CL Mustafic Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Okay so I’m writing this story and I need a reason the aliens wouldn’t be able to “Beam” someone up until they are at a specific spot/general area. I have no idea about anything to do with aliens and spaceships or, well, just about anything that has to do with the science fiction genre (this story isn’t really sci/fi, it’s just got an ending that is a bit...strange, so don’t ask me why I’m writing something I have no idea about, thank you very much). I just need a sort of plausible explanation as to why it might not work in the modern age when it worked before, like around 2017 years before. Thank you very much in advance for any ideas or help you might have. CL BronxWench 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayDee Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Say they had a battery 2000 years ago that was full of juice allowing for a longer range, while now two millenia of streaming space porn (or general usage) mean they have to basically be on top of of the spot? BronxWench and pippychick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippychick Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Maybe it’s a pre-arranged rendezvous point, like in the film ‘Starman’ and there is no way to contact each other to revise it? Perhaps the discovery of electricity/radio waves/micro waves etc, means that only specific places are suitable for matter transference? If you’re looking for something more involved and technical, perhaps you could look into axial precession, and/or the movement of the equatorial line on earth messing things up a bit. I mean, we are talking in thousands of years here. While it might not be noticeable (I have no idea!), it might throw delicate instrumentation off quite a bit. CL Mustafic and BronxWench 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CL Mustafic Posted January 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Okay, I guess I should have specified a bit better. The aliens were “visiting” around 2000 years ago and they swung back around this way again, none of their technology is on the planet. They basically just screw with the humans and go away. It’s confusing I know. 4 minutes ago, JayDee said: Say they had a battery 2000 years ago that was full of juice allowing for a longer range, while now two millenia of streaming space porn (or general usage) mean they have to basically be on top of of the spot? BronxWench 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CL Mustafic Posted January 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 1 minute ago, pippychick said: Maybe it’s a pre-arranged rendezvous point, like in the film ‘Starman’ and there is no way to contact each other to revise it? Perhaps the discovery of electricity/radio waves/micro waves etc, means that only specific places are suitable for matter transference? If you’re looking for something more involved and technical, perhaps you could look into axial precession, and/or the movement of the equatorial line on earth messing things up a bit. I mean, we are talking in thousands of years here. While it might not be noticeable (I have no idea!), it might throw delicate instrumentation off quite a bit. It’s probably a good thing nobody who actually knows anything about the technology (not that we can beam people up or what have you but you know what I’m saying) will read this story but I don’t want people scratching their heads wondering if I have no idea how anything works. Seriously, it’s just going to be like a paragraph to explain why the aliens didn’t beam the MC up right away like they did the last guy. And since this is just a silly idea from my head, I have no real enthusiasm for researching how this stuff works. I just don’t want to sound like I’m completely clueless. But if need be, I’ll contact NASA right away and see what their thoughts are on this, just as soon as I finish doing some other things that don’t involve using my brain. BronxWench and pippychick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippychick Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 10 minutes ago, CL Mustafic said: It’s probably a good thing nobody who actually knows anything about the technology (not that we can beam people up or what have you but you know what I’m saying) will read this story but I don’t want people scratching their heads wondering if I have no idea how anything works. Seriously, it’s just going to be like a paragraph to explain why the aliens didn’t beam the MC up right away like they did the last guy. And since this is just a silly idea from my head, I have no real enthusiasm for researching how this stuff works. I just don’t want to sound like I’m completely clueless. But if need be, I’ll contact NASA right away and see what their thoughts are on this, just as soon as I finish doing some other things that don’t involve using my brain. Or there’s always this: ALIEN ONE: Something is throwing the beam off. ALIEN TWO: What is that? Oh, man… they’ve gone and built a collider! ALIEN ONE: Closest safe point is right… there! ALIEN TWO: Right. Quick and beam him from there before they turn everything to grey goo… Idiots! I can’t believe they’ve got away with running it for this long... oh, man. They voted in Donald Trump too! We need to get out of here. BronxWench and CL Mustafic 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonGoddess Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Well, if it’s a transport beam of some kind, it would have to take into considerations things such as outside natural interference, like bad weather. You don’t want to beam your crew into nasty situations, nor do you want to beam up something FROM a nasty situation, endangering your crew. CL Mustafic, JayDee, BronxWench and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BronxWench Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 There could be something like the Stargate technology, where the receiver for the transport beam was left behind on Earth. It might not even resemble anything we’d associate with transport. Perhaps