Stellaris: People of the Stars Read online

  Table of Contents

  Foreword by Robert E. Hampson, PhD

  Burn the Boats by Sarah A. Hoyt

  Bridging by William Ledbetter

  The Future of Intelligent Life in the Cosmos by Martin Rees

  Stella Infantes by Kacey Ezell and Philip Wohlrab

  Maintaining Crew Health and Mission Performance in Ventures Beyond Near-Earth Space by Mark Shelhamer

  At the Bottom of the White by Todd McCaffrey

  Pageants of Humanity by Brent Roeder

  Homo Stellaris—Working Track Report from the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop by Robert E. Hampson and Les Johnson

  Time Flies by Kevin J. Anderson

  Our Worldship Broke! by Jim Beall

  Nanny by Les Johnson

  Those Left Behind by Robert E. Hampson

  Securing the Stars by Mike Massa

  The Smallest of Things by Catherine L. Smith

  Biological and Medical Challenges of the Transition to Homo Stellaris by Nikhil Rao, MD

  Exodus by Daniel M. Hoyt

  Afterword by Les Johnson

  Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop

  STELLARIS:

  People of the Stars

  Edited by

  Les Johnson & Robert E. Hampson

  Stellaris: People of the Stars

  Edited by Les Johnson & Robert E. Hampson

  NEW STORIES AND ESSAYS FROM TOP AUTHORS AND EXPERT SCIENTISTS. Explorations of how interstellar travel may affect humanity by best-selling authors and scientists.

  The stars will change us.

  STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS is a collection of original science fiction stories and nonfiction essays speculating about humanity’s far-term expansion into the universe beyond the limits of our solar system—with an emphasis on the changes humans will undergo as a species as we make this happen. Is interstellar travel so far beyond our current imaginings that it will take a fundamental transformation of humanity in order to make it possible? And, if so, will we remain Homo sapiens or become a new and unique species—Homo stellaris (the People of the Stars)?

  Herein are original science fiction stories by award-winning authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, William Ledbetter, Todd McCaffrey and Sarah A. Hoyt, supplemented by accessible nonfiction essays describing the science behind the fiction from people who should know—Sir Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom), Mark Shelhamer (Chief Scientist for the NASA’s Human Research Program), and more.

  This collection of original stories and essays was inspired by a gathering of scientists, science fiction authors, and futurists at a series of annual meetings held by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Let their speculations, imaginations and boundless sense of what’s possible take your own journey beyond the edge of the solar system in STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS!

  Stories and Provocative Speculation from

  Sir Martin Rees

  Kevin J. Anderson

  Sarah A. Hoyt

  Mike Massa

  William Ledbetter

  Todd McCaffrey

  Kacey Ezell and Philip Wohlrab

  Dan Hoyt

  Les Johnson

  Robert E. Hampson

  Mark Shelhamer

  Brent Roeder

  Jim Beall

  Cathe Smith

  BAEN BOOKS by Les Johnson

  Mission to Methone

  WITH BEN BOVA

  Rescue Mode

  WITH TRAVIS S. TAYLOR

  Back to the Moon

  On to the Asteroid

  EDITED BY LES JOHNSON AND JACK MCDEVITT

  Going Interstellar

  EDITED BY LES JOHNSON AND ROBERT E. HAMPSON

  Stellaris: People of the Stars

  STELLARIS:

  People of the Stars

  Edited by

  Les Johnson & Robert E. Hampson

  Stellaris: People of the Stars

  This work contains fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in those portions of this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  “Foreword,” © 2019 Robert E. Hampson; “Burn the Boats,” © 2019 Sarah A. Hoyt; “Bridging,” © 2019 William Ledbetter; “The Future of Intelligent Life in the Cosmos,” © 2019 Martin Rees; “Stella Infantes,” © 2019 Kacey Ezell and Philip Wohlrab; “Maintaining Crew Health and Mission Performance in Ventures Beyond Near-Earth Space,” © 2019 Mark Shelhamer; “At the Bottom of the White,” © 2019 Todd McCaffrey; “Pageants of Humanity,” © 2019 Brent Roeder; “Home Stellaris—Working Track Report from the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop,” © 2019 Robert E. Hampson and Les Johnson; “Time Flies,” © 2019 Kevin J. Anderson; “Our Worldship Broke!” © 2019 Jim Beall; “Nanny,” © 2019 Les Johnson; “Those Left Behind,” © 2019 Robert E. Hampson; “Securing the Stars: The Security Implications of Human Culture During Interstellar Flight,” © 2019 Mike Massa; “The Smallest of Things,” © 2019 Catherine L. Smith; “Biological and Medical Challenges of the Transition to Homo Stellaris,” © 2019 Nikhil Rao, MD; “Exodus,” © 2019 Daniel M. Hoyt; “Afterword,” © 2019 Les Johnson; “Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop,” © 2019 Joe Meany, Edward E. Montgomery, and John Preston

  All other content copyright © 2019 Les Johnson and Robert E. Hampson

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

  A Baen Books Original

  Baen Publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  www.baen.com

  ISBN: 978-1-4814-8425-1

  eISBN: 978-1-62579-735-3

  Cover art by Sam Kennedy.

