The Twins Paradox by Alan Gasparutti (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

felt he was in good company. Perhaps if he was to come clean about the asteroid, these were the ideal people to confess to. But then Dermot jumped in.
“I note what you’ve told us, and wouldn’t want to get caught up in something like that,” he said. “But surely, you can’t go around everyday with such worries hanging around you?”
“I don’t want to make things sound worse, but if you don’t show some concern for such matters it won’t be long before you’re six feet under,” replied Clint. “Trust me.”
“I suppose we’ll never know who the gunman was aiming at,” Dermot said on what was meant to be a more light-hearted note.
“Oh he was pointing at me alright,” said Frank.
“I’m afraid I think he was, actually,” added Arthur, at which point the others turned to look at him.
“You don’t know that,” commented Dermot.
“Oh I do,” confirmed Arthur.
“How’s that?” asked Dermot.
“Because it was me who stopped the gunman,” confessed Arthur. “I felt something strange when I was on the stage. I couldn’t be sure what it was though, until I went back to my seat. I could tell someone was aiming in our general direction.”
“You mean to say you actually saw the guy, through all the darkness of the room?” queried Clint.
“Not exactly,” replied Arthur, as the others looked at him curiously.
“There may have been a small light up on the stanchion, perhaps?” queried Dermot.
“Not exactly,” replied Arthur again, as the others looked at him more curiously than ever.
“Did you say you stopped the gunman?” Frank asked him with great intrigue. “Could you tell us precisely how?”
“With my force,” said Arthur. “You know, you must have seen it performed on some movies.”
“Are you talking about ‘the force’ in Star Wars?” asked Frank.
“Yes, that was one of them,” said Arthur. “I’m sure there were a few more movies with that kind of force. Rather realistic, I’d say.”
Frank, Clint and Dermot looked at each other in disbelief.
“Something tells me you know more about that asteroid than we might otherwise believe,” Frank said to Arthur.
“I see that you seem to have worked things out for yourself,” Arthur replied.
“You’re from that asteroid, aren’t you?” Frank said to him. “Who exactly are you and what are you doing here on Earth?”
“I am indeed from that asteroid you refer to, but I’m just as human as you, or Clint, or Dermot,” Arthur replied
“Okay, take your shirt off,” Frank requested.
Arthur took his shirt off, to show a body that was no different to any of the others.
“I could show you other parts of my body, if you’re that concerned,” Arthur said to the other three. “I’m no alien from some other world who’s come to invade you’re planet. I sense you’re concern, but you’ve nothing to be wary of. If I’d wanted to use my force against you I’d have done it by now.”
“Okay, okay, so if you are human, how did you arrive on that asteroid?” asked Dermot.
“Well, it’s a long story, but my ancestors were originally from this planet,” Arthur told him. “They left Earth a long, long, long time ago, in apprehension of a cataclysmic event.”
“What cataclysmic event might that have been?” asked Frank.
“An asteroid was approaching Earth, which would have annihilated humans,” said Arthur.
“Like the one that killed the dinosaurs?” queried Dermot, to which Arthur nodded. “So do you know how long ago your ancestors left Earth? About eleven million years ago perhaps?”
“Hold on a minute, aren’t we forgetting one thing?” Clint then said to Dermot. “There are no records of human life on Earth dating back to such times. It’s clear that our earliest ancestors only date back about two million years. And they could never have travelled to Outer Mongolia, never mind outer space.”
“I thought you might only be able to see the small picture,” muttered Arthur.
“Okay, okay, let’s hear him out,” said Frank as he turned to Arthur. “So when did your ancestors leave Earth and why have we not found any of their predecessors’ remains?”
“I’m not a historian, and please bear in mind that I’ve been travelling the universe at vast speeds where time means very little,” complained Arthur. “However, since we approached Earth, I’ve become used to human timescales, and estimate that my ancestors left the planet 65 million years, at the time of the dinosaurs.”
Frank, Clint and Dermot looked at each other in disbelief.
“You’re probably unlikely to find human remains that far back, though I dare say there may be some secreted in Malham Cove,” explained Arthur.
“Malham Cove? Where’s that?” Frank whispered to Dermot.
“A limestone cliff somewhere in Northern England,” explained Dermot. “I believe it has probably been submerged beneath the sea several times and hence composed of millions of layers of compressed limestone.”
“The truth is that there weren’t very many of us humans left,” said Arthur. “They basically lived in what is now Antarctica, where few dinosaurs lived. I believe they may have inhabited other parts of the planet, but were slowly forced to retreat to safer environments.”
“But how many generations have passed since?” Dermot asked.
“Not as many as you might think,” Arthur replied. “Are any of you familiar with the Twin’s Paradox?”
“That’s part of the Theory of Relativity,” Dermot said to Frank.
“You know, as the theory goes, that anyone travelling at light speed will not have aged at all,” Arthur said to the others, to which they all acknowledged. “Well, the craft my ancestors and I have been residing in has been traveling at up 90% the speed of light.”
“Wowwwhh, how do you get a spacecraft to travel at that sort of speed?” Clint asked.
