[neilep]

beautiful words Kareny mam.

You write with such intensity....

hugs the kareny mam

[Karen W.]

Oh...thanks Neil, thats so kind and sweet of you to say...
Especially when coming from an Ole Wooley Sheep as yourself !  :-)
All silliness aside.. I appreciate and value your thoughts...
Hugs your Royal Sheepiness back! xx

[annie123]

Cosmic or quantum universes
design or chaos
galaxies, suns, planets
understanding the voids
and the darkness of matter.
Out there
so much space to explore.

In my own space
whatever I am can sit
in a room alone,
 tour my own worlds
of sense, imagination, consciousness
to blast off to the realms of
Wonder and terror

[Karen W.]

That is very nice annie123. Cool science oriented works..nice job! Welcome to the Share your writing thread..hope to see you making many more entries as you like. WELCOME!

[Hadrian]

Bending skin tight fibber splits
Beads of sweat around my neck
Mouth dry as dust upon shelf
Block to move your heart
Beat deep in the dark soil
Doubt is only in the mind
Kumite

[Karen W.]

That is nice.. thank-you Hadrian.... Its nice to see you posting.. I hope you are well?....

[Æthelwulf]

Well, I feel a little embarrased sharing my own story... I will post the first couple of chapters but that's it because I am highly critical of my writing ability. I'll have to split the post.

The Arecibo Complex                                           
:scifi
Book One
Prologue

And so it was, on the 16th of November in 1974 scientists at the Arecibo Observatory sent radio frequency messages into the deep of space. The message consisted of several parts.
It contained our digital counting numbers from 1-10. The atomic numbers of our well accomplished theory of elements, from hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, including phosphorus. These elements make up DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid.

It also contained the exact formula's for the sugars and the basis of DNA. Also the number of nucleotides in DNA and the molecular structure of DNA. And to end, it had a graphic sized picture of our solar system, including arecibo telecscope and a graphic picture of a human being.

For years, scientists boasted they knew the facts of their science. That the message was only a historical feat of our accomplishments and that any real chance of any civilization picking the message up would be slim, as to reach it's destination would take more or less 25,000 lightyears.

Little did they know the facts for sure, as their equipment which had sent the message, recieved one back...

Chapter One
Part One
The Message
Washington D.C.

Somewhere in the Pentagon

In the deepest region of the Pentagon, in a top secret room some of America's top officials gathered round a table, while they where briefed on a most important and revolutionary turn of events. Several scientists entered the room, given top clearance to parts of the Pentagon that only some of the most prominent leaders of the establishment have ever graced viewing for their own eyes.

The atmosphere was tenebrous and caliginous. There was an elevated expression on many faces of the officials who had gathered, acting as though there was something troubling them.

One of the scientists sat down at the table, ''I am professor Graham Connar. I am the representative for the Exoscience department at Goddard Space Flight Center. I have urgant news that will shake the foundation of every physics textbook we currently have.''

''Please, Professor Connar, continue. We where ordered here today regarding what was called 'the upmost important situation', '' Colonel James Master replied.

Prof. Connar flicked through his notes and came to a folder which had several papers enclosed inside. He opened it and passed it round the group, ''Gentlemen, in 1974 very important messages were sent into the deep vacuum of space at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 which is 25,000 light years away; they contained an array of several messages, from the structure of DNA to who we are. It's goal was one thing - to make contact with alien life.

''Then only a few days ago, we recieved confirmation of the inexplicable... Our officials where informed that contact had been made. We don't really have much to say, other than we have evaluated the evidence and we conclude that the speculations are true. Our report is planery - the signals we recieved where not of some astronomical object but where modulated radio waves with a 2380 MHz frequency, the same frequency we sent the message in.

''The nature of the message cannot be discussed just now. Only the implications.''

Colonel Master replied sternly, ''And what are the implications?''

''The implications of the message, would seem to plunge our planet... every country into an immediate state of warning; we are in danger.''

The Colonel looked to his side at one mysterious member of this military council who was standing in the corner of the room, masked by the blanket of a dark shadow as he kept himself hidden away from the light. Looking back at the scientist he replied, ''that will be all gentlemen. We meet back up in seven days, you will be contacted by your superiors.''

Everyone gathered round the table stood up and began to leave, except the Colonel who went and joined the man cloaked in the dark. Once everyone had left the Colonel said, ''What do we do now?''

