Thursday, November 11, 2004
Chapter 8 - Star
Drifting aimlessly on an elliptical path around a large galaxy, the star shone. It shone without fail from the first days after it had condensed enough to fuse hydrogen into helium, and would shine until the very day when all of its material had been fused into iron. The lifetime of the star was long, and it defined how long a galaxy would live too. The blue stars meant it was a younger galaxy, and the red ones meant it was older. This star was red, and tiny. Floating on the edge of its dying galaxy it glowed with persistance for over 20 billion years. Humanity would almost never find it however, as it was simply too dim to be found. Only an accident would lead to its discovery.
Around this star orbitted three small rocky worlds, far too cold to harbor life without extensive terraforming. They held many valuable resources like iron, cobalt, uranium, and aluminum. These resources could be used to build ships and power them. These resources would fall into the hands of the Universals, who would then ship them directly to Star's End. At Star's End, these resources were used to build new facilities and ships. Most of the resources were used to facilitate construction and improvement, but in a time of war, it was necessary to allocate the rest to constructing weapons. New technology allowed the creation of gamma weapons... emitters that instead of emitting normal light, fired intense beams of gamma radiation. These beams could only be stopped by immensely heavy armor, and were energetic enough to vaporize an unprotected human light-years away. These weapons were forbidden to be used on planets because of the unintended destruction they could cause.
The unbelievers managed to discover this technology as well, but were less inclined to protect life. Entire planets were baked with gamma beams, killing everything on them and irradiating them for generations afterwards. These weapons were truly weapons of massive destruction on a planetary scale. The unbelievers developed them to the point of being able to even bake entire solar systems, destroying all life existing in them. Star's End worked feverishly to develop a defensive shield to protect the outpost should it eventually be discovered and fired upon. Only with the advent of anti-particle weapons was a solution devised. Firing anti-gamma rays would neutralize gamma rays in an energetic explosion. Obviously the gamma rays needed to be intercepted far from Star's End... so defensive emitters were placed around the station a few light-years away. When gamma radiation was detected, these would immediately fire and prevent the station from becoming baked in the attack. Other conventional methods were being developed too. Extremely heavily armored bunkers were constructed in the inner-most areas of the station to protect personnel should a gamma ray attack be detected. Fortunately, they were never used...
Stations were put in orbit around the three planets of the dying star, and the each had portals to transport material back to Star's End. They were also protected by smaller versions of the shielding device used to prevent portal travel. It was fortunate that this technology never fell into the hands of the unbelievers, otherwise they would have likely developed one capable of eliminating portal travel throughout a significant portion of the known universe. The Universals kept this technology very well protected, only a few handful ever knew how to develop one, and they were all guarded and watched to prevent them from transmitting the data to unauthorized personnel.
Humanity was fighting a religious war, just as it had centuries earlier on Earth. This time the costs were much higher. Annihilation could result if either side seriously considered it as an option. As the unbelievers began to lose ground, they would consider this option, and work to build a doomsday device capable of collapsing the entire universe in upon itself. Holy wars had never changed... they had just gotten much bloodier. ¶ 10:15 PM
Drifting aimlessly on an elliptical path around a large galaxy, the star shone. It shone without fail from the first days after it had condensed enough to fuse hydrogen into helium, and would shine until the very day when all of its material had been fused into iron. The lifetime of the star was long, and it defined how long a galaxy would live too. The blue stars meant it was a younger galaxy, and the red ones meant it was older. This star was red, and tiny. Floating on the edge of its dying galaxy it glowed with persistance for over 20 billion years. Humanity would almost never find it however, as it was simply too dim to be found. Only an accident would lead to its discovery.
Around this star orbitted three small rocky worlds, far too cold to harbor life without extensive terraforming. They held many valuable resources like iron, cobalt, uranium, and aluminum. These resources could be used to build ships and power them. These resources would fall into the hands of the Universals, who would then ship them directly to Star's End. At Star's End, these resources were used to build new facilities and ships. Most of the resources were used to facilitate construction and improvement, but in a time of war, it was necessary to allocate the rest to constructing weapons. New technology allowed the creation of gamma weapons... emitters that instead of emitting normal light, fired intense beams of gamma radiation. These beams could only be stopped by immensely heavy armor, and were energetic enough to vaporize an unprotected human light-years away. These weapons were forbidden to be used on planets because of the unintended destruction they could cause.
The unbelievers managed to discover this technology as well, but were less inclined to protect life. Entire planets were baked with gamma beams, killing everything on them and irradiating them for generations afterwards. These weapons were truly weapons of massive destruction on a planetary scale. The unbelievers developed them to the point of being able to even bake entire solar systems, destroying all life existing in them. Star's End worked feverishly to develop a defensive shield to protect the outpost should it eventually be discovered and fired upon. Only with the advent of anti-particle weapons was a solution devised. Firing anti-gamma rays would neutralize gamma rays in an energetic explosion. Obviously the gamma rays needed to be intercepted far from Star's End... so defensive emitters were placed around the station a few light-years away. When gamma radiation was detected, these would immediately fire and prevent the station from becoming baked in the attack. Other conventional methods were being developed too. Extremely heavily armored bunkers were constructed in the inner-most areas of the station to protect personnel should a gamma ray attack be detected. Fortunately, they were never used...
Stations were put in orbit around the three planets of the dying star, and the each had portals to transport material back to Star's End. They were also protected by smaller versions of the shielding device used to prevent portal travel. It was fortunate that this technology never fell into the hands of the unbelievers, otherwise they would have likely developed one capable of eliminating portal travel throughout a significant portion of the known universe. The Universals kept this technology very well protected, only a few handful ever knew how to develop one, and they were all guarded and watched to prevent them from transmitting the data to unauthorized personnel.
Humanity was fighting a religious war, just as it had centuries earlier on Earth. This time the costs were much higher. Annihilation could result if either side seriously considered it as an option. As the unbelievers began to lose ground, they would consider this option, and work to build a doomsday device capable of collapsing the entire universe in upon itself. Holy wars had never changed... they had just gotten much bloodier. ¶ 10:15 PM
