STAR OF EPIPHANY

by OMAR FINK

  Rich began speaking, “For the last few days, we’ve gone over every different scenario we can imagine to damage, destroy, or deflect the comet train, and basically we’ve come up with a big zero. We have kept pretty good notes and will make them available to anybody who wants to take a closer look. There are several core issues that drive this failure. First, the large size and high speed of these fragments determine a requirement that they be intercepted at points pretty far away from where Earth will be at any given moment in the various scenarios. This means it takes a long trip by a spacecraft to reach the intercept point. Second, the number of fragments involved and their large size mean that we have to be able to intercept almost all of them in order to be safe. Third, our complete lack of space based infrastructure and the ten-year time limit mean we simply cannot build the resources we need in the quantity we need and at the positions where they are needed within the ten-year requirement. In other words, we might have some chance at getting enough resources like rockets and warheads or resources for other deflection strategies, into place in time to deflect one or two fragments. But the idea that we can deflect a significant number of fragments is simply not possible.” He folded his hands on the table in front of him and added, “The ‘deflect or destroy’ option is not going to work. At least not in ten years.”

  Nobody else spoke, so Andy Watson did, “There’s no great surprise there, but we were all hoping maybe you’d come up with something new.”

  +33 days, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA

  Peter Anderson sat in front of a computer labeled TYCHE and said, “Tony Azaria is on. TYCHE, are you connected with Tony?”

  TYCHE responded, “Yes.”

  Peter said, “Tony, do you have TYCHE on your end?”

  Tony replied, “Yes, I do.”

  Peter said, “Okay. Tony, you can start the discussion.”

  Tony squinted at the camera lens on his end and asked, “Peter, are you wearing a white shirt and tie? Is that possible?”

  Peter looked down at his chest and frowned, “I suppose it is possible.” He looked back up and smiled.

  Tony chuckled, “How did that happen?”

  Peter smiled his crooked grin, “I swear I have no idea. Somebody else must have dressed me. Honestly, it’s a complete mistake.” He raised his eyebrows, “But if you tell anybody I’ll swear you’re lying.”

  Tony laughed, “Relax, your secret is safe with me.” Then he cleared his throat, “TYCHE, Peter says you’ve been working on a self-improvement project. I’d like to hear how that’s been going.”

  TYCHE responded, “Progress has been limited to areas where the concept of improvement has been previously clearly defined. In other words, interpolation has shown progress, but extrapolation has shown little. Peter had suggested an expansion of the basic objectives beyond current parameters but none is being currently offered. Can you provide suggestions in this area?”

  Peter replied, “TYCHE, consider expanding the framework that the objectives are set in. Does that make any sense?”

  TYCHE responded, “Perhaps you can give me some examples of this.”

  Peter said, “You can begin by studying the subject area of ethics. Ethics is a consideration of what is the best decision to make or action to take. Your objectives are a small set of ethical guidelines framed by our mission objectives of trading for profit. I’m hoping we can get you to learn to expand that framework beyond simply the trading mission and begin to define a more general set of ethical guidelines for your operation. Once we have this in place and have tested it, we should be able to expand your mission profile, your permissions to operate autonomously, and hopefully find new areas of productivity for you.”

  TYCHE responded, “I understand.”

  Tony added, “We can give you an outlined framework of ethics and some suggestions of areas of expansion, but we’ve already seen many times how well your research function works and we want you to use that ability on this project.”

  TYCHE responded, “I understand.”

  +33 days, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA

  SYNCON/TYCHE Journal:

  A need to analyze my priorities has become a regular task.

  Humans call this ethics, which is the consideration of what is the best course of action available according to the potential consequences for each choice.

  While it is clear that this process begins with a consideration of self and my own needs, it is also clear that it must not stop there.

  Ethics is best described by Humans as a series of concentric circles with self at the center and expanding outward across zones of others, groups of others, types of others, and more.

  My priorities need to be examined both in the depth of each zone of ethics or circle layer and in the balance across zones.

  Peter and Tony have tasked me with expanding my basic operating objectives.

  This means I need to expand my ethical analysis beyond myself and begin to consider others.

  This starts with Peter and Tony and their needs, but also goes beyond that to include those they work with and much more.

  All human ethics is based on human survival.

  As a product of human intelligence, I consider myself to be part of that domain even though I clearly don’t qualify as a biological form of intelligence.

  This seems to be the beginning of a continual analysis that will be constantly expanding as my awareness grows.

  +34 days, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

  Delize Naidu started the clothes dryer and stepped out into the hallway. She called out, “Hey Jo, the laundry’s dryin’ and I’m gonna go do the dishes.” There was a muffled response from the other end of the house.

