[OT] Short sci-fi story: The Lifeboat

[dogscoff]

OK, Geo inspired me, although I felt like throwing some discontentment into the mix. Here goes...

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Steve grumbled as he removed the Last of the wheels from his beloved van, which was propped up on four miscellaneous items of approximately equal height. He'd rescued this van from a scrap merchant four years ago and for five months poured all his spare time and money into renovating and decorating it. He'd surfed every beach in Australia from that van, driven it around Tasmania and half way round New Zealand, only for it to come to this. He reckoned he'd covered well over a hundred thousand Ks in it- although he guessed he could add some light-years to that now. He sighed and swore as he pulled the wheel off and laid it aside, then started considering the axles. 'Why am I doing this?' He thought, but dutifully slid underneath and began reaching for the tools to remove them. he'd thrown parties out of that van, even lost his virginity in it. He sighed and grumbled again, then swore loudly as his hand slipped onto a rusty edge and a gash of red appeared along the side of his thumb. He'd have to go and ask that miserable Maggie woman for some bandages and antiseptic or something. She was only a physiotherapist, but along with a trainee pharmacist from the tour group and a few first-aiders she was the closest they had to a doctor. Maybe the other village would have someone better trained, if those two ever got back with the bikes.

Steve slid out from under the van and nursed his hand, sucking away the grease and blood. The engine compartment lay open, empty. It had been his own suggestion to use the trusty old diesel engine to haul timber from the forest at the edges of the bLast area, but he never for a minute meant to remove the engine from the van. He wished he hadn't said anything, but he just had to break the monnotony of everyone else's voices. Those campfire meetings were so boring and self-congratulatory. Steve sometimes wondered if they weren't actually enjoying this nightmare, with all the energy and zeal they put into everything. John was the worst, by far. The humble farmer and self-appointed chairman of the community had soon assumed a kind of mediative supreme authority and ruled with an air of apparent openness and acceptance. However, there was definitely an inner circle in Steve's opinion- a cliquey little enclave consisting of his own extended family, the african elder guy and the Dunfords- and it soon became clear to Steve that anything coming from outside that group was insignificant, or worthy only of consideration after a great deal of debating, debunking and redefinition by the higher-ups. Therefore his own suggestion of turning the van's engine into a winch to drag logs across the scorched ground had mutated into a plan to remove the engine from the van and mounting it to a simple frame of scaffolding poles that could be moved closer to the bLast radius, so that the winching could be done in a series of shorter, easier twenty-metre drags rather than a single drag of several hundred. The fuel remaining in the van would probably be enough to shift a few tonsof what an initial survey had found to be sturdy, heavy plant material that could be cut quite adequately with their saws. There were plans to build a few shelters, since the tents, the vans and the tarpaulin shelters were only barely adequate for their numbers. Since the aliens had incinerated anything within a kilometre or more of the camp and early, cautious explorations had come up with no worthwhile sources of masonry- which would have been just as heavy anyway, Steve supposed- that meant that his van was needed to haul timber.

When the campfire meeting had finished stripping his beloved camper of its wheels and axles to be used in the winch frame, they'd commandeering his surfBoards- nothing was sacred- for the eventual construction of a raft for reaching the other village. It had all been carried by a vote, and the fact that they were Steve's van and Steve's surfBoards simply wasn't a consideration. Now denuded completely and stripped of all dignity- even the custom paint job was gradually disappearing beneath a layer of white ash kicked up frm the surrounding soil- all that was left was to lower the van's bare shell down into its final resting position to serve as maternity ward and post-natal nest for Ruth, who was due to drop any day now.

Ruth was one of the few people here Steve actually liked, although she reminded him painfully of an ex-girlfriend back in Melbourne, either dead by now or waiting for her time to starve under a thick, lightless sky. He choked up just thinking about it- imagining his friends and family looting supermarkets to survive just a few weeks longer, rioting for food- but gulped back the tears. It was fine for John and the Dunfords, they had all managed to bring people they loved. They could sit at the head of the group feeling smug and superior, but Steve had been travelling alone, and he was here alone. Maybe when they got news from the other village, he could be the next to visit. Maybe things were different there. Standing now, he kicked the tyre lying prone upon the floor and made his way over to find Maggie.

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Who's next then? Come on ppl...

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Mark the Merciful:
Given how many possible combinations of protein and polysacharride (it's a long time since I've had to spell that...) there are, it's hard NOT to image a carbon-and-water based alien bio-chemical ecosystem that's like ours, but not like ours enough to be edible (or at least, nutritious when eaten...)

Ok, well what I was thinking was that here on earth there are lots of different combinations and we can still eat a lot of them. Of course in the wild maybe that's not so true. The closest I get to vegitation normally is the produce section of my supermarket, and almost everything there is edible.

Not to mention that we humans have been shaping our landscape for millenia, so even the "wild" plants and animals have been affected in ways that maybe we can't even know.

I still think it reasonable that some edible plant material could be found. Sure not everything would be, but not everything here is either. But the large number of different species present in your typical ecosystem would allow for some to be useable as food just from basic probability.

Geoschmo

P.S. Dogscoff, check your PM?

[sachmo]

The was some grass from New Zealand.

[Intimidator]

Originally posted by clark:
Not very knowledgeable myself, but it would seem that there might be some things we could digest and process, and some things we couldn't. It really could go either way (think peanut allergies- they lack the enzymes to break down the peanuts)

I might mention about the story, which is really good, what the heck are the cows going to eat?