  TVIW logo created by Debbie Hughes and used with the permission of the TVIW.

  First printing, September 2019

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Johnson, Les (Charles Les), editor. | Hampson, Robert E., editor.

  Title: Stellaris : people of the stars / edited by Les Johnson and Robert E. Hampson.

  Description: Riverdale, NY : Baen, [2019]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019020168 | ISBN 9781481484251 (paperback)

  Subjects: LCSH: Science fiction, American. | Interstellar travel—Fiction. |

  Interstellar travel. | Future, The. | Forecasting. | BISAC: FICTION /

  Science Fiction / High Tech. | FICTION / Science Fiction / Short Stories.

  | SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution.

  Classification: LCC PS648.S3 S74 2019 | DDC 813/.0876208—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020168

  Printed in the United States of America

  Electronic Version by Baen Books

  www.baen.com

  To those who have served on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW). These volunteer visionaries took an ill-formed idea and crafted it into one of the most successful private interstellar-focused space advocacy groups in the world: Martha Knowles, Ken Roy, John Preston, Robert Kennedy, David Fields, Yohon Lo, Doug Loss, Sandy Montgomery, Jim Moore, Marc Millis, Joe Meany, and Paul Gilster. Ad astra indeed!

  To the dreamers…

  Foreword

  Becoming the People of the Stars

  This volume has its origins in the March 2016 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW) Symposium held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel in Chattanooga, TN. The TVIW “working tracks” from each symposium provide an opportunity to have extended conversations about some of the “big issues” invol
ved in making the transition to interstellar exploration and colonization. In 2016, one of the working tracks was entitled “Homo Stellaris” and the participants were charged with examining the transition of society, society’s mindset, and the human body to a life among the stars. A more complete report from that event is included later in this book (see “Homo Stellaris—Working Track Report from the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop 2016”). One of the more intriguing questions to come out of the working track was, “Will the interstellar explorers be human as we define it?” In other words, will the inevitable changes to our society—not to mention the necessary changes to physiology and psychology—change those explorers to something other than Homo sapiens? If so, how then will those explorers preserve their essential humanity, rather than simply becoming what amounts to biological robotic probes?

  HUMANS IN SPACE

  The original Apollo program was extremely lucky to lose only three astronauts to spacecraft complications (Apollo 1) and that incident occurred on the ground. The only (publicized) potential loss-of-life incident in space was Apollo 13 and it was resolved successfully. On the other hand, two complete crews were lost to space shuttle accidents, and, each time, missions resumed only after extensive hand-wringing and finger-pointing.

  If humans are to eventually go to the stars, they will first have to go out into space, beyond the ISS, beyond the Moon, even beyond Mars. To do that, people not only have to want to go, they have to do so in the face of risk and loss. There is hope, however, and that hope comes from science fiction (SF). The more society questions and thinks about not only the problems but also uses their imaginations to create solutions, the better prepared humans will be to adapt and overcome the risks of living, working, and thriving in space.

  Early SF didn’t worry too much about adapting humans to space or other planets—mainly because so little was known about the differences humans would encounter once they left the surface of Earth. Space was still “the ether” and either just like the atmosphere (only thinner) or simply ignored. Hence, we had images of airborne ships “sailing” to the Moon, astronauts riding on the outside of rocket ships, and giant cannons that simply fired projectiles to the Moon where they would be greeted by outlandish beings who breathed air and lived on human-style food. Once it was generally accepted that space was a vacuum, and that both space and other planetary environments held many hazards to human health, SF turned to the idea that humans would naturally take their environment with them and re-create it on other worlds.

  One of the most common book-cover images from SF is the space-suited astronaut on a hill looking over a valley of domes. This graphic image fits most perceptions of initial planetary habitats. Given what we now know about the air, soil, and radiation conditions on the Moon, Mars, and Venus, those assumptions are generally correct. In fact, most extraterrestrial communities will need to be underground (or inside rocky asteroids) for maximum protection from radiation, and they will thus seek to become as self-sustaining as possible. Breathable air will probably be generated artificially, then filtered and refreshed by plants. Likewise, water will be recycled and perhaps refreshed by mining asteroids. These are habitats in which humans can live without adaptation, much as a spacesuit captures a small volume of terrestrial life support and keeps a human from being exposed to the hazards of space.

  But would it be possible to adapt humans to their environment, instead of the environment to humans?

  It is important to note that simply providing a sheltering terrestrial environment will not prevent humans from adapting to the novel aspects of their new habitats. For example, research has shown that low-gravity environments result in a reduction of bone and muscle mass as well as changes in vision and heart function. While these are short-term adaptations which rely on adaptive mechanisms and not evolution of the human form, would it be possible to intentionally alter humans for space?