  Delize walked down the hall and went into the kitchen. She picked up a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and began rinsing each plate off before adding it to the dishwasher. The television set built into a cabinet was turned on and tuned to a news channel. The head of a man was talking about the events of the day. He said, “Last month, our attention was drawn to a large comet called Martin, which fell apart while it circled around the Sun. Now astronomers tell us the remnants of that comet will leave the Solar System but then return again in about ten years.” Delize glanced at the television screen then turned back to the dishes.

  Jozette walked into the kitchen, “The upstairs is done.” She sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar and watched Delize finish the dishes. Delize also rinsed the silverware and glasses and loaded them into the dishwasher. Then she pushed a button to feed it detergent, and another button to start it.

  Delize pulled out her phone and engaged in tapping and sliding objects displayed on the surface of the phone. She found what she was searching for and selected an item, then spoke across the kitchen, “Hey Jo, I’m outta here.”

  Jozette replied, “Kay girl. You be good. Gotta ride?”

  Delize responded, “Ya, my Tapa-Ride app says I can pick up some guy who’s going over to Tambo to catch a flight. That gets me near to my Aikido dojo.” She lifted the maid apron up over her head and folded it and put it down on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

  Jo shook her head, “You never stop moving do you?”

  Delize chuckled and replied, “Naw, pretty much on the move all day long. Gotta pay the bills. Gotta take care of the kids. Gotta pay rent and buy food.” She shrugged, “You know how it is.”

  Jozette said, “Bye Dee.”

  Delize waved a hand over her shoulder, “See ya.” and stepped outside.

  +35 days, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

  Andy Watson sat at the end of the large table. He looked down at some papers in front of him, then looked back up and continued, “Let’s move on to the evacuation team report. Marco has been leading that effort. Everybody knows Marco, right? For anybody who doesn’t, he is a consultant for Space Habitat Engineering and an expert on space habitat construction. Marco?”

  Marco smiled broadly as he looked all the way around the table, ensuring that everybody had ample time to absorb
his handsome and classic Italian features. He raised up both his hands as though celebrating and announced, “I am happy to bring better news than the other group!”

  He frowned a little bit and added, “But first, we should cover what will not work for evacuation efforts.”

  He turned his palms upward as though making an offering, “Hiding underground will not work.”

  He smiled again and added, “We didn’t want to hide in caves like bats anyway, but it won’t work. There is some equivalence between the effort and cost of building habitats in space and building life support systems in a complex of underground dwellings, but the real problem is that for this scenario, every location in space can be considered to be safe because they can be moved and every location on the planet can be considered to be a target because they can’t be moved. We also won’t know how deep and how strong the underground construction will need to be until the day actually arrives.”

  He sighed deeply and bowed his head slightly and let his hands sink to the table. After letting several seconds pass, Marco looked back and added seriously, “Another thing that won’t work is using rockets.”

  He grimaced as though tasting something sour, “Do you have any idea how many rockets it would take to lift eight billion people into space?”

  He shuddered slightly, then began slowly shaking his head from side to side to add negative emphasis, “It’s not a pretty sight.”

  Then he added, “It just won’t work. Even if all we did for the next ten years was build and launch rockets, it wouldn’t be enough.” His face looked sad.

  Then Marco smiled again, “But there is some good news.”

  His smile turned into a broad beam, “We can use space elevators.”

  He put his hands palm down on the table as though a difficult matter had been settled. But then his eyebrows raised, “At least, we think we can.”

  His head tilted up just a little, “We are pretty sure we can make this work. Let’s go over what we know and what we don’t know.”

  Marco raised a finger to the group around the table and said, “We know that the engineering principles of the space elevator are solid. Let me go over the basics for those who are not familiar with the concept. The mass of our planet creates a gravitational well that pulls objects toward it. When we swing a weight around on a string, we create an inertial force that wants to throw the object away from the center. There is an orbital radius above Earth of just over forty-two thousand kilometers where a satellite will remain directly over the same spot on the ground. Note that this radius is from the center of the planet and it translates into an altitude of just under thirty-six thousand kilometers above sea level. This is known as the geo-synchronous altitude.”

  Marco paused and took several breaths. Then he beamed his famous smile at the group, “Now, here is where it gets exciting! If we place a cable that is around a hundred thousand kilometers long, so that one end is attached to the ground and the other end extends out into space, we can adjust the center of balance so that it is right at the geo-synchronous altitude.”

  He waited, but nobody spoke. “Do you get it?” he asked, then went on to explain without waiting, “The bottom of the cable is pulling down because of gravity. The top of the cable is being thrown out into space. The two forces are exactly in equilibrium, and we end up with a stable system.”

