Catagory: Christian Science Fiction
Overview: Year: 2066. After a near collision with an asteroid, scientist from Earth decise to send colonists to Marina, a water planet they have found on Alpha Centauri, our nearest solar system.
This is the story of their plans and 50 year voyage to inhabit the nearest habitable planet from Earth. We follow the family of Thor Pedersen, a Christian and leader of the Executive Team.
Chapter 1: The Garden
“Everything is here in the garden for you; Enjoy your life, Spend time with me each day. But do not ask for greater knowledge, for it will come at a high price.” God said.
Man did not listen. His thoughts turned inward. Knowledge of his natural world shrank as his mind pondered the abstract. As thinking increased, the energy required to operate his brain increased. Knowledge, came at the cost of constant hunger.
He tilled the soil and herded livestock; always working for his next meal. But in time, some became lazy. They roamed the country side in bands, stealing the work of others.
People began to congregated in towns for safety. They surrounded them with mighty walls. If the raiders wanted to steal, they would have to work for it. The pinnacle of protective technology was… a stone WALL.
One day a Chinese doctor attempted to create a medicine from ashes, sulfur and rock-saltpeter. When the medicine failed, he threw it into the fire. To his surprise, it exploded.
Soon rockets were entertained crowds. It was adapted for the military. Cannons could blast thru walls. The age of the castle ended. Explosives replaced walls as man’s best protection.
Finally men learned to create the atomic bomb. Explosives became a million times more powerful. Once the bomb was demonstrated, it was so terrifying, the mere threat provided protection.
But it had a weakness; it had to be delivered. Airplanes could be shot down. Only rockets could guaranteed the bomb would reach it’s target.
Two world powers hungered for the knowledge of rocketry. They wanted to show the world their form of government could produce superior engineers and scientists.
But showing off nuclear tipped warheads was bad press. So they substituted a satellite for the bomb, as if they were developing rockets for science. Both countries wanted to be the first in orbit, the first to the Moon, the first to have a space station.
Physics requires a rocket to go 17,500 MPH to escape the earth or it will simply drop back to the ground. This makes space travel very expensive. It’s so expensive, if a Shuttle returned to earth filled with gold bars, it wouldn’t be enough to pay for the trip.
The cost of the space race was high. Incredible amounts of money were diverted from feeding and housing the poor.
Fear consumed the world. Then a wonderful thing happened, they spent so much money, they went broke. At last they joined forces. They developed a method of going to space using elevators. Suddenly space travel was cheap. There made medicines, fuel cells, many things that could only be made in a gravity-free environment; factories in space.
He had “bought” his brilliant mind with hard physical labor... Ever since, he had attempted to free himself from that labor. Horses and cows plowed the fields. But animals require labor too. Wood or coal could produce steam. But it ruined the land. Oil held incredible amounts of energy… until it ran out.
Finally man learned to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from the wind, rain and sun. Even that wouldn’t have been economical were it not for a wonderful little bacteria. Given a little sugar, water and a slight electrical charge, they could produce vast amounts of hydrogen. And when the hydrogen combined with oxygen, energy was released, as well as water vapor. At last, man was at ONE with his environment and freed from backbreaking labor.
A permanent base at the moon’s south pole, made an excellent spot for observation of the universe without interference from the earth. By mining the moon, the settlement could provide itself with oxygen, deuterium and helium 3. Next a Mars Base was created. Domed structures were built to house gardens and families.
A meteor was heading for earth. Bombs were sent to divert it’s path. Instead, it broke into pieces. Some fell along the coast of Brazil.
The surviving communities were given money to compensate for their losses. The money came from the rare earth minerals in the meteor shower. People suddenly realized there were great riches in space.
The race for riches was on. Companies started designing robot mining ships.They were taken into orbit piece by piece, by space elevators.
Chapter 2: Elevator
Transportation on earth changed. When cheap-oil ran out, interstate highways grew silent. Electric cars were good for driving locally.
Traveling from city to city was done by train; a rekindled nostalgia. A new age of trains was born, with grandeur never seen before; unbelievable luxury, traveling casinos, party trains that crossed countries with something happening 24 hours a day.
After the end of cheap oil, cities became more isolated. But gas wasn’t the only contributor. A variant of the avian flu spread thru south eastern Asia. 17% of the world’s population died. Some said it was God’s wrath on Muslims, but it seemed to have more to do with bird migration routes and unsanitary farming.
