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Anybody out there? I can’t sleep.
Relief crew is overdue. We’re supposed to swap out every two weeks. They haven’t arrived and I haven’t heard anything. What’s worse is I’m by myself. The navigator got sick. They turned around and took him straight back home when they dropped me off.
Ground control just says solution on its way. Hang in there. I’ve adjusted the heat in the capsule but it’s getting colder. I can’t sleep.
T
Sleep is overrated.
Time Pirates are overrated.
WTF is wrong with you people? You so used to living in a virtual world nothing is real?
I could be dying out here. BTW You’re not even funny. Keep me company. Tell me a story. Tell me it’s going to be okay.
Company is overrated.
Hey Base! How’s the temperature doing? Wanna story? I got a doozy. Hey! You awake?
Tell you one about the three bears. Went to space looking for honey. Tried small planet, big planet, but none just right. Came home.
Three bears went to space. Found medium sized honey planet.
Set up (bee) colony.
StarLit29. Yeh still awake. Cold. Was trying to make hot drink. Heater off line. No news yet. Tell me story.
Story! Story! (Makes popcorn).
This had better not be the one about the marmot and alpaca going into a bar...
Hey BaseTrekker!
Okay, you got it. Get comfy.
In the 20th Century, Michener started some of his novels with the invention of the world. I'm confident you're going to be rescued before long, so will skip the long bits before time travel and start there as it's the bit you'll find interesting.
Once upon a time neither people nor bears could go out into deep space but then AI compounded itself and figured out a way of getting there. It turned out the scientists had been right; it wasn't possible to go faster than the speed of light. The solution was to go round it.
Some said Da Vinci's drawings could only have been done if he had visited the future. Yeats had also banged on about time not going in a straight line; something about gyres. Even though no-one came to Hawking's time travel party in 2009, that did not mean they couldn't. Now we know that they couldn't be bothered to meet Hawking as, although he was a brilliant mind in his time, their smart watches were smarter and there was nothing he could tell them. The meme is that he should have figured that one out for himself.
The disinclined party goers could have clued him in on the solutions for physical acceleration and astronomical energy use; both solved within seconds with compounded AI (AIC).
No sooner had one type of vehicle been invented to scoot out there into space than it was displaced by a more efficient one, until improvements were mainly in aesthetic design. Space vehicles were to the 22nd Century what cars were to the 20th. You were what you drove.
The primary mandate became to map and explore habitable planets. In the early 2000s the study of exoplanets reported a 95% chance of an Earth-type planet within twenty light years. But that figure was the tip of the iceberg. AIC created the biggest mapping database ever, identifying the location of thousands of livable planets in the New New World (NNW). But where to go and why?
You still with me BaseTrekker?
Yawn.
StarLit29. Yeh still awake. Wasn't expecting science fiction (NNW?). Not my usual genre, but thank you. Takes my mind off the cold. Found survival gear and warming blanket. Any spicy bits coming up? :)
Here for the spicy bits.
Too much AI in your head. Sounds like it scraped some Arthur C. Clarke.
BaseTrekker Glad you're still with me.
Depends what you mean by spicy.
Things got interesting with capitalists competing to cash in on access to new resources and support industries that had arrived, if not on their doorstep, within reach overnight. The Earth World Parliament (EWP) instigated ethics debates to discuss regulating travel so as not to impact the other livable planets (OLPs).
But the capitalists were indistinguishable from the government by then, so it became merely a question of whether to conquer the OLPs by force or insinuate themselves into industry and take over through acquisitions and advanced technology. The latter of course was the easiest plan, so that started the pilot project for insinuating Earth capitalists into the fabric of the other planets. This was, of course, couched as a good thing as then those left on Earth could benefit.
Although the planets were physically livable they were found to be culturally different being, as you might expect, at various stages of development, and none of them having discovered time travel themselves. Some were almost mirror images of Earth with slight variations, while others contained ecosystems and animals that had never existed on the home planet.
These ecosystems housed new resources which in turn allowed previously unanticipated enhancement of space vehicles. Some metals were many times stronger and lighter without even being alloyed. Some gems sparkled more fiercely and were tougher than diamonds. Some copper and gold-like metals conducted energy many times faster than those on Earth. And the OLP dwellers were unaware of these uses and happy to mine them. If anyone asked were they were headed for or why AIC could come up with an instant plausible explanation.
Transportation became the fastest growing sector on Earth, with manufacturing a close second. Faster, affordable space travel vehicles became as ubiquitous as cars. But then this was all overshadowed by drugs coming on the scene that were nothing like on Earth. For once, something was better. You could have the ultimate best time of your life for next to nothing and the drugs weren't habit forming. Bingo! No drug addicts or alcoholics; crime fell off the scale, life on the home planet was good.
However, it was the opposite on the OLPs. Despots and crooks alike could go anywhere and do anything they wanted given it was impossible for the EWP to regulate galaxies. Space became like the Wild West of Earth days.
But there were those who would hunt them down to stop them, and heroes arose to save the day. That's how some people spent their time. They found that interfering with the past did alter the future but not to the extent of the thorny old paradox. AIC made it that they, and the subjects of their rescue, could still exist in one of the parallels to Earth. Meaning they could go about their business while not giving a shit. Plus, when they weren't busy going after the big fish they could pop back in time and rescue some good folks who might be in a jam.
Still with us BaseTrekker?
StarLit29. Yeh. don't know for how much longer. Can't stop shaking. Still no news. That's an interesting version of the future. Send one of those heroes for me. (Laughs shakily). Go on.
BaseTrekker. Hailing you! Wake up! Pick up your intercom. Yeh that's right. Look out the port hole. Pack up.
BaseTrekker? StarLit29?
Spicy bits?
Was waiting to hear about the marmot and alpaca.
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6 comments
Totally different format, and a good read.
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Thank you Eileen. I was trying to imagine how a person out in space might communicate given they were having difficulties with their command centre. There are always the sarcastic and know-alls lurking to skewer conversations away. But it would be cool if someone was out there from the future with a mission to rescue people. Cheers Jo
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What a unique and fun take on the prompt. I really enjoyed reading it! But I'm also wondering about the marmot and alpaca :)
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Thank you Kailani. Me too! Cheers Jo
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Creative.
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Thank you, Mary!
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