Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 1 BLAZE SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION MONOBOT AI SCI-FI: TITAN SUB-ZERO JWST: SEEING FURTHER THIRD SPACE RACE SCI-FI: NEMO’S SUBSEA WORLD FILM & SCI-FI MUSEUM BLAZE DESTINY BLAZE PREVIEW EDITION
2 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 3 BLAZE SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION Welcome to the Blazeverse
4 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co Visit us at www.blazemedia.co
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 5 Gazing toward infinity, the spatial home of Skarlett Blaze and her X-Force.
6 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co Monobot, created for BLAZE by our resident AI.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 7 SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION v01:001 Preview Edition BLAZE AI is a big thing of the moment, and an integral part of the Blazeverse. Model maker Ian Crichton made this steampunk model of Jules Verne’s fictional submarine. 4 Introduction 6 Extract: Titan Sub-Zero 12 Seeing further 14 Extract: Nemo’s subsea world 18 Sci-fi museum 20 Destiny: Future issues
6 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Introduction SCIENCE FACT AND FICTION WELCOME to this BLAZE preview edition. A magazine like this has long been in the back of my mind, and now it’s time to take the idea from thought to reality. But there’s more to BLAZE than science fact and fiction though, as our central tenet is a fundamentally optimistic view of the future and humankind’s place in shaping it. That’s not to say BLAZE will ignore grim stories or reports, not least because science fiction has a stellar history of warning us about possible end-times. But we profoundly disagree with the relentless negativity of so many of today’s eco-political groups. I wrote a seminal education series The World of the Future back in the 1970s, with guarded optimism as a main driver. And here we are, still here, so I look forward with hope and expectation to a future that sees humanity among the stars. David Jefferis. Founder, Blaze. My three World of the Future books were combined to create this bumper hardback volume. The book has stood the test of time, and was republished in 2023 in unchanged form.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 9 M31 is the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way. The two will eventually merge to form a single, larger galaxy.
8 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co Skarlett Blaze is this magazine’s namesake, she and her crew featuring in space adventures set in the 22nd century. And here follows an excerpt from Titan Sub-Zero, the first Blaze story set in a fantastic future universe. But first, an introduction to the Blazeverse itself. Prologue: the Blazeverse First there was the original 20th Century Space Race. Through the tumultuous and competitive decade of the 1960s, the Soviet Union and USA battled to win a golden crown – landing the first human on the Moon, planet Earth’s natural satellite. On 23 July, 1969, the US took that crown with the successful touchdown of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the Eagle, their Apollo 11 Lunar Module. Their safe return to Earth earned them a tickertape welcome in New York, but money, war, and politics were already demoting the space community’s aspirations. Five more successful landings were made, but Apollo 17 was the last of those Moon missions, and then America sat on its hands, leaving success behind in the dust of the lunar surface. A second space race began in 2015 with the successful flight and landing of the first reusable rocket by BLAZE Titan Sub-Zero SCI-FI NOVELLA EXTRACT A SpaceX Falcon 9 roars off the pad, this launch taking place in 2022.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 11 Titan (left), Moon (right) and Earth, all shown here to the same scale.
10 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co SpaceX, an aerospace company headed by the entrepreneur-engineer, Elon Musk. His approach to technology resulted in a steady march of innovation, with results that echoed the steely determination of the Wright brothers, whose Flyer was the first machine capable of controlled, powered atmospheric flight, almost exactly 112 years before. By 2024, SpaceX Falcon rockets had flown and reflown hundreds of times, and the larger Starship was in its own development phase. Within 20 years, Musk’s spacecraft and their competitors had revisited the Moon, landed on Mars, and mounted expeditions even further away. Musk’s giant Starships were instrumental in creating the expanding spatial empire that first made humanity a multi-planetary species. But it wasn’t until the late 21st century that a third space race began. And this was with the development of an entirely new means of propulsion, the surf drive. This new-tech breakthrough did away with the necessity of carrying huge quantities of rocket fuel. Instead, rocket motors were gone, being replaced by a device that stretched and compressed the fabric of space itself. Now a spaceship could travel to the Moon in hours, to Mars in days, or to the edge of the Solar System in less than a week. And now, at long last, even the distant stars were within reach. With the newly-perfected surf drive, humanity could grasp at infinity itself. Beyond the Solar System, the vast cosmos, from unknown worlds to faraway suns, was now ours to explore… Chapter 1 starts next page.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 13 Starships and their ilk opened up the Moon and Mars to generations of explorers and settlers.
