Titleist

By Michael Strahle

About the Book
Titleist is about the golf ball that got hit off the moon in 1971. It ricocheted off a meteorite and eventually got lodged on another meteorite and traveled through space, eventually landing on another planet. This planet was almost exactly like Earth except that all the people were the size of small ants. Unfortunately, the ball carried with it a virus that infected the entire planet. Those unaffected left the planet in a spaceship just like the ball in search of an antidote to save the planet.
A fast-paced adventure ensues as the brave crew of the spaceship Titleist hurls toward Earth in search of a cure.
About the Author
Michael Strahle was born in McCloud, CA and raised in and around Redding, CA his entire life. After graduating high school, he became a full-time logger by the age of 19 and by the age of 20, a friend had introduced him to snow skiing, which changed his life. He became obsessed with the sport, but his life changed forever when he suddenly broke his neck. He became a quadriplegic at that moment. Luckily, he could move his arms, but had no grip in his hands. After a month and a half of work in rehab, he could feed himself again. This accident was the root of his burning desire to make the best of bad situations.
After spending three months in the hospital, he vowed to go sailing the day after returning home. With the help of his friends and brother, he went sailing as planned. With the help of a local muffler shop, he came up with the idea for a seat that would still allow him to see while on the catamaran he owned and within a year had a patent on a device called “Trapseats” to help disabled people sail.
Since it requires experienced people to help disabled sailors to go sailing, he has started an organization called the Reading Yacht Club to give kids, adults, seniors, and disabled people from all around the world a destination to travel to and go sailing with a friendly and helpful crowd of experienced sailors. Their mission is to focus on enhancing people’s lives through sailing and promoting safe boating.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Aug 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889257103

Book preview

Part 1

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Chapter I

Beyond The Mystic Blue Cluster

In the far reaches of the universe unfamiliar to those of the planet Earth, there is a black hole that leads to an unknown galaxy. The only way to find this black hole is to locate the star pattern called the Mystic Blue Cluster. At the center of this mysterious star pattern is not a dead sun, but rather a black hole. In fact, it is not really a galaxy at all, it is a spiral star pattern that stopped its stellar formation thousands of years ago. Thus, it appears to be more like an elliptical galaxy. Another unique aspect of the Mystic Blue Cluster is that the spiral star pattern is visible from both sides of the black hole. That is, the Mystic Blue Cluster is really the gateway to another world, as in another dimension of space altogether. This inner space has its own planets, star patterns, black holes, and galaxies. Hence, this Mystic Blue Cluster can also be seen from a distant planet within this unknown space beyond called, Reflog.

Reflog is a densely populated planet full of humanoid life similar to that on Earth, although there are also major differences which I will get to later. The humanoids’ language, for one, is remarkably similar to the English language on Earth, but there also are several unexplained quirks that one may notice while reading this tale. The reason the people of Reflog speak the English language remains a mystery. For now, the focus is on what appears to be a deep space probe on its way to the small planet. The deep space probe from Earth traveled one hundred light years before getting sucked into the black hole at the center of the Mystic Blue Cluster. The probe then collided with a small meteor and became lodged inside the large rock formation before burning through the atmosphere of Reflog. Like a shooting star falling from the sky, thousands of the humanoids on Reflog witnessed what appeared to be a meteor fall from the sky and crash into the planet. It was a massive crash and a huge fireball as well. It was on all the news channels on the planet, and several went to investigate.

The large meteorite became brittle during the fiery entry into the atmosphere and broke apart on impact. Although, there was something odd at the center of the massive meteorite crater. It was a large and perfectly round object with a pattern of concave divots all the way around the massive structure. It was black and burnt on the surface with piles of meteorite particles all around it. The massive round structure had ridden on the back of the meteorite, which is how it didn’t get burned up upon entry into the atmosphere. It looked like a massive spaceship of some kind. The humanoids [or people] of Reflog moved what they presumed to be a space probe from another planet to a secret hanger for further observation. The space probe appeared to be black in color, but after careful investigation, it turned out to be white underneath?

The black color was found to be a crust of burnt matter caused from entering the atmosphere. Eventually, the burnt crust was removed from the massive structure which revealed the spacecraft’s name.

The letters on the space probe were two stories high, as there was a large capital T, a lowercase i, and then a t. It spelled, Tit, and the scientists had no idea what this meant.

Finally, more large letters were found near the bottom section that had not been cleaned yet. The space probe was eventually rotated and cleaned until the entire space probe’s name was revealed, which spelled, Titleist.

