Alien Singularity

Chapter 1. Space Colonization

CHAPTER ONE

Space Colonization

Sometime in the future

Humanity has made many great strides in space colonization during that time. They have permanent settlements on Mars, and although people still needed to live inside pressurized indoor environments, Mars's terraforming was under process with very promising results. In a few hundred years, Mars would be more Earth-like, and people would be able to live in the open air. Humans have also established bases on the Moon, Ganymede, Europa, and Titan.

Kyler Young worked for NASA as a laser propulsion scientist. He was thirty five

years old, and was married to his wife, Lily, and had two children. His two children were Jimmy, who was seven at the time, and Bobby who was one. One day, at the dinner table, Kyler made an announcement to his family.

"Guess where I'm going next week," Kyler said excitedly.

"Disneyland?" Jimmy guessed.

"No," Kyler said. "It's not here on Earth."

"Goo goo!" Bobby shrieked as he sent a handful of spaghetti and meatballs hurdling at Jimmy.

Jimmy scrunched up his face as tomato sauce ran down his neck. "The Moon?"

"Well, it is a moon," Kyler began, "but it is one of Jupiter's moons."

"Ganymede?" Lily asked as she bent down to pick up the spaghetti that Bobby had chucked.

Kyler exclaimed, "Yes, Ganymede! They want me to go to their Cassini station to operate its laser beam to boost the Star Shot fleet. This is-"

"Hold up," Lily held up a hand to stop Kyler. "What is Star Shot? Is it the project you've been talking about for the past few weeks?"

"Yeah, what's Star Shot?" Jimmy piped up.

Kyler leaned toward Jimmy. "Alright son, let me explain to you in the simplest way I can. So, twenty years ago, after the discovery of rich oxygen in Proxima B's atmosphere, we humans have been fixated on trying to reach this planet. It's the closest interstellar real estate to Earth that has the potential for human settlement. The presence of oxygen is a clear indication of the existence of abundant Earth-like living organisms that have the ability to produce this oxidizer, which is highly reactive and will otherwise quickly disappear unless being constantly regenerated."

Jimmy had to sit through Kyler's rambling while taking in many unfamiliar words. Kyler was oblivious to the fact that Jimmy couldn't understand, so he continued.

"Ganymede is the second farthest outpost we have in our solar system. The Star Shot fleet is made of about a hundred solar sails, each equipped with three tiny Von Neumann self-replicating smart bots in the center to fine-tune its flying direction. The robots will eventually be our seed to build a habitat after landing on the planet. The fleet will get their initial laser boost from here on Earth, which will give them about forty-percent of the speed of light. Afterward, as they pass Jupiter, we will give them a second boost from laser cannons on Ganymede, accelerating them to about eighty-percent of the speed of light."

After he finished explaining what Star Shot was, the room was filled with silence.

Eventually, Jimmy broke the silence. "That's cool," he said with a fake cheerful tone. "I just have one thing to say... I did not get any of what you said."

Lily had finally picked up all the spaghetti from the ground and was throwing it in the trash can. "What your father was trying to say was that the scientists have found a planet that is like where we live, but it's really far away. So the scientists have built an army of spaceships to send to that planet. The spaceships are so light that the sunlight pushes it. And on the spaceships are robots, and the robots will live on the planet."