Short Story: When Worlds Collide…
My previous foray into short stories this week was, to my mind, exceptional. The premise was a unique world-building exercise which bore only passing similarity to other works in the genre, my hero was a refreshing gender and religion bend, my vision of humanity and our expansion into the heavens one which felt simultaneously believable and still fits with unbridled imagination. All in all, I feel like I produced exactly what you want out of a universe: a framework the reader can relate to, and yet infinite room for imagining.
To continue that same spirit of (to my eyes) above average story telling, I will endeavor to continue where the previous tale left off. It’s a great chance to continue working on what does and what does not make a good short story. I’m far from anything like an expert, and I can guarantee when I’ve more time to dedicate to this craft I will be attending every writing conference I can get my grubby little mitts on. In the meantime, these posts, however imperfect, will have to suffice as the training I cannot go without. No matter how long my career, I intend to keep growing my writing techniques. I want my works to be every bit as new and meaningful to readers whether it is my first or last book.
With my story earlier this week, I painted a picture of humanity as it took it’s first fledgling steps into the stars. The journey had its costs, and I hinted at a dark age of warfare and destruction prior to leaving Earth’s atmosphere to find our place in the universe. Not an uncommon theme, but one that is use so much simply because it provides a blank slate for each author that pursues it. In such a global conflict, the sheer force of destruction involved along with the possibility of betrayal, intrigue, and sheer random luck that influences any conflict between humans provides an avenue for the author to create any outcome we need while still seeming realistic. In this universe, humanity ended that final, brutal conflict with a new resolve to find a united purpose. Artificial barriers of race, religion, and social status were eliminated. Instead, a more united and fulfilled vision of a Meritocracy emerged, still driven by capitalism, but a form of it which acknowledges and encourages the intrinsic worth of humans, and the fact that we are all one family.
As my vision of humanity took to the stars outside our beloved Sol, they were not free of the standard human failings of greed and avarice. There will always be those who wish to have without earning. It’s simply a part of us. Even though I work hard every day to hone my abilities and earn success, I still dream of scenarios where I reach the highest plateaus without having put in any effort. In the universe I continue to craft, piracy is something that continues to plague humanity. Yet there has never been a real need for any military presence outside of a local system militia to defend against ne’er-do-wells. Until now…
When Worlds Collide
For hundreds of years, humanity had expanded across the galaxy. System by system, colony by colony, human ingenuity seemed unending. There was never system which could not be tamed. Not once, in over a thousand systems seeded with the light of humanity, had there been a scenario where humanity was beaten back. From an orbiting mining platform and habitation module which contained millions of souls, to cities located below hundreds of miles of untamed ocean where the waters finally calmed, humanity would not be stopped. They did not know it then, but they were all living in a golden era of expansion and peace. There were scattered pirates which could never quite be stamped out, but they were a minor irritant and one of the few which remained a constant.
In the early months of the year 2515, humanity celebrated the establishment of a colony on the most Earth-like planet ever discovered. Almost the mirror of their birthplace, the planet known as Miqdash was personkind’s most celebrated achievement, capable of supporting human life for millions of years. The planet, one of the many owned by the Hebrew Alliance, generated a colonization list an unprecedented hundreds of millions of names long. The arrival of the first colonization wave upon the planet, and the building of the main city over the course of two months was a constant source of images and stories broadcast over the ethernet along the entire Loop. A sense of destiny overtook men and women of this age. With care, the sins visited upon Earth could be avoided. An atmosphere and ecosystem that did not have to be artificially created or maintained was a priceless gift beyond compare, one protected by the major colony conglomerates with a zeal that would have blanched the soul of pre-space humans.
The colony was formally inducted in the umbrella of the Hebrew Alliance in October of 2515, to a tumultuous week-long celebration involving the galaxies most unabashed pageantry and merrymaking. Victory had been achieved, a planet existed which drove humans to new heights: a second place to call home. A second cradle for humanity to rest in, a second place they could plant their feet and stand tall. When the shipment of harvested water and nutrient bricks which had been coming from Miqdash like clockwork along The Loop to the shipping station Nebula’s Boon did not arrive as scheduled October 16th, 2515, no one was overly worried. Colony shipments were late all the time, as so many things could go wrong when living in the harsh environs of space. It did seem a little out of place for the second home, complete with all its riches of atmosphere and biology, to be late with a shipment of goods. All colonies depended on the funds which were generated from trade interactions to support the population and the expansion of living quarters which would allow more colonists to settle. To date, Miqdash’s ability to produce rich nutrient bricks was without equal, and had made them one of the many fortunes to come. As the next shipment date drew nearer with no sign of the missing trader, T. Jefferson Green, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer of the Hebrew Alliance shipping station Nebula’s Boon, began making more insistent inquiries along the ethernet.
Miqdash was completely silent. This was extraordinary, because even if an ethernet signal is not viewed, it is easy to trace the signals path from booster tower to booster tower throughout the colonies. When arriving at the tower which should have delivered it to Miqdash, the signal simply vanished as though Miqdash didn’t exist. That was impossible. The shields and long range destabilization wave generators prevented anything from striking the planet. A whole host of Botanists, Microbiologists, Pathologists, and more scientific testing than could be believed had ruled out any sort of plant, animal, or microbial agent which could destroy the colonists. There were dangers, but nothing which could impose total population collapse. Something was desperately wrong, and Jeff Green needed to act, and act fast.
