could have been written about the other sites.

Power Station: Power was an essential part of the colonies. The generators were steam turbines powered by the anti-matter annihilation process. The heat from the state change of particles due to their collision with anti-matter positrons was the most efficient means of producing power. Discovering a technique to produce anti-matter positrons in quantities sufficient for power is heralded as one of mankind's greatest achievements. The early users of the anti-matter devices such as the Pet Scan and others would be in awe of the advances made in this field. Electrical generators, though improved, haven't really changed very much. Steam is still used as a propellant. Directly propelling the generator using a plasma field from an anti-matter generator produces plenty of power, but steam has the advantage here because it doesn't harm the physical components nearly as bad. The output from the anti-matter generator has an outlet in each tube of the condensate path and can instantly expand water molecules into vapor. The tremendous expansion of the water vapor is what powers the steam turbine. The water vapor has to be deionized to prevent the ionized molecules from degraded the equipment.

The Domed City: Each city will install two power stations. One is always on standby and the other always running. The power stations are located 180 degrees from each other as far as possible from one another for both safety and security. The domes were prefabricated before being loaded aboard the giant cargo vessels. Only the foundation and the floor have to be built on location. After the floor is completed, it is then able to receive any equipment that would be prohibitive if the walls were up.

Alpha: With the foundations finished, Alpha was ready to receive her power and oxygen generators. The oxygen generators are mammoth machines complete with inlets from both the sulphate bores and a water source. Some of the accessible bores also furnish the food processing equipment for food production. Construction quality is maintained from several observation towers containing the men who program and maintain the robots. Nothing is left to chance. Inspection is half of the process. With the heavy equipment installation done, work can now start on the walls.

City Appearance: The Domes are not hemi-spherical. Imagine a circle with a line drawn vertically from the origin to the top of the circle. Draw another line horizontally through the top of the circle that intersects the vertical line at its mid point. The resulting arc above the horizontal line is on par with the domes. The main dome is central to the smaller ones and measures one-half mile across at the widest point. The diameter of the dome curvature is always 1.154 times the distance across the base of the dome. This ratio is an important one because of the stresses put on such a large structure. From above, looking down on the city, it would resemble a flower with a large dome in the center and smaller domes radiating from its perimeter. The radiating structures were smallest where they meet the main dome and increased in size as additional structures are added. The end of the radiating group of domes is the largest of the small structures. These structures are the storage units with their underground tunnels interconnecting with the main dome. The storage units are fitted with airlocks and shuttle landing pads for receiving and shipping goods and personnel.

The Domes: The domes are a marvel of engineering. Designed of lightweight material and translucent in areas where outside observations are desired. They are not designed to be pressurized, just be a barrier to prevent the oxygen inside from wholesale escape. Mixing with the native atmosphere was necessary to maintain a 20% of O₂ level. The native air was also used to help clear the air in the dome of impurities. All of the pieces that make up the dome are interlocked with one another. No bolts or welding required. The pieces are also identical with each other except for the translucent pieces, and even those are the same in all details except you can see through them. Portable bracing is needed during the construction phase and is removed after the final pieces of the dome are in place. No sections of the dome are vertical, and all weight is naturally pressed outward and down. The result is a structure that is naturally well lit and a strong area for habitation, commerce or manufacturing.

Alpha Ready: It has been a long time since their arrival at the new planet and the Settlers are getting restless. They are ready to start their life on the new planet and get off the ships. Alpha will be a primary manufacturing settlement. A lot of the Settlers will be employed to manufacture raw products that will be forwarded to other settlements for final manufacture. These primary products range from plastics to synthetic fibers. The determining factor for the products produced by a settlement is partially dictated by the raw materials available. Roads and other infrastructure will be added after the settlements are constructed.

Settlers: As the settlers arrive, their first day is spent just walking around and sightseeing. Although they already knew how the city would look, it was still awe inspiring to see it first hand. Until the atmosphere was able to support life the settlers would be assigned quarters. Later, the settlers could build anyplace they wanted. A breathable atmosphere was the only obstacle. The only issues of any consequence were who was going to be neighbors. The quarters were not contentious as all quarters were identical. Each leader tried to be as accommodating as possible by considering the needs of each settler. Most complaints centered on the neighbor issue. After 50+ years of forced confinement, some of the settlers wanted as much distance from certain people as they could get. It was no small problem as the leaders were to find out. Some of the feelings were so strong that a deal for exchanging some malcontents for those from other settlements had to be worked out.

Chapter 16: This concludes Chapter 16 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 17 has more details about getting settled in Alpha.

History of the Future: Installment 17

Science Fiction Serial for Thursday 07/12/2007 A New Beginning

Installment 17:

Enclave Alpha: Each of the domed units could house up to 20,000 people but with 168 prefabricated domed units, such crowding was not necessary. It was decided to put just ten passenger ships into each domed city to limit crowding to a more reasonable 15,000 maximum in each dome. Fewer people also lessened the strain on the oxygen generators, which were maintaining the O ₂ level at a constant 20%.

Gravity Problem: Having lived for better than 50 years in the weightlessness of space, or 'near' weightlessness. The settlers were unprepared for the sudden assault on their bodies of gravity. Everyone had trained on the ships to maintain muscular tone and bone density, but the effect of suddenly having gravity also gave everyone a mental jolt. The advantage of the weak gravity that they were accustomed to while aboard the ships was causing problems. Little things like casually walking, which was effortless on the ship now required real effort. The training, which was rigorous, did what it was supposed to do, prevent atrophy, but after the daily training session ended, physical life returned to the effortless environment. Everyone had to endure the centrifugal chambers on the ships. These chambers enabled a gravity effect of 1.1G, but the travelers only had to use the chamber a short while each day, but on the surface of the new planet, gravity was full-time, and full-time gravity was tough sledding for many of the settlers at the start.

The Quarters: All quarters were identical. Each one consisted of 2 sleeping areas, a personal hygiene area, an entertainment area, and a communication area with access to the vast electronic libraries and an observation room that enabled the occupants to observe the external area of the quarters. Four people could easily live in one of these living spaces, but most families had a head count of only 3 individuals. During the voyage having a child was forbidden so all occupants were adults. There were no children yet. The ban on children would be maintained until the oxygen contents would allow the occupants to move out of the confines of the city and establish a home to raise children. This was necessary due to the limited housing, so it was not possible to have an expanding population in these early stages of settlement.

The Biology: Humans were the only biology on the planet. They dared not introduce plants or animals because of the nature of life. All organisms evolve defenses against any persistent threat, and evolve new abilities to satisfy their own needs. The coding of life itself allows organisms the ability to make physical changes to adapt to different situations including climate change, and threat. Life is a marvelous creation that exemplifies survival skills and determination. The human's worst fear was that an organism might be somewhere out there evolving into a menace for them. Finding and eradicating invaders that are harmful to humans can take time. Back on Earth, there were several deaths resulting from new strains of viral attacks by newly evolved strains of different microbes and viruses.

Mechanical World: The new dependency for humans was their machines. All of the emerged peoples left their biological past. All knew and understood the significance of the biology from which they came, but at the same time realized the risk from those systems. Without the biology to support life such as the plants and algae to photosynthesize and produce oxygen, they depended on their oxygen generators and air scrubbers to cleanse and maintain the proper O₂ levels. Pets were replaced with robots that were virtually indistinguishable from a real dog or cat. Art predominates the culture and adds necessary aesthetics to an otherwise sterile atmosphere. Sculptures and virtual 3-D scenes were everywhere adding warmth to the bare and bland world without biology. Artificial greenery has progressed to the point of being indistinguishable from real plants. The artificial plants are self-cleaning and imitate seasonal changes. The fake greenery also acts as camouflage to the giant ventilator ducts found scattered throughout the dome.

Robotics: Robots were everywhere. If it wasn't people's pets, it was repair robots, construction robots, and those that did the mining outside the domes. The robots were sophisticated but dumb. Their innate programming gave them the ability to navigate, but no sense of purpose unless programmed. They had no defensive mechanisms, and each robot had a dedicated profession, oblivious to the actions of other robots. Preventing a robot from becoming sensually aware of itself was a major concern of the engineers who designed them. The engineers were well aware of the experiences of the Tanlo and their experimentations with intelligent robots. Those intelligent robots found a way to pool their knowledge and produce a super robot with the intention of taking over. The Tanlo had to destroy these robots but with a high cost both to them and their economy which was fueled with the labor of the robots. After this experience a universal model robot was finally developed. The new model robots were single purpose machines and did not possess the ability to communicate with other robots.

Settling In: The space ships containing the people for Alpha were unloaded and sent into a high permanent orbit around the planet. The people were busy finding and getting their possessions into their new quarters. If you were an observer, to you, the hubbub would resemble mass confusion. To add to the confusion, everyone was suffering from what had been named 'gravitosis' or getting reacquainted with gravity. The Settler commanders were busy with quarters reassignment because the human factor had interfered with all of those good plans that were made early on in the voyage. But, even with these small blips, the settling in process went surprisingly well.

