The Twins Paradox - Alan Gasparutti (top ten books of all time txt) 📗

him. “Man cannot comprehend this because it is so large a phenomenon, and is millions of times more rare than things we consider to be rarities, such as supernovae or mass extinctions.”
“Besides, I doubt anyone will be alive to see such a phenomenon,” added Dermot. “We’ll all be bits of stardust, crushed to infinity somewhere in the black hole.”
“I see Arthur’s got you hooked onto his theory,” Frank said to Dermot.
“Well, to be honest, this matter-annihilating-anti-matter theory in millionths of a second does take a lot to be believed,” Dermot admitted. “That theory was produced to explain background radiation and how galaxies are currently moving away from eachother, but could something happen in such a short time?”
“Do you think that the super-mega black hole theory is more plausible?” asked Frank.
“Well it explains the Big Bang and how so much matter can be created,” replied Dermot. “The other theory seems to suggest something is created out of nothing, just a big bang.”
Just then, the phone rang.
“Hello, Professor Frank Marshall speaking, can I help you at all?” said Frank as he picked up the phone.
“Hi Frank, it’s Clint here,” was the reply from the other end of the line. “I was just ringing to ask how your business is doing on it’s first few days?”
“Oh, everything’s gone smoothly so far,” Frank told him. “It’s a bit too early to ascertain any more just yet, though. The Governor of California opened the plant, and we had a few more of our shareholders attend, too. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a couple of them with me tonight.”
“Perhaps I should speak to you later,” Clint suggested. “I don’t want to interrupt any shareholders party of yours.”
”Oh don’t worry,” said Frank. “It’s only Dermot and Arthur. You remember them don’t you – we met them at the Astronomers convention last year.”
“Yeah, I remember the two of them,” said Clint. “The Irish guy from the European Space Agency, and his buddy from outer space.”
For a moment, Frank thought to himself.
“Are you okay Frank?” asked Clint down the other end.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” replied Frank. “You know, until you mentioned that, I’d totally forgotten about it.”
“About what?” queried Clint.
“That Arthur came from outer space,” admitted Frank. “Perhaps it’s because I’ve had so much else to think about these past twelve months.”
Arthur heard the phone conversation, but decided to say nothing. Unfortunately, Steve and Dermot overheard the conversation, too. Steve began to ask Dermot about Arthur.
“You certainly have been a busy man this past year,” Clint said to Frank, back on the phone. “I don’t suppose you find much time to think about the stars these days.”
“Believe me, Clint, I don’t find the time to look at the stars, these days,” said Frank.
“Don’t you talk to Steve about astronomy at all?” asked Clint. “He still lives with you, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, Steve’s still here,” Frank told him. “He’s with us at the moment, too. He’s been very busy too, travelling to San Francisco, LA and San Diego, and compiling our stats. He’s managed to persuade his misses to move to California, too.”
“Oh, good for him,” said Clint. “On that note, I think I’ll let you all get on and have a good old chat about the cosmos.”
“You don’t have to go just yet,” Frank commented. “Would you like to have a word with one of my colleagues?”
“Thanks, but I can’t stay too long on the phone,” said Clint. “Say hello to the others for me, I’ll speak to you again soon.”
As Frank went over to the others, he could see Steve was intrigued with Arthur.
“Hey guys, that was Clint on the phone,” Frank then said to catch their attention. “He says hi to you all.”
“Oh that’s nice of him,” commented Arthur, trying to change the subject. “How is he by the way?”
“Oh he sounds fine,” said Frank. “Between us though, I think this recession is beginning to affect him.”
“Oh? How’s that?” asked Dermot. “I thought he was retired.”
“He is, he is,” Frank told him. “The thing is, Clint’s pension is tied to the stock market. Many companies can’t maintain their outgoing pension payments. One or two have even folded.”
“Well blow me down!” said Dermot.
“I recall Frank and Clint telling me you were from outer space,” Steve then said to Arthur.
“I may not have been born here, but I’m just as human as you or anyone else in this room,” Arthur replied. “My ancestors were from this planet.”
“So what happened to them?” Steve asked him.
“They decided to flee the planet when they detected a large asteroid approaching,” Arthur told him.
“Do you know how long ago that was?” Steve asked. “It wasn’t about 50,000 years ago, was it?”
“No, no, no,” replied Arthur. “It was a lot longer than that. Millions of years before, even.”
Steve wouldn’t give up and kept referring to some earlier extinctions. Arthur kept shaking his head until eventually Steve mentioned the major Cretaceous mass extinction, 65 million years ago. Arthur said nothing.
“Your ancestors left the Earth at the KT mass extinction, didn’t they?” queried Steve. “But how did they survive in a world ruled by the dinosaurs?”
“I don’t really know, but what I have deduced is that they probably lived in what is now Antarctica,” said Arthur. “It wasn’t quite at the South pole, but near enough for much of to it to have a similar frozen environment to that of today.”
“But we’ve never discovered any human remains dating back that far?” said an astounded Steve.
“That’s probably because there haven’t been many archeological expeditions there,” said Arthur. “In addition, the remains would be well beneath the current ice, if they haven’t already been compressed to form limestone or other compounds.”
“Do you know where they went after that?” asked Steve.
