Thanks to my writing group

I wanted to specifically mention my writing group, Writer's Write, and how grateful I am to all the help they've given me.  Specifically this Thursday, some of the best of the best showed up for critique that night and pointed out the errors of my ways to me.  And, as they often are, they were right.

Chapter 9 is an introduction of Merik, a powerful Adept who later becomes enemy #1 to the newcomers to Oasis.  Merik is insance, a cross between Glenn Close in fatal attraction and Henry VIII, I suppose.  I wrote the chapter from Merik's point of view, but as someone pointed out to me the person who is crazy doesn't think they are, so they are not the best viewpoint from which to convey that insanity. 

So I will be re-writing Chapter 9 from the viewpoint of Alarin, a young man Merik is training in the art of being an Adept.  That will allow me to convey his awareness of her instability, his desire to moderate her choices, and demonstrate his own insecurities regarding their relationship. 

Alarin will be a much better POV. 

Thanks to everyone who pointed it out.

Chapters keep rolling

I'm writing my chapters as sparsely as possible, right now.  Minimal detail, although I'm putting almost all of the character conversations in.  I am halfway through Chapter 14 and I just passed 21,685 words for the book. 

There is quite a lot of what I would consider almost cinematic action.  A ship is destroyed spectacularly in Chapter 14, while Sarah is away from the fleet.  Her 1st officer, Commander Franklin Gilbert, makes no mistakes during the event, but she can't help but feel she should have been there.  Instead she was away on a shuttle trip to a farming dome on an asteroid to interview her captive.  Guess who that is?

The loss of a ship poses a real threat to the survival of her crews.  How will she respond to the event?

I know!  I know!  But I want you to buy my book, so I can't reveal all of my secrets. 

While I'm writing this, I frequently think about how the scene would unfold on the big screen.  Who would play the part of Captain Dayson?

I'm rooting for Cate Blanchett.  Does she do science fiction?  Kate Winslet is my second choice.  Amy Adams? 

haha.... I'm getting ahead of myself.  

Reading

What are some good space opera/hard sci-fi books you've read lately? 

I picked up Firestar in hardback at a garage sale for a dollar.  I'll post up later what I think.

I usually read the first few chapters to decide if I'm hooked or not. 

Recent stuff I've read is Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven/Brenda Cooper, Dayworld (a re-read) by Phillip Jose Farmer, and Gravity Dreams by L. E. Modesitt. 

All good reads. 

That's it for a weekend post, I'm off to a BBQ with friends.  It's probably going to be hot.  Bleh.  :)

The Michael Stennis

I'm going to give a bunch of information I've dreamed up about Sarah Dayson's Seventh Fleet.  It doesn't matter, doesn't change the book too much, but it does give me something that I can measure against when I write.  Oh, the Stennis lost a shuttle?  They have one less now, better mark that.  It might come into play in book 3.  Hard to say.  By working out the details of the fleet, I'm creating not only their limits, but their assets.


Here is what I've worked out so far.

The Michael Stennis is an Alliance heavy battlecruiser.  There are larger ships in the Alliance fleet, but not many.  It is a "jump ship", meaning it houses a jump drive that allows it and nearby ships to travel FTL.  When the Stennis jumps, it takes everything within a 25 kilometer bubble with it.  It is the responsibility of the autopilot systems on board the fleet vessels to station keep at assigned ranges from the jump ship.  If a ship leaves the bubble, it is strung out over billions of miles as some of the ship is still FTL and some is returning to normal space.

A typical jump takes anywhere from 4 to 60 days, depending on how far the jump is.  The singularity onboard the Stennis  that warps space around the fleet is permanent, magnetic forces control the spin and therefore the warping of space around the singularity.  This condenses space in front of the fleet, and stretches it behind.  Is there real life physics around this?  Not really, other than the basic concept of stretching and compressing space.  It is based loosely on Alcubierre’s "Warp Drive"

This is where NASA believes warp drive technology currents sits:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat_prt.htm

And this is how NASA thinks we might someday achieve FTL travel.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/ideachev.html

My concept for giving the Stennis the super jump is that there are huge magnetic fields created by a nuclear explosion.  The explosion just as the ship jumps basically hypercharges the singularity onboard the ship.  The fleet is in warp longer than anyone ever has been before, and travels faster and farther than anyone ever has before in a single jump.

The Stennis is a warship, so it (or the fleet with it) is equipped with all the materials it might need to travel long distances, stay on station for a long duration, explore, perform electronic warfare, fabricate their own replacement parts, function as a survey base, a space station, a hospital ship, etc.  The ship is a jump ship, so it's outfitted to serve as many missions as possible.  When it sustains battle damage, it is often capable of repairing itself including fabrication of advanced electronics and structural systems.  This repair capacity is often salvation for a fleet in wartime conditions. 