Isolated cities had lower death rates. Some cities required incubation periods before “outsiders” could leave the train station. Some people wore face masks in public, long after the disaster.
With the cost of heat increasing, homes went underground. Entire communities disappeared below the surface. With no houses in sight, some neighborhoods resembled forests. Mother Nature’s breathing skin was restored.
The insides of homes changed too. Lots of sunny southern windows during the day and spot lighting at night. Small lights pulled out of the wall for reading or fixing dinner. Energy consumption was cut 70%.
As precious metals becoming rare, city dumps became gold mines. Guards has to be posted to keep looters out.
The human body is connected by millions of carbon chains. It’s gives our molecules strength. Rice University pioneered a new chain called carbon nanotubes. They are five hundred times stronger than steel.
A near-earth asteroid named Aetna was guided into an “L5” orbit around our planet. It is the same spot above the earth at all times (geosynchronous). An ocean ship was connected to the asteroid by a long cable made of carbon nanotubes. And the first Space Elevator was born. The price to go into orbit dropped from 20,000 dollars to 20 dollars, for each pound of cargo.
Three space elevators were originally made; Americus, Madagasus and Sri Loncas. Large mining companies built inflatable ships for space mining. The ship skins hardened when exposed to sunlight. Walls were thickened with spray-on aluminum.
Space mining was immediately economical. Materials from space did not require forests to be leveled nor create air or water pollution. Robotic probes inspected asteroids. They found iron, nickel, even chromium; enough to make fortunes for the mining companies.
Ore Ships scanned asteroids, then shot them with darts and cable. Asteroids have such little gravity, the cable was needed to keep the ship attached. A grinder would descend from the ship, cutting out a smooth seal. Once the ship and asteroid were air tight, workers could extract ore without bulky space suits.
C Class asteroids were carbacious salt and ice. They were just as valuable. These giant snowballs containing the valuable ingredient needed for life in space; water.
Totally robotic mining ships were costly and easily broken. On-site miners were needed. They could make complex decisions. But to reach an asteroid required a year trip. The pay was so good, one trip was enough to set a miner for life. There was no shortage of applicants.
One company got the idea of using a hollow asteroids for spaceships. They were heavy, but the thick walls offered radiation protection. One miner joked “When I was a kid, I saw lots of pictures of sleek rocket ships. I never dreamed astronauts would be flying around inside rocks”.
Lecture 3: A Dangerous Place
The cargo bay of the space tug was filled with aluminum containers. Walls were scuffed and dented from mining. But this time the cargo was colonists, headed out of the solar system, on a mission to find a new home. People were sitting on boxes, talking. A few looked out plasma windows or watched children playing. One box stood on end. It was the height of a lectern. A 40ish, blond, kind-looking gentleman walked to the podium.
“Attention everyone... Quiet please… I would like to speak…”
The room grew silent.. “I am Dr Thor Petersen. Things are tight here in the tug. But it won’t be long before we will be in our new quarters aboard the Hawking. Then we will be on our way. The executive team thought we should have a speaker each day. Will each of you take a turn ? It will help us get to know each other’s work. Your sponsors back on earth expect regular reports. Why not use us for practice ? You may speak on any subject you wish.”
“Room on the tug is limited. We all need to be on our best behavior. We are attempting something very difficult. I’d like us to have a Sunday talk, on morality and faith. And for fun, we could have a Saturday talk on hobbies or leisure. Lectures are not mandatory.”
“I’d like to start the lecture series myself, today, right now. Twelve years ago I was in Antarctica taking soundings . Under a mile of ice was the largest crater in the world; 280 miles across; the size of a small country. The meteor that created it set off a chain of devastating events. It may have bene the worst disaster in earth’s history.”
“Screen on… 300 million years ago all the continents were connected in one super continent called Pangaea. With one large land mass, summer extremes rose to 130 F. In winter, temperatures may have dropped below -100 F some places.”
“The equatorial regions were swampy. Life thrived in the swamps and along the shores. Dinosaurs were the size of cats. By the end of the Permian era, 50 million years later, some dinosaurs were as big as buffalo. There were thousands of different kinds; long tails, no tails. Some had giant fins on their backs like sailfish. We still don’t know the purpose of these giant fins. Some think it was to attract a mate, or to appear larger than they really were, so they wouldn’t be eaten. Some experts think they were cooling fins. I personally think they were just making a fashion statement.”
