Where it All Started

Dear Reader

Tashi delek, thank you for visiting, welcome and I hope this finds you in peace and serenity

I have pinpointed the start date of these events and discovered it all started somewhere around the first week of September 2277. And it starts in an observatory in Old California, on big Bear Mountain. The two astronomers working at the time are Eric Carpenter and Andy Choo. To my surprise, I read the following from a statement prepared by Eric Carpenter, who I believe to be the senior of the two:

“The event was unprecedented in the history of our Solar System. The events leading to our Solar System’s end had been speculated and debated among the greatest minds since the beginning of time; but nobody predicted a demise this devastating, yet hypnotically compelling to watch. Scientists and astronomers had watched the destruction of other solar systems from the safety of their earthbound voyeuristic vantage points, while planets were ripped apart by the destructive interaction of neighbouring bodies. Now it was the Earth’s turn. Those who had accurately predicted the end of the Earth’s Solar System would have been ill advised to bathe in smugness, as the Earth and everything which ever dwelled on its surface was soon to be destroyed. There was nowhere to run, where and how could a planet escape this catastrophe?

The perpetual motion of the planets around their fiery celestial guardian continued without too much incident, the force of mutual gravitational attraction acting as each planet’s heavenly shepherd. These invisible herders ensured orbits for millennia, without any conflict. Occasionally there was the odd collision between the Earth and extraterrestrial bodies, but Mother Nature reset the balance and allowed evolution to restart, escalating a different species to the head of the class. Not until now had a series of events conspired to upset the balance and unleash forces which could destroy this finely tuned perpetual merry go round. The resulting chain reaction would now effect a blazing annihilation of each planet as it finally succumbed to the warm bright attraction across the heavens that was the Sun. Nothing could stop this journey once started, as every planet in turn was being engulfed in an incinerating death, obliterating anything which may have been fortunate to dwell fleetingly on its surface.

These events had arrived with spectacular surprise. Something had set up a chain reaction in our Solar System which was resulting in collisions between planets. Once the equilibrium had been disturbed, the Sun’s gravitational pull took over and began to pull these helpless moths into its flaming clutches. Unseen forces, never anticipated by scientists were speeding the process infinitely.

These external forces were of such magnitude; even the most powerful computers would have difficulty in rationalising their enormity. Planets were being driven into others approaching light speed. It was as though celestial children were hurling their toys around their heavenly nursery.

The first impact occurred when an object, possibly a large comet collided at a phenomenally high speed with Neptune. Its journey from either the Oort Cloud, or Kuiper Belt, which would have normally taken many years remained unnoticed. It announced its arrival with terrifying ferocity. This one collision initiated a heavenly chain reaction culminating in the destruction of all life in our solar system. 

Neptune immediately left its orbit and travelled towards Saturn, its closest neighbour at that time. Saturn’s rock filled rings, initially spied by Galileo nearly seven hundred years ago, when he looked through the first telescope, dispersed with mesmerising rippling effects. Each rock, which once helped form the gracious rings, began its own journey of destruction. These malevolent projectiles systematically destroyed every man made base and science station on each of Saturn’s satellites.

Saturn experienced such impulse it sped off towards Earth. The human race was so proud of its accomplishments in space exploration. The journey time between Earth and Saturn had been shrunk by years. But Saturn was about to complete its earth shattering visit in minutes. There was nothing which could be done to alleviate the destruction. In turn, Venus and Mercury would suffer collisions and finally fuse with the Sun.

The Earth’s sky darkened. The view of Saturn approaching was breathtaking. Never before had an object so big darkened the Earth Skies. Only the extremities of the horizon were still visible. No matter where a person looked in the sky, Saturn was visible. The compression and expansion of the atmosphere created windspeeds and flows never witnessed by man. Day turned to night. Trees and buildings were being flattened. Seas were bulging, as the Earth’s crust was turned into an origami experiment. Only seconds were left before impact.

“Peggy, stop game” “

To my relief I discovered they were playing a high tech game during one of their late night shifts. It seemed something Caught Eric’s attention. I read on and realised this technology was clever and they were actually playing a game called ‘Asteroid Billiards’ where planets and celestial object are used in a similar way to the balls on a billiards table but played in a clever contraption called a 3DVR room. It seems Eric always found a way to stop the game when Andy was winning. Here is a transcript of what happened:

“No Eric not this time, man! Not again! Why do you always have to do that when I’m winning? Saturn is about to destroy the inner three! That would make me the winner. You’re always such a sore loser. Bad form, man.”