Other Cities: Altogether, the constructors were able to erect 160 domed cities. 8 of the domes were kept in reserve for spares and emergencies, so were not populated. The next large construction projects to be done were the erection of the huge oxygen generators that would begin the job of getting oxygen into the atmosphere. The estimate was for the atmosphere to become breathable was 5 years. The time estimate did not include the additional sights for more oxygen generators that the Pioneers had found. As a result, that 5-year figure was halved. A person could actually go outside without protection after only 2 years 8 months. After the air was breathable, the massive air scrubbers had to do their work. Remember, all of these processes are carried out on Earth by biological entities.

Installment 17: This concludes Chapter 17 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 18 will update happenings on Earth and the progress of the Traditionalist. The New Planet is named and the Gabrial has some disturbing news.

History of the Future: Installment 18

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 07/16/2007 An Ominous Message

Installment 18:

Earth: Not all of the Human Adventurers left Earth. In fact a large number were still there. Most of this number just couldn't bring bear to leave our birth planet. It was this group that had the job of accepting any of the traditionalists that wished to take up the life of an adventurer. There was no proselytizing to gain adherents to the adventurer's way of life. However, every Traditionalist was offered the opportunity after being taught about this choice.

The Economy: Like all human societies, a form of economic regimentation was a necessity to promote the self worth that is so valuable to the human psyche. Trade is vibrant with both the Traditionalist and the other races that have befriended humans. The Tanlo were instrumental in providing safe robotic techniques, and the Laka have been an essential source for the art and aesthetics that the Humans had acquired a taste for. The Humans on the other hand exported industrial goods like textiles and metals. The vigorous trade between all groups is a net positive for all concerned. The one group that has declined to trade goods with all is the Gabrial. The Gabrial are so far ahead technologically, that to trade with the emerged races would amount to giving away their technology. They remain on the sidelines rooting for the emerged races to gain technological improvements on their own.

New Technologies: One of the goals of the Gabrial in not sharing their technology was to encourage the discovery of newer ideas and development. They were afraid that if the emerged societies were to acquire their knowledge, that these emerging peoples would eschew the search for new ideas. The Gabrial were hoping for breakthrough science from the emerging cultures that might provide new pathways to the problems facing all of them.

Communications: The relay stations set up by the migrating Adventurers provided a way for them to stay in touch with Earth. The communication channels were constantly buzzing about the news and discoveries made by the different groups. It was a clumsy way to communicate, but it was what their technology would allow. The Gabrial had a method of stellar communications that was virtually instantaneous. Although they didn't share the science behind this marvelous communications system, they orbited a satellite around each of the emerged societies planets that enabled the Gabrial to communicate freely. To share this technology to the emerged groups would have been in violation of Gabrial code.

Home Worlds: Only the Human and the Tanlo still had their birthing planets left. Solar flares had already claimed the Gabrial and Laka worlds. But Earth and Moso (the Tanlo world) were on track to last at least 3-4 billion more years. And like Earth's humans, the Tanlo was a divided people. Some who just saw no need to leave the confines of the planet that they had called home since their beginning.

Like It Was Yesterday: Was it 200 or 250 years ago when we received the message? No matter how long ago it was, I still remember as if it had been yesterday, "The beings of the neighboring Universe have entered our Universe." The semaphores set out by the Coalition had monitored the passing of the Aliens. We asked the question, "Were they friendly?" The Gabrial were not sure, but to be sophisticated enough to pass the Universe Wall surely meant that they had detected us. To make matters seem worse, they were not trying to communicate. Neither radio nor the Gabrial system was able to elicit a return answer. The Gabrial reported that the speed at which they were traveling, if they did not use stellar drive, would put them at our doorstep within 100 years.

What To Do: A conference of the Coalition was conducted via the Gabrial links to decide on a course of action. Everyone had suggestions. Most of these suggestions were assuming that the outsiders were hostile. But, it was still too early to know the intentions of these intruders, and it must not be assumed that they are hostile. So the following was passed by the Coalition:

A.) All radio traffic to and from the two remaining birthing worlds must cease. This was an effort to protect the remaining birthing worlds from being discovered by tracing back radio signals.

B.) No overt hostile action was to be taken against the intruders. (We would rather have peace)

C.) Research and development would start immediately on weaponry. No idea was to be too outlandish for consideration.

D.) The Gabrial would monitor their progress and report on it monthly.

E.) Efforts to communicate with the intruders would continue from semaphores installed throughout the Universe.

Agreement: The conference was a sobering event. It demonstrated the atavism of the younger emerged peoples. They were still hard wired to overcome whatever was in the way to succeed. And they would need that and then some in the not too distant future. The agreement's first act was to try and keep the birthing planets location secret. Stopping communications with Earth was not too difficult. But there had to be a way for the Earth to communicate within itself and also prevent stray radio signals from giving them away. This was overcome with a line of sight communication system using very low power signals, and reverting to optical cable that was once so popular with Earth's inhabitants. Old technology was once again going to be useful in maintaining Earths location.

The New Planet Gets a Name! The New Planet authorities decided that now more than ever we needed a name for our Planet. And to accommodate all of its inhabitants, a contest was held and the top ten names were then voted on. The name that garnered the majority of votes would be the official name for the planet. The top ten names were: Haven, Siltus, Miraculous, Free (of Microbes), Sweetwater, Tidings, Lakaland, Humanus, Newland, and NewEarth. The campaigns were intense, but the ballots told the story. The New Planet would from now and forever be named Siltus. The name recognizes the efforts by the Baylor Biologist who first formulated "Baylixer".

Installment 18: This concludes installment 18 of this series and I hope you enjoyed it. All future forecast are based on extensions of current science and events (and fantasy). Only time will be the true judge of any predictions. Chapter 19 Oversees the preparations for an encounter with the aliens. Siltus is in full research mode for probable weapons that may be needed.

History of the Future: Installment 19

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 07/23/2007 A Nervous Public

Installment 19: Preparing for a Date With Destiny
This Chronicle: It would be impossible to write this without describing those days after the discovery of other beings making their way through our Universe. The High Council of Siltus took steps immediately to institute those decisions of the Coalition. The heads of our scientific community met to establish the weapons research effort. And, in keeping with the openness of the proceedings of the High Council, the public was fully informed of the news, and was made aware of the decisions by the Coalition.

Government of Siltus: The Government of Siltus was democratic. The original blueprint of elected Representatives and area Senators was still intact, but the High Council was a derivative of the Presidents Cabinet and was made elective instead of nominated. The High Council replaced the Executive Branch of government. No longer was one person entrusted to make the major decisions on everything. The Council chose their leader from within their ranks. This was more of a head parliamentarian position than one of power. The Council leader presided over the meetings. During the meetings of the High Council, any Council member could bring up items for consideration. The Councils business may be items passed by the Congress, or deciding if an issue needed to be brought before the Congress. The High Council did not have dictatorial powers, but instead were a co-equal branch with the Justice and the Legislature. Their main distinction was that they led. They were in charge of policy making, but it took the Legislature to codify and fund the High Councils recommendations, and by the same token, any bills passed by the Legislature needed the approval from the High Council to become law. Openness Laws bound the High Council except when public disclosure would be harmful to Siltus. Until this day, there has been no such classification of any High Council deliberations.

Communications Under New Ruling: One of the first tasks to be done was to decrease our radio wave footprint. Much the same as had been done on Earth; very low-level line of site radio was instituted. The manufacture of fiber optic cable was begun, and the radio relay transmitters between Siltus and Earth were silenced. It was an all out effort to prevent leading the outsiders to Siltus. Even though we had no idea of the capabilities of these intruders, it was strongly felt that every precaution should be taken to prevent stray radio waves from revealing our location.

Communicating With Earth: An appeal was made to the Gabrial to allow communication using their interstellar system. They consented to pass along communications for us, but to not allow us the wholesale use of the system. It was better than nothing. The interstellar system of the Gabrial left no trail as the signal warped time and was not detectable unless you happened to be in the very small interstellar vortex generated by their device. Any intrusion into the time warp immediately closed the thread and prevented any back tracing. To make it more complicated, the vortex didn't travel in a straight line as other bodies in space affected it. This meant that if an alien intelligence happened to get a momentary direction, it was likely to be in a direction away from the originator. The signal was undetectable. It was something that you had to just wander into, and before you could detect it, you would be long gone.