“No, not really,” said Arthur. “I would surmise they possibly settled on the Moon, or more probably Mars, after leaving Earth.”
“Do you know where they went after that?” asked Steve.
“I simply don’t know,” Arthur replied.
“Say, did you come here on that asteroid which disappeared last year?” Steve then asked Arthur.
Arthur simply acknowledged.
“Gee,” sighed Steve. “Your ancestors must have developed some form of high-speed travel across the galaxy. That was travelling at millions of miles per hour. It was no normal asteroid.”
“That is correct,” Arthur then replied. “We had developed nuclear fusion, similar to the processes of stars.”
“So how fast could you travel?” asked Steve.
“I believe we could travel at up to 600 million miles per hour,” said Arthur.
“Wowwww!” exclaimed Steve. “It seems odd that with all that travelling, and in all that time you’ve hardly changed from the people of today.”
“That may have something to do with the fact that we lived in a small environment,” replied Arthur. “Besides, there probably hasn’t been as many generations as you may think.”
Steve was becoming even more mystified and ever-curious.
“You must have heard of the Twin’s Paradox?” Arthur queried with him, to which Steve nodded in acknowledgement. “You will then realise that, were people to travel at light speed, they would not age at all?”
“Are you saying that because you’re ancestors travelled at near-light speed, they hardly aged?” asked Steve.
“Basically, yes,” said Arthur, but decided to say no more.
“I’m sorry if I sound curious, but you don’t exactly hear about people from outer space every day. I’ll bet that’s why you discovered other small Earth-sized planets elsewhere in the galaxy?” Steve then surmised.
“I knew where to look if that’a what you’re referring to, but I still had to develop a new technique of how to find such planets,” Arthur pointed out. “
“Hey, Frank, didn’t you say you wanted to make an unofficial announcement tonight?” asked Arthur, in an effort to change the subject, at which point Frank looked at Steve.
“Didn’t you say you were moving to California?” Frank asked him, before saying anymore.
“Is that right?” Dermot asked Steve, before Frank could get a word in edgeways. “I wouldn’t mind moving here myself. You should be guaranteed plenty of sunshine.”
“Well, to be honest, we had a fair bit of sunshine at my old home in Houston,” Steve commented. “I won’t miss the hurricane season, though.”
“Will your family be moving here too?” asked Arthur.
“My wife, Laura, managed to get a teaching job in San Francisco, so she’ll be moving with me,” confirmed Steve. “Our eldest child will be going to Harvard after the summer.”
“How about your younger daughter?” Dermot asked. “Will she be coming?”
“We didn’t think it was the best time to change her education,” said Steve. “She’ll be staying with my sister-in-law over the next few years. We’ll make sure we get to visit them every once in a while.”
Frank then coughed for a second to draw everyone’s attention.
“I can now confirm that Steve will be our marketing manager,” he then told the others. “He’s been around the state, assessing possible sales potentials, without much of which, we couldn’t have got this off the ground.”
“Thanks, Frank,” said a beaming Steve.”I don’t now what else to say.”
“Oh it’s okay. You deserved it,” Frank replied, before turning around. “Say, Dermot, have you managed to keep up to date with that Atlantic turbine in Ireland?”
“Apparently, the latest I’ve heard is that construction is due to commence sometime soon, if it hasn’t already started,” said Dermot.
“Hey, didn’t Henry have something similar under review?” queried Steve.
“Yes he did,” said Arthur. “That’s probably why he’s gone back home early.”
“Do you know when it’s due?” asked Dermot.
“Henry was telling me that planning permission has now been finalised,” replied Arthur. “He thinks construction should start in September, and that the project will be ready by October, or so he’s been led to believe.”
“Whereabouts is that scheme of his?” asked Steve.
“On the Isle of Lewis, to the north west of the tip of Scotland,” explained Arthur.
“Gee, I wouldn’t like to be there when this turbine is constructed,” said Steve. “I’ve heard it gets pretty chilly up there.”
“And windy, too,” Arthur added. “In hindsight, it’s probably the best location for the scheme.”

The Final Hurdle

Henry had a lot on, which was why he cut short his trip to California. The journeys there and back had tired him out, though he still went to his Skipton office on Wednesday June 10th, as there were imminent issues. When he went to check the mail on his PC, he noticed he had received a lot of messages while he’d been away. There were messages from Rico, Arthur and Frank, and one from Andrew, saying that the contractors for the turbine were beginning to query when the turbine would be ready.
Then he noticed a message from another familiar person – Commander Ondichi - suggesting to visit Earth again, to carry out further reconnaissance. Henry thought this would be handy to get some help for his Atlantic project. The infrastructure still had to be completed, in time for the contractors to assemble the following month. As Henry read further, he noticed that The Commander asked Henry if he’d like another member in his team on Earth. Henry didn’t object to this at first, but the reasons for this became a litle clearer when he contacted the Commander.
“Has someone requested to join us here on Earth?” he asked the Commander. “I could do with a few extra pair of hands, particularly with that Atlantic turbine project I mentioned.”
“Oh, yes, I remember you telling me,” said the Commander. “Is it coming along well?”
“It will do, when I get some more help,” Henry told him. “We found a suitable location for it,