Category: machine civilization

“The Fallen” 5/10

Going into last weekend at a bit of a loss, I, per normal, went to Mass early to pray and listen. I now think I know the rest of Part 5, so it is just a matter of writing it down.

While an interplanetary war would be kind of interesting to write, it would also mean at least of month of research and I want this MS done now, not in January. So, maybe next time. Allie will be at the center of a political resolution to all of this – barring just blowing the damn shrine up – but does not know that yet. Demi she may be but is still fifteen, and Aurie, Reina, and others have plans and schemes she cannot imagine.

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“The Fallen” 5/9

Another larger segment going into the weekend. Realizing that I’m not finishing in 2-5k words but closer to 10-15k, I need the story breathing down my neck to keep me motivated. Ideally, I’d like to ship this to my copyeditor no later than December 31. That will give me five months to write two more – one of which may be another short story collection; there are loose threads everywhere, and one thing I DO NOT want to is get any further into the future. It’s just too complicated.

Allie finally walks on a new world – for her. Between the cavern, the building, the fish and leaves, and Squiddy, I understand Aurie’s caution: there’s no telling what the Hero might be inadvertently carrying. I suspect that, as I have done before, I’ll skip the speech (for anyone reading along, it would be a boring recapitulation, and we’ve already had one, which is enough) and move directly into first family politics (Aurie’s husband, Jimmy, is 2 yrs older, so a solid 70, but he, too, has been around Henge and, of course, very close to his wife) and then how international politics about the shrine are shaping up. That will act as an outline to me for everything up to the epilogue.

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“The Fallen” 5/8

From where I started in the summer, this story continues to surprise me. I’d planned an intergeneration novel about the colonization of Mars, followed by some catastrophe where one or some of the demi-humans went feral. Obviously, they had other ideas.

This segment was what I was shown Sunday morning, and it, too, came out of left field at me. I thought I would have some scientific convos with Kira and politics with Fussy. I never envisioned Allie leaving her home world, but here we are.

May have to do a little research for what comes next. Writing “hard” science fiction, I cannot ignore Allie’s bones and muscles being weaker from growing up in a shallower gravity well. Heck, I’m not even sure where she lands: a demi of the Hartmann family in a Jap spaceship bearing news of aliens under Rus territory. It’s a mess.

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“The Fallen” 5/7

This is the next shoe to drop: Anton, as a soldier and diplomat of a minor power, sees what will come next: the shrine, the device behind the waterfall. Unlike the one Aqua hid, this will be in Russian hands in less than a month, with the potential to destabilize everything generations of humans, demi-humans, and Machines have worked so hard for.

The latter half of this segment did not exist until Sunday morning: Mass, again. This story is about to go off in a direction I never anticipated.

I would also like to formally thank Kalogeros Stilitis of Gab for his help with the Greek. I taught myself some koine Greek when I was 25 years old, but that was a lifetime ago and I recall almost nothing.

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“The Fallen” 5/6

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day, and a great time to find out things which can not only shatter your world, but could shatter more than one.

Aqua hid away whatever it was that tossed Fussy and Ed three hundred years into the future. Now a team of Russians are about to start excavating their way to what seems to be another one. Reina is not one to take “no” for an answer, so this could have significant political repercussions. Already rapidly becoming famous for her accidental discovery, I have a suspicion that Allie is about to be up to her neck in international/interplanetary politics.

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“The Fallen” 5/5

Allie tells her story, most of it, to her parents. Their pride in her is obvious, as is her modesty; she is no Fussy or Aurie

Between the Lewis Carroll and Easter references, this is becoming an allegory. I need to review my notes for the rest of Part 5 this weekend. I’ve got a pretty good idea about the Epilogue, but need to get from here to there, first.

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“The Fallen” 5/4

It was pointed out to me I never mention holidays in my stories. As far as I can recall, even as Catholic as so many of these people are, I never even mention Christmas or Easter. The way this segment ends makes me think there should be some kind of “Thanksgiving” holiday for the Martians. But, what date? Colonization was not like the landing of the first ship from a distant star, it’s been going on for more than a generation now. Allie’s amazing discovery? Why give “thanks” for that, as it creates a million new problems and possibilities? And, of course, there are three very distinct cultures, led by two races, on Mars; do the Russians and Japanese have the equivalent to a “Thanksgiving Day” in their current cultures? Perhaps I should just stick to shoehorning the religious one’s in where I can.

Back home into the bosom of her family, Allie makes a surprise announcement – on someone else’s behalf – before learning from her diplomat father the leading edge of the ramifications of her accidental discovery.

Still and all, Allie’s parents have something to give thanks for; Happy Thanksgiving to my FUSA readers!

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“The Fallen” 5/3

I swear I did not think about Allie’s name vis a vis that other girl who fell down a hole until yesterday. At least this way I dodged a huge discussion of politics. Maybe that will be tossed into the lap of Anton, next.

The thought I had in the lead-in of the last segment was enough to have Allie voice it to Fussy; outside of war, no one should have to bury their children or grandchildren. Longevity is a curse.

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“The Fallen” 5/1

A much shorter segment as, honestly, I’m not entirely sure where I’m going. There, obviously, be a big download of politics from Fussy, but after that? The Japanese are on the edge of this whole affair, whereas it happened on and under land claimed by the Russians. Thus, we all know who will have her say: Reina. Like a bad penny or herpes, she keeps showing up.

Concluding this MS on nothing more than politics would be frightfully boring. So, I’ll have to wait to be told how to shake things up. Maybe with that shrine under the waterfall being used, the Crabbies come back? By ship? Teleporter? Do the Great Powers get drawn into a war over alien technology/life? Need to light a fire somewhere.

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“The Fallen” 4/25 (end pt4)

And this brings Part Four to a close. I’m beginning on Five, which I think will be the last; it always depends on who wants me to say what. Five will NOT be a half-generational step like the others have been. It will open just a few days after Allie’s rescue and immediately go deep into politics. Further, I vaguely recalled people making future-referential statements, going all the way back to Part One, and I am skimming the MS and making notes for the loose ends I need to tie up.

Once I get a few thousand words in P5, I should have a much better idea as to how all of this wraps up. I certainly could see an Epilogue where, in a year, Allie walks out of a newly bored tunnel, looks around, and says, “I’m back.”

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