“Fern trees were everywhere, grasses, plants with pods, alligators, salamanders. Insects as big as small birds. The shores teemed with life. The ocean floor was covered with clams.”
“Then they were ALL gone…… 90% of the species disappeared, FOREVER... God wiped the blackboard clean… and started over.”
“When the meteor hit, the earth’s interior vented hydrogen sulfide. Forest and swamps were incinerated. Smoke filled the sky, blocking out the sun; darker than the darkest night. It killed plankton and algae. The krill that ate them, died, the small fish that ate the krill died, and so on, up the food chain. The abrupt change in the carbon-12 to carbon-13 ratio tells of a devastation the world has never known…”
“An event just as cataclysmic could happen again… TODAY. In fact God has wiped the slate clean numerous times… This slide shows some of the greater events.”
Mass Extinctions:
Vendian ... 640 million y.a. ... 40% Species Disappeared
Ordovician... 440 million y.a. ... 50% Species Disappeared
Devonian ... 360 million y.a. ... 70% Species Disappeared
Permian ..... 250 million y.a. ... 90% Species Disappeared
Triassic ..... 80 million y.a. ... 35% Species Disappeared
Cretaceous ... 65 million y.a. ... 50% Species Disappeared
“The purpose of our trip is to find a second haven for earth-life. Not just for Man, but for our plant and animal brothers.”
Meteors:
Size of Grain of Sand .....40 tons reach the earth’s Surface each Day
10 Foot Diameter .......... 1 every Year (usually burns up in the sky)
180 Foot Diameter ........ 1 every 100 Years (breaks into pieces)
300 Foot Diameter ........ 1 every 5000 Years (wipe out a state)
3000 Foot Diameter ....... 1 every 5 million Years (wipe out a country )
“As you can see from this slide, the earth is constantly bombarded by meteors. Here are some of the largest craters. Many more in the ocean and jungles and have never been discovered.”
Craters on Earth:
Arizona .......... 0.8 Miles wide … 150 Ft Meteor … 50,000 years ago
Chesapeake Bay .... 53 Miles wide 1.5 Mile Meteor … 35 million y.a.
Siberia, Russia ... 62 Miles .... 3 mile Meteor … 35 million y.a.
Yucatan, Mexico 110 Miles .... 6 mile Meteor … 65 million y.a.
Ontario, Canada 155 Miles .... 6 mile Meteor … 1.85 Billion ya
South Africa ..... 236 Miles .... 6 mile Meteor … 2 Billion y.a.
“A meteor leaves a crater 60 times it’s size. This totally facinates me. Now you know why cartoonists draw pictures of me as -- Thor, Doctor of Destruction...”
“Meteors are just the beginning of threats to mankind. Super volcano’s may have killed more life forms than meteors. A nearby Super Nova could radiate the earth… killing everything… but cockroaches, I suppose. At one time, refrigerant almost wiped out the ozone; the protective layer for life. Nuclear war, global warming, pollution, even a bad flu. 100 million people died from the flu in World War I. And I don’t have to remind you of the Avian Flu epidemic.”
“The odds of any one event happening is small, but the combined threat that one of them could wipe out mankind is much greater. As a refresher, here is a quick review of probability mathematics:
Example: 5 events, each with a 1 in 1000 probability of happening…
What is the probability of NONE of the 5 events happening ?
.999 ^5 = 99.5 % …or 1 in 200 chance of NONE happening…
If this is the probability for one year, what is the probability of NONE of these events happening… for 140 years ?
.995^140 = 50 % … 50/50 chance…
“Now you can appreciate the importance of our mission to look for a second home to live. I will leave you with this quote.”
“ Once we were like children. We imagined friendly happy beings on the Moon, Venus and Mars. Slowly we have discovered what a dangerous, dangerous universe we live in.”
Any question ? …yes”
Phillips asked, “Tell us more about yourself ?”
“I’m Scandavian, from Copenhagen. As a child I bicycled to the country looking for Viking artifacts. I never found any but I started collecting rocks. I took them to a museum. One day a scientist told me I had found a meteorite. I became interested in Astronomy. “
I got a little telescope and read books. I ended up getting a bachelors in Astronomy. I was shocked at all the ways life on earth could be wiped out… To understand it better I ended up getting a PhD in both Astronomy and Biology.”
