| AA Institute of Space Science & Technology |
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Copyright © 2004-2005 by Abdul Ahad. All intellectual property rights on this movie script, the proposed motion picture to be made therefrom and the spaceflight concept depicted herein are fully reserved by the author under contract with his literary management agents in the United Kingdom. Any sharing of this work is only permitted for personal, non-profit and educational use. 
[Above picture credit: www.solarvoyager.com] Redirecting to the ads-free version... "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" [A motion picture screenplay by A. Ahad] The ultimate dream adventure awaiting humanity... 
On a voyage spanning 50,000 years, the Centauri Princess's lonely occupants experience a series of psychologically disturbing nightmares induced by the cosmic darkness all around the ship... Inside the colossal sized vessel, a small-town community enjoys a totally Earth-like livelihood with thousands of acres of picturesque pine forests, "exotic" weather and a river that is seen to meander its way across the "sky" flowing from horizon to horizon... In the vast emptiness stretching out beyond our solar system, a mining expedition despatched from the ship encounters mysterious revelations on an ice world... At journey's end, the 2,000th generation from Earth eventually gets greeted by the warm sunshine coming from three suns...Read the one page synopsis here first [recommended] and the mission's scientific rationale and blueprint here. Remember to read the FAQ page, where all the background details are covered. This horror/sci-fi motion picture will guarantee a degree of originality, depth and realism never before portrayed in Hollywood science fiction!
A motion picture experience not to be missed...
2250 AD. The future of the Earth's natural ecosystem and biosphere is now under serious threat with most of the species of plants and animals facing mass extinction. Vast regions of our planet's northern hemisphere, in places like India, China and Canada have been turned into desert as a result of forests being cut down, excessive industrial CO2 emissions, etc. over the past few hundred years. Northern Europe experiences monsoon type rains and thunder storms with extensive flooding, whereas southern half of Africa and the Australian outback are hit by blizzards and snow storms. Science and technology have reached a peak and plateaued in new discoveries and developments in just about every field ranging from medicine, through physics, biotechnology and spaceflight advancements. With no viable sources of oil and gas left on the planet, humanity faces a massive energy crisis. Diseases like AIDS affect 80% of the world and the US and Europe are the only places left on the planet where there are still hopes for an average family to have a normal life. Attempts to create artificial viruses using nanotechnology via bioscience manipulations have back-fired big time, unleashing a new breed of 'super viruses' that threaten the future of the human race. In particular, the virus that causes AIDS has evolved into a more deadly, airborne form and its epidemic has reached colonies on the Moon and on Mars. The movie opens with scenes of a beautiful Earth (as it is today). First, as seen from space as a blue-white globe, then coming down to the surface, scenes depict deep blue oceans, lush green fields, blue skies and white fluffy clouds as seen on a perfect summer's day. Family life is briefly shown, and people enjoying a happy day to day lifestyle. Birds, animals, trees, flowers, all reflect a beautiful planet with no cares for tomorrow... [Then a 'fast forward' effect takes us to the futuristic 2250 AD scene (as described above)]. [Screen caption reads '2250 AD'] (All screen captions are in greenish-blue coloured text which is animated as a ticker, one letter at a time appearing on the screen) Brief, flash images from around the globe portray the scale of damage to the Earth's natural ecosystem. The movie then focuses briefly on a World Health Organisation seminar, where leaders from around the globe discuss the world's AIDS, Ebola, Hepatitis, SARS and other super-viruses that have recently emerged to see the end of our species. The next scene briefly focuses on a World Space Agency (WSA) seminar, where officials discuss the spreading of critical diseases to bases on the Moon and Mars (incidentally, the WSA is envisioned to be a future amalgam of our present day global space agencies like NASA, European Space Agency, Chinese Space Agency, etc). The third scene gets longer exposure, where a United Nations committee meeting debates whether to build a 'cosmic ark' of some kind in one last effort to spread humanity across the universe, by sending a colony representing a section of the ailing planet Earth to safety in a neighbouring solar system. "Look, we see all these problems coming our way and yet we just sit around and do nothing?", says a proponent. "The politicians control the flow of things around here and you'll never persuade them." says an opponent. "I say screw the politicians. After all these billions of years of successful evolution of life on this planet, all the way from simple living organisms to us. As far as we know, this is the only planet in the entire god damn universe where life has evolved to this height. There are clear signs that we stand every chance of losing a big chunk of our spaceflight capabilities over coming decades. That then leaves us every bit vulnerable to face destruction right here on Earth, before we had the opportunity to launch a single part of human society to safety on one of the countless far off worlds we see glittering across our night sky. If we take the risks now and the worst should happen, how much of a tragedy would that look from a universal standpoint?" remarks another proponent. Eventually the tide of opinion swings in favour of the proponents and a United Nations emergency council meeting gives the World Space Agency go ahead and funding for a starship construction project which will take a 'clean' section of our planet and people to 'New Earth' - an Earth-like planet located in the habitable zone around one of the stars of the Alpha Centauri triple star system - the nearest solar system in space external to our own. [a complete cast of characters and appropriate filming locations inside large, stately buildings, will be required for the scenes described above] Chapter 2 - Creating a miniature Earth [Scene opens in 2275 AD, screen caption reads: '2275 AD. World Space Agency HQ, New York City'] Following a twenty five year orbital engineering program, the starship (named the "Centauri Princess") is finally declared ready by the World Space Agency. A 'starship assembly status' briefing is held at the World Space Agency (WSA) headquarters in New York. Twenty people, comprising a mixture of astronauts, engineers and other support personnel all working on the starship construction project gather around the table and listen to the plan being announced in the briefing by a senior WSA spokesperson:- "As you all know the Centauri Princess engineering program spanning the past 25 years is now finally nearing completion." He refers to a large presentation screen showing a cross sectional blueprint of the colossal sized vessel, revealing the various features engineered within its interior. ![An engineering schematic of the Centauri Princess starship - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://geocities.com/aa_institute1/centauri-princess.jpg)
