KUIPER
STATION
D.W. PATTERSON
Copyright © 2017 D.W. Patterson
All rights reserved
2nd Edition
6th Printing - December, 2020
Cover - Copyright © 2020 Future Chron Publishing
Cover Image – Copyright © NASA
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Kuiper Station (Future Chron Series, #9)
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AFTERWORD
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KUIPER STATION
1
Bob James wasn't sure about the meta-verse and being a virtual being, it wasn't that he had doubts about the simulated world designed and engineered by the Artificial General Intelligence's called Aggies. The meta-verse had been around for almost a century and there was no reason to think that it wouldn't continue. And if you considered virtual beings in a simulation as human, then a third of humanity had voluntarily opted for the meta-verse lifestyle.
And it wasn't because, like Bob, they had lived a long life and had no other choice. No, many had chosen the meta-verse early in their lives. According to the research that Bob had done, the meta-verse offered people freedom from aging with the promise of a vastly increased lifespan. Death in the meta-verse, if it ever came, was because it was desired or because something had gone horribly wrong with the supporting hardware. This freedom from aging and the indefinite lifetime it allowed made it possible to be anything a person could imagine, sometimes to their credit, sometimes to their humiliation.
The meta-verse wasn't like physical society, there weren't those that led and those that followed, unless they wanted to lead or follow. Each and everyone could be, if they wished, a separate and sovereign nation. Bit-nations, they were called. Because the meta-verse denizens needed nothing but a tiny amount of electrical power, the give and take of human life as it was experienced in the physical world didn't apply. If there were bad actors in the meta-verse, it was because they wanted to be that way and not because they were trying to alleviate some basic need or want.
The vast meta-verse simulation created by the Aggies was flawless. Even though people could choose to return to their bodies if they didn't wait too long, merging the memories of their time in the meta-verse, no one had ever asked for such a thing. Most people communicated from the meta-verse to the physical universe for a short while but it wasn't long until the divergence between the two was too great to bridge and contact was gradually lost.
Still, Bob wasn't sure. Three-hundred and fifty years of life was hard to deny. He was one of those that had never even allowed body implants to enhance his cognition or senses. Now taking on another body, even if just a simulated body, was as frightening to him as anything he had ever done. Still, he had no choice. The life-extension technologies had done as much as they could for him. Biology and Physics still imposed a limit on life span and Bob had reached that limit.
He would sleep tonight one last time in his own bed and they would take him tomorrow for the brain scan. Like the others, he could choose to return to his body if the meta-verse wasn't to his liking. But he was pretty sure he wouldn't, he was pretty sure he would be saying goodbye to his old body even if the meta-verse wasn't the paradise he expected.
The body he would leave behind was tired, even past tired, of the struggle to continue in its present form. So it was the meta-verse or oblivion, he thought, as he closed his eyes.
Civilization, like a human body, has an ebb and flow. Society advances in spurts, centuries of quick development followed by centuries of slow change.
After the Aggie managers took over, technology development exploded. And the effect on human civilization was profound and stultifying, a slow descent into stagnation resulted.
Human initiative, at least where there were Aggie managers, greatly diminished. Most people saw no point in trying to compete with the Aggies. Those still with aspirations migrated to the outer solar system, Saturn's Titan, Neptune's Triton and Uranus Station which were under the auspices of the Solar Federation. Others built space habitats with the capacity to carry thousands, even millions while orbiting the outer planets. These adventurers brought with them what was left of human ambition and the desire for freedom. The Jackson family was among them.
2
Jacob Jackson looked through the small portal of the Starfisher into the blackness of space. After four weeks the second-generation fusion-powered spaceship, belonging to the Solar Federation, which had launched from Neptune's orbit was over halfway to its destination. Tharsis was a small body in the Kuiper Belt, named after the Martian volcanic plateau because of its own high plateau region. Tharsis was some 40 AU or 40 times the distance from the sun as the Earth at this time though its orbit was elliptical and could reach out to 70 AU at its most extreme. Jacob and his dad, Jonah Abram Jackson, had campaigned for this mission to be undertaken ever since Jacob was a young man.
The Solar Federation was the outer world's counterweight to the Terran Federation which represented the space ambitions of much of Earth and Mars. Simplistically then, the Solar Federation stood for exploration, the Terran Federation for the exploitation of resources, the Solar Federation for freedom and self-reliance, the Terran Federation for safety and enforced cooperation. The Solar Federation was smaller but more nimble than the Terran Federation and as such was a constant source of irritation to the larger Federation. The Solar Federation preceded the Terran Federation in almost all exploration even though the Terran Federation had the backing of the Aggies as a powerful resource for technology and an organized society.
