Karn's Chronicle

By John R. O'Neon

Karn is from another planet very similar to Earth which is about to be destroyed by an Asteroid colliding with it. He along with 2000 others travel millions of miles to Aqua, a planet very much like theirs but...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781291177770

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Karn's Chronicle

Karn’s Chronicle

The End and Beginning

Of a World

Also by

John R. O’Neon

Maria’s Revenge

1900 hours

Granny & Granddads

Household Encyclopedia

Bast

Enigmas

Dedicated to my Daughter Heidi

And the ones I love

Time is the moment that lasted forever

and the day that disappeared.

As long as we have memories

Yesterday remains

As long as we have hope

Tomorrow waits.

First edition published 2008 by Lulu.com

The right of John R. O’Neon to be identified

as the Author of this work has been asserted

by him in accordance with the copyright,

design and patents Act 1988.

Copyright © 2007 John R. O’Neon

Cover design © 2007 John R. O’Neon

ISBN  978-1-291-17777-0

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,

by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,

or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in it is published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Prologue

Karn is a scientist on his home planet of Nicron. He works and lives in one of many lush valleys’. He, along with his wife and small son are happy until the news of impending disaster threatens the entire planet.  An Asteroid is discovered. Its trajectory is on a direct path with Nicron. This story is about the millions of Nicronian’s who will inevitably perish whilst a few survive to find another planet on which to live.

Nicron has in only the past few years launched communication satellites, but now Karn and his fellow workers along with other plants across their world are pushed into designing and building spacecraft.  Only 2000 out of millions escape from their doomed planet in search of a new haven.

The blue planet they call Aqua is there goal. After landing on its moon they set up their base whilst teams headed by Karn, who has become their patriarch. Explore the new world.

My story chronicles Karn and his family through the decades and the centuries up until the year 2004. By this time the 2000 Nicronian’s have spread throughout their new world. A few have maintained their true bloodline. Such is the case with Karn's family. This has over the years been a curse.

The differences in their world enable those with true bloodlines to live nearly three times longer than the inhabitants. They are among us today...Today the Italian government has set up a department to find out why some people live much longer than others’ Italy was one country where many Nicronian’s settled when the world was ruled by Romans...and today. How long will you live for?

Nicron

The End of a World

The following account was written by Karn. The central character in the First part of this epic story of survival. It was told in his native tongue of Nicronian and has been translated into English for the benefit of you the reader.

My world is a warm, fertile planet with temperatures averaging around 15-27 degrees centigrade. It is a thriving and healthy home for millions of its inhabitants. We call ourselves Nicronian’s and our planet is Nicron.

As I sit looking out over the green valley with the Ruse River running between its banks of lush green grass, that waves with the slight breeze that nearly always blows down between the mountains. I wondered what it would be like on another planet. Would they have similar rolling hills with animals grazing the land? Would there be towering cliffs like the one I nearly fell off when I was a young boy. Would there be picturesque waterways with small old-fashioned craft floating about. Would they…I recalled my thoughts as I gazed at the stars last night, all glittering in the darkness of space. Now as I looked up all I could see through shielded eyes was our sun. That great ball of fire that keeps us warm and alive.

Then my thoughts turned back to something I had read in the media last month about a scientist who predicts the end of Nicron. It will happen in only eleven years from now he had stated. Scare mongering is what others had said about his work. But only a week later a report cited another scientist as corroborating what had been claimed by the first. He said that a huge meteorite or comet was indeed headed directly towards Nicron. Its estimated size was enormous at around one hundred miles in diameter. It would impact in ten-years and six months if nothing diverted its course.

I work as a technician at the Ruse Magnetic Induction Plant down in the valley. Today as I sit here with the recent media report in my hand, I’m frightened. Frightened for my son, who is now just seven years old and will not reach manhood. He will never discover the joys of our world let alone the wonders of outer space, as I dream of on the nights that I have sat on our flat roof focusing on our nearest planet that our scientists say is very similar to Nicron. It’s a larger planet than ours and should be a lot warmer. It is mostly covered with water.  It looks so blue. My wife had said when I let her look at it through my telescope. I had often wondered if one day we would attempt to send an exploration to the blue planet that we call Aqua. I also wondered how advanced its inhabitants would be? Our scientists say they must be several thousand years behind us. How they came to that conclusion I am not sure. We have communication satellites. They don’t? And we have never picked up any radio transmissions from there either but that doesn’t make them primitive. After all, I thought.  We’ve had satellites for more than two hundred years and we still aren’t out there in space. I wondered how they would greet us if we did land on their planet. Perhaps, as one writer had put it; they would think we were gods from the heavens and worship us! I smiled at being a god.

