Proxima Trilogy: Part 1-3: Hard Science Fiction
Page 77
He accepts a tempting offer from a Russian billionaire. In exchange for making a simple repair on Neptune’s moon Triton, he will return to Earth a multi-millionaire, enabling him to achieve his ‘impossible dream’ of buying his own California vineyard.
The fact that Nick must travel alone during the four-year roundtrip doesn’t bother him at all, as he doesn’t particularly like people anyway. Once en route he learns his new boss left out some critical details in his job description—details that could cost him his life, and humankind its existence…
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/1086200
The Dark Spring
When a space probe returns from the dead, you better not expect good news.
In 2014, the ESA spacecraft Rosetta lands a small probe named Philae on 67P, a Jupiter-family comet. The lander goes radio silent two years later. Suddenly, in 2026, scientists receive new transmissions from the comet. Motivated by findings that are initially sensational but soon turn frightening, NASA dispatches a crewed spacecraft to the comet. But as the ship approaches the mysterious celestial body, the connection to the astronauts soon breaks. Now it seems nothing can be done anymore to stop the looming dark danger that threatens Earth...
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/1358224
The Death of the Universe
For many billions of years, humans spread throughout the entire Milky Way. They are able to live all their dreams, but to their great disappointment, no other intelligent species has ever been encountered. Now, humanity itself is on the brink of extinction.
They have only one hope: The ‘Rescue Project’ was designed to feed the black hole in the center of the galaxy until it becomes a quasar, delivering much-needed energy to humankind during its last breaths. But then something happens that no one ever expected—and humanity is forced to look at itself and its existence in an entirely new way.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/835415
The Enceladus Mission (Ice Moon 1)
In the year 2031, a robot probe detects traces of biological activity on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. This sensational discovery shows that there is indeed evidence of extraterrestrial life. Fifteen years later, a hurriedly built spacecraft sets out on the long journey to the ringed planet and its moon.
The international crew is not just facing a difficult twenty-seven months: if the spacecraft manages to make it to Enceladus without incident it must use a drillship to penetrate the kilometer-thick sheet of ice that entombs the moon. If life does indeed exist on Enceladus, it could only be at the bottom of the salty, ice covered ocean, which formed billions of years ago.
However, shortly after takeoff disaster strikes the mission, and the chances of the crew making it to Enceladus, let alone back home, look grim.
2.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/526999
Ice Moon – The Boxset
All four bestselling books of the Ice Moon series are now offered as a set, available only in e-book format.
The Enceladus Mission: Is there really life on Saturn's moon Enceladus? ILSE, the International Life Search Expedition, makes its way to the icy world where an underground ocean is suspected to be home to primitive life forms.
The Titan Probe: An old robotic NASA probe mysteriously awakens on the methane moon of Titan. The ILSE crew tries to solve the riddle—and discovers a dangerous secret.
The Io Encounter: Finally bound for Earth, ILSE makes it as far as Jupiter when the crew receives a startling message. The volcanic moon Io may harbor a looming threat that could wipe out Earth as we know it.
Return to Enceladus: The crew gets an offer to go back to Enceladus. Their mission—to recover the body of Dr. Marchenko, left for dead on the original expedition. Not everyone is working toward the same goal.
9.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/780838
The Hole
A mysterious object threatens to destroy our solar system. The survival of humankind is at risk, but nobody takes the warning of young astrophysicist Maribel Pedreira seriously. At the same time, an exiled crew of outcasts mines for rare minerals on a lone asteroid.
When other scientists finally acknowledge Pedreira’s alarming discovery, it becomes clear that these outcasts are the only ones who may be able to save our world, knowing that The Hole hurtles inexorably toward the sun.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/527017
Silent Sun
Is our sun behaving differently from other stars? When an amateur astronomer discovers something strange on telescopic solar pictures, an explanation must be found. Is it merely artefact? Or has he found something totally unexpected?
An expert international crew is hastily assembled, a spaceship is speedily repurposed, and the foursome is sent on the ride of their lives. What challenges will they face on this spur-of-the-moment mission to our central star?
What awaits all of them is critical, not only for understanding the past, but even more so for the future of life on Earth.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/527020
The Rift
There is a huge, bold black streak in the sky. Branches appear out of nowhere over North America, Southern Europe, and Central Africa. People who live beneath The Rift can see it. But scientists worldwide are distressed—their equipment cannot pick up any type of signal from it.
The rift appears to consist of nothing. Literally. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Most people are curious but not overly concerned. The phenomenon seems to pose no danger. It is just there.
Then something jolts the most hardened naysayers, and surpasses the worst nightmares of the world’s greatest scientists—and rocks their understanding of the universe.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/534368
Mars Nation 1
NASA finally made it. The very first human has just set foot on the surface of our neighbor planet. This is the start of a long research expedition that sent four scientists into space.
