A Yearning for the Open Sea of Stars

I stood there looking at the alien surface that was so familiar yet so strange. Snow, ice fog, frozen water are the stuff I know about. The blue star was not. Class F stars were ruled out as being habitable due to their high heat but we were desperate and as luck would have we located a class F with a gas giant in the desert orbit that had a barely habitable moon. Located further out than Mars in the solar system of home we had found a place we could get to that had an atmosphere we could breathe. The planet was referred to as “ice planet Hoth” or just “Hoth” by those that were chosen to depart for the destination.

We (us humans) had reached a point against our own will where we discovered that the yellow sun was going to pulse. It had taken a world wide effort to get others to believe the scientists. It then took another effort to end money and property ownership. Everybody on the surface on the planet worked on one goal: survival of the species. Planets in habitual zones were searched for around sun-like stars. The search was expanded. All six directions were searched. When we found one, we put all of our efforts on assisting the others in finding their targets. When down to two targets the teams were split up to learn as much as we could of our next homes.

Meanwhile, work was underway to create habitats that could survive the impending pulse. Giant ships were created and outfitted with the best technology we could use. Material science in black budget projects had saved the day on several occasions. Graphene that was being struggled to be produced in anything close to pure or larger than a powder form became sheets of wonder material sheathing frames and panels. Fusion devices were connected to “impossible drives” that somehow made tons of thrust. Domes were created that people hoped would deflect the brunt of energy hurling through space at them on any surface they chose to shelter in place. People were told about deep underground military bases. The seed bank was moved to one of those. Biology, computer science, sociology, demography, chemistry, manufacturing, the will of the entire world to survive, working in shifts, 24 hours a day; every ounce of energy created on the planet was being used for the project. What was considered trash or by-products were up cycled into nanomaterials and solvents. Everything became modular and reusable. Nothing was thrown away. They made ships for deep space, they made ships for local vicinity to hide behind the gas giants.

All peoples, from all nations worked to together. Except for religious extremists who claimed it “the will of God” everybody was welcome. A generation came and went. The warning signs… there were none which was the warning sign. No solar variation for months at a time. No sunspots for a year, then two years. A novel method of detecting solar neutrinos was created and that showed no, absolutely no variance for five years! The time to depart was any moment. The teams were readied. A vast DNA cross-section of willing volunteers being sent on a one way trip said their good byes to people they would never see again. The world’s art and artifacts were split up. Placed behind metallic glass in the cafeterias one could gaze upon works by van Gogh or Rembrandt or other masters. From sculptures to cave art to first edition books to entire digital libraries of the entire known artistic effort to date was added. A date was chosen. With little fan-fare the giant lifeboats, six in total, set off in six different directions.

Continued…

Quantum satellites had been sent forth before that day. By the time of departure the technology was so old that most people had forgotten about them. A child in tow with toy device picked up the message while passing through the command center. He had been too aggressive to a class mate and his embarrassed father had to pick him up. The comm engineer heard it first. Everybody was told to be quiet. The boy thought he was in trouble again and was befuddled when the comm officer asked to see the toy. He handed it over and hid behind his father’s leg least he be yelled again this morning. After a quick inspection to glow of an idea came over the comm engineer’s face; he ran back to his stations, manipulated the hologram controls and then they saw the message they hoped would never come.

The satellites around the sun monitoring the life giving star watched as it blinked out for a fraction of a second. Then a blinding white light hit the screens that went dark immediately. Other monitoring devices also witnessed the flash and were knocked offline. In six minutes and twenty three seconds the pulse hit earth—far faster than the 8:20 it takes sun light to travel. Mars colony added their observation of the pulse after the automatic activation of their EM shield from the first signs of trouble from the sun. Three minutes later they too went dark but everybody hoped the nested domes would offer some sort of protection. Jupiter and Saturn also sent their observations as they were longest but they too went dark. The report would be watched by all on board dozens of times. It is not every day you see the world end.

Another generation would come and go onboard the lifeboat. Most opted to be placed in cryo-stasis which one attended wryly commented that they would woke from one frozen state to another. Gallows humor on the skeleton crewed ship was the currency being traded. They too had heard the stories of a home they never knew. The youth tended the sleeping elders until it was their turn to join them. Robotics could do just as good a job so the population slept while the known constellations morphed and changed until one day the craft began to decelerate.

