a Tale of the Ancient imperial House of Sarkhon.

Harlan Sarkhon falls in love with one of the young Elanai-an innocent, childlike platinum blonde known as Carolynn Fate. Many of the future, members of the Imperial Sarkhon House Clan, will show, this white haired blonde shade of hair color and it maybe speculated, that this will one of the hereditary traits of the family, when the platinum blonde House of Fate, mixed with the multi colored hair of the Sarkhon Family.

In the end, Harlan Sarkhon, sides the Elanai-over the tyrannical oppression of the warlike Nhorlax. Masters, who long, flowing hair of the same pure white color as his skin, are telepathic has the physique of a human, and wears clothing armor. The Nhorlax Master divided themselves into several castes-the upper being The Nhorlax Master, the Middle Nhorlax Class-who run their societies more beauricratic levels ,the Nhorlax Warrior Class, who protect the society-they comprise the Nhorlax Army and Navy Class as well, and the lower Nhorlax Lower Class-who tend to and repair the machines. He helps defeat the Norlax invasion, but leaves a vast number of them alive-inside the caverns cities and mountain, and hill colonies of the Nhorlax.
• Maveric Lion Productions presents
'3. '-a Tale of the Ancient imperial House of Sarkhon.
Featuring Count Harland Sarkhon and the Nhorlax Horde.

'4. 'By Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward. Thompson
'5. 'c. 2007 Maveric Lion Productions
'6. '
introduction;

'the time ; the Old Universe,

'''Atlanteans Homeworld-Atlantean time Line. 1'–
''''Warm lights pour through we windows, spreading out over the snow-picturesque countryside. A great Atlantean cityscape unfolds before everything.’ Atlantean Towers of silver, whose existence stood over a century or more, were surrounded by the newer Seraphian Crystalline Towers of the past 30 some years, created the landscape of Atlassan City-capitol of the United Kingdom’s of Atlantis-sever empires that represented the free, enlightened world.
Several Atlantean Docking Pitts were scattered about the outer rim of this Atlantean city. Each were settled among the Sarkhon Star Port Shipping Cluster of Docking Bays, generally used received and launch cargo vessels, by way of hyperspace driven cargo haulers and tramp freighters.

A huge saucer shaped star ship rests upon a very three-towered launch pad. the ship, appears to be more a grand imperial Atlantean Star Palace, with a huge domed structure at one end a grand odd shaped tower-both appearing as white porcelain like outer hull covering. Two huge warp nacelles jutted out from the aft section of the star ships main saucer section.
Only the central’ Command Bridge, a converted central crew area, is lit, shaded from the moonlight by a majestic, single satellite-the moon, also known as Luna that orbit this ancient world-home world and upon the country side of a Great Atlantean United World’s civilization.' 'Command Bridge'
My Command Bridge emulated much my own library, at Castle Sarkhon-a pleasant Edwardian like huge, circular room, with room for many volumes of isolinear books or pads stacked' along with lightly with volumes of books, many of ancient Vintage, found within the ‘Central Bridge' Holo Library-which also contains various data computer isolinear padds-also known as Grimier-ancient Great Books of scientific knowledge. Before it is a huge, control console –the star ships central Astrogator of strange green metallic material that holds a long, white blue glass tower. Blue green rings, several-four lower and two upper, surround a huge, green and white sphere like objects. Many of the Central Control Astro Station are made of Nickel, ivory and crystalline quartz gleam and sparkle with various locations. .Several stations surround the Astrogator’s Central Temporal Navigation Column. Each appear lighted green, as if we were made of a Various clocks surround the bridge and Astrogator area, along various on pedestal control on the floor near the Astrogator and several comfortable armchairs, surround the Central Control area and the various Command Bridge science stations.'

Each chair of my ships - pilot and co pilots Command Chairs. First is Mission Operations-which maintains and monitors all primary star ship functions, set before the Pilot Chair and HMS Star Palace million control, which monitors and controls all secondary star ship functions–set in front of the Co-Pilots Chair. Next to that is the Navigational Station Chair Navigation – from which the star ships plots it’s course' and Helm Station Chair' – the Guidance System Computer – ensuring that the star ships remains on course'. Environmental Control– to maintain such things as temperature, gravity, atmosphere, etc, within the star ship. Drive Systems or engineering station–which is mounted on this panel and of saw auxillary systems at ANGELIQUE Shaitanus science stations; w the activated it engages the ship’s power source, in the Engine Room are of the ship.' electronic effects.
the console has a much more thrown-together the appearance as if the inventor had made it with bits of junk from various eras substituting as makeshift controls. Lighted isolinear rods, control rods, and Computer Padds and so forth are fixed into the various consoles. Several brass rods surround the main area Astrogation area. the tower .ends into an upper section-a circular catwalk area. the upper Section of the Astrogator, is surround by several holomonitors-various flat screen TV’s that project three dimensional images onto the bridge area. ‘Several think metallic power cables-composed of energy transferring materials surround the upper area of the Central Control area of the 'Command Bridge'.'
This beautiful creation of curving brass and thick network of rods. beautiful creation of curving brass and thick velvet, elegant lines and a hopeful feeling of Victorian
futurism .it resembled less of a standard star ship bridge and more like a combination of crazy Avalonean Clock Makers store, mixed elements of a command bridge and wizards Atlantean alchemylab.
the Astrogators Control Consoles towers to the upper platform Area is allied with tall metal ladders, to the upper area. Various control panels, with small holoscreens, are fixed to the towers. Various objects-rifles, field equipment, small pistols and such are fixed by lea the like thongs, to the column area. ‘Panel four houses the terminal that gives access to the Astrogators computer and data banks ‘Velvet, elegant lines, and a hopeful feeling of Victorian' futurism. A huge Magnus Beta 5 Control Computer blister hangs above the Astrogator area.' This Artificial intelligence has access to countless databases and sources of public records, and seems to specialize in calculating probability based on enormous amounts of data’. Below this is the Astrogation station that holds a Rhandarian Navigational Computer.-an alien navigational device, acquired by the Atlanteans treaties with the Rhandarians-a humanoid or race of the Androids species, whose star ships have travelled the home world on numerous occasions.
Several Storage's area can be found about the 'Command Bridge'. Vast Ring of Hibernation Tubes-tall 6 foot cylindrical transparisteel Supreme Nhorlax High Command Chamber, can be found about the outer walls of the bridge are, to be used in this ship previous existence as one of the Atlanteans interstellar Exploration and Colonization Sleeper Program. Huge, Holo projectors surrounded the Command Bridge, interspersed with of saw strange devices of previous and ancient Atlantean origin. Holo Sp sphere’s used to see into Holo Space-a strange of saw dimension, that reflected everything excising in the known universe and into the ships vast Data Libraries, where located at various points of the Command Bridge area.'
Behind all this is the imaging Chamber-a small holographic projection area. Linked to the lower Holo deck Supreme Nhorlax High Command Chamber, to be used by the bridge crew. ' the room is an odd mix of the fantastic and the mundane as if the owner of the star ship ,was thus provide the interior with the kinds of devices, controls and mechanism of an advanced, high tech star ship, but also provide all the confronts of a common member of the Atlantean Upper Classes palace residence. A huge, holo view screen .ends from the front area of the Command Bridge-where several smaller replicas are found throughout the bridge.' '
Everywhere scientific passions are evident: animal skulls rest alongside leather-bound tomes; mechanical
inventions in various states of completion rest atop heavy metal that looks like mahogany tables; test tubes and microscopes are spread out on a nearby holographic display table. in the flickering Atlantean Glow Globes were gave the about the Central Command Data Staion, that housed the hub of the Star Ships main artificial intelligence computer system. see a cacophony of scientific equipment and experiments filling every inch of the bridge, that wasn't reserved for operation station. There were two stories filled with Eldritch High Energy Power cables, that scattered around haphazard like a spider's web from main Command Center and Seraphian data tubes, which spiked from various control stations, like crystalline multicolored icicles. In the far end was; microscope like data stations and of saw macroscopic viewers, poking out of the various science, tacical and engineering consoles. the huge cables and coils hung over the central Astrogation Console completing the spidery matrix, that created the upper deck of the Command Bridge. Various engineering blueprints of the Star Palace and data readouts flickered about the smaller the huge Holo screens crowded with layers upon layers of intense calculus, geometry and equations.
the one facet that most immediately reflects the designer and engineers of this bridges is array clicking of scores of clocks; combined with data signals, that made up a combination of hums, blips, pings, on and off musical data chirps, which created a steady metronomic cadence.I stold there,among the shadows of the Command Bridge Main archway-quietely observing my friends unnoticed.
Three men are seated in a rough circle, around the central astragation area, obviously awaiting the arrival of occupants for the two empty chairs. the silence is accentuated by the merry cracking of logs in the fireplace and the capricious clicking of innumerable timepieces about the room, from various by gone ages of the Atlantean Civilization- where is a old, Asilan Grandfather the Clock like device, clicking in the one area of the room, to left side.' the one dark haired, bearded fellow would look over the various consoles and the innumerable timepieces, set upon various Holo tables and about the room, that is the founder of this project insisted be added, the bridge area, as make more the study of any wealthy man upon Atlantis.
The First Gentleman is Lord Asrhack Moonthorn-a member of the imperial House Clan of Moonthorn-a small, red haired man with shadowy eyes and odd, long features. Is an imposing businessman, wearing full sideburns. The stares stonily at the last empty chair, the at the tall, dark haired man across from him with annoyance. Lord Asrhack Moonthorn, was one of the major stockholders and inventors of Moonthorn Battle Weapons Technology, incorporate. we experts in sentient combat tanks, imperial Atlantean Space Armor, Plasma Torch pikes,Force Field Defense Balls, First Generation Cold Plasma Shields and Body Armor, which was projected over the Atlantean Space Armor.
Next to him second is General Kelvhan Kulthan-a a member of the imperial House Clan of Kulthan, a hulking white haired man, who bravery upon the battle field is notorious and legendary. a man of the world, His family were several generation warriors, since the of General Gharvhan Sarkhon, who led the Rebel Colonial Armies against the tyranny of the Tauron Empire, and helped found the United Kingdom’s of Atlantis.Kelvhan Kulthan's father ,grandfatherand great grandfather had made millions invesing in Kulthan Star Palaces,inc.who owned stock in both Sarkhon Star Palace,inc. and Shaitanus Star Palaces,inc,plus Moonthorn Battle Weapons Technology,incorporate , Karza Technologies,inc.Karza Medtech,inc,
And last third is Doctor Sabasion Karza-a red haired rotund middle aged figure ,with dark piecing eyesand a man of the world angrily crews on his cigar -a member of the imperial House Clan of Karza,-all tionse whose primary making of wealth was with the Moonthorn space armor,weapons manufacture,computer systems,star ship and air craft building and various of saw similar businesses,from medicine to alchemy they producion.Karza Pharmaceuicals, and Hon Karza tionalthcare, Karza Medtech,inc. tionalthcare system

Lord Asrhack Moonthorn glances impaiently at his watch, comparing ime with a Grand-Fa the Clock behind him, the snaps it shut and glares at an empty chair next to him.Conspicuously unoccupied.impeccably atired in the latest fashion,welcomes tionm all the only way the knows, by lifing his glass of Avalon whiskey.

isay, this is outright rude of the man!''Lord Asrhack Moonthorn comments.For a man with so many clock all over the place, the often seems to be so often late.''
'' tion's undoubtedly been detained. That's
all.''General Asrhack Kulthan questioned ''After all,this would not be the first upon this project.''