I looked at the sun as it set low in the sky and realized I should go down to my wife who will have our meal prepared and ready.  The following day at work everybody was talking about the meteorite. Some thought it was a hoax. Others took it more seriously and were quite worried. In a few days some had said, nothing more would be heard in the media and it would be forgotten. They were correct. The general boring subjects of conversation again prevailed. 

I was one of three in our section who did take it seriously. Tenk and I had met at college. We both met Zong at the Tagran School, a school where one learns Tagran, a form of unarmed combat. Our world was not always at peace and Tagran teaches you the points on the body where one can render another unconscious and kill without any effort. Now it is more of a tradition and a way of keeping fit than learning how to fight. We have been friends ever since and together we tried to find out more certain information. After all, we did work for our government in their high priority plant that experiments in propulsion techniques. Between us we should know someone higher up in the government that can find out if we are doomed or not, and if we are what are we doing about it? As a child we used to play at being a spaceman. I’m now twenty-nine years old. Surely by now we should have the means to build a spaceship large enough to carry people and not just communication satellites.

My name is Karn. My wife is called Tani and my son Krie. I was born just outside of Ruse in my parent’s home on the side of the western mountain. I was raised to carry on my father’s work as a process worker. Growing and wholesaling foodstuffs which along with others in our community they sell at the local market. But from a very early age I had gazed up at the stars and dreamt of one day reaching them. I trained hard at college and now I am employed as an Electronics Engineer. A little bit closer to my dream. I am also very inventive and quite a few of my innovations have been used in some of the most complex of work that is done here at the plant. I’m only young but have made myself known and I am respected and listened to.

The only thing that I regret so far is not having seen the rest of my world. I haven’t travelled far out of my valley let alone into space.

The weeks passed with no certain news that would verify the meteorite, or if our planet was indeed doomed for destruction in just a few short years.

I was getting more frustrated by the day at not knowing. My wife said that I was unusually moody and asked why? What could I tell her?  That we were all going to die in a few years? Make the most of what time we have and laugh it off? No! That is not my way of dealing with things. I have to do something positive. I have to find out for sure. But my efforts came up against bureaucratic brick walls that led me nowhere.

Many more months passed with no news at all. I even began to think it was all a mistake. There was nothing more said in the media.  News bulletins were all about the testing of a new space shuttle that was launching another satellite into orbit. This one was different though. It was a huge telescope that would enable us to see further into the darkness of space than ever before. Also a new type of propulsion unit that we had developed at out plant here at Ruse was powering it, still of the conventional type but far more powerful.

The launch six months down the track went well. Soon fantastic and amazing pictures were printed in the media. They showed our Galaxy in a new light. It could be seen from the millions if not trillions of stars and planets out amongst the heavens that ours was not the only galaxy and our destiny was to explore the unknown. I only wished it would happen faster and I could fulfil my boyhood dream. The pictures were somehow surreal, as though a huge artists brush had daubed the heavens with splashes of fantastic coloured paints. Nothing was said of the meteorite.

Twelve months later we launched another ship. This one was totally different in many ways, mainly its propulsion system which we had been developing for many years. Over the past year there seemed to be some urgency about its development. It was the most revolutionary system to date. Our innovations were going in leaps and bounds. The New World acclaimed ship was launched successfully on a warm summer’s day with my family and me, watching proudly from the roof of our home. My son now nearing his tenth birthday was enthralled by it all.

Father, tell me again what is so different about the new propulsion system that you built

I never built it alone son. There were hundreds of us all working together on its development. When it lifts off the main thing you will notice is the lack of what you call fireworks. In place of the now obsolete liquid burning engine we have what we call a Central Reaction Zone which powers this new system. It is a controlled nuclear fusion plant. It causes the huge Electro magnets to create a very powerful force, which reacts against the Electromagnetic forces around our world. This system has nothing to do with gravity. This system allows it to lift as though floating. We only hope it works as well as it did on the test run. In theory the pilot will lock onto the coordinates of a planet, switch the ships polarity, which will allow it to be pushed and pulled at terrific speeds in any chosen direction, and also…And there it goes! It has lifted off and climbing. We all watched as the circular shaped ship rose slowly into the air. It stopped and hovered around one thousand feet, then suddenly without warning it shot off to the east and again stopped about a mile away. It then slowly began to rise until it again suddenly shot up into the air and went out of sight.

