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Lots of...
Politics and bickering... Guess I shouldn't be surprised - Jessica is in DC for goodness sakes! A lot of interesting angles in this chapter and it's as I would expect - serious stuff needs to be decided. Enjoyed this chapter!
Hugz!
Rachel M. Moore
Don’t forget . . .
. . . strutting and chest-thumping, too! Put enough hooo-mans in your menagerie, and you’ll see some weird shit, that’s for sure. But some fine moments as well. ;-)
— Emma
One of my favorite episodes
Talos 4 was forbidden, but to Captain Pike, it meant freedom. And you mention Catherd in one of your stories? I guess we know the pecking order of your commentators, my dear Emma. lol. Give them the whole kit and kaboodle of our U235! Finally, we get to a group of people that actually use their brains. I wonder how many will volunteer to visit the aliens or possibly go away with them?? Another fascinating chapter, Emma. Getting something done in less than a week in Washington, now that is stretching our imagination. I wondered about the future of our two heroines. Surely no more college teaching, perhaps a road trip, courtesy of the Aliens??
DeeDee
I liked Pike better!
I wonder how the show would have fared, if they’d stuck with Boy Scout Pike rather than daring Kirk? I really should watch his show now that he has one!
Do not, please, read anything into my slipping friend Catherd’s name into the dialogue— Not all of us have such evocative handles! We have shepherds and goat herds and everyone uses herding cats as a simile, so . . . .
Glad you enjoyed the chapter, Dee!
— Emma
We’re all just chickens
Regardless of pecking order.
Regarding “catherd,” I recall being surprised it was not already taken when I signed up here. But we can’t even suggest; best is to distract. Laser pointers work especially well. A hall full of PhDs at conference will swivel their heads to follow, every time.
Back to chickens, let’s not forget the gem that Angharad once shared: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/apr/1...
OMG
Thank you for aiming your laser-pointer at Angharad’s gem. Made my morning!
— Emma
this group looks promising
having a science fiction writer or two will add an excellent perception to things . . .
So, here’s the question . . . .
If you could pick any Science Fiction writer to have in that room, who would it be? I think I’d be torn between Larry Niven and Ursula LeGuin (so, obviously, you don’t have to be restricted to living writers). Kind of fun to think about!
— Emma
Writer
Well Duh, you are using ST puns and ol' Gene is not even the first to appear on your list of people to be involved? Tsk tsk. And he wrote Menagerie as it turns out!
I suppose I should have been more specific!
If I wanted to have a rollicking good time, for sure I’d want him there. But if — like Aguia — I wanted someone who might provide good insights on what a truly alien species might be like? That’d be different. :D
— Emma
Okay
Then Assimov should still be in he mix then. The Gods Themselves has a most creative insight into a very different form of alien life on another universe. And it involves a very interesting form of 'trade'.
I Would Add
Jerry Pournelle and Steve Stirling.
Madeleine L’Engle
For the Northampton connection, at least.
A town which had a cool mayor, I allege.
Writers
I’d love to be in a jam session with Niven and Pournelle hearing them talk about aliens. The stuff they came up with together! I’m not familiar with Sirling — What I’m seeing on Amazon looks interesting. I don’t usually think of Asimov as delving into aliens, but I didn’t read all of his works. And, lord knows, he had an amazing mind. Finally . . . Madeleine L’Engel — I remember loving her “Wrinkle in Time” books when I read them, but that was so very long ago that I barely remember the plot. She did aliens, too? That would be fun!
— Emma
I’m surprised
…that nobody has mentioned Philip K Dick.
I’m going to take a nap and dream of electric sheep.
☠️
You got me there!
Everyone knows the name . . . But I don’t think I’ve read any of his books. Janet would be so disappointed. . . .
— Emma
Arthur C Clarke
Does that show my age?
Certainly not!
Since Sir Arthur is timeless!
Besides, if I said ‘yes,’ I’d be showing my age!
— Emma
I'm sorry, but I'd nix Clarke
Poor Arthur Clarke, in the circumstances of this story, would be (by his own admission) unable to tell the difference between "magic" and "sufficiently advanced techology." I think that alone would disqualify the man. Quite apart from his being dead.
Can you imagine the poor guy, turning the soda-can/battery over and over in his hands, wondering whether it was an artifact escaped from the Ministry of Magic.
