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My writing on the Cemen Colony over the last twenty-five plus years has turned out to be an interesting exercise in alternate timelines and the changes they cause in the characters. Beginning with what was originally a minor character in another story and gradually becoming the massive amount of material I'm still working on as inspiration strikes.
The published novels and tales follow the events predicted in one of four major sets of prophesies - the text written by the first leader of Aarendusch mentioned in the above quotation. Quite likely all the future novels and tales will also follow this line of events. That said... I have finished a very long novel following the Prophesies of Jessayan and begun a sequel to that. I'm debating sharing those scene by scene on this blog. I haven't decided yet. I also have some writing done following the events predicted in Rod Nalell and the Saraiian, along with a whole host of smaller pieces exploring various potential alternate choices stemming from various events along all the different timelines. Again, I may eventually share some of this materal on the blog - I don't know yet whether my readers would even be interested. Silence reigns over the cluster of empty wooden buildings and surrounding sands. Silence broken only by the occasional wind stirring dust around. Silence disrupted by an unnatural whine.
In the middle of the sand flooded main street, in the middle of empty air, a smooth white door slides open. Three women step through and the door slides closed before vanishing. The women look around, shielding their eyes from the glare of the midday sun and their faces from the blowing dust. The smallest of them, no taller than a small child despite having a woman's full figure, darts across the street and through double half doors which swing in the wake of her passing. The other two exchange a glance and a shrug before following. The inside of the building is as dusty as the outside and sand has blown in to nearly cover the floor. Tables surrounded by chairs are set haphazardly around the room, some littered with tankards and bottles, as if the last people to frequent the room had simply gotten up and walked away. Across the room is a bar, behind which the wall is lined with shelves displaying all shapes, colours, and cuts of glass bottles. A set of stairs to one side leads to an upper walkway lined with open doors, although it's impossible to see into any given room from the floor below. The tallest of the three, a slim woman with a long blonde braid, distinctly pointed ears, and light brown-green eyes, looks around and shakes her head. “A tavern by any other name...” “It's out of the wind... mostly,” The diminutive woman sets her pack on an empty table, “So we're here. What now?” “Now we hope they honour their word and leave us be,” The third woman, only slightly shorter than the tallest and somewhat more muscular, looks from one of her companions to the other, “We've gained a home of our choosing. What more could we ask after everything?” Wolntyff is the second planet of a young star and orbited by two moons. It has a potentially habitable sister world in the third planet of the system. The exploration efforts found Wolntyff suitable for terraforming, although the entire planet does suffer from strong nightly wind storms.
The Wolntyff colony is unique in that the colonists were not conditioned to forget Earth and are all aware that they are living on a colony world. The overall colony capital city is Odinsville and law enforcement is the purview of the colonia militia. The novel Colony Zero begins as sands from an unknown source are taking over the surface of the world and forcing the colonists to evacuate the small, unwalled settlements. Pamu is one of several planets in a system with a Sol like sun. It has two as yet unnamed moons and is a water world with polar ice caps and no ground above sea level. Its oceans are home to a host of sentient and not so sentient races, including a variety of dragon.
When humans arrived, they built their homes on floats anchored to the ocean bottom, not realizing they were disturbing the races below. What happens as a result is the subject of the novel Beneath the Waves.
Cemen is a relatively Earth-like planet in orbit of a star similar to Sol and has one unnamed moon. It is home to a primarily subterranean race, who call themselves Sedyr.