An Apprehensive Public: Even though the Strangers were traveling fast, they were not using interstellar warping to go from one place to another. Of course that didn't mean that they did not have the capability, so if you listened to the average citizen he would tell you that they suspected the slower travel was for sinister purposes. It was a sense of foreboding that was felt throughout the planet. The slower speed could give the Strangers the ability to receive and analyze the many signals that they were receiving. Receiving signals could then be traced to their origin, and then at a time of their choosing use interstellar means to warp to the perceived locations. Or, the slower speed could mean that this was an exploration of our Universe by these Strangers. No matter which of the many theories you chose to believe, the mere presence of these strangers in our Universe was causing unrest with the public.

Gabrial Monitoring: The reports from the Gabrial monitors did nothing to ease the speculation. The latest reports was that the main body of ships were continuing at a steady pace, but that ships were leaving this formation as they encountered their first Galaxy within our Universe. Ships leaving and staying at various planets within a Galaxy indicated that maybe this might be a colonizing or seeding expedition. Or they might be building defensive positions in the Galaxies close to the edge of the Universe. Clearly, we didn't know and without communications with the Strangers, all we could do was speculate on the motives for the foray into our Universe.

Installment 19: This concludes installment 19. Please join us for installment 20 to learn of the research for weapons progress. Find out what happens when the Strangers encounter one of the Gabrial semaphores.

History of the Future: Installment 20

Science Fiction Serial for Wednesday 07/25/2007 A Busy Coalition

Installment 20: A Busy Coalition

The Coalition: The Coalition partners consisted of the Gabrial, the Tanlo, the Laka and the Humans. Out of this group the Humans were the newest race to emerge from their biological cocoon. They were technologically on par with the Tanlo who were also recently emerged. The Gabrial was the oldest followed by the Laka. The Laka, although technologically superior to the Humans and the Tanlo, were far behind the Gabrial. The de-facto policy was for each civilization to do the research and develop as their needs arose. This model of development assured that each civilization would develop new technologies and not just copy what is already known, which would limit the extent of what might be possible. Due to the incursion into this Universe by the Strangers, this model would be modified.

Second Coalition Conference: All of the Coalition partners were spurred into action, each in its own way. But questions arose in the development process that needed answers. For instance, energy beams are formidable weapons. But what if the Strangers had developed a shield capable of neutralizing an energy beam? The problem was time and the amount of research it would take to overcome the problem posed by the possibility of that shielding. A lot of research was bogging down because of such questions. The tendency for most of the researchers was to 'what if' the problem into almost stopping progress on their research. So a second conference was initiated via the Gabrial communications link. It was during this conference that it was decided to take a joint look at such stalled projects and decide if collaboration would help expedite that project and perhaps enable it's offensive/defensive capability for the Coalition. A selected committee representing the scientific minds of the total coalition would discuss these projects. The evaluation process was concerned with the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed defensive or offensive system. When a project was approved, it meant that problems that were holding up the project could be looked at by the whole of the Coalition scientific world for possible solutions. This 'bottoms up' strategy took advantage of the more advanced civilizations. But the ideas and basic research emerged from the newer groups. This was an important first step towards formulating a defense against possible hostile actions by the Strangers.

Space Weapons: Because of the near vacuum of space, concussive weapons were not considered practical. Without a medium such as air to bolster the effect of such weapons, it was felt that these weapons would be of little value in a space battle. Projectile firing type weapons were not rejected, but were deemed a possible hazard to all ships in the area. Bullets or projectile trajectories were non-existent in space and once fired, without hitting their mark would become just another lethal piece of debris for some hapless ship to possibly encounter. What were considered the most promising were the energy weapons. There was a wide array of these weapons available and it was felt that with a little tweaking, at least one of them could be made to penetrate any shield the Strangers could devise.

The Energy Weapons

1.) Plasma Weapons: The most common form of energy weapons was the plasma bolt class. Depending on the amount of power used to deliver the plasma bolt, this weapon could do anything from small burn to incinerate. It was also thought that plasma weapons would be the easiest to shield against. Plasma weapons also are precise weapons. They only affect a small area, and damage is localized. Diffusing the plasma beam to cover a larger area helps but a wide beam plasma would require more power than would be available. Shielding from a plasma attack is a reversal of creating focused plasma. Focusing a plasma beam is done using a magnetic field. Since magnetism has such an effect on a plasma beam, the target ship can also use magnetism to diffuse the beam. The more the beam is diffused, the less damage it will do.

Plasma Beams as Missile Deflectors: Plasma beams have other uses though. Using a lower power version than that used by weapons, the plasma beam can exert enough force to deflect incoming missiles.

2.) Ion Particle Weapons: Ion beams literally hose a stream of alpha particles to the target. A continuous bombardment of an Ion beam erodes into the strongest metal. These weapons are not meant for long range, but are certainly effective on those closer targets.

3.) The Anti-Matter Photon Device: A relatively new weapon. It takes advantage of the photon emissions from the collision of positrons and electrons. A positron generator charges each one of these sophisticated devices. The field generators built into each device create powerful fields that keep the positrons isolated until time for ignition. Ignition means the collapse of the field that confines the positrons. Once released these anti-matter particles begin an orgy of annihilation releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process. When the Photon Device is released from the ship, plasma beams guide and accelerate these devices to their intended target. These weapons are very dangerous and are only available in the remote-controlled ships.

4.) Weapons Grade Lasers: An older weapon, but very effective at longer ranges. This weapon suffers the same problem as with the plasma weapons though and that is the small area of damage done to the target.

Home World Defense: The Coalition was aware that the Strangers might get through their first line of defense and carry the battle to the surface of the populated worlds. The ground campaigns would be fought with projectile, sound, and explosive devices. Work was underway on all inhabited worlds to excavate large deep underground shelters just in case they might be needed. The underground complexes were truly extraordinary. They were designed to house all of the populace on a long-term basis. Once these excavations were occupied, they were to be sealed to the outside world with only their exterior sensors to monitor what was happening. These shelters were fully facilitated with the necessary ability for manufacturing and mining of essential raw materials. These were a determined people.

Good Plans Dashed: In their latest report, the Gabrial reported that one of their semaphores had gone silent. This bit of news really unsettled everybody because they knew how reliable the devices were that the Gabrial made and used. Still calm, the Gabrial sent out an Interstellar Scout to investigate the silent semaphore. What they discovered really sent an icy chill down everyone's spine. It was then that they realized just how fruitless their preparations had been.

Installment 20: This concludes Installment 20. Please join us for installment 21 to learn the Scouts report on the silent semaphore. That report created a whole new direction in preparing for an encounter that was looking more and more like this was no peaceful ventures that the Strangers were on.

History of the Future: Installment 21

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 07/30/2007 The Semaphores

Installment 21: The Semaphore

The Semaphore System: As soon as advanced life was detected in one of our twelve neighboring Universes, the Gabrial set up interstellar communicating semaphores in the Galaxies adjacent to that Universe. The semaphores were installed on four planets of four different suns in the perimeter of each of these Galaxies. Altogether there were over 6000 of these semaphores distributed throughout the leading edge of the Universe that could detect ship movement and speed. Since a ship was undetectable while warping, the detectors were placed so that ships could be detected before jumping into time warp.

Strangers Detected: One of those semaphores detected the intrusion of the Strangers from the other Universe. Strangely, they were traveling at speeds that were normal for non-warping vessels. The semaphores dutifully recorded the ships progress along with other data such as the material that the ships were made of, the type of propulsion trail left by the ships and any detectable communications from the vessels.

Semaphore Data: From the data received, we knew that the ships were metallic, and the propulsion trail indicated an Ion Discharge type. The exact type could not be determined because there are numerous conventional propulsion types that leave this type of discharge. No communications were detected between the vessels.

Dead Semaphore: It had never happened that a semaphore went silent. It wasn't impossible, but it had never happened before. The one that went silent was busily reporting on the alien ship activity when it just quit. Suspicious, the Gabrial sent a robotic interstellar Scout to determine the cause of the silence. Upon arrival to the location of the dead semaphore, it immediately sent findings back to the Gabrial. Not only had the semaphore disappeared, the planet it was installed on had disappeared with it. The scout ship then turned its sensors to the Alien Fleet, and began to relay their activities when the Scout went silent.

Capable Defenders: The semaphores are not just passive onlookers, but are also capable of a rigorous offense. However, the only way a semaphore can mount an attack is to detect some form of hostile action directed at it. Whenever any semaphore is attacked, the entire system is considered under attack and collectively responds to the attacker. But this was not the case with the missing planet and semaphore. No attack was detected so the system remained in a passive mode.

Speculation: This turn of events put everyone on edge. Did these Strangers have the capabilities to just vaporize a planet? The Scout did not detect any hostile action before falling silent. Did the Scout meet with the same fate as the planet of the semaphore?

Underground Cities: Confidence in the underground systems went to just about zero whenever the word of an ability to vaporize a planet spread. Still, nobody knew exactly what had befallen the planet, so with that little glimmer of hopeful ignorance, the work continued on the underground domains.

