The Modified Neutrino Theory was published by $NAME(indian) in 2062, and the first example of the Catalyzed Neutrino Decay reactor was successfully built by $UNIVERSITY in 2073. By the end of the century, the world was barely recognizable. CND generators provided nearly limitless energy and were able to be miniaturized small enough to power an electric car. With the vast majority of the planet’s energy needs switched over to CND, pollution from power plants, automobiles, and airplanes was a thing of the past. Lightweight autonomous rigid airships using modified neutrino decay devices to heat the air within their envelope cluttered the sky, transferring cargo that once was delivered by truck, train, and ship.
The only area of technology not revitalized by the discovery of this new energy source was space exploration. Because CND generators work by using the curvature of space near massive objects to redirect and capture neutrinos, CND generators only worked up to low Earth orbit, beyond which they could only supply a trickle of power, decreasing to a barely measurable amount once a spacecraft left orbit.
Despite the setbacks CND generators (and the abandonment of the partially completed Space Solar Power Array which was being built at L1), in 2126 a massive project was undertaken to build a moon base. The initial phase involved launching hundreds of small mining robots to the moon using a mass accelerator built up the Serra do Imeri mountain range in Brazil. The robots were powered by CND devices which were useless in transit but reactivated once they reached the moon (although at 1/6th the power level they would have had on Earth). The first goal of the project was building a massive network of large CND devices under the Moon’s surface, to provide power for the automatic factories and pressurized domes which would be built later.
It was shortly before the completion of the Lunar CND Array that the Periodic Neutrino Anomaly was detected. Every 24.3 days, there were two bursts of neutrinos 68.3 minutes apart. Both their polarity and the sequence in which they hit the Lunar CND Array showed that they couldn’t possibly be solar in origin, and after statistical analysis of stationary CND devices on Earth they were discovered there too. After parallax analysis, it was determined that they were coming from a point near L4, and the partially completed Wide Lunar Array telescope was used to example the area for the next anomaly.
It was the discovery that defined Human history even more than the invention of CND: A small spacecraft of alien origin was repeatedly appearing, deploying solar sails, and then disappearing 68.3 minutes later, having returned to approximately its starting point. Radio and PNC (Polarized Neutrino Communications) signals received no response or reaction from the spacecraft, believed to be an observation probe of some sort. The ESS Armstrong (built for the lunar colonization project) was quickly re-purposed for a mission to observe the probe up close. 68 scientists from 12 nations arrived in the general area of the probe (there was some uncertainty as to where it would appear, as observations of the last 13 cycles showed the probe always appeared within a disc 2km in diameter.
On close inspection, the alien object was confirmed to be some sort of observation probe, but all the telescopes and sensors that could be identified were pointing back towards the disc, none towards Earth or any of the other planets. While maneuvering to better observe the disappearance and eventual reappearance of the probe, all contact with Earth and the lunar outpost suddenly ceased. After a few paniced minutes, contact was re-established over radio. Somehow all neutrinos were being blocked in a cylinder-shaped area beyond the disc. Even solar neutrinos weren’t detectable within this area. The scientists on the ship and on Earth were no closer to finding an answer to how this was possible or why it was happening when the ship reappeared. The ESS Armstrong continued observing it from within the cylindrical area (labeled the L4 Neutrino Anomaly), but something entirely unexpected happened when the probe disappeared again, right on schedule: The Armstrong vanished too.
To be continued at some point.
Art is Art and Water is Water 