Andy threw off his visor and cue glove. The computer had frozen the game of Asteroid Billiards, leaving a snapshot of the Solar System and the instant before Earth became one with Saturn. Despite his obvious anger, Andy was inwardly very proud of his trail of destruction from the Kuiper Belt. He walked around the lab proudly surveying his celestial carnage. He would have won, he could feel it. He quickly remembered he was meant to be angry and spun around to face Eric.

Before Andy could open his mouth, “Look. Over there” ordered Eric. By this time, he had made his way “across” space and was standing at a point near the Kuiper Belt and pointing to a body which seemed to intrigue him. He looked through the 3D computer generated images and beckoned Andy over.

“Andy, that’s not meant to be there. We surveyed this area last night and it was there. With all the collisions, it should have moved on by now. I know it was there last night.”

It seems their appointment at this facility wasn’t an honour as it was a very late shift, not desired by the other astronomers and the pair of them were always trying to justify their place at the observatory. Andy’s thoughts switched from self pity to self preservation. There would be other games of Asteroid Billiards in other 3DVR rooms. But the constant fight to justify his and Eric’s continued occupancy of this office, nestled in one of the most renowned and respected observatories, was taking its toll on them both. How long could they continue wasting JÖRD’s money an resources, playing Asteroid Billiards? They needed something; something big. This new anomaly could well be it, thought Andy. The transcript continues:

“You’re right Eric” Andy knelt down, just on the limit of the holographic generation grid. The object’s signature was so faint, it was pulsing in and out of view. Driven by his relentless search for funding, Andy had concluded, probably a little prematurely, this was a tangible entity. But the scientist within took over.

“Eric, we need to corroborate this and fast.”

“We have a couple of days yet. Those vultures won’t have spotted it yet. I’m sure they’re busy with other things. We’ve got to take our time and be certain” 

Eric’s tone told Andy there was no room for error. Despite dealing with very sparse information, they had to make the most of what they had. 

It seemed Eric realised the importance of this discovery, for both of them. If their suspicions were correct and there was an undiscovered body out there of significance which needed investigation, a further year’s funding could be secured. He would be spared the humiliation of knocking on the doors belonging to financiers who were once his subordinates.

I suspect Eric felt Andy would be fine. In his early thirties, and twenty years Eric’s junior, he would find it easy to acquire and gel into a new role. His enthusiastic, ebullient personality coupled with his vast knowledge of astrophysics would ensure he was an asset to any rival team. From what I can see, Andy decided to engage the help of the computer, “Peggy, run a time lapse simulation of Kuiper Sector 26 Gamma Yotta. Start from ten days ago. In particular, highlight and note any bodies which appear to spend an unusually long time in the locality.” Andy wanted to investigate further.

Pegasus was the name both Eric and Andy had given their computer, which was eventually shortened to Peggy. They were always very impressed at its phenomenal work rate, hence its likeness to a winged workhorse. Below is the report by Eric on how they investigated the new object:

‘One photon at a time, the targeted area of the Kuiper Belt was built up; it seemed like an eternity. In real time, it took Peggy 3 seconds to construct a 3D representation contained in a 1000 cubic metre area. As was typical of 3DVR representations, the model was built from the central point and compiled spherically outwards. The wait for them both was excruciating. They both knew this newly discovered entity would be the last thing to be shown.

Eric and Andy were now looking at Sector 26 Gamma Yotta of the Kuiper Belt as it was 10 days ago. This section of the Kuiper Belt was the closest to the Earth. Since the days of 20th Century astronomy, it was discovered the Kuiper Belt was real and quite fluid, its boundaries changing quite significantly, due to the proximity of other solar systems. This Sector of the Kuiper Belt measured only 30 Astronomical Units, (AUs), or the same distance as 30 times between the Earth and Sun and had remained that way for nearly 75 years. It comprised debris, mainly ice from the formation of the Solar System. As Eric expected the chunks of ice and debris were different from those he had just seen. It made sense. Each item’s time in a particular spot was transient, lasting the exact amount of time it took a neighbour to rudely collide and send it elsewhere. Eric likened this action of the Kuiper Belt to a cosmic ballet with the choreographer being the custodian of random events. Andy regarded the Kuiper Belt as a never ending game of bumper cars. The timer began to advance 2 hours at a time. They both intently stared at the region.’

Everything in the sector seemed to be colliding and shooting off on new trajectories only to meet another chunk of ice, sometimes with a shattering union. It seemed illogical to Andy that these haphazard disorganised heavenly bumper cars could be hailed as the bringers of life to the planet Earth. He stared intently at the region, then, there it was,

“There it is! Peggy, freeze program” Andy said “and remove all bodies which have only been in the sector for the first five days of the ten day period you are analysing.”

