Space Fiction Stories

By Pervaiz Salik

This book presents 37 stories. These pieces may be short, but these stories will excite you, challenge you, and even threaten your current way of thinking as they look into the future of humanity, their lives and future problems. Enter this space and let your imagination run wild. For this edition, the author attempts to answer the fundamental questions of cosmology. Technical words have been kept to a minimum, but essential terms are explained in short notes after the story to aid the general reader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pervaiz Salik
• Release date: Feb 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215144336

Pervaiz Salik

I have an honours degree in Mathematics from the Open University and taught in Scotland before gaining an M.A. in English Literature. I taught English to O Level International GCSE Cambridge students for 14 years in Pakistan and was Head of Department there. My Haiku on Cultural Diversity is published in UNESCO’S Cultural Report 2000. My story of Big Samson The Big Lion (in a much shorter form) was accepted for publication by Oxford University Press, but never published for technical reasons. Currently, I have published about 12 e-books on the teaching of English, novels, short stories and poetry. My Spelling book was ranked number 1 in its category on Amazon. My interests include chess, badminton, bridge and astronomy. (Pervaiz Salik)

Book preview

Space Fiction Stories

By

Pervaiz Salik

Copyright © 2023 Pervaiz Salik

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be resold or copied in any form. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

[Acknowledgement of cover image:

Black Hole Image Makes History; NASA Telescopes Coordinated Observations.

Image Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)Image Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC).]

CONTENTS

Space Fiction Stories

Story 1: Sucked Inside a Black Hole

Story 2: The Laughter Medicine

Story 3: Music and Dating

Story 4: Who Wants to Live Forever?

Story 5: Only the Lonely

Story 6: Journeys for Love

Story 7: More About the Planet Ryan

Story 8: Robots, Robots and More Robots

Story 9: Crime and Punishment

Story 10: The Day the Earth Died

Story 11: Matter Versus Anti-Matter

Story 12: Back to the Past

Story 13: Through the Wormhole

Story 14: Too Much Knowledge Is Dangerous

Story 15: The Ideal Galaxy

Story 16: We Are Not Alone

Story 17: Vive La Difference

Story 18: The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever

Story 19: New Dangers in Space

Story 20: The Zoo Collector

Story 21: The Robots Attack

Story 22: A Fine Balancing Act

Story 23: Advanced Kirlian Photography

Story 24: Character Traits

Story 25: My Interview with Mr Cosmos (Part 1)

Story 26: My Interview with Mr Cosmos (Part 2)

Story 27: The Love Meter

Story 28: How to Deal with Superbugs

Story 29: Choose Your Own Dreams

Story 30: Extreme Equality

Story 31: Super-Brain Preservation

Story 32: The ABC Police

Story 33: Water Babies

Story 34: The New Age of Learning

Story 35: Laughter is the Best Medicine

Story 36: A Space Love Story

Story 37: The Divine Being and Science

Story 1: Sucked Inside a Black Hole

I knew it was stupid to attempt it, but I did. Mission Control had warned me not to go too near the supermassive black hole, but I did. Call it scientific curiosity or call it mathematical frustration (the equations just did not fit the facts). Perhaps it was a death wish: my girlfriend had decided to marry someone else before I had to go on this NASA mission.

Anyway, I waited to see what would happen next. I had figured out three possible theoretical outcomes: spaghettification, incineration, or passing through the hole and entering a new universe/dimension. The third possibility was the least likely, but I pinned my hopes on it.

None of these things happened. Instead, I became a part of the debris surrounding the black hole, a mass of matter circling violently around it – forever. The one crucial difference was that living beings need nourishment to sustain themselves, unlike inanimate substances. My food stock would hold out for four months. What a way to die!

[Notes:

1. Back hole: a region of space-time with such great gravitational force that it sucks in any matter close to it – including light itself.

2. Spaghettification: stretching out of all the cells in the body into one long strand, one atom thick.]

Story 2: The Laughter Medicine

My wife came to me while I was getting ready for the office. She looked distressed and agitated.

Mother's terminally ill, she announced gravely.

I burst out in an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

The wife's reaction was immediate and intense.

I knew it! I just knew it! You've never liked her. You've just been pretending all this time!

She left my room, enraged; I went casually to the office on my rocket.

It was only later, a week later, that the implications of that argument hit me. By that time, the effects of the laughter medicine had worn off – but not the wrath of my wife.

Why did I take the laughter medicine in the first place? Here I was with a good job and happily married – in fact, more than happily married. I am one of those very fortunate individuals who have not only a beautiful wife but also an understanding one too. Mental harmony, I used to call it. I say used to because that unfortunate laughing episode transformed our relationship. She had not spoken to me for a whole week since then.

The instructions on the bottle were clear enough: Use with caution. Warning: may result in inappropriate laughing behaviour.

But my depression (inherited from autosomal gene number ten) had become unbearable. Out of desperation, I tried this laughter medicine, advertised everywhere and widely available. I drank half a bottle; it worked a treat. But what should I do now?

Just then, the wife unexpectedly opened the door of my room.

Mother's dead! The funeral's tomorrow! She giggled hysterically.

I turned round to see that the bottle on top of my filing cabinet was empty.

[Notes:

1. Gene: a part of the DNA