The Scientists: Many of the Coalition scientists privately felt like disintegration of a planet would have been detected. It would have taken an enormous amount of energy to accomplish such a feat. And since such an energy discharge wasn't reported by any of the other semaphores, then the planets disappearance became a real mystery. The general assumption was that the Aliens had somehow cloaked the planet, but not knowing exactly what had happened to it, all they could do was guess.

Several Scouts: The Gabrial then started warping in scouts in and around the Alien Fleet. Each one was able to glean a little information before disappearing. By chance one to the scouts actually found itself in the small vortex of a communications warp between two of the vessels and reported that fact back before disappearing. This information was huge. Now we knew that these Strangers did have Interstellar ability, and were using it to communicate locally between vessels. This information also explained why the semaphores detected no communications.

The Silent Semaphore: It can now be deducted that the same thing had alerted the alien fleet to the missing semaphore. One of their ships must have cut into the communications vortex of the semaphore thus exposing it to the aliens. Since the signal would have immediately stopped upon an intrusion, backtracking to its location would have been impossible. So they took out the whole planet to squelch the communications that they had detected. They might have even thought that they had destroyed one of the inhabited worlds of this Universe. And of course one could reasonably draw the conclusion that the Strangers acted in self-defense by mistaking the communications vortex as an aggressive act.

No Immediate Response: The Coalition decided on a wait, see attitude, and continue with their preparations. There was still much to be done, and if these intruders were indeed hostile, it was better to be fully prepared. Besides we needed to learn more about these Strangers if we were to be successful against them. Striking prematurely on an enemy without an understanding of his capabilities could be disastrous. The Gabrial agreed to distribute many more semaphores in an effort to maintain eyes on the Strangers movement.

Latest Data: The Strangers are occupied with the exploration of the first Galaxy that they have encountered. There have been a lot of trips made into and around this Galaxy. Yet we don't know what their intentions are but they seem intent on thoroughly investigating this Galaxy. The Gabrial call this Galaxy E-427-B, which designates it as one of the 600 galaxies along the edge of the neighboring B-Universe. The B-Universe is the only Universe of the twelve bordering our Universe that life has been detected.

Installment 21: Please join us for installment 22. How will the Coalition react to a second large fleet of ships that was detected moving in from the B-Universe? What does it all mean? What information from a Tanlo seeding expedition will determine the type of tactics that will be employed by the Coalition?

History of the Future: Installment 22

Science Fiction Serial for Wednesday 08/01/2007 The Tanlo

Tanlo Explorations

Not Forgotten: It was 80 odd years ago that the Tanlo sent out an expedition to explore and find a candidate for seeding. This was their first attempt at exploring the stars within their home Galaxy that were not their immediate neighbors. The Galaxy of the Tanlo was a two-armed pinwheel shaped Galaxy rather than a spiral shaped one. Both their home world Moso and adopted planet Nanco were in the same arm of the pinwheel. Little was known about the stars in the opposite arm of this Galaxy. So it was with great fanfare that the expedition left Nanco to explore the stars in the opposite arm of their Galaxy.

Expedition a Success: The expedition found a likely seeding candidate after 68 years of exploration. Finding the planet brought up the old arguments questioning the reasoning of seeding. Seeding wasn't always the norm for species expansion. The history of the Gabrial points out the problems with establishing co-equal colonies.

Why Seed:

Seeding vs. Colonization: During the early years after the emergence of the Gabrial, the first planet that they could inhabit was colonized. The success of this colonization led to a second world being colonized. But trouble wasn't far off. It wasn't long before the first colony wanted to be independent of the Parent and was soon aggressively posturing against both the Parent and their sibling. Quibbling was the norm. The two colonies argued between themselves and with their parent. Arguments over who had the rights to newly found planets, the right of domain over sections of the Galaxy, and finally, over sovereignty.

War! The parent Gabrial was forced into a war with its own. It was a long and bitter fight with the rebellious colony defeated. Their planet was made uninhabitable, and their surviving people banished. They also took control of the second colony because the sun for their home world was threatening to nova and time did not favor exploring and finding a new world to inhabit.

Learning Experience: The mass migration to their second colony world was the enabler for the idea of seeding. Transporting all of the creatures on the old world was out of the question, so they decided to take the DNA of these creatures and get them to restart on the colonial planet. It took a lot of DNA manipulation to get the organisms to be successful on the new planet. The experience gained from salvaging the creatures from their old world led to the idea of seeding. The idea of creating biospheres on suitable planets to nurture life was seen as a much better way to establish their kind rather than go through possible annihilation by warfare with co-equal colonies.

Agreement: All of the emerged people agreed with the Gabrial about seeding. They had their histories to look at with colonies and the turmoil for supremacy. Nobody wanted to go through the pain of colonization knowing that the outcome of such ventures would end in violence.

Tanlo Explorers:

Tanlo discovery: The communication streams of the Tanlo explorers were full of glowing details about their discovery. This new world was perfect. It had all of the requisites for seeding, water, minerals, reasonable gravity and mild tolerable climate. The Sun was young with billions of years of life left, and the solar disk was somewhat stable.

Startling Revelation: The radio communications took at least 7 years to be received by the Tanlo home world, but the most recent message from the explorers spoke of a planet just materializing out of nowhere and was captured by one of the stars nearby to their newly discovered planet. This information was passed on to the Coalition.

Agreement: The matter of placing one of the Gabrial interstellar communications satellite in orbit around the new Tanlo planet was quickly agreed to. The Gabrial also wanted to examine the system where the planet had just 'appeared'.

Utter Silence: Attempts to communicate with the Strangers were for naught. The Coalition tried to communicate over the entire spectrum radio frequencies and all interstellar means. The Strangers remained mute. Their intentions still unknown after ten years of watching them explore E-427-B. The situation got even more unnerving after another large fleet of ships from the B Universe was detected. This fleet was on a heading that would take it to Galaxy E-014-B, another of the Galaxies along the edge of the border with Universe B.

Installment 22: Please join us for installment 23. The Gabrial explore the strange planet that appeared near that Tanlo exploration expedition. Will we be any closer to finding out what the Strangers are up to? Will they ever acknowledge the Coalition's communications?

Robert welcomes your comment to this or any other of my daily commentaries.
Comment Here About This Serial, Thanks, Robert Gross Back

History of the Future: Installment 23

Science Fiction Serial for Monday 08/06/2007 Who Are the Strangers?

Installment 23: Investigation of a Planet

Interstellar Scouts: Those warping workhorses of the Gabrial soon arrived at the Tanlo discovery location and set up an interstellar communications satellite. The scout then turned its attention to the other part of its mission, and that was the investigation of the planet that just 'appeared' in this Galaxy. It should be noted that the Galaxy that the Tanlo called home was physically very close to the center of the Home Universe. The co-ordinate system of interstellar communication and ship movement are all calculated from the Universal center or origin of the sphere if you will. The hypothetical origin point in the universe was the constant for all vector points. Entered into the computers for warp travel, a destination of 0', 0', 0' would take you to the approximate location of the Galaxy of the Tanlo. The Gabrial refer to that galaxy as C-000-H (C for center Region, Galaxy Number, Home Universe).

The Mysterious Planet: The scout found the wayward planet in a slightly elliptical orbit about 5 angstrom units from a giant red sun. To the astonishment of the Gabrial, this planet held the semaphore that went silent. The semaphore was still ok; it just didn't have the proper co-ordinates needed to communicate. Having a semaphore here was a good idea if the Strangers were going to be using this site as a dumping ground for their warping activities. This type of semaphore was excellent for reporting the warping incidents and the items sent here. So the semaphore was re-programmed with the correct co-ordinates and returned to service. From this vantage point, it could report on any warping activity into this area.

Planets Orbit: It was obvious that the planet had been in orbit since the day the semaphore went dead, so with a few calculations it was determined exactly where the planet appeared in this galaxy. The scout went to the location of appearance and discovered the missing drone scouts that they had launched into the midst of the Strangers fleet. The question became one of why teleport to here?

Missed Target? Other than relocation, the warping of the planet and those scouts did no damage to them. The semaphore only went silent because it couldn't find any receptor to send to. In other words it was lost. The Gabrial treated their findings as confidential. They were of the mind that these objects were not supposed to be found -- ever. The location of the teleported objects made the Gabrial suspicious about the Strangers.

Past War: Long ago at the time of the war with that rebellious colony, the accepted theory was that a "Super Sun" was at the center of the Universe. This super sun was thought to be an area of super dense matter from which light couldn't escape. A giant black hole that was massive enough to exert influence on all matter of the Universe. An area that had such gravity that an ordinary atom is reduced to its atomic particles and so compact that these particles were not free but tightly compacted together. But the facts proved otherwise. The Strangers probably thought that they were sending those objects to total destruction into a massive black hole.