it’s a flat stone with peculiar glyphs, which are needed by the shipside end of the beam as a cosmic QR code, if you will. pippychick and JayDee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayDee Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 (edited) “They’ve built a visitors centre next to the receiver. They’re calling it Stonehenge. Damn primitives!” “Does it have a cafe?” Edited January 4, 2017 by JayDee illiteracy BronxWench and pippychick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BronxWench Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 It had better have coffee, at least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CL Mustafic Posted January 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 35 minutes ago, JayDee said: “They’ve built a visitors centre next to the receiver. They’re calling it Stonehenge. Damn primitives!” “Does it have a cafe?” 6 minutes ago, BronxWench said: It had better have coffee, at least! It’s a good thing I’m quite a few chapters off from needing the specifics but at least you guys will keep me entertained while I figure it out. BronxWench 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippychick Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 I’m assuming this is for Mohammed? Only if so… it would be so much snarky fun if the matter transference beam looked like an endless pillar of salt… CL Mustafic and BronxWench 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CL Mustafic Posted January 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 1 minute ago, pippychick said: I’m assuming this is for Mohammed? Only if so… it would be so much snarky fun if the matter transference beam looked like an endless pillar of salt… I didn’t want to ruin the story for anyone who was actually reading it but yeah, it’s for Mo and that’s hilarious, I might just use that! But now you know the basic reason for why I need it to be some sort of modern day reason for the beam not to work since back when the first guy was taken there was no problem. BronxWench and pippychick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desiderius Price Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 4 hours ago, CL Mustafic said: Okay so I’m writing this story and I need a reason the aliens wouldn’t be able to “Beam” someone up until they are at a specific spot/general area. I have no idea about anything to do with aliens and spaceships or, well, just about anything that has to do with the science fiction genre (this story isn’t really sci/fi, it’s just got an ending that is a bit...strange, so don’t ask me why I’m writing something I have no idea about, thank you very much). I just need a sort of plausible explanation as to why it might not work in the modern age when it worked before, like around 2017 years before. Thank you very much in advance for any ideas or help you might have. CL While I wanted to reply at work, I figured I ought to be working at work…. (not to mention, replying on the tablet is painful). Several different ways, depending on whether you’ve got a receiver pad, or not, and whether it’s got to be permanent or just temporary. Obviously, with a permanent receiver pad/device on Earth, it could be moved, defaced, destroyed by us, or be used as a chamber pot by some soul who doesn’t realize what it is. Now you could go with electromagnetic interference because that has changed in 2017 years, choosing your favorite gadget for causing this, on the “specific frequency” needed for the beaming to work. (ie, microwave, or wifi blaming our porn habits, or, if you need night time only, the sodium vapor common in street lights) Another possibility is pollution in the atmosphere, blocking the frequencies needed for the beam in/out to work. A non-human possibility is a geomagnetic storm (ie, a solar flare) from the sun. Several ideas, hope it helps! pippychick, BronxWench and CL Mustafic 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippychick Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 16 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said: A non-human possibility is a geomagnetic storm (ie, a solar flare) from the sun. That’s a good one… hasn’t the sun been quite active with solar flares recently too? Or am I just imagining that? CL Mustafic and BronxWench 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desiderius Price Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 Not certain, the sunspot number is going down. (Which means less activity.) However, there is a random chance factor, that unless somebody is looking up NOAA’s space weather page, can be easily fudged to make the plot happen. pippychick, BronxWench and CL Mustafic 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyAngel Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 ok, 2000 years ago there was no electronic technology on this planet so maybe all the electronic noise we create is messing with the alien’s technology and they have to wait until the person they want to beam up is in a “quiet” spot. pippychick, BronxWench and CL Mustafic 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthel0101 Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 Carbon scatter caused by excess methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere impacting the alien's ability to lock onto specific carbon chains associated with their targeted individual. BronxWench, DemonGoddess, CL Mustafic and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirGeneralSir Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 based off of star trek, the place you pick to beam people up or down, has the least interference from elements or tech, you also need the right space too. if you are encountering an alien race, your tech and theirs might not be compatible because of energy signatures, wavelengths or even the kinds of metals used for buildings and or vehicles based on magnetic properties. could also be the level of pollution on the planet, you have a large number of choices on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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