Ell Donsaii 12: Impact! (25 page)

This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Essentially you ask, “what if” something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world? Each of the Ell Donsaii stories asks at least one such question.

“Impact” asks what value besides exploration might come from an expedition to Mars?

It asks, “What might it actually be like if a one kilometer diameter comet or asteroid hit fairly close to you?” If you would like to explore this further you might look at the “Impact:earth!” website (http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/) which has a calculator that will let you choose the size, speed and distance of your asteroid or comet impact. Then it will output a surprisingly large amount of information regarding the local effects such an impact will have.

It asks, “What if obesity really is a communicable disease ‘epidemic’?” If you google “obesity maps” of the world it looks like this epidemic started in North America. It isn’t necessarily a disease of the affluent, Mexico has recently taken the title for “number one” in obesity from the United States (though strangely some pacific islands are over 40% obese!). If you look at this “by county” map of the U.S. (http://www.maxmasnick.com/2011/11/15/obesity_by_county/) it
looks
like the epidemic started on the Mississippi-Alabama border. Certainly there is some significant evidence for the role of microorganisms in obesity. Check the Wikipedia entry for Human adenovirus-36 to learn about possible viral causes. You can read about
Firmicutes/Bacterioides
imbalance in the intestines of the obese at http://www.nature.com/ajgsup/journal/v1/n1/full/ajgsup20125a.html.
Firmicutes
species have enzymes that break down indigestible polysaccharides (fiber) in your gut, providing you with more calories from whatever food you do eat.

This story continues to explore the (to me) fascinating possibility that other life bearing worlds may have enormously different atmospheric pressures than Earth. In most science fiction, other living worlds are colder, or hotter, or heavier, or lighter, or have a (to us) unbreathable atmosphere due to a lack of oxygen or the presence of toxic gases. But, even if we had a breathable mix and a reasonable temperature, the pressure might be markedly different and make it impossible for us to live on those worlds. If we just look at the range of atmospheric pressures in the second, third and fourth planets of our own solar system we can see a huge range of variability (Mars = 0.6% of earth’s pressure; Venus = 90X earth’s pressure – neither pressure even
close
to livable for humans or other earth animals even if they had the right gas mix).
But
animals can live at high pressures, witness the depths of our oceans, so aliens might evolve to thrive at high pressures at least. Also consider the “dinosaur paradox” which is the fact that the dinosaurs were
so
massive (square-cube law) that walking would have been very difficult (Brachiosaurus), their heads were too high for them to be able to plump blood to their brains (Brachiosaurus), or that they were too massive to fly (Quetzalcoatlus, a pterodactyloid). One of my favorite SF authors Robert J. Sawyer addressed this paradox in a book (“End of an Era”) in which he imagined that aliens used gravity control to allow earth’s animals to evolve to such enormous sizes and still function. Without assuming alien intervention, there are a number of people who believe that they can explain the obvious fact that Brachiosaurus did walk and Quetzalcoatlus did fly, by positing that the atmosphere was much denser and/or had more oxygen in it during the Cretaceous. If you google “dinosaur paradox” you can find extensive arguments on this subject, but personally I think it highly likely that the atmosphere was indeed
much
denser back then.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Nora Dahners, Elene Trull, Allen Dietz, Hamilton Elliot, Kat Lind, and Abiola Streete each of whom significantly improved this story.

If you’d like another story while you’re waiting for the next Ell Donsaii story, you might try…

Telekinetic (a Hyllis family story #1)

“Telekinetic” is the first of a series of stories featuring the Hyllis family who tend to inherit telekinetic “talents.” The story is set after a plague induced apocalypse. The resulting collapse of civilization has reduced mankind back to iron and horsepower.

Tarc Hyllis’ mother (and his grandfather before her) could “feel” things with their talent. They became healers because they can feel
inside
their patients, which frequently lets them diagnose the underlying causes of an illness. Having made a diagnosis, unfortunately, there is often little they can do to treat the problem.

Tarc’s father can “push” objects with his mind, but because he can’t
feel
inside of anything, he doesn’t know where to exert force in order to help to treat his wife’s patients.

Tarc is just gaining the ability to do
both
of these things. The combination of these two powers will let him both diagnose a physical problem such as bleeding
and
then stop that bleeding by applying pressure
inside
the patient. This is a
very
exciting development for his mother, who too often has had to watch her patients die for lack of an effective treatment.

Then some strangers show up to scout the town where the Hyllises live. They plan and initiate a violent takeover. Could Tarc’s powers, weak as they are, play a role in resisting this invasion?