world was their entire universe at the time the word was coined. But there is more to the universe than planet Earth. Can we assume this cosmos, the one that we can observe now, is the only one? You must admit the possibility of universes other than this putative everything. Admit that something beyond our conception and perception could exist.
A: I allow the theoretical existence of alternate brane worlds in higher dimensional space, but I reject out of hand your implication that you are going to evade the entropy of this universe by faith.
PART TWO
The Return
7
R OMAN RECONNAISSANCE DRONES skimmed the rock surface on the night side of the world. All was dark, airless, silent, dead. At less than twenty light-years from Earth the planet would make a good platform from which to stage an invasion. But this solar system was League of Earth Nations territory, which made its planets neutral worlds.
That made the world off-limits to the U.S. military as well as to Rome. But Caesar Romulus was certain he could trust the U.S. to cheat.
If Roman drones could find a U.S. military installation on the planet, Rome could contest the world’s neutrality and build its own base on it without bringing the LEN into the war.
Allegedly there was nothing on the planet except an ancient archaeological site.
The Milky Way galaxy was fifteen billion years old. In the beginning, the universe consisted of nothing but hydrogen. All other elements were created within stars from the primordial hydrogen. Those first stars began to form nearly twelve billion years ago.
The lifetime of a star ranges from as short as a few million years to as long as a few trillion years, depending on the mass of the star.
The biggest stars lived fast. After a few million years of existence, the mammoth stars blew up.
Not one of the smallest stars had died yet. The universe was not old enough. The smallest stars burned slow and long and would eventually fade out.
The color of stars varied by mass, appearing in nearly the same order as the colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, white, blue, indigo, violet—from lightweight star to heavyweight star.
Mid-weight, where logic suggested the stars ought to appear green, the stars shone white instead.
The light produced by middleweight normal stars peaks in the green wavelength. But all stars emit all wavelengths to some degree along with their strong suit. In stars strongest in the middle green wavelength, the short blue wavelengths and the long red wavelengths meet in the middle with equal strength, so the star shines a balanced full visible spectrum. The full visible spectrum appears as white light.
There are no green stars.
The biggest, heaviest violet-blue stars burned very fast, spun very fast, blew up very fast. Habitable planets were never to be found orbiting a violet, indigo, or blue star. A few million years was not time enough for matter to cool and for life to evolve around them. The biggest stars tended not to form planets at all. They spun so fast that they kept all their mass close to themselves rather than trailing some out in an orbital plane to form worlds. Metal ionized in the hellish internal furnace of a blue end star. Even helium, which holds onto its electrons more tightly than any other atom, ionized inside a violet star.
A supernova was a gargantuan star in its spectacular death throes. Supernovae scattered their newly created heavy elements far and wide.
The element-rich debris then coalesced into new stars.
Once upon a time, supernovae were common. These days, a supernova appeared once in a hundred years in the skies over Earth or Palatine.
Most habitable planets orbited second generation, middleweight stars—those stars which inherited the heavy elements ejected from the early supernovae.
In first generation stars any element heavier than iron was extremely scarce, including the precious metals of gold, silver, and platinum, as well as some elements that were extremely
A: I allow the theoretical existence of alternate brane worlds in higher dimensional space, but I reject out of hand your implication that you are going to evade the entropy of this universe by faith.
PART TWO
The Return
7
R OMAN RECONNAISSANCE DRONES skimmed the rock surface on the night side of the world. All was dark, airless, silent, dead. At less than twenty light-years from Earth the planet would make a good platform from which to stage an invasion. But this solar system was League of Earth Nations territory, which made its planets neutral worlds.
That made the world off-limits to the U.S. military as well as to Rome. But Caesar Romulus was certain he could trust the U.S. to cheat.
If Roman drones could find a U.S. military installation on the planet, Rome could contest the world’s neutrality and build its own base on it without bringing the LEN into the war.
Allegedly there was nothing on the planet except an ancient archaeological site.
The Milky Way galaxy was fifteen billion years old. In the beginning, the universe consisted of nothing but hydrogen. All other elements were created within stars from the primordial hydrogen. Those first stars began to form nearly twelve billion years ago.
The lifetime of a star ranges from as short as a few million years to as long as a few trillion years, depending on the mass of the star.
The biggest stars lived fast. After a few million years of existence, the mammoth stars blew up.
Not one of the smallest stars had died yet. The universe was not old enough. The smallest stars burned slow and long and would eventually fade out.
The color of stars varied by mass, appearing in nearly the same order as the colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, white, blue, indigo, violet—from lightweight star to heavyweight star.
Mid-weight, where logic suggested the stars ought to appear green, the stars shone white instead.
The light produced by middleweight normal stars peaks in the green wavelength. But all stars emit all wavelengths to some degree along with their strong suit. In stars strongest in the middle green wavelength, the short blue wavelengths and the long red wavelengths meet in the middle with equal strength, so the star shines a balanced full visible spectrum. The full visible spectrum appears as white light.
There are no green stars.
The biggest, heaviest violet-blue stars burned very fast, spun very fast, blew up very fast. Habitable planets were never to be found orbiting a violet, indigo, or blue star. A few million years was not time enough for matter to cool and for life to evolve around them. The biggest stars tended not to form planets at all. They spun so fast that they kept all their mass close to themselves rather than trailing some out in an orbital plane to form worlds. Metal ionized in the hellish internal furnace of a blue end star. Even helium, which holds onto its electrons more tightly than any other atom, ionized inside a violet star.
A supernova was a gargantuan star in its spectacular death throes. Supernovae scattered their newly created heavy elements far and wide.
The element-rich debris then coalesced into new stars.
Once upon a time, supernovae were common. These days, a supernova appeared once in a hundred years in the skies over Earth or Palatine.
Most habitable planets orbited second generation, middleweight stars—those stars which inherited the heavy elements ejected from the early supernovae.
In first generation stars any element heavier than iron was extremely scarce, including the precious metals of gold, silver, and platinum, as well as some elements that were extremely
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