Fight or Flight?
Created | Updated Nov 2, 2011
But what can humanity do when death lies in front and behind you?
Prologue
Humanity knew that we were not alone when the stars blotted out, one by one around the solar system. There seemed to be no pattern, with all the sky that could be seen by humans slowly dimming to their eyes. It wasn't some phenomenon only occuring on Earth, both the Lunar colony and the Mars base, not to mention the hundreds of satellites present throughout the solar system. Every eye, electronic and living could see what many called the death of the galaxy, the sane part of humanity knew better and denouced the cultists, calling the mad...the so called "mad" people had only years to find out that they were right.
There were only two ways that all the stars could be being extinguished. Either all the stars, however old, were dying on their own - and instead of becoming red dwarves, or going nova, every star was simply shutting down. This was impossible. It went in the face of everything humanity had known about what lay outside their little corner of it.
This meant that the only other option, that was even more impossible, even more offensive. Something else, someone else was shutting down these stars. Within weeks however the obvious flaw with this idea, to shut down all these stars, assuming that anything had the capability to shut down the stars in the first place, some being had to travel many times faster than light. Scientists starting working on possible figures, but that wasn't the concern, the fact that it was possible at all implied vast possiblities; and vast risks.
Again many went round screaming saying that humanity was doomed, that alien races would visit them and slaughter them...again the "mad" humans would be proved right.
For nearly two years now every astronomicist had been trying to figure out the pattern which meant that some stars died, and others lived; even though some that livedwere extremely close compared to some that died. Then one fateful day, a certain Professor Cauldwell analysed the stars that had died against the Sun's classifications.
They matched, not just that but every star that humanity had considered would be a possible match for extra-terrestial life had gone as well. It was instantly clear that a relentless destruction of all possible life was taking place.
Within a day, all humanity could be considered "mad", there was no reason why the Sun should be excluded from the multi genocide that had been occuring for a hundred years now, and along with it Earth, the Moon, Mars, maybe even Titan with its possible life.
The capabilities of these supposed aliens were evident. They could blot out entire suns and travel between them at faster than light speeds. As the prime minister of the united kingdom addressed the United Nations as he unilaterally withdrew the UK from several dozen treaties that would restrict the country from protecting itself, he made the point that at this stage we can only prepare for fight or flight. Anything that eliminates dozens of stars, and most likely, races cannot be negotiated with.
As dozens of countries followed the United Kingdom's lead, the UN took the lead and eliminated all arms treaties concerning weapons in space, research on nuclear missiles, several ecology treaties hindering research in certain places, and all restrictions on United Nations peacekeepers.
Instantly hundreds of billions of pounds started being poured into anything that might help against the the star-killers, whether it be weapons, spaceships and especially research on any signs left by the aliens and on stars - with an obvious focus on the Sun.
Scientists no longer focused on leisure equipment and biological surveys, now every scientist was required to have a link to humanities' survival if they wanted facilities and funding.
Previously dead ideas such as the Orion drive, where nuclear missiles were exploded behind a shield to force the spaceship at far higher speeds than the conventional speeds of a spaceship driven by matter superheated to plasma by a non-enriched nuclear plant.
While nations tried to look to themselves, the United Nations finally found its purpose. Instead of trying to prevent wars, a task at which it had failed for nearly a century and a half, it focused on protecting humanity from the inevitable conflict. This allowed the organisation of assets from all its 198 member states to prevent failed research being repeated again and again, the formation of a larger military force under the premis of the UN which actually allowed the UN to prevent wars that would otherwise have occurred in the midst of the largest arms race humanity had ever seen, and finally to prevent nations from dragging humanity as a whole to destruction, though this would prove an impossible task for any body.
Colonies were spread round both poles of the Moon, the base on Mars was extended to several hundred people, though despite all attempts it proved impossible to convert the base into a colony. Survey attempts were made to check out bodies further away from the Earth. Larger asteroids, the moons around Jupiter and Saturn, and some particularly audacious probes were launched to study the Oort cloud, a body of icy bodies at the very edge of the solar system, even further out than Pluto, in order to see if there were the requisite chemicals necessary for humanity to survive in at least some form.
It was five years after the initial blackouts that another astonishing feature concerning the stars was discovered, once again, by the now famous Dr Cauldwell. It had always been assumed that the star had been totally removed or shrunk to such an extent that the fusion stopped. But an analysis of the few planets found in other solar systems which now had blacked-out stars showed that not only were they still orbiting some body, their orbits were exactly the same. This meant that the aliens had replaced the stars with some alternate mass that had the same capability to rotate and move as the Sun. Possible dark masses were considered, even Dark Mass itself, the mass that was believed to make up so much of the Universe. None of these showed the capabilities being demonstrated, meaning that either the aliens were still present in each system, altering the star as they wished, or that they had some form of artificial gravity ability.
The chance of artificial gravity was too much for the military to ignore - better weapons? Better ship drives? The chance for humans to stay on their feet while on the move?
Artificial gravity would be of incalculable help when fighting the aliens; or, if the worse came to the worst, saving part of the human race by flight.