Jonah Jackson thought it imperative that exploration, which had been stalled since Jupiter's moon Callisto had been colonized by the Solar Federation a century before, be restarted. He wasn't sure what had happened to the human spirit. The development of Artificial General Intelligence and its technological advances had certainly affected that spirit on Earth. And as a direct result, the physical population of Earth had declined. For many years now the adventurous on Earth chose the meta-verse, not the Solar System. Even those left in the physical world were more docile and compliant with a consequent decline in their ambition and drive.
Mars had also “slowed” down in its development. Certainly, the expansion out into the Solar System and especially the abundant resources in the Asteroid Belt had mitigated the drive to explore further for more resources. But there was something else happening, for Mars was a relatively young civilization and with the efficiencies provided by the Aggies it could be expected that the recent settlers of Mars would be quite eager to continue to participate in man's unique destiny, exploration. But it wasn't so and Jonah had often talked with Jacob about why he thought human nature had reached a turning point, at least on Mars and Earth.
“Outwardly,” said Jonah to Jacob one evening before the ship left for Tharsis. “People are the same as they've always been, pretty self-center
ed. The human race has never put much thought into its future as a whole. And most people haven't thought very far ahead in their personal lives either. But something else has changed since the Aggies and their life-extending technologies arrived. You know that life expectancy has recently been increasing at the rate of one year per year?”
“Yeah, live a year and get another year, but that's only for newborns and it's an average,” said Jacob.
“And even so,” Jonah continued, “the people have become so averse to any uncertainty that even under the Aggie's nanny state care they've started buying insurance for all kinds of small-stake risks. For instance, many will spend more money to insure some trinket than the trinket is worth. That's called direct risk aversion and it's a kind of behavior that isn't logical. And because they are so focused on living that extra year they are completely oblivious to any opportunity that might carry some risk.”
“So much of mankind, except for those in the Solar Federation, have sat on their hands for the past century,” said Jacob. “And the Solar Federation is not rich enough to undertake any but carefully considered, reasonable exploration. But still, it has been a golden time for mankind with the help of the Aggies. Most people wouldn't look at it as a loss but a gain.”
“And most people wouldn't think about it at all,” said Jonah. “So most people wouldn't be prepared should anything upset their comfortable apple cart, would they? Do you remember from your history books the cyber-security disasters?”
“You mean that ancient history, almost two-hundred years ago now?”
“Yes, that ancient history taught us one thing. That if we are going to put all our eggs in one basket we had better make sure that basket is secure. When the cyber-attacks took out the electrical grid of the American states on Earth the human suffering was incalculable. A third of the population starved in the first three months. It was almost a year before “normality” was restored. After that you can bet the governments took cyber-security more seriously.”
“So what are you saying dad?”
“What I'm saying son is that the same situation exists today. Except this time it is the entire population of Earth and maybe Mars that will be affected by such a catastrophe. Did you ever think what would happen if the Aggies and their computers failed?”
“What do you mean fail? How could they fail?”
“They could fail accidentally or deliberately. There are still a lot of forces on both worlds that would benefit from the collapse of the rule of law. Imagine if cyber-terrorists could implant some viral code into the Aggie systems.”
“You think they can?” asked Jacob.
“I don't know but even a slight chance, and I do think there is a slight chance, would lead to economic collapse and misery. Instead of a third of the population of a country dying imagine a third of the population of a world or two.”
“The Aggies wouldn't allow that, would they?”
“The Aggies are just programs running on hardware. They have their weaknesses. And remember they have to defend against every intrusion whereas the intruder has to bypass their defenses only once.
“The Aggies have the economies of the whole world inter-meshed and operating at a high degree of efficiency. The problem is that at that level of efficiency there isn't much padding left in the system. If one part of the economy were to falter the other parts would be affected swiftly and drastically. The system is too close-coupled as it exists now. That is why we need to push further out into the frontier without Aggie supervision. To provide a safe place for humanity's future and a way to pick up the pieces if needed.”
“You really think that will help if the worse occurs, dad?”
“I don't know for sure, but I do know we can't help if we are caught in the same calamity. Something has to be done, I'm not saying it is all that needs to be done, but it is all that we can do and that's what counts.”
3
The Jackson family aboard the Starfisher included Jonah and his wife Mia, also their son Jacob and his wife Joanna, Jacob and Joanna's children, John Henry seventeen and Jacob Sanders twenty. Fourteen other crew members and settlers were also aboard the Starfisher. The six crew members would stay at Tharsis only long enough for the settlers to become established. That was expected to take two years. The settlement would then have fourteen settlers if no children were born in the meantime.