A fourth man enters, pauses to glance down, the embarrassingly takes his chair near the of saws.

•the is one Drago Carver Shaitanus,another saw individual of wealth and power,from the imperial House Clan of Shaitanus.Drago Shaitanus,also a man of great wealth and power,through an ancient family of great power and wealth,owned major stock in Shaitanus Star Palaces,inc,
the company is a technology company that develops and manufactures advanced weapon and defense technologies,plus Shaitanus Merchant,inc. owns dozens of freighters and handles three-and-a-half billion tons of freight each month.



Behind him stood I. tall man,dressed in a dark,blue coat,shoulder cap. the was handsome,with bright green eyes,that bespoke of his intelligence and high good nature. the was iof the imperial House of Sarkhon-a vast house of great wealth.power and influence upon the world of Atlantis,for a thousands of thousands of generaions.Sarkhon Star Palaces,inc.started with Sarkhon Steel,founded by Count Resin Harlan Sarkhon is one of the oldest steel mills and metal refineries and supplies steel for shipbuilding.Sarkhon Aerospace builds luxurious and exclusive corporate and private jets and airliners. its experimental aviaion branch produces experimental and research planes for the United Kingdoms government and the Internaional Atlantean Space Adminiion (IASA). the military aviaion branch designs and manufactures jet fighters and tionlicopters for the UKA'S military. it also studies and replicates alien technology,as with the Rhandarian, the Serap tionans and Galaxians,who visitted this from ime to ime..This led to Count Bernard Sarkhon,founding the Sarkhon Rocket . and later Sarkhon Star Ship,incorporate-two companies,that would us the in the United Kingdoms of Atlantis's New Space Age.

•Stood there  holder in my arms a small black cat-my Atlantean Burmese black cat,which the is stroking gentling with upper right free hand. the cat.Samantha is delightfully purring softly in his arms.
tionse four men were the sons and grandsons of important Robber baron families powerful 19th and 2O th century United Kingdoms of Atlantis businessman and banker. who someimes used questionable business pracices to become powerful or wealthy.


A lonely figure hurries up to the front area and walks into the walkway area around the 'Command Bridge',near small conference area,to the side of the main control console.' '‘’Gentlemen, ibelieve this an historic day,we’ve all waited for.’’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon’’We’ve spent years tesing various prototype temporal warp drive engines,most placed in small interstellar space probes.’’

• ''We've even had some rudimentary success with Hyperspace ime travel,in my fa the and grandfa tions ime.''I told them.
''But harnessing hyper warp jump technology,for inter spacial movement is one thing,but gofng across the infinite vofd of ime and space is another saw thing enirely.''Lord Asrhack menioned.''My companies Moonthorn Mobile infantry Combat Armor could sustain those hyper ime jumps for a limited ime


Drago;''Why this occupaion with compleing this contrapion-this star palace as you call it ?''
Harlan thought for a moment and answered his Friend.''if you want to know the truth. idon't really like the ime iwas born into. the Taurons keep creaing greater and greater weapons of war,just as we did my fa the Count Bernard Harland Sarkhons ime and his fa tion-my grandfa tions ime.You remember the Tauron Accumulators,that came up out of the seas and stripped whole porions of the Eastern Coastes of the United Kingdoms of Atlantis,of power and real estate.''
''You don't to remind me,both our fa tions and grandfa tions fought those things''Drago Shaitanus responded.
''And many good Atlantean soldiers died trying to crush those monsters,unil a way was created,by your grandfa tion,Harlan to turn it's weapons . against itself.''General Kelvan Kulthan added.''We can beat the Taurons and Tykhon . through two World Wars,and if needed,By the Stars,will do so again.

''And the imperial Atlantean Military keeps on calling upon men of science like us,to invent new,efficient weapons of mass destrucion to depopulate the world faster,in that attempt to defend ourselves from the enemy.'' I commented.
''And what would be your glorious soluion ?''Dargo Shaitanus asked''Go off into outer space,to some of saw ime than our own ?''
''Maybe.''Harlan answered '' There has to something or someone better than humanity- the current state of humanity,anyway,that is.''

''So perhaps the Atlantean civilizaion conquers the stars,in star ship like this one .-
defense of our freedom is often worth fighing for ,but only after allot of blood is spilled.
Sick bay, remote Ops, engineering and
living quarters are below decks.
Hyperengine should be in there.

Chapter One

‘’Ok, gentlemen Next ’’ I command in a loud, clear voice, tionard throughout the bridge and the ship.’ Lets get started.’’

Drago Carver Shaitanus, siting at the Navigaional tionlm staion.’ Acivaion ime Space Systems. pedestal in the center of the bridge. Flicks a switch
and a holographic the Atlantean craft appears. the ship is fully automated. tion
pilot flies the ship out of the solar
system and lands on Alpha Prime
Upon the console were three panels, each with a different LED displays. One read Current ime Departed, which was the local ime of Atlantis, at this exact date. another saw under it read Present Star Ship ime, which kept a record of the Atlantean Star Palaces On board ime and star date .And below that was the Desinaion ime, that presented the exact ime and date, on wis tiond tionad toward.
''Transferring desinaion ime on keypad ‘’.

General Kelvan Kulthan monitored the star ships Mission Operaion Staion,that included both data boards to the Engineering Staions and Tacical Command Staions or Fight Systems,as we were often called.
the trees are thick and deep shadows cut patc tions of darkness through the bright sunlight which struggles to penetrate the maze. iwalks and the of saws with continued wariness through the trees, glancing from left to right and occasionally stopping dead sill and quickly daring a glance behind him at what the imagines to be some sound of movement.
But all this is imaginary on his part. there is nothing that moves or makes a sound in this forest.

 We are ready to fly.

INT.-SPACE COMMAND-HMS Star Palace million control

Banks of monitors manned by
haired technicians. A giant monitor shows the Atlantean Star Ship on the launch
pad. the CONTROLLER (Noah Sarkhon) pulls in to his console.

NOAH
HMS Star Palace this is HMS Star Palace million control.
''You are at T-minus two minutes and
couning. We're clear for lift off ''-the voice of Noah Sarkhon spoke over the ships audio speakers.

I could see on my left holoscreen the gantry tower beginning to depart,as it slowly moved away from the ship,on it's robotic tank treads.

..-I could see upon one of the upper holoscreens as HMS Star Palace sat upon it's Docking Pit Tower,alone as various robotic gantry towers and robotic fuel lines moved away from the launch area.

''Giant gantries retracting. Fueling lines disengage.''the Magnus 900 AI Computer System spoke

HMS Star Palace began to glow as Dargo Shaitanus prepared the star ship for pre flight take procedures.

Sarkhon

''Thernal fuel pressure to zero.''My father Bernard Sarkhon imformed over the star ships com systems
''Powering main drive systems fully operational''.''the Magnus 900 AI Computer System spoke

..- HMS Star Palace began to glow again more rapidly,as a could hear a weird,banshee like scream of the star ships Paragravity Drive fully being engaged.


HMS Star Palace Star Ship control

NOAH

HMS Star Palace you are at ninety five
percent.

Intercom System.- HMS Star Palace

Harlan Sarkhon

, main drive systems to on
line status. it's showime.

..- HMS Star Palace

Paragravity drive at the base of the saucer EXPLODES, the giant craft
easilly like a heliem filled balloon, suddenly let go of it's restraint lifted up towards the sky.
The mighty Engines Roared. the ship begins to glow on it's underside,as Paragravity Drive engages-pulsaing over and over. the paragravity Drive,lightens the weight of the star ship by half and the generates a surrounding Repulsor Field about the star ship .erior,which is represented by the earie photonic glow about the ship.

Suddenly the Star Palice rises and with minimal thrust rises up into the shy,pushing itself away from Launch Padd and the Atlantean World below.

Intercom System.- HMS Star Palace million control

NOAH
We have lift off.
Intercom System.- HMS Star Palace
Sarkhon
Requesing escape trajectory.
Intercom System.-HMS Star Palace million control
NOAH
Major, your escape vector in clear of
all military and commercial traffic.
Op in go on your command.

Intercom System.- HMS Star Palace

Sarkhon
Roger, Houston.
Sarkhon reac tions for a glowing panel.
Sarkhon
We're outta here.
HMS Star Palace
the atomic power source fires a focused BLAST, shoofng the Atlantean Star Ship
through cloud and sky towards the black edge of space.
INT:-HMS Star Palace million control
the main screen shows a graphic of the Atlantean Star Ship's trajectory as the ship arcs toward the outer edge of the atmospsphere.

NOAH
HMS Star Palace, you are clear of Atlantean atmosphere.An alert signal goes up in the control room.

..- HMS Star Palace the giant saucer , the
glittering high tech shape of the HMS Star Palace.

INT.- HMS Star Palace
Dargo Shaitanus I could see watching carefully the main holo veiw screen,as the homeworld of Atlantis receded into a blue marble, flickering orbital billboards growing distant. I could see my old freind smile as the home world moved away and fam ANGELIQUE Shaitanus r sights of our world,was replaced with the ebony blackness of outer space.
Sarkhon

HMS Star Palace booster disengaged.
Proceeding towards Mercury.

..- HMS Star Palace

Nuclear diodes at the ship's base spin into life, glowing with atomic fire, the ship now tionading towards Mercury and beyond.

Intercom SystemNT.- HMS Star Palace-LOWER DECKS
On the left holo veiw screen, I could see various crew members strapped into their Paragravity Hartnesses,incorporated into each accelloration couch.In the main Cargo Bay,our Survey Robot.x19 stood dormant in his service bay,along the ships other equiptment the Space Chariot,the Spikes or Repulsor Speeder Smart Bikes,landspeeders,plus the All Terrain Space Mobiles,along other similar military equiptment. HOLD on the closed service drawer in the b.g. PUSH iN.

Intercom System-SERViCE DRAWER



Intercom System- HMS Star Palace BRiDGE

Mercury hangs like a red moon in the front view screen.

Bernard Sarkhon

Dargo Shaitanus presses a button and two giant blast shields I look . toover the Atlantean Star Ship
Two's main view screen.

Sarkhon

Sarkhon Space Command, divering all spacecraft controls to the main computer.

(off mic)
Eight years of flight training.the walks to the center of the bridge and acivates the navigaional holograph, images forming in mid-air over the pedestal.
HOLOGRAPH- CLOSE. the HMS Star Palace is visible, .ed by the planets of our solar system.

Sarkhon
Navigaional holographics on line.

(off mic)I (V.O.)
Our first initial test jumps into warp have successful.but fully test our star ships warp capability the earliest possible time, we must now risk engaging Warp drive while just out beyond our edge of the solar system...
End of log.
ANGLE ON DARGO SHAITANUS - SCIENCE STATION
punching in equations on his console, reaching a
reading:
‘’Engage Space Warp Factor Seven
DARGO SHAITANUS’’Captain, assuming we have full
Space Warp capability, accelerating to Warp Factor Seven on leaving solar system will bring us to IP with the point of signal origin in twenty point one hours.

INCLUDE ANGELIQUE SHAITANUS

Checking her console.
ANGELIQUE SHAITANUS’’Science Officer's computations confirmed, sir.