The Lucerne

Banished Colony: The remnants of the rebellious colony the 'Lucerne' made it to Galaxy E-427-B and made a recovery of sorts. Just knowing that the Gabrial would soon discover their planet in E-427-B, they had put all their resources into finding a way to enter Universe B. What they learned through observation was that periodically the two Universes actually touched and for a short time frame offered no opposition to travel between the two. Travel at any other time was impossible. The period for travel between the two Universes was not at regular intervals; you had to just go when the opportunity presented itself. And so it was that in small convoys the Lucerne made their way into Universe B.

New World: It took decades for the travelers to finally find a world that they could inhabit. What kept them motivated was hate. Vowing revenge to one-day strike back at the Gabrial gave them the strength to face the incredible hardships that they endured after their defeat.

Installment 23: This concludes installment 23. Please join us for installment 24 and learn more about the Lucerne. Learn how they acquired the technology that they were counting on for the annihilation of the Gabrial.

Serial for Thursday 08/09/2007 The Lucerne

History of the Future: Installm ent 24
Perils of the Lucerne

Banished: After their loss in the attempt to dominate the emerged peoples of the Gabrial, the surviving people of Colony 1, which was named Lucerne, were forced to leave their home world. The war had been so bitter and so many lives were lost, the Gabrial were not in the mood for any sort of treaty.

Escorted: The Gabrial escorted the Lucerne to the edge of the Galaxy with a strong warning to not ever return.

Dazed and Bitter: The rag tag fleet of the Lucerne limped on for several years until they came upon Galaxy E-427-B. There they sent several scouts in an effort to locate a world they could recover on. These explorations lasted several more years before they found a suitable planet. Not surprising they called the new planet Lucerne-2.

Settling In: The new planet was pleasant enough, but nothing came easy to them. They had to set up mining and smelting operation for metals in pressure suits because the oxygen was too thin to support life. Using the materials that they produced on this new planet, they were able to build domes that they could live in. It took 5 years to build the first dome. There was rejoicing from the first groups of people to get off the ships that had been their home for so long.

Gravity Woes: Although the gravity was less than the world that they left, it still presented monumental problems for them. Not the least was the fact that they only had a few ships with centrifugal chambers to imitate and acclimate the settlers to the gravity they would face. It was a painfully slow process and words can't describe their frustration from enduring the confines of having to live on board a space ship for over a hundred years.

Paranoid: Their sensors detected ships that belonged to the Gabrial on two occasions. On both occasions they managed to hunker down without revealing their location to the Gabrial. But they knew they were lucky and it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. The Lucerne was fearful of being discovered while they were so vulnerable. They had no weapons. The Gabrial had stripped them of all means for fighting. So after settling in, one of their first tasks was to rearm. Even though it had been over 120 years since their defeat, they dreamed of revenge.

Galaxy E-014-B: It was the fear of being discovered that the Lucerne decided to refit half of their fleet and send it on a mission to a nearby Galaxy to settle on. Completely refurbished, the fleet set out. During their voyage to E-014-B they sent a message back to Lucerne-2 that they had found the edge of the Universe. They couldn't penetrate it but they could tell that another Universe was near. (It should be noted that at the time of the Lucerne banishment, these Galaxies were only seen and carried different names than those given above.)

Another Universe: It was this message about another Universe that motivated the Lucerne. They built and out fitted two ships to be research vessels. These vessels were to tackle the problem of reaching the other Universe. They would travel to the Universe edge and begin research on how to penetrate the edges to permit passage into the neighboring Universe. In those two ships went some of the best scientists that the Lucerne had to offer.

Universe Edge: The edge of the Universe was not like the edge of an egg. It turned out to be a force field that resisted all attempts to penetrate it. They tried their energy weapons on it only to have the discharged energy absorbed into the force field. They tried ramming it with a high-speed scout to no avail. Resigned to the fact that they were not going to be able to physically force their way past the force field, they settled down to do real research. A major breakthrough came when the researchers invented and made a detection device capable of sensing the force field. That device gave them their first indication that the Universe edge had a slight motion to it.

Break Through: The motion of the force field was not rhythmic, nor could the motion be predicted. So the scientists kept a close watch to look for any anomaly that might be useful to their research. All of a sudden, it seemed as if their ships were under attack from large pieces of matter. The bombardment was so severe that they had to activate the shields and retreat from the edge. Just as suddenly, the matter shower ended and one scientist noticed that he could no longer detect the force field. They were looking straight into the other Universe.

Scout Launched: Sensing that this was an important event, they launched a scout ship into the opening. It was if the scout was in free space, it passed right through the opening into the other Universe.

Installment 24: This concludes Installment 24. Join with us for more of the adventures of the Lucerne and their preparations to strike the Gabrial.

Robert welcomes your comment to this or any other of my daily commentaries.
Comment Here About This Serial, Thanks, Robert Gross Back

Serial for Monday 08/13/2007 The Lucerne Cont.

History of the Future: Installment 25
Perils of the Lucerne--part 2

Energy into Matter: When the 2 Universes contact each other, the Lucerne deducted that the conflict of the energy fields somehow was able to create matter. Nothing else could explain the sudden barrage of material from the collision site of the two Universes. There was a benefit to the phenomenon though, the signature of the matter creation was easy to detect, and make finding the gateway into the other Universe a simple affair.

Gateway Closings: The worry now was whether the gateway would stay open long enough to be useful. Additionally, they needed to know if there were any warnings when it did close.

Fateful Decision: After a long and bitter debate, the Lucerne decided to once again load into their ships and make their way into the other Universe. Their paranoia of being discovered was in the forefront of the Lucerne thinking. The fondest desire of the Lucerne was to have a place to regroup and plot their revenge on the Gabrial. They knew that if they were to be discovered, it would be hard to mask their intentions since they would be under constant surveillance. That hate for the Gabrial drove them back into their ships where they awaited the opening of the Gateway. The Gateway closed and opened twice while they were poised to go through, but eventually they all made it. The cost in time was enormous, as it took over 60 Earth years to make the crossing into Universe B.

Universe B: Universe B looked exactly like their home Universe. Knowing about the strange matter creation along the Universe boundaries probably explained the presence of the clumps of Galaxies that were in close proximity to these boundaries. It was theorized that the matter collected over time and formed these Galaxies. One such Galaxy was near the boundary where the Lucerne entered Universe B. It was during their explorations of this Galaxy that they discovered that this Universe already had inhabitants.

Ship Disappears: One minute the fleet was intact, and just like that, the command ship just vanished. The Lucerne didn't know what to make of this event. At first, the thought occurred to them that they were close to another gateway, and that their lead ship had inadvertently traveled back across the portal to the home Universe. They were completely oblivious to the 'Others' who were watching and had them under observation since the first scout ventured into this Universe.

Meet the Churum

The Churum: Caution dictated the actions of the Churum. They wanted very much to communicate with these intruders, but wanted to do so without the intruders going into panic and resort to using weapons. Simultaneously the Churum teleported the lead vessel and disabled the energy weapons on board the vessel. The Vessel was teleported to their home world of Lasdi where the Churum could meet these strangers, learn of their history and try to calm any fears that the intruders may have. The Churum were a benevolent and very old race that predated the Gabrial. They were physically very similar to the Lucerne, bi-pedal with the ability to communicate via thought. They didn't have a language as the humans would define it, but communication was very efficient using mental imagery. They had no problem communicating with the Lucerne since the Lucerne also used mental imagery for communications.

Lucerne Startled: One minute they were with the fleet and then the fleet just disappeared, or did they? Gravity had returned and the ship was not moving. All of their instruments indicated that they were on a planet. What trickery was this? They took air samples and found this atmosphere could support life. This was just unbelievable; they had been light years from the nearest planet and in an instant, were on a planet. When they scanned outside of the ship, the fear that they were experiencing was multiplied. Outside the ship was a strange but graceful city.

Imagery: Immediately after the shock of being on this planet subsided, everyone aboard was commanded to exit the ship. All received the same mental images of them leaving the ship, and at the same time a warmth of caring was nuanced in with the command to leave. The mental images had included a vision of this strange race posturing in a peaceful, welcoming manner.

No Choice: With no control over their ship, and a feeling of no hope, they opened the ship's external doors and walked out. The sight of the Churum city was awe-inspiring. The air was sweet and fresh and gave the visiting Lucerne a warm welcome feeling. Two large pillars stood nearby and they were instructed to walk between them to be transported to a place for their first meeting with the Churum. Fearful at first, but the Churum sent reassuring images of themselves being transported without harm. So bolstering up their courage they walked into the transport field.

Installment 25: This concludes Installment 25. Join with us for more of the adventures of the Lucerne and their meetings with the Churum.

