The Paradox : Our Future is Obscure. Their Past is a Myth

By M.Y. Moussa

Bot, a loner mediocre, was set on a scientific mission from his home planet Proxima-b to explore the virgin planet Earth and confirm its suitability to be inhabited by humans. Bound in secrecy to give the proximals an advantage over their eternal enemy, the Centaurians, Bot started the journey that would take him only about nine months in Earthlings calendar to reach that 4.2 light years distant planet, in an unprecedented attempt, or so his people thought.

He and his team discovered that this journey was made thousands of years before, but from the destination itself. The idea began as mere scientific research, but by the time it was put into action, it took another drift that resembled that of the Earthlings, a desperate attempt to save the last of the human race.

When his task was fulfilled, and he returned to Proxima-b, he decided to make that journey again, but this time with no return.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.Y. Moussa
• Release date: Feb 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215307540

M.Y. Moussa

I dream of changing people's lives and broadening their perspectives on the world around them. Architecture is my profession, but I believe that it is an incredibly inclusive field, encompassing everything from the spaces we occupy to the products we use on a daily basis. After all, it's the mother of all arts. Recently, I've even been using my skills to craft more than this; I started to create engaging written content that resonates with people. My journey doesn't stop here, however. I am committed to using impactful means at my disposal to raise awareness about the essence of living a healthy, fulfilling life and making a positive impact on the well-being of others. I am always pushing my limits to new heights and striving to reach even more people with my message.

Book preview

The Paradox

Our future is obscure. Their past is a myth.

M.Y. Moussa

To my boys, whom I wish one day will be awake enough to know how to influence their society and guide them for a more responsible behavior towards their surrounding environment, and their lives. And when the time comes for them to stand up for something, I hope they will rise to save their planet, whatever and wherever it may be...

Now that we have learned to fly in the air like birds and dive in the sea like fish, only one thing remains: to learn to live on Earth like humans.

George Bernard Shaw

Preface

Picture distant starlight traveling to our solar system in some thousand light-years. That means a beam of light left its origin thousands of years ago; In other words, a sparkle you stare at in the sky at the moment is probably a faded star in history. Whenever we look up afar into space, merely, we are looking back at the past. Thus, our future expeditions to other systems are just traveling back through time.

When I started writing this novel, I was curious whether an adventure through space it would be, time, or both—not even envisaging whether an attempted warning it was or just pure anticipation, based more on given facts and less on intuition.

A more of a paradox it was!

Prologue

At 4.2 light-years away, Proxima-b[1]is the closest exoplanet ever discovered. That planet takes about 11.2 Earth days to orbit its star Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf much smaller star and emits less light than our Sun. At such a slight separating distance, a much insignificant planet will have to slow its axial spin rate until synchronized with its period of revolution around its star, the larger body. That makes it almost certainly tidally locked, which, in the best-known case, occurs when an orbiting astronomical body always has the same face toward the object it is orbiting. Similar behavior is the Earth's Moon, which exhibits this synchronous or captured rotation, as do a majority of natural satellites in the solar system.

One side of this planet is always facing the star, unshielded from its perpetual light and warmth and benefiting the energy needed to drive any solar-powered machines. This half is constantly DAY and warm, characterized by its arid weather, fierce heat, and infertile soil, which spans most of the land.

Near the equator, the temperature is sweltering. Only seas and rivers that stretch like veins across the lands made life there bearable. In contrast, the other hemisphere plunges into long-lasting darkness, facing the vast open space covered in an ice sheet up to several kilometers thick. With no moons, not exposed to any light, except that of other distant stars in the sky, this half is regularly NIGHT and cold. Temperatures soar and plummet into triple-digit variances between the two hemispheres.

Because we experience no day and night succession as you do, everything we craft spatially and design with keenness. We pay careful attention to every specific detail, except that it sometimes seems rigorous. Our harsh environment forced us to have particular activities inexorably in each hemisphere suited to its nature. Schools, Hospitals, for example, and other ordinary daily life tasks requiring natural light exist only in the DAY hemisphere. Homes, fine diners, and other nightlife activities are on the other. Some businesses, factories, shopping centers, sport-clubs, coffee shops, and many others could all fit in any of which. Buildings, vehicles, and all our stuff, even clothes, vary and depend on where we use them, DAY or NIGHT. We leave nothing for eventuality; we address everything.