This chapter is a blast, particularly in contrast to the previous chapter -- I mean that the conversation on the golf course was interesting because only intelligent people were talking. In today's case, it's not quite that way, to put it mildly. The intelligent people have to struggle to even keep the conversation on track. "The Menagerie," indeed!
This line, I loved: A mere grammarian would have been appalled. As a linguist, I found it all rather charming. I would call that line magic, if I weren't afraid of befuddling poor Sir Arthur!
And by the way, I liked Aguia as soon as he appeared.
hugs,
- iolanthe
Linguistics
One of the things that was fun about writing this was that linguistics is to grammar what advanced calculus is to basic arithmetic. We hear “linguist” and think we’re dealing with an officer in the grammar police. Jessica is, and gets to be, so much more than that.
So glad you liked this chapter. It’s challenging to make a round of meetings interesting — because in reality, they aren’t remotely. But they are good for character studies, and I’ve had at least some real-world experience with people who were like each of the characters in this chapter.
Thank you, as always, for the nice comment.
— Emma
Let Me Add David Brin...
Very clever, has written essays and led discussions about similar situations. What's more, he's actually done this stuff. From his online bio:
Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. He has served since 2010 on the council of external advisers for NASA's Innovative and Advanced Concepts group (NIAC), which supports the most inventive and potentially ground-breaking new endeavors.
Eric
I wanna be him when I grow up!
Seriously, what a fabulous bio!
— Emma
Sci-fi writers
Robert A. Heinlein - Annapolis graduate, the acknowledged Dean of Science Fiction. David Drake - Armor, Vietnam veteran, author of Hammer's Slammers. Both blessed with exceptional and unconventional imaginations.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Good picks!
I’d count “Mike” in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as an alien, even though he was technically AI. Heinlein’s portrayal of the character was deeply nuanced and compelling.
I haven’t read enough David Drake. I absolutely loved the Belisarius series he did with Eric Flint, which involved some interesting and chilling aliens. Couldn’t recommend it highly enough.
— Emma
Food for thought . . . .
I went noodling around for best aliens in SciFi, and stumbled on a short list compiled by SciFi author C.S. Friedman, who wrote This Alien Shore. Read the list and — more — her descriptions of the books. They sound fascinating, and they are largely authors I haven’t read. It brought home to me the fact that, like Jessica James, I need to read more. :D
https://shepherd.com/best-books/aliens-in-science-fiction
— Emma
If only they would ask the
If only they would ask the aliens how much U235 they wanted, but that might spoil the punchline.
Atoms of U235 in 1 kg or 2.2 lb.
1 mol contains 234 grams.
so 1kg contain 1000/234moles i.e 4.25 moles
1 mol contain 6.023*10^23 atoms.
so 4.25 moles contain 4.25*6.023*10^23 atoms = 2.56*10^24 atoms.
or 2.56 Trillion Trillion atoms
So it is quite possible that all they want or need is just a pinch of U235 or a microgram or 2.56 Thousand Trillion atoms.
D
Excellent!
I like your analysis! “Would madam care to sample our premium perfume? So very rare! So refined! With just the barest hint — the merest suggestion — of highly enriched uranium. Oh, darling, it’s to die for!”
— Emma
Awesome calculations!
It will be interesting to see what the aliens actually want. They may just want a couple of cups of the uranium and take Jessica as a research specimen.
Kidnapping . . .
. . . is against the rules. James had to tell the aliens that back in chapter one. Of course, they could invite her to come . . . .
— Emma
Another marvellous episode
…in which the dialogue crackles and the narrative moves along so smoothly that the fortunate reader hardly notices, probably because they’re laughing too much at the author’s skilful wordplay.
And you have excelled yourself this week, Emma. The radio exchanges on the short drive into DC managed to combine verbal dexterity, brilliance and hilarity. And I for one hadn’t heard greige-on-greige before either.
Something I’ve been pondering for a couple of weeks now regarding the forthcoming negotiations, if that’s what they’re going to be. All the thinking by the earthlings - to make the key distinction - is based not just on earthbound assumptions, but on western ones too, so firmly capitalist ones as well. That’s not to suggest that they should be communist, they don’t have to be binary, but locking them into such a narrow straitjacket is surely fraught with all sorts of dangers for both parties.
It’s entirely possible that the only reason that the aliens have been prepared to consider the notion of trade is because it gives a shared vocabulary, whereas it may well be a concept that’s completely unknown in their culture and they are simply humouring or tolerating the lesser culture.