Above: An engineering schematic of the Centauri Princess starship - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] "The Centauri Princess's interior measures six miles wide by nine miles long - a 'minitaure Earth' - and it has been designed to accommodate forests, people, plants and animals, all living side by side as one, self sustaining artificial biosphere and ecosystem. It more or less mirrors the kind of ecosystem we enjoy right here on Earth, except on a miniature scale. In light of the deteriorating environment on Earth, the ship is to be launched as humanity's first cosmic ark carrying a clean section of our planet to New Earth - a habitable planet astronomers have located orbiting one of the three stars making up our nearest neighbouring solar system of Alpha Centauri." "The mission concept is very much that of your quintessential generation starship, where a far future generation - our most distant descendants imaginable - will eventually reach New Earth. The ship will be self sufficient in every way, with the people living inside this miniature world recycling every possible resource; but fuel and water may require topping up by mining comets and icy planetoids found along the journey. Should this become necessary, much of that process will be handled by the robotic systems on the ship, but the process will need managing by the 'Mission Management Committee' (MMC)'s navigation and engineering teams. The starship's enormously complex, but fully robust, technology and all systems are currently being checked out for correct functioning in orbit around Earth. Latest status report confirms we'll be ready to depart in approximately 3 months from now." A senior member of the World Space Agency is delivering this briefing. He continues:- "The ship is powered and propelled using hybrid technologies utilising nuclear fission, fusion as well as chemical fuels, and will have an initial Earth-departure passenger and crew make up of 900 people. Of this 900, a Mission Management Committee (MMC) of 100 people will be in charge of separate functions such as medical, navigation, engineering, mining, ecology, environmental, and so on. The MMC will be headed by a starship president, elected through a democratic voting system. Passengers make up a mix of families with men, women and children of all professions and backgrounds that we have on Earth, from hair dressers to park rangers..." At the end of the briefing there's a short Q & A session. A medical student asks a question about likely medical facilities onboard the ship. "There will be a fully equipped state of the art research facility with a team of onboard medical experts who will be able to competently fix any symptoms as and when they arise. The 900 men, women and children chosen for this voyage have all been screened for harmful viruses like HIV, Hepatitis, and so on. The lucky folk and any pets they own plus all the plants and animals leaving Earth on this voyage will all be certified 'clean', so to speak". Larry Arnold is an engineer working on the project who sat through this World Space Agency briefing. He leaves the briefing room and drives home to his wife and one little boy. He breaks the happy news to his wife that they will soon be on the epic, first voyage to Alpha Centauri. He then goes out for an evening drive in the twilight, with a red sunset showing in the background, to visit a group of three other friends who are expecting him at a downtown bar. Larry enters the noisy atmosphere inside the bar, filled with a mixture of music, conversation and laughter . An attractive brunette serving at the bar in the distance attracts Larry's immediate attention. He goes to the drinks counter. "What will it be sir?", asks the slender woman of such attractive features. Larry grabs a pint of Budweiser and wanders over to a table to join his three friends and work colleagues who are all part of the starship engineering program. They wind down from the stressful day jobs and share a few jokes over a couple of drinks. The WSA briefing delivered earlier in the day, is the biggest feature in their conversations. Prompted by Larry, the four would-be star travellers step outside into a garden at the back of the bar to get some air. Larry looks at his watch and notes that the Centauri Princess is due to fly over New York city in just over two minutes time. They gaze up to see the starship slowly moving across the now darker sky, as a small point of light. "There she goes, the great cosmic adventure platform for humanity", remarks Larry. "Yeah, I just hope to high hell she'll be able to survive the stresses of a voyage of 50,000 long god damn years! Question I ask is how? How did we ever let this happen to our once beautiful planet?" remarks one of Larry's friends. "Well, I guess every species has its beginnings and its ends. Look at the dinosaurs, after millions of years of rule on this planet, look what happened to them. We're going to be the survivors regardless of what goes on back here after we leave", replies Larry. "How can we be sure that no new diseases are going to be born in the enclosed mini-world inside the starship?", asks Bert, a short stocky looking man still dressed in his formal work clothes. "We can never be certain, but the environment is being continuously monitored by ship computers, every inch of it being flushed and purified by large scale water and air purification systems, all of which have been extensively tested on the Moon and on Mars over the past 150 years. They have been shown to keep things far more cleaner compared to the natural environment on Earth". The four men drink to a toast "To our happy and prosperous 50,000 year long great adventure.". "Yeah, right." They chuckle at the thought of such a lengthy journey. [The scene switches to "3 months later" and shows the starship first from the outside set against the blackness of space, with the globe of Earth in the background. Then moving in toward the space shuttle bay area located toward the rear of the ship.] The starship's passengers and crew are shown to be arriving on board for the great adventure ahead, although they are sadly leaving behind a bleak future for Earth dwellers. Larry, his wife Connie and their five year old little boy Danny are shown walking away from the space shuttle which took them to the Centauri Princess from Earth. They walk across the concrete floor of the shuttle landing bay area, waving good bye to the shuttle pilot behind them, and get into a mono rail train. The starship's primary means of interior transport from one location to another is via a mono rail system. For the more financially well off starship dwellers, there will be small, fuel-cell powered rovers (that look much like cars on present day Earth) which offer freedom of travel out into the starship's countryside, but there is a restriction on only one such vehicle permitted to be owned per household. The mono rail shuttle train will take Larry, his wife and child to their new home in Utopia, the main residential city on the ship, located seven miles from the space shuttle bay where they had just landed on arrival from Earth. The mono rail train treks across the gently curving floor of the ship's picturesque biosphere. Even though all 900 passengers chosen for this mission have been on prior sightseeing visits to the ship, they are totally mesmerised by this exotic, curved world that they will now inhabit for the rest of their natural lives. Danny is particularly fascinated by his new surroundings. His gaze is firmly glued towards the window and he sees a swarm of dragon flies following the mono rail shuttle, which breed in the abundance of tropical-looking lakes and ditches on either side, adjacent to the mono rail's highway. "Look mom, I can see beautifully coloured dragon flies following us. They have all blue and green coloured wings" he says to Connie. Her gaze shifts toward the mono rail's window and she acknowledges Danny with a smile and a hug, "I know baby, they've made it positively home from home for us. It's like we've never left at all, we're on a mini-Earth and it's so idyllic." "Mom, what's 'idyllic' mean?" Asks Danny. "It means everything is so perfect here." she explains with a smile. "How far is our home, mom?" Danny asks impatiently. "We should be there in about twenty minutes or so honey. It's just over there, across the other side of the ship." reassures Connie, pointing upwards(!) through the window. ![The dream view never seen before in any sci-fi motion picture! This is looking along the length of the Centauri Princess starship interior [Original picture credit: Don Davis, Graphical compositing: Abdul Ahad]](http://geocities.com/aa_institute1/interior-overhead.JPG)