A tall thin man stood up, “I am offended at your references to ‘God’. It doesn’t sound professional…”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I am sure you speak for other atheists. If there are any fundamental Jew, Christians or Muslims who believe the Universe was created 6000 years ago, I may have offended them also, by talking about millions of years. Perhaps I should preface my comments by saying ‘My best guess is…”
“Other questions ?”
Baker asked, “If you believe in God, why don’t you trust him to protect the earth from destruction ?”
“That’s a good question. We seem to have the inborn desire to explore. We have a 10% chance of not even surviving this trip. I trust God with that. And I won’t give you the odds against us being able to establish a successful colony. It’s quite low. But we should try. We should explore. I trust God with the success of this mission. …more questions ? …thank you everyone. I believe it’s dinner time...”
One by one people line up. A tall woman with shoulder length red hair puts her arm around Thor and gave him a squeeze. “Good job… I’m your number one fan. Can I be your groupie ?”
“Thanks. But with only ONE, I think it’s a groupett ?”
She turned and said “Well hello Dr Kinder. Will you eat with us ?”
A man with shiny black hair, and a dimple in his chin says “I’d love to. I wonder what’s on the menu.”
Lena replies, “Lets see, the menu usually contains algae soup, algae mashed potato’s, algae gravy and for desert, algae pudding.”
They laugh, picked up a tray and got in line. Thor said, “I can’t tell the vegetable soup from the real thing. It’s pretty good.”
Lena replied “That’s cause you don’t bother to taste your food. You just scarf it down…” Turning to Kinder, “My husband only sees eating as an interruption to his work schedule.”
Kinder says, “It’s amazing, really. The algae gives us oxygen, absorbs carbon dioxide, provides us with a meal, AND converts our waste into something useable.”
Lena says, “Jasper ! We’re eating. Enough about waste. This stuff is hard enough to stomach as it is. I can’t wait to bite into a real tomato from our gardens on the Hawking.”
Thor laughed, “Women are so fascinated with food. They spend hours talking about it. Then they sit down at the table and hardly eat a thing.”
Kinder said “Watching you two go at eachother; it’s so cute. You’re so in love… I need someone to fight with.”
Lena laughs, “Well if fighting is your only goal, I’m sure just about any of the female scientists would do… How have you stayed single so long Jasper ? Hiding out in the lab ?”
“There’s more truth to that than you know… Now don’t tease me but there’s this little French scientist I’ve got my eye on.”
Lena said “Deputee the astronomer ? Jasper, she’s gorgeous !”
“Really ? I suddenly developed a great interest in Astronomy” he said, “What can you tell me ?”
Thor pronounces, “Mo-Ga-Tiss-U”
“What’s that ? A nebula ?”
Thor grins, “That’s what you call her.”
“And what would I be saying ?”
Lena laughs, “That’s French for my little cabbage head.”
“Oh my !”
Lecture 4: Alpha Centauri
Everyone was milling about the cargo bay. A short man with a bit of a belly, his black hair sticking up, adjusted a projector, then walks to the podium.
“Good afternoon. My name Wei Chan. I chief engineer. Dr Gustefsen ask me talk about our long long bus ride. You all valuable. Earth still need you. Scientists work on ship. We have good labs. Powerful computers. We connected to earth… Screen on.”
“Space VERY dangerous. Maybe small meteor shoot thru wall like bullet... Radiation reduce life. We die cancer within few years without thick wall.”
“Space tug taking us to Asteroid Belt where our ship waits.”
“Our new home look like giant bicycle wheel. But not one wheel. Many wheel. They spin together. Look like cylinder. Rotate create gravity. Gravity needed to keep muscle good. And keep coffee in cup. That joke… Whole ship will fit inside asteroid.”
“Ship have 3 floor. Top floor beautiful garden. Middle floor for living and labs. Bottom floor is big water tank.”
“Water tank serve MANY function. Provide protection from radiation. It provide drainage; we take shower. And no worry. Water you drink run thru filters and osmotic. PURE.”
“In emergency, water make oxygen for breathing. With electrolysis, water like battery; can store electric power. Screen on…”
NEAREST STARS
Distance Name of Star
4.2 Light-Yrs… Alpha Proxima
4.3 L-Yr …………… Alpha Centauri A & B
5.9 L-Yr …………… Bernard’s Star (has planets)
7.8 L-Yr …………… Wolf-359
8.3 L-Yr …………… Lalande-21185
8.6 L-Yr …………… Sirius
8.7 L-Yr …………… Luyten
9.7 L-Yr …………… Ross-154
10.3 L-Yr …………… Ross-248
10.5 L-Yr …………… Epsilon Eridani (Jupiter planets)
11.9 L-Yr …………… Tau Ceti (yellow sun like ours)
“Here are nearest stars. Epsilon twin of our solar system. However, Alpha Centauri closer; only 43 year away. So the committee decided go there.”