Serial for Friday 08/17/2007 The Lucerne Meet the Churum

History of the Future: Installment 26
Perils of the Lucerne -- part 3

Teleported: They felt nothing, no acceleration nor movement of any kind, one moment walking between two pillars, and - poof - they were instantly in a large room. The Lucerne, definitely impressed with the technology, took stock of their surroundings. They were surrounded by strange beings seated above and around the area that they occupied. The crew of the Hoat just stood there passively waiting for whatever was next.

From Kolor the Chronicler: "Being a human, I can only detail this meeting in human terms. The complex imagery that was used for communications between the Lucerne and the Churum would have been beyond my ability to describe. Had the Mycelam not related the events of that meeting to the Gabrial, the Coalition would have been unaware of what happened there. Ayel, a Gabrial Historian shared the information with me in human terms. It should also be noted that communicating nonverbally or mentally does not mean mind reading. Thoughts have to be directed at those who you wish to communicate, much as if you are verbally talking to someone. Private thoughts were still private."

Surprised: The Churum just stared at the Lucern for a moment. They were very much taken aback by the physical similarities of the Lucern to themselves. They had the same bipedal form and stature. Actually they could pass for being a Churum. It was immediately apparent that somehow, they had the same beginnings. Questions about the beginnings of the Churum had always been the subject of open debate. Now, here in this room was an opportunity to explore a few more pieces of the origination of life. The meeting between the Lucerne and the Churum started with a warm greeting.

The Meeting: The Churum asked the obvious question about the presence of the Lucerne in this Universe. According to the Churum, the Lucerne stated that they were victims being pursued by an evil race. The Gabrial had attacked their home world (Lucerne) and in spite of a heroic defense, they were unable to stop the invaders. Fearing the unknown less than their pursuers, they entered the Universe of the Churum. They portrayed the Gabrial as evil and a scourge that they wanted to eliminate. The tale they told was convincing to the Churum. In fact, the Churum were so sympathetic with the Lucerne, they gave the Lucerne permission to settle on a world in the Galaxy that the Lucerne was exploring. After the initial exchanges, the meeting became more cordial and they began visiting and exchanging knowledge about their different histories.

Technology: It was during this meeting that the Lucerne asked about the teleportation technology. The Churum deliberated and were noncommittal about sharing their technology, but did agree to an interstellar communications device so that the Lucerne could ask for help in case the evil Gabrial wanted to invade this Universe. The tale told by the Lucerne was so convincing, that the Churum more or less adopted them. By default, with the offer of an interstellar communicator, the Churum were accepting responsibility for the defense of the Lucerne.

Churum History: The two races related similar tales about their beginnings. However, the Lucerne fudged their history about being a colony of the Gabrial, and instead told a tale of their emergence from biological beginnings and interpreted by the Churum to mean that they independently emerged from their biological cocoon. The Churum related their story straightforward with no embellishments. The Churum were unsure as to their beginnings. As most of Churum history was lost with their original world. They were sure though that they had been created by a great race they called the "One". They had great life spans that grew with each successive generation, until they experience no natural death at all now. Colonizing was also an issue with the Churum. The Sun of their original Colony world Mysalin suffered a magnetic storm that caused it to flare. Everyone on the planet was killed. Billions were lost in one great catastrophe. Suns flare all the time, but usually only in their last days. But this particular sun flared while it was still relatively young. Maybe it was just happenstance, but it was a lesson the Churum would not forget.

Churum World: The world Lasdi, was important to the Churum. Lasdi was the seat of their government. The residents of Lasdi represented the entire outpost of the Churum. Because of their past experience with an unpredictable star flaring, population is strictly controlled. Losing literally billions of your people at one stroke does get attention. At the present, the Churum inhabit literally thousands of worlds, none of which contain a large population. Once a population reaches 500 Million, they find another world suitable to establish another outpost. Suitable planets are relatively plentiful. The number of planets both good and bad in a Galaxy is in the billions, but few hundred are OK for habitation. At the time of the interface with the Lucerne, the Churum had only explored about 200 of the several billions of Galaxies in Universe B.

DNA Samples: The Churum was keenly interested in the very similar appearance of their respective races, asked the Lucerne for a DNA sample. They wanted to compare their DNA with that of the Lucerne. Even though the Lucerne thought it strange, they submitted DNA to the Churum.

Anxious: The Lucerne was beside themselves to return to their fleet. So with agreement all around, the crew of the Hoat was transported back to their ship along with the interstellar communicator that had been promised by the Churum. After reentering their ship and making it space-worthy again, they were transported to the exact spot that they had been teleported from earlier.

Installment 26: This concludes installment 26. Please join us for the next installment. I hope that you are enjoying the story.

Serial for Wednesday 08/22/2007 The Lucern Find a Home

History of the Future: Installment 27
Perils of the Lucerne -- part 4

Teleported: The rest of the fleet was still within scan range when the Hoat was returned. There was a flurry of communications as the Lucerne was trying to come to grips with what had happened. There was also a measured amount of despondency over the knowledge that there was a technologically superior race in the Universe.

Search for a Planet: The emphasis on finding a new planet to settle on in this Galaxy was even more important. The assurances by the Churum to help if somehow the Gabrial had followed them into this Universe gave the Lucerne some comfort. Their thinking about the Gabrial was not founded on anything except hysteria and hate. Any logical thinker would have already deducted that the Gabrial could have already easily destroyed them when they were evicted from their old home world of Lucerne. The search effort for a candidate planet was serious. The Lucerne dispatched over a thousand ships into different parts of the Galaxy to locate a world that they could settle on. The search looked as though it was going to be slow going. They used their fastest ships in the search, but even with the speedy craft searching, they calculated that it would take a long time.

Churum Help: The interstellar communicator that the Churum had mounted on the command ship Hoat came to life. The Churum had already explored this Galaxy and knew of several planets that could be used. Also, the Churum wanted to help these strangers. The DNA samples given by the Lucerne clearly showed a kinship between the two peoples. The idea of Cosmic relatives intrigued the Churum and increased their willingness to aid them.

New World: It happened just by coincidence, but one of the explorer ships reported a suitable planet about the same time as the Churum were passing suitable world locations to the Lucerne. It was important because the Lucerne did not want to be obligated to the Churum. So they gave their thanks and told the Churum that help wasn't necessary, as they had already found a planet. It was not a big event, but the Churum felt snubbed in their effort to help.

A Pearl: It took the Lucerne fleet another 5 years to make the trip to the new planet. The planet was beautiful. It was all they could have asked for and then some. The water was sweet and well distributed, it was rich in minerals, and had an agreeable gravity. The atmosphere was made up of Nitrogen and Oxygen mainly and the climate was mild. They would not have to build generators for Oxygen as they could breathe the air just fine. Having an agreeable atmosphere also meant that building large domes was unnecessary. This planet was a pearl among worlds.

Settling In: Settling in on the new planet took much less time than normal. This was due to the breathable atmosphere. Breathable atmospheres have proven to be rare in the Cosmos. Within three years most of the dwellings had been built and sustenance mining was underway. They built a huge scientific research center to further their science along. They felt intimidated by the advanced Churum and wanted desperately to close the gap.

Split Community: Due to the slow speed of their ships, traveling anywhere in the cosmos took too long. Many of their citizens had grown too weak to function on a gravity-laden planet. The effort to rebuild stamina, bone mass and strength was just too much for them. As a result, two societies emerged, one that lived on the surface of New Lucerne, and another in space. The space dwellers built a very elaborate facility that was home to them. One of the facilities of the space-bound Lucerne was a large physical rehab unit that was used to condition all offspring to gravity. These conditioned space dwellers made the supply runs to and from the planet. Their population growth was small but steady. After a few decades, it was their burgeoning population that created the rift with the planet bound Lucerne. The ever-increasing need for supplies was putting a strain on planet resources.

Technical Achievements: Prior to the rift between the two societies, they did make some remarkable advances in several categories. One such category was in space ship propulsion. The new propulsion system allowed speeds approaching the speed of light. However, physically traveling that fast presented a lot of other problems like maneuvering, slowing, and collision threats with space artifacts. Two of the ships equipped with the new drive were lost during test flights. The result of these loses meant that physically traveling that fast in space was impractical. However the new drives were more efficient than their original drives so they adapted the technology, they just put limits on how fast they could travel.

The Interstellar Communicators: The failure of their scientists to find an answer to getting around in space faster, had cast a cloud of self-doubt over the Lucerne. It was during this period that one of the scientists had the bright idea to see what made the interstellar communicator work. For sure, this device was conquering the great expanse of space, and if they could figure out how it worked, that knowledge might help solve their transportation problems.

Installment 27: This concludes installment 27. Please join us for the next installment. I hope that you are enjoying the story.