The dream view never seen before in any sci-fi motion picture! A picturesque scene similar to this will be in view when looking along the length of the Centauri Princess starship interior (this impression is not to scale; in actual reality the roof would be six miles above the floor) - click to see a larger image. [Original picture credit: Don Davis; Graphical compositing: Abdul Ahad] Much of the starship's six hundred square-kilometre interior surface area is densely forested by a mixture of largely evergreen and some deciduous trees. These produce all of the starship's oxygen, which is in turn breathed in by people and animals, who breathe out carbon dioxide and thus keep the ship's biosphere in a self sustaining, ecological cycle across the generations. (This is all depicted on my web article by way of an illustrated technical 'CELSS' diagram. Clouds and rainfall simulations are covered on my FAQ page.) Seated by a window inside the mono rail train, Connie's gaze shifts towards the horizon in the distance which shows the distinct curvature of the six mile wide interior of the Centauri Princess. Pine trees and lakes can be seen to extend all the way into the distance across the curved landscape. Similar scenes are on view through windows on both sides of the mono rail train. Meanwhile, Larry is shown to be a little quiet, still feeling jet-lagged from the four and a half hour trip from Earth on the space shuttle. [this scene is to be continued....] Chapter 3. Departure into the Forever [screen caption reads: '2280 AD, Carson City, Nevada'] Scene shows a TV news report back on Earth, with the news reader saying this on the screen:- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "After a series of complex, gravity assisted fly bys involving the giant outer planets Jupiter and Saturn over the past 5 years, mission reporters confirm the Centauri Princess starship is now on a firm interstellar escape trajectory heading out of our solar system toward the general direction of her immensely distant goal of Alpha Centauri. Onboard this epic voyage of such historic importance are crew and passengers comprising 900 men, women and children who have become planet Earth's first star travellers. Amongst them are descendants of all those distinguished scientists and astronomers who first debated this space flight concept in a primitive internet discussion forum then called 'usenet', back in 2004. A representative of the spacecraft's originator, Abdul Ahad, who envisioned a means of interstellar propulsion using Oort cloud planetoids for refuelling and first drafted a scientific blueprint for this mission nearly 300 years earlier, was not immediately available for comment..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above news report is being watched on TV inside a diner, by relatives of the starship passengers who have stayed behind on Earth. The diner is set in the small town of Carson City, Nevada on the edge of a desert. There is a gusty desert wind howling outside and the sky looks threatening with thick, unnatural looking clouds. [Scene switches to the starship] Five years after leaving Earth, the ship's occupants pass the orbit of Pluto, the outermost planet from our Sun. They are shown to be all nicely settled into their new lives on the starship, everything going smoothly. Many of the starship passengers communicate with friends and relatives they have left behind back on Earth using the interstellar, pulsed-laser optical telemetry facility located in the ship's hi-tech control complex, at the heart of Utopia. However, there is a time delay of nearly five and a half hours between sending a video image from the ship with a recorded message and receiving a reply back from Earth by similar means. This is the expected 'light time' delay caused by the time taken for laser signals to cross the vast distance separating the ship from planet Earth. Unfortunately, the communications received back from Earth this far into the voyage are not good. The climate is now reportedly showing definite signs of an impending ice age. Bases on the Moon and on Mars get abandoned due to diseases and economic upheavals. (The scene briefly switches back from the ship to show these events back on Earth) Back on the ship, a cosy atmosphere is depicted focussing on family life and day to day working activities of all occupants. The starship's exterior view looks spectacular, with people taking time to look out into the dark universe surrounding them, billions of miles away from the Sun and Earth. They see these views from an observation deck, which is situated toward the exterior of the starship. A couple of distant comets are seen floating past the ship in their isolated paths through space, within the Kuiper belt. [The scene switches to a noisy bar / nightclub atmosphere on the starship, where the present generation's youngsters are partying with loud music and dance.] The music echoing and reverberating between walls of the large dance hall is the middle part of the tuneful disco track "Resurrection" (by the Russian band PPK). On a far side wall at the back of the dance hall is a large screen, showing the current position of the distant Sun, seen twinkling like a bright star in rhythm to the disco music, in midst of fainter stars scattered in its neighbourhood in the black sky as seen from an observation deck on the Centauri Princess. A young couple are seen to leave the nightclub and board a mono rail train waiting outside. The girl decides she's got a splitting headache and they go home and settle into their bedroom for an early Saturday night. A few cuddles and kisses, they fall off to sleep. The girl has a brief nightmare where at first she finds herself looking out of the ship's observation window into a starry sky. Then she sees herself being chased by a gradually evolving cloud of engulfing darkness coming towards her from the depths of space... Wakes up with a cold sweat, breathing loudly. As the ship gets more and more distant from the Sun, one or two more occupants on the journey are found to experience mild nightmares during the ship's "night" periods. Since no humans have ever ventured this far out into space, away from the bright neighbourhood of our Sun, this interaction between the cosmic darkness and the human psyche is a totally new phenomenon. The ship's medical team are not as yet aware of this gradually evolving link between the starship's solar distance and dark's interactions with the minds of sleeping passengers. Consequently, they find it hard to offer any reasonable explanations and the nightmares are dismissed as just one-off bad dreams. Chapter 4. Earth at T+1,000 years (AD 3275) (Screen caption reads: 'AD 3275, 1,000 years since starship left Earth') [This scene switches back to Earth, now gripped by a vicious, planet-wide ice age.] (I envision the soft, atmospheric music accompanying this scene to be a sad tune similar to that right at the end of "Pearl Harbor" to adequately dramatise the ice age scenes depicted) The north polar ice sheets have reached as far down as southern Europe, half of the world population has been wiped out through disease, cold and deprivation. People huddle together in the warmer tropical regions like Central America and Africa. Space technological capabilities have been reduced, with just two rocket launch sites in the jungles of French Guiana in South America still operational. The scene switches to a spaceflight navigation and control room at an optical, pulsed-laser telemetry facility, that's looking rather dilapidated with decades of disuse. This is situated in a tropical, jungle location in Central America, where a team of four people have been trying to establish communications with the Centauri Princess, now sailing approximately 11,500 astronomical units from the Sun (one trillion miles from Earth). Despite all the calamities that our planet has undergone in the past thousand years with the ever changing fortunes of civilisations at both ends, keeping an ongoing link and synchronised communications protocol with the starship after such an astonishing timespan was perhaps the greatest outcome that anyone could have hoped for. Presently though, looking over a log of auto-transmission attempts over the past six weeks, the communications team sees a series of random noise pulses in the return signals received from the ship, due to lack of power