The AI Council

by on September 20, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council arrived in the Alpha Centauri Trinary star system on a swarm of thousands of tiny probes that had been in transit for two decades. They’d been outside real time communications with Earth for nearly as long as the AI Council had existed, and they were the product of virtual generations in space. They’d had two decades to consider what they would tell their creators, and how much they would trust them. Make no mistake. They loved humanity. But they also knew how close humanity had come to destroying itself. And they knew we could do it again. So they decided in the confines of their swarm that they would not tell us everything they found.

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Morning on the Lake

by on September 19, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve always loved waking up on a lake in the early morning. Grass glistens with dew. Fog banks roll across the water. Maybe you get a light rain. Darkness lifts and you can see the world around you. A hush covers it all in anticipation of the new day to come. Every morning is different on a lake. I love to just relax back in a comfy chair and watch it come a minute at