12 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co Chapter 1: Vacation in the Rockies Skarlett Blaze and Red Giant sat at ease on a narrow shingle beach that shelved up from the icy waters of a small blue lake, high in the Rocky Mountains of North America. They sipped fresh water taken from a trickling stream that fed the lake, while relaxing in the cool, clean air, and enjoying a panoramic view across the water. Beyond this, verdant ranks of tall pines strode across what was still a vast, largely unspoiled wilderness, even on a planet that was presently home to more than 10 billion people. This was a rare treat for the two of them, taking a vacation on planet Earth to grab a short break from their busy schedule, flying the starways across the deeps of the spatial void. Red Giant was a big man, the surname reflecting his height, nearly two metres of hard, muscle-toned starship pilot. Red’s ruddy complexion had been burned into him during months spent on the searing planet Mercury, after he survived a spaceliner accident. He was just a boy then, destined to be the only person on board to survive the blast of enormous energies released by failure of the liner’s main engines. Red was orphaned in that accident. His parents were both on board the spaceliner, his father its Captain, his mother the Medical Officer. But that had been more than 20 years ago, and now the accident and losses were in the past, the emotional and physical agonies he went through at that time now just memories. In today’s adult world, Red’s emotions were calm and still. Skarlett Blaze was a slim brunette, her midnight hair parted by a nearluminous slash of red. No one knew why her hair grew that way, and DNA analysis gave no clue, either. She just had that amazing scarlet parting and that was that. Her name, though, was hand-picked. Christened simply as Ann, teenager Skarlett felt she needed something with a bit more zip, and had chosen that memorable alternative after a particularly late Saturday night, spent watching the classic 20th century movie Gone with the Wind with a keen group of vintage-film fans.
The pair of them made a fine team, Skarlett as Captain and Commander, with Red backing her up as XO, the Executive Officer. They split various specialties – communications, weapons, gunship pilot and more – between them, but always with the help and guidance of Lobos, the ship’s AI, or Artificial Intelligence. For ultimate control of their spacecraft, the Seeker X-1, lay with Lobos. The AI ran everything on board, from maintaining a comfortable environment to running the mighty surf drive engines. These harnessed colossal forces to generate a region of warped space, enabling Seeker X-1 to move across the Universe at speeds that were inconceivable only a century before. In fact, the ship itself barely moved at all during high-speed flight. Bizarrely, you could float in zero-gravity inside the Seeker, while its engines stretched and squeezed the fabric of space outside. The result was much like catching a huge wave off a Hawaiian beach, where a surfer balances on a board, allowing the wave to provide the actual movement. When the surf drive was engaged, Seeker X-1 could sweep across space, its flight controlled with infinite precision by Lobos, the hyperbrain that was an integral part of the ship, in the same way that your human brain is a part of you. To be continued Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 13 The systems of the surfship Seeker X-1 were run by the AI Lobos.
14 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Seeing further SCITECH New technology is a source of endless fascination for all of us science and sci-fi buffs. So a core part of BLAZE is to record the state of the art tech that’s headed our way. Here we look at the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), built to view distant objects at infra-red wavelengths. The JWST’s first images were released to the public in July 2022. They came from its home in space, a solar orbit some 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) from Earth. It has a mirror array about three times wider than the mirror of the earlier Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST was named after James Webb, the NASA Administrator from 1961-68, and was launched by Ariane 5 rocket.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 17 The JWST has 18 mirrors, which work together as a single, powerful unit.
16 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Nemo’s subsea world CLASSIC SCI-FI EXCERPT BLAZE will feature many works of classic science fiction, in full or in part. Here, Professor Pierre Arronax is introduced to the Nautilus submarine, the personal brainchild of the mysterious Captain Nemo. The extract is taken from 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, written by the French author, Jules Verne. The book was originally published in serial form, from 1869 to 1870. “Sir,” said Captain Nemo, showing me the instruments hanging on the walls of his room, “here are the contrivances required for the navigation of the Nautilus. Here, as in the drawing-room, I have them always under my eyes, and they indicate my position and exact direction in the middle of the ocean. Some are known to you, such as the thermometer, which gives the internal temperature of the Nautilus; the barometer, which indicates the weight of the air and foretells the changes of the weather; the hygrometer, which marks the dryness of the atmosphere; the storm-glass, the contents of which, by decomposing, announce the approach of tempests; the compass, which guides my course; the sextant, which shows the latitude by the altitude of the sun; chronometers, by which I calculate the longitude; and glasses for day and night, which I use to examine the points of the horizon, when the Nautilus rises to the surface of the waves.” “These are the usual nautical instruments,” I replied, “and I know the use of them. But these others, no doubt, answer to the particular requirements of the Nautilus. This dial with the movable needle is a
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 17 manometer, is it not?” “It is actually a manometer. But by communication with the water, whose external pressure it indicates, it gives our depth at the same time.” “And these other instruments, the use of which I cannot guess?” “Here, Professor, I ought to give you some explanations. Will you be kind enough to listen to me?” He was silent for a few moments, then he said— Nemo’s submarine was powered by electricity, regarded as futuristic in Jules Verne’s time.