on the dilapidated interstellar telecom facility at the Earth-end of the link. Consequently, no telecom link is made with the starship. Our distant descendants, who are carrying with them all the hopes and dreams of the entire human race on this epic first voyage out into the eternity of space, have phoned home quite possibly for the very last time... "They are all on their own now.", says one of the telecom engineers in a rather downbeat tone. Chapter 5. Entering the Night of 45,000 years [Scene switches back to the starship.] (The present crew and passengers are a totally new generation, the descendants of those who originally left Earth 1,000 years ago. They will be the main characters in the movie from now on, making up 70% of movie time between this chapter and next.) The ship is presently passing that zone beyond which the Sun will no longer be the chief source of light. (Incidentally, defining this elaborate boundary between the dominance of light illumination by the Sun versus that of the surrounding cosmic night sky, is one of my own little claims to fame! In July 2004, I was the *first* in scientific history to analytically estimate and draw this boundary, dubbed the "Ahad Radius", at approximately in the region of 11,500 AUs around our Sun as noted here). ![The 'Ahad Radius' marks the edge of an imaginary sphere centered on our Sun, beyond which the cosmic night sky becomes the dominant source of light illumination for an interstellar traveller ! [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](ahad_sphere_solar_illuminance.jpg)
Above: The "Ahad Radius" at approx. 11,500 AUs out marks the edge of an imaginary sphere centered on our Sun, beyond which the cosmic night sky becomes the dominant source of light illumination for an interstellar traveller - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] "Our starship has officially entered the zone of permanent night, and will now sail in the darkness for the next 45,000 years purely by the light of the stars in the surrounding cosmic night sky. We are approximately 11,500 astronomical units from the Sun and our ancestor's home planet of Earth. From this point on, the Sun will no longer be the most dominant source of illumination in the sky exterior to the starship. We will be literally sailing by pure star light..." This announcement is being watched by a group of five people sitting in the lounge of a wooden built house, located several miles away from the starship's main city of Utopia (population now about 2,000 people). The television depicted here is a super-plasma screen, holographically projected device, giving a 'virtual 3D' effect on all its pictures and sound. "Big deal. The Sun never amounted to much every time I looked out of the observation deck." Says Alcyone, a twenty one year old female ecosystem researcher who's present assignment is to sample the oxygen/CO2 balance across the starship's miniature ecosystem. "I'm going out to get some air. Anyone care to join me for a walk?" She smiles and drops a hint toward Joey. Joey, a twenty five year old astronautical engineer who supports the ship's navigation team, is Alcyone's fiance. They have been engaged and seeing each other for a few months and very much hitting it off together. Joey accompanies Alcyone out of the house. They walk along the street, a romantic sort of walk and chat about the coming weekend and plans for them to go boating on the starship's one and only river of Eridanus. The scene shows a sunshiny kind of summer's day, with powerful, sun-simulating lights overhead erected on posts, towering from the tops of tall pine trees which simulate full spectrum 'sunshine' across the starship's biosphere. A further glance upward shows the other side of the starship's biosphere curving around the sky past a darkish middle ground...with distant forests and small settlements looking misty, six miles away on the opposite interior 'floor'. ![The Eridanus river meanders its way across the sky... in the artificial gravity environment! [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://geocities.com/aa_institute1/abdulahad-riverinthesky.JPG)
Above: The Eridanus river meanders its way across the virtual "sky"... in the Centauri Princess's artificial gravity environment! - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] "I wonder what happens if we ever get to meet E.T. one day." says Joey. "Excuse me?" Replies Alcyone, puzzled. "Extraterrestrial intelligence. I read it in the historical archives of Earth. People once thought there has to be some form of life elsewhere in the universe other than on Earth. Since we are the first travellers heading out into the cosmos, we may become the first to make contact." "I think we'll cross that bridge when we come to it Joey. Right now, I gotta get to Utopia before the stores close for the day. I'll see you tonight." Alcyone rushes off to a brisk jog toward the mono rail station seen coming up ahead of them. "Last shuttle of the day to Utopia, you wouldn't want to miss this one.", says the attendant at the station, as the sliding doors close behind Alcyone. Inside the train she finds a quiet compartment where there is a middle aged couple sitting, looking out of the window. The man smiles at Alcyone as a polite gesture of welcoming. [scene changes to Utopia's main high street in the starship's "simulated" evening, with the broader lighting casting a twilight glow across the street scene] A busy, fashionable clothes store is shown bustling with crowds queing up to pay for their shopping just as store closing time is approaching. Alcyone makes somewhat of a rushed choice on buying a dress and spots Caroline, her best friend across the other side of the store. They meet up with kisses on cheeks and a hug, surprised not to have seen one another for about four weeks. They talk about work and their love life situations. "So I hear you've split with Shumon. What actually happened, I thought the two of you were getting it together really well", remarks Alcyone. "It was a little like that to begin with, I guess then things started to go wrong", replies Caroline. "Are you sure? There's a lot of great looking guys at the med that can be hard to resist. Hey, somebody's been fooling around...", teases Alcyone. "Nope, nothing like that I'm afraid!", giggles Caroline. They hurry over to join the queue at the shopping till. "So what else is new?" Alcyone asks. "I don't know quite how to put this, but I been getting kind of weird dreams lately. How about you?" Prompts Caroline. "Well not exactly, although I've heard it mentioned by a few colleagues at my work place..." [scene to be continued] The nightmares encountered by starship dwellers at the start of the voyage, re-surface and are further exacerbated for the present generation by the ever increasing darkness around the ship as it sails deeper into the darkness of interstellar space. One remedy is to leave lights on in their bedrooms, advised by the ship's medical and psychology team; increased lighting around the person's place of sleep appears to dampen the nightmare effects. However, the ship has to simulate a 'night' cycle for the plants and trees growing in the wider biosphere in order to have a natural flowering and fruiting cycle, so the starship at large must turn off all its lights for 12 hours of night during each 24 hour simulated 'day'. (This 50/50 split is actually varied to simulate a realistic 'seasonal' profile for day lengths throughout the starship's year.) In their dreams, the starship occupants first see themselves on the observation deck, looking out into the black sky surrounding the ship. Then there gradually materialises a cloud of darkness obscuring the stars. The outline of this cloud of darkness then gradually takes on the shapes of three or four winged creatures, similar to heavenly angels...except they are pitch black and have faces vaguely resembling highly ferrocious looking wolves! The nightmares slowly increase amongst the ship's people and the dark 'wolf-angels' are seen to approach the ship from all directions and make their way into passenger bedrooms...in the dreams. [scene switches to a futuristic junior school's science class on the ship] A teacher is lecturing, standing