The scientists felt like they had started to uncover the mystery of the great space probe and were under the impression that there may even be creatures from another planet or galaxy inside. The outside surface of the space probe also puzzled the scientists, due to its rubber like surface. They searched and searched for a hatch or doorway to the inside of the probe, but there was none to be found. Analysis of the structure revealed that there were gases inside the center of the object as well. Hence, the scientists were afraid to drill into or puncture the probe for fear of what deadly substance may be inside. After a long debate between an elite group of scientists at the planet Reflog’s space center, it was decided that it was much too dangerous to penetrate the outer shell of the space probe.

In fact, there was concern that it may in fact be a weapon from a distant planet that could potentially be full of deadly gases. This led to an intense debate at ASAN (Association of Space and Astrological Necessity), and the top scientists of the planet all decided to get rid of the space probe by simply locking it away. The space probe was much too big to somehow shoot back into space, and destroying it may release deadly gases, and so, this is why the probe was simply locked away for good. Similar to Area 51 on the planet Earth, the mysterious space probe was put under lock and key for possible future observation.

Not long after the space probe was locked away though, most of the scientists that studied it began to get sick and developed small bumps all over their skin. Other people who were in direct contact with the scientists also began to get sick, and also developed small bumps on their skin. Before the scientists could figure out what was going on, the entire planet began to show signs of a global plague. People started dying in droves and there was no cure in sight. The source of the mysterious and deadly plague was soon discovered as all signs led to the mysterious space probe. Eventually, the source of the plague was detected on the exterior of the mysterious space probe. Ultimately, the spaceship was soon renamed the, death probe as thousands of people on the planet began to die.

Some type of deadly disease had spread, but thankfully, not all were affected. Hence, there were a small percentage of people that were unaffected and seemed to be naturally resistant to the disease. Frantically, a search for a cure ensued, but the efforts were to no avail. Thousands of people were dying every single day and time was running out for the now millions infected with the disease. Fortunately, the scientists on Reflog were highly advanced in their knowledge of cryogenics.

They in turn decided to freeze everyone infected on the entire planet until a cure was found. It took months to organize and millions of people perished. School gymnasiums and large warehouses were converted into cryogenic labs around the entire planet.

The massive effort worked, and solar energy was used to power each of the massive cryogenic labs. Within six months, every infected person that had not died was placed into a cryogenic lab. The planet Reflog’s population of nearly one billion people was cut in half due to the disease, but there were still 500 million safely locked away in the makeshift cryogenic labs. A small group of twenty five thousand people were left who were somehow immune to the disease, and banded together in search of a cure. Five years past and there was still no cure in sight. The remaining group of people had gathered in one small town near the planet’s space center. There were still one hundred scientists from the ASAN Space Center who were unaffected from the disease. Ultimately, they soon became the spokesmen for the entire planet. Most of the government had already died, and the rest were frozen except for a small group of senators. The remaining scientists decided that the only chance to revive the rest of the planet with a cure was to somehow find the source. That is, travel to the planet where the probe originated. After meticulous calculations and educated guesses, the scientists decided to build a spaceship, and replicate the trajectory of the mysterious space probe’s original travel through the black hole. It would be a journey in search of the probe’s original planet.

Therefore, the design of the spaceship was modeled after the shape of the space probe. That is, the scientists figured there must be something to the design because the probe had made it this far. The entire surface of the space probe was covered with symmetrical dimples that were perfectly spaced apart from each other. The design puzzled the scientists, so several ping pong ball size models of the space probe were constructed to test the aerodynamics. In one test, smoke in a wind chamber was used along with high-speed cameras. The scientists discovered that the balls with dimples appeared to create turbulence and drag compared to the smooth models without dimples. Several other aerodynamic tests were conducted using balls with dimples as compared to balls without.

The scientists were puzzled, as there was no sign that the dimples helped aerodynamically in any way. Finally, one of the scientists by the name of Dr. Dlonra Remlap, came up with a novel idea to test the potential velocity of balls at high speeds. He simply used a long shaft with a square shaped surface at the end to smack the balls while they were sitting on the ground. He thought it would be a good test to see if the dimpled balls might travel further. Dr. Remlap seemed to have a good natural swing, and could even hit some of the small test balls almost 300 yards. Eventually, he discovered that he could hit the balls with dimples much further than those without? Several other scientists were intrigued, and took their try at whacking the balls as well, It was kind of fun, but Dr. Remlap could hit the balls much further than anyone.