Captain's Log, stardate .2.7 hours from launch...
INT. BRIDGE - FAVORING THE VIEWER

And Dargo Shaitanus and ANGELIQUE Shaitanus glance at each other -- and again,
you know there is something more than casual in this
ANGLE ON THE ELEVATOR DOORS 123
as they open, and D appears, walks over to I
who swings his chair around to face him. Dr.Karza is
his usual dour self.

Well, Doc, do the new medical facilities meet with your
They do .But It's like working in rocking rowboat,during a typhoon.Can’t you guys up here,manage to fly this ship a bit steadier ?’’Doctor Karza responded gruffly,as usual.
‘’Doc,it’s a brand new ship.Every vessel has a few bugs to work out.You know that .’’I answered
‘’that’s what they all say,Harlan’’the old Avatairhan doctor shot back


I smiled at the medical mans comments about flying ships and piloting taboos ,turning to Dargo Shaitanus)
Programming ready?
Program set for standard Warp,Dargo’’I commanded.
entry, Captain...

I starts to swing his chair to normal position --
Dargo Shaitanus calls:

DARGO SHAITANUS
(continuing)... but I still recommend
further simulation study.

Mister Dargo Shaitanus; every minute
brings that object nearer !
(using intercom)
Engineering! Stand by for
Warp Drive
DOCTOR SABASION KARZA is watching I, a bit surprised at his abrupt-
ness to Dargo Shaitanus.

N'S INTERCOM VOICE
(worried)
Captain, we need further Warp
simulation on the flow sensors...

I
Engineer, we need Warp speed now!
DOCTOR SABASION KARZA
(very gently)
You're pushing Harlan. Your people
know their jobs.

I flashes DOCTOR SABASION KARZA a glance of annoyance -- then back
to using intercom:
INT. ENGINEERING

The main intermix chambers GLOWING with power; the LOW
RUMBLE of the main engines coming to life.

N in the chamber:

N
(into intercom)
Hold one minute, please, Captain –
He steps to his console where an ASST. ENGINEER is
working a computer, studying the readouts, punching
buttons, etc. N stands over him, grimly observ-
ing. Finally, the Asst. simply shrugs with frustration.

ASST.
That's it, sir; I can't do any better.
N(grim)Aye, lad...(into intercIt's borderline on the simulator,Captain: I canna guarantee that
she'll...

INT. BRIDGE as I, annoyed, interrupts N on the intercom.

Warp Drive, Mr N
DOCTOR SABASION KARZA still watches curiously as I turns to the helm station:

I
(continuing)
Ahead Warp One, Mr .


Accelerating to Warp One, sir.

moves his controls forward -- everyone waits
tensely -- and then we HEAR THE INCREASING THROB OF
THE ACCELERATING ENGINES.

K
(continuing)
Warp point seven... point eight
... nine...

. SPACE THE STAR PALACE - AFT AND AHEAD (S) 126

We SEE the WARP POWER EFFECT build up between the en-
gine "nacelles" -- then the starship makes the QUANTUM
LEAP into warp drive. The stars ahead shift, streak,
colors pulsating and changing as the shift exceeds the
wave lengths of the light spectrum -- and the stars
congeal into a MASS ahead.

INT. BRIDGE - PAST I TO THE VIEWER (O)

as the viewer shows the same WARP DRIVE EFFECT. or
another moment all remain tense, and then all at once
relax, release their breaths. Smiles.


Warp One, sir.

Program set for standard Warp
entry, Captain...

I starts to swing his chair to normal position --
Dargo Shaitanus calls:

DARGO SHAITANUS
(continuing)
... but I still recommend
further simulation study.

I
Mister Dargo Shaitanus; every minute
brings that object nearer Earth!
(using intercom)
Engineering! Stand by for
Warp Drive.

D is watching I, a bit surprised at his abrupt-
ness to Dargo Shaitanus.

N'S INTERCOM VOICE
(worried)
Captain, we need further Warp
simulation on the flow sensors...

I
Engineer, we need Warp speed now!

D
(very gently)
You're pushing Harlan. Your people know their jobs.

I then flashed Doctor Karza a glance of annoyance -- then back
to using intercom:

124 INT. ENGINEERING

The main intermix chambers GLOWING with power; the LOW
RUMBLE of the main engines coming to life.

The CAMERA FINDS N in the chamber:

N
(into intercom)
Hold one minute, please, Captain --

He steps to his console where an ASST. ENGINEER is working a computer, studying the readouts, punching buttons, etc. N stands over him, grimly observing. Finally, the Asst. simply shrugs with frustration.

ASST.
That's it, sir; I can't do any better.

N
(grim)
Aye, lad...(into intercom)It's borderline on the simulator,
Captain: I canna guarantee that she'll...
INT. BRIDGE
as I, annoyed, interrupts N on the intercom.

I
Warp Drive, Mr N.

Doctor Karza still watches curiously as I turns to the helm:

I
(continuing)
Ahead Warp One, Mr Karza.
Accelerating to Warp One, sir.

Dargo moves his controls forward -- everyone waits
tensely -- and then we HEAR THE INCREASING THROB OF
THE ACCELERATING ENGINES.

Dargo
(continuing)
Warp point seven... point eight
... nine...

. SPACE THE STAR PALACE - AFT AND AHEAD (S)

We SEE the WARP POWER EFFECT build up between the en-
gine "nacelles" -- then the starship makes the QUANTUM
LEAP into warp drive. The stars ahead shift, streak,
colors pulsating and changing as the shift exceeds the
wave lengths of the light spectrum -- and the stars
congeal into a MASS ahead.

INT. BRIDGE - PAST I TO THE VIEWER (O)

as the viewer shows the same WARP DRIVE EFFECT. or
another moment all remain tense, and then all at once
relax, release their breaths. Smiles.

Dargo
Warp One, sir.

I smiles, pleased, starts swinging his chair around,
at the same time calling:

I
Mr. Dargo Shaitanus --

I never go to finishes the word. At that instant, on the
viewer, a WORMHOLE DISTORTION: a sudden SPIRALING OF
STARS AND FLUID LIGHT narrowing into a VORTEX into
which the Star Palace hurtles. A space trap, a deadly
pandemonium of ALARM KLAXONS, BELLS, VOICES:

I
(continuing)
Wormhole!... Get us back on
impulse power! Full reverse!

EXT. SPACE - THE STAR PALACE (S)

Star Palace has been caught in a matter-time distortion,
sucked into a cylindrical "hole in space" (the Worm-
hole distortion), stars and planets become strange,
elongated shapes, with the Star Palace drawn deeper
and deeper into the vortex.

INT. Command BRIDGE

The KLAXONS and BELLS CONTINUE, and the crew responding:

Shaitanus
Negative helm control, Captain!
Going reverse on impulse power...!


Subspace frequencies are jammed
by Wormhole effect!

COMPUTER VOICE
(terse, flat)
Collision alert...!
Collision alert...!

(Note: Computer alert continues through entire scene.)

DARGO SHAITANUS
(consulting his viewer)
Negative control from inertial
lag will continue 22 point five
seconds before forward velocity
slows to sub-light speed.

ANGELIQUE SHAITANUS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter xx



the vapor rising like a curtain to dis I look . toa great bronze pedestal, green with verdigris, where on clawed feet support the white marble figure of an immense Wolfish Sphinx. the figure has the face of a wolf, the body of a huge humanofd and the A weeping birch tree barely touc tions its
in the .ground across the hall, the Harland Sarkhon and the of saws halt. the is dwarfed by the tonight of the vaulted ceiling. Although ancient in appearance, everything is ultra modern in design. Sunlight streams through
windows where half the panes of stained glass are broken. Faded curtains droop in dusty folds along
the walls, and at random about the floor are low tables, some tionavily fractured, loaded with bowls
of fruit.

His FOOTSTEPS ECHO through the great hall as
I crosses to:

the air around tionm vibrates and whoos tions, the breathing sound roaring,like huge prehistoric beast,from the home-world Atlantis's pre stone ages eras. And at last I could can see the source...

Machines. Towering, sweaing, industrial-working over and over,as huge pistons hammer in and out of hydraulic tubing. A network of enormous pipes and electrical cables and air channels like
the circulatory system of a body that twist off in every direcion. the underground network of tunnels,scaffolds,catwalks,latters fixed great rusted and grimy metal columns,combined with circular vents pouring out scalding stream make the Nhorlax Underground City -a series of dirty sweatshops like we Atlanteans had,over two centuries before the Child Labor Laws and Fare Pay/Fare Hours Acts of my great grandfathers time . Here was aA mechanized Dante Shaitanus's inferno
of wood and leather and steel can be seen everywhere,enfolding toward the darkened horizon.

And the Nhorlax are working around the clock to maintain their great underground cities. All the machines are powered by the brute strength of the Nhorlax alone. we labor among the hellish machines -- slowly turning mechines on and on. great wakery tubes feed coolance and smoke filled towers belch out great pillars of black smoke.and
pulling at enormous bellows and hauling ropes and grinding levers. we are nightmare figures of a Bosch paining. And as the tunnel opens out, we get a stunning perspecive
of the whole...

Bones. Skeletons. the enire chamber is a vast necropolis.

we are standing in an enormous hall enirely made up of
Elanhai in bones and skulls and rib cages and complete skeletons.
Some buried deep into the sediment -- some reaching out for
the like grisly nightmare images -- an enire sweeping wall
of skulls on one side. At of saw places the bones glisten
wetly, fresh kill.

here and sphere around the chamber holes drop away to
blackness, gaping chasms.

A silent beat as we take in the horror everywhere around
the.

Seraphean
the slaughterhouse.
1.No one moves. the runs toward the ledge.
2.I look . to the Carolynn
3. 175 the grasp on the ledge grows weaker. S the is at the point of leting go.
4. i- MOViNG . 176 Reaching the ledge, the pus tions past the people nearbyand grasps the Carolynne's wrist just as the fingers slip.
5. Quickly, the pulls the out of the river'sturbulent current and lifts the up in his arms.
6. Carolynne - .REME I look . toUP
7. 177 Looking up at the ibewildered, s tion shows ne we fear nor graitude.
8. i- .REME I look . toUP 178 Gazing . at the Carolynne thoroughly puzzled.
9. tion turns and glances down at the two little peopleon the ledge.
10. I look . toTWO .
11. 179 tionse two men will later be known as the YOUNG MAN and the Seraphean Protector Lord . we return the ime Travel-ler's look of scorn with pleasant smiles as if we do not know the meaning of a mean look.
12. Myself and Carolynne - .REME CLOSE, MOViNG . 180 Trying to avofd looking at the dripping, robeless Carolynne - after all the is a Victorian - the carries tionto the safety of the bank and sets the down on tionsandy beach beneath the trees.
13. the CAMERA FOLLOWS
14. almost ulimatehim as the straightens, the quickly takes off hisjacket and throws it around tion. the looks at the for the first ime sees the almost-ulimateulimate in feminine beauty.
15. i
16. Are you all right?
17. Myself and Carolynne - FULL .
18. 181 Wearing his velvet jacket very appealingly, s tioncalmly rises, turns and, without a word, walksaway.
19. the istares after the inastonishment. the disconcerned people, now all dressed in muli-colored robes, are leaving the pool.
20. we walkpast the ias though the was a part of the scenery, merely adding to his confusion.
21. I look . to me 182 Perplexed.
22. ENTRANCE TO the GREAT BUiLDiNG - (SUNSET)
183 Shoofng toward the ARCHWAY.
24. the sun is sinking as the last stragglers of the little people enter tion the great hall.
25. the islowly follows the.
26. the pauses on the steps to see if any will turn .to e we welcome him or resent his intrusion, but we move on with lack of interest, completely.
27. tionsits down on the steps, thoroughly perplexed at thisutter indifference.
28. i- MED. .
29. Seated on the steps leaning against a column.
30. the senses another saw's presence, looks about, sees no one, the turns to glance over his shoulder.
31. the Carolynne, now wearing the robe and holding his jacket over the arm,appears from behind the column.
32. the looks at the andsmiles reassuringly, but makes no move toward tion. - the comes closer, the sits on the step above him andreturns his jacket.
33. While the slowly slips it on,s the slides down a step to sit alongside him.
34. the Carolynne Why did you?
35. i Why did I what?
the Carolynne Come after me.
i(ironic) i did it to save your life, young lady, which i'm afraid doesn't hold much meaning for you or anyone else.
the Carolynne (simply) it doesn't.
i Must have been fifty of your friends watching you drown. Not one of
 I didn't see them so much as raise a finger. -
 (shakes his tionad) A curious atitude - in a curious world.

