Story – Space Age

Stranded on an Unknown Planet- Part 2

One of the aliens that pointed a rifle at Ankita spoke, “Get back in the cryogenic chamber, human; I don’t have time to put up with your nonsense.”

Just as Ankita recovered from the initial shock, she was hit with yet another shocker as the alien spoke in English.

“Err, um, sure, I will get back into the chamber, but it appears that one of the pods has malfunctioned. That’s the reason why I am here.”

“Hmm, I see, looks like it seems to be an issue at our end.”

The alien was interrupted by a message from one of their superiors stating that they needed to speak to Ankita now. Thankfully, luck was on Ankita’s side as she was summoned to the headquarters for questioning. She was escorted by a group of alien soldiers to a large room that resembled a conference hall, and there was a holographic panel with images and languages that seemed so foreign. In the hall, they met an older alien wearing different attire, which resembled the uniform of an army general. The alien spoke.

“Hello there, I am Urru, the Leader of interplanetary relations representing the Kafinian race, and this is the planet Neathor; I presume that your name is Ankita, right?”

“Yes, but I demand to know why my crew and I have been captured and are being detained against their will!”

“We have been closely following you humans and had received a very strong radio interference from your spacecraft a few days ago. This is a threat to us, so we had to pre-emptively take action by capturing you all before you attack.”

“What are you blabbering? Before we attack? Have you lost your mind! We don’t even know that you exist until now, and you have concluded that we have planned an elaborate attack on your kind! This is preposterous!” Shrieked Ankita.

“Yes, if we receive a radio interference, we interpret it as a threat! Don’t you do the same as well?”

“No, absolutely not! The radio interference occurred when some space debris hit our space station. And it was just an accident.”

“Oh, my bad, it looks like this was all a huge misunderstanding; I shall set you and your team free. Apologies for this mishap; we never knew that radio interferences happen as accidents in your world. Here, we take that as a threat.”

“So much for that; you have infuriated us with your heroic antics. Now let us go!”

“Hey, calm down, Ankita; it’s an honest mistake that could happen to anyone.”

“Hmph!” Ankita looked away with a smug expression on her face.

“Aren’t you curious to know more about us?”

“All right, let’s just put everything aside for a bit and get to understand each other Urru.”

“That’s more like it Ankita. Like I told you commander Fradut, humans are just like us; quite curious.”

Urru began explaining to Ankita that they were one of the largest and longest surviving species in the universe. They came into existence around 5 billion years after the big bang and have slowly evolved as a civilization over billions of years. They were able to make the most of their surroundings and began colonizing various planets in their galaxy over time. They were also able to visit places that are hundreds of light years away from their home galaxy through warp drives [1].

“Oh wow, you are an 8-billion-year-old civilization, boy; it must be impressive.” Ankita was filled with amazement.

“Yes, Ankita, we have been able to thrive as a civilization and stand the test of time thanks to our adaptable nature. The secret to our existence is our ability to adapt to change. This applies to all living species thought the universe. Our race is known as the Kafinian race; it is named after Kafin, which is an extinct species from which we evolved. We have also been through a similar path as the human race, from living in small caves, building houses, and inventing machines.”

“Hmm, I see. Can you tell us how you were able to invent new technology, find ways to travel long distances and make scientific breakthroughs that we humans cannot achieve in the present day? Tell us more, Urru.”

“Well, I can’t tell you how we advanced from a technological standpoint as it was so far back in our present time that we have lost track of it. But one thing that we know for sure is that there was a huge war somewhere between 650 to 700 million years after we first existed. This war had been a huge turning point for our species, and we were able to learn a lot from it and unite together.”

“Oh boy! It should have been a devastating war for you all; tell me more.”

“Around 7.6 billion years ago, our race was constantly competing with each other. Our ancestors had created a lot of divisions among ourselves, and we were split into 6 different civilizations; in your world, they are like countries. Among those civilizations, some of them had further subdivisions on the basis of clan, religion, political ideologies, etc. There was a lot of turmoil due to this. Two civilizations, in particular, claimed superiority and constantly oppressed the remaining four. The oppressed civilizations were initially unable to fight on par with the other two as they had fewer funds and military equipment.”

“The remaining four civilizations united and gathered enough funds to destroy the oppressors. This resulted in an all-out civil war on our planet and nearly 90% of all life on Neathor was wiped out. Neathor is our home planet, which is around 60 lightyears away from Earth.”

“Oh goodness me, how were your ancestors able to cope with such a disastrous event, Urru?”

“Well, obviously, it didn’t happen overnight; you see, Ankita, as 90% of Kafinians were killed in that deadly war, we found it increasingly difficult to develop from there as 500 million years of technological evolution was lost and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Our ancestors began building technology slowly with reference to the previous blueprints that were stored safely in an underground vault. It took nearly 200 million years to get back.”

“Hmm, this is great, Urru; looks like that civil war and global extinction was a wake-up call for the Kafinian race to bucker up.”

