Man's Next 500 Years

Gerald McManus

Description

The apocalyptic history of humanity over the next 500 years was revealed to the author, a long time member of the distinguished Planetary Society, by a mysterious alien messenger sent from the deep future. This thrilling novel of adventure, romance, exploration and existential war is set both on Earth and across the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy. The novel contains new physics and formulas. It has a dramatic and suspenseful climax with an optimistic ending for the long term future of humanity.

Informations

• Publié par: e-bookPartnership
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912924813
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE NEXT 500 YEARS
by G. J. McManus
2019 G.J. MCMANUS
G.J. McManus has asserted his rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
G. J. McManus 10200 122nd Ave. #1854 Largo, FL 33773 727-366-3016 [e-mail]
First published in eBook format in 2019
ISBN: 978-1-91292-481-3
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
All names, characters, places, organisations, businesses and events are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This novel is dedicated to the two people who have most advanced human knowledge.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) was an English mathematics professor whose lifetime of tedious technical work and study produced his epic book PRINCIPIA (1687). That book became the foundation of modern science.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) was a German physics professor whose brilliant mind deduced the theories of Special (1905) and General (1915) Relativity. Those theories became the foundation of modern cosmology.
These two superb geniuses built the bridges that are leading Man from the dark ages of our primitive past into the space ages of our enlightened future.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title and Dedication
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1: The Orion Spur
Chapter 2: Neptune and Triton
Chapter 3: Metternich Institute
Chapter 4: Tzumtar
Chapter 5: New Washington
Chapter 6: Cheops-1
Chapter 7: Coronation
Chapter 8: The Pleiades
Chapter 9: The Great Black Hole
Chapter 10: Invasion
Chapter 11: The War Board
Chapter 12: Archimedes-3
Chapter 13: Joma Major
Chapter 14: Fortress Earth
Chapter 15: The Moon
Chapter 16: C3
Chapter 17: The Last Stand of Man
Epilogue
Prologue
A robotic exploration craft sped past Pluto in July of 2015. It rendered much knowledge of that far away and faint, unknown world. It also completed the initial exploration of the major worlds of Earth s solar system. At the time I was a science fiction novelist in search of a good idea for my next book.
A few nights later a high, bright Moon bathed Tampa Bay, Florida in a dim twilight until a fast-moving, violent thunderstorm blew through the area. At 4 a.m. my modest, middle class home was rocked by crackling lightning, rumbling thunder and sheets of heavy rain. The turmoil outside of my bedroom window awoke me from a sound sleep. Another flash of lightning illuminated my bedroom for a split second. I got a bleary-eyed glimpse of something in the doorway. I rose up onto one elbow and reached over to switch on the lamp next to my bed. To my great astonishment a short, stocky figure appeared to hover above the doorway s threshold. It was about the size of a large, legless dog with a grayish, oval head at the top center of its purple body. The center of its head had a horizontal, orange band about one inch high and five inches wide.
Do not be afraid, the creature said in perfect English. I mean you no harm. I am here from the future. I represent an intergalactic coalition of peaceful spacefaring species. We deem it necessary that a skilled writer, such as yourself, be provided with the details of what will happen to your species during the next 500 years. We want you to inform them, via the written word, of the events that will occur over this coming period. As you will presently learn, it will be extremely dangerous for Man to naively venture unarmed and unprepared into the vast unknown realms of deep space. If you do as we wish, it will become much more likely that Man will survive the great trial that approaches. Do you understand what I have said?
I was totally star struck and bewildered. I simply half nodded my head once.
We view your species as one that could potentially join our group in future times. We are in want of a new member for our coalition. But the chances of Man surviving long term are not great. Therefore, we have decided to use you, sir, to improve those odds. You have remarkable creative skills as a novelist and a high level of overall scientific knowledge. But it is your general concern for the continued advancement of your species into space that is the reason why you were selected. Your species has now successfully fulfilled two of the three required preliminary steps necessary to join our coalition. Man has achieved space travel through his own industriousness and completed the initial exploration of the major worlds of your planet s solar system. Once again do you understand what I have said?