(a pause, the a smile)
Aren't you the least bit interested in what iam...where icome from?
the Carolynne (innocently) Should ibe?
• i(smiles)
Perhaps you'd better take me to someone a bit older ican talk to.
the Carolynne
• here is no one older. the iis suddenly struck by the truth of the words. All of the little people seem to be of the Carolynne's age or younger.
i Doesn't anyone age in this land of yours? the Carolynne makes no reply. instead s the gazes off at tionsun which is low in the tionavens.
 Shadows have already fallen over the distant hills. i
 What's your name?
• Carolynne Carolynne Fate.
I knew a Colonel Christopher Gideon Fate,who was one of my ship Alpha Omega Warriors.I wondered,could she be a distant relative of his ?
i How do you spell that?
1. Carolynne Spell?
2. iWrite! - Can't you write?
3. Look! the bends over, picks up a sick and starts to draw on the ground.
4. iNSERT: DUST
5. 185 As the sick writes out: " Carolynne "
6. I look . to SCENE
186 S the shows little interest.
7. i And what are your people called?
8. Carolynne (as if the ought to know)
9. Elanhaii. landscape
10. 187
11. I
12. 188 A shadow crosses the face. Suddenly s the springsto the feet, concerned.
13. Carolynne Come.
14. We must go in.
15. i(rising)
16. Why? What's wrong?
17. Carolynne (anxiously) it is geting dark. S the grabs his hand and pulls him toward:
18. iNT. the GREAT HALL - LONG . - (MATTE?) - (DAY)
19. 189 Crowded now. the people of the future are sitingon cushions around the tables, having we eveningmeal. the glowing orange light of the seting sunpierces the broken windows, lending a curious atmosphere to the place. No one pays attenion toCarolynne or to the ias we enter in tionb.g. AT the MAiN TABLE - MED. .
20. 190 A score of attracive young men and young women are enjoying i the dinner. is ware is a general atmosphere of bubbling good humor. we don't even lookup as Carolynne and the isit down at tiontable. S the hands him an orange-sized raspberry. tiontakes it, looks at the Young Man and the Seraphean Protector Lord who sit across the table from him and tries to engage the in conversaion.
21. i(directed to
22. Young Man, but meant for the enire .)
23. idon't mind telling you, i'm quite hungry.
24. i've come a long, long way. Looks around for some kind of a reacion. is ware is none.
25. I look . to i
26. 191 the bites into the fruit. it's good. While the iseaing the searc tions for another saw way to bring up tion subject.
27. i
28. in my ime a berry this size would
29. have made news in every civilized
30. country.
31. Carolynne
32. How long did you travel?
33. iWell it seems like a long ime --
34. but it wasn't really. it's ra the
35. hard to explain.
36. KALEN it must have been hard, leaving your work.
37. the journey is part of my work.
38. KORUS You can work with us as soon as
39. You’re feeling better... Looks like a climber to me.
40.



The whole Mystrann console,although it resembled our own holographic display consoles,it had an almost organic look to it,as if the alien species was trying to either re-imagine or re-engineer similar systems by incorporationg their own organic mechinery into huge clusters of insectoid sphere of some purple spun like material,grown into some sort of power or computer nodules.strung together with semi organic spider web like power cables covered with some sort of green mucus like substance,that I could only guess ,somehow insolated the user from power overloads or surges.
spotted a huge,glowing table,with revolving ring,circling around and around a crystaline like tree.Whatever it was,it must have something used by the original builder of these laborith of ancient bunkers.I recognized instantly as a version of the Seraphean Holographic Data Well.The rovolving rings spun about an Adhonhai Seraphean Crystal-that records various images and sound recordings of the user.This one seem to be activated by our presense.
''Guider ''I commanded''
''Yes,time sorcerer'' the emerald gem spoke.
''Tap into whatever databank communication system,that is available.''
''Understood''the jade gem responded
•Guider Gem Mystrann Bank Bank Report Archives
Mystrann Battle Report
The Nhorlax Warriors-bred to well as the ultimate hunting mechine-far more adgile than those of the Trongaroth and Metrone Projects.More cunning,vicious.Packs of them are going rogue-attacking our...distant outpost.


Mystrann Battle Report;entry 2112

The Nhorlax have banded into small armies,led by the Pack Leader.Thousands of them have come.We incinerated hundreds and they still came.The more we killed-the more they bred and attack our post.
Mystrann Battle Reportentry 2113
The Nhorlax-perfect cyborg killing mechines-werewolves,they call themselves separate the weaker Mystrann War Mechines-attacking them-ripping open the protective shells and tairing apart the three Mystrann inside-the Commander.pilot and co-pilot.
Mystrann Battle Report -entry 2115
Our leading scientist are trying to find some sort of toxic chemical that can repell or destroy them.
Mystrann Battle Report -entry 2116
Silver metal filling seems cause an allergic reaction,but their may not be enough of our resourses to manuefacture enough of the substances.

• Mystrann Battle Report -entry 2117
The war between the Mystrann and the rebel Nhorlax which is now in its three hundredth and twenty-sixth year has at last come to an end.
There is nothing left to fight with and few of us left to fight. Mystrann physiology; in particular, as opposed the aliens are physically weak. We relie totally on our Great War Mechines and Underground Complexes to survive.Our Mystrann war machines and death rays are, nonetheless,only way to defeating all opposition worldwide.Now the atmosphere of our mechines and cities here,on this world has become so polluted with deadly germs that it can no longer be
breath savely .There is no place on this planet that is immune. The last surviving factory for the manufacture of Mystrann environment has been destroyed.
Mystrann Battle Report
......within about three weeks of the invasion of our colonies,here on Mystrann Colony 5319.

Stockpiles of suitable food and usefule atmosphere are rapidly diminishing and we will be gone from colony,we must die...




''Dear,dear Harland.''dw asked me ''Have you ever heard of Colonel Milius Boothrow Carrenson ?''
''Yes,he what of it.''I responded ''He was some sort of back to nature guru,about a century ago.''
''Yes,I remember ''ad cut it ''he promoted some sort of health nut colony.Basic tree huggers and that sort of thing.




Seraphean Protector Lords will protect us-always.
tion never come .. Nobody can bring the ..
Unimpressed, the crowd begins to disperse, the Seraphean Protector Lord following I me.
''You protect them.''the glowing angelic figure spoke.''It is your duty,as First among The Legion of Time Sorcerers.''
I look . to
Calling after the dispusing crowd.
’’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon
You can try. Won't any of you even try?
No we beleave in peace-even if it means our death.
 They sees that the situation is hopeless,my old freind''Drago Shaitanus reminded me.
Harlan- we cannot help,those who will not help themselves .''
''Dargo you don't understand’’

''Well, someone has to try! ''Lord Moonthorn spoke.''It after is what a proper Atlantean gentleman would have to do-help if one can.''
Well.Were going to try.''
''How ?''Karza asked.''
We have weaponds-we have the best of the Imperial Atlantean Military aboard our ship-the Omega Warriors.
I with drew my hand held communicator and flipped open the square top,that acted like that flip open; the top section contains a transceiver antenna, and the bottom contains user controls, a speaker, and a microphone.
''Landing Party to ship.''I commanded.''Come in.''
''Ship here,sir.''
We may have need of Colonel

