Colony Ship, a Story

[CavLancer]

Lets write a book, I'll edit it. No experience with that so you can advise me on it. My decisions as the thread starter are final however.

A rough outline...

The parameter is that a colony ship is discovered by an amateur astronomer. The ship approaches Earth and slows down using an unknown propulsion system. It settles into a stable Earth orbit. The nations of the world react with alarm, what do 'they' want? On and on it goes as days turn to weeks and months. After several months the US, China, Russia, and whoever else can patch together a vehicle and get it into orbit decide to go check it out. Each independently, each secretly, using whatever systems they have or can resurrect. Its huge, but nothing found seems to be for the purpose of keeping anyone out. No alien activity is uncovered, very perplexing. So the humans from various nations easily get inside airlocks at various locations on the enormous hull and find that all the aliens are dead, and its later determined the cause is radiation, perhaps a gamma ray burst, who cares say various world leaders, its here. They obviously came here because the Earth is like their world in many ways. The atmosphere inside the ship is similar to Earth's. The Cemetery Ship, as its being called, is a treasure trove of advanced technology. The various powers of Earth begin competing for techs which could give them power over each other here on Earth. The aliens did not set out without weapons. In time fighting breaks out on The Cemetery Ship, as humans now join the aliens in death. As nations face nations in a free fall free for all in Earth orbit the situation on this planet becomes unstable...

So. Any questions? Any writers out there?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I see a problem: There is this alien civilization advanced enough to build an interstelar colony ship but too stupid to realize that radiation was going to be a major issue, something even us, a relatively primitive bunch, can easily predict. It would be better if aliens died for unknown reasons and leave it like that, or maybe unveil the mistery to the end of the novel, where we learn that the aliens died of boredom!

 

[CavLancer]

Gamma ray burst though. Chance is very small, but if it happens you die. Advanced or not.

 

[Winner]

Have you read Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama by any chance?

 

[Core Imposter]

Obviously a divide and conquer tactic by the aliens. A Trojan horse of a sort. My freedumb loving militia group are now plotting to sneak aboard and blow it up to remove the threat to world harmony.

While we are at it we plan on borrowing a bit of the technology so that we can snatch some West Wing DNA and determine once and for all time who the lizard people really are.

And where they were really born...yada, yada, yada.

 

[Spidernova]

My suggestion is that rather than "an unknown propulsion system" how about going off something like project orion? Or at least stick it in the story somewhere

 

[Gucumatz]

Couldn't an exploding Supernova send off gamma ray bursts? Maybe a burst's fringes affected the ship killing off these things and eventually you could have it that people discover this gamma ray is still moving and will reach earth and destroy everything eventually. With this in tact, the race could move from a race for a competition of technology, to a competition of ownership of this alien lifeboat. But like this supernova isn't discovered until the end, so the beginning could be an examination of human dynamics/competition for technology and information - and then to see how this cultivated information is utilized to save humanity from mother nature, but fail as competition while useful in the end if its blind can ignore impending peril... like the Supernova.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

In such case the ship should have traveled faster than light in order to arrive to Earth before supernova radiation.

 

[Gucumatz]

Every decent sci-fi movie has some version of lightspeed/a hyperdrive, so I don't see why not

 

[Perfection]

A few thoughts:
One potential plot twist is the alien ship is in fact a test of humanity...
Open violence may not be fun as alleged cooperation with lots of back-biting. Artifacts being lost, astronauts dying under mysterious circumstances. A breakdown of planetary unity as power mongering becomes too great a temptation.
Private space ventures could also play a pivotal role.

 

[peter grimes]

Have you read Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama by any chance?

The best of the series IMHO. I didn't even bother finishing the 3rd one.

 

[Hygro]

The best of the series IMHO. I didn't even bother finishing the 3rd one.

Probably because that was the only one written by Clarke ;D

 

[warpus]

I think it would have been cool if the alien ship was attacked by another alien ship, and that's why it was so beat up and full of dead aliens.

That then adds another mysterious adversary for the sequel.

 

[peter grimes]

District 9?

 

[CavLancer]

Have you read Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama by any chance?

Yes, forgot about that. Maybe it was what planted the seed. The other books were the pits...