Keeping in mind that it is the space around the ship that changes, and not the ship itself during FTL, and it should be apparent that the size and mass of the Stennis is irrelevant to FTL jumps.  Everything in the bubble goes, so there isn't a concern for size or mass as long as it fits.  The same cannot be said for in-system movements.  The Stennis uses fusion engines to move within a solar system, and as you can imagine that's quite fuel intensive.  There is the fuel for the fusion stream, and also the reaction mass injected into that stream like an afterburner on a jet.  So the mass of fuel needed for the ship is massive.  The fuel source is hydrogen, generally scooped from gas giants.  Hydrogen 3 is diverted for use in the fusion reactors, and the rest of the hydrogen is compressed into a superdense state for use as reaction mass.

The stats:

Michael Stennis:  Alliance Shikiru class battlecruiser

Length:        942 meters
Diameter:    117 meters, 2.5 kilometers with habitation ring extended, 1 kilometer with the radiators
                    extended post jump.
Crew:           860  (at the time of arrival at Refuge 545 crew remain alive, 311 male, 234 female)
Armament:  160 electro-railguns, each capable of accelerating a .25kg ball of steel to 20kps.
                    12 unpowered 8 megaton nuclear bombs.
                    23 ARC missiles with 150 kiloton warheads
                    117 tactical warheads of various sizes, shuttle loads.
Stores:         1 years of food and water leaving port.  12 months arriving at Refuge.  (resupplied from
                    Palino)
Shuttles:      18 transport shuttles  (6 atmosphere/landing capable)
                    6 combat insertion shuttles (all atmosphere/landing capable)
Additional resources:  80 combat marines  (47 female, 33 male)

EF2358:  Alliance Hobar class escort frigate

Length:        68 meters
Diameter:    11 meters
Crew:          37  (at time of arrival at Refuge, 22.  7 female, 15 male, 15 crew transferred to Yascurra)
Armament:  32 electro-rail guns, .1kg steel ammo.
Stores:         6 months.  Dependent on fleet freighter and jump ship for re-supply
Shuttles:      1 transport shuttle, non-atmosphere
Additional resources:  None

Yascurra:  Alliance Sabre class escort carrier

Length:        184 meters
Diameter:    28 meters
Crew:          104 plus 48 shuttle crew.   All killed by radiation leaving Hamor by nuke that
                    knocked the fleet off course
Armament:  None ship based, 82 10-50 kiloton nuclear direct fire missiles for the shuttles.
                    12 shuttles with single electro-railgun .1kg ammo
Stores:         6 months, dependent on fleet resupply
Shuttles:      12 fighters, with short range jump drives.  Each carries one rail gun and up to two
                    missiles.
                    12 troop combat shuttles, all atmosphere/landing capable
                    4 transport shuttles, 2 atmosphere/landing capable
Additional resources:  48 marines (killed by radiation) and provisions for extended deployment of combat troops.  Personal weapons, armor, and several armored and unarmored ground vehicles.

Amalli:  Alliance Amalli class electronic warfare frigate

Length:        48 meters
Diameter:    7 meters
Crew:          12 (6 at time of arrival at Refuge, 6 dead from radiation)
Armament:  None, ship is fully outfitted for electronic warfare, ECM and ECCM, although much
                    equipment is damaged from EMP at the Hamor battle.
Stores:         6 months, dependent on fleet resupply
Shuttles:      None, crew is transferred via fleet shuttles
Additional Resources:  None

Palino:  Alliance Condor class fleet supply freighter

Length:        247 meters
Diameter:    62 meters at midsection
Crew:          41 (20 at arrival to Refuge, 21 transferred to Yascurra)
Armament:  None
Stores:         40 months of fleet stores left out of initial 6 years.
Shuttles:      4 transport shuttles (non-atmosphere)
Additional Resources:  Stored supplies, food, water, armaments, railgun ammo, raw materials, clothing, medical supplies, biological supplies, tools, shuttle spares, electronic spares, etc.  All undamaged at Hamor.


So 5 ships have reached Refuge.  The only supplies they have are what they have with them, and if they can potentially resupply from the local population.  Their adaptation to their situation is part of what makes the story.   What do you do if marooned with limited supplies and complex and potentially vulnerable equipment?

Haves and have nots

Society on Refuge is feudal, with the haves and have nots you'd expect in such a society.  The planet is huge and the population density low, so it doesn't have the population pressures that medieval Europe had prior to the Black Death.  But it does have people living in servitude to overlords.

The Adepts are the nobility.  They don't suppress the people with armies, although they do have small military forces.  They control the people with their psychic powers.  I'm not going to explain why they have these powers on the blog, but they've selectively bred themselves and pulled promising children from the common population for 100 centuries to create the powerful Adepts that exist in the story.  The Adepts breed themselves like we breed dogs, breeding to amplify certain traits and culling those that do not make the standard. After all this time, the most powerful Adepts are unbelievably powerful.