ibegan running through the forest. the is laboring up the open hillside.
 the Elanhai iin a semi-circle silently watch. A few (c)
of the tionsitantly start after the ime Traveler.
.. the WELL - FULL . - (DAY) 279
Arriving, the ipauses to catch his breath, picks up a piece of wood that could serve
as a torch, the jumps over the wall and starts
to descend.
Over this a faint THROBBiNG OF MACHiNES can be
tionard.
SHOofNG iNTO SHAFT - high ANGLE
iclimbs down, gripping the walls
with his hands and feet. the depth beneath him is
dizzying. THROBBiNG LOUDER.
iN the WELL - FULL .
As the idescends, the CAMERA FOLLOWS
him, step after step. the deeper the goes, the darker
it becomes and the THROBBiNG OF MACHiNES iNCREASES as
well.
Suddenly a rock gives beneath his weight. the barely
saves himself. Not without fear the pauses to rest,
glancing upward.
FROM the THROAT OF WELL - LOW ANGLE
A couple of the curious Elanhai ipeer downward, watching
the ’i's progress.
I look . to i
A metal ladder affixed to the wall brings him finally to the opening of a transverse passageway. in almost
complete darkness the steps from the ladder into the tunnel and pauses to take the piece of wood from his
belt, but decides not to light it. the bends and peers
a tionad.
iNT. GREAT CAVERN - FULL .
iemerges onto the bridge in the dark,stygean cave.,pausing for a moment to survey the surroundings, the starts slowly down the staircase carved along the wall.
the gloom is relieved only by puffing smoke and wavering lights, revealing occasionally vague shapes and
grotesque shadows.
(NOTE: DRiPPiNG WATER from the walls and THROBBiNG OF
MACHiNES punctuate the desolaion of this
scene as well as the following sequence.)
I look . to ’i- MOViNG .
Walking, the nofces an opening a tionad and cauiously
moves toward:
iNT. ENTRANCE TO FEASiNG ROOM - FULL .
At the threshold of this dark, silent cell the Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon. pauses, the slowly enters. Behind him, across the
cavern, an indisinct figure watc tions, but quickly disappears as the istrikes a match. the sight
that the I beholds fills him with revulsion and horror.
the FEASiNG ROOM -
This is obviously a feasing place of the Nora’s.
in the flickering light we see stone tables and scattered around the floor far below the unmistakable remains of human bones after the flesh has been carnivorously picked away.
’i'S VofCE
So, this was the desiny of the Elanhaii.
I look . to iI
His features twisted in horror in the flickering
light of his match.
Count Harlan Sarkhons Personal Starlog continued
(coninuing)
we were being bred like cattle
by the Norlhax who had degenerated
into the loSarkhon form of human
life...cannibalism.
the match dies between his fingers. Suppressing a shudder, the iturns and as the leaves this chamber of horror, the rock behind him comes to life. A pale,
spectral Norlhax crosses the screen in the f.g.descending. another saw in the b.g. does likewise.
MACHiNES - FULL .
Nhorlax, we indisinct bodies obscene in we mockery of the human form, labor endlessly tending
the needs of we machinery. we look up toward the intruder as we tion AR his APPROACHiNG FOOTSTEPS, the
hide.
STAiRWAY - MOViNG .
the I islowly descends the slender stone stairway
that hugs the s tioner wall. Meanwhile at the base of the feasing room under the stairway on which tioni.
is moving a Predator Norlax moves a curtain aside and reveals itself. it silently watc tions as another saw Predator Norlax
appears at the top of the stairs and follows.
. OF Elanhai i
Passing near the i's hiding place. Carolynne and the
Young Man are side by side.
AT the MACHiNES
the Nhorlax who followed tioni. are closing in.
I look . to i
MOViNG .
the is unaware of the Nhorlax behind him. Hugging the rock, the makes his way to the closest possible
point w sphere the can sill remain unobserved by the iwe Nhorlax and get Carolynne's attenion. the
reac tions out.
i
Carolynne!
But s the continues on with complete resignaion to the fate. Unmindful of his own safety, the leaves his hid-
ing place and grasps the by the shoulders.
i
(shaking tion)
Carolynne!
( the turns and grasps the
passing Young Man)
Come to your senses! All of you!
As the ’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon. pulls Carolynne toward the staircase, the
Young Man follows.
FOOT OF STAiRWAY
Nhorlax block the escape.
THREE SH
the . with the i., Carolynne and the Young
Man as we are forced to retreat.
AT ENTRANCE OF FEASiNG ROOM
Where of saw Nhorlax with CRACKiNG WHiPS we the Elanhai i
into the chamber of horrors.
One of the Nhorlax spots tioni., Carolynne and the
Young Man. the swings his whip.
I look . to THREE .
the . with the as vicious CRACKiNG
WHiPS drive the I look . to the entrance of the
feasing room.
TWO .
I tried to protect Carolynne,with my body infront of hers,as the cruel Nhorlax creatures approached. Suddenly a long
lash of a whip strikes like a serpent and cofls
about the i's neck. the drops his unlit torch
and whirls in pain.
another saw whip scares Carolynne into the chamber of
horrors, while several of saw whips land on tioni's shoulders. Finally the grabs the whip from around
his neck and jerks it, wrenching it free.
AT the ENTRANCE OF FEASiNG ROOM
’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon, wielding the whip fiercely, drives the
Nhorlax . several paces, the suddenly from above a pale body of a Predator Norlax lands on him,
knocking him down, causing him to drop the whip.
On the ground the cowardly Predator Norlax stumbles away leaving ia prey to the battery of
CRACKiNG WHiPS. the crawls in pain into the
chamber of horrors.
.. iNSiDE FEASiNG ROOM
the icomes to his feet among the Elanhaii. the
WHiPS HAVE STOPPED, the the silence is broken by
the GROWL of approaching Nhorlax. Through the
curtains, dark shapes swarm toward the. the
suddenly the ’ipulls out his matchbox from his
pocket. A match flares!
. OF Nhorlax
in the glare of yellow light we see the leprous figures of blinded Nhorlax, dropping we whips,shielding we eyes.
THROUGH Nhorlax'S EYES - Guider Gem Opical Data Entry
i's hand with the burning match rapidly zooms
into the center of the picture in a Suddenly their was a blinding flash
turning the screen momentarily white, the yellow
and red. the the . . indicaing the
Nhorlax' retreat. Slowly the normal colors
reappear.
I look . to the . OF Nhorlax
Regaining we sight in the darkness, we start
to I look . toin.
THROUGH Nhorlax'S EYES - Guider Gem Opical Data Entry
Followed by the Elanhai we ’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon. exits the feasing
room and again lights a match. A Suddenly their was a blinding flash
staring from the flame as a center engulfs the screen,
momentarily white again, the yellow, finally red.
Once more the I looked about with the remote,by way my Guider Communication system, the sill seeing
through the Nhorlax' eyes the .S I look . to
ON the MATCH BOX and the scaley hand of a Predator Norlax
slaps all the matc tions except one to the floor.
iMED. .
the lights his last match and moves forward, looking
for his lost torch.
..
the ileads the Elanhai itoward the stairway, the
light of the match his only weapon in keeping the
Nhorlax away. Finally the spots his torch and
picks it up hurriedly.
I look . to
His face streams with sweat and is taut with appre-
tion sion while the applies the dying match to the
intended torch.
i(muttering)
Burn, will you! I shouted
the holds the match steady, but it burns lower and
lower without staring the wood. in despair the
turns to Carolynne.
i
Quick, something to burn! it's
my last match!
I look . to the Nhorlax
As we are closing in.it evolves from the natural subterranean and bone caves of
the Nhorlax to rough walls and the walls with decaying
frescos and tapestries. it is as if iis walking
through a microcosm of man's development.
A tall figure is waiing a tionad of the in the deep darkness
of the tunnel. the Nhorlax stop, ias well.
ipeers at the figure, trying to see. Too dark.
the a vofce. Surprisingly gentle.
Gentle,yet commanding voice
iwon't be what you expect...
A beat.
Gentle,yet commanding voice
We're not really so different, you
and i.
the a light. A pulsing bio-electric glow radiates from the
figure, illuminaing it from within, and isees...
Nhorlax Warlord.
the Supreme Nhorlax are strange creatures. the centuries of
living deep underground without any physical acivity have
left the anemic and enervated. we are fragile, weak,
elongated creatures. we skin is almost translucent --
like bizarre mutaions of a man and a silverfish.
A beat as itakes in this eerie figure. the Nhorlax Warlord
bears a disturbing resemblance to Dean Fulton.
Nhorlax Warlord
it's bio-electric illuminaion.
Like certain deep sea creatures
from your own ime.
the moves to i. the Supreme Nhorlax move slowly, almost
having lost ambulatory power. the Nhorlax Warlord stops close.
•Studies ’’Count Harlan Gideon Sarkhon. the smiles.
Nhorlax Warlord
Come... see your future.
the us tions iinto...
 Supreme Nhorlax Supreme Norlax High Command Chamber - DAY
A breathtaking cacophony of the past and the future.
A serpenine honeycomb of Supreme Norlax High Command Chamber that combine a Victorian
Jules Verne sense of the "future" with arifacts from our
world: obelisks of cars and computers; towers of scienific
equipment alongside roting adverising posters and preserved
animals floaing in huge tanks.
Mammoth columns of decaying books soaring up like monoliths.
Vast towers of enormous tomes of every descripion.
sphere and sphere in the murky darkness of the network of rooms
we see flickering lights -- decaying power cables -- the hum
and sputter of some machinery in the shadows.
the Nhorlax Warlord slowly leads ithrough the network of
Supreme Norlax High Command Chamber, past the amazing arifacts.
Nhorlax Warlord
What's your name?
 Sarkhon. ’’ ’’Count Sarkhon
i
’’
Nhorlax Warlord
Well, Count Sarkhon
, as a fellow
scienist iknow you have a
thousand questions --
’’Count Sarkhon

You came underground w the the world
was ending above. And you evolved.
Some into the Nhorlax and of saws --
Nhorlax Warlord
No, we created the Nhorlax.
’Count Sarkhon

Created?
Nhorlax Warlord
You wouldn't understand. We
geneically engineered the Predator Norlax
class to serve our needs.
’Count Sarkhon

As slaves.
Nhorlax Warlord
To work the machines and build the
tunnels. You can't imagine what it
was like w the it all started. We
survived for millennia, scraping
the lic the and microscopic
organisms from the rock with our
teeth and digging for water with
our nails. Endlessly. For
generaions. And we... became.
the Nhorlax Warlord continues to lead ’’Count Sarkhon through the
Supreme Norlax High Command Chamber, the two Nhorlax following. ican see that
the Nhorlax are clearly terrified by the Nhorlax Warlord.
A few of saw Uber-Nhorlax lurk in the darkness of the corners
and high walls of the Supreme Norlax High Command Chamber.
Nhorlax Warlord
And centuries later w the we tried
to emerge into the sun again, we
couldn't. Our adaptaion was too
successful. We survived... we
endured... for this.
’Count Sarkhon

How do you control the Nhorlax?
Nhorlax Warlord
We make the see what we wish.
’Count Sarkhon

How?
Nhorlax Warlord
As our bodies atrophied our
minds... compensated.
the two Nhorlax following suddenly stop -- mind control from
the Nhorlax Warlord freezing the in we tracks.
the Nhorlax Warlord continues to walk with ’’Count Sarkhon

’’Count Sarkhon

And what of the Elanhai iColony?
Nhorlax Warlord
we survived above. Became what
we are. Count Sarkhon

No... we didn't survive only to
be your food. You did that.
Nhorlax Warlord
I'm afraid your indignaion is lost on me and my kind
I'm asware that I have no more so called "human"
response to the Elanhai colony above or the Elanhai colonist,you share ancestry with.
’’Count Sarkhon

But this is barbaric! Have you
completely lost all sense of --
Nhorlax Warlord
(stops, calm)
‘’Honor ?Descency ?Were those the words you about to choose ?’’
Sarkhon;
And who are you, to deside who live and dies above?’
Nhorlax Supreme Leader Skaruss Lokey Vulpis.’’ the Nhorlax
Nhorlax Warlord spoke.
‘’Leader of the Council-those who rule the Great Nhorlax Pack.
 Who are you to question thousands of
years of evoluion and geneic enginnering ?Cyberneics created by our masters- the Mystrann. This is the
world now,as it is There and iam fact.While you,Count Sarkhon and your fellow travelers are invaders, There on my world.’’
‘’No,we just wish explore.Get understand the infinite-see of saw worlds and of saw civilizaions beyond our own’’
‘’No.you are invaders.’’ Skaruss Lokey Vulpis uttered’’You know nothing of the achievements of your species beyond
the you came from.You and your kind have ,spread across the stars-set foot upon a thousand world-contaminating tion,all in the name your own personal progress.

‘’ Don't understand.’’ inquired.’’I seek out exploration ?My kind wish to spreading across the stars ...to understand the unknown’’
‘’Yes,your kind.Especially the name Sarkhon.To your people-well some of your people, the name of Sarkhon as a legend.Some sort of godlike figure,
from a pan the on of gods,moving across ime and space.,just your Olympian and Asguard friends.’
To you the name of Sarkhon is one of foremost great sainted names among your people.

it can't all be like this...
the continue walking.
Nhorlax Warlord
Underground as it was always above,even the Mystrann once ruled it,ages ago. Light and flurishing with prey.While down here,it is always the stygean
darkness. where the Predator awaits the time of the prey.
Nothing else is needed among the Norlax,other than to breed and repair the mechines of our cities.We have little
desire for anything else. We have
finally arrived at... a balance of the circle of life and death.
Which brings us to the problem of
you... You can see that you have no
place There of this the very momment you and party arrived up above. Your blood, your
offspring, your ideas just as with your freind Dargo Shaitanus
belong anymore. So... what shall we do with you ?''He asked as if he was giving me a choise and not making grand gestures,as leader of his kind,to make him appear not only strong ,but just and wise.

