Mormons in Space

I’m in the planning (plotting) stages for my next novel; “Mormons in Space” is the working title.

The inspiration came when driving north on I-15 through the vast spread of Salt Lake City and its many off-spring. The megalopolis stretches from Santaquin through more than a dozen named places to Brigham City, 120 miles to the north.

More or less in the middle of that long, narrow strip of homes, Walmarts, and occasional planted fields is Salt Lake City.

Feeling whimsicle in what soon became a boring drive, I asked, “What would happen if a flying saucer landed in Salt Lake City?”

Not far from the city’s downtown is, of course, the largest Mormon temple. It occupies ten (10) acres from South Temple to North Temple, and from West Temple past Main¹ to State Street.

Still driving north, a golden glint caught my eye off to the right. I wondered if it was from the Angel Moroni² atop the tallest spire of the temple?

I rephrased my question. “Why would a flying saucer land in Salt Lake City?”

The answer was obvious. “Because it’s full of Mormons. They’ve come home, back from some mission to another planet, a colonizing mission, no doubt.”

The fact-obsessed part of my mind raised an eyebrow. “Mormons have space travel capabilities?”

“Of course,” I said, fabricating the answer. “Mormon scientists discovered Cold Fusion—totally by accident, mind you—back in the 1840s but kept it secret from the rest of the world. And as all good Mormons do, they wanted to send off a colonizing mission. So, they had to build a space ship, get some volunteers, poke around nearby stars to find a habitable planet, and then set up shop.”

“Ah, but that would’ve started back in upstate New York where Joseph Smith found those gold tablets,” part of my mind argued. “Someone would’ve noticed.”

Well, if you’re familiar with their history, you’ll know they got kicked out, sometimes at gun point, and driven west, farther and farther, until finally reaching this valley in Utah where Salt Lake City and its sibling communities now thrive.

“Unfortunately,” my mind invented, “the secret of Cold Fusion and the spaceship and even the mission sent off into space, all the records of that, were lost across those forced relocations.”

So, when the colonists come back because they need volunteers for the colony to enrich their gene pool, neither the LDS church nor the rest of the world knows anything about them. Thus, when the hatch opens and a fine, upstanding family of four—father, mother, mature son, and little daughter—step out of the spaceship, everyone is astonished to discover they’re human, and more so, that they’re Mormons!

The plot, such as it is at this creative point in its design, has them greeted by the LDS Church’s President and his advisors because the ship has landed on South Temple across from their front door. And because it’s a hot day, they invite everyone inside the air-conditioned Joseph Smith Memorial Building … for bagels and fizzy water, no cokes or coffee, sorry. Soon, however, the governor of Utah arrives and reveals himself to be a slimey politician with a brain full of lurid imaginings. And the commander of the nearby Hill Air Force Base arrives and is accompanied with an attractive, female Captain.

In a couple of days, the father dies from a lung infection—Earth germs have evolved in the 180 years since the colonials departed—and the son is advanced to ship’s commander, but he doesn’t want the job because he’s fallen in love with the Air Force Captain, an A-10 pilot.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have a plan afoot to steal the secret of Cold Fusion while the United States government, and every other government on the planet, asks politely. At first. But since the Mormons invented it, the LDS President thinks they own it and should be able to sell the technology to the highest bidder. After all, that’d fund a lot of church programs, not to mention more colonies to space in newly built Mormon spaceships, …

… … …

Well, that’s the gist of it so far.

Given that my first novel took almost a decade to get into print, I’m hoping to “fast path” this one.

Look for it in about a year.