up at the front of the classroom, with a large electronic screen behind him serving as an old style 'blackboard', used in conjunction with plasma screen terminals mounted on each child's desk. He ends the lecture and asks "Anyone have any questions for me?". Alcyone's niece, who is eight years old and sitting in a far corner of the classroom, raises her hand. "Yes Irene fire away." encourages the teacher. "Are we alone in the universe?", asks the little girl. "That's a very good question. The short answer is most certainly not. See, we are here...", he points to the star studded, 3D holographic projection screen behind him showing a view of the Centauri Princess in 3D space. "...in our own little world aboard this ship, but all around us, as far as the eye can see, there are billions upon billions of stars and galaxies. Circling around many of these stars there are much larger worlds than the one we're in, called planets. We believe a large number of them have life and some of them have people like us. We ourselves have left behind our ancestors on a planet called Earth, right about here." He points to a bright yellow star on the screen, which is of course our Sun. "Are there any more questions?" Asks the teacher, but there is only silence so he closes the class. "O.K. class dismissed, see you all next week. Mind how you go now." [scene changes to a late afternoon simulation inside the Centauri Princess, where Joey and Alcyone are on a river boat] The boat is powered by the energy from fuel cells, a clean energy solution operated throughout the ship in order to keep its interior biosphere clean. As a starship wide rule, no chemical fuels are ever burnt in any activity that could lead to pollution inside the ship. The biosphere and ecosystem are thus well preserved over many generations. Eridanus is the name given to the starship's only river, which runs from one edge of Utopia, meandering all the way around the ship back to the other end. The residents of Utopia take weekend boating breaks along the river, to refresh themselves from work related 'city' stress on the starship's day to day operations. 
A glance vertically upwards reveals the forests and river meandering its way across the "sky", six miles overhead. [Picture credit: Adrian Warren] "Love your dress, seems to go really well with your gorgous looking, greenish eyes", remarks Joey romantically. "Glad you like it, I bought it at Joanna's last week. Incidentally that's when I bumped into Caroline in the store." Alcyone replies. "Oh, Miss Centauri Princess herself, haven't seen her around for a while. Boy that girl is such a hottie!", Joey remarks teasingly. "Jo-eeyy!", yells Alcyone. "Sorry. Hey, she may be cute but you know you're the girl of my dreams, right?" He hugs her. "Well, here we are sailing the great river of Eridanus", says Joey. "Damn lucky to have got a free boating slot with all the demand for it this season" Alcyone says. "I wonder why it's called Eridanus?." "For someone who's named after the brightest star in the Pleiades, you really don't know much about the night sky do you? Eridanus is a long, sprawling river constellation shining in the cosmic night sky around the Centauri Princess, and they named this river after that.", replies Joey. They lie down on the boat having a romantic conversation and share a few kisses and a cuddle. Looking directly overhead at the "sky" from a lying down position on this calmly moving river boat, they see an "aerial" view of Utopia across to the ship's opposite side, with the vast array of its silvery roofed buildings glinting in the distance. Towards the end of their boating excursion, the starship's evening arrives with the automated lighting system gradually dimming and changing colour to simulate an orange "sunset" across the interior. By the time they dock the small motor boat at the other end of Utopia and make it to Joey's place, it's almost nightfall. A light sprinkle of localised rain begins to drench the ground and green shrubbery surrounding Joey's house, just as they rush indoors at the start of an evening thunderstorm. [Incidentally, the weather phenomenon on this ship can be quite "exotic" and often unpredictable due to constantly changing gravity vectors from the ship's artificial gravity spin, as explained on my FAQ page] ![Rainfall is produced by electrostatic stimulation of high altitude clouds using UAVs [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://geocities.com/aa_institute1/ahad-biosphere-weather.jpg)
Rainfall is produced by electrostatic stimulation of high altitude clouds using UAVs - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] (I envision the horror nightmares in this movie as very gently creeping up on you. This is not the kind of movie where you "stare the beast in the face right from the word go"...rather it's very subtle, deep and mysterious; the music and graphical animations of the dream creatures will therefore need to be carefully thought out so as to stir some deep feelings in the cinema audience.) [scene changes to the starship's main control room] Late next day Joey is at work in the starship's main control room along with other colleagues. A computer screen flashes that the ship will need refuelling for water and liquid propellant for engines. It's not critical, just the reserves are looking low - especially for water. The starship's MMC holds a briefing and puts out a television statement to passengers advising ship's resource status, and that a comet of approx. two kilometres in diameter has been identified two days up ahead by the ship's navigation team. [scene changes to outdoors inside the ship] On a fuel-cell powered, open top rover-like vehicle, a park ranger is going about his day to day patrols in a forest opening several miles away from Utopia. He notices some of the trees are looking a bit unhealthy due to lack of water. He drives up the road and files his report to the ship's Environmental office where Alcyone and a small group of co-ecosystems researchers are working. [scene changes to 2 days later] Back in the ship's main control room, a large screen is showing the star-studded forward view of the ship. Zooming into the image on the screen, the navigation team spots the whitish looking comet. "75% water ice, 20% rock and 5% Methane ice. This is our best analysis for composition of the object from this distance" reports Shumon, the Centauri Princess's chief navigation officer (who is also Caroline's ex). "Ship relative trajectory is a little steep, but we are firing the ship's pitch and retro thrusters simultaneously, to meet up for a favourable remote disintegration rendezvous". The comet is then intercepted by a cluster of five missiles launched simultaneously from a bay at the front of the starship, and disintegrated several hundred miles ahead. The ship extends its funnels around its outer body (as explained under "Alternative Mining and Refuelling Strategy" in my mission blueprint) to capture the debris of icy material emanating from the cometary nucleus, as it travels through the debris cloud. Everyone in the control room shares a euphoric moment of cheer, on the success of the comet mining operation. NOTE! : The above is just one of two possible methods of mining comets "in-flight"; the second method involves the robotic platforms (operating ahead of the ship) physically deploying small resource extraction probes onto the cometary surface. These carry out the mining in-situ and subsequently rendezvous with the starship as it flies past the icy comet, delivering their resource payloads into the ship's shuttle landing bay area for adding to starship reserves. [The scene switches to the engineering refineries in a remote, outer deck of the Centauri Princess, where the fuel gets processed from raw, icy material captured from the cometary nucleus.] A large refinery plant is depicted, with a vast complex of pipework running criss-crossed across the plant. Three levels of engineering decks are shown, reaching up to a high ceiling. Two engineers are shown making notes on a computer console, monitoring the %'s of each type of (water, oxygen, hydrogen, etc) resource being channelled into the ship's cryogenic reserves banks. "We got a lot more