The colony on Enfer is something of an example of human refusal to die even when faced with a seemingly impossible situation. The world was supposed to be terraformed before the colonists arrived, but terraforming failed, leaving the surface barren. The conditioning attempted on the colonists also failed and technology was quickly redeveloped, based on the resources sent with the colonists, to the point of attracting the attention of the inhabitants of a nearby world. Except only those with wealth or connections were able to move planets. Everyone else was left behind, supposedly to die.
But water sources were found underground and used to build cavern cities below the planet's surface. Each city is effectively its own state because travel between is difficult and dangerous. One other thing of note: The colonists sent to Enfer all came from French speaking regions on Earth.
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Seren and Meredith prepare for bed without speaking, only partly due to the storm which makes it nearly impossible to hear anything else. Meredith can't help thinking of the first tale their grandmother had told them, especially about the ill will between human [colonists] and the aquatic natives. These thoughts keep her awake long after her sister has fallen asleep and, once again, she can hear the haunting music. As always, it helps her drift off to sleep.
Meredith wakes, completely disoriented, to chaos. As far as she can tell, she is no longer in her bed. In fact she seems to be tumbling through the water. She tries to cry out but can't seem to open her mouth at all. Managing to open her eyes, she can see herself surrounded by debris and her sister floating away. Then hands grab her and pull her even farther down, away from the remains of her home and family. Meredith struggles, trying to pull free of the hands, to get away to find her family and friends. The owners of the hands are stronger and she grows dizzy from being underwater and unable to breathe. This time Meredith wakes to find herself in a bed inside a bubble of air. As she looks around, she realizes the bubble is floating in the middle of the ocean. Above her, she can only just see light which suggests the morning sky. Below her is ever increasing darkness. There is nothing else around her and she huddles in the bed, shivering with fright and confusion. “You wake.” Meredith whips her head around, trying to see the source of the oddly muffled voice. “You fear. I not show self.” “Where are you?” Meredith frowns, some of her initial panic evaporating. “Near.” “What happened?” Meredith swallows hard, still looking around her for the source of the voice. “Bediel. They make storm. Bad storm. Break homes.” “The village is gone?” “All gone. People safe.” “People safe? But without the village...” “People safe. New homes. Safe homes.” “So where am I?” Meredith frowns in confusion. “You different. You hear song.” “That was you?” “Friends. Friends sing. You hear.” Meredith's frown deepens. “I don't understand.” “Language hard. Your people language hard.” “Okay,” Meredith thinks for a moment, “You said someone sent the storm, right?” “Yes. Bediel.” “Okay. And my village is completely gone? Nothing left at all?” “Yes.” “But all the people are safe?” “Yes. Saved many people.” “And they have new homes?” “Yes. Under storms. Bediel not hurt now.” “You mean underwater? But how will they breathe?” “Have air. Have homes. Have food. Good food. Not fish.” “I guess that's good,” Meredith takes a deep breath, “But you're saying I'm different somehow? Because I could hear your friend's music?” “Yes.” “But what does it mean? Why can't I just have a new home with my family?” “Need you. Stop bediel. Else family not safe long.” “But you said these bediel couldn't hurt them now.” “True. Yes. But bediel change. New hurts.” “So they'll keep finding new ways to attack until we stop them for good?” “Yes. You help. Make safe.” “But what are these things?” “Not explain. Not good. You not fear now. I show self.” “Okay.” Meredith swallows hard as the creature swims into view. It appears to be male, based on what Meredith can see of the humanoid torso. The arms and head are also humanoid although the hands only have three fingers and a thumb, each tipped with a silver talon. But the entire body is covered with silver scales. His hair is long and silver and his eyes are big and brilliant blue. He has no nose and only a slit for a mouth with gills along his jaw and down his neck. The tail is that of a fish and ends in a blue, crescent moon shaped fin. His other fins are also blue. One juts out from his back and there are three down each of his sides between his arms and tail. As his hair moves, Meredith can see fan-like ears. He also appears to be quite short. Far shorter than Meredith. “What are you? I mean what do you call yourself?” Meredith is fascinated by the way he moves in the water. “People Pamoel. Me Lapa.” The NeoTerra colony is unique among the human colony worlds. At some point during exploration, as new worlds were being identified, a corporation on Earth purchased a world to terraform and use for a large scale social experiment. The idea being to recreate life as it existed on Earth during the 1990's, but in a more ecologically sustainable manner. What the Corporation, as they are known on NeoTerra, didn't count on was some force of the planet altering the colonists to give them strange features and abilities.
Overall, NeoTerra closely resembles Earth in that it is the third planet of a star very much like Earth's sun. It has one moon and a similar lunar cycle. Geographically, it has six continents, two sub-continents, and four oceans. The original Corporation built cities span all six continents, but the later settlements span the entire world. The NeoTerra colony was first introduced in the Camp Nanowrimo winning novel, Kedri Dancer. It is also the setting of the short story, Dance with Me. Two more novels are in the works, one slated for publication in November 2022. Current or tentative covers can be seen below.
Ettoyr is the second plant of a sun like Earth's, which was deemed suitable for terraforming during the original exploration efforts. It has a shorter year overall and two moons. Lunar synch coincides with the equinoxes.
Although initially terraformed to multiple types of terrain, Ettoyr settled out as a largely jungle world and tropical climate. It has two continents, three subcontinents, and two major oceans. The Ettoyr colonists did retain the conditioning, but quickly developed technology based on solar power, touch functionality, and hover, although not full flight. 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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