The Void
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Accounts of what took place during journey from the earth that was to the new earths taken from a journal. Part three of the story of the exodus from the earth that was.
CATEGORY: FICTION
TIMES READ: 2919
RATING: 9.0 (G)
SERIES: FIREFLY
Entry 2, three weeks out of stasis
Seven more have become afflicted and thirteen will be taken out of stasis, two of them are to replace the afflicted workers who maintain the functions of the ship, the other nine are family members of the new workers. More and more are beginning to suffer from the affliction. Perhaps the population dedicated to working on the ship is not sufficient. Many of the workers had to be taken out of stasis early to replace those who have succumbed to the affliction. The gradual awakening of the population as we get closer to our new homes may need to be accelerated to sustain the social order strained by the early awakening of so many workers. According to calculations, if current trends continue, fifty-two percent of the population will be out of stasis by the time we reach the new worlds, seventeen percent more than projected. We cannot let this come to pass. We must find a way to treat the affliction. The population must stay in stasis for as long as possible to conserve our supplies or else precautions must be taken to limit child birth and prevent overpopulation.
Entry 7, eight weeks out of stasis
It has become obvious to me what is causing the affliction but the others disagree, they are blind. It is the emptiness, the all encompassing darkness which surrounds us. We were not meant to live like this, we were not meant to exist in the darkness. It is everywhere, above us, behind us, in front of us, below us, everywhere, we are drowning in it, and I sense it crawling inside, slowly. The hulls of the ship are powerful, designed to withstand the rigors of the journey, it protects us from the cold but it cannot stop the darkness. No barrier can hold back the darkness for it penetrates all. Here in the void, the darkness is master and it has consumed many, leaving behind shadows, thoughtless and soulless. We put the shadows to sleep, hoping they will recover, they will not. Then we replace them with the newly awakened to continue the work on the machines, but they will not be awake
Sunday, 30 October 2005 04:49
This is part 3 of the story of how they moved from the earth that was to the new earths. Haven't finished part 2 of the story yet.
Sunday, 30 October 2005 06:44
I like it, well written, just as someone else said, the sentence structure, nicely done. I like the word choice too, very furtureistic, and Fireflyish. I am awaiting your part 2 and many to come, as well as that dealing with the other people of the earth, the workers when they reach the "new solar system" and the others that reach the "new system". Keep 'em comin. I like how you worked the first person into "entries". I think you should talk even more about how they over come or don't over come the "darkness". And what do you mean by "last entry" he died? or got "there" where ever that may be?
The Pyro -
Sunday, 30 October 2005 08:09
He got "afflicted" which is sort of implied in the third and forth entry where he gets depressed and disturbed. The "affliction" is basically people going crazy, turning into vegetables, due to living in space for too long. People develop problems due to prolonged confinement. Living in a spaceship, no nature, no sun, surrounded by nothing but steel and empty space, for months, years, that's got to mess with some people's minds.
Sunday, 30 October 2005 09:47
Oh, let me explain the whole stasis/awake thing. Let’s say that a ship holds 100,000 people and 1,000 people are needed to maintain the ship. You can’t just have the 1,000 workers awake while 99,000 other people are in stasis, the workers will go crazy and run amok. The workers’ families have to be with them. You’d need entertainers, cooks, teachers, doctors, nurses, law enforcement, government, etc. All in all, probably 10,000 to 15,000 people need to be awake when the journey starts. As the journey continues, you’d need to start waking people up to replace workers who retire or get killed or whatever. You would also need to wake more people to maintain social order as the population grows. So even though the journey starts with 10% or 15% of the population being awake, by the end 30% to 40% of the population would be awake. Of course by the end of the journey, all of the people who were awake at the beginning of the journey would all be dead due to old age. Let’s say that 15% of the population was awake at the beginning of the journey, they wake 5% of the population every 25 years, and the journey takes 100 years. Let’s say that every generation the waking population increases by 30%, deaths included. Using the original example of a ship of 100,000, after the first awakening, the waking population would be 24,500, after the second awakening, 36,850, third awakening, 47,905, by the time they arrive, 62,277 would be awake while 70,000 people would be in stasis. I think that’s a reasonably good way of merging the concepts of stasis and generation ship.
Monday, 31 October 2005 06:03
good explaination of stasis and a generational ship, but it think either you did your math worng or i missed somehting cause to said..."62,277 would be awake while 70,000 people would be in stasis..." that would be over 130,000 people, what happened to having 100,000 people, lol. Also is it not possible to put people back in stasis in the ship? When you said in your story about bringing more people out of stasis i took it as you took some out and put the others back in.....? but i guess not, so never mind.
anyway, when you said "affliction" i didn't really think of it like that, but i guess it makes sense now.
The Pyro -
Monday, 31 October 2005 06:27
Most of the 62,277 are children of people who were awake. People do get put back into stasis for one reason or another but it wouldn't happen extremely often because it complicates things. You can't just put one person into stasis, you have to put their family into stasis too or there's going to be problems. Having to run a society in those ships really complicates things but it has to be done since people are not robots, without a functioning society, there will be chaos.
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