I gulped down some dry saliva. I do understand.
Excellent, the alien said. It hovered closer to the foot of my bed.
I tried to move but suddenly could not. I was paralyzed from the neck down. A colorful beam of light about four inches in width was emitted from the orange band across the alien s head. It went directly into my eyes. The beam contained rapidly changing images and texts that filled my mind with the history of Man for the next 500 years. It was all too much for me to cognitively grasp any of the specific details. After one minute the beam stopped. The alien returned to the doorway.
You will soon regain all of your senses, the alien said. I can remain here no longer without further protection from your planet s surface environment. By mandated intergalactic law this will be our one and only allowed communication with any human being from past times. Please remember that it is most imperative that you convey to your species an accurate account of the knowledge you have just received. Farewell.
Another lightning flash brightened my bedroom. I blinked and the alien vanished without a trace. After several minutes my paralysis thawed away with no ill effects. I got up, walked to my bedroom window and opened the blinds. The rain had ceased. The sky was clearing. Moonlight reflected off of the fresh puddles in my back yard. I could still see lightning and hear thunder from the east.
Did that really happen? I asked myself. But I knew that it did happen.
I walked into my living room and sat down on the sofa. I started to ravenously think about the future. I sat there spellbound for several hours. I chronologically thought through the coming five centuries, one decade at a time. The events of most of these decades were not terribly surprising but one or two decades in each century were of dramatic import. The information I received from the alien must be true. The discoveries, inventions, explorations, tragedies and wars that awaited Man were all monumental and so historically connected. The coming five centuries would have a much greater impact upon Man than did the previous five centuries back to the age of Columbus.
At noon that very day I began to write the first pages of the novel that follows. I wrote it in a way that tells this fateful history from the point of view of authentic characters living their lives during the climatic last few decades of the next 500 years with flashbacks to the most important events of the 21 st , 22 nd , 23 rd , 24 th and 25 th centuries.
Chapter 1
The Orion Spur
It is a truth certain that during Man s potentially endless journey across the vast eternities of space-time we will encounter intelligent aliens who will be none too fond of us or our sudden appearance.
In the year 2490, a three-ship Space Command squadron was on the 38 th day of a secret mission to explore the inner regions of the Orion Spur in the Milky Way Galaxy. The ships were the Cruiser Agamemnon, the Destroyer Tripoli and the science ship Newton. The Orion Spur is a long, curved river of several billion stars that arcs out away from the Sagittarius Spiral Arm. Near the inner edge of the mid region of the Orion Spur sits our Sun and its entourage of planets and moons.
First Lieutenant Adam Middlemarch sat in his modest quarters aboard the Cruiser Agamemnon. He held his chin in hand gazing at the endless stream of stars that drifted past his small porthole window. The Higgs Field halo that surrounded all ships travelling at light speed (C1) or greater was created by space-time itself like a plow crossing a farmer s field. The halo substantially dimmed the brightness of passing stars. Adam was 24, of average size with straight brown hair and green eyes. He was fortunate to possess an athletic body and a handsome face that many women admired on sight. Nevertheless he was still a virgin. This was because of his sheltered, wealthy upbringing followed by the strict non-fraternization policy at the Space Academy and the very limited access to appropriate females while serving along Man s far frontier. For years Adam s body frequently told him that he was ready for a woman but he was forced by circumstance to wait for an interesting female to become interested in him. Adam was also proud to now share part of the same record that his great, grandfather Peter Middlemarch once solely held for having successfully travelled Farthest from Earth . Adam hoped that his father, Val Middlemarch, would be less angry with his only child when the news of his son s accomplishment was released to the public. Seven years ago Adam abandoned his prosperous family s spaceship service and cargo business. The business was based on Neptune s largest moon, Triton. At heart, Adam was a humanitarian who thought that a career in Space Command was a much higher calling than the pursuit of unnecessary additi