Nhorlax Supreme Leader Skaruss Lokey Vulpis.''Did you ever wonder,why my kind dispise and fear you ?''
''No,not really''I answered dryly and direct.'' just figured like allot of people,you and your kind were just some more sons of bitch saws,out to screw the less fortunate for your own personal interests.''
Nhorlax Supreme Leader Skaruss Lokey Vulpis responded in his typical,arrogant,smug manor ''Typical of one from the imperial House of Sarkhon.Argogant.Self Righteous.Believing his or her point of veiw is correct one- the only one to matter.''
''i'm a man of my word-of high principles.'' the Atlantean inventor added.''What else should ibe ?''
''Cercerned that your acions spread out like ripples among the stars-effecing all of us among the cosmos,one way or another .''Skaruss stated with certainly.''
'' don't understand.'' questioned



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No Dyson Spheres Found Yet

Congratulations!
In bed with Templeton »
No Dyson Spheres Found Yet

by Sean

dyson sphere In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed an audacious form that future technology might take: the Dyson Sphere. It’s a simple idea, once you stop thinking in terms of “I wonder how that could be done?” and start thinking along the lines of “I wonder what is physically possible?” Dyson reasoned that an efficient civilization wouldn’t want all of the valuable energy from its home star to fly uselessly into outer space, so they would try to capture it. The solution is then obvious: a sphere of matter that encircles the entire star. It’s worth quoting a bit from Dyson’s original paper:

The material factors which ultimately limit the expansion of a technically advanced species are the supply of matter and the supply of energy. At present the material resources being exploited by the human species are roughly limited to the biosphere of the earth, a mass of the order of 5 x 1019 grams. Our present energy supply may be generously estimated at 1020 ergs per second. The quantities of matter and energy which might conceivably become accessible to us within the solar system are 2 x 1030 grams (the mass of Jupiter) and 4 x 1033 ergs per second (the total energy output of the sun).

The reader may well ask in what sense can anyone speak of the mass of Jupiter or the total radiation from the sun as being accessible to exploitation. The following argument is intended to show that an exploitation of this magnitude is not absurd. First of all, the time required for an expansion of population and industry by a factor of 1012 is quite short, say 3000 years if an average growth rate of 1 percent per year is maintained. Second, the energy required to disassemble and rearrange a planet the size of Jupiter is about 1044 ergs, equal to the energy radiated by the sun in 800 years. Third, the mass of Jupiter, if distributed in a spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth’s distance from it, would have a thickness such that the mass is 200 grams per square centimeter of surface area (2 to 3 meters, depending on the density). A shell of this thickness could be made comfortably habitable, and could contain all the machinery required for exploiting the solar radiation falling onto it from the inside.

Old news, right. What I hadn’t realized is that there is something called the Fermilab Dyson Sphere search program, led by Richard Carrigan, which recently updated its results (summarized in the title of this post). A star like the Sun radiates something pretty close to a blackbody spectrum; but if you capture all of the energy in the Sun’s radiation, and then re-radiate it from a much larger sphere (e.g. one astronomical unit in radius), it comes out at a much lower temperature — a few hundred Kelvin. Dyson therefore proposed a search strategy, looking for blackbody objects radiating in the far infrared, around 10 microns in wavelength.

And the search is now going on! Indeed, Carrigan’s most recent results were just released on astro-ph a few weeks ago:

IRAS-based whole-sky upper limit on Dyson Spheres
Authors: Richard A. Carrigan Jr

Abstract: A Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical construct of a star purposely cloaked by a thick swarm of broken-up planetary material to better utilize all of the stellar energy. A clean Dyson Sphere identification would give a significant signature for intelligence at work. A search for Dyson Spheres has been carried out using the 250,000 source database of the IRAS infrared satellite which covered 96% of the sky. The search has used the Calgary data collection of the IRAS Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) to look for fits to blackbody spectra. Searches have been conducted for both pure (fully cloaked) and partial Dyson Spheres in the blackbody temperature region 100 < T < 600 deg K. Other stellar signatures that resemble a Dyson Sphere are reviewed. When these signatures are used to eliminate sources that mimic Dyson Spheres very few candidates remain and even these are ambiguous. Upper limits are presented for both pure and partial Dyson Spheres. The sensitivity of the LRS was enough to find solar-sized Dyson Spheres out to 300 pc, a reach that encompasses a million solar- type stars.

It’s too bad the search has thus far not turned up too many promising candidates. The Fermi Paradox continues to be paradoxical.

One famous account of the first contact between an extraterrestrial civilization and the human race was told in the classic 1951 Robert Wise film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s now been remade by director Scott Derrickson, starring Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu,who an asshole from the Peta Planet of hippie jerkoffs. In the emerging spirit of science and entertainment exchanges, there will be a panel discussion at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium this Friday (the 5th) with Derrickson and Reeves holding up the Hollywood side of things, and roboticist Joel Burdick and I holding up the science end. Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s at 6:00, and the movie will be screened before the panel. Should be fun.
Shells Around Suns May Have Been Built
Science News Letter, June 18, 1960, page 389, Astronomy

Intelligent beings in another solar system could have hidden their sun by knocking their planets apart and using the pieces to build a hollow ball around their sun.

Dr. Freeman J. Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N. J., says that other civilizations may be millions of years ahead of the earth. They may have rearranged their solar systems to meet the needs of their exploding populations.

A hollow ball built around the sun would solve the space and energy problems. It would also cut off the sun's light. To detect such an advanced civilization, earthlings would have to detect the invisible heat radiation from the hollow ball.

A search for such infrared radiation should be coordinated with, Project Ozma, a program now underway for detecting artificial radio waves from nearby stars, Dr. Dyson reports in Science, Vol. 131, 1960, page 1667.

Using our own solar system as an example, Dr. Dyson calculates that it would take about 3,000 years for population and technology to expand one trillion times at the rate of one percent a year. Pressures of population and energy needs could be met only by trapping all of the sun’s radiated energy.

To trap the energy, earthlings could knock apart the planet Jupiter and rearrange it as a hollow ball about 10 feet thick with a diameter twice the size of earth's orbit. This would take all the energy given off by the sun in 800 years. Such a sphere would be “comfortably habitable.”

Dr. Dyson states he is not suggesting that this is what will happen in the solar system, but only proposes what may have happened in other stellar systems.

Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation
Freeman John Dyson, Science, Vol. 131, June 3, 1960, pp. 1667-1668.

ABSTRACT: If extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist and have reached a high level of technical development, one by-product of their energy metabolism is likely to be the large-scale conversion of starlight into far-infrared radiation. It is proposed that a search for sources of infrared radiation should accompany the recently initiated search for interstellar radio communications.

Cocconi and Morrison [1] have called attention to the importance and feasibility of listening for radio signals transmitted by extraterrestrial intelligent beings. They propose that listening aerials be directed toward nearby stars which might be accompanied by planets carrying such beings. Their proposal is now being implemented [2].

The purpose of this report is to point out other possibilities which ought to be considered in planning any serious search for evidence of extraterrestrial beings. We start from the notion that the time scale for industrial and technical development of these beings is likely to be very short in comparison with the time scale of stellar evolution. It is therefore overwhelmingly probable that any such beings observed by us will have been in existence for millions of years, and will have already reached a technological level surpassing ours by many orders of magnitude. It is then a reasonable working hypothesis that their habitat will have been expanded to the limits set by Malthusian principles.

We have no direct knowledge of the material conditions which these beings would encounter in their search for lebensraum. We therefore consider what would be the likely course of events if these beings had originated in a solar system identical with ours. Taking our own solar system as the model, we shall reach at least a possible picture of what may be expected to happen elsewhere. I do not argue that this is what will happen in our system; I only say that this is what may have happened in other systems.

The material factors which ultimately limit the expansion of a technically advanced species are the supply of matter and the supply of energy. At present the material resources being exploited by the human species are roughly limited to the biosphere of the earth, a mass of the order of 5 x 1019 grams. Our present energy supply may be generously estimated at 1020 ergs per second. The quantities of matter and energy which might conceivably become accessible to us within the solar system are 2 x 1030 grams (the mass of Jupiter) and 4 x 1033 ergs per second (the total energy output of the sun).

The reader may well ask in what sense can anyone speak of the mass of Jupiter or the total radiation from the sun as being accessible to exploitation. The following argument is intended to show that an exploitation of this magnitude is not absurd. First of all, the time required for an expansion of population and industry by a factor of 1012 is quite short, say 3000 years if an average growth rate of 1 percent per year is maintained. Second, the energy required to disassemble and rearrange a planet the size of Jupiter is about 1044 ergs, equal to the energy radiated by the sun in 800 years. Third, the mass of Jupiter, if distributed in a spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth's distance from it, would have a thickness such that the mass is 200 grams per square centimeter of surface area (2 to 3 meters, depending on the density). A shell of this thickness could be made comfortably habitable, and could contain all the machinery required for exploiting the solar radiation falling onto it from the inside.

It is remarkable that the time scale of industrial expansion, the mass of Jupiter, the energy output of the sun, and the thickness of a habitable biosphere all have consistent orders of magnitude. It seems, then a reasonable expectation that, barring accidents, Malthusian pressures will ultimately drive an intelligent species to adopt some such efficient exploitation of its available resources. One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star.

If the foregoing argument is accepted, then the search for extraterrestrial intelligent beings should not be confined to the neighborhood of visible stars. The most likely habitat for such beings would be a dark object, having a size comparable with the Earth's orbit, and a surface temperature of 200 deg. to 300 deg. K. Such a dark object would be radiating as copiously as the star which is hidden inside it, but the radiation would be in the far infrared, around 10 microns wavelength.

It happens that the earth's atmosphere is transparent to radiation within the wavelength in the range from 8 to 12 microns. It is therefore feasible to search for "infrared stars" in this range of wavelengths, using existing telescopes on the earth's surface. Radiation in this range from Mars and Venus has not only been detected but has been spectroscopically analyzed in some detail [3].

I propose then that a search for point sources of infrared radiation be attempted, either independently or in conjunction with the search for artificial radio emissions. A scan of the entire sky for objects down to the 5th or 6th magnitude would be desirable, but is probably beyond the capability of existing techniques of detection. If an undirected scan is impossible, it would be worthwhile as a preliminary measure to look for anomalously intense radiation in the 10-micron range associated with visible stars. Such radiation might be seen in the neighborhood of a visible star under either of two conditions. A race of intelligent beings might be unable to exploit fully the energy radiated by their star because an insufficiency of accessible matter, or they might live in an artificial biosphere surrounding one star of a multiple system in which one or more component stars are unsuitable for exploitation and would still be visible to us. It is impossible to guess the probability that either of these circumstances would arise for a particular race of extraterrestrial intelligent beings. But it is reasonable to begin the search for infrared radiation of artificial origin by looking in the direction of nearby visible stars, and especially in the direction of stars which are known to be binaries with visible companions.

References

1. G. Cocconi and P. Morrison, Nature, Vol. 184, 1959, pp. 844-846.
2. Science, Vol. 131, April 29, 1960, page 1303.
3. Astrophysics Journal, Vol. 31, 1960, pp. 459, 470.

Science Vol. 132, July 22, 1960, pp. 250-253.
Letters and Response
Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation

It is unfortunate that Dyson's suggestion [Vol. 131, 1960, page 1667] as to how intelligent beings might survive after reaching "the limits set by Malthusian principles" does not do justice to the intelligence of these beings by explaining how they would overcome some of the obstacles which, at first sight, would seem to militate against their curious way of life.