The mysterious man replied, ''You do nothing. My collegues have been worried about this day ever since Roswell. I will get back to you once I have collaborated with them over the recent developments.''

(Two days later...)

Conference on Space Propulsion and Advances in Alien Exploration, Los Angeles

Doctor Layton took a drink of her water in one large yet quite confident gulp. She held the captivated audience in
the gleem of her eye and she knew how to keep their attentions. She had an unusual intellect about her - a certain aura of intelligence which was a league above her fellow scientists.

''And so... we should remember the statistics of ever finding an alien lifeform, or one which finds us. Even if we do not appreciate how difficult it is for a lifeform to travel these journeys: These include  the vast distances of space, including the incredible amount of time it requires to travel very large distances.

''We already know that matter cannot travel at lightspeed, doing so would require an infinite amount of energy, more energy than in the observable universe! The energy requirements also to travel vast distances would far exceed the crafts capabilities - in other words, not only is space and time a matter of consequence, but also energy. But, even if these things are not taken into appreciation, atleast one thing should cast considerable doubt on any alien visitation. That being how difficult it would be to even locate a single planet which is capable of sustaining life - and not just life in general, here I mean intelligent life.

''There are to refresh the minds of the audience today who have managed to sit through one class of astrophysics, our galaxy alone is 100,000 lightyears thick in diameter - for those who are not mathematicians, this just means the amount of years it requires for light to travel the whole distance. This is of course, massive. Our galaxy contains approximately 200 billion stars. And many of these stars will have planets which are in a stable orbit around their star systems.

''Then you consider how vast space is in comparisson to just our single galaxy alone. The diameter of the entire universe is 93 billion lightyears. Very vast indeed. All the planets and stars and every other astronomical object in our universe only takes up 1% of all spacetime, and as small as that may seem, this 1% is still a massive number in it's own right. In the entire universe alone, there is suspected to be more than a 100 billion galaxies in our observable universe. That entails particles which make this vast arena.''

Dr. Layton took a pause. She took a step back, rasing her head completely from her notes, and moved away from the podium. Without her notes, she stood stark, shoulders back, and ready to finish, as this part of her speach she had learned time and time again.

''We have not even began to understand how difficult it must be to find an appropriate earth-like planet which has managed to create just the right conditions for life. We do know one thing for certain, when life has the chance of occurring on a planet, it almost certainly will thrive and multiply - just like that single prokaryote that first dominated our primordial sea... this single-celled life brought the way to eukaryotic systems, many of them, multitudes of them. But even though life is frequent here, with new species being found almost every day, every other planet in our star system is barren, lonely and void of any existence of mobile matter.

''In fact, as far as our mathematical conjectures can tell, most planets, will be barren of life. There is a specific tuning required for the existence of biological lifeforms; as we have learned in our astrophysics studies, planets suitable for the carbon-based lifeforms we are so aquanted with cannot sustain on any other planet in our solar system, because they are either too far from our sun, or too close or does not match the correct equalibrium of elements required to sustain life or even create it.

''But here is what we don't usually realize, with all these things aside, do we really understand how difficult it is to find absolute evidence that any planet we may observe in the vast distances of spacetime are suitable for life. Trying to find a habital planet is figuratively as hard as finding a needle in a haystack... Out of all the planets we have been able to observe, is only a very small fraction of all the planets that are in the universe - so any race being able to find another race in this vast universe, seems very improbable.''

Dr Layton was eluminated in the stage lights and the crowds stood to applaud, the whole hall cheered to Dr. Layton who modestly walked off the stage with a smile on her face. You could see she said something as she walked off, but the crowds overwhelmed her audibility.  Her simplicity in her talks still had the amazing ability to take complex theories and make them understandable for the layman.

As soon as she was in the cover of the backstage her collegue Dr. Amanda Carrier, who got her degree alongside Dr. Angela Layton at Oxford joined her.

''Well done Angela,'' Amanda said assuringly, ''It was a wonderful speach, very accurate as always.''
Dr. Layton replied ''Well, atleast it is over now... drink?''

Amanda smiled and replied, ''of course.''

The two doctors made their way to the car park outside to drive to a place they had visited a lot over the years.

(Some time later...)

Santa Monica,
115 Pico Blvd.

The night life was particularily dead this evening, Layton thought as she and her friend made their way to the renowned Valentino Restaurant. They decided to go to Valentino's as it was relatively close to her home in Rancho Park - plus, they had a particularily excellent range of wines and Itallian foods, owing this knowledge to being long term customers.

