No Time for Cover Art – Prologue to Casualties of War
I have to apologize as I have not updated this in forever, November, but I was in this weird pause mode as I was waiting on Cover Art for Pilgrim’s Trail – Casualties of War which has still not materialized. I actually quit writing for a while which is not good for me but am now back on it.
With the completion of Casualties of War complete I was uncertain which book would be next to move to the forefront and thought that I would be The History of World War III as this is the reason for my trip to Potsdam in August. However, that is not the way things work for a “seat of the pants” author, and as things worked out the brain moves forward and the next Pilgrim’s Trail Book Devil’s Ride and the Prequel The Path to the Pilgrim’s Trail are the two books that are moving forward.
The History of World War III (Academic Study) – progress 16,000+ words Goal 100,000 words
World War III – 1945 (Altered History Fiction) – progress 7000+ words, Goal 100,000 words
The Devil’s Ride – Pilgrim’s Trail Book Three – 11,000+ words, Goal 100,000 words
The Path to Pilgrim’s Trail (Prequel) – 5400+ words, Goal 100,000 words
The Quantum Mind 4500 Words, Goal 100,000 words
We happy few (formerly Through Green Eyes) – 1100 words, Goal 100,000 Words
Not Enough Water to Melt the Witch – 900 words, Goal 60,000 Words
Bit of a teaser
Casualties of War
Prologue
The Pilgrim’s Trail is the route from Earth to Tau Ceti to the riches of Fomalhaut now simply referred to as Piscis for the constellation, Piscis Austrinus that the star appears within as viewed from Earth. Tau Ceti serves as a weigh station that many never get past on the Pilgrim’s Trail.
The Tau Ceti System consists of Romulus and Remus, mineral rich twin planets that orbit opposite one another very near the Tau Ceti Sun with one side continually facing the Sun that side remains molten and a shadow side is cool enough to permit the minerals to be extracted. Capricorn is the next planet from the Sun, it has not been extensively terra-formed remaining a dry planet with no great bodies of water and is therefore subject to great windstorms as the planet tries to redistribute the heat from the nearby Sun. Capricorn’s Moon Ea is much the same as the planet with a thinner atmosphere, which makes it a haven for pirates and warlords. Gamma, the next planet from the Tau Ceti Sun, is a Super-Earth being almost three times larger than Earth, with one massive continent and an ocean with numerous islands. Gamma is covered with mega-fauna and is populated by a race of bipedal hunter-gatherers, so it remains a world restricted to humans and carries a Death Sentence for those that make planet-fall. Royal Navy and Marines on Gamma’s dead moon, Lorentz, keep a close eye on the planet. Delta, the next planet, is another Super-Earth, smaller than Gamma and dominated by water. Delta is a planet of the wealthy with a large terra-formed fishing industry. Delta has two moons that have both been terra-formed but have only been settled for the last 100 years, Sanctuary and Alpha. Prime is the furthest planet in the Tau Ceti System; it serves as the System Capital and primary planet for interstellar travel and trade. Prime has two moons, Eta and Zeta, which are barely habitable with breathable atmospheres and little water. The outer asteroid belt is so dense that it is referred to as ‘The Cloud’. This is the solar system of Ranger Hank Paulus and the Ranger Service as they try to maintain Law and Order and bring Justice to the Tau Ceti Solar System.
Four things propelled humans to the stars; Artificial Intelligence, the discovery of the element Trillium, harnessing dark matter, dark energy or anti-matter and the control of Einstein-Rosen Bridge Events commonly referred to as wormholes this being called in lay terms Jump Technology. Artificial Intelligence developed much slower than anticipated because so little was actually understood about the workings of the human mind therefore the ability to duplicate intelligence proved more difficult than imagined. It was only after the Apocalypse when humanity had almost wiped itself from the face of the Earth that a concentrated effort in Artificial Intelligence was mounted in an attempt to help rebuild human civilization. Fear that humans would be judged or enslave by Artificial Intelligence was overcome by the safeguards of hardwired programing and the development of a symbiotic relationship between Artificial Intelligence and human beings. The most common interaction takes place between humans and Androids.
Artificial Intelligence ability to quickly process information and connecting information that humans often think is unrelated lead to the Great Leap of Humans into Space. The first major advance was the hydrogen ion engine that propelled ships at one-quarter light speed and later helium ion engines that moved ships to just over half light speed. Humans began to explore and colonize planets in nearby solar systems. One such planet was GJ 581e known as Greenland. This planet contained Trillium that was at first thought to be a useless black rock that was in the way of miners trying to get at more valuable minerals but when it lay in piles on the surface of Greenland and began to attract dark matter and suspend itself in the air when surrounded by dark matter the value of the rock became apparent. Some of humanities greatest leaps forward have been accidents. With Trillium dark matter can be attracted, stored, manipulated into shapes, used to repel or attract objects, and can be used to harness dark energy or anti-matter. Trillium harnesses dark matter and dark energy or anti-matter allowing you to control gravity, creating artificial gravity on spacecraft and lifting spacecraft into space. Dark energy or anti-matter is used as a reactor with matter to create almost unlimited amounts of energy and enough energy to actually create and control an Einstein-Rosen Bridge Event commonly known as a wormhole. A wormhole is two points in space connected as a single point in space bridging the space between the two points. An object at one point when the two points are connected will appear at the second point when the points are no longer connected. These events are set by direction and distance measured in light-years as the system is designed to move ships between solar systems. These events are only possible because of dark matter and are powered by dark energy. Einstein-Rosen Bridge events are referred to as Jump events and do have their hazards.
As always humans will also use this technology to invent more efficient ways to kill one another, this has led to plasma weapons that fire projectiles of plasma energy.
Artificial Intelligence has moved humans into space where discoveries were made that expanded human horizons even farther for better or for worse.
Time becomes distorted as humans venture away from Earth as different planets and solar systems have different cycles so it was determined to use Earth’s 365.23 day year as the Standard Year as well as days, weeks and months of Earth all referred to as standard time or standard.
As humans ventured forth into space language changed to fit the environment and words were morphed to find new meaning. The Apocalypse saw human civilization almost cease to exist and many words dropped from the common vocabulary, as they were no longer used and then when situations arose that had been described by these lost words new words were created to describe them. In addition as a result of events on Earth and in the exploration and colonization of space English being the language of flight on Earth it continued as the language of flight in space and Spanish often became the language of colonies as Spanish speakers were the primary colonists of new worlds.
Hope you enjoy,
Floyd