Azimuth; the intertwining thin zone between both hemispheres and the most comfortable region on our planet. It hosts enormous events, and some parks open to the public because of its moderate environment. Except for certain areas owned by the government, the rest of the land, needless to say, belongs to the elites, with their delicate clothing and most spacious mansions. Away from the Azimuth, living only in one hemisphere for interminable periods will have detrimental effects on humans. Thus, even prisoners are being moved every few years from one hemisphere to another.

One might think most of our lands are deserted. Reality is the opposite. Because of our mass population and the little landmass, even the remote and wildest territories are seldom unoccupied. Still, our planet is less hospitable to other creatures than humans and plants.

Compared to your 365.25 days, a year of 11.2 days cycle may seem brief to you, Earthlings, perhaps a stretched week. But what sounds ridiculous for some can be a privilege for others. Our ages are much, much longer. Your Average lifespan can be seventy, perhaps eighty years, while ours is around two millennia. From your perception, we are blessed with a long life, or as you call it, immortals.

And just like everything else with human nature, people always try to imagine the unimaginable and live dreams in the hope of making them come true. That is the obsession with day and night succession!

Come on, people! That is only in Sci-Fi movies!

CHAPTER 1

The myth

People went hysterical about groundbreaking news. Everyone was talking of the foreign planet that our scientists, at last, had announced its discovery. I, however, was less excited, not figuring out how it might affect us. It would represent a dramatic deviation that could serve in the abandonment plan, as they all believed.

Our star was almost collapsing. The most pessimistic reports claimed it would soon fade away and might cease to exist for the coming generation. Others, more optimistic, said it could continue to shine for at least five more generations, followed by a deterioration that would take place over another ten before it finally dimmed out. On the other hand, our world has suffered a lot from the latest cosmic incidents. The most recent of such was a joined meteor that had imposed itself, establishing a new trajectory around our planet, becoming its first moon ever. That, along with our dying star’s weakening gravitational pull, was drastic to our system. Scientists and astronomers reported that there was a feeble possibility that it might suddenly leave its orbit and collide with any adjacent body, i.e., our planet. Such a collision could lead to inexorable outcomes, triggering massive turbulence in the system that could exacerbate, causing our planet to expedite its axial spinning. A horrid one, scientists dreaded it would be. Day and night, for instance, would desist their perennial latent immobility, starting a successive and endless cycle. Something that would alter our way of living and could threaten our survival. But as they had already confirmed, that was a weak possibility.

In a desperate search for a backup planet, astronomers had identified over five hundred solar systems in our galaxy and were detecting more all the time. Not so long ago, they discovered this planet that closely resembled ours. They kept it unannounced for unbeknownst reasons until they started talking about it only recently, referring to it as the planet we all know about — the planet Earth.

We used to think Earth was just a fable we inherited from our forefathers. A myth that said that humans originally were from another world and had inhabited it for ages. But, somehow, things went wrong, and they had to abandon it and come to ours, starting a new life.

For generations, we kept hearing such stories and more about how our ancestors were irritated when they came and how it took them ages to adapt to our environment and ecological system. That was because of the Succession, as they used to call it.

What was the Succession? None could explain. Because no one could apprehend it or have a complete awareness of what it might be. But those who tried, and reached a basic understanding, needed to be more persuasive, and neither did they introduce a plausible explanation. Thus, society accused them of going mad and sometimes called them; The possessed, even though they were in some circles known as the most ingenious experts and thinkers in our world.

The records that these possessed people had written, and I was interested in reading, spoke of that Succession and explained a theory that stated,

our definition of time and place differed from that of our ancestors who inhabited Earth.

According to their assumptions, and because of this Succession, people on Earth sometimes experienced both day and night in a single location, and they were able to spend Earthling months or even years in one region, suffering no traumas of long exposures to daylight or darkness.

