Into the Silence – Part 2

Whenever I set out to tell a new story, we are exploring it together.  I never actually have a concrete plan in mind, and honestly allow my imagination to lead the way, with my fingers simply providing a visual aide for the paths it chooses to follow.  With Into the Silence, I chose to step away from my standard sci-fi entries.  This story is very much a story told along the lines of standard adult fiction novels: Set on Earth, with characters who are struggling with normal issues in familiar places.  It’s… odd for me.  I’ve spent so much of my own time and pursuits in galaxies far, far away (nyuck, nyuck) that coming back down from the clouds is a bit of a rough landing.  It’s not an unwelcome affair, it’s a necessary area for my skills to grow in.  I just miss the castles I build in the sky.

As for the science which is underpinning this particular story, it is very much real.  I’ve been excited for the potential of the EM drive ever since I first read about it.  I’ve had to bide my time, because there was so much possibility of outside factors actually accounting for the thrust being generated by the engine.  EM drives, as they currently stand, upend the understanding we have of physics.  Everything involved in space requires adherence to Newton’s law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  To propel a rocket, you have to shoot something out the end pointing in the opposite direction you wish to go.  In this case, the something happens to be a highly charged and specialized fuel, usually comprised of fuel and an oxidant.  Rocket fuel is heavy.  Two thousand plus metric tons of it, to put a number to it.  That’s the total energy expenditure required in order to break with gravity and leave Earth’s atmosphere altogether.  Imagine, if you will, that we had a way to turn ambient particulate (think the atoms which make up various gasses and inert matter which comprise our atmosphere) into the propellant that is required.  The Saturn V rocket, empty, weighed only 131 metric tons.  It had to carry nearly twenty times it’s own weight in fuel.  What if we had access to an engine, to a method of propulsion, which could alleviate that restriction?  It’s heady stuff.  It’s been the subject of enormous discussion among the scientific community, and to have it proven true, and on it’s way to peer review with concrete provable results which have been achieved in vacuum… excited doesn’t even cover it.

What I want to do with this story is imagine the near future, rather than the further horizons.  Basically, these sorts of stories are always the same: What if?  What if someone like Judy, a smart and quirky individual, came against a problem which she could finally stretch her mental legs on?  What if she made a discovery which would change everything about how we function as a society, as a species?  What if the star truly were the limit?  What if…    It’s a fascinating question, one which I think about endlessly when I write.  I think that’s part of why I sit at these keys: I just can’t help but answer rhetorical questions.

With further what if postulations,

Into the Silence – Part 2

 To speak of Judith’s accomplishments without mentioning the labors of Rebecca Clearwater is a grave disservice to both.  Although she never quite equaled the fame or acclamation of her roommate and coworker, she deserves every bit of the credit for the accomplishments that turned Vector Industries into the household name it is today.  Every time you step onto the platform of a Skyrail line, or travel to the Moon for a weekend getaway, you can thank the hard work and above all the sacrifice of these two heroines.  Never have two women given so very much for the good of everyone else, at the expense of their own safety and comfort.  It should forever be the standards of good grace and honor to be mentioned in the same breath as either of them.