Spidernova, project Orion could work. One thing though is I want there to be reasons to turn this huge ship into a battlefield. The # 1 reason is the need that each nation has in our world to achieve a tech edge over potential enemy nations. So, I thought it best if we could pull some plausible sounding device out of our imaginations or better yet leave it to the imaginations of the readers. That way the propulsion system could become a goal, something to fight over.

Perfection, I see the ship as a high effort by an advanced but still in our ball park race of aliens trying to achieve a tremendous goal the nature of which was lost with them. The notion that an alien race gives a rats arse about humanity...enough to build a colony ship to test us with, is far fetched imo. All they have to do is watch the news if they want to know us. If humanity were to build such a ship with our tech, perhaps using project Orion propulsion, we might build it to escape a great calamity coming to Earth, such as a wandering gas giant. A show I saw on youtube proposed a neutron star approaching our solar system. So perhaps the aliens wanted to escape, or maybe they wanted to expand their race to a planet like their own so they came here, to a planet like their own, Earth. That way the atmosphere of the vessel could be breathable. Also that way the aliens could still exist on their planet and could send a second ship for a sequel. I like the breakdown of cooperation idea. The effort to get up there would certainly have cooperation among the democracies, while China and Russia would be doing their own thing. A Japanese effort is certainly possible and I imagine they might go their own way too. India could likely get up there eventually... Ancient animosities would go with them all. Japanese vs Chinese, Russians vs everybody, the West deciding the ecology found on the ship must be preserved to please the greenies while really looking for weapons, and the Chinese deciding the orbital characteristics mean the ship belongs to them and everyone else has to get off. During all this there is a clandestine effort to learn about and possess alien tech which would give an advantage. With beef fed boys competing in space fighting must erupt, we're humans.

One thing I want to avoid like the plague in this is some deeper social meaning about us. Any reference to the aliens destroying their ship ecology by burning CO freakin 2 will be flushed. Any alien racial disputes will be nixed. A potential wiz kid child star role will be axed. It aint about us.

Private space ventures would be folded into the national effort. At best they would be paid to take payloads. In fact that's the way we'll go. That way we can get some hotshots carrying troops and scientists up and alien stuff back.

warpus, I really had to think about that, and its not bad at all. A second alien race attacks the alien ship in space and an epic battle erupts which is frozen in time by the death caused by the GRB. Might be interesting mystery as the ship is explored by humans.

Btw a GRB could easily do the trick. A GRB could kill a planet, no problem, wipe out all life. The ship would have no chance of outrunning it or even knowing its coming, they would just be dead. These things are flashing across our universe and if you happen to be standing in the beam when the light comes on, oh well.

From wiki: "No known process in the Universe can produce this much energy in such a short time. Rather, gamma-ray bursts are thought to be highly focused explosions, with most of the explosion energy collimated into a narrow jet traveling at speeds exceeding 99.995% of the speed of light.[65]"

Thorgalaeg, the GRB doesn't have to arrive at Earth at all as that would make it a short story. It could hit the ship 'sideways on' if you will and that's the end of that, it just continues on its merry way.

Gucumatz suggested this: "Couldn't an exploding Supernova send off gamma ray bursts? Maybe a burst's fringes affected the ship killing off these things and eventually you could have it that people discover this gamma ray is still moving and will reach earth and destroy everything eventually. With this in tact, the race could move from a race for a competition of technology, to a competition of ownership of this alien lifeboat."

Its an interesting idea from a great imagination. However the GRB could not have caught up to the ship from behind and then arrived after the ship. Also, stories like Battlestar Gallactica which wipe out their home world as an early dramatic plot twist really limit their later options. At that point all they had to do was run. So, while I like the twist of needing the ship as a lifeboat, nah.

District 9?

 

[Perfection]

[Wiki]District 9[/WIKI] (it's awesome)

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Gamma ray burst though. Chance is very small, but if it happens you die. Advanced or not.

I'd imagine a gamma ray burst would've been strong enough to destroy the ship itself instead of just killing all the aliens.

 

[CavLancer]

Thanks!

 

[CavLancer]

I'd imagine a gamma ray burst would've been strong enough to destroy the ship itself instead of just killing all the aliens.

Think neutron bomb. Kills everything, leaves the structures intact.

 

[Perfection]

How do you intend the narrative style to be? Will there be a central character? What sort of themes do you want to explore with the book?