[Altimexis] The Binary Planet by Altimexis

[Graeme]

The Binary Planet by Altimexis

 

Lansley and his parents escape persecution on their home world and seek refuge on a binary planet. Just when he thinks he understands sexual dimorphism, he falls in love with a boy who likes other boys.

 

 

:nuke: :nuke: Spoilers Below!!! :nuke: :nuke:

[Tarin]

Fantastic story! While I'm not quite sure exactly how thewhole sex thing worked with Lans, that was trivial in the grand scheme ofthings. The concept was interesting and everything was very well researched.How different the species were made for some interesting and enlightening comparisons.

 

While I hated you for Futility once the storyconcluded I was equally pleased.

 

Obviously very politically charged. I did find that annoyingat times, but not so much as to ruin the story.

 

 

 

[Red_A]

I was brought up on sci-fi. But Ihave not come across the main themes in this story. If you add in the love thene it make an original story with a well deserved political agenda.

[Hamen Cheese]

I felt the story got sidetracked with the whole sexual aspect with Steve since it didn't seem to be the focus of the story. Kinda felt awkward that it just went to that. I like it though that they found each other in the end.

 

I hated the part where they said he was executed.

 

Haha. Good read for the most part though.

[Altimexis]

This is a very long short story that borders on being a novella. Indeed, the first draft was well over 30k words, forcing me to cut about 4-5k to keep it within the realm of something that could be considered a short story for the anthology. I did not set out to make it so long, but it would have been a very different story had it not been for the degree of technical detail and background. The main point of the story was to portray the stupidity of prejudice against homosexuality when seen from a culture outside Earth, but doing so wouldn't have had nearly as much impact had I not fully developed the main character and the nature of his species. I also needed the conflict with the Cerenians to provide a sense of urgency and a need for first contact. The sex wasn't meant to come off as a side-issue or a distraction from the plot - it was part of the primary theme.

 

This story is science fiction - not science fantasy. I have made every effort possible to make all aspects of the story plausible, right down to the lack of faster-than-light travel and the use of relativistic effects. The one technical issue not addressed that could be a problem is that of how one obtains a propellant for a spaceship that operates under continuous propulsion. Jet engines use air as the propellant, taking it from the atmosphere, compressing it, heating it and jettisoning it out the rear of the engine, providing thrust. Rockets must carry their propellant with them, usually in the form of fuel and oxygen, but even if one could design a perfectly efficient rocket, there would come a point where it is physically impossible to carry enough propellant for a long journey.

 

Many have suggested that for prolonged spaceflight under continuous propulsion, spaceship propulsion systems would have to work more like a jet engine than a rocket. Two mechanisms have been proposed for doing so. In the first, a giant space funnel would be used to collect all so-called dark mater - space dust, subatomic particles and the like - to use as the propellant. The problems with this are that the funnel could be easily damaged, and that the collision of particles with the funnel would create a lot of drag. An alternative if there is enough of a concentration of dark matter, something that is currently unknown, would be to build engines that work like a scram-jet, accelerating the particles that pass through them, providing thrust in the process. The other mechanism proposed is to use the substance of space itself as the propellant. If a way could be found to compress space ahead of the spaceship, as would occur around a small black hole, and to expand it behind the spaceship, thrust would result. This is somewhat how so-called warp drives are supposed to work but, for now, such a thing is purely the realm of fantasy.

 

I hope you enjoyed the story. Although not stated explicitly, the political viewpoints expressed were strictly those of Lansley and not mine, although I tried to make Lansley's interpretation as unbiased as possible. When I write a story, I create characters and it is then the characters that then dictate the direction of the story. Indeed, I have written many stories in which some of my main characters express viewpoints that are diametrically opposed to my own. I firmly believe that good character development is the key to writing a good story. I hope that is what happened here.

[Graeme]

Many have suggested that for prolonged spaceflight under continuous propulsion, spaceship propulsion systems would have to work more like a jet engine than a rocket. Two mechanisms have been proposed for doing so. In the first, a giant space funnel would be used to collect all so-called dark mater - space dust, subatomic particles and the like - to use as the propellant. The problems with this are that the funnel could be easily damaged, and that the collision of particles with the funnel would create a lot of drag. An alternative if there is enough of a concentration of dark matter, something that is currently unknown, would be to build engines that work like a scram-jet, accelerating the particles that pass through them, providing thrust in the process. The other mechanism proposed is to use the substance of space itself as the propellant. If a way could be found to compress space ahead of the spaceship, as would occur around a small black hole, and to expand it behind the spaceship, thrust would result. This is somewhat how so-called warp drives are supposed to work but, for now, such a thing is purely the realm of fantasy.

