01
DEPARTURE
Chapter One
This is a story that almost every one of us can relate to in one way or another. We probably all, at some point, have imagined what would've happened if we were visited by an alien civilization.
There are plenty of books and movies portraying our first encounter. In many, the Aliens are either friendly and come to save us from an unexpected. In others, they come to destroy.
In this story, however, they come and stay neutral. After the first year of excitement and all kinds of speculation, people start losing interest. Those alien ships become a permanent and mundane landscape fixture no one pays attention to anymore. Ten years after that, they lose significance even as a tourist attraction. On the other hand, just by the sheer existence, their presence influences our culture, politics and international relations.
One newspaper writes: "(... ) this reminds me of these naughty children behaving like angels only in the presence of their parents. "
* * *
Abigail is diagnosed with terminal cancer and discovers that the only chance for her to survive is to leave her family behind and go on an interstellar journey on an Alien Spaceship.
Finch, her husband gets his always desired promotion to the top of NASA Communication Department. They both decided not to tell their daughter Molly about the illness and let her think Abigail is being chosen to represent Humanity on a short trip to a new Solar System.
“If the world is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.”
Daniel Quinn
Set out from any point. They are all alike.
They all lead to a point of departure.” ― Antonio Porchia
03
THE THEORY
'Harvard professor doubles down on interstellar asteroid ‘alien’ theory
A mysterious cigar-shaped space rock that shot suspiciously close to Earth could be an alien spacecraft that broke down on its interstellar journey. That’s according to one prominent space scientist, who says the probe may have been sent by extraterrestrial beings to spy on our planet. Radio scans of Oumuamua, a strange object that flew through the solar system in 2017, seemed to show it was not sending out any alien signals.
But according to Harvard space expert professor Avi Loeb, that doesn’t rule out that it’s an alien probe – which is what many scientists claimed at the time. He said: “As soon as we leave the solar system, I believe we will see a great deal of traffic out there. “Possibly we’ll get a message that says, ‘Welcome to the interstellar club.’ Or we’ll discover multiple dead civilizations – that is, we’ll find their remains.” Oumuamua is an object from another star system spotted by scientists at the University of Hawaii using a huge space telescope. Many experts suggested the 200,000 mph object could be an alien probe sent into deep space by a distant civilization. The object still had signs it was sent into the solar system by intelligent beings, Loeb said. For instance, its unusual cigar-like shape is extremely unusual for an asteroid and it lacked the classic tail of a comet. It’s now moving away from Earth so fast that we’re unlikely to ever find out what Oumuamua was.
02
THE FACTS
Oumuamua
ʻOumuamua (/ʔoʊˌmuːəˈmuːə/, Hawaiian: is the only interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun on September 9 of the same year. When it was first observed, it was about 21,000,000 mi; 0.22 AU(33,000,000 km) from Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon), and already heading away from the Sun.
"Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee’s.
To such a species, our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard.
Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be
projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door with a magnet. These creatures would study Stephen Hawking (who occupies the same endowed professorship once held by Isaac Newton at the University of Cambridge) because he’s slightly more clever than other humans.
Why? He can do theoretical astrophysics and other rudimentary calculations in his head, like their little Timmy who just came home from alien preschool."
-"Astrophysics for People in a Hurry " by Neil deGrasse Tyson