In other words, the earthlings haven’t got the first clue as to how to deal with an infinitely more sophisticated culture, and if they allow capitalist barbarians like Britt and almost anyone else from the US administration anywhere near them, only disaster awaits.
General Aguia and Jessica alone can save this shitshow.
☠️
Good thinking!
It’s a bit like physical appearance. No one knows what the aliens actually look like, because they’ve created an illusion of being human to facilitate communications. No one knows all that much about the alien’s society, because they are trying to obtain something from us, and are filtering their request through their own distillation of our media transmissions from fifty years ago (which were dominated by the west). Also, their species must have contact with other species from out of their own system, since they developed rules about interactions . . . .
— Emma
The burning question is how much U235 do they want?
On one hand, they could get rid of everything they can. On the other hand, maybe the aliens only want a couple of kilos of it. I guess we won't know until we ask them. Or when Jessica asks them. It does seem everything is coming together.
Kilos
Well, play their cards right in this trade, the aliens may come back to do a further trade so keep some stock on hand. Luckily U235 has a very long half life.
The big downside
Is that we aren’t close neighbors. If we saw more of them any time soon, it wouldn’t be this crew or this ship.
— Emma
True
Hopefully they can improve their FTL though, right? A technological advance on their part would change the rules of the game, must allow for that.
Anyway, in the mean time, considering the source material for their First Contact, it is lucky they do not want to trade for the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
BUT . . .
. . . They might have already gotten it from Marvin when they did their survey of the rest of our Solar System following Chapter One!!!
— Emma
Marvin
*Gulp* And now Earth just happens to be blocking the Aliens' view of Venus at the moment.
The answer may turn . . .
. . . On whether they want it for their own use, or to take back to their own civilization.
— Emma
Other
It will hinge on the dose needed. Can the U235 be recycled. If it can be filtered from their 'urine' (or whatever) much like antibiotics can from human urine then other than unavoidable incidental losses than this could last an amazingly long time or not, depending on the population level of their civilization which could literally have trillions and trillions, maybe even quadrillions of people over multiple star systems, population centers, O'Neil cylinders, what have you. If the U235 is fissioned during their fusion, so to speak, then their need would be immensely greater.
For that level of population, 90 tons (I assume we are talking US short tons, not metric or imperial tons, or long tons etc) is not a huge quantity in either scenario as even HEU is about 20% U235 so we are talking about 18 tons or so of U235 minus the inconsequential loss due to decay as they take their booty home. BTW, a little googling seems to mention weapons grade is only 10% and above so it is important to know the exact percentage the aliens want.
So, a first contact team may be able to get to know them a bit better and would possibly inform the offer. It is unfortunate there are no Anthropologists of Theoretical Xenosociologists in this meeting. I only took an introductory anthropology course and even the variances in human traditions and behaviors are breathtaking in their variety. I doubt an anthropologist would even blink at any practices the aliens would share.
Call me Ishmael moment
Just don't call her Shirley :P
A little googling tells me Prof Wainwright should be teaching at Smith College in real life.
Lots of Ivory Towers
Lots of colleges in that part of the world. They wouldn’t even notice another one!
— Emma
True
Smith is nestled inside of Northampton itself and is the most famous, just saying. Amherst is not far away either, I know.
Northampton
…the real one, that is, is famous as the home of shoemaking and hosts the largest outdoor marketplace in England. It has also contrived, by various accidents of planning and geography, to be absent from both the motorway and trunk railway networks, and is therefore one of the largest towns in the country that isn’t really anywhere.
☠️
Northampton
…the real one, that is, is famous as the home of shoemaking and hosts the largest outdoor marketplace in England. It has also contrived, by various accidents of planning and geography, to be absent from both the motorway and trunk railway networks, and is therefore one of the largest towns in the country that isn’t really anywhere.
☠️
Well of COURSE it’s somewhere
I mean, isn’t it north of Hampton? Honestly, though, if the area was exploitable in any commercial way, don’t you think the Romans would have built a road there? And if they had, you just know you’d still be using it!
— Emma
If Jessica is Ishmael
…who’s Queequeg?
And, much more pertinently, who’s Ahab?
☠️
It's Who you Know
Government is a BIG black hole operating like English grammar. Rules and laws upon rules and laws with a sub culture of operations and graft. The dark underbelly of the Beast is suspected by many. Knowing how to get there for one's own devise is known only by a few.