In terms of geography, Cemen has two continents, one slightly smaller than the other, and two oceans. The planet is, for the most part, tectonically stable and any kind of tremors or quakes are extremely rare. For some (yet to be determined reason) the colonists from Earth arrived on Cemen in two separate ships, one significantly after the other. The Sedyr emerged to greet the first colonists and help them learn to live on the planet, but had mostly retreated back to their underground homes by the time the second ship of colonists arrived. What would eventually become known as the East Continent was, in time, united into a single empire, which was later broken into four monarchies. The other continent, later known as the West Continent, became and remained a republic. All trade and travel between the continents is under the purview of a group known as the Pleasure Society, who exist outside the authority of any continental government. Possibly due to the influence of the (almost) immortal Sedyr, many of the social structures and governments on Cemen remain relatively stable for long time periods. Another possible influence of the Sedyr on the human colonists is a retention of words, concepts, and holidays that the colonists were supposedly conditioned to forget in the attempt to make them forget Earth. This is background to all of my colony worlds novels and a good deal of the rest of my writing. Please note two things:
-this is fiction set on an alternate Earth -I truly hope we have a much brighter future ahead of us than this In the year 2054, a pair of graduate students from a small university made a huge break through in beyond light speed travel. The small craft they created could go anywhere on Earth in the blink of an eye. However, fearing they would lose credit for the discovery, the students enlisted the support of a wealthy philanthropist. He provided the location and means of building a full scale prototype capable of space flight and atmospheric re-entry. When the prototype was ready, the philanthropist obtained clearance for a single test flight for his ‘private space yacht.’ At the appointed time, the students launched their craft. Once outside Earth’s atmosphere, they activated the beyond light speed engine for the fastest ever trip to the moon and back. The success of the trip was broadcast to Earth via the International Space Station. However, instead of returning to the Earth’s surface, the students refueled and restocked at the ISS. This time they took their craft to Mars, where they visited the surface. Again, they returned to the ISS to refuel and restock. But this time, they contacted the United Nations. They explained that they did not want any one country to have control of this new travel capacity. The UN agreed that this was best and a new International Space Agency (ISA) was created. The students gave this new agency the plans and specifications for their craft. The students and their prototype never returned to the Earth’s surface. Instead, they visited each planet of the solar system, each time returning to the station with new information and images for Earth’s scientists. Each trip also assisted in refining and improving their prototype. All modifications were transmitted to the ISA. But when the students attempted a trip to the nearest solar system, they and their craft vanished. In the meantime, the ISA began construction of a fleet of exploratory craft. Supply and passenger ships were also commissioned by various countries and individuals. Elsewhere on Earth, a separate group of scientists was investigating means of reclaiming land damaged by pollution and nuclear disasters. By 2055, they had succeeded in creating a ‘terraforming kit’ capable of rehabilitating even the worst damaged sites. In 2056, the ISA began adapting the kit for use on the moon and Mars. 2060 saw the grand opening of the Lunar Research Station. 2062 saw the founding of the colony on Mars and the establishment of an international station in orbit over Neptune. Neptune Station was the command centre for the exploratory fleet launched in 2063. The fleet was made up of thirty small, self-sustaining ships, each assigned to explore one of the newly designated sectors of space. With Earth as the point of origin, four quadrants were established. Each quadrant was further broken into sectors. The ship crews were tasked with finding potential for mining, uninhabited Earth-like planets, and terraform-able planets. Earth was rapidly becoming increasingly over populated and many countries were looking to establish offworld colonies. The severe winter of 2065 caused an unprecedented population explosion the following year. The resources of Earth and Mars were taxed beyond their limits. In an effort to resolve the crisis, thousands of ‘undesirables’ were loaded into colony ships and conditioned to forget Earth and never again seek outer space. They were then sent to the planets the exploration teams had recommended for colonization. Even with this, Earth remained overpopulated and tensions rose between countries. Eventually, any pretense of civility and international co-operation died and the UN was destroyed. Lunar and Neptune Stations were abandoned, exploration was disrupted, and Mars colony was left to fend for itself. Nuclear war broke out on Earth, drastically reducing the population and rendering much of the land unusable. |
AuthorAlexandra A. 'Lexa' Cheshire is the author of numerous novels and short stories published through Howling Wolf Books. Lexa is a wife, mother, cat owner, and music lover. Archives
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