“Yes, Ankita, ever since that, we have learned to live despite differences among our people. Whenever a minor dispute arises among two groups, we will be reminded of that horrific war that nearly wiped us out, and we will stop the dispute then and there and begin to negotiate diplomatically. We have a large council called the Kafinian collective, which works on ensuring peace across our galaxy.”

“Wow, we have a lot to learn from your kind Urru. Thank you so much for sharing your journey.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Ankita. Here is the location of our home planet Neathor in the milky way galaxy. With the current speed of your technological advancements and space travel, it would take you at least another 750 to 1000 years to travel to our planet within your lifetime.”

“Urru, don’t pull my leg, man.”

“Aha, Nah, don’t worry, dear Ankita, we will visit you sometime soon. Looks like your crew has come around; I am sure you will have a lot to catch up with.”

“Thanks, Urru, See you soon, bye!”

“Bye, Ankita, and listen, one important thing, don’t ever tell anyone on Earth that you have met us; it could lead to a lot of confusion and utter chaos.”

“Understood, Urru, bye.”

Ankita and her team were escorted back to Earth and dropped off safely by the Kafinians. She had a lot to say to her crew. Most importantly, the crew had learned a very important lesson it is that our differences have to make us stronger as humans and that we must never let our differences get the better of us as it could lead to our downfall.

Glossary

[1] Warp Drive- Warp drives are spacecraft that enable people to travel faster than the speed of light by bending the fabric of space to create a bridge across and unbending it back. In this manner, the spacecraft will be in a warp bubble, unaffected by space-time, thereby enabling it to travel faster than the speed of light. This is a science fiction concept. Refer to the link below for more information on warp drives.

Faster than the Speed of Light with Warp Speed

Stranded on an Unknown Planet- Part 1

Ankita Dikshit was an Astronaut and the Head of the cabin crew at the International Space Station (ISS). She was an American whose grandparents migrated from India a long time ago. She was regarded as the most talented and highly skilled person in resolving issues even by the chief technicians at NASA. She held multiple PHDs in various subjects related to astrophysics, rocket propulsion and spacecraft engineering.

It was another mundane day in the international space station, Ankita was conducting routine checks and monitoring the performance of the engineers. Robert, the Chief Technician of the ISS asked her,

“Hello Ankita, how are the stats looking, all good?”

“Hi Robert, yes everything seems fairly fine for now, we have got a couple of things to address at deck T-9. Looks like there has been a minor hull breach due to the impact of space debris.”

“Ahh, the usual, let’s hope that you can assign someone to fix it.”

“Yeah, I am sure that Clive will be able to resolve this in a few hours.”

Ankita assigned Clive and two other crew members to assist him in repairing the hull breach. She briefed them about the extent of damage and asked them to take a few precautionary measures as well.

Clive and his team got to work and performed a thorough inspection of the extent of the damage. Once they were done with the inspection, they began sealing the cracks and repairing the hull breach in a meticulous manner. They had to be extra careful while sealing the breach as there is a possibility of hitting oxygen or fuel lines which are vital to the ISS’s principal functions. As soon as they finished sealing the breaches, they heard a loud thud which shook the core of the space station. Clive wondered, what in the world could have caused this sound, he immediately asked Ankita what was going on. Ankita replied.

“Clive, get yourself and your team into the spacecraft right now! There is a large unidentified spacecraft which has forcefully docked [1] our space station to itself.”

Without a moment to lose, Clive and his team made it into the space station just in time. Right before the large unidentified spaceship began to move to tow the docked ISS in the process. Ankita’s mind was in a disarray, she was wondering, how in the world could any spacecraft be able to dock itself onto the space station? The ISS does not have any hubs that enable spacecraft of monstrous proportions to dock onto the station. Just as she was carried away by those thoughts, she and her team began feeling lightheaded. They began fainting one after the other. When Ankita realized that the result of this was due to some smoke which seemed to appear from the point of docking, she fainted.

The unknown alien spacecraft used the method of warp speed [2], to commute to its home planet, which was around 16 light-years [3] away from Earth. Soon as it landed on the planet, a group of humanoid figures wearing suits and helmets which covered their faces, got into the space station, took the unconscious crew of the ISS, and put them into cryogenic pods [4].

After a few hours, Ankita woke up. For a few minutes, her head began spinning erratically and she was not in the right state of mind. After a while, she gained consciousness and began to observe her surroundings. She found herself amidst a few cryogenic pods which were tightly shut. When she saw through the peephole of those pods, Ankita noticed that all the pods contained her team members who worked in the ISS along with her. She noticed that only her pod’s circuit breaker had malfunctioned causing it to trigger it open and set her free.

Ankita saw through the glass door which overlooked a long corridor. There were humanoid beings who looked strikingly similar to humans. The only difference was that they were much taller than an average human around 6.8 to 7 feet tall, and had pale yellow skin. Ankita was quite surprised to see the striking resemblance between them and humans.