Inserted into orbit around New Hoth the elder were woken in sequence. Someone tried to ask if they had dreamed while in stasis but nobody felt like talking while going about their assigned tasks. Equipment needed to moved, the embrittled containment vessels around the fusion reactors needed to be replaced. Recon on Hoth from their closer distance had to happen. Besides, most people don’t like Mondays anyway. A year would pass before any attempt to land would happen. There were no microorganisms to contend with because it was too cold. The surface was not very hospitable for humans so it was decided to land a portion of the ship and convert it into a habitat. Robots could not work in the conditions. Graphene clothing was handed out and crews were made. Choosing Northern climate people was done purposefully; they would be able to adapt to the cold better. They knew this which is why they did not volunteer for Planet Death Valley.

Continued…

Standing on the ice and staring at the frozen sea reminds me of being a kid and hearings stories of dad being on the hunt with the other village men for bowhead whales and seeing polar bears taking a break from hunting seals on a floe. But the sun was setting and I had to go back inside.

From the diary of Henry Alomerk, Alaskan Inuit from earth, day 423 NH (New Hoth)

Jerry had read his great grandfather’s journal for the first time a few months ago. He had never been outside the habitat. Then he stumbled across an old forgotten book filled with hand written entries. He tossed it aside but when they could not dig in the mine for a week and out of sheer boredom he started reading. He devoured everything he could learn about the journey, the people, how they enlarged their habitat a couple times. How they yearned to find out what happened to the other six ships and the fate of home. Now the effort was underway to build a new ship from the metal Jerry was mining. Now Jerry started dreaming of something he thought he knew: home. So he volunteered to go outside and be part of the construction crew on the new ship. He wanted to return to a life of being on a ship in the sea of stars.

-end-

A little long... sorry.

I wrote this yesterday afternoon while waiting for emails to replied to. Then today I saw the below and the time was right to post my sci-fi story!

Phys.org, Nov. 10, 2016 - Space telescopes pinpoint elusive brown dwarf.

We are the verge of some major discoveries as new technologies are incorporated into our observation tools. James Webb Space Telescope being one of many! Oh to sail the sea of stars...

Corrections:

Section 2

Quantum satellites had been sent forth before that day. By the time of departure the technology was so old that most people had forgotten about them. A child in tow with a toy device picked up the message while passing through the command center. He had been too aggressive to a classmate and his embarrassed father had to pick him up. The comm engineer heard it first. Everybody was told to be quiet. The boy thought he was in trouble again and was befuddled when the comm officer asked to see his toy. He handed it over and hid behind his father’s leg least he be yelled at again this morning. After a quick inspection the glow of an idea came over the comm engineer’s face; he ran back to his stations, manipulated the hologram controls and then they saw the message they hoped would never come.

Jupiter and Saturn also sent their observations as they had the longest observations but they too went dark. The report would be watched by all on board dozens of times. It is not every day you see the world end.

Section 3

How they yearned to find out what happened to the other five ships and the fate of home. Now the effort was underway to build a new ship from the metal Jerry was mining. Now Jerry started dreaming of something he thought he knew: home. So he volunteered to go outside and be part of the construction crew on the new ship. He wanted to return to a life of being on a ship in the sea of stars.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Great story !!! I loved it
Stars and flag
I could see everything in my mind. Very good descriptions

a reply to: natalia

Why thanks!

This is not too far out there as far as technologies go. Most of it is based on work being currently performed just extrapolated a bit like all good sci-fi.

Besides the sun pulse part, I did look up star classifications and habitable zones to not be totally wrong in what was being written. Then that story about viewing a brown dwarf showed up... it was like destiny was knocking at the door!

BTW, love you avi! Bob's Burgers is so low key but is truly funnier than h3ll!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Aha
That's awesome. Sci-fi is the best. And for some reason I've truly thought that we would tear Mother Earth apart and drain her that then we would have to live in space ...

Oh and yes.. Bobs burgers is one of me and my sons fav shows .. I know sometimes it's a lil adult .. But my gosh .. I'm def Tina haha!