“Fourth brightest star in sky Alpha Centauri. It actually three star. Alpha-A yellow sun like ours… Alpha-B is orange, little larger. Two suns are distance from our Sun to Saturn. Suns rotate round each other, in 80 year.”
“Maybe planets round each sun; Maybe not. We hope to find Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Have many question; ‘Do they have life ?’ ‘Do they have Oxygen ?’ Since it have two solar system, we double chance of finding good planet.. Chinese say… double lucky.”
“Third sun like Pluto; very far away. It small, red dwarf. It far from the other suns. It is first destination. We slingshot by Alpha-Proxima to final destination. It might have planet too, so we triple chance to find new place to live.”
“We arrive at asteroid next week. We have two days to transfer all boxes. We must work fastly. Question ? ...Yes”
“We will be living inside a giant rock ?”
“”For protection, yes. But the back is open. It have star observation deck. Tunnel in front to collecting data. You can not see rock. Ship lit from central shaft. You feel like you in beautiful garden. Wait and see.
You love it. Very beautiful. Each family have garden. You work garden to make food. Everyone equal on ship. Everyone work.” Thank you.”
Thor turned to his sons, “Well what do you think of our new home ?”
Eric and Rohr looked at each other, then at their dad. Rohr said, “It looked just like the pictures you showed us, but where can we play football ?”
Their mother said, “Sit down and eat with me, you three ! I want you all to promise on our new home you won’t get too busy to be a family. I want us to have dinner together, every night, ok ?”
They sat down. Thor continued, as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “This can be your first challenge. Everything you are used to needs to be modified to our new environment. Even the sports we play.”
Eric said “But we like football the way it is. It’s the ONE world sport. Anyone can play it. You don’t have to be the biggest or tallest.”
“Don’t limit yourself.” Thor said, “You may invent something even BETTER. Something that takes even more skill. Besides we are not of that world anymore. It’s not like you are going to get invited to a tournament and you won’t be ready. This is a ONE way trip. The social experts tell me, in time we’ll develop new customs, a new language, probably even our own look.”
Lena added, “We gave you boys the option of staying behind with grandma and grandpa, but you wanted to come. You made a wise decision. It’s going to be very exciting, especially for YOU. The trip takes so long, your father and I will probably never see our new home. But you will. You are on an adventure like no one on Earth can even imagine; new worlds to be explored, new traditions, building your own culture.”
Lecture 7: Planet Engineering
Everyone ate breakfast and lunch together in the central ring. As they finished up, a young lady with short brown hair walked to the podium. She was medium height but stood on a box so she could see. She had high cheek bones, golden eyes and a slight Russian accent.
“I am Galina Slova. I am in charge of Planet Terraforming. I was selected because of my work with Venus. In the event we find a ‘promising planet’, our team will try to modify it. If we are extremely lucky, we’ll find a planet that already has life.”
“I am also in charge of making our new homes on the plant’s surface. And setting up solar power generation. When the time comes, we will need everyone’s help. “
“Some aspects of terra forming are powerful. In others areas our hands are tied. It is possible we will have to return to earth. We have measured wavelength of light indicating water and methane. Water is essential for life. But we can’t be sure until we get information from the Advance Probes. They were launched 4 years ago. They are traveling much faster than our ship.”
“An alternative to our mission was simply colonize Mars or Venus. Mars is half the size of Earth. But it has only 1/100 of the air pressure. It is more like our lifeless moon. Even if we could provide Mars with an atmosphere it is not clear if there is enough gravity on Mars to hold oxygen.”
“At the other extreme, Venus has 100 times too much pressure. Clouds of carbon dioxide are so thick, heat can’t escape. The pressure on the surface would feel like you were under a 1000 Ft of water. A surface temperature of 850 F would broil a chicken pretty fast.”
“What is strange is that Mars, Earth and Venus started out the same, with flowing water and clouds of carbon dioxide. All three planets would have been an algae’s dream. If life is so automatic, why did life only thrive on earth ?”