  SF has already been there, in stories ranging from simple genetic improvement of human health, to wholesale alteration of the human body into completely alien forms. While this level of gene editing is still well outside of current capabilities, the field of tissue engineering is rapidly developing, as shown by the recent announcements of lab-created simple human organs such as the bladder, human ears grown on the backs of laboratory mice ears, sprayable skin cells for burn repair, and efforts to “3-D print” liver and kidney cells.

  What other types of gene engineering might be desirable to adapt humans to space? For this question, we need look no further than our own oceans. Fish and marine mammals provide examples of adaptation such as pressure tolerance, maneuverability in a fluid/weightless environment, temperature extremes, oxygen extremes, sulfur-dependent organisms, alterations of circadian rhythm, and independence from sleep. “Natural antifreeze” copied from Arctic cod may make the difference in adapting or engineering humans to cryogenic stasis during long-duration spaceflights. While we may never reach the state of total freedom to choose alternate bodies, many examples—not to mention source materials—for engineering humans for life in space are already right here on Earth.

  At the same time, we must ensure that human society has the will to tolerate the extreme risks of long-duration space exploration. Our society has become decidedly risk-averse and has difficulty making (and funding) long-range and long-term investments in social projects and technology. For some, this is compounded by an attitude that “there are too many problems at home to waste money in space!” It is a common theme in SF that space is a frontier, and in many ways only a small subset of society will embrace the necessity as well as the attraction of that frontier. Space may very well be colonized by the misfits, by those for whom it is no longer possible to fit into Earthbound society, or by individuals who decide to balance significant risk with even greater reward. For these reasons, the societies we build in space may be totally unlike our current experience.

  SHAPING THE FUTURE

  What better way to explore these concepts than through SF? It is a playground, a sandbox in which we can experiment with ideas and concepts that are beyond current capabilities. Perhaps through fiction we can encourage people to think about these issues, and begin to make the adaptations and accommodations to lessen the shock that such changes will produce. As we consider whether (or how) to adapt humans to new environments or adapt those environments to better suit humans, we also need to examine the science behind human experiences in space. In this anthology we have combined nonfiction essays and SF short stories to examine the motivations, the hazards, and the adaptations that will be encountered as humans move into a permanent presence in space and become Homo Stellaris—the People of the Stars.

  Robert E. Hampson, PhD

  Kernersville, NC, October 2018

  Burn the Boats

  Sarah A. Hoyt

  Sarah A. Hoyt has published over thirty novels (don’t make her count!) in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical, and they-say-it’s-romance. Also, over one hundred short stories (really don’t make her count. We’ll be here all day) in magazines like Analog and Asimov’s, Weird Tales, and others, as well as a whole bunch of anthologies. However, since she broke into her aunt’s house (really don’t make her explain) at age six to watch the Moon landing, her first and last love has been science fiction. She’s cleverly managed to guide one son into medicine and one into engineering, for the sole purpose of using them as sources to supply her own pitiful knowledge of the subjects. Thus armed, she hopes to be able to spend imaginary time in space, even if she’ll never live there. Oh, yeah: She was born in Portugal, writes in her third language (if you ask her to say “moose and squirrel” you can’t be her friend anymore), has won the Prometheus Award for her novel DarkShip Thieves, etc., etc. But mostly she’s just happy to be writing science fiction.

  They’d swept a path on the green-blue ice, so that it looked like a road, from the landing site to the village. On either side of it, the snowflakes crusted, gilded a pale orange by the light from P
roxima Virginis.

  Martha swallowed hard and bowed to the two waiting…men—she would have to remember to think of them as men—who stood on either side of the path as what? Guards? Escorts?

  Their skin was too pale, they had no noses that she thought of as noses and they looked, for lack of a better term, slimy. She breathed through her mouth, so as not to detect what her nose insisted was a distinctly fish odor, and she squared her shoulders in her temperature-controlled suit. The men wore what looked like harem pants in a fabric that looked as if they’d skinned a fish and not cured the skin. And she had a feeling that was just a concession to the new arrivals, despite the cold making the skin of her own face go numb and her eyes sting.

  They bowed to the survivors of Gloriana with a sort of fluid elegance that made all the alarm bells go off at the back of Martha’s head. There was something here like the uncanny valley effect that had made androids a rare thing back on Earth because they looked just enough like men but weren’t to set off subconscious alarm. Perhaps if Martha hadn’t known these were humans, the same seed of Earth as her own people, this would be easier.

  There wasn’t much to the swept path. After half a mile, and cresting a rise that looked artificial, they came upon a village of clear igloos. They had obviously purified the water, making the bricks of the persistent blue-green algae. The igloos sparkled gold under the sun, but were too small to be habitations. Which was fine. The scouts and ambassadors who had arranged this deal for her people had told her they weren’t habitations so much as covers over greenhouses, both to increase the concentration of oxygen and to keep the plants warm enough to grow. Below that were the actual houses, in ice caves, and below that still, the waters where these amphibian-adapted humans farmed the crabs and fish that provided the protein in their diets.