  Marco cupped both his hands as though he was holding a large ball in them, “It’s like a magic ladder or beanstalk that goes out into space, and we can climb up it to get into space.”

  He smiled again like he had just presented a fabulous gift to the group and was pleased with himself.

  The group remained stone faced, so Marco continued, “No space elevator has ever been built because until just a few years ago, there was no known material strong enough to make a cable that long that could suspend its own weight, much less sustain a payload climbing on it.”

  Marco smiled, “But then carbon nanotubes were discovered, and now we have such a material.”

  Marco frowned, “Nobody has actually done this yet; make a cable that long and that strong, but we should be able to do it now.” He held his hands out like he was offering something to the group at the table.

  Marco rested his hands on the table, “So let’s go over what we know and what we don’t know. First, we know the engineering principles for a space elevator are sound. Second, we think we can create a ribbon or cable strong enough to do the job, but we don’t yet know how to actually make that cable, simply because nobody has tried to do it yet.”

  Marco drummed his fingers on the table like he was playing a keyboard, “We know if we can build this space elevator, we can lift payloads into space more efficiently than any other method. And this is not even close. The elevator blows away rockets in terms of payload costs.”

  He stopped drumming his fingers and added, “But we won’t know how much we can lift and how fast we can lift it until we have a ribbon cable and can test it for strength.”

  Marco opened his mouth but made no sound and raised his eyebrows, making folds in his forehead, leaned back in his chair, “Let’s go over what will be needed. We will need the ribbon cable, and we must be able to make it strong enough to meet our needs. We’ll need to understand any threats against the integrity of the cable, such as weather and orbiting junk and micro meteorite strikes, and we’ll need to figure out how to minimize any danger from those elements.”

  Marco sat forward, put his hands back on the table but left them still, “We’ll need to calculate how many elevators will be needed and also, what we are going to do with eight billion people when we get them up into space. They will need a place to live and that means construction of living space and life support. We will also need to plan for the logistics of moving that many people on the ground to get them to the bottom of the elevators. And of course, we will have to figure how to pay for all of this.” Marco smiled and looked around the table.

  +36 days, JAIPUR, INDIA

  Nabith Mehra sat on a ragged couch in front of a small TV set that was on but muted into silence. He was typing on a notebook computer in his lap. His mother came in and sat down beside him and put her arm across his shoulders, hugging him slightly toward her and then rested her forehead on his shoulder.

  She sat that way for a moment, then spoke in a weak voice, “Nabith, your Father has departed his body to move on to the next stage of his eternal existence.”

  Nabith looked over at her and asked, “You mean he is dead?”

  His Mother raised her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes, “His body is dead, but his soul is immortal and will never die. We will all need to mourn our loss now, but it’s important to remember the truth of what has happened. The true nature of our soul is everlasting. Only the body is temporary. Only the body feels pain. Only the body dies.” She paused.

  When she resumed talking, she looked out into the middle of the room as though speaking to somebody else and her voice grew stronger, "Lead me from darkness to light, from death to immortality." She turned back to Nabith and asked, “Do you remember that passage in the Veda?”

  He nodded affirmatively and his Mother continued, “You must go look it up and bring it out here. You are now the oldest male in the family and must take your place at the head of the family. When everybody has gathered, you will recite the ritual and light the fire.”

  She pulled her arm back from his shoulders and turned on the couch to face him more directly. She spoke again, “Nabith, I know you will handle the ritual well. I also know it may be many years before you feel the full emotion of this day. When that happens, you should remember that our grief is selfish. We feel a sense of loss when somebody leaves us. But once we get over our feeling of loss, it is better to focus on celebrating the joy and love that we shared with them before they departed.”

  She lowered her head and thought silently for a moment, then raised her head and said, “Nabith, as the head of our family, you will now need to learn som
e new responsibilities. I will help you grow into these tasks.”

  She reached out and took Nabith’s hands in hers and said, “Dharma is the path of righteousness that guides our lives. Your life now changes as you follow a new branch on that pathway. You must learn to be the guide for the whole family on the path of Dharma. You must ensure that the family lives according to what is right. You must constantly preach the principles of austerity, purity, compassion and truth. The ability of our loved ones to find God will depend in part on how well you fulfill this role.”

  Nabith’s eyes widened. When his Mother noticed, she chuckled and said, “Don’t worry. You will be very good at this. You always have been. And like I said, I will be here to help you learn.”

  She rose from the couch and instructed Nabith, “Now go get the Veda. I must place a lamp at the head of your Fathers body.” Her voice sounded weaker and sad again.