Layton pulled up her car just a few blocks down in an available car park and she and her collegue began to walk up the main street. When reaching the restaurant they entered the room which her nose had became so accustomed to, but never became bored with, over the many years of visiting the place. A strong aroma of freshly cooked pasta's and mushrooms douced in wild spices and other exotic mediterranean dishes permeated the air.

The doctor turned to her friend Angela and said, ''Oh I needed this. Can't wait to have a glass of red. My day has been so long... ... Is you sister down this weekend then?''

Angela shook her head from side to sade and replied, ''Unfortunately no. I asked Steve to take some time off work so I could go visit her and mother, but he's adament that there will be no such thing happening in the near future,'' after a few quick glances round the beautifully decored room she continued, ''But he's so buisy nowadays, he
hardly finds any time for me either.''

The waiter could be seen coming up from the other end of the room and what a room it was. The seats where harlot red, which stood bold against the white creamy tables and walls. The place was cast in a brilliant light, cascading down from the glass chandelier, ''Here he is,'' Layton said.

The waitor smiled and said, ''good evening Dr. Layton, you pleasure us with your appearance again... please... come this way.''

The waitor led them to a table for two by the window.

''What would you like to drink?''

Dr. Amanda looked to Layton and said, ''my friend will have a red wine and may I have a G and T.''

''Be here soon, thank you very much'' the waitor replied, handing them the menu's.

As Layton opened the menu she looked up to Amanda and said, ''Look hunny, your mother is not well. You need time to go see her. What about a nanny?''

''I hear you Angela, I really do. But I wanted Steve to look after them so much,'' a look of disappointment awashed her face, ''the kids are constantly asking for him. He's away from monday till saturday every week and I'm left as the one handing out excuses. It's not fair. If he could only see what this... ''

Angela abruptly talked over Amanda stopping her from finishing her sentance as she took her hand, ''I know you Angela. I've known you for over 20 years! I know you miss him, but arguing over him getting back won't make it happen quicker. It is true your kids are everything in your world, but what good are you to your kids if you are not in the best frame of mind?''

On that word, the waitor brought the drinks to their table. They paused what they were talking about until he left again; Angela took the first opportunity to reply, ''You're right. I know you are. I've been... especially stressed these last few weeks.''

[Æthelwulf]

''It's a sign you need a break,'' Amanda asserted.

''Can you look after my kids... only for a weekend so I can get away for a bit to see my mother and sister?''
Angela replied, ''Of course Amanda... I would do it any time. I'll tell you what, why don't you plan to go see them this weekend, I'll take the kids off your hands.''

Angela smiled and replied, ''Thank you so much. I will pay you for it.''

''No need,'' Angela laughed, ''I would never take money off you.''

Ring Ring...

Then a familiar sound could be heard coming from Amanda's pocket. It was her mobile. Angela took this moment to take her first few drinks from her wine glass.

''Hello.... what? Oh for god sake... not again! I'll be right there.''

Angela's eyes rolled to the back of her head, ''Guess you going then?''

''I'm so sorry Angela, my babysitter has had to take Jacob to the hospital. It's not too serious apparently, but I really should go see if he's ok... '' Amanda pulled her puppy dog eyes, ''so sorry.''

''Don't be silly,'' Angela replied, ''You must go see if he's ok. I better give you a lift.''

Amanda squeezed Angela's hand, gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, ''don't you dare, I don't live far away... There is a taxi outside anyway,'' and then she proceeded to leave the building without giving Angela a chance to persuade her. Angela took another drink of her wine and looked around the place for a few minutes, after decided to leave as well. She stopped to pay the bill and went outside to have a smoke before heading back down the street. But little did she know, someone had followed her back to the car.

It wasn't until she heard a stone being dislodged from behind her she turned round in shock, to find a man standing in the shadows, ''What do you want?''

The man walked into the light. He was dressed in a black suit. He had dark hazelnut eyes and black hair with a rugged look about him. He put his hand into a pocket inside his jacket and pulled out his ID.

''FBI mam,'' he showed her the card then put it back into his pocket.

''Have I done something wrong?'' Dr. Layton asked.

''Oh contrare, you have done absolutely nothing wrong... I just wanted to talk.''

Layton replied, ''Just talk?''

''About astrophysics.''