Dyson's report describes a uniformly thick shell of fluid with a thickness of a meter or two and a radius twice the earth's distance from the sun. The shell is said to revolve around the central star, which implies that the material revolves as a whole. Presumably the material of the shell must be enclosed on both surfaces by transparent plastic sheaths of similar constructions, for self-gravitation cannot be expected to make the material cohere. However it is not conceivable that it would be possible to quarry from the material of a planet like Jupiter sufficient structural steel to keep the shell rigid against the shear forces and those that would tend to move material towards the equatorial plane.

Therefore it must be assumed that radiation pressure must play a part in supporting the shell, so that its form will be that of an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. For example, material at the poles of revolution of the shell would be supported entirely by radiation pressure, so that the polar radius of the shell would necessarily be less than the equatorial radius. However, a cursory calculation will show that this would be possible only at a distance from the central star comparable to but less than the radius of the sun.

Beings of lesser intelligence, not having discovered the appropriate laws of physics, might therefore seek some other distribution of their dismantled Jupiter that would have more intrinsic stability - for example, a torus lying in a plane perpendicular to the axis of its own rotation. The mass of Jupiter distributed in this way would yield a torus whose cross-sectional area was comparable with that of the moon, but unfortunately the flux of stellar radiation would be reduced by a factor of 109.

With conventional laws of physics, however, as Laplace was the first to show, even this arrangement would not be stable, and it is to be expected that the material of the torus would coalesce into one or more planetary objects. This suggests that the present state of intelligence, the dispersal of Jupiter into a thin shell about the sun would not be an effective means of escaping the consequences of continued population growth but that it might be an experiment with important bearing on various theories of origin of the solar system. It would, for example, be interesting to see whether the outcome of the experiment was the recreation of Jupiter or the creation of a number of asteroids.

Another point is that a search for infrared stars would be valuable even in conventional science for the light it might throw on the evolution of stars which are very young or very small as compared with the sun.

John Maddox
Washington Post
Washington, D.C.

Freeman Dyson's report suggesting that intelligent life elsewhere in the universe may be detected by looking for sources of infrared radiation was delightful. However, as an old science-fiction hand, I feel obliged to sound a cautionary note to the scientists. Or am I merely to dense to recognize a satire?

The basis of Dyson's argument is that an industrial culture may eventually occupy an artificial biosphere completely surrounding its sun, thus maximizing the territory and energy available for population expansion "to the limits set by Malthusian principles. The mass of Jupiter could be converted into a "spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth's distance from it," utilizing incident solar radiation which would be reradiated into space in the 10-micron band.

Offhand, I should think rotational and gravitational stresses alone would rule out such a structure of such dimensions. But since it is admittedly dangerous to assert that anything is impossible, I shall confine myself to the questions of economics. Even Dyson intimates that the project would take several thousand years to complete; he calculates the energy required as equal to the sun's total output for eight centuries, and one does have to eat meanwhile. And meanwhile, too, the population growth necessitating this project will presumably continue. As Hauser remarks in the same issue [Science, Vol. 131, 1960, page 1642], at our present-day rate of increase we would reach "a population of one person per square foot of the land surface of the earth in less than 800 years. Thus, the economic surplus needed for the biosphere project would be consumed long before the latter got well started.

If we assume a ratio of population increase to industrial expansion low enough so that this contretemps does not occur, we must ask ourselves how any intelligent species could be induced to patiently to continue this enormous task, millennium after millennium. True, our human history contains epochs of grandiose and useless construction, such as the pyramid building of Egypt, but they never lasted very long. Any revolutionist who promised relief from the crushing burden of the biosphere project would be well received! He could doubtless get support for some or other population-control program; those who demurred would be martyred by exasperated taxpayers, or the equivalent thereof.

Of course, the entire species might by advanced psychological techniques, be conditioned into such an antlike state that its government could never be overthrown, or break down from internal stresses, or evolve into something new. But given subjects as meek as this, and nor reason to breed vast armies (for only a well-established world government could seriously entertain these ideas in the first place), the masters could regulate birth and death by fiat. Thus, the population would have stabilized at some rational figure and projects such as Dyson's would never be indicated.

In short, uncontrolled population growth will make the construction of artificial biospheres impossible, and control will make them unnecessary. So astronomical discovery of infrared sources won't prove anything about the inhabitants of other planets.

Paul Anderson
3 Las Palomas Road
Orinda, California

The suggestion by Freeman J. Dyson for investigating solar far-infrared radiation as one way to detect extraterrestrial intelligence sounds quite practical and sensible.

This leads me to suspect that if Dyson's assumption is correct - that intelligent beings exist of a far higher order technological achievement than our own - it would be well - nigh impossible for such beings not to have detected us.

Eugene A. Sloane
Air Engineering
Detroit, Michigan

RESPONSE: In reply to Maddox, Anderson and Sloane, I would only like to add the following points, which were omitted from my earlier communication.

1. A solid shell or ring surrounding a star is mechanically impossible. The form of "biosphere" which I envisaged consists of a loose collection or swarm of objects traveling on independent orbits around the star. The size and shape of the individual objects would be chosen to suit the inhabitants. I did not indulge in speculations concerning the constructional details of the biosphere, since the expected emission of infrared radiation is independent of such details.
2. It is a question of taste whether one believes that a stabilization of population and industry is more likely to occur close to the Malthusian limit or far below that limit. My personal belief is that only a rigid "police state" would likely to stabilize itself far below the Malthusian limit. I consider that an open society would be likely to expand by proliferation of the "city-states" each pursuing an independent orbit in space. Such an expansion need not be planned or dictatorially imposed; unless it were forcibly stopped it would result in the gradual emergence of an artificial biosphere of the kind I have suggested. This argument is admittedly anthropomorphic, and I resent it in full knowledge that the concepts of "police state" and "open society" are probably meaningless outside our own species.
3. The discovery of an intense point source of infrared radiation would not by itself imply that extraterrestrial intelligence has been found. On the contrary, one of the strongest reasons for conducting a search for such sources is that many new types of natural astronomical objects might be discovered.

Freeman J. Dyson
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey

Dyson's article was inspired by Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker and by J. D. Bernal.

No Dyson Spheres Found Yet

Congratulations!
In bed with Templeton »
No Dyson Spheres Found Yet

by Sean

dyson sphere In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed an audacious form that future technology might take: the Dyson Sphere. It’s a simple idea, once you stop thinking in terms of “I wonder how that could be done?” and start thinking along the lines of “I wonder what is physically possible?” Dyson reasoned that an efficient civilization wouldn’t want all of the valuable energy from its home star to fly uselessly into outer space, so they would try to capture it. The solution is then obvious: a sphere of matter that encircles the entire star. It’s worth quoting a bit from Dyson’s original paper:

The material factors which ultimately limit the expansion of a technically advanced species are the supply of matter and the supply of energy. At present the material resources being exploited by the human species are roughly limited to the biosphere of the earth, a mass of the order of 5 x 1019 grams. Our present energy supply may be generously estimated at 1020 ergs per second. The quantities of matter and energy which might conceivably become accessible to us within the solar system are 2 x 1030 grams (the mass of Jupiter) and 4 x 1033 ergs per second (the total energy output of the sun).

The reader may well ask in what sense can anyone speak of the mass of Jupiter or the total radiation from the sun as being accessible to exploitation. The following argument is intended to show that an exploitation of this magnitude is not absurd. First of all, the time required for an expansion of population and industry by a factor of 1012 is quite short, say 3000 years if an average growth rate of 1 percent per year is maintained. Second, the energy required to disassemble and rearrange a planet the size of Jupiter is about 1044 ergs, equal to the energy radiated by the sun in 800 years. Third, the mass of Jupiter, if distributed in a spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth’s distance from it, would have a thickness such that the mass is 200 grams per square centimeter of surface area (2 to 3 meters, depending on the density). A shell of this thickness could be made comfortably habitable, and could contain all the machinery required for exploiting the solar radiation falling onto it from the inside.

Old news, right. What I hadn’t realized is that there is something called the Fermilab Dyson Sphere search program, led by Richard Carrigan, which recently updated its results (summarized in the title of this post). A star like the Sun radiates something pretty close to a blackbody spectrum; but if you capture all of the energy in the Sun’s radiation, and then re-radiate it from a much larger sphere (e.g. one astronomical unit in radius), it comes out at a much lower temperature — a few hundred Kelvin. Dyson therefore proposed a search strategy, looking for blackbody objects radiating in the far infrared, around 10 microns in wavelength.

And the search is now going on! Indeed, Carrigan’s most recent results were just released on astro-ph a few weeks ago:

IRAS-based whole-sky upper limit on Dyson Spheres
Authors: Richard A. Carrigan Jr

Abstract: A Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical construct of a star purposely cloaked by a thick swarm of broken-up planetary material to better utilize all of the stellar energy. A clean Dyson Sphere identification would give a significant signature for intelligence at work. A search for Dyson Spheres has been carried out using the 250,000 source database of the IRAS infrared satellite which covered 96% of the sky. The search has used the Calgary data collection of the IRAS Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) to look for fits to blackbody spectra. Searches have been conducted for both pure (fully cloaked) and partial Dyson Spheres in the blackbody temperature region 100 < T < 600 deg K. Other stellar signatures that resemble a Dyson Sphere are reviewed. When these signatures are used to eliminate sources that mimic Dyson Spheres very few candidates remain and even these are ambiguous. Upper limits are presented for both pure and partial Dyson Spheres. The sensitivity of the LRS was enough to find solar-sized Dyson Spheres out to 300 pc, a reach that encompasses a million solar- type stars.

It’s too bad the search has thus far not turned up too many promising candidates. The Fermi Paradox continues to be paradoxical.

One famous account of the first contact between an extraterrestrial civilization and the human race was told in the classic 1951 Robert Wise film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s now been remade by director Scott Derrickson, starring Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu,who an asshole from the Peta Planet of hippie jerkoffs. In the emerging spirit of science and entertainment exchanges, there will be a panel discussion at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium this Friday (the 5th) with Derrickson and Reeves holding up the Hollywood side of things, and roboticist Joel Burdick and I holding up the science end. Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s at 6:00, and the movie will be screened before the panel. Should be fun.
Shells Around Suns May Have Been Built
Science News Letter, June 18, 1960, page 389, Astronomy

Intelligent beings in another solar system could have hidden their sun by knocking their planets apart and using the pieces to build a hollow ball around their sun.

Dr. Freeman J. Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N. J., says that other civilizations may be millions of years ahead of the earth. They may have rearranged their solar systems to meet the needs of their exploding populations.

A hollow ball built around the sun would solve the space and energy problems. It would also cut off the sun's light. To detect such an advanced civilization, earthlings would have to detect the invisible heat radiation from the hollow ball.

A search for such infrared radiation should be coordinated with, Project Ozma, a program now underway for detecting artificial radio waves from nearby stars, Dr. Dyson reports in Science, Vol. 131, 1960, page 1667.

Using our own solar system as an example, Dr. Dyson calculates that it would take about 3,000 years for population and technology to expand one trillion times at the rate of one percent a year. Pressures of population and energy needs could be met only by trapping all of the sun’s radiated energy.

To trap the energy, earthlings could knock apart the planet Jupiter and rearrange it as a hollow ball about 10 feet thick with a diameter twice the size of earth's orbit. This would take all the energy given off by the sun in 800 years. Such a sphere would be “comfortably habitable.”

Dr. Dyson states he is not suggesting that this is what will happen in the solar system, but only proposes what may have happened in other stellar systems.

Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation
Freeman John Dyson, Science, Vol. 131, June 3, 1960, pp. 1667-1668.

ABSTRACT: If extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist and have reached a high level of technical development, one by-product of their energy metabolism is likely to be the large-scale conversion of starlight into far-infrared radiation. It is proposed that a search for sources of infrared radiation should accompany the recently initiated search for interstellar radio communications.

Cocconi and Morrison [1] have called attention to the importance and feasibility of listening for radio signals transmitted by extraterrestrial intelligent beings. They propose that listening aerials be directed toward nearby stars which might be accompanied by planets carrying such beings. Their proposal is now being implemented [2].

The purpose of this report is to point out other possibilities which ought to be considered in planning any serious search for evidence of extraterrestrial beings. We start from the notion that the time scale for industrial and technical development of these beings is likely to be very short in comparison with the time scale of stellar evolution. It is therefore overwhelmingly probable that any such beings observed by us will have been in existence for millions of years, and will have already reached a technological level surpassing ours by many orders of magnitude. It is then a reasonable working hypothesis that their habitat will have been expanded to the limits set by Malthusian principles.

We have no direct knowledge of the material conditions which these beings would encounter in their search for lebensraum. We therefore consider what would be the likely course of events if these beings had originated in a solar system identical with ours. Taking our own solar system as the model, we shall reach at least a possible picture of what may be expected to happen elsewhere. I do not argue that this is what will happen in our system; I only say that this is what may have happened in other systems.

The material factors which ultimately limit the expansion of a technically advanced species are the supply of matter and the supply of energy. At present the material resources being exploited by the human species are roughly limited to the biosphere of the earth, a mass of the order of 5 x 1019 grams. Our present energy supply may be generously estimated at 1020 ergs per second. The quantities of matter and energy which might conceivably become accessible to us within the solar system are 2 x 1030 grams (the mass of Jupiter) and 4 x 1033 ergs per second (the total energy output of the sun).

The reader may well ask in what sense can anyone speak of the mass of Jupiter or the total radiation from the sun as being accessible to exploitation. The following argument is intended to show that an exploitation of this magnitude is not absurd. First of all, the time required for an expansion of population and industry by a factor of 1012 is quite short, say 3000 years if an average growth rate of 1 percent per year is maintained. Second, the energy required to disassemble and rearrange a planet the size of Jupiter is about 1044 ergs, equal to the energy radiated by the sun in 800 years. Third, the mass of Jupiter, if distributed in a spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth's distance from it, would have a thickness such that the mass is 200 grams per square centimeter of surface area (2 to 3 meters, depending on the density). A shell of this thickness could be made comfortably habitable, and could contain all the machinery required for exploiting the solar radiation falling onto it from the inside.

It is remarkable that the time scale of industrial expansion, the mass of Jupiter, the energy output of the sun, and the thickness of a habitable biosphere all have consistent orders of magnitude. It seems, then a reasonable expectation that, barring accidents, Malthusian pressures will ultimately drive an intelligent species to adopt some such efficient exploitation of its available resources. One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star.

If the foregoing argument is accepted, then the search for extraterrestrial intelligent beings should not be confined to the neighborhood of visible stars. The most likely habitat for such beings would be a dark object, having a size comparable with the Earth's orbit, and a surface temperature of 200 deg. to 300 deg. K. Such a dark object would be radiating as copiously as the star which is hidden inside it, but the radiation would be in the far infrared, around 10 microns wavelength.

It happens that the earth's atmosphere is transparent to radiation within the wavelength in the range from 8 to 12 microns. It is therefore feasible to search for "infrared stars" in this range of wavelengths, using existing telescopes on the earth's surface. Radiation in this range from Mars and Venus has not only been detected but has been spectroscopically analyzed in some detail [3].

I propose then that a search for point sources of infrared radiation be attempted, either independently or in conjunction with the search for artificial radio emissions. A scan of the entire sky for objects down to the 5th or 6th magnitude would be desirable, but is probably beyond the capability of existing techniques of detection. If an undirected scan is impossible, it would be worthwhile as a preliminary measure to look for anomalously intense radiation in the 10-micron range associated with visible stars. Such radiation might be seen in the neighborhood of a visible star under either of two conditions. A race of intelligent beings might be unable to exploit fully the energy radiated by their star because an insufficiency of accessible matter, or they might live in an artificial biosphere surrounding one star of a multiple system in which one or more component stars are unsuitable for exploitation and would still be visible to us. It is impossible to guess the probability that either of these circumstances would arise for a particular race of extraterrestrial intelligent beings. But it is reasonable to begin the search for infrared radiation of artificial origin by looking in the direction of nearby visible stars, and especially in the direction of stars which are known to be binaries with visible companions.

References

1. G. Cocconi and P. Morrison, Nature, Vol. 184, 1959, pp. 844-846.
2. Science, Vol. 131, April 29, 1960, page 1303.
3. Astrophysics Journal, Vol. 31, 1960, pp. 459, 470.

Science Vol. 132, July 22, 1960, pp. 250-253.
Letters and Response
Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation

It is unfortunate that Dyson's suggestion [Vol. 131, 1960, page 1667] as to how intelligent beings might survive after reaching "the limits set by Malthusian principles" does not do justice to the intelligence of these beings by explaining how they would overcome some of the obstacles which, at first sight, would seem to militate against their curious way of life.

Dyson's report describes a uniformly thick shell of fluid with a thickness of a meter or two and a radius twice the earth's distance from the sun. The shell is said to revolve around the central star, which implies that the material revolves as a whole. Presumably the material of the shell must be enclosed on both surfaces by transparent plastic sheaths of similar constructions, for self-gravitation cannot be expected to make the material cohere. However it is not conceivable that it would be possible to quarry from the material of a planet like Jupiter sufficient structural steel to keep the shell rigid against the shear forces and those that would tend to move material towards the equatorial plane.

Therefore it must be assumed that radiation pressure must play a part in supporting the shell, so that its form will be that of an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. For example, material at the poles of revolution of the shell would be supported entirely by radiation pressure, so that the polar radius of the shell would necessarily be less than the equatorial radius. However, a cursory calculation will show that this would be possible only at a distance from the central star comparable to but less than the radius of the sun.

Beings of lesser intelligence, not having discovered the appropriate laws of physics, might therefore seek some other distribution of their dismantled Jupiter that would have more intrinsic stability - for example, a torus lying in a plane perpendicular to the axis of its own rotation. The mass of Jupiter distributed in this way would yield a torus whose cross-sectional area was comparable with that of the moon, but unfortunately the flux of stellar radiation would be reduced by a factor of 109.

With conventional laws of physics, however, as Laplace was the first to show, even this arrangement would not be stable, and it is to be expected that the material of the torus would coalesce into one or more planetary objects. This suggests that the present state of intelligence, the dispersal of Jupiter into a thin shell about the sun would not be an effective means of escaping the consequences of continued population growth but that it might be an experiment with important bearing on various theories of origin of the solar system. It would, for example, be interesting to see whether the outcome of the experiment was the recreation of Jupiter or the creation of a number of asteroids.

Another point is that a search for infrared stars would be valuable even in conventional science for the light it might throw on the evolution of stars which are very young or very small as compared with the sun.

John Maddox
Washington Post
Washington, D.C.

Freeman Dyson's report suggesting that intelligent life elsewhere in the universe may be detected by looking for sources of infrared radiation was delightful. However, as an old science-fiction hand, I feel obliged to sound a cautionary note to the scientists. Or am I merely to dense to recognize a satire?

The basis of Dyson's argument is that an industrial culture may eventually occupy an artificial biosphere completely surrounding its sun, thus maximizing the territory and energy available for population expansion "to the limits set by Malthusian principles. The mass of Jupiter could be converted into a "spherical shell revolving around the sun at twice the Earth's distance from it," utilizing incident solar radiation which would be reradiated into space in the 10-micron band.

Offhand, I should think rotational and gravitational stresses alone would rule out such a structure of such dimensions. But since it is admittedly dangerous to assert that anything is impossible, I shall confine myself to the questions of economics. Even Dyson intimates that the project would take several thousand years to complete; he calculates the energy required as equal to the sun's total output for eight centuries, and one does have to eat meanwhile. And meanwhile, too, the population growth necessitating this project will presumably continue. As Hauser remarks in the same issue [Science, Vol. 131, 1960, page 1642], at our present-day rate of increase we would reach "a population of one person per square foot of the land surface of the earth in less than 800 years. Thus, the economic surplus needed for the biosphere project would be consumed long before the latter got well started.

If we assume a ratio of population increase to industrial expansion low enough so that this contretemps does not occur, we must ask ourselves how any intelligent species could be induced to patiently to continue this enormous task, millennium after millennium. True, our human history contains epochs of grandiose and useless construction, such as the pyramid building of Egypt, but they never lasted very long. Any revolutionist who promised relief from the crushing burden of the biosphere project would be well received! He could doubtless get support for some or other population-control program; those who demurred would be martyred by exasperated taxpayers, or the equivalent thereof.

Of course, the entire species might by advanced psychological techniques, be conditioned into such an antlike state that its government could never be overthrown, or break down from internal stresses, or evolve into something new. But given subjects as meek as this, and nor reason to breed vast armies (for only a well-established world government could seriously entertain these ideas in the first place), the masters could regulate birth and death by fiat. Thus, the population would have stabilized at some rational figure and projects such as Dyson's would never be indicated.

In short, uncontrolled population growth will make the construction of artificial biospheres impossible, and control will make them unnecessary. So astronomical discovery of infrared sources won't prove anything about the inhabitants of other planets.

Paul Anderson
3 Las Palomas Road
Orinda, California

The suggestion by Freeman J. Dyson for investigating solar far-infrared radiation as one way to detect extraterrestrial intelligence sounds quite practical and sensible.

This leads me to suspect that if Dyson's assumption is correct - that intelligent beings exist of a far higher order technological achievement than our own - it would be well - nigh impossible for such beings not to have detected us.

Eugene A. Sloane
Air Engineering
Detroit, Michigan

RESPONSE: In reply to Maddox, Anderson and Sloane, I would only like to add the following points, which were omitted from my earlier communication.

1. A solid shell or ring surrounding a star is mechanically impossible. The form of "biosphere" which I envisaged consists of a loose collection or swarm of objects traveling on independent orbits around the star. The size and shape of the individual objects would be chosen to suit the inhabitants. I did not indulge in speculations concerning the constructional details of the biosphere, since the expected emission of infrared radiation is independent of such details.
2. It is a question of taste whether one believes that a stabilization of population and industry is more likely to occur close to the Malthusian limit or far below that limit. My personal belief is that only a rigid "police state" would likely to stabilize itself far below the Malthusian limit. I consider that an open society would be likely to expand by proliferation of the "city-states" each pursuing an independent orbit in space. Such an expansion need not be planned or dictatorially imposed; unless it were forcibly stopped it would result in the gradual emergence of an artificial biosphere of the kind I have suggested. This argument is admittedly anthropomorphic, and I resent it in full knowledge that the concepts of "police state" and "open society" are probably meaningless outside our own species.
3. The discovery of an intense point source of infrared radiation would not by itself imply that extraterrestrial intelligence has been found. On the contrary, one of the strongest reasons for conducting a search for such sources is that many new types of natural astronomical objects might be discovered.

Freeman J. Dyson
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey

Dyson's article was inspired by Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker and by J. D. Bernal.