Zylox's predicament

     The great council of Scarabaeoidea called their newly elevated war chief before them.
    “War chief Zylox, you are hereby commanded to take the great fleet to the Gian system and dole out justice for the insult they did to our fleet.”

    The war chief had known this was coming ever since the defeat of Octarius Prime. He also knew that choosing to attack Gia was a no win situation; that basically the council was sending the fleet on a suicide mission, but he had to follow the council’s orders.

    “Very well, I shall assemble the fleet.”

    Zylox gathered up their most powerful and newest ships, loaded them with enough supplies to hold a siege of the system for years without a resupply, loaded up terraforming equipment, construction equipment, several freighters of nothing but fuel to keep everything running for again several years without resupply, and a hand selected crew. Then in the wee hours of the Scarabaeoideaian morning he set off for the Gian system. The trip took half of a Scarabaeoideaian year even traveling faster than light.

    It was 12:00 Zulu on a Tuesday on Earth when the sensors went active showing hostile ships approaching the Ort Cloud of the system and Zylox was summoned to the bridge.

    “Sir, Gian military is on the com.”

    “Bring them up.”

    High Admiral Simineaux appears on the screen, and Zylox begins speaking quickly.
    “Good morning High Admiral, I am War Chief Zylox. I was commanded by the great council of Scarabaeoidea to bring my fleet to your system and dole out justice. I have in fact brought my fleet to the Gian system, I would like to dole out justice now and as my witness I am condemning my ships and crew to exile as I request asylum for all of us.”

    Admiral Simineaux blinks then turns to someone off camera.

    “Did he just say what I think he said? Is he basically saying he is mutinying an entire battle group?”

    “Yes, Admiral Simineaux that is what I am saying. From the standpoint of myself and my captains we feel the council sent us on a suicide mission and none of us can see why a million of us should die because the council is...stupid.

    If you would like to board our ships and examine them I am fully prepared for an inspection. We don’t want trouble, we just want to live.”

    “Very well. Prepare to be boarded.”

    Zylox is now as nervous as he has ever been, even as a new recruit in his first battle he was not this nervous. A million lives rely on him not making a mistake during this. He had painstakingly combed through files, selected those that would be of like mind to himself, shuffled their assignments, had their personal effects brought on board, and even their families; in his thirty years on war ships he had never heard them filled with the laughter on younglings or seen so many games played in the corridors.

    The Gian shuttles began docking and Gian boarding parties began entering the ships. The High Admiral herself boarded his dreadnought meeting him at the airlock as she stepped aboard.

    “Hello High Admiral, welcome aboard the...I believe it translates to your language as The Prancing Demise. What would you like to see first?”

    “We’ll start with your bridge, then review your manifest and fleet manifest. If our scans are correct most of these ships are new and some are freighters not war ships.”
    “Your scans are correct, I didn’t want my own kind to have an easy time following us so I took the newest and best. Some are bulk freighters, as we brought terraforming equipment since we weren’t really sure where we would end up. I just assumed we will be refugees eventually.”

    The Admiral reviewed the manifests, had her boarding parties verify them, and verify the crew contingent. The crew was mostly engineers, doctors, scientists, not hardened combat veterans, but what cinched that Zylox was telling the truth to her was the ships were basically overloaded with spouses and children of the crew.

    “So Zylox, where did you plan on landing this fleet?”

    “Honestly? I assumed I would need to work that out if I got this far, and I really wasn’t sure we’d get to this point.”

    “I am gong to leave some troops on each of your ships, we shall man the bridge, engineering, and weapons. I have some calls to make to our leaders, this is unprecedented and could take a few of our days or maybe even weeks to work out how to handle this situation.”

    Admiral Simineaux leaves Zylox on his ship along with a heavily armed contingent of Marines as she heads back to DN-63. Back in her office she notifies the chain of command of what is going on and they are as baffled as she is. For the next two weeks Zylox paces the corridors of the Prancing Demise, and the Admiral sits on the bridge of the Missouri watching this oddly outfitted fleet as she sips her coffee. Then she got word from command and takes the next shuttle to see Zylox.

    “Welcome back High Admiral, what news do you bring from your government?”