The Starfisher had stowed the settler's small wheel-shaped dwelling that would be spun up upon arrival. This would provide the living quarters, a food production area and enough artificial gravity to maintain human health. The settlers would have with them enough freeze-dried food to last for the first two years. At the end of that time, the aeroponic garden which was a system to grow plants by applying a mist of water and nutrients to their exposed roots and the protein production vats would need to be providing enough food to feed the settlers if they were to stay. The decision would have to be made at that time as to whether or not to abandon the colony. There would only be enough rations left for the eight week trip back to the base orbiting Neptune.
Just as important as food production would be water extraction at Tharsis. It was absolutely essential that water could be produced, the long term success of the colony depended on finding water. Water was not only important for life, but also to produce through electrolysis the hydrogen and oxygen that the dwelling wheel's chemical rockets would need to maintain station. As best as could be determined from a distance of ten astronomical units or nine hundred thirty million miles from Neptune there was water on Tharsis. But even with state of the art equipment the scientists could have made a mistake about water availability on such a small body at such an extreme distance.
Jonah and Jacob were reviewing the latest pictures of Tharsis photographed through the ship's telescope. They were just about to review the spectroscopic data when the all ship alert sounded. Father and son rushed from the forward observation deck down the spine of the ship passing along the way the more slow moving ship bots. They arrived at the revolving main deck where ship's operations was located. This rotating section provided enough artificial gravity to maintain human health over the course of the mission. Also in this section were the sleeping quarters, workout room and galley.
Entering the control room Jacob and Jonah were alarmed at the level of activity. Ship bots were scurrying in and out, the ship's crew was busy calling out system's status. One after the other the captain called for a status check and the crewman responsible called back nominal. Something was wrong but Jacob and Jonah couldn't make it out.
The litany of call and response continued until Lt. Jensen's readout. Captain Ellis shouted, “Hold it, repeat that again Jensen!”
Jacob knew immediately the problem. Jensen's call out was for the water tanks.
Jensen called his reading again and Captain Ellis let loose a string of impressive expletives followed by a bark at Jensen to shut-off access and depressurize the damaged water tanks.
Ellis saw Jonah and Jacob in the control room. “Gentlemen,” he said. “Meet me in my wardroom.” The Captain was already moving towards the exit as he spoke with the ship recorder bot Ahab chasing after him.
“Well gentlemen,” said the Captain as Jonah and Jacob entered the room. “We have a serious problem. Clements what's the situation?”
Lt. Commander Clements was the second in command. “Sir, of the ten primary water tanks the hull bots tell us that we have incurred damage to eight. Water loss is estimated to be eighty percent in those eight, we will have an exact number soon. The remaining tanks seem to be functioning but had already been partially emptied during normal usage.”
A string of epithets issued from Captain Ellis which he asked Ahab to strike from the record. He then asked, “What happened Clements?”
“From the octagonal geometry of the tanks it appears that we were hit from the side by some type of fast moving projectiles.”
“From the side?”
“Yes sir, the damaged tanks are on the righ
t side of the ship, the two facing outward on that side and then the next two on either side of those two and finally one tank on each side behind those.”
“How did the tanks in back get damaged?”
“I'm not sure sir.”
“That response is unacceptable Clements, speculate if you can do no better,” demanded the Captain.
“Well if I had to speculate, I would say that the projectiles went through the front of the outer tanks and into the ones behind them.”
“Clements, do you have any idea the energy it would take to traverse the walls of the first tank and the water and still have the energy to pierce the wall of the next tank?”
“Yes sir. I know the speed of the projectile would have to be enormous.”
“You could just about rule out any naturally occurring accelerator,” said Jacob. “Nothing I'm aware of in this area of the Solar System could account for the speed required.”
“It sounds like whatever it was that pierced the tanks may still be in those back two,” said Jonah. “Would it be possible to recover those fragments?”
“Clements?” inquired Captain Ellis.
“I will discuss it with McGraw sir, we can probably rig a hull bot to retrieve them.”
“Alright,” said the Captain. “Until we find out what hit us we need to come up with an estimate of the effect this incident has on the mission. Clements I want you to work with the chief engineer and the navigator to find us some options concerning our mission goals and whether or not we can still make the original objective. Jonah and Jacob would you please come up with a plan for water conservation that will support the original mission goals?”
“Yes Captain,” said Jonah.
“Good, I will expect your preliminary reports this time tomorrow. Thank you gentlemen for your time.”
4
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