You didn't consider the use of a Bussard ramjet? Essentially, a large electromagnetic field that collects interstellar material (mainly hydrogen) and the compresses it down until a fusion reaction occurs. The same idea as you've described with a funnel, but the funnel is not material and hence not easily damaged.

[Graeme]

While I got this story a long time ago, I haven't had a chance to just sit down and read it properly until now Altimexis, it's a great story! The science aspects were detailed and believable, and you set against that background the tale of someone who was probably more orphaned than anyone else has been in the history of our world.

 

Well done!

[Hamen Cheese]

The sex wasn't meant to come off as a side-issue or a distraction from the plot - it was part of the primary theme.

 

Oh yeah. Didn't mean for the relationship to seem insignificant. I wanted or needed there to be something between them haha. I'm not quite sure at which point of the story it was (I think some time when they moved out of the city) where they just started romping like there's no tomorrow (which, technically could have been the case). Just felt out of place (or maybe it's just me haha).

 

Anyway, thanks for the good read.

[C James]

Thanks you, Altimexis, for a wonderful read!

 

I very much enjoyed it, and I especially appreciated your attention to physical reality regarding tech.

 

I was surprised that anyone considered this political... I don't see it that way at all. In fact, it seemed very non-political to me, because what little political description there was seemed solidly grounded in fact. I only saw two things that might be construed as slightly political (but also unavoidable, and no reason to avoid them). One is regarding China's corruption, and that is exceedingly well grounded in fact. The other is approaching the UN, which I felt would be a reasonable assumption for an Alien to make under the circumstances.

 

I also liked the innovate plot twists, such as the biowar for a space battle.

 

Thanks, Altimexis.

[Altimexis]

You didn't consider the use of a Bussard ramjet? Essentially, a large electromagnetic field that collects interstellar material (mainly hydrogen) and the compresses it down until a fusion reaction occurs. The same idea as you've described with a funnel, but the funnel is not material and hence not easily damaged.

 

Actually, I didn't really want to get into that kind of detail and besides, the Bussard ramjet is probably dated in light of new theories on the nature of dark matter. Back in the sixties when the Bussard ramjet was first proposed, interstellar space was thought to be permeated mostly by a space dust consisting of a hydrogen plasma - i.e. disassociated protons and electrons. Since these are highly charged particles, an electromagnetic field would be quite effective in pulling them in, although not in compressing them sufficiently to ignite a fusion reaction. Drag is also still a big problem withe the Bussard Ramjet .

 

Most cosmologists today think that most dark matter is neutral and, hence, electromagnetic fields would not be effective. You're right about one thing - energy would have to be extracted from some of the propellant to generate the power to accelerate the propellant. Ideally half of the propellant mass would be converted to energy to accelerate the other half, but fusion may be the next best thing, even if it's not nearly as efficient. Unfortunately much of the dark matter in the universe is thought to consist of neutrinos, which just don't interact with normal matter that we know of.

 

A better approach might be to use an artificial singularity or singularities (micro black holes) to act as a space lens, bending the substance of space so as to funnel dark matter into a reaction chamber where a fusion reaction or something similar could be used to accelerate it. As I recall, the Romulins in Star Trek did something like this, although I'm not sure how they were able to compensate for the added mass of the singularity that needed to be accelerated with the spaceship.

 

I was surprised that anyone considered this political... I don't see it that way at all. In fact, it seemed very non-political to me, because what little political description there was seemed solidly grounded in fact. I only saw two things that might be construed as slightly political (but also unavoidable, and no reason to avoid them). One is regarding China's corruption, and that is exceedingly well grounded in fact. The other is approaching the UN, which I felt would be a reasonable assumption for an Alien to make under the circumstances.

 

I couldn't agree more. The one other possibility was in that I slighted India, which is the second most populous country in the world with it's one billion people, but then India's bitter rival, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country. There just was no way to represent all nations fairly, other than through the U.N.

[TheGreyFrost.HW]

Really good story Altimexis. Looking forward to more of your other work.

[Guest snoopdogggg]

While I enjoyed the general plot and the creativity that went into this story (just think, the Cereneans might be taking over the universe right now!), emotions and personalities of the characters were sadly lacking. The main character seemed to dictate this story as if it were a report for history: just the facts. Lansley reported everything very rationally, which made for clear, but dry, entertainment. Instead of raging or becoming depressed and bitter at the loss of his "true love," he continues to 'speak' with the same calm tone, even helping to further plan Cerenean genocide after implying that nothing was worth doing anymore. All of the characters are 2-dimensional; for example, all we know about Steve is that he is gay. Is that reason enough to love/be loved by Lansley?