Abilities due to Adept psychic powers:

1. They cannot violate any existing physical laws or currently observed universal behaviors.
2. Telepathy exists, and is instant communication without respect to light speed.  Einstein would call it spooky action at a distance.  Look it up.  It's interesting stuff.
3. If momentums change, heat is created.  This heat is information that the Adepts can transfer from one set of atoms to another, just as long as energy is neither created nor lost.  For example, an Adept hurling a rock into orbit would have to acquire that energy somewhere.  He might pull so much heat from a nearby lake that it freezes solid hundreds of feet deep.  
4. The Adept can kill with heat or removal thereof, by simply boiling an enemy or freezing them.  Again, this involves transferrring that heat information somewhere. 
5. Adepts can read minds, mainly by learning what neurological firing patterns mean.  They will have difficulty reading the minds of those not from Refuge.
6. They can, on occasion, see a short distance into the future.  This is basically a perception across the multiverse to see the myriad of possible outcomes.  It is then up to the Adept to solidify as real the one the Adept prefers.
7. They can see remote locations at times by intercepting the photonic information transferred to matter at a location they can see.  Basically a form of over the horizon backscatter radar but psychic.  Look that up too. ;)  This would be similar to remote viewing.

Limits to their psychic powers:

1. They cannot perform mind control other than by terror methods.  They cannot manipulate the neural patterns of a mind fine enough to control them.  They can, however, stimulate certain nerve systems to simulate pain, pleasure, etc.
2. They cannot teleport themselves or anything else.  They do not have control of matter to the degree that they can move it from one place to another, they can only transfer the information state of matter from one set of atoms to another.  An object contains far too much information to move it intact from one location to another.
3. The Adept cannot protect themselves from physical damage (harden their bodies), perform 'magical' healing of any kind, or raise the dead.  
4. They cannot see auras, tell fortunes,  read patterns (cards, bones, tea leaves), speak to the dead, dowse water, consort with demons (although their religion has demons in it), manipulate luck, access teaching they haven't themselves learned, discern omens, or wish their dirty clothes clean.

The average Joe on Refuge is just a poor schmuck who grubs in the dirt for a living or works a trade.  Small villages are scattered along paths or roads easily reached by the forces of the Adepts (or the Adepts themselves) so that the population can be controlled.  The villages have a zone around them that they are allowed to farm or graze.  Ostensibly the villagers own their animals and crops, but they pay fees and taxes too the Adepts political structure.

The common man realizes they are subject to the whims of the Adepts, they pay their taxes, turn over thier children, and comply with the wishes of their overlords.  After all, that's how it's always been from their point of view.

The religion of Refuge is basically sky worship, they believe each object that is normally in their sky is a God.  Since Refuge is WAY above the galactic plane, the night sky is dark except for the planets within the Oasis (the name I have now assigned to the K4 orange dwarf star powering this solar system) star system and of course Oasis itself.

The locals refer to Oasis as Em' Faroo (The God Faroo), the planet Hades or Ember (I haven't decided on a name for it as Em' Jalai.  The moons of Em' Jalai don't deserve such formal titles as they are children of Em' Faroo and Em' Jalai.  They are simply called by name.  Fandama is a moon closer in orbit to Hades than Refuge is, and is much like Venus.  It glows a beautiful yellow in the night sky of Refuge, and is regarded as the Goddess of Beauty.  The next largest moon in the Hades system from the point of view of Refuge's surface is Yoro.  Yoro is barren with a thin atmosphere, so varies from white to gray in color.  Yoro is considered to be Fandama's suitor, and although he chases her eternally he never catches her.  Yoro is one orbit out from Refuge, so unlike Fandama he sometimes disappears below the horizon so he can try to sneak up on Fandama yet again.  Fandama, in her desire to be seen as much as possible, never sinks as low as the horizon line because she orbits inside the orbit of Refuge.  The only time she disappears completely from view is when she is close to the same position in the sky as Em' Faroo.  The locals believe when they die they are taken to the sky to live with the Gods, and that those who are found unworthy of immortality due to living an unworthy mortal life are cast down as Burning Souls.  These are basically meteors burning up in the atmosphere.  Some locals believe that when a meteor survives to reach the ground (which happens quite often in the moon system of Hades) that the soul is either reborn or enters the world as an unbodied demon to bring bad things to the lives of mortals.

I have the potential of adding more mythology into the world if I need too, but for now this will do to illustrate the religious state of the locals.  This is in opposition to most of the outsiders (although a few are religious) who are mostly atheists.

Part of the evolution of the story will be the concepts of religion, fate, and free will as the three books progress.  Eislen will question his religions, Sarah will question her previous certainty that nothing divine exists, and both will arrive in a different place than they started.

Remember, this blog is religion free in the sense that I won't discuss modern religion.  But the religion of the locals on Refuge is open game.  Feel free to make suggestions and help me develop their ethical beliefs and traditions.

I have very rough first drafts of Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 underway.