“I’ll tell you that later,” replied Arthur. “As I was about to say, someone travelling at 90% the speed of light will only age by 10% of the rate of someone on Earth. You should bear in mind that on our craft there were no germs or diseases, which allowed for a longer life. By that assumption, for someone to age 120 years, in Earth terms they will be 1200.”
Frank, Clint and Dermot looked in astonishment at each other.
“There is an additional factor, I should emphasise,” added Arthur.
“What’s that?” asked Dermot.
“On my ‘asteroid’, we would spend about 75% of our lives in deep-freeze, or hibernation you might say,” explained Arthur. “At this rate we would age 120 years in 4800 Earth years.”
“So by my calculations there will have been something like thirteen-and-a-half thousand generations of you since leaving Earth,” Dermot worked out.
“Are you saying that when your ancestors left Earth 65 million years ago, they had already developed crafts to travel at near-light speed?” Frank asked Arthur.
“I don’t believe so, though I cannot say for certain,” he replied. “As I understand it, those who left Earth were probably at a similar level of intelligence as yourselves. I’m sure you can appreciate however, that stories can become hyped-up or undercut, so to speak, over so many generations.”
”How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Clint then said to Arthur.
“I saved Frank, didn’t I?” replied Arthur.
“How can we be sure that it was you who caused the gunman to fall?” Clint asked Arthur.
“I can demonstrate ‘the force’ somewhere out-of-the-way, perhaps,” Arthur told him. “I suppose I could try something here in this car, but I wouldn’t want to make things too obvious with all the cars on the highway watching. For now though, you’ll just have to trust me.”
Clint looked at Frank and Dermot for support, but he could tell that they each preferred to give Arthur the benefit of the doubt.
“That’s your trouble here on Earth today,” Arthur told them. “There’s not enough trust and friendship in the world. My ancestors couldn’t live in a world of war and terrorism – they were more concerned with keeping the dinosaurs at bay.”
“I didn’t know there were dinosaurs in Antarctica?” said Clint.
“I don’t think Antarctica was in the precise same position in the world at the time, as it is now,” explained Frank.
“Oh there were some dinosaurs in Antarctica,” replied Arthur. “Maybe not the biggest or broadest dinosaurs, but my ancestors were afraid that if those dinosaurs were not kept at bay, they would end up growing larger and larger and eventually take over the land.”
“Why didn’t they leave Earth earlier?” asked Clint.
“I can’t really say for certain,” said Arthur. “Perhaps some of them did. Others may have thought dinosaurs were steadily decreasing, which is what some people consider today.”
“Couldn’t they use ‘the force’ to help defend them?” asked Clint
“I believe my people didn’t developed ‘the force’ until a lot later,” said Arthur. “Whether the force would have been of any use against a herd of brontosaurae or a pack of Tyranosaurus I don’t know. Perhaps my ancestors intended to construct a nuclear missile, like some of your people today, in order to destroy the dinosaurs. Alas, the asteroid beat them to it.”
“So I suppose it would make sense to come back to Earth one day,” muttered Dermot.
“What puzzles me is why your ancestors never came sooner?” Frank asked Arthur. “Or did they?”
“Again, I can’t say for certain,” replied Arthur. “When my ancestors left Earth, they went in several space craft. From what I understand, they eventually lost contact with each other as they scoured the galaxy. For all I know, some may have inhabited other planets. Some may still be out there in the cosmos, whilst others may have deceased. I simply don’t know.”
“Have you visited other worlds?” asked Frank.
“Yes,” Arthur replied. “In fact, on my old craft there were people from another world. More like apes, actually. A bit like some characters I’ve seen on some films.”
“You mean Chewbecca, in Star Wars?” queried Frank.
“No, no, more like characters from ‘Planet of the Apes’,” said Arthur. “One of them was high-ranking and sometimes took charge of the craft, or asteroid, if you prefer.”
“Generally, I think what Arthur has said is plausible,” Dermot said to Frank, who seemed to agree with him. “What I find difficult to grasp is how to get a space craft to travel at near-light speed, let-alone an asteroid.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t developed overnight,” Arthur told him. “What I do know is that the asteroid has a very large combustion chamber, where similar events to those on stars occur.”
“Where hydrogen atoms smash into one-another at high speed to create helium, and produce nuclear energy?” Frank queried.
“Yes exactly,” said Arthur.
“But where do you get the hydrogen to create such energy?” asked Dermot.
“From large planets like your Jupiter,” Arthur told him. “It’s stored in a large ‘tank’, I suppose you might say. From there the hydrogen is released at ultra-hyper speeds to create the reactions, and so, the energy. You might like to try something like that here on Earth.”
“But the ‘hydrogen tank’ and combustion chamber must be…..” exclaimed Dermot, trying to assess how large these items may have been.
“That’s why we needed something as large as an asteroid,” said Arthur. “The energy also helped to power electricity on the craft. You should try something like that here on Earth. There’s enough space to develop something like that. It will help the fight against global warming.”
Frank and Dermot were trying to take everything in, while Clint was still a little unsure.
“We also had two other important facilities on the asteroid,” Arthur informed them.
“Oh, what were they?” asked Frank.
“There was a smaller combustion chamber, where all carbon-dioxide, methane and other waste products went,” explained Arthur. “Here we used fission, like nuclear missiles, where the items were broken down into individual elements. Oxygen was re-circulated within