To be Continued---

Serial for Monday 08/27/2007 The Split

History of the Future: Installment 28
Perils of the Lucerne -- part 5

Story of the Split: "Ayel, the Gabrial historian related the following events to me as told by the Mycelam to the Gabrial."
Kolor the Chronicler

Choosing Life in Space: Rather than go through the laborious process of adjusting to gravity, several of the Lucerne chose to remain in space. There was agreement all around and things worked out fine in the early years. They were the vanguard of defense of New Lucerne, high in synchronous orbit around the planet; their position in space gave them an advantage when it came to the defense of the planet.

Space City: Construction for space station additions was necessary for additional spaceports to handle the increase in supply ships, dwellings for an increasing population and training facilities to acclimate those who would be interacting with gravity traveling to and from the surface. Their city grew larger each year of its existence. It only took a couple of decades to grow large enough to be seen from the surface of New Lucerne. The surface dwellers came to refer to the space dwellers as moon people or Mycelam (pronounced My- kell-um). The name stuck in spite of efforts by the space city dwellers to reject the moniker.

Friction Begins: Time passing saw population increases both in space and on the surface. It didn't take long for squabbles to erupt over resources. The space city was consuming so much that the skies were filled with their supply ships. Meetings were held, and it was suggested to the Mycelam that they should use one of the neighboring planets for supplies. This idea was rejected out of hand because of the time it would take to make the round trip to another planet and because it meant a long laborious project to build domes for mining operations. So for the time being, the idea of establishing another planet for mining and smelting operations was tabled, but not forgotten.

An Appeal: Without the knowledge of the Lucerne, the Mycelam requested the position of one of those other planets suitable for habitation from the Churum. They described their predicament to the Churum and their fears that the Lucerne would eventually deny them the supplies they needed. Sensing that the appeal for help was genuine, the Churum offered help.

Churum Proposal: The proposal took even the Mycelam by surprise. The Churum offered to teleport the entire city to a good planet if the Mycelam would pledge loyalty to the Churum. The loyalty pledge meant that they would literally become Churum, give up on the idea of revenge, and help with exploring. There was much debate over the proposal, but upon hearing the DNA evidence that linked them to the Churum, the Mycelam began to think differently about the proposal. They reflected on their Gabrial beginnings with a realistic examination of why they were fugitives in the first place. In the end it was decided that the proposal from the Churum was worth accepting. The idea of reconciliation with the Gabrial was also left open for discussion. This was heady stuff, and a mystery. Why did the Churum want or need help with exploration?

The Lucerne: Nearly desperate to quit losing resources, the Lucerne made the fateful decision to deny entry to the supply ships of the Mycelam. They knew that this would force a showdown with the Mycelam, but they were prepared. They had been able to secretly build a fleet of ships and hide them on their moon. In short, the Lucerne was armed to the teeth, and was willing to go to war with their own kind -- again.

Missing Supply Ships: Strange! The Mycelam ships didn't come. The entire space city had disappeared from view. The first thought that leaped into the minds of the Lucern was that the Mycelam had finally unlocked the secrets of the interstellar communicator and decoded the problem of interstellar space travel. It was the only viewpoint that made sense. The Lucerne knew that the Mycelam didn't have enough supplies for them to undertake a space voyage to find another planet, much less hold out until they could begin utilizing its minerals. They unlocked the secret of the communicator. It was the only answer.

Churum Point of View: In a later discussion with the Mycelam, the Churum told them about the Lucerne arms build up. They had installed a semaphore on the moon of New Lucerne and were monitoring communications. They were able to discern that there was tension building between those on the surface and those in space. The Churum were especially alarmed when the Lucerne started hiding warships on the moon. These ships were not scouts, but fully armed vessels. Although these vessels were no threat to the Churum, they represented a calamitous threat to those in the space city. Also, they had learned that one of the main objects of an attack was to retrieve the Interstellar Communicator installed on the Hoat. The Lucerne was consumed with ambition built on hatred. Nothing, not even attacking their brothers in space was out of bounds if it would further their cause of revenge.

Satisfied:In the end they were pleased to receive the honest plea for help from the Mycelam. They weren't sure how, but felt strongly that the Mycelam were ideally suited for exploring their neighboring Universe. The Churum also had an ultimate goal, to find the One. The One was the original seeder of the Churum and, according to the DNA results, these other races as well. Searching for the One was their obsession.

Serial for Thursday 08/30/2007 A New Beginning

History of the Future: Installment 29
The Mycelam -- A New Beginning

The New World: Most of the Mycelam were surprised by the relocation of their 'Space City'. They felt no acceleration or movement of any kind. Yet, here they were in orbit around a planet with no idea of where they were. They knew that the relocation was going to happen, it wasn't what they were anticipating. The new planet looked like it would be all right, and there were at least two moons that they could see reflecting the light of a rather medium sized yellow sun.

The Planet: The Planet was somewhat smaller than 'New Lucerne' and the gravity was less. The fact that gravity wasn't going to be as big an issue raised everybody's spirits. Water seemed to be abundant but the oxygen levels were low. Low oxygen levels meant domes. Not that domes were bad, it was just another obstacle to overcome before mining and smelting operations could get underway. Mining for minerals was the inescapable consequence of a non-biological diet. The refinement of minerals into food was approximately a hundred - to - one ratio. One hundred tons of minerals translated into 1 ton of material that could be processed into something edible. Fortunately, the food needs of the people were minimal; it was still a concern to take care of. The estimate was that there were at least enough supplies on board for another hundred or so years.

Worked Hard: The Mycelam went to work building temporary mining facilities on the surface and set up manufacturing wings in their Space City. Minerals and metal ores were brought into the giant maws of the spaceport and delivered to the manufacturing plants. It was here in those manufacturing plants that they made the pieces and parts for the new domes. Their planners for the domes took into consideration that these domes would be the residences for parts of their population at all times.

Settling In: Wanting to avoid the conflicts like the one between themselves and the Lucerne, nobody would reside on the surface permanently. Everyone that could withstand the rigors of gravity had to spend some time on the surface. The leadership worked out the timing intervals for the rotation of personnel. Rotating the workforce on the surface denied anyone a claim on the surface. In the end, the Mycelam remained space dwellers and the planet surface became just a work place. Their 'Space City' continued to grow and prosper.

Visitors: The Mycelam were well on their way to establishing themselves at the new planet when they got a visit from the Churum. The Churum space ship just appeared out side their spaceport and signaled their desire for a meeting with the leaders of the Mycelam. For their part, the Mycelam were generous in their welcome to the Churum. They admired these technologically advanced people and looked upon the Churum as older brothers - in a manner of speaking.

The Mycelam Come Clean: It was during this meeting that the Mycelam owned up to the truth about their war with the Gabrial and how they and the Gabrial were all the same people. They also admitted that the Gabrial did not seek war, it was the leadership of the Lucerne who gambled on war. Their defeat at the hands of the Gabrial was a bitter pill for them to swallow and the Lucerne swore revenge upon the Gabrial. They told the Churum the truth about how why they came to this Universe.

Churum Surprised: Nothing about the war between the Lucerne and the Gabrial was surprising, but to learn that the only reason they came to this Universe was to prepare for war undetected by the Gabrial made the Churum feel as though they had been used. Next, the Churum asked about the interstellar communicator and why they hadn't received the message of their impending visit. The answer was simple. Before the space city was teleported, the captain of the Hoat was a Lucerne loyalist and had returned to New Lucerne with the communicator in tow.

Fears of Reverse Engineering: The admissions of the Mycelam led the Churum to believe that the Lucerne would be trying to discover the secrets to interstellar communication and travel. It also explained why the communicator was not receiving their messages. More than likely, the Lucerne had taken the thing apart and attempting to reverse engineer the technology. If they were successful, it meant that the Churum was responsible for allowing the technology to escape their purview and possibly inflict great harm to another race. The Churum were upset over the duplicity.

Communication Restored: After long meetings with the Mycelam, the Churum was satisfied that they were trustworthy. Knowing that the Lucerne was producing armed vessels in large quantity, that it would be better if the Mycelam had some defenses. This new planet wasn't far from New Lucerne and would be discovered, so they made sure that a new communicator was installed. Next they advised the Mycelam to start planning a defense in case the Lucerne came looking for trouble. If the Lucerne was willing to attack them once, they may still be looking for a fight just to hone their skills for combat before the anticipated rematch with the Gabrial.

Hate Guided: The Lucerne was irrationally guided by their hate for the Gabrial. Dominion over everybody was the long-range goal, even of the more advanced races. They remained convinced that their cause was just. They weren't mad at the Mycelam, they were just furious that the Mycelam found a way to blunt the plans that they had made. And for that reason, the Lucerne decided that the Mycelam was their enemy. Finding the Mycelam became top priority for the Lucerne.

Installment 29: This concludes installment 29. Please join us for the next installment. I hope that you are enjoying the story.