The computer removed the majority of the bodies. The mystery body was still there. 

“Peggy, remove those of the remaining bodies which were in the sector only on days 6 to 8 for the 10 day period you are analysing”

Only a handful of bodies remained including the new mystery addition.

“Let’s try a new approach” Eric said. “Peggy, can you tell me when this object appeared in this area, to the best of you data and knowledge?” Eric placed his cue glove on his right hand and ‘touched’ the mystery object. The glove allowed Peggy to locate the pointer’s position in space within the holographic grid.

“Twelve days ago, Sir”

“And it remains on the area. Unusual; it should have been bumped out into another region. Right? Peggy, please interpret your data and report your analysis of this object” Eric requested.

“The object is adept at manoeuvring to avoid other bodies. Its path does not suggest it is the result of random collisions, nor is its motion in straight lines. This aspect of its movement does not comply with Newtonian Mechanics.”

“Explain,”

“Its motion does not follow or comply with the principles associated with F=ma. I would conjecture this body is approximately 10 miles in diameter. This would make it weigh approximately 523 metric mega tonnes. I would hypothesise there may be a level of intelligence determining the object’s path. The use of the term intelligence on my part is with some trepidation as I would expect any intelligence would have removed itself from such a deadly environment, to continue its observations, or whatever it’s doing from a safe distance.

Its natural repulsion would suggest a Ferrous or magnetic quality; however my analysis at this distance would suggest its main constituents are ice and dirt; typical comet building blocks. I would say this object is in its natural environment, but its behaviour is atypical of an occupant of the Kuiper Belt.”

“Peggy, are you able to confirm its current position?”

“The object has not moved an appreciable amount, during its stay in the locality. It remains within a two kilometre area in sector 26 Gamma Yotta. Its motion seems calculated and evasive. Its average distance from our position remains 46 AUs”

“What do you make of it Andy?”

“On the face of it and given its environment, I would have to say it’s the beginnings of a comet. But man, it looks like it has a brain!”

“It could have ferromagnetic properties. If high ferric content objects are common in the Kuiper Belt that could explain the movement.”

“Yes, but eventually, it will collide with other objects. What I’m saying is that it looks like it’s avoiding other targets, be they metallic or not.”

The two scientists ‘stood’ among their frozen holographic Kuiper Belt, looking at their new child in their otherwise darkened room debating what the object could be. The question they hadn’t addressed was whether they were going to reveal their “discovery” to the world. 

Both astronomers were brilliant but they each found themselves faced with a personal dilemma.

Where most astronomers found themselves undertaking exciting and fulfilling assignments, Eric Carpenter and Andy Choo had the most futile and unrewarding task of scanning the deepest reaches of space for any threats to Earth and her colonised bases within the Solar System. It was a soul destroying task, but still with a valid reason.

Having researched their backgrounds it seems their journeys to this assignment were very different. Eric Carpenter was once a well renowned astronomer. He specialised in the search for alien life. His theories were respected and he was regarded as an authority on the subject. This recognition however came to an abrupt end, when he reported to the world he had discovered a new planet in the Earth’s solar system. By his calculations it was 50 AUs from the Earth. The world was gripped by planet fever. Journalists flocked to his observatory. Everyone wanted a piece of Carpenter; he was a celebrity. Suddenly it was chic to be geek. 

But as quickly as it appeared, his planet vanished. Nowhere to be seen. Carpenter searched frantically for his planet, but all that could be seen was a small rock with traces of ice and metal, where he thought his new planet to be. All that could be concluded was that this was what he saw all along and he misinterpreted his readings. He was finished as an eminent astronomer.

By contrast, Andy’s journey to this observatory was purely by choice. A brilliant young physicist and astronomer, Andy chose to work here. He was always interested in finding life outside our Solar System. Early on in his studies, he vowed to “explore” all the civilisations determined by the Drake Equation. 

Andy enjoyed working with Eric. He saw Eric’s inner genius. Andy was a young boy when Eric “discovered” his planet. He remembers looking in the sky on the way home from school to see if he could see this new addition to our planetary family. At the time he didn’t fully appreciate 50 Aus from the Earth was 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun; 4,650,000,000 miles.

He was convinced if he looked up, he could see it. It never occurred to him to look through a telescope at night; it was “too dark” to see such a small planet. Andy also remembered the reports that followed the disappearance of the planet. All he remembers was it was gone. At that point, something clicked inside him. He wanted to be an astronomer and help Eric find his planet. That would make everything alright. 

