 On October 19, 2017, our Solar System was visited by the first interstellar object that we could detect. Named Oumuamua (‘scout’ in Hawaiian), it gained almost immediate attention because its unusual traits. It has been the subject of debate and speculation, with some wondering if Earth had a near encounter (thirty three million kilometers – close by cosmic standards) with an alien spacecraft.
The arrival of a mysterious object is frequently seen in SF, famously in the case of Arthur C. Clarke’s classic Rendezvous with Rama. In it, the titular object, dubbed Rama by astronomers, turns out to be not a natural body but rather an alien spacecraft with a hollow interior serving as a mini world. Like Rama, Oumuamua has some peculiar traits that make it stand out among its siblings. For one, it’s rather cylindrical (up to a kilometer in length with a height and width of several hundred meters). Although Oumuamua has been theorized by some to be some sort of cometary fragment, observations have not detected any of the associated outgassing. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Oumuamua is that it’s accelerating away from our system. The scientific community has several postulations to explain this behavior (one is that radiation from the Sun could be pushing it away like a solar sail), while the community of laymen and alien enthusiasts are having an explosion of enthusiasm and curiosity. The way that Oumuamua garnered attention – especially via social media – helped it work its way into the public’s mind. Astronomers remind us that several interstellar objects might pass through out System every year without being detected. And although it’s leaving us for good, the international space exploration community has not ruled out the possibility of future missions to the curious object. Your story might take a curious case like Oumuamua’s and use it as a jumping off point. Maybe we do make a rendezvous, and maybe we’re shocked by what we find. Maybe this ‘scout’ was merely the first of many visitors, and a harbinger of something to come… Jonathan Hernandez  Parasitic lifeforms can affect their hosts in a number of strange (and sometimes even ghoulish) ways. They can alter the appearance or behavior of their hosts – even forcing them to do things that would otherwise be harmful (IE a fungus that turns ants into “zombies”). A curious species of barnacle (Loxothylacus panopaei) attaches itself to crabs, hijacking their reproductive organs and forcing them to bear barnacle larvae (male crabs are not immune). The parasites affect things such as the crab’s immune system and molting cycles as the larvae reproduce. Things like sex, sexuality, and reproductive rights are hotbed topics. There are hosts of ethical dilemmas and questions that we can think of if a similar phenomenon were applied to human hosts. In Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, even human males can become a “mother” to alien lifeforms. They may, for whatever reason, actually prefer human hosts and turned us into a race of brood mares. What if a male was forced to reproduce or perform functions ordinarily assigned to another gender? What if a species would go extinct without a host? What if a human wanted to be the mother of an alien, and (if properly compensated) was able to turn it into a lucrative arrangement. Jonathan Hernandez   As more extrasolar planets are discovered (and more of them looking terrestrial or even earthlike), the odds of finding alien life seem promising. Given the hundred billion plus stars in our galaxy, and the hundreds of billions of galaxies in our universe, there may be uncountable civilizations out there. However, if the universe is swarming with life, and if a significant percentage of that life is intelligent, why is the universe so quiet? This is the essential conundrum behind the Fermi paradox; the observation that while intelligent alien life may be statistically or even astronomically high, it is utterly devoid of signs of life. There may be a number of reasons behind this great silence. It could be that humans haven’t been listening long enough or know what to look for. Civilizations could have fell in their infancy after the intelligent species went extinct. They might have killed themselves in a planetwide war or got wiped out by asteroids. One eerie possibility is that something or someone is out there culling the numbers. Speculative fiction often depicts unmanned alien probes sent to explore space and seek out signs of intelligence. One, the so-called Von Neumann probe (named after the mathematician John Neumann) self-replicates in order to seed itself throughout the universe. One popular and less friendly variant of the alien probe concept has also become a trope. After finding proof of intelligence (usually through some kind of test), a doomsday weapon type of probe could promptly annihilate that life – leaving one less intelligent race in the universe. An interpretation of the concept was central to the Berserker series of Fred Saberhagen. The creators of such a probe could be as advanced as they are cruel. Perhaps the protagonists rush to answer a series of riddles like the mythical sphinx in the hopes of getting a reward. Maybe it’s armed with an array of powerful and advanced weapons that the military thinks they can disarm and reverse engineer. Perhaps it even has some form of intelligence and, at the zero hour, spares its target out of sympathy. Jonathan Hernandez  |
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Speculative Fact contributions are researched and written by Jonathan Hernandez and Rob Cameron
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Just in time for Halloween!
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