    “They are willing to grant you asylum, we understand your people have experience with terraforming high temperature planets? We have a planet that averages 737 degrees Kelvin, but the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, and it rotates very slowly. Would you be interested?”

    “We have done well with worse.”

    “Then welcome home neighbor, your next stop is Venus.”

    Ten years later Zylox stands in his yard looking at the newly formed ocean, breathing the air of Venus, while at night being able to look deep into the Milky Way. His former crew and their families have grown from a million up thirty thousand. His former war ships had been taken to the Jovian shipyards for research, but they were allowed to keep the freighters. Being the Venutian ambassador to the Gian council he is on Earth several times a year now and has become friends with High Admiral Simineaux.

Until Death do us part

Wedding vows are finicky things, the old traditional ones were slightly different between the male and female spouse–for this thought experiment let’s call our marital persons Barb and Johan:

“I Barb do hereby take Johan to be my husband, forsaking all others, to love, honor, and obey, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, until death do us part.”
Now the only substantive difference between Barb and Johan is the “obey” portion as in a truly traditional marriage Barb would be totally subservient to Johan and in some localities she still is Johan’s property–yes chattel property laws are still a thing in parts of the world.

Now to break these down a bit:

“Forsaking all others,” now this should be pretty obvious, but apparently it isn’t to a great many people; in its simplest intention it means you don’t even entertain the idea of loving anyone else in your daily life, that your spouse is it.  No extras, no boy/girlfriends, no added people in your home and daily life in any capacity beyond your children. 

To love: in the words a song “love is a curious thing, makes one man weep and another man sing” (I’ve done both).  Love is not an emotion I personally can quantitatively explain as how it manifests is so different between people, but more people seem to feel that it equates to not seeing how you could go through life without the other person with you.

To honor: don’t talk bad about your spouse.  Hold them in high regard.  Help them, hold their hand, be there when they need you.

In sickness and in health: should be self-evident, but the number of people who bail when there is a cancer diagnosis, or their spouse is suddenly in a wheelchair seems to prove the opposite.

For richer or for poorer: this is like sickness and in health; no one has a problem with being richer, but how many walk when the money isn’t there?

“Until death do us part” we have all heard this line and many of us have said it–some more than once–but what does that really mean?  The obvious is you are together until one of you dies, but what level of death?  Does it mean the death of the love between Barb and Johan?  Let’s face it many relationships have an expiration date that neither party sees upfront because they are wearing love goggles.
Could it mean:

• The death of trust between them because one of them deceived the other?
• The death of love as they grow apart?
• Death from a traumatic brain injury that leaves them with a different personality? (I have experience with this one)
• Physical death?

Most assume physical death, but even at that, death for how long?  Many people have had near death experiences, many have been pronounced dead, so how long?  If someone has no brain activity and is pronounced dead, technically the contract is fulfilled so should the marriage and probate rites apply?  Does Johan legally own everything because Barb was hit by a lightning strike as Zeus got upset with her, and Doctor Welby declared her dead on arrival at the hospital even though she came back on her way to the morgue?  (This is a real medical condition known as The Lazarus Effect) I mean legally she was dead, so life insurance, probate, etc should all kick in, but is Johan on the hook for Barb at all since she was, you know, dead?
 

Sadly I can see an insurance company screaming “fraud” and cancelling the policy as opposed to fulfilling it.  I can also see the hospital charging Barb for her death.
 

That sort of wraps up this thought experiment
 

Maura out

3-17-2026

General updates today:

    On March 8 I celebrated my 56th orbit of Sol.  I feel much the same as I did on March 7th 😁.  Unlike past orbital anniversaries I did not feel so alone, nor did I feel despondent from former people in my life being abusive.  I also did something for me that I've wanted done since I was ten, and got my ears pierced.

    The process didn't hurt, but feeling the earring passing through was really weird!  I had to have the piercing set swapped though as the stud was not long enough causing the earring to try and subside into my earlobe as it was causing it to swell from irritation 😳

    Otherwise I spent the day helping my son clear garbage out of his house as we try to push that project forward.  We did discover that the heat from the fire in his house made the old wallpaper easier to scrape off so that will ease painting quite a bit.  In the pic below you can also see proof of what we were all taught in school about stay low as that is where the cooler air is--the white section is where the heat and smoke didn't get to the walls.