Andy recalls parts of the incident, but as a child. He remembers the mystery surrounding the loss of the planet. Now, as an adult, he could fully appreciate what Carpenter had endured all those years; the brutal ridicule from colleagues and even subordinates. They had only discussed Eric’s discovery and subsequent humiliation once before. It was just after Andy began working with Eric four years previously. Eric described how the whole period took its toll on his life. Not only was he destroyed professionally, but the depression from which he suffered nearly claimed his marriage. However, Eric’s wife and daughter remained loyal and this loyalty proved to be the catalyst which gradually brought Eric out of his depression. 

Eric started to rebuild his life and returned to the one passion in his life, astronomy. However, after his mistake there was a resistance to him obtaining meaningful work. Eventually, he gained an assignment at a remote observatory on Big Bear Mountain in the Californian Desert, near the town of Twentynine Palms, his home. The location was very strategic. Here Carpenter could be watched by his colleagues, but it was sufficiently remote for him not to cause too many ripples in the astronomy world.

So isolated was this observatory, the only access was via a cable car, which took twenty minutes to make the 3,000 metre ascent. Andy and Eric would often make the journey together and discuss the evening’s work ahead, which almost always was a continuation of the fruitless search for the extra terrestrial threats they felt did not exist.

During one such ascent, they discussed another use for the yottabits of data they captured every night. It was from this discussion the game of Asteroid Billiards was conceived. Andy used his technical expertise to program the game. It didn’t use too much processing power as all the images were generated from the database already created by the scanned images of deep space. These images were captured by the telescope, in conjunction with a vast array of high Earth orbit telescopes.

The capturing of 3D images using this array was simple, yet very effective. The earthbound master telescope would point to a specific region of space. The orbital telescopes whose cameras were closest to the region locked onto the target and photographed the area. All images would be processed, applied to the same scale and superimposed. As the orbital telescopes captured the region from a slightly different angle this resulted in a glorious 3D representation of the photographed area.

Once the raw 3D model of the solar system and its neighbours was downloaded into the main computer, Andy applied algorithms to the images which would emulate a game similar to billiards; the main similarity being the collisions and reactions of heavenly bodies with each other.

An appreciation of bodily densities, associated coefficients of restitution and forces between them was paramount in winning a game. Andy generally had the advantage, due to his expansive knowledge of physics. However Eric amply bridged his knowledge gap in physics with an almost photographic knowledge of the solar system and its constituents. Andy was always amazed with Eric’s ability to know where everything was. This gave him the ability to select what looked like a completely innocuous isolated body, fire it off towards our solar system and win the game; leaving behind a trail of destruction so impressive, an invading alien army would be proud to replicate even a fraction of this carnage.

The equipment was simple. A 3DVR room with its associated holographic image generators would provide the “table”. The players would wear a cue glove and visor.

The visor was worn by the players and used to superimpose grids and trajectories onto the 3D image. They also sensed where the cue gloves were pointing and aided the selection of items within the field of view. This would help gauge the power needed in the shots. The cue gloves were a clever piece of computer peripheral hardware. By “tapping” the target twice with the index finger, it would be selected, and by emulating a flick with the forefinger and thumb, the heavenly body which was selected would begin its journey as the “cue ball”. The strength of the flick would determine the speed of the cue body. Inevitably, trajectories would be influenced by gravitational fields and other influences, which is what made this game one of skill. But Andy, the game’s programmer had another trick up his sleeve.

Although this game was contrived out of fantasy and imagination, Sir Isaac Newton’s laws still influenced the outcome. F=ma was still evident because a big body selected as a cue ball would not travel as far with a flick as would a small body with the same flick. Andy built this into the game, but neglected to tell Eric. Eric became frustrated at his weak fingers to the extent he began, at one point, taking body building supplements and embarked on a ferocious campaign to build up his forearm muscles. He was unaware it was almost impossible to solely build up one area of the body, whilst neglecting other areas.

The computer sped up the collisions which would take years in real time; and usually to the music of Gustav Holst’s, The Planets. Andy liked Mars, The Bringer of War. Eric on the other hand preferred Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity; only because it was good gloating music, which allowed dramatic interludes, which sometimes coincided with collisions. Although the main point of the game was to hurl every planet and its satellite(s) into the Sun, the rules did occasionally change. This is why Andy initially took exception to Eric’s premature termination of this game which led to the mysterious object’s discovery. He thought it was yet another impromptu addition to the already swelling rule database. He had no idea of the disastrous chain of events their discovery was about to unravel.

But Eric was faced with a problem. Should he report the object? Mindful of his last ‘discovery’. He wasn’t sure.

“What should we do Andy?”. They both looked at each other.

This is what I have found out about the day of the discovery, dear reader. I will research more and place my findings here,

Jeh Yong.

Thich Hanh Tu