[Altimexis]

While I enjoyed the general plot and the creativity that went into this story (just think, the Cereneans might be taking over the universe right now!), emotions and personalities of the characters were sadly lacking. The main character seemed to dictate this story as if it were a report for history: just the facts. Lansley reported everything very rationally, which made for clear, but dry, entertainment. Instead of raging or becoming depressed and bitter at the loss of his "true love," he continues to 'speak' with the same calm tone, even helping to further plan Cerenean genocide after implying that nothing was worth doing anymore. All of the characters are 2-dimensional; for example, all we know about Steve is that he is gay. Is that reason enough to love/be loved by Lansley?

 

Thanks for your feedback, Pardlee. I think you're absolutely right. I was trying to make Lansley more analytical than humans - more scientific and detached - even though he clearly was capable of love. Different cultures behave and think differently, and one cannot get more different than an alien culture. Even in humans, however, I have known a number of people with this type of personality. Obviously I missed the mark in conveying that this was just the way Lansley is.

 

Regarding the characters being 2-dimensional, I was told after writing my first novel that my characters were 1-dimensional, so this is an improvement! Seriously, however, this was an incredibly long short story, clocking in at over 30k words by the time I finished the fist draft. That was long enough to make it a novella, but I wrote the story specifically for the anthology and wanted it included anyway, so I cut a lot of material and got it down to about 27k - still very long for a short story, but not too long to be included. Unfortunately, a lot of what was cut were the personal details that bring characters to life. For example, there was a scene at the end in the original where Lansley takes Steve back to his apartment in Atlanta, where he finds a very erotic, nude sketch of himself on Lansley's wall. Lansley had taken up art as a way of dealing with his loss, but that was cut from the story.

 

This was a plot-driven story - not a character-driven one. In contrast, please take a look at my story, A Fish Out of Water, which was my novella contest entry and is very much character-driven. That is not to say that a story can't be both, but character development wasn't all that important in this one. I think you missed the point entirely if you think Lansley fell in love with Steve because he was gay. Lansley came from a culture where everyone was gay. That Lansley fell in love with a boy rather than a girl was because Lorans are much more boy-like than girl-like in physical appearance and equipment. The main reason, however, that Lansley and Steve fell in love with each other was because they really liked each other. Lansely himself stated this in the story - they clicked. Steve's being gay only came into it because he wouldn't have been attracted to Lansley if he were attracted to girls instead.

[Canuk]

great story - and I am no sci-fi buff in any sense of the word! I thought the way you captured the initial interaction betweeen earth and Lansley was great - I feel the only thing that stopped parts of earth blowing the Loren Lansley off Mars was the impeding invasion. I feel that when in some future time we do meet other life forms there will be an overwhelming urge to kill them first, ask questions later.

 

I'll admit to glossing the sex - i accept that "sex-with-aliens" can be great, and Lansley and Steve worked things out well - I am just too squeamish though to read the details. I did love the description of masturbation!

 

congratulations - great story well written.

[ricky]

While I enjoyed the general plot and the creativity that went into this story (just think, the Cereneans might be taking over the universe right now!), emotions and personalities of the characters were sadly lacking. The main character seemed to dictate this story as if it were a report for history: just the facts. Lansley reported everything very rationally, which made for clear, but dry, entertainment. Instead of raging or becoming depressed and bitter at the loss of his "true love," he continues to 'speak' with the same calm tone, even helping to further plan Cerenean genocide after implying that nothing was worth doing anymore. All of the characters are 2-dimensional; for example, all we know about Steve is that he is gay. Is that reason enough to love/be loved by Lansley?

 

I agree and disagree. I think that Lansley by definition came from a very 2D race by comparison. Proof of that lies in the fact that they lacked strife or social differences. Those things that make us diverse also make us colorful, passionate and driven. It is also makes us more 3D. Since this was largely told in the first person it would seem appropriate for Lansley to be 2D. Rage was not something they had known in his society. They knew fear, love and complacency. His entire society, if you will were rowing the same direction. With that type of co-operation, very little governmental intervention was required. I think that would make his perception of events very 2D as well. I think he fell in love with Steve as a love of opportunity through a desperation in need. I think Steve could have been female and they would have been equally satisfying.

 

I think it was marvelous that he tasted like Chocolate and us like what ever that was and I am big on smells. Some people just smell delicious and others are a reminder of why we have perfumes in the first place. So I enjoyed that distinction a lot.

 

I thought it was an exceptional piece. A clear winner if ever I have read one. I think I would enjoy reading more sci-fi from you if you have it within you. Your ability to create other world characters is unique. (I liked how his lips were above so Steve could easily bottom and still be pleasured using ALL of his available equipment at the same time.) Your ability to flesh such creatures with a believable human persona is fantastic.

 

In short, well done! But as with any spectacular piece you hate to see end, all too short.

Cheers,

Ricky