“Like the story of the Golden Lobov, one bear’s borsch was too hot, one was too cold but the other was just right. Distance from the sun may be the most important parameter for life. Venus is too hot. Mars is too cold, but Earth is great.”
“If we look closer we can see why. As the planets were forming, Venus was hit so hard she almost stopped spinning. In fact she spins backwards; a day on Venus is 100 Earth-days. Because the Earth turns much faster the temperature only drops about 20 F at night. Venus turns so slowly it gets fried on one side.”
“Mars on the other hand, has a 24.5 hour day. This is much better. Temperatures drop from 40 to -40 F at night. There might be colonies of people on Mars someday. But it has a problem; no dynamo. Mars is dead on the inside. Venus and Earth have huge spinning iron cores. These act like giant motors, generating a protective magnetic field. Solar winds throws out electric particles. When they hit Venus or Earth, they go around. Since Mars does not have a magnetic field, solar winds blast away any atmosphere.”
“Earth may be a much rarer and more wonderful place than we ever imagined. It seems specially designed for life.”
“On our new Alpha home, we can survive cold temperature by living underground. If the temperature are too hot, we might launch light- reflecting satellites to cast a shadow on the planet’s surface.”
“If you read the newspapers, you know we have done on Venus. By blocking out sunlight with a space reflector, surface temperature have already dropped from 850 F to 280 F.”
“Terra forming engineers started seeding Venus with extremeophites; the archeans that live in thermal vents on the bottom of the ocean. They thrive in surfurous and carbon dioxide environments; the exact condition of Venus. They give off oxygen. It is estimated in a few hundred years, Venus might be a water planet with breathable air.”
Lecture 8: Genetic Research
A man with thick grey hair strolled to the podium. He was bearish in build. He shifted his notes to the other hand and put on his reading glasses.
“I am Dr Schroder. I am in charge of Genetic Engineering. I hope you understood from the lecture on Terra forming, the tremendous task we are facing, trying to redesign an entire planet.”
“But we can do it in phases. The giant wheels we are living in, will be parachuted down to the surface and used for housing. As our population grows we can build glass domes that are pressurized with air.”
“To make glass, we can liquefy sand and other ingredients. We can do this with solar concentrators.”
“Inside the glass domes we will grow gardens. We’ve brought DNA of thousands of plants and animals. We might start off with plants that grow well in desert environments such as cactus, or plants that grow at high altitudes or where it’s cold or the air is thin. We have DNA from many extremeophites; life forms that live in rocks and hot water geysers. We have bacteria collected from the Arctic; ones found floating high up in the sky.”
“And by combining DNA from different species, there is no end to the new kinds of life we can create. Science fiction overestimates outer space travel; ships that zip here and there at light speed. These things will never happen. They break the very laws of physics.”
“However, in the world of genetics, science fiction writers are seldom imaginative ENOUGH ! By 1960 scientists had already splicing lightning bug DNA with carrots and made them glow in the dark.”
“By splicing flounder DNA into strawberries and tomatos, frost resistant varieties were created. Violet DNA spliced into tomatos made a variety that was purple, with high anti-oxidant content.”
“These mechanisms were all created by nature. We are just borrowing them from one life form and giving them to another.”
“Another tool we have is putting evolution on the fast track; bombard-ing DNA with radiation and see what happens. If desirable qualities occur, we can integrate them into existing plants or animals.”
“But radiation bombardment is a slow process; you never know what you are going to get. We also have protein simulators. We can now fabricate a DNA strand, and see what happens. Our new molecule builders are still crude. And you don’t always get what you hoped for.”
The Terra Formers estimate they need 400 worker. We only have twelve suits. How will we get 400 worker ? By a new approach; by modifying our descendents to match the available environment.”
“Our Alpha children could have larger lungs for thin air. Or black skin like polar bears. They absorb solar heat from the sun, so they require less food in the summer. Or maybe even a better trick, make people that hardly need to eat at all. Their energy coming from within; from chloroplasts in their skin. They could turn sunlight and water into glucose like plants do. You have heard of little green men. Well maybe it really is our destiny. Each family could raise a few Alpha children, along side their own kids.”
“I see a hand up in the back… Yes …Dr Gustoffsen ?”
Professor Gustoffsen stands up, “I thought your task was to modify plants and animals to live in the alien environment ? This is the first I have heard of altering human DNA.”