But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed ‘Mars for Everyone’ initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.
Challenges arise even before they reach Mars orbit. The MfE spaceship Santa Maria is damaged along the way. Only the four NASA astronauts can intervene and try to save their lives.
No one anticipates the impending catastrophe that threatens their very existence—not to speak of the daily hurdles that an extended stay on an alien planet sets before them. On Mars, a struggle begins for limited resources, human cooperation, and just plain survival.
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/762824
Impact: Titan
How to avoid killing Earth if you don't even know who sent the killer
250 years ago, humanity nearly destroyed itself in the Great War. Shortly before, a spaceship full of researchers and astronauts had found a new home on Saturn's moon, Titan, and survived by having their descendants genetically adapted to the hostile environment.
The Titanians, as they call themselves, are proud of their cooperative and peaceful society, while unbeknownst to them, humanity is slowly recovering back on Earth. When a 20-mile-wide chunk of rock escapes the asteroid belt and appears to be on a collision course with Earth, the Titanians fear it must look as if they launched the deadly bombardment. Can they prevent the impact and thus avoid an otherwise inevitable war with the Earthlings?
3.99 $ – hard-sf.com/links/1433312
Glossary of Acronyms
AI – Artificial Intelligence
COSMOS – Cluster Of Systems of Metadata for Official Statistics
DNA – DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
EEG – ElectroEncephaloGram
ESA – European Space Agency
ET – ExtraTerrestrial
GNA – Glycol Nucleic Acid
INMS – Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer
LUCA – Last Universal Cellular Ancestor
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administra
tion
PLOS – Public Library Of Science
PNA – Peptide Nucleic Acid
RNA – RiboNucleic Acid
TNA – Threose Nucleic Acid
Metric to English Conversions
It is assumed that by the time the events of this novel take place, the United States will have joined the rest of the world and will be using the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system.
Length:
centimeter = 0.39 inches
meter = 1.09 yards, or 3.28 feet
kilometer = 1093.61 yards, or 0.62 miles
Area:
square centimeter = 0.16 square inches
square meter = 1.20 square yards
square kilometer = 0.39 square miles
Weight:
gram = 0.04 ounces
kilogram = 35.27 ounces, or 2.20 pounds
Volume:
liter = 1.06 quarts, or 0.26 gallons
cubic meter = 35.31 cubic feet, or 1.31 cubic yards
Temperature:
To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and then add 32
To convert Kelvin to Celsius, subtract 273.15
Excerpt: The Hole
January 1, 2072, Asteroid 2003 EH1
Doug was shivering. He glanced at the display on his right arm. The heater was working at full speed, so it wasn’t faulty technology, and that was reassuring. He always felt cold right after getting up—so why did he insist upon watching the sunrise? A moment ago he had heard Sebastiano clattering around. The Italian must be in the warm kitchen, preparing the New Year’s meal he had been raving about for days. Maria would be standing in the shower, with hot water splashing all over her body. He should be keeping her company, instead of walking around out here in the dark.
But why wait? thought Doug. Instead he decided to take a few steps toward the sun, and his helmet lamp showed him the way. While he knew almost every square meter of his temporary home, an asteroid can change, just like a living being. The fissure now in front of him was just a narrow crack when they had arrived two years ago. Now it was seven or eight meters across and comparably deep. Doug pushed off slightly more forcefully than normal, into a forward jump-step, and floated to the other side. 2003 EH1 was not heavy enough to pull him in with its gravity. A badly planned jump—upward and too forceful—would turn Doug from an astronaut into a small interplanetary object. The large, bottle-shaped container on his back not only provided him with breathable air, but also served as an emergency jet. If he drifted into space, he could use its second gas nozzle as a miniature jet to maneuver himself back to safety.
Another ten meters or so, Doug estimated. The black rock in front of him seemed to gain a golden edge, and he stopped. It will happen soon. A whitish-yellow point of light rose above the ridge. Within seconds it became a semicircle, then a circle. The first sunrise of the New Year! Doug held his breath. He would have liked to experience it in the majestic stillness of space, but his spacesuit inevitably created noise, even while he held his breath. His ears still heard humming, hissing, and creaking, while the sun was slowly rising in the black firmament.
Without the sun’s radiation he and his crew could not survive, evidenced by the solar modules next to the ship. They were just now being hit by the first energy-providing rays. But out here the faraway star did not look anything like the life-giving mother Doug remembered from Earth. No, it was more like an accidental visitor who did not care much about the inhabitants of asteroid 2003 EH1. This was probably due to the intense blackness of space that seemed to suck up all light. The sun painted Earth’s sky in warm hues, but space remained utterly black. Doug raised a gloved finger and covered the sun’s disk with it. If he weren’t still seeing the long, sharp shadows on the surface, it might as well be night. There was only glaring brightness and absolute darkness. He had been flying into space for over 30 years, but he had never fully gotten used to this extreme contrast, or to the blackness of the dark. The five-times-larger sun disk he knew from Earth had probably become embedded in humanity’s collective memory.
