Science Behind “The Ruin of Avalon”
The lead piece in my story collection, The Baylah Run is titled “The Ruin of Avalon.” Brendel is a xenoarchaeologist, investigating ruins that are 10,000 years old on the planet of Avalon, when he makes a startling discovery about the fate of the lost alien civilization. This find could have dire consequences if it falls into the wrong hands, and cost him his own life in the process.
The whole concept of xenoarchaeology is hardly new to science fiction, and this Wikipedia page has an impressive list of novels, stories, games and dramatic works that employ the concept. Like xenobiology, the absence of material to study certainly limits the field at the moment, but some scientists have already devoted thought to laying the groundwork for this field.
A prominent theme in this story is the use of psionics, such as ESP and clairvoyance. While psionics may seem like pseudo-science, there is a significant amount of research taking place in psionics. Since the field of chemistry emerged from the pseudo-science of alchemy, it is reasonable that psionics may one day be a recognized field of science as well. If you are curious to learn more about psionics in the meantime, there are plenty of resources such as Psionics Online.
In the opening paragraphs of the story, we learn that Avalon orbits a bluish-white sun, very similar to the star, Vega. At first, anyone with knowledge of main sequence stars will think that was a serious blunder on my part, because an A-type star only has about one-tenth the lifespan of our own sun. However, the research mission on Avalon is driven by the fact that they know the ruins had to be created by a star-faring species, and the military is determined to learn what caused the mysterious fall of the Avalon civilization.
Finally, at one point the main character looks up into the night-time sky, which is dominated by the breath-taking spectacle of a nearby open star cluster. I can only imagine what this scene will look like one day, when the story is made into a movie.