The trouble was the complete lack of current physics to support the possibility to
Prologue
Humanity knew that we were not alone when the stars blotted out, one by one around the solar system. There seemed to be no pattern, with all the sky that could be seen by humans slowly dimming to their eyes. It wasn't some phenomenon only occuring on Earth, both the Lunar colony and the Mars base, not to mention the hundreds of satellites present throughout the solar system. Every eye, electronic and living could see what many called the death of the galaxy, the sane part of humanity knew better and denouced the cultists, calling the mad...the so called "mad" people had only years to find out that they were right.
There were only two ways that all the stars could be being extinguished. Either all the stars, however old, were dying on their own - and instead of becoming red dwarves, or going nova, every star was simply shutting down. This was impossible. It went in the face of everything humanity had known about what lay outside their little corner of it.
This meant that the only other option, that was even more impossible, even more offensive. Something else, someone else was shutting down these stars. Within weeks however the obvious flaw with this idea, to shut down all these stars, assuming that anything had the capability to shut down the stars in the first place, some being had to travel many times faster than light. Scientists starting working on possible figures, but that wasn't the concern, the fact that it was possible at all implied vast possiblities; and vast risks.
Again many went round screaming saying that humanity was doomed, that alien races would visit them and slaughter them...again the "mad" humans would be proved right.
For nearly two years now every astronomicist had been trying to figure out the pattern which meant that some stars died, and others lived; even though some that livedwere extremely close compared to some that died. Then one fateful day, a certain Professor Cauldwell analysed the stars that had died against the Sun's classifications.
They matched, not just that but every star that humanity had considered would be a possible match for extra-terrestial life had gone as well. It was instantly clear that a relentless destruction of all possible life was taking place.
Within a day, all humanity could be considered "mad", there was no reason why the Sun should be excluded from the multi genocide that had been occuring for a hundred years now, and along with it Earth, the Moon, Mars, maybe even Titan with its possible life.
The capabilities of these supposed aliens were evident. They could blot out entire suns and travel between them at faster than light speeds. As the prime minister of the united kingdom addressed the United Nations as he unilaterally withdrew the UK from several dozen treaties that would restrict the country from protecting itself, he made the point that at this stage we can only prepare for fight or flight. Anything that eliminates dozens of stars, and most likely, races cannot be negotiated with.
As dozens of countries followed the United Kingdom's lead, the UN took the lead and eliminated all arms treaties concerning weapons in space, research on nuclear missiles, several ecology treaties hindering research in certain places, and all restrictions on United Nations peacekeepers.
Instantly hundreds of billions of pounds started being poured into anything that might help against the the star-killers, whether it be weapons, spaceships and especially research on any signs left by the aliens and on stars - with an obvious focus on the Sun.
Scientists no longer focused on leisure equipment and biological surveys, now every scientist was required to have a link to humanities' survival if they wanted facilities and funding.
Previously dead ideas such as the Orion drive, where nuclear missiles were exploded behind a shield to force the spaceship at far higher speeds than the conventional speeds of a spaceship driven by matter superheated to plasma by a non-enriched nuclear plant.
While nations tried to look to themselves, the United Nations finally found its purpose. Instead of trying to prevent wars, a task at which it had failed for nearly a century and a half, it focused on protecting humanity from the inevitable conflict. This allowed the organisation of assets from all its 198 member states to prevent failed research being repeated again and again, the formation of a larger military force under the premis of the UN which actually allowed the UN to prevent wars that would otherwise have occurred in the midst of the largest arms race humanity had ever seen, and finally to prevent nations from dragging humanity as a whole to destruction, though this would prove an impossible task for any body.
Colonies were spread round both poles of the Moon, the base on Mars was extended to several hundred people, though despite all attempts it proved impossible to convert the base into a colony. Survey attempts were made to check out bodies further away from the Earth. Larger asteroids, the moons around Jupiter and Saturn, and some particularly audacious probes were launched to study the Oort cloud, a body of icy bodies at the very edge of the solar system, even further out than Pluto, in order to see if there were the requisite chemicals necessary for humanity to survive in at least some form.
It was five years after the initial blackouts that another astonishing feature concerning the stars was discovered, once again, by the now famous Dr Cauldwell. It had always been assumed that the star had been totally removed or shrunk to such an extent that the fusion stopped. But an analysis of the few planets found in other solar systems which now had blacked-out stars showed that not only were they still orbiting some body, their orbits were exactly the same. This meant that the aliens had replaced the stars with some alternate mass that had the same capability to rotate and move as the Sun. Possible dark masses were considered, even Dark Mass itself, the mass that was believed to make up so much of the Universe. None of these showed the capabilities being demonstrated, meaning that either the aliens were still present in each system, altering the star as they wished, or that they had some form of artificial gravity ability.
The chance of artificial gravity was too much for the military to ignore - better weapons? Better ship drives? The chance for humans to stay on their feet while on the move?
Artificial gravity would be of incalculable help when fighting the aliens; or, if the worse came to the worst, saving part of the human race by flight.
The trouble was the complete lack of current physics to support the possibility to