Breaking out the emergency colony procedures that he had hoped he would never need, he dialed up the fastest priority ethernet signal his position could obtain, and sent all of the available data as well as his planned course of action to the Alliance HQ. Next, he signaled his Chief Operating Officer, and stated his plan of action, immediately turning to his next challenge when the COO confirmed the orders. He gathered up all there was to find on Miqdash, and sent it to the internal drives of his personal skimmer. Not quite what I had in mind when I bought it Jeff thought to himself as he made his way to his personal refresh unit attached to his office. When he finished toweling the cleansing solution off himself a few minutes later, he made his way to the closet at the end of the unit. There, next to his daily business suits, was his pride and joy: his amateur circuit racing gear.
He tucked his long dreadlocks into their familiar pattern in his suits helmet as he finished fastening his gear on the way to his private docking bay. He couldn’t help but smile as he looked down on his Siren. It had cost him half a year of his rather high salary to obtain her, and she was worth every mark. Her colors flashed in the harsh light of the docking bay, and with all four of the flight foils secured in docking position she looked like the pupae of a garishly colored butterfly. Jeff signaled the docking crew to make sure her reactor was at peak condition as he ran pre-flight diagnostics of the various launch and flight systems to make sure she hadn’t gotten a cramp during her slumber. When his dock crew gave the thumbs up, he gently woke his beautiful Siren from her silent vigil. Her reactors hummed along the sleek thirty meter ship, making him feel that the skimmer was purring in anticipation. He slowly brought his sleek companion off the docking struts, and once he had enough room, tested all the flight foils to make sure they would function when they were needed.
The foils were ready, working in sleek concert as the contracted and expanded to allow for greater or lesser drag for sharp turning either in atmosphere or in deep space. The reactor throughput and engine efficiency were both nominal, and with a roar of barely contained power the racing skimmer shot out of the docking bay and into space. With a sharp ninety degree turn which didn’t even faze the internal gravity compensators, Jeff let a fierce grin slip onto his usually serious face as he sped towards the Loop-dock at the outer rim of the system. His COO had done her usual stellar job, and the shipping lanes were cleared all the way to the dock. His computer synced with the dock terminal, and showed that there were no ships in the Loop to bar his way. With another eye wrenching snap-hook, he plunged through the gate into the Loop and hurtled on his way towards Miqdash to assess the situation with his own eyes.
With speeds that not even the fastest fighter craft could come close to matching, his racer hurtled recklessly down the Loop. A journey that takes weeks when you need to worry about crew, a large ship which had to maintain tons of cargo in a stable environment, and leaving enough room between ships would take only hours for Jeff at his current speed. He set his ships tracking systems to seek out any debris or larger objects ahead of him so he didn’t wreck his brand new racer, and engaged the autopilot. That taken care of, he settled down while routing the data feed to his internal helmet display so he could see the information he had sent from his office. He had read so much about Miqdash that he felt it was redundant, but he had not become the youngest CEO and CFO in the Alliance by being anything less than thorough. He turned up nothing new in his review of the available data, but his search had served a second purpose of quietly passing what would have otherwise been a worrying journey. Finally, he neared the Loop dock which would spit him out at the outer reaches of the star Falchion and its attendant planets. Upon leaving the dock, his instruments provided him an enhanced view of the jewel floating third from the sun. What met his eyes would forever haunt his dreams.
A grotesque ring of debris and dead bodies circled one of the three moons. It was clearly the remains of the shield station and the destabilization cannon, however, his blood chilled as he spied the wreckage of civilian ships among the flotsam. It looked like dozens, no, hundreds of ships had been destroyed attempting to defend the shield station and the cannon. The moon was pockmarked with blackened craters, clearly caused by an enormous discharge of energy. With a horrified lurch of his stomach, he spied craters on the surface of the second moon and they were filled with the wreckage of the main city of Elborath! What in all of creation was a city doing in space!? His horrified staring contest with the outlines of buildings and landing pads felt like it went on forever, but it was broken when the planet writhed in the corner of his HUD. Writhed?!? He swiftly scanned the planet in more detail. There could be no mistake, large green masses on the surface were twisting and turning as though alive. Green… Green?! All flora on Miqdash was a vivid purple! He had only just made that realization when the writing masses on the surface puckered and rose from the ground, spewing forth a swarm of smaller green shapes into space, directly towards him!
They’re so fast he thought with detachment as he desperately flipped his racer at the outer ring of planets and started heading straight towards the Loop-gate. The mass spawned by whatever that had been was approaching at a rapid pace, when his rear facing displays finally showed him the gruesome outline of the ships, which were as small as his single man skimmer and looked like horrible spiked thorns. The mass of thorns hounding after him began to open fire! Gloopy blobs of what looked like acid spewed from the tips of each of the small cones following him. Using every trick he had ever learned and some he hadn’t, he flew at the limit of what his compensators could save him from. Corkscrew maneuver followed by whip-crack turn, long sprints where he pushed the reactor and engines to their maximum safety thresholds. Slowly, agonizingly, he put distance between himself and his pursuers. He was closing in on the Loop-dock, already keying up the commands to force the terminal to open him a path. It’s gone! Jeff realized with sickening dread when he got no response from his commands. His systems must have engaged their automatic backups which allowed him to exit at the Loop-dock exit, but they weren’t programmed to let him back in. He had minutes to jury-rig a way to enter the Loop, or the swarming mass of spikes would scatter his wreckage across the system the same as they had done to the citizens of Miqdash.
To be continued…
Justin