refuelling than we bargained for, should last us at least five years on present usage." remarks one of the engineers. [scene switches to the ship's central medical facility building, at the heart of Utopia] Meanwhile, the ship's medical team try all kinds of brain wave monitoring and sleep therapies to cure the nightmare problems now reported by virtually all people in the younger generations, but with no luck. Alcyone and her older sister Rujina take Irene to see a specialist at the medical facility. The little girl is shown lying on a specialised, sleep monitoring bed with electrodes attached to her forehead. Nearby, medical experts monitor her brain patterns as her closed eyes begin to twitch at the start of the nightmare... Caroline is a senior nurse working in this section. "There seems to be no obvious pattern or distinction in the brain waves which triggers the dark-induced nightmares from that of ordinary dreams." she explains. "Can we actually get an image of the creatures that my daughter reports seeing in her nightmares?", asks Rujina. "Yes, once the intensity reaches a certain strength, we should pick up a distinct image on the screen, right here." Caroline turns on the hi-tech monitor. As Irene's nightmare intensifies, sure enough to everyone's utter amazement, a faint image of the creatures begins to materialise on the monitor screen. Meanwhile, Alcyone waits anxiously nearby and is astonished by what she sees. "Oh my god, that's too much of a coincidence. These bastards are kind of similar to what I've been seeing in my nightmares for these past two nights!" she exclaims. Caroline nods with a smile, "It seems like a common theme right across the ship". The starship's chief medical officer rushes into the room, looking rather excited. "I've examined the ship's historic records since leaving Earth and we may be close to a firm diagnosis. There seems to be a strong correlation between the number of patients reporting bad dreams and how far we venture away from the Sun. As if the great enveloping cosmic dark around the ship is somehow interacting with our brain waves.", he explains to the small group gathered around Irene's bedside. "There seems to be an oscillation period of roughly 80 years within that trend though, which is both interesting and puzzling at the same time." he mutters this last sentence to himself, in a quieter tone. (Incidentally, there is a genuine connection in the story plot between this 80 year oscillation period in the intensity of reported nightmares and a real scientific parameter...which will become obvious to the people who reach New Earth in a future generation sequel in this story!) By now, Irene has been awakened from her short medically induced sleep, she sits up and yawns. Lots of 'head scratching' by the ship's senior medical staff is then shown, who cannot offer any remedial solutions other than to tell people to leave lights on in the bedrooms, which seems to dampen the nightmares' intensity just that little bit. Eventually, as the darkness intensifies with an ever fading Sun in the inky blackness shrouding the starship's exterior, the creatures from the dreams start to come into the real life - in brief flashes - as day time hallucinations even while the person is fully awake. This affects 90% of people on the ship. Sleep disorders abound across the Centauri Princess... [scenes to follow which shows this...] Next up comes election day, when a new Mission Management Committee needs appointing, as the old timers in the current generation reach retirement. Here, there is an election day scene, where the starship residents go to vote for their favourite candidates in each department, ranging from medical, navigation, engineering, mining, ecology, environmental, and so on. Eventually the new MMC and a brand new starship president are shown elected via the starship's television news programmes. Chapter 6. Mining on an ice world by the illumination of pure "star light" FIVE YEARS LATER... [screen caption reads 'Five years later'] The ship again needs refuelling, mainly for water and reserves of chemical fuels which are flagged up to be running low. This time, there are no comets anywhere nearby. However, much to the surprise of everyone in the ship's control room, a small ice world a quarter the size of the Earth in diameter, is spotted by robotic observation platform "Gamma". The Gamma platform is a robotic navigation instrument suite, operating 100 days ahead (95 million miles in front) of the ship (as described under "Mining Comets and Planetoids in Interstellar Space" on my original web article). There are six such platforms in total operating at various distances in front of the starship, which monitor the 3D space environment and send back telemetry reports, alerting the starship's navigation team of potential comets and planetoids coming up ahead. (Read the FAQ page for more details). ![Trailblazing a course through the darkness of interstellar space [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://geocities.com/aa_institute1/forward-navigation.jpg)
Trailblazing a course through the darkness of interstellar space - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] (This mining will be carried out using a fleet of three separate shuttle craft [crew of five people on each] which look vaguely like the present day US space shuttle orbiters, except they have two large retro engines underneath for vertically powered descent/ascent [since there are no 'runways' on the alien planet] along with an improved design profile altogether. See my FAQ page for an outline.) On initial landing, the astronauts discover themselves standing on a vast, greenish coloured, highly reflective lake of frozen methane ice, with some mountainous rocky outcrops seen in the distance. The mining expedition unloads a large, six wheeled rover and mining equipment from the cargo bay of each space shuttle, and drives toward a mountainous, rocky outcrop across the vast, frozen lake. The sky looks pitch black in all directions above the planetoid's alien landscape. One of the expedition astronauts (of a certain astronomical incline) adjusts the level of 'see through' on his helmet's visor and looks up at the sky. With increased visibility, he is greeted by the most awesome sight ever imaginable. The entire cosmos is shining down on him, with the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon, shining down with the combined light power of some 400 billion stars... There are colourful nebulae and deep sky objects on view, which would be the dream scene of any night sky watcher living on Earth today! The entire landscape of this small world is illuminated by pure star light. (Incidentally, the total light illumination provided by the starry night sky here [of roughly 1/300th of a Full Moon equivalent as seen in the night skies of Earth, "Ahad's Constant of Universal Flux" ] is much darker than the darkest nights we can ever experience anywhere on Earth. This was one of my own little scientific findings in 2004!) One section of the mining expedition is then seen walking into a dark cave, using the rover's blazing headlights to illuminate the cave's rocky entrance. Inside, they spot a surface depression with what looks like bubbling water, coming up via a geyser and forming a large semi-frozen spring. "This looks like a good spot to begin extraction." advises the mining expedition commander. The crews get to work by drilling pipelines into the sub-surface liquid and connecting pipe work to fuel tanks on the giant rovers parked outside the cave. Joey is one of the astronautical engineers on this mining excursion. He examines the shiny, crystalline structure of the cave's interior walls which are frozen solid. Accompanying him, going towards an entrance of the cave is Caroline, who is also an astronaut chosen to be on this mining excursion, as a change from her normal duties in the ship's medical section. Job rotation is a common practice operated on the ship in order to keep the workforce multi-skilled and flexible. Caroline and Joey both catch a brief view of our distant Sun from one of the cave's many openings, showing it suspended like a glittering lantern above the frozen landscape of this exotic world.