Layton nodded her head and said, ''Oh right... so you know of my work,'' she smiled, ''You must forgive me, you caught me off gaurd.''

''Dr. Layton, I attended the Conference in Los Angeles. You gave a most interesting speach. You seem to believe that whilst there may be many solutions to intergalactic space travel, the actual chances of finding one planet with alien lifeforms is vanishingly small because, as you said, the vast arena of space is so large that the chances of anyone finding anyone are slim... how would we know know which direction to look?''

Dr. Layton nodded her head... ''Yes this is true. It would be a great waste of energy to travel to a very small corner of spacetime to find it yields very little fruit. It would be like looking for a grain of sand which has been painted blue on a very large beach.''

''But you overlooked something,'' the Agent replied vigilantly, ''What if the alien race where given the coordinates to find earth...''

''Elaborate,'' the doctor replied.

The agent softly replied, ''You ever heard of the Arecibo Project? They sent messages into space in the late 70's with only one goal in mind... to make contact.''

The Doctor smiled and quickly retorted, ''Even though we have sent signals into space, these signals are also subject to the laws of physics, they travel at the speed of light... they have not been travelling in space long enough to have reached the vast distances we suspect are required.''

The agent moved closer, you could see he was frustrated, ''Doctor, please. This conventional wisdom you live by has been placed within a narrow box of understanding. The Aliens might indeed come from a galaxy so distant, our techniques to reach it will be futile, but what if they have been around for a lot longer than us? What if they have stationed themselves in more than just their narrow end of the universe... what if they have stationed themselves very close to us and it wasn't until the signals were sent into space did they even know of our existence?''

Dr. Layton paused and took a moment to think about it. What he said to her, did not really have any discrepencies. It should be consistent to believe that if they are able to travel vast distances in space, why wouldn't they have visited and settled in more than one direction of spacetime and a lot closer than previously imagined?

''Ok... agent. You have my attention. What makes you say these things?''

''There is a small group, a circle of men in the government trying to hide one of the most important discoveries we have ever came across,'' the agent replied, ''I told you about the messages we sent into space... only a few days ago, we recieved a message back.''

Dr. Layton was astounded, but equally in disbelief. Could she honestly believe what she was being told? In all her years of denouncing the possibility of contact by an E.B.E she was being told she was wrong. And Dr. Layton was by no means someone whose mind could be easily changed on a subject if her physical training did not permit it logically. Scientifically, it was plausible, but consistently it failed as a logical account of true events, ''Look, I'm afraid I can't believe that.''

The agent put his hand into his pocket, ''I thought this would be your response, it always is from an educated mind,'' he took out a small card, most likely a security pass by the looks of things, ''There is a room, a special room. A most secretive room, which only a few eyes have ever seen. Tomorrow, you need to visit the Pentagon and this security pass will let you visit this room, but I will instruct you how to find it.''

''That is illegal,'' Dr. Layton replied.

''Would it be worth it? This card will give you unrestricted access... only a hand full of men have the same clearance. Because of the clearance level of the card, your identity will not be questioned - these men are never questioned. You speak of illegal activities, these men are the illegal system incarnet. They constantly break the law by hiding evidence which cannot be refuted.''

The agent handed over the security pass to the doctor; she looked up after taking a hold of it and saw how genuine the eye's where of the agent; he continued, ''I know those corridors well. I know what they have concealed and I will instruct you were to avoid. You cannot tell anyone of our meeting today. What I have given you, could kill a hundred men. What I have told you, could pay a price on my life and my childrens lives and maybe even their childrens children - this is how important this clearance is, it is a subject of matter which is classified even higher than the H-Bomb.''

''I don't know if I can do this.''

The agent tried to change her doubt, ''It's not that you can't. You feel like you shouldn't. If you will do yourself any justice, do yourself this favor. The information you will recieve will be life-changing... you were chosen for this. Your character profile showed you were perfect for this release of information, which was promised to the public via congress many times if it existed, but they denied there was a coverup. The late Senator Barry Goldwaters commented  on the validity of the gradual release of information to the public in a letter to Shlomo Arnon in March 1975... They denied it because they keep it secret in the name of National Security,'' then the agent strengthened his arguement, ''Look at what the FBI director was reported saying in 1973. The director said that the FBI does not and has never investigated UFO's and that it was not within the jurisdiction of the agency. Only then in 1976, 1,100 documents where released to the public, special and very important memorandums investigated by the FBI which proved the Director was lying. Why did he lie in the first place? Rhetorical questions of course... as much they claim it is for National Security reasons, what could be more dangerous for our National Security than a under-prepared nation because they have blatently denied access to this most valuable information from the word go?''

