I’ve pressed the publish button on Rogue Genesis and am contemplating the science points raised in some of my advance reviews.
The clues of speculative mad science are in the book blurb.
One man. Two worlds separated by a universe. Space-time warped by black holes. In the passing of seconds on Earth, Major Niall Kearey has witnessed the birth and death of generations on Astereal. [ ] Astereal is in decline, the dueling forces of black holes threaten extinction. [ ] Time is running out as Astereal races towards annihilation and temporal alignment with Earth.
It is speculative fiction. It is a mad plot, and it gets crazier, and that’s why it was so much fun to write and, I hope, fun to read for those willing to suspend belief—a requirement for most science fiction, science fantasy and fantasy.
However, I am happy to explain my initial thinking on the premise. I have put clues to most of this in the story.
1) It’s theoretically possible for different timeflows to exist throughout the universe.
But I wanted a solar system/galaxy where time starts flowing faster relative to the rest of the universe eons ago. NOT SLOWER! Not as much plot fun in that.
What supports a faster time flow in addition to 1 above?
2) A plot device still to be revealed in the series? Maybe. Maybe not.
3) Its changing position in the universe relative to everything else.
4) A cluster of black holes creating a situation where combined gravitational forces keep an otherwise doomed solar system in balance with weird effects on time. Don’t believe the first is possible? Check out http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21081-astrophile-the-sticky-star-cluster-thats-mostly-black-hole.html Okay, what about weird effects on time? Well, why not, in my fictional world?
5) Time could flow faster on Astereal simply because it has a lower mass than Earth, plus its distance from the central mass of the universe. I wasn’t convinced by that, so didn’t really use it.
I also needed time to start slowing down on Astereal relative to Earth. Alignment. That’s easier. If Astereal exists in a faster timeflow to start with, then being on the edge of the universe means an accelerating velocity, and faster velocity slows time. The cluster of black holes gaining mass over time will also slow time down, and, if this occurs in a way that alters the combined gravitational balances, it could also start to undo whatever side-effect increased the rate of time in the first place.
Or perhaps my plot device in 2) is running down.
One black hole increasing mass quicker than the others provides both a reason for time slowing and an extinction event. One of my betas pointed out, Astereal’s disintegration could take a very long time, maybe billions of years. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long at all for that solar system to stop supporting life. That will happen well before the solar system breaks apart and very quickly.
I threw in a shifting universe for good measure. ‘Alignment’ sounds good when I have wormholes linking two planets together. I need that link to get stronger, so aligning galaxies and timeflows makes for a nice device and ties in with prophecies and provides a potential source of dark energy.
That basically is my premise for timeflows. There is more that I won’t discuss for fear of spoiling the story, but yes, the speculative science and the case for abusing the General Theory of Relativity increases. I used some artistic license. I couldn’t find out what happens when wormholes link different time flows across the universe, so I made it up.
Since writing this I came across the following article! http://www.livescience.com/39159-time-travel-with-wormhole.html
Ceri London's Blog, Science Fiction Author 