Is it all right dad? Where’s it gone? My son was straining to see it amongst the shimmering clouds. We all watched and waited for a long time. Then from the east we saw it slowly approaching. It again hovered for a few seconds and then landed. I let out a sigh of relief at its safe return.

All went well by the look of it. I said. I’ll know more tomorrow when I go back to work.

Why is it round Father?

Good question son. But you tell me a reason why it shouldn’t be He thought for some time before saying Because there is no friction in space?

Well yes! Very good answer. In an atmosphere you need streamlining to allow craft to slice through the air, to give it more speed. Space is a void so even a square box would travel as fast as a streamlined craft. As for being round, it’s convenient and makes designing it easier. This prototype is only twenty-feet in diameter.  Large enough to take four crew plus some cargo. But on our drawing boards there are plans to build one that could carry a complement of fifty passengers, perhaps more. It all depends on the lifting power of the system.

I awoke next morning to devastating news. There on the front of the media was a photograph of a huge meteorite stated to be in the region of two hundred miles across. The headline simply read ‘IT WAS TRUE. WE ARE DOOMED’ The Countdown Begins…I sat there numb. Unable to think. I just stared at my wife who was crying as she looked out across the valley, her small well shaped body and her long dark hair in silhouette against the morning sun.  She turned and looked at me for some sort of comforting words but what could I say? It was just like it was nearly three years ago, only now we only have seven years left. I suddenly realized that they knew it was true all along. That was why the new propulsion system was moved on at a faster pace. I was beginning to get angry. My wife could see it in my face and came across to me as she asked. We will be all right won’t we? She lifted my head up to face her and all I could do was weep. Life is not fair! I shouted out. How can there be a god in the heavens if he lets this happen? I held her closer to me as my anger welled up inside me.

Later that day my friends and I, along with two other associates, whom now realized that our beliefs were warranted, went in to see the head of the sector. We wanted to know what our governing body was doing. Was there a plan in place to divert the meteorite? Are there plans to build spaceships so that we can leave Nicron before the meteorite hits? All these questions and more personal ones were put to our superiors. But as we suspected they could tell us nothing. They too were puppets to the government. What we did learn was that there was going to be a meeting called in the next three weeks to discus the matters raised as well as others in relation to our work.  None of us could concentrate on our work for the rest of that day.  Speculation on what was planned spread around the plant fast. One rumour after another was told and retold until the stories became too farfetched to contemplate. Only one thing was now certain; our world was doomed to become extinct in seven years and two months from now. And that was a terrifying prospect.

That evening after Krie had fallen asleep Tani and I went up onto the roof and gazed out at the heavens. We were silent for a long time.  Neither of us could find the appropriate words to say. Tani sat in front of the telescope and pointed it towards Aqua. After a while she asked if it were possible that we might be able to go there and live…then she laughed. But her laugh quivered with fear. I held her to me.

The government is working on building spaceships large enough to use as transporters Tani. It will be a race but I know we will be able to beat the deadline. I know we can. There is a big meeting in a few weeks time. We will know what is planned then. All we can do in the meantime, for Krie’s sake at least, is not to show him our fears. We will survive I promise you. We stayed on the roof gazing in the direction of Aqua for a long time, each with our own thoughts of the future.

Tani had graduated from college with a degree to teach geography.  Ironic really, she is qualified to teach about a world that will soon no longer exist.

For the next few days there were differing stories in the media.  Some government departments decided to play down the story. To say yes, there was a meteor heading our way, but it would miss us by hundreds of thousands of miles. And at the most it would only cause high tides and minor flooding to some parts of the world. The people never knew what to think. Speculation along with fear was rife. The doomsday people were on the streets bemoaning their gloom. I would say the population of Nicron was split evenly between the believers and the sceptics of the world.

As yet there has been no official government statement either way, apart from the odd comment, from minor officials voicing their own opinions.

As I read and listened to all the comments in the media, it sickened me to think that out of some four billion people only a handful were destined to survive. I knew this but I wondered how many others were totally oblivious to the fact. Perhaps it was best for them. I wondered how long it would be before we would actually be able to see the meteor. At this time only a handful of scientists had seen it through the huge telescopes at the space centres. Plus of course the full page photograph printed last month taken by the camera in orbit, which I suspect most children, if their anything like my son, have hanging on their bedroom wall.

How does a father tell his son the truth? How can I tell him that I love him dearly but there is nothing I can do to save his life? How do I say that he along with millions of other children are going to perish, to no longer exist in seven years time…?

Karn. Your friends are here asking to see you…Karn! My wife’s call seemed miles away. I got up and went down