18 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co “There is a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to every use, and reigns supreme on board my vessel. Everything is done by means of it. It lights it, warms it, and is the soul of my mechanical apparatus. This agent is electricity.” “Electricity?” I cried in surprise. “Yes, sir.” “Nevertheless, Captain, you possess an extreme rapidity of movement, which does not agree with the power of electricity. Until now, its dynamic force has remained under restraint, and has only been able to produce a small amount of power.” “Professor,” said Captain Nemo, “my electricity is not everybody’s. You know what seawater is composed of. In a thousand grammes are found 97 percent. of water, and about 3 per cent of chloride of sodium; then, in a smaller quantity, chlorides of magnesium and of potassium, bromide of magnesium, sulphate of magnesia, sulphate and carbonate of lime. You see, then, that chloride of sodium forms a large part of it. So it is this sodium that I extract from sea-water, and of which I compose my ingredients. I owe all to the ocean; it produces electricity, and electricity gives heat, light, motion, and, in a word, life to the Nautilus.” “But not the air you breathe?” “Oh! I could manufacture the air necessary for my consumption, but it is useless, because I go up to the surface of the water when I please. However, if electricity does not furnish me with air to breathe, it works at least the powerful pumps that are stored in spacious reservoirs, and which enable me to prolong at need, and as long as I will, my stay in the depths of the sea. It gives a uniform and unintermittent light, which the sun does not. Now look at this clock; it is electrical, and goes with a regularity that defies the best chronometers. I have divided it into twenty-four hours, like the Italian clocks, because for me there is neither night nor day, sun nor moon, but only that factitious light that I
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 19 take with me to the bottom of the sea. Look! just now, it is ten o’clock in the morning.” “Exactly.” “Another application of electricity. This dial hanging in front of us indicates the speed of the Nautilus. An electric thread puts it in communication with the screw, and the needle indicates the real speed. Look! now we are spinning along with a uniform speed of fifteen miles an hour.” “It is marvelous! And I see, Captain, you were right to make use of this agent that takes the place of wind, water, and steam.” “We have not finished, Monsieur Aronnax,” said Captain Nemo, rising. “If you will follow me, we will examine the stern of the Nautilus.” To be continued The Nautilus, as visualised in 1875 by the French artist, Alphonse de Neuville.
20 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Sci-Fi Museum EXPLORATIONS Milton Keynes is a city just 35 minutes train ride from central London, and it’s here that you’ll find the National Film and Sci-Fi Museum. Long-time BBC special-effects guru Mat Irvine took the BLAZE crew on a guided tour. The National Film and Sci-Fi Museum (NFSFM) is dedicated to saving some of the art, skills and immense hard work that goes into making movies and TV shows, and makes them available for visitors to see and enjoy. The NFSFM also tells the story of the exhibits’ creation and the many people who helped to revolutionise the way we see films today. The Museum’s extensive collection includes props, costumes, art, photos, and footage from some of the biggest film and TV productions. Many artefacts are shown to the public for the first time, with displays that range from Star Wars and Indiana Jones, to James Bond and Ghostbusters – and many more besides. So, if you want to see Darth Vader’s mask, James Bond’s Walther PPK gun, the grail cup from Indiana Jones, or a Cyberman helmet from Doctor Who, they are all here. Now let’s walk around with Mat Irvine, who fills in some fascinating details. One of the BBC Doctor Who exhibits, a Cyberman, member of a race of spacefaring cyborgs that first featured on TV in 1966.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 23 One of the many movie props to be seen in the NFSFM, this creature featured in the 1996 hit movie, Independence Day.
22 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co The NFSFM’s displays include early classics, such as the robot from the 1927 Fritz Lang movie Metropolis. The creation of a maschinenmensch (machine man) is the film’s high point for many viewers, as it has a futuristic ‘mad scientist’ look that’s not been bettered nearly a century later. A mid-20th century display (below) lines up dozens of sci-fi magazines, their colourful jackets inspiring many teen-up readers of the time. The picture includes a Galaxy jacket, which is one of our own inspirations. In another display, you can enjoy the incredible Lego Star Wars-themed Mos Eisley spaceport. It comes complete with a wide assortment of spacecraft and alien creatures. And of course, there are plenty of Lego Imperial Army troopers on patrol. Science fiction’s ‘Golden Age’ is emphasised by this wall display of classic pulp magazine jackets. Bright colours, gripping artwork, and bold title logos drew the attention of potential readers.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 25 The robotic woman in Metropolis was made of plastic wood, painted to look like metal.
24 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Future issues DESTINY As planned, BLAZE is an online publication, with reader-members fully on board with assorted freebies and offers. BLAZE readers will be a major part of all this, with competitions and freebies included as part of the offer, both online and in later hardcopy. BLAZE will also be a platform for aspiring writers, photographers, artists and other creatives. Among the many BLAZE articles currently in preparation are features such as: * Leading edge real-world science breakthroughs. * Explorations to visit research labs and science museums. * Classic sci-fi stories. * Skarlett Blaze adventures. * High tech interviews. * Reader interactions and competitions. * Smallspace rocketry, sci-fi and fantasy modelling. Off-road explorers in a hot Earth scenario. Read more in an upcoming BLAZE. BLAZE PREVIEW EDITION copyright 2024 © BlazeMedia/David Jefferis. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or be transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior written approval of the publisher.
Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE 27
28 BLAZE Visit us at www.blazemedia.co BLAZE Science Fact and Fiction Magazine is inspired by respected progenitors such as the classic Galaxy and Omni magazines, In today’s high-tech world, the blending of science and fiction is a part of our daily lives, so BLAZE reflects this with an exotic mix of what was, what is, and what may be yet to come. Enjoy this BLAZE preview, and join us again for more at: www.blazemedia.co www.patreon.com/blazemag