Emma may have wrote this chapter tongue in cheek but there is so much hidden undercurrent in what is there, she was part of that world. Or if she wasn't I owe her my deepest apologies as I accused her without proof, only suspicion. This chapter was absolutely hilarious because I was thinking "spoof" all the way through it. Names and places changed to protect the innocent, Emma?
Hugs Emma
Barb
When we finally know everything is when we realize we know nothing.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Spoof?
Oh, I don’t know about that, Barb!
I firmly believe, as Churchill said, that democracy is the worst form of government, until you consider the alternatives. It’s difficult for it to be much better than the citizens who do the voting but — and this is important— it also can’t be too much worse for any length of time, because the voters eventually get disgusted and throw the bums out. Our government would be better if our system was more democratic than it is, IMHO.
Anyhow, gummint is people, and people can be petty and pompous, turfy, persnickety, chest-thumpy, passive aggressive. . . and magnanimous, clear-thinking, ingenious, insightful. . . . You name it. So we get everyone from “George Santos” to Abraham Lincoln, and everything from Teapot Dome to the disastrous “war on drugs” to . . . The James Webb Space Telescope. Ain’t humanity grand?
— Emma
Oh — meant to add
The names of the DOE contingent weren’t changed. I borrowed them wholesale, to make an obscure joke. There is one thing that could turn them all, in an instant, into the best of friends. But alas, no one thought to tell them. ;-)
— Emma
Dogs
So Luther is using the president as Britt's dog keeper? *giggles* Nice.
>“And I’ve got real doubts about your doubts,”
That's a dangerous construct, because it can answered by the "opponent" with: "And I’ve got real doubts about your doubts about my doubts”. Ad infinitum. (In theory). Because it stops when 1 of the participants dies (of old age at the latest). >:->
> Aguia smiled. “Cats, you see? ,[...]"
You know what they say about cats and curiosity? ;-)
> “Here’s your ‘call me Ishmael’ moment.”
Does that mean that Jessica'll be the only one to survive this whole mess? ;-) Though then she'd have to tell the tale 1 more time to get the quote right. :-)
Thx for another nice chapter^^
Infinite are the arguments of lawyers . . . .
I’m guessing Corbin will drop the hammer on the pair of them before they get ten doubts in to their argument. But we won’t see it, ‘cuz Jessica got herself booted from the meeting. Alas. ;-)
I’m positive Janet intends to be a survivor!
Glad you enjoyed the Chapter!
— Emma
"a catherd can, at most, suggest"
What is a catherd? Aside from somebody's name. Google was of absolutely no help, except to posit it as a surname.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
A "catherd" is someone who
A "catherd" is someone who leaves comments in some of the stories here. :-D
Google may not have helped you on "catherd"
but both Wikis I have accessed have an adequate explanation. "An idiom denoting a futile attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are inherently uncontrollable" is their explanation which puts it as (or more) succinctly than I could. This side of the pond the expression is used sufficiently often, to not require an explanation by the user.
The Break is C-A-T...
...not c-a-t-h.
So a catherd is someone (generally human) attempting to move a group of independent-minded felines in a particular direction.
Eric
Catherds
And, of course, the annual championship for catherding is held in a different catherddral every year.
This year it will be in my home city, at York Meownster.
I’m here all week.
☠️
I have defeated Google!
My work on this earth is done! The more so, in that our wonderful open-sourced BC Community was able to do what all of Google’s algorithms could not.
— Emma
Now
I’m definitely, absolutely, deeply hooked. What’s next !?
Well . . . Let me think on that
I’m only half a chapter ahead of you!
Thanks, Max!
— Emma
Meetings
As someone who herds cats both at the office and at home...I would just like to say that the ones at home are infinitely cuter. And fuzzier.
I can also attest that many (most?) humans never grow up, some of us just get better at hiding it.
(I never want to grow up, because then if I did, I couldn't be a Toys-R-Us kid!)
Great dialog again, Emma!
Thanks, Erisian!
I promise, our heroes will — eventually— escape from conference rooms!
— Emma
Rapid-fire wit
I can now attest that the rapid-fire wit in these exchanges are indeed dizzying...especially when loaded with anti-sinusitis meds!
Yet still great fun, even with the brain sploshing about trying to keep up with the wonderful linguistic volleys!