In fact, hitting the balls around the field became a popular pastime when not working on the space program. They even named the game flogging after the planet’s name. When relaxing after a day working on the spaceship design, Dr. Remlap and a small group of his colleagues would usually drink beer while they were flogging. Eventually, they started to use the cans as targets. In time, they even cut the tops off the cans and buried them in the ground so to try and hit the balls into. They each would use the long shaft with the square end that Dr. Remlap made to hit the ball as close to the buried can from a fair distance. Then, they would hit the little ball softer to try and roll it into the semi-buried can. Whoever did it with less swings, would win. The game became more and more popular and was a great way for the scientists to relax as they worked toward their ultimate goal to save the planet. Interestingly, as their beer containers contained eighteen cans, Dr. Remlap and his flogging Buddy’s buried eighteen cans. Some cans were placed closer than others, and each would take three to five swings to get the ball into the buried can. Dr. Remlap was clearly the best flogger though, and even got a can-in-one several times.

Dr. Remlap could easily hit the balls longer than anyone, but kept noticing how the older hacked-up balls seemed to just go farther. This had to have a connection with why the death probe had divots on its surface. Ultimately, though, Dr. Remlap used the wind tunnel to test his hypothesis that the divots on the Space Probe were there to help with aerodynamics. The hypothesis turned out to be null? In fact, the smooth balls were found to have a laminar flow, and therefore, expressed signs of less drag at low speeds as compared to the little balls with dimples. By accident though, Dr. Remlap discovered that by smacking the balls with the long shaft, he could hit the dimpled balls further than the smooth surfaced balls. But how could he objectively observe how this phenomenon could be? Finally, he thought to use high-speed cameras to film the airflow of the balls while flying in the air. To accomplish his test, he dunked each ball in water and then smacked it with his long shaft.

The little bit of water on each ball would create a small mist that would make the airflow visible by a high-speed camera. By doing so, he discovered a phenomenon called separation of the laminar flow, which created increased drag on the smooth balls only. On the other hand, the balls with dimples did not succumb to the separation phenomenon at higher speeds, and therefore, produced less drag. That’s why the dimpled balls flew further! Dr. Remlap seemed to have solved the puzzle of why the space probe had dimples on its outer hull and believed that it must have helped during space travel. The mysterious space probe had traveled hundreds of lightyears according to their calculations, although there was no sign of how it was propelled. Ultimately, the remaining senators and space team decided to build a spaceship in a last ditch effort to save the planet’s people.

Soon, the remaining twenty-five thousand people on Reflog all banded together to construct the planet’s first spaceship. The ship was built exactly to the specs of the mysterious space probe right down to the color and even the name Titleist.

The ten story tall ball-shaped spaceship was equipped with cryogenic labs as well, so the astronauts could avoid aging during their travels. Furthermore, the spaceship’s outer shell was also equipped with solar panels that would power the cryogenics inside the craft for an endless amount of time. The remaining one hundred scientists became the crew of the Titleist, and, unlike the mysterious space probe, the ship was fitted with rocket engines located in every dimple on the outside of the round spaceship.

Therefore, because the ship was round, the scientists calculated that any part of the ship could become the front or back. That is, as one engine fired off until its fuel was depleted, the ship could be rotated. In succession, the next programmed engine would be fired off. As the ship rotates, each engine would serve to hurl the ship through space until it fizzled out. Then, the spaceship would rotate so another engine would be fired from the rear of the sphere until it fizzled out, and so on. Each engine also has an individual fuel supply capable of powering the spaceship for one light year through space. As each engine burned out, it would be ejected from the ship so to reduce the weight leaving a smooth dimple. Thus, the ship was equipped with over one hundred engines. Ultimately, the scientists figured it could travel well over one hundred light years through space at remarkable speeds.

The spaceship Titleist was placed on the nose of a massive rocket built to propel the ship out of Reflog’s atmosphere towards the black hole. The giant rocket had a two-stage sequence (e.g., like a Saturn 5 rocket used by Earth to go to the Moon), where stage one would break the ship through the atmosphere, and stage two would then fire to propel the ship through the black hole. Once through the black hole, the second stage rocket would break loose and the journey through the unknown galaxy would begin. At that time, final calculations would be configured, and the crew would succumb to their frozen state for the long travel through space. The great spaceship was eventually completed, and the day of launch quickly arrived.

Chapter II

Rescue Mission At T-10

The most historic day in Reflog’s history had come. The heroic crew had assembled, and the launch sequence was nearing its end. The entire planet was at a standstill, and the people were glued to their television sets. That is, except for the ones witnessing the launch. It really was an awesome sight to behold, as the ship named Titleist was sitting atop a massive rocket that was over one hundred stories tall. The ship alone was ten tall stories tall as compared to the people on Reflog, so the entire spaceship was over one hundred and ten stories tall. It was an emotional moment for the entire planet, as this risky mission had no guarantees. The remaining population would continue to work on a cure for the disease that plagued the entire planet, as there was a small chance that the mission to go to a strange planet to find the source of the disease would actually work. Even if the launch is successful, the raw fact is that the crew has no idea where they’re going. When they get there, if everything goes right, who might they contact? Still,