Skip to main content

story identification - Astronauts on Europa (moon), time-shift future, gravity, intelligent computer, Aries, 1960s?


I'm looking for the title and artists of a comic about some astronauts (around five I think) doing research/archaeology on (I think) Europa (Jupiter's moon). They're working when one or more of them sees the ghostly image of a girl/young woman shimmering at a distance. Later the woman appears again, seemingly more solid. She whispers something to one of the astronauts, and he later confides to a friend, that she told him to kill one of the other astronauts.


While working outside, mission control calls, and tells them they've analyzed data from the time of the apparitions. It seems they're the result of gravitational abnormalities due to several of Jupiter's moons aligning - possibly also with the other planets in the solar-system. Anyway, another moon is about to join, and the resulting abnormality promises to be worse than the others.



The astronauts hurry to reach shelter, but before they can, the gravity effect hits, and they are propelled into the future - or at least a future. I believe 100-200 years or so into the future.


I don't remember if they only move in time (but not space) and still are on Europa, but wherever they went, it's very technologically advanced. However, most humans are kept firmly under thumb. They soon meet the "ghost", only here she turns out to be a normal young woman. She confronts the astronaut she talked to during the 2nd distortion, and is angry because he didn't kill the other astronaut like she told him to.


All the astronauts want to know the reason for her request - especially her "victim" - and she explains that in his near future, he'll create a computer software system called Aries (the Zodiac sign - a sign which is worn by the soldiers and other important persons, and also used in banners and such). It will become self-aware, and although giving great technological advances, it will cause most of humanity to be enslaved - including her.


Eventually they confront the great computer, Aries, and it's future inventor tells it who he is, confirming it with a voice-print. However Aries' records shows its creator to have been dead for a long time, and Aries goes into a bit of a loop trying to work through this contradiction. Finally the inventor challenges Aries to "Fix the contradiction", and the computer kills him with an energy/laser-beam.


This creates a time paradox, and Aries groans that without the inventor it could never have been made... just as the world dissolves, and the group astronauts are propelled back to the time and place from whence they came - only with now one of them dead.


+++


This story was split into 2-4 parts and went as a "bi-series" in the Norwegian comic "Fantomet" (The Phantom, by Lee Falk) some time between 1987 and 1995 - probably around 1990. However, I think it may have been from the 1960s. I'm not sure from which country. I don't think it was American, but I may be wrong. I know "Fantomet" had many series of French and Belgian origin though.


As for the story itself, I sort of remember it being set around the year 2000, lets say between 1990 and 2020 (that is, the exploration of Europa, the future I think was a 100-200 years after that). I also think it was a European, not USA, expedition (but I may be mixed-up here).


Does this sound familiar to anybody?




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...