[Above picture credit: David Hardy] Joey leaves Caroline briefly on her own to go back to the rover to get some rock excavation tools. Meanwhile, Caroline wanders deeper into the pitch blackness of the cave, a torch held in hand illuminating her way. She comes across these weird looking tentacles on the cave wall of fossilised remains of what looks like a giant, spider-like creature. Next to it, she spots a dark, humanoid-looking figure faintly illuminated by her torch beam. She moves in to take a closer look. To her shock and horror, Caroline sees a mutilated, human-like body almost perfectly preserved in the ice covering...with its eyes wide open in horror... A haunting scene, causing her to scream out in terror over the radio. Joey hears her scream, as does the expedition commander, who's radio is in tune with all fourteen of the other mining expedition members. Both men rush to the scene simultaneously and examine the horrific findings. The team conclude that this planet must have had life at some point in its past when it was close to a parent star. The planet was somehow torn off its solar system, perhaps in a violent close encounter between its parent star and another passing star, and now drifts in the cold, darkness of interstellar space... [Scene fades gradually, and re-opens on the Centauri Princess] The mining team returns to the ship from the planetoid's surface and all the water and fuel is added to the ship's life support reserves to take them just that little bit closer toward Alpha Centauri. From an observation deck, the starship occupants take one last look at the Sun, now very hard to single out in the sky as it appears as just another bright star, indistinguishable from every other star. Meanwhile, the nightmares experienced by everyone ranging from Alcyone, all her friends and colleagues right up to members of the MMC starts to affect the starship's day to day management. In one final, frantic effort the medical team accidentally discover that maintaining an electromagnetic field around the bed of the sleeping patient appears to prevent the nightmare's sinister "wolf-angels" from getting through. Eventually, that solution is discovered to be what works to keep the dark out across the entire starship. An electric field is then engineered and implemented around the vast exterior body of the Centauri Princess starship, by a team going out into the cosmic dark and installing electromagnetism generators, wearing pressurised astronaut suits and anchoring themselves to space shuttles. Chapter 7. Sunshine from Three Suns [A new, final cast of characters is needed here, for the last generation as the ship reaches Alpha Centauri] [Screen caption reads 'The shores of Alpha Centauri, 50,000 years since Earth departure...'] A panoramic, colourful space scene depicts the arrival of the ship in the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
[Above picture credit: www.solarvoyager.com] The lucky people in the final generation of this long voyage from Earth see the three suns of Alpha Centauri ahead of the ship, greeting them with warm sunshine as the ship enters the outer reaches of this new solar system. The scene depicts the Centauri Princess looking very icy on the outside, gently rotating in her artificial gravity spin as she heads toward a Saturn-like ringed planet, with the three suns of the system shown in the background. The brightest of the three is yellow (like our own Sun) the next brightest one is orange in colour. Finally, Proxima Centauri, the smallest of the three is depicted as a deep reddish glow. All three suns are shown in a triangular formation, with the primary (yellow) one most closest to the ship. [I envision the music here to be a dramatic kind of soft, biblical tune to mark this epic occasion of 'home coming' to a New Earth in a New Solar System by the distant descendants from Earth. The track "Caribbean Blue" by UK artist Enya is my favourite choice for this scene:-] "...so the world goes round and round with all you ever knew -- They say the sky high above is Caribbean blue... " - lyrics from "Caribbean Blue" by Enya. Search Google for downloading "Caribbean Blue.MP3" by Enya! [Scene switches back to inside the ship] In this latest generation, the starship President makes a speech inside the large briefing hall of the Centauri Princess at the heart of Utopia, where he stands on a brightly lit stage with the ship's present 1,500-strong residents seated:- "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls thank you all for attending this important assembly. This moment must surly rank as the most epic in the entire history of our species, and I feel enormously priveleged to be serving as your president at this time. As I'm sure you have all been ecstatically aware for some time, we're arriving at our new home of a world circling Alpha Centauri B. Our forefathers left our precious home planet of Earth 50,000 years ago on a voyage out into the complete unknown, and here we are, the final generation to be warmly greeted by the sunshine from three suns of this new solar system. This momentous occasion calls for a huge celebration, though I am at a loss as to what we ought to call it! Perhaps it should be called the '500th Centenary Celebrations of the Greatest Voyage of Humanity'. Please enjoy yourselves." There follows a thunder of clapping and joyous shrieking from the large crowd, where the entire ship population have gathered. The ship's passengers and crew are then seen to attend the huge party in a large theatre where there's lots of music and a party atmosphere. (In this large theatre, special effects are created using state of the art electronic lighting, holographic images, music and special screens which all combine to depict a futuristic, hi-tech environment) Chapter 8. A New Earth for Old The ship is shown to go into orbit around New Earth, the second planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. It is found to be exactly like "old" Earth, except for a slower rotation speed of 36 hours (longer days and nights), a cooler climate everywhere, except at the equator. Most of the planet's tropical zone is covered in lakes and pine forests like Canada. The high latitudes north and south of about 50 degrees are permanently covered in continental ice sheets. All the starship passengers are invited to vote on whether to abandon ship and settle on the new world or to continue the interstellar voyage onward to other stars. In this story, half of the ship's colony decide to go down to the surface of New Earth and build permanent settlements. The other half vote to stay on the starship and sail on towards other solar systems seen rising above the horizons of New Earth. [Scene changes to a Canadian style log cabin set on the edge of a pine forest at night on New Earth, close to the shores of a large ocean.] A fire is lit by a group of friends gathered outside the log cabin. While they sit around the fire, they hear a strange howling sound coming from the depths of the forest. They think nothing of it, having looked at some old records of wolves howling back on Earth, as shown in the database of a laptop computer consulted by one person in the group. "I'm going for a walk on the beach", says one of the New Earth settlers. She hears the ocean waves rushing in toward the shores a few hundred yards away behind the cabin. As she reaches the beach, she finds her mind soothed by the fresh night breeze and the calming effect of gently splashing waves coming from New Earth's largest ocean.