    Also was dealing remotely with a major sewer back up in a building at work--caused via some miscreant throwing bricks down the yard vent! 🤬  Had to call in a local contractor to clear it out and even he took 3 1/2 hours to get it all out!

    On irrational number appreciation day--π day--I began yard work once again...yee haw 🙄 and removed the last of the honey suckle separating my drive from the neighbor's.

    If you look really close at the end of that row of leaves you'll see a survey stake; that's because the house on the other-side of my property is owned by an out of state "investment company" you could read that as con man as he is reselling it via market place as "rent to own".  I had to have the property line delineated clearly so I can definitively mark my yard's boundaries.

    The driveway commonly thought of as going to that house actually is in my property.  As was the dilapidated garage that I removed last year.  Due to underground water, sewer, fiber optic cable, and gas lines, putting a fence in is neigh on impossible; so raised flower beds it is.  Believe it or not, this small square box contains four corrugated steel raised beds 😦

 

 

    Each will get a solar light, and will probably be filled with snapdragons as they are low maintenance and low investment.  Each one of these so far costs about $70 in material, I have four more to assemble, and need 16 more!  I know in the long run this is going to irritate the con man who owns the adjoining property, but I also know the liability issues of allowing people to freely roam about my property.  The last person to try and buy that house started driving through my front yard, so the beds are four feet wide and spaced six feet apart to prevent driving anything, but my tractor between them.  I have already reached out to IDOT to have the culvert removed so there is absolutely no way it can be used as a driveway again.

    Once I get the front boundary set, I can finish the fence on that side of the back yard, then move back to working on the shop again.

    I figure I only have to wait about three years and that investment property will collapse.  The roof has been shot the six years I have been beside it (new one is $12k).  Last people did a lot of damage to it.  It no longer is attached to the basement as you can see light between foundation and upper structure, water district has a lean on it for $1k, half the windows are busted, the list goes on and on.  If I could grab it for what it is really worth (about $5k) I'd let the local fire department use it as practice, collapse the basement, and back fill it, but I think the con man won't let it go that cheap.

For now that's all there is.

Maura out

Terrestrial Development

    To open, here is a fact: our local star, commonly called Sol, is pure white and not yellow–a fact that annoys me to no end when reading science fiction.
    A star begins its life as a dust cloud–how did the cloud get there?–at some point the gasses coalesce and several things could happen:
    Not enough matter and you get a gas giant planet like Jupiter
    A bit more and you get a brown dwarf–basically a star that fails to have enough mass for ignition
    Next comes a red giant, as the name says these things are massive–though not actually red.  Over time the outer shell expands while the core collapses under its own mass.  If the physicists have their math correct in some billions of years the red dwarf will explode and collapse–let's face it the math they are using is insane; forget to move a decimal or to carry a one and everything becomes wildly different on top of the fact that the math for a solar system's creation is theoretical in the first place as no one has ever seen it happen.  The explosion will leave a planetary nebula while the collapse will yield a white dwarf within the nebula.
    From my research, physicists expect that Sol will eventually expand into a red giant and engulf our solar system in about five billion years…but what if this has already happened?
    If a white dwarf is the remains of a red giant that went BOOM and Sol is white and roughly the right mathematical size to be a white dwarf there is the chance that Sol has already gone BOOM, left a planetary nebula behind, and that nebula eventually formed a disk of dust, plasma, gas, and various other debris around its equator that over time coalesced into the plants we have now.  As well as explaining the Ort cloud and the planets both within and beyond the Ort cloud as it is probably the furthest extent of Sol’s bloating and subsequent explosion.
    A bit more proof is the amount of Uranium, and Gold we have on Gia (Earth) as these elements are thought to be created inside stars, and it makes more sense for them to have been locally created than to have flown her over cosmic distances and accumulated in veins as they have.  We also have an abundance of lead which is the byproduct of the decay of uranium–I wonder given their similarities if gold is the byproduct of another radioactive element’s decay?
    Pretty much all the other planetary formation theories remain the same but instead of forming from the same dust cloud as Sol we were formed from Sol’s expansion and collapse.  That means over time instead of Sol expanding it will eventually just run out of fuel and become a black dwarf in 10 to the 38th power years from now.

Maura out