Most of the Aliens were wearing jumpsuits and happened to be conversing with each other in a formal manner. Some of them seemed to be soldiers or defence personnel, whereas some of them seemed to be officials whose suits seemed to be more formal. As she was observing the surroundings, one of the soldiers noticed her peeking through the glass door and stormed towards the door. Ankita noticed this soldier just in time and moved away from the door before it shattered as the soldier stormed in with a firearm pointed to her skull. The sound of the door shattering attracted a few more soldiers who were in the vicinity who also stormed in guns blazing. Ankita remained speechless and stood rooted at the spot with her hands up in the air.

To be continued…

Glossary:

[1] Docked- just like how ships are docked at the harbour with an anchor, a space ship can be docked to a space station. Or a large spacecraft can attach itself to a space station. The docking process is used to carry, refuel or transport the spaceship or space station.

[2] Warp Speed- Warp speed is a theory of compressing and expanding the fabric of space and time to propel an object faster than the speed of light. (This is not a proven theory and is widely used in science fiction) You can read more at the link below.

http://www.spaceage.home.blog/2021/08/01/faster-than-the-speed-of-light-with-warp-speed/

[3] Light Year is the distance travelled by light in one year. For example, if the star Proxima century is 4 light-years away from the Earth, it means that the light from that star takes four years to reach the Earth.

[4] Cryogenic pods- These are pods which are used to store humans or any other organism in prolonged sleep or hibernation. (This is also a fictional theory which hasn’t been proven yet)

My Trip to Mars [Story]

It’s the year 2085, things are really bright for NASA as this is the 17^th time they are embarking on a manned space mission to Mars. Since NASA have had a bitter experience in the past, they have redesigned the old space suit to better adapt to the atmospheric pressure and temperature of the red planet. Our team is sure that this will work just as planned as the spacesuit has been tested in the large planetary simulation chamber multiple times. In this mission, we are going to conduct the final inspection and plot the coordinates for constructing the space habitat.

If everything goes as planned, we would be able to colonize Mars by the beginning of the 22^nd century. Ever since all the countries in the world realized that there is no point in fighting with each other and spent all their resources for the development of their society, things have taken a wild turn and we are heading for the betterment of the future. The world space organization has postponed its 8^th interstellar mission until our project is done as it involves a lot of expenditure.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is habitat.png

Things are going just as planned, its 24 hours to launch, not just my family, but the whole world is excited to watch this event unfold as we will be back with the good news. 4.2 billion people have already booked their reservations for becoming permanent residents of the Martian world encompassed by a space habitat. Sadly, most of the bookings are wait-listed as only 2.5 billion people can be accommodated in the structure. The remaining people will have to wait until the year 2125 for the next habitat to be constructed.

The day of the launch has arrived, the fuel lines of the rocket are fully secure, me and my team of 2 astronauts Sam, and Lisa have boarded the spacecraft equipped with all the gear and resources for our 300 day long journey. As we are waiting to ride on, I look into the sky and think to myself, “This is it, we are going be a part of something mankind is going to be proud of for years to come. “ 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and we are off into space. Our spacecraft has now reached space and we are about to slingshot our way to Mars. My team are anxious about whether they will make it. I assure them that everything is perfect as I check my console for any fuel leaks, pressure variance and change in direction. We cross our planet’s gravitational field and are on our way to the red planet.

Just 50 days left to reach. I toggle through the cameras and happen to stumble upon a relatively small blue globular thing, turns out is our Earth. I radio back to headquarters and tell them that I am on track and need some assistance with the landing gear. I also share the remainder of my schedule, they verify it and then give me a thumbs up.

We reach Mars, Lisa and I gear up as Sam is going to hang back and assist us with the landing from the spacecraft. We hop into the pod and detach ourselves from the craft. We steer our way towards the red planet.

As I approach Mars, I see a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off its surface and boy oh boy, it was a truly amazing sight. I was mesmerized by that beautiful red desert sand glistening off the surface. Lisa preps the landing gear and we are ready to land. I reduce the speed of the engine and reverse the throttle to counter the gravitational force of the Martian world. As the spacecraft makes its way to the surface, I see that the atmosphere is much different than that of Earth’s. Looks like a huge amount of reddish brown dust lingers around. We make a smooth landing at the spot as planned and radio back to NASA headquarters.

Lisa and I inspect the surrounds for any large debris and get out of the spacecraft. As I set my foot on the ground, I tell her, “This is our first step to into a new world, we are going to start what humanity has dreamed of for many years.” We inspect the land for a couple of days and plant the markers at the optimum location. That’s it, our job is done, we radio back and tell the world that the construction of the Martian space habitat has begun. Just as we are about to make our way back to the space pod, we see an unidentified spacecraft hovering over the planet just a couple of yards away from our pod. From the looks of it, we can tell that this is some Alien spacecraft far ahead of our technological achievements. This unidentified spacecraft makes a soft landing and the doors open.

[To be Continued]