Because there is no bull present, I think they are the food Not let them eat your food eat them !!!!

[sachmo]

Originally posted by Intimidator:

quote:

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Originally posted by clark:
Not very knowledgeable myself, but it would seem that there might be some things we could digest and process, and some things we couldn't. It really could go either way (think peanut allergies- they lack the enzymes to break down the peanuts)

I might mention about the story, which is really good, what the heck are the cows going to eat?

Because there is no bull present, I think they are the food Not let them eat your food eat them !!!!

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Not yet, anyway. Someone else could have a bull.

[clark]

Where there is a bull, there is usually bullsh...

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by dogscoff:

quote:

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Do you think the aliens warnings against eating anything not native to earth would be absolute? Seems to me that organic matter is organic matter, is it not?

Someone stop me if my science is off here, but here's how I understand it:

Most of the things we eat are pretty complex- proteins, fats, sugars and vitamins- and they are all produced by plants or animals. For them to exist on another planet, therefore, that planet must have evolved its own plants and animals that produce those same molecules: Parallel evolution might well come up with something similar or identical to Earthly forms, but just as none of us seriously expect to find humanoid aliens with easily recognisable body parts and features, I think we're unlikely to find anything with identical or near-identical bio-chemistry.

I guess we'll never be sure until we get to another planet and find out, but I think it's likely that stuff evolved on another world would be inedible to us.

On the other hand, the bio-chemistry is almost certain to have *some* similarites: Oxygen is almost certainly going to be part of the equation, because no other element is at once stable and volatile enough to contain and then release the energies needed for life. Hydrogen is another likely contender because (A) there's bloody loads of it and (B) it comes packaged up with the oxygen in the form of water. Carbon is likely to be there as well, because not many other atoms can form themselves into such complex molecules. That gives you all the necessary ingredients for carbohydrates (edible sugars). Granted, there are probably a zillion ways those three elements could combine, but I guess it's reasonable that our survivors might find something that could be boiled down into edible carbohydrates.

Finally, there are some simple nutrients we ingest that are available in non-organic forms and therefore would be easy to find on another planet: iron, zinc, magnesium (calcium?) could probably be sourced locally- daresay you could dissolve them into drinking water, if your local friendly mountain stream hadn't already done the job for you.

Anyway, for plot purposes it's quite an interesting question. Anyone with some actual knowledge rather than my pop-science want to chip in?

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No 'professional' expertise here, but from what I know you are on the right track. Though the basic elements involved are simple, there are a gazillion possible different proteins that can be formed from those very simple elements. Our digestive systems are designed to break down certain types of fats and proteins and there are quite a few things even right here on earth that we cannot digest. It takes another specific protein, an enzyme, to break down a given protein into a simple usable form. If your system cannot make the right protein, no digestion is going to happen. There is no known reason that life on another planet would even use the same amino acids (simplest proteins) let alone compatible finished proteins. Maybe 'food' from an alien eco-system wouldn't automatically kill you, but it would almost certainly not provide any nutrition beyond a few basic minerals as already noted. Then again, some of the most deadly poisons known are also proteins made by exotic plants and animals right here on earth.

What I find more interesting is how would our immune system handle microbes from another planet? Bacteria and fungi are much more 'flexible' than more complex organisms in what they can digest, and humans might just be 'compatible' enough to be digestable by the local microflora. If your immune system cannot combat or doesn't even recognize the invaders, you might start to break down like a corpse while still alive. And then of course, we have the reverse question... would the earth-life bring some disease that this alien eco-system could not cope with and wipe it out?

Next we have to worry about 'macro' problems like gravity, adapting to the new climate, the day/night cycle (it might be 8 hours or 80 hours... ), and whether the sunlight is compatible with the earth plants. Not enough light in the right wavelengths, little or no plant growth. Too much ultraviolet - damaged plants and lots of skin cancer in humans. And not only days and nights, but how long are the 'seasons'? Might be a few months like earth, or might be a few years. How do you stock up food for a years-long 'winter' with plants evolved for only a few months per season?

You can presume that these 'nice' aliens would have found a world fairly close to earth in major characteristics but they cannot have had time to think of all of the details like light wavelengths.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
You can presume that these 'nice' aliens would have found a world fairly close to earth in major characteristics but they cannot have had time to think of all of the details like light wavelengths.

True, for this to work I think we'd have to make the basic assumption that earth type worlds are fairly common. Plentiful enough that the aliens could find one suitable for us in their planetary database that is far enough off the beaten track that the refugees weren't likely to be discovered in a short time.

Of course, since this is a story our assumption doesn't have to be likely for it to be realistic. It only has to be plausible.

[Intimidator]

And the next major problem is gene/DNA diversity.

Because john's group excist of only 50 to 60 people (if I read it correctly) that is far to less for having an descent genepool to survive more then 4 or 5 generations before you start to get inbreeding.

I read somewhere (a long time ago) that you need at least 300 people to prevent the problem of inbreeding but I'm not an bioligist so if someone can fill me in please do so..........

[clark]

Inbreeding (not that I am advocating it) is not a problem in and of itself, it only increases the chances of negative double recceive gene expressing itself. You end up with higher instances of defects because there is less diversity by which to recombine into stronger forms.