Once these claims and theories were published, the government indicted them of heresy threatening social security. They shot some dead in front of the media, imprisoned some in Day or Night prisons from which they could never leave, and put some in a sanitarium.

◆◆◆

Elo, an old-time friend of mine, was recruited by one of the few agencies collaborating with the government on a very reticent project called ‘Project Earth; Co-Terrestrials’. It was colloquially known as X-PECT.[2] Its purpose was first to confirm that the so-called planet Earth existed and was habitable, then to study and explore it, to colonize it. He was one of many astronauts interested in that planet and was confident of its existence, even before that recent discovery. It was an assurance based on his studies, readings, and his possession of an unusual and ancient collection of textbooks written in an archaic language used by the terrestrials called English. Elo was renowned for his success in his field and linguistics. Things that enabled him to absorb all the information in these old books.

A few days earlier, I had no interest in most of the arguments that were happening. Not until one day, a week ago, when I met Elo on a routine trip home and exchanged an intriguing conversation.

Did you hear about Earth, Bot? he asked me after the customary greeting.

Yes, of course! Every space institute and agency is talking about it. I replied, surprised by his sudden and unexpected question.

Not just a planet, Bot! He exclaimed. It is The Planet, he stressed that word to give it a specific significance and continued, the planet that resembles ours in a very peculiar and unbelievable way. It has the same atmosphere; its temperature is almost the same as ours, composed of land and water on the surface, and we even have shreds of evidence that there was life on it long ago! A life that we believe could still exist today! he paused, waiting for me to comment. I did not. I knew a lot about space and history from my readings, dwarfing all the ongoing debates and boosting my knowledge of the subject to surpass the beginner’s level.

Have you ever heard that its inhabitants were already aware of our existence? he stated. I opened my mouth in astonishment, intrigued and attentive.

In one of their books, he continued when he sensed he drew my attention, they wrote of us. They referred to our planet Proxima-b and our star Proxima Centauri! They even compared it to theirs, as being a much smaller and that it emits less light than their Sun!

They knew about us and named our planet already?! I cogitated. Did you say they had an idea we existed? I asked aloud.

He nodded and gestured for me not to raise my voice and avoid attracting notice.

So, the myth is true. I added quietly, not waiting to hear his reply, You’ve got to tell me everything now!

We can’t speak of it this moment, not here! he interrupted.

A brief period of silence passed as we stared into space before he finally decided to end it with his deep and grave voice. This place is not safe, he leaned in and whispered, We have to be at another safer location, perhaps. Can we meet somewhere at the beginning of the next week? I have many things to do today and tomorrow, and we need plenty of time to discuss everything.

Plenty of time? Everything?

What more secrets could there be about this planet?

CHAPTER 2

The year 2029, NASA underground facility, Washington, D.C.,

Two top-ranked personnel from the Universal Government[3] stepped into that computerized, busy, occupied hall in NASA, where discreet and critical meetings usually took place. They joined with a gathering of a few Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers, presidential representatives of some countries, many generals, and other high-ranking officers from national security and intelligence from different nations. Some of the most recognized genius and brilliant astrophysicists were also there. All deeply immersed in that tense, heated conversation.

That approach will not work, sir, as we explained for the lack of... said a nervous scientist before being interrupted by a man who had just stepped into the room.

"Excuse me, Dr. Peter. It is by this time too tardy for that discussion. We’ve just received reports from our bases in Russia, China, some nations of the late EU, and other

Reviews for The Paradox

[amal elbeialy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting work !totally enjoyed it and kept me soaring in imagination skies.
Looking forward to read more from the author.

[shaymaa mohamed · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I definitely recommend this book to readers who are interested in science fiction novels.
Although this is my first time to read a novel related to fiction , this book managed to surpass my expectations.
the story is extremely powerful and exciting .One of the best things about this book is the way the author takes you to a fatasy world in a wonderful interesting way that made me a lot of times during my read feel eager to know the end of the story.
The book is easy to read and is amazing down to the last page.
It is highly recommended and you should put it on the list of your next reads.

[eman yosry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author successfully kept me hooked to the book till the last word .It would make a hit science fiction Hollywood movie!Highly recommended!