Serial for Monday 09/03/2007 A Sigh of Relief

History of the Future: Installment 30
The Humans -- A Sigh of Relief

On Siltus: Ever since the word of the strangers entering their Universe, the Human population was preparing for the worst. The subsurface labyrinth that they built was truly an impressive work. With the exception of the redoubts sprinkled all over the surface, the main tunnels were situated at least a mile deep. In some of the areas the Humans were able to take advantage of naturally occurring caverns and chambers, but for the most part, it was a slog to carve out enough space for the entire population. Parts of the underground were so hot that heat conducting pipes and surface radiators were necessary. The surface radiators were no more than scrap metal laced with the heat pipes from underground. All disguised to look like the phony man made flora that dotted the surface for aesthetics.

The Tunnels: Structurally sound, the tunnels were heavily reinforced to withstand the vibration of fusion weapons if such weapons were used. The large living and communal areas were lit in a way that mimicked the Sun rising and setting. Each underground city had the same manufacturing and retail capability found on the surface. All air and water was recycled and augmented from generators designed for that purpose. The usable accumulated waste generated by the city was recycled and the non-usable waste was taken to the atomic furnaces to be vaporized. The cities were connected together by a series of commuting tunnels for both passengers and products. And lastly, all connecting shafts to the surface could be secured with massive blast proof doors and a series of thermal barriers. There was a secondary line of defense set up with automated weapons to defend the shafts, should these shafts ever get breached.

Space Based Arms: There were 2 planets and 2 moons that the Humans were able to arm and base their fleets on. It was felt that they had a better chance of taking on an enemy if the ships and other defensive forces were located remotely from Siltus. These outposts were known as the Iron Ring of Arms or the Armanet.

Frantic Pace: The humans worked at a frantic pace to be ready in case of trouble. It only took them about 50 years to prepare as much as they could for the expected clash with the Strangers. What was on everybody's mind though, was what good was all of their efforts if their planet could just be annihilated. Wouldn't flight be the best course of action?

Coalition Meeting: The Gabrial summoned the leaders of the Coalition to an emergency session via secure communications link. It was this session that everyone learned who the Strangers were and what had become of the disappearing planet. However, the Gabrial had no answer to the problem of a weapon that could teleport objects away. The Gabrial ships could travel by means of teleportation, but the Gabrial did not possess the ability to project their time zeroing vortex at another object to transport that object to another destination. Their scientists were working on the problem, but so far were unable to solve the problem.

Teleport Shield: The ability to thwart a missile attack by teleporting the missile away presented other problems. In the destination area, there might be friendly ships that were also teleported; the teleported missile could attack what ever was in that area. Teleportation does not damage the object; it only transports it instantly to another location.

Energy Weapons: The Gabrial knew that physical objects were teleported when they came within proximity of one of the Lucerne ships. But what they didn't know was the effects on energy weapons. Since the Coalition did not want to provoke a war with the Lucerne, they couldn't take the chance of firing on one of their ships to see what effect, if any, that teleportation would have on an energy beam. The Gabrial's assessment of the situation was grim. If their scientists could not find an answer to the riddle of projected teleportation, flight might be the only answer until the problem could be solved.

Threat of a Split: The question came up about just who the Lucerne was after. The Laka wanted to believe that they were not targets of the Lucerne, so why should they be worried. The Gabrial was the only race with a problem with these Lucerne. The Laka pointed out that the Lucerne hadn't made any threatening moves to anyone at this conference.

No Answer: The Gabrial representative had no answer to what the Laka was saying. But he did point out that everyone present was part of the Gabrial created community and that they should stick together. Unity and loyalty to each other would, in the long run, be more beneficial than any effort to become independent.

Meeting Adjourned: None of the coalition left the meeting with any confidence in the future. The only good news that could be relayed to the people was that they now knew who the Strangers were and that they did not vaporize a planet. The Humans decided that they would not try and contact the Lucerne. They would try to keep a low profile position with the hope that they wouldn't be detected. Since the Human scientists were not familiar with 'time zero vortexes', they came up with a more practical way of survival if their planet was transported.

Installment 30: This concludes installment 30. Please join us for the next installment. Will the Gabrial be able to solve the teleportation riddle? What is the practical way the humans will deal with having their planet teleported?

Serial for Tuesday 09/11/2007 Gabrial Research

History of the Future: Installment 31
Projecting ' Time Zero'

Time Zero Projecting: The concept was new to the Gabrial. They had never tried to trans-locate an object by forcing a vectored 'time zero' vortex from an energy source to an object. They understood teleportation by vortex, as they had been using it for many years. When a ship wanted to make an interstellar jump, it merely sets the vortex lens to the correct coordinates and applies power. Much like the operation of a telescope, the vortex lens yields a similar result. The big difference is that instead of making the images of some distant location appear closer; the 'time vortex lens' reduces the distance to zero by tunneling time itself. When time is reduced to zero between two objects, there is no distance. By setting the coordinates, the vortex lens machine will reliably provide a pathway to the selected location without any lose of time.

Breakthrough Technology: The discovery of the vortex was made by chance while researching faster communications between the long-range scout ships and the home planet. The Gabrial were motivated by the fact that it was taking up to 5 years to get a message to the Galaxy explorers, and another 5 years for the reply. One of the proposals was to locate communications beacons at known wormhole sites and use the wormhole phenomenon as a conduit for fast communications. A nearby wormhole was chosen to test the theory. So with a ship stationed at either end of the wormhole, they experimented with all manner of communications ranging from the radio frequency spectrum to the light spectrum. It came as quite a surprise to find out that they could influence the wormhole with a rapidly rotating energy field. After much experimenting the scientist decided that with this technology, they wouldn't need a wormhole, as they could create their own vortex. The size and length of the vortex depended on the speed of the spiral and amount of power used to create it.

Directing the Vortex: The vortex depended on two things, speed of the spiral for size, and applied power for distance. Controlling those two elements would control the destination of the vortex. Experimentation with spiral speed and power led to a control method that was accurate and dependable. The coordinate system controlled both speed and power. Using the absolute center of the Universe as the point of origin, (x=0, y=0, z=0) any location could be pinpointed using this coordinate system. X yielded the left and right directions of the sphere, Y yielded the vertical location, and Z was the depth of the point from the theoretical front and back of the sphere. Any X, Y, and Z could be positive or negative depending on the target location' s relative position to the origin. The vortex director calculated the distance and direction between the requested location and the requesting location and created the vortex accordingly. Each value influenced the amount of power to apply for the needed distance and the speed of the vortex was determined by the size of the object to be teleported. The result was a directed vortex that mimicked a wormhole, but a wormhole with a planned size and direction rather than one created randomly by nature.

Looking for Answers: The problem that the researchers now faced was how to get the target(s) into the vortex. They knew that they could create the vortex, but the problem was how to either get the vortex to engulf the target, or how to shove the target into the vortex. One of the suggested solutions was to use a broad plasma beam to nudge the target into the vortex. The power requirements would be tremendous because the magnetic lens would have to enlarge the focus area at the target. Since power is evenly distributed at the focus, in order to have the same physical force on a larger focal point, power has to be exponentially increased as the area of the focus is increased.

Power Requirements Too High: There is nothing worse to a researcher than to see a good idea go down in flames when confronted with facts. The idea of a plasma beam with enough force to bump a target into a 'time zero vortex' just wasn't going to work. The power requirement was just too high to be successful. There had to be another way. The Lucerne was projecting the vortex, but how were they doing it?

Vortex Experiment: The Scientists diligently worked on various ideas of how to project a vortex. Normally when a ship makes a jump, a vortex is created and the ship is just engulfed by it. All the ship has to do is travel forward into the vortex to be transported to the new destination. There was complete frustration among the scientists about this problem until one of them came up with the idea of teleporting the vortex with another vortex. The proposal goes like this; first a vortex is created with the destination that we want to dispatch the target to. Then, utilizing a second vortex focused on the target, the first vortex is teleported to the target sending the target to its final destination. Since nobody could think of a reason not to try the scheme, they set about rigging up an old scout ship for the test.

Compound Vortex: Trial and effort finally paid off and they developed two vortex machines in tandem that would make do for the trial. The compounded machine was put aboard a remote controlled ship and the experiment started. The first vortex was created with a 0,0,0 coordinates, and then the second vortex was created to engulf the first vortex (not the vortex machine) with the coordinates of the target vessel. No sooner had the second vortex energized, than the target ship disappeared. This was great!

More Efficient Design: Now that they had a way to project a ' time zero vortex', further tweaking was necessary to make its operation for target acquisition faster and to streamline it from the bulky dual vortex generators used in the test into a reasonable package unit that didn't require so much space. Until they were changed, they kept the zero coordinates as the destination for sending the targets.

-End Installment 31-

Goto Installment 32 --

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