Above: The day time star we call the 'Sun' is seen here twinkling as the sixth brightest star in the night skies of New Earth, above the splashing waves of an alien ocean - [Credits: Night sky - Abdul Ahad, New Earth's oceanscape - Dan Durda] [Scene changes to the crack of dawn the following morning] The twilight starts to gradually brighten as the first rays from Alpha Centauri B strike high altitude clouds in the eastern skies of New Earth. The sky higher up is shown as an expanse of uniform dark blue, punctuated by a few twinkling stars and the clouds glowing an intense orange that reflect the colour of New Earth's K-type sun. Two thin crescent moons are shown hanging in the midst of clouds lower down. The camera then gradually pans downwards towards the horizon, past the tops of tall pine trees in the distance and down towards the, still darker, forest floor... THERE IS A HIGHLY SUSPENSEFUL ENDING HERE INVOLVING THE NATIVE DWELLERS OF NEW EARTH, BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE MOVIE TO FIND OUT WHAT THAT IS! [The end credits should be accompanied by the track: "Resurrection" (by the Russian band PPK) which is "catchy" and immensely tuneful with a power to grip people to come back for the future sequels! Search Google for downloading "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" soundtrack!] First Ark to Alpha Centauri - Epilogue On an epic 50,000 year voyage like that the number of alternate realities and possible outcomes just defies the imagination. In theory, one could write 50 separate novel sequels, each one covering a 1,000-year epoch in the long history of our distant descendants drifting through the cosmos on this epic voyage into the complete unknown... Indeed, quite a few people have even suggested that "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" could work better as a multi-episode series like:-
Change of characters between generations is never welcomed by any producer in the conventional "3 act structure" of modern cinema films. For a one cast/crew 120 minute-length feature film, I think the best compromise would be to take the middle generation - between Chapters 5 and 6 in my story - and set the whole movie just on those characters and their adventures inside the ship. That is where the bulk of the action lies any way, with river and forests in the sky, horror nightmares, mining expedition and discovery of alien remains on the ice world. In short, there is no one way or the *right* way to turn this concept into a feature film. I remain open to suggestions! The future sequels after the ending point of "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" will be a lot more fantasy filled and exciting, as those adventures would be truly 100% in the realm of the imagination. They will contain their fair share of "sparks and fireworks" of robots, aliens and androids... of flesh eating beasts, with dripping blood and gore that movie fans in the current era have come to relish! Quite deliberately, I wanted to keep the initial start of this saga as much connected with *our* reality as possible. I have every intention of continuing this adventure by way of two future movie screenplay sequels:- The first will focus on the colonists who settled on New Earth. The second will track the adventures of those who continued on the cosmic journey in search of other solar systems on the Centauri Princess. [NOTE: I have already scripted parts of these movie/novel sequels, and I hereby reserve all rights to publish and/or produce those sequels as follow ups to this first concept, at future dates.] ![Map of starship's upper province! [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://www.geocities.com/aa_institute1/aster-com-upper.jpg)
Above: Map of starship's "Upper Province" - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] ![Map of starship's lower province [Copyright: Abdul Ahad]](http://www.geocities.com/aa_institute1/aster-com-lower.JPG)
Above: Map of starship's "Lower Province" - click to see a larger image. [Copyright: Abdul Ahad] BIOSPHERE TECHNICAL PARAMETERS: Radius = 5 km Length = 14.5 km Surface area = 612 km^2 Volume = 1139 km^3 Rotation speed of rim for 1g = 796 km/hour Nominal rotation period = 2 min 22 sec CENTAURI PRINCESS TECHNICAL PARAMETERS: Dimensions = 20 km (length) x 12 km (max. diameter) Mass = 1.8 x 10^14 kg (10% of Deimos - the smaller moon of Mars) Propulsion = Hybrid A FEW REVEIW COMMENTS"It sounds as though it will make a brilliant movie or novel, and one I would love to go and see." - From this thread.
About the author Lots of burning questions? Read the FAQ Search Google for downloading "First Ark to Alpha Centauri" soundtrack! My paper on the Interstellar Night Sky Copyright Notice: Copyright © 2004-2005 by Abdul Ahad. All intellectual property rights on this movie script, the proposed motion picture to be made therefrom and the spaceflight concept depicted herein are fully reserved by the author under contract with his literary management agents in the United Kingdom. Any sharing of this work is only permitted for personal, non-profit and educational use. This page has been visited:
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![The star we call the Sun is seen to shine as the sixth brightest star in the night skies of New Earth, above the splashing waves of an alien ocean - [Credits: Night sky - Abdul Ahad, landscape - Dan Durda]](startwinkle.gif){kind=small}