The agent took out a peice of paper with instructions how to reach this room he spoke of. After she took the small parchement, she noticed he began to leave.

''Wait,'' she said, ''You never told me what the message said... the one they sent back.''

The agent looked to floor as though he was deeply saddened. He took a deep breath and said, ''It was like no message you may receive from an meeting a new friend or neighbour you have not seen in many years. Unlike a warmly greeting, the reply was most disturbing.''

''You must tell me,'' Layton replied.

The agent quicly nebulized their comminucation, ''that I cannot tell you. That you must discover for yourself. The truth is daring, spectacular and terrifying.''

The agent left into the dark of the night, with the doctor left standing on her spot in a state of shock and awe. She soon broke from the transe she inexorably was plunged into and decided to go home, safely tucking her security card and parchment into her pocket.

[Karen W.]

ALRIGHT .....NOW..don't leave me hanging.... That is a very nice story line..I am hooked......Need I say continue.....Lol.....please

[Æthelwulf]

ALRIGHT .....NOW..don't leave me hanging.... That is a very nice story line..I am hooked......Need I say continue.....Lol.....please

really? You honor me!

I will write more up later... takes a bit of time this typing up.

[Æthelwulf]

Oh when doctor Layton is speaking about how many particles are in the universe, that is really , not 1080... that would be a small amount indeed !!!

[Æthelwulf]

ALRIGHT .....NOW..don't leave me hanging.... That is a very nice story line..I am hooked......Need I say continue.....Lol.....please

Ok, I will write one more chapter.

You can choose which one you want, I will give you a choice between three:

1. Insidious Plans, Part Three (this has to do with Doctor Layton penetrating the Pentagon)
2. A Foreign Message Part Seven (this is when the Doctor Layton realizes there are outsiders who know the alien message, and have came forward on TV. The whole world gradually hears about the message and plunges into a state of fear. She also comes into possession of peice of metal which an insider informs her is a broken peice of a UFO craft which she does scientific tests on.)
3.  The Rapture, Part Eleven (the second last part, which tells the story of an incoming invasion, not to destroy the world or humans in it, but to take them away.)

[Karen W.]

ALRIGHT .....NOW..don't leave me hanging.... That is a very nice story line..I am hooked......Need I say continue.....Lol.....please

really? You honor me!

I will write more up later... takes a bit of time this typing up.

Hey..it is very good you have a few typing errors, where you wrote the word "where" when it should have said "were", but those are just typos.. you
wrote it that way several times, but did it correctly several times also. So they are just simple typos...

So far I love the story and it moves nicely
without dragging and it keeps my attention..with smoothly written sentences and a nice stlye...using a lot of good science wording and descriptive detailing also. Very nice.

[Karen W.]

Oh when doctor Layton is speaking about how many particles are in the universe, that is really , not 1080... that would be a small amount indeed !!!

Ok..that sounds good..Did you go back and edit it..so you remember it?

[Æthelwulf]

Oh when doctor Layton is speaking about how many particles are in the universe, that is really , not 1080... that would be a small amount indeed !!!

Ok..that sounds good..Did you go back and edit it..so you remember it?

No, I didn't I'll fix it now.

[Karen W.]

Lets go with part three I would get too lost skipping around...Lol...

Cool..its good to correct as you go, so as to not have so much to do during your final drafts.. This way the changes are fresh in your head if you need to add or remove things.

[Æthelwulf]

Lets go with part three I would get too lost skipping around...Lol...

Cool..its good to correct as you go, so as to not have so much to do during your final drafts.. This way the changes are fresh in your head if you need to add or remove things.

Oh this is a story I wrote a while back Karen... I wrote it on paper you see

[Karen W.]

Well you have done a fine job... Make sure you publish it..  its very good so far. You tell a good story and I feel like I am reading a script and can see this being made into a nice film... Good ideas so far! I would buy a copy.. Lol.. I like Science-fi...

[Karen W.]

You Deserve the praise..very entertaining story.. I can't wait to read the rest.. thank you for sharing.. it was nice to get my mind off some other things tonight.. thanks for that!

[Æthelwulf]

I have written only half of it so far Karen. I appreciate your patience, I have just been quite busy the last week.