“I assumed all along we would need to alter our DNA to survive on an alien world… The reason many of us in Genetics Research took this assignment was, there would be no limits on our work… Our sponsors back on earth are anxious for us to get started.”
“For example we have Neanderthal DNA. They are referred to as ‘Ice Age Man’. With their more compact stature and barrel-chest, they are superior at living in the cold, like we might find on Alpha.”
Gustoffsen said, “Lets have a short meeting of the Executive Team, after your presentation.”
“Ok… ah… also our research could help people on earth. Imagine all the children born with birth defects. As earth-scientists make sense of the human genome, we will find each defect. We could create a neutral human DNA with these defects removed.”
“When offspring are wanted, doctors could take the neutral DNA and insert the sequences that make you unique. We could produce a defect free child that is like you in the face and personality. I am not saying we could definitely do this. It is a goal.”
“It would be invaluable on earth. And it will be invaluable to us. We will most likely find an atmosphere low in oxygen. We will need workers that can live and work in a new environment. With our experience at creating a neutral human DNA, it would give us a head start on creating a neutral Alpha DNA.”
Gustafson stood up, “Thank you Dr Schroder. The Executive Team will meet with you now. Today’s session is over.”
Everyone filed out of the cafeteria. Schroder stormed over to Gustafson, “How dare you embarrass me in front of everyone. You’re not my superior. I report to MY sponsors. I didn’t come up with this on my own. This is the DEAL. My company donated billions of dollars to send our team to space. They were guaranteed no limits.”
Gustafson replied, “People aren’t ready for this, back on Earth. They’ll think we are a bunch of mad scientist… I’m not ready for this… I don’t think you can even do it.. even if it were ethical to experiment on humans. We aren’t God. You can’t separate a baby’s a face from the muscles under the face, and the bone structure under that. Everything in the human DNA is intertwined.”
Schroders coworkers gathered round him. Schroder said, “With a degree in Astrobiology you are lecturing me on genetics ?”
“No… but even a layman can see the impossibility of what you are proposing.”
Schroder looked at the gathering Genetics Team. “Is my presentation possible ?” They nodded their heads yes. One member of the group said “Absolutely, given enough time.”
Gustafson looked around, “Committee members, will you come join us ? We need to sit down and work this out… Gentlemen you have heard Doctor Schroder. Does anyone have anything to say ?”
Dr Slova spoke up, “As leader of Planet Engineering I don’t see how we can completely modify a planet to match ALL human’s needs. It would be much easier to try to modify BOTH the human and planet.”
Petersen asked, “Dr Blevins ?”
Blevins said, “As a Christian I am shocked they we would experiment with human DNA… But, I must admit, as a Biblical scholar I am intrigued by the idea of making a human that might live to be 900 year old, like the early Bible scriptures talk about.”
Gustoffen said, “Have you all went crazy ? How many thousands of children born-with-defects would it take before we have our first success ? Who would care for these sick kids ? Are we going to kill them ? We have to draw an ethical line somewhere !”
Schroder said, “You’re right… You’re right… I was thinking more of… computer simulation, followed by experimentation on mice to verify the computer models. We are getting way ahead of ourselves… Arguing about a problem that may never arise.”
Schroder said, “How about this… you and I give a presentation… let everyone vote on the level of human DNA manipulation ?”
Everyone agree and the committee filed out. Only the genetic team was left...
Yeager stared at Schroder, “Are you serious about agreeing to STOP research ?”
“Of course not. There isn’t a chance in a thousand the planet will be inhabitable, without genetic modification. They may think of us as Frankenstein now… but they will be thanking us when we save this mission. They want us to wait. Then 40 years from now, when we arrive, they will want a miracle. It doesn’t work that way. Break through’s don’t just happen. You MAKE them happen, with blood, sweat and time...”
Schroder added, “I don’t like this sneaking around. We don’t want anyone else reading our correspondence. Send all letters in code.
I brought the software. We have to keep in good with our sponsors. Odds are they will be sending us a lot more information than we will them. If we don’t share our research, they won’t.”
Yeager said “You know… if we could get everyone using the artificial uterus, we could switch out the embryo’s with our neutral DNA we’ve been developing. They’d never suspect their own children are products of genetic engineering. Our experiments would be right under their noses.”
Schroder said, “We’d have to be awfully sure of ourselves. If they found out I don’t know what they’d do… But it’s an interesting idea.”
