Science Fiction Story Ideas
Space Exploration – Faster than light
When a message in a bottle just won’t do – FTL Communication
- Earthlings on different planets have no way to send FTL messages to communicate with each other. An explorer discovers a planet populated by beings that can traverse the universe in the blink of an eye: angels. If only they could be forced to work as messengers…
- In the future, telepaths provide the only way to send faster than light messages across the vastness of space. Anyone with the gift is forced to work for the Government Office of Interplanetary Communication, but one young girl rebels…
- The population of earth spreads out to a wide variety of different planets. Unfortunately, they have no way of communicating with each other at faster than the speed of light, and it takes years to send messages between planets. Until one day, when a research company develops a time machine. To send a message to another planet “instantly,” they just send it back in time before it was ever written.
- An alien scientist builds a device that can transmit signals faster than the speed of light. To test the prototype, he plugs it into his satellite dish and rebroadcasts the signal into deep space. Moments later, earth gets its first glimpse of alien television.
- The population of earth spreads out to a wide variety of different planets. A scientist invents a new device that sends messages faster than the speed of light. The scientist discovers that he can send messages to colonists on other planets, or to someone else… God.
- An amateur scientist, working in his garage on a FTL communication device, accidentally contacts an alien world. The aliens are friendly and offer him the secrets of their technology, but first he would have to give them directions to earth. His wife, an avid science fiction fan, is suspicious and wonders what motivation the aliens would have to simply give technology away. The question of wither or not the aliens should be given a star map to earth leads to debate, to fights, and eventually to violence.
- Scientists discover a form of energy that can travel faster than light, making FTL communication possible for the first time. Unfortunately, the energy is extremely dangerous, and deadly to humans.
- A corporation on earth invents faster than light communication, and sets up the only receiving station for messages. A young reporter discovers that the corporation is censoring the news from the space colonies.
- The population of earth spreads out to a wide variety of different planets, with no way of communicating with each other at faster than the speed of light. The government decides to make use of a group of Holy Men who can use astral projection to travel to other worlds instantly. One of the Holy Men visits another planet to deliver a message, but he falls in love with a beautiful colonist. How can he build a relationship with someone when he’s not even on the same planet?
- A doctor in a distant hospital discovers a way to send messages to distant planets. Patients with terminal illnesses are given messages to memorize, in the hopes that they will be able to visit distant worlds on their way to the afterlife.
- While experimenting with a new FTL radio, a scientist begins receiving messages from alien soldiers fighting in what sounds an awful lot like earth’s Civil War…
- After working for days without sleep, a scientist finally completes his new FTL radio. He collapses in the corner of his lab, exhausted. While he slumbers, the first person to communicate with an alien world is his mischievous, eight-year-old son.
- A scientist working at a radio telescope receives a strange message. It is a clear signal, but an equipment malfunction prevents him from determining which direction the signal originated from. The coded message, when translated, turns out to be schematics for a faster-than-light communications device. The scientist and his coworkers construct the device and then, not knowing which direction the original message came from, contemplate sending a signal into every part of the sky. However, one coworker has an interesting objection: they are virtually guaranteed to reach multiple planets with their message. What are the odds that at least one of them will be hostile? Is it worth taking the chance, or is it better to remain silent and unnoticed?
In Space, No One Can Give You a Speeding Ticket – Hyperspace / Warp drive
- A scientist discovers hyperspace, a new kind of space where ordinary laws of physics are changed. In hyperspace, spaceships can travel faster than light. But the astronauts start to see strange beings outside their windows, and what looks suspiciously like souls in torment. Is hyperspace… hell?
- Variation – Astronauts experimenting with newly-discovered hyperspace technology find that they can reach not just other planets, but also the afterlife. They can visit their dead friends and relatives. What happens when the astronauts try to bring someone back?
- Astronauts discover that traveling through hyperspace has strange effects on the human body. Namely, it is the universe’s most powerful aphrodisiac.
- Due to an oddity of physics, every trip through hyperspace causes the astronauts to lose IQ points.
- In hyperspace, the ships can travel faster than the speed of light. However, traveling outside of normal spacetime has its risks. People age and grow younger, transform into strange creatures, or vanish, to reappear anywhere in the universe.
- Colonists traveling through hyperspace end up in a parallel universe, where they face alternate versions of themselves.
- The janitor at a scientific research company steals a prototype hyperdrive and installs it in his pickup truck.
- A multi-planet corporation sponsors a faster-than-light race across the stars. After one man’s father dies in the race, he vows to come back next year and destroy the race forever… with a black hole.
- The government tests a spacecraft equipped with a prototype warp drive, a device capable of bending time and space. Unfortunately, using the device creates space/time anomalies on the earth below: areas where time travels faster or slower than normal, areas where time travels in reverse, temporary portals to the other side of the universe, and even greater dangers.
Taking a Shortcut – Wormholes
- Astronauts discover wormholes in space. The wormholes are powered by ancient alien machinery, and they allow earthlings to travel FTL for the first time. The wormholes are used by astronauts, space tourists, colonists to other worlds, millions of people. And then the aliens from the Space Travel Agency come to collect the bill.
- Unable to develop their own FTL technology, earthlings must pay to use wormholes. The wormholes are owned by a lizard-like alien species that use earth’s money and resources to fund aggressive wars.
- Human astronauts discover wormholes in space; use them to travel to distant planets. Unfortunately, the wormholes are literal worm holes. They are created by immense worms that eat holes in the space-time continuum.
- A man reveals to his friends that he has a wormhole in his bedroom closet, but he’s afraid to see where it goes.
- An alien planet, after running out of space for landfills, decides to use dispose of its garbage in a wormhole. Unfortunately, the other end of the wormhole is on earth.
- Spelunkers discover a wormhole in a cave under Gary, Indiana. In order for the government to use it for space travel, they must destroy the city.
- The government keeps an ancient sect of monks isolated from the modern world. Any time they need a wormhole to send a ship into space, they come to the monks and ask them to pray, and their god answers.
- A young girl is born with the ability to open up holes in the space-time continuum. When a retired NASA astronaut discovers the girl’s hidden talent, he vows to kidnap the girl and use her abilities to get back into space once more.
- In an attempt to travel to distant worlds, government scientists open up a wormhole. Unfortunately, before they can send a space probe through, something comes in from the other side: an alien immigrant. Soon, the planet is overrun with space aliens, some looking for work, some looking for a handout, and others just looking for a good time.