Doug looked around. Now that the sun was, Earth couldn’t be far from it. He looked for it and found a few white dots that were possible candidates, but he couldn’t decide on a specific one. He should have downloaded the current star chart before going out, but he had not been that mentally organized so soon after waking up. The second-brightest spot out there must be Jupiter. ‘As the crow flies,’ the giant planet must be roughly as far away from him as was Earth.
Doug barked a laugh at himself, noticing the strange expression he had used. A bird certainly could not fly between himself and Jupiter, as there was no more air than what was contained in his pressure tank. Biologically speaking, the asteroid on which they were traveling was completely dead. At some point it had been a comet, but during its lifetime the solar radiation had stripped it of most of its volatile material.
Doug sat down and moved his glove over the thin layer of dust covering the brittle rock. He lifted a few crumbs and rubbed them between his fingers. They would sink slowly to the ground—taking several days or maybe even weeks—as the gravity of the asteroid was so low. These particles contained carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and silicon, but also valuable metals and rare-earth elements, and all of these in considerably higher concentrations than on Earth. Hence their reason for being here: They were traveling through space on a flying treasure chest. Doug was counting the days. The equivalent of another 1,110 Earth days and they would all be rich.
“Will the gentlemen please come to breakfast?” Maria’s voice over the helmet radio sounded annoyed, but he knew she was not really irritated. That was just part of the daily ritual. They normally had breakfast in the module they called their ‘living room,’ as Sebastiano worked almost all morning in the kitchen and wouldn’t let anyone else come in. Today, it was by chance that sunrise and the beginning of their day coincided. They still patterned their life rhythm after Earth, while 2003 EH1 rotated once around its axis every 756 minutes—12.6 Earth hours.
“On my way,” Doug replied as he stood up and turned his back to the sun. His shadow was so long it almost reached the ship. Kiska consisted of a round command module and the cylindrical drive. It held onto the asteroid by means of four landing struts. Originally, the spaceship had only been designated by a really long identification code. Doug tried to recall it, but could only get as far as K76M4. Shortly after launch, Maria had named it Kiska, the Russian word for kitten.
“Are you almost here? Don’t forget to wipe your boots!”
“Yes, Masha,” he replied, using his pet name for her. “Just a moment.”
Doug pushed himself off and moved toward the spaceship. Their quarters were behind it, in a deep cylindrical trough they had specifically dug soon after landing here. This way, the asteroid protected them optimally against meteorites and cosmic radiation. The computer calculated their risk of being hit at below one-tenth of one percent—for the entire duration of their journey.
Doug looked around while slowly drifting across the rough surface of the asteroid. Ahead he could see for several hundred meters, but looking right or left, the horizon was only 50 meters away. If he were to turn 90 degrees and circle the asteroid at his current pace, he would return to his current position in no more than half an hour. In essence, he was float-walking over the porous, reddish-brown-and-grey surface of an enormous cigar-shaped rock that was racing through the universe at many kilometers per second. Nevertheless, the world around him seemed to stand still.
The spaceship seemed to grow larger as he approached it. Doug grabbed one of the landing struts and brought himself to a halt. Kiska loomed above him like an eight-story high-rise. The landing struts anchored it to the asteroid, but even without their aid the ship would be standing solid as a rock, simply due to its large mass. This gave Doug a feeling of security. Despite the near-zero gravity, he could not simply push Kiska to the side—just like a flying insect hitting a bicyclist could not kn
ock the rider off his bike.
The steel strut of the ship looked like new. Doug touched it with his glove and realized how deceptive this appearance was. While the metal did not rust, he could feel the tiny impact-pits made by micrometeorites. This was not the first voyage of Kiska, but it very well might be its last—depending on 2075 Earth-prices for the raw materials they were harvesting here. If all three of them had enough money in their accounts by then, they would be able to retire. Doug sighed. Just like the ship, they weren’t getting any younger.
He let go of Kiska’s landing strut, and of his thoughts. Then he slowly moved around the ship. Five meters behind it, a few stairsteps led downward. He used the handrail to descend them, a biomechanical necessity due to the lack of assistance from gravity. The railing was essential for safely going upstairs, too, to prevent a push-off from sending one into space.
The roofline of their quarters was marked by LEDs that were blinking in a soothing rhythm. Four colored lines led from the edge to the center, where the airlock was located. The hatch stood open. Doug had not bothered to close it when he had gone outside. If Maria knew, she would scold him, even though he saw no reason to shut it, as neither weather nor other humans existed here. The three crew members were the only known living beings within at least 600 million kilometers, four times the distance between the Earth and the sun.