E44 Dark side of the Moon

Of course, there is no ‘Dark side of the Moon’, as explained on the excellent Pink Floyd 1973 album of the same name.

Merlin had not challenged my earlier question as to what he knew. I looked at him and spoke, quietly, ‘you have stated your disdain for our ‘civilisation’, my views are similar. If you know that the asteroid will strike the Moon, why not just stay silent and observe developments?’

‘Yes, why not. A Moon strike would not be without its challenges but not the Doomsday or Armageddon of an Earth strike.’

‘What do you think would happen?’

I could see him pondering his answer, not rushing, possibly probing some of his remote memories. ‘There would be an initial blinding light at impact. a large splash of molten material expands from the impact site and much of it goes into orbit. The immediate area at the impact site would become a molten sea of red hot rock and lava that spreads across the surface for about 70 miles in all directions from the crater walls, most likely there would be two rings of mountains one within the other with a central peak as the crust rebounds from the impact. as the splash falls back there would be countless secondary craters formed with their own lakes of molten rock. All of this may not be very visible to us as it will occur on the ‘dark side of the Moon’, the hemisphere that always faces away from us. It is not dark, of course, and has lunar day and night the same as the facing side.

The Earth could end up with a ring, not unlike Saturn but small, for a few hundred years or more until it all fell back onto the moon or onto the Earth. it would probably take a few years for the lava on the moon to stop glowing red, by cooling. The ring would possibly affect the mean temperature on Earth because it’s shadow would block some of the Sun’s rays reaching the Earth at the equator. Meteor showers would be common almost every night. the face of the Moon would be forever changed because the debris from the ring (besides the scar from the initial impact) would constantly be creating new craters until all the material was back on the Moon or on Earth. The Moon could also be slightly more massive from the added material. it may have a small measurable effect on the tides of Earth’s oceans. The main risk would be chunks of rock falling on Earth for a few years to come, many of a dangerous size that would not burn up on entry to the atmosphere.’

I commented on something Merlin had said. ‘The two rings of mountains with a central peak. There is a feature very similar in central Australia, called Gosse’s Bluff, also known as Tnorala to the local Aboriginals, who have their own story of how it formed. Estimated to have formed about 140 million years ago, before humans. I wrote about it in one of my books. In my story, the object that formed it was not ‘natural’ but an alien artefact’.

‘What is going to happen to you and Morgan?’ I had been troubled by this thought for a little while, even without the asteroid factor.

‘I did say earlier that our ‘time’ is nearly up. It becomes increasingly difficult to sustain our current state. Our energy levels are inadequate. We have two options. One is to simply disappear and become just a memory. The other sounds more promising but has its challenges. It is a form of reincarnation but there are no guarantees as to how that will work out. Some of us have chosen that path in the past, with mixed results. Gawain was one of those. It is irreversible. Morgan and I have both assumed the form of other creatures at times, temporarily. Your ancestor met me when I was a dog. Morgan has swum with the Orcas, as she said. I am not yet decided what to do.’

He looked a little sad.

‘What has been the highlight of your ‘time’?’

More pondering. ‘A good question, there have been so many, let me think about it.’ I looked forward to hearing his answer.

‘Can you tell me what happened to Gawain?’ Another question ‘on notice’.

Returning to the enigma of gravity. My further study of the material from Athena. The quest by human scientists to ‘discover’ the particle they optimistically call a graviton is a lost cause. There is no such particle. Originally, there was no gravity, or mass, just energy. For the moment we shall ignore the awkward question of where this energy came from, or that the Universe is not as it seems. As the energy/plasma cooled and condensed into matter, the energy released had nowhere to go. It became gravity, initially much stronger than it now is, but as the Universe expanded it became weaker, which makes sense to me. It is still cooling. It is still becoming weaker. Entropy in the Universe. A bit like entropy in the human genome. The opposite of evolution, which is another myth.

Athena had made it clear that current human mental capacity is not able to completely understand exactly what is going on with gravity and other matters. This is not a calculated insult, merely the facts.

There was a little more to the story of the ‘camel lady’, Robyn Davidson at Gosse’s Bluff. She returned, many years later, after a special ‘encounter’ with Athena. Unbeknown to her the satellite she had seen (with USA on it) had been alerted by the bright light of the ‘screen’, had taken pictures of it, and recorded its precise position. The satellite was a military surveillance satellite. The picture had triggered a reaction, but only after a young PhD student, a few years later, researching some archives, came across it by accident. Robyn returned to Gosse’s Bluff, with another camel and a reincarnated Diggity. More on that later. This is what happened.

A fully armed Section of Australian Army Special Air Service troops was approaching Gosses Bluff under cover of dark – or so they thought.?Their orders were to investigate exactly what was going on there and to make contact with the strange camel lady – who they know is Robyn Davidson.?The knowledge of her presence there had remained restricted so, other than Robyn, the troops were the only people in the area.

They were operating under radio silence and using a military version of GPS that was accurate to less than ten meters – they needed no light to find their way.?As they approached the entrance to the crater used by Robyn they were greeted by a strange musical sound and a voice in the dark, ‘good evening, gentlemen,’ with a friendly sounding Australian accent.?Even with their sophisticated night vision equipment they could not make her out, there was just the voice.?“What can I do for you?’

It was a moonless but very clear starry night.?The soldiers looked at each other, wondering what to do next.?The Section Leader, a tall redheaded Corporal spoke, ‘we have orders to investigate what is going on here, since all of the reconnaissance satellites that cover this area are out of action for some reason.?You are Robyn Davidson?’

Something lit up the area with a subdued and not unpleasant bluish light.?Robyn stepped out nonchalantly from behind a rock, ‘I am, and it is a pleasure to meet you and your fine bunch of soldiers, Corporal Henderson.’?Corporal Henderson tried not to look somewhat startled at being named like that – the SAS liked to maintain a fair degree of anonymity – how did she know his name??‘You are welcome to look round, there is not much to see – and you do not need weapons, nobody is going to harm you and I know you are not going to harm me.’

The Corporal, who stood ahead of the rest of the Section, was looking round, clearly trying to find the source of the illumination, without success.?The Corporal waved his men through and they passed by Robyn, and a small black dog wagging its tail, into the crater in single file.?‘What is that sound?’

‘It serves a number of purposes, one of which is to reduce anxiety.’

‘Well that is good to know’, he said trying to sound nonchalant, ‘it may be the light but I was expecting you to be somewhat older’, Corporal Henderson and his wife had recently seen the movie Tracks, based on Robyn’s book of her 1977 exploits.?Instead he was looking at someone who seemed to be about the same age as himself – confusion was his state of mind but Robyn smiled at him and that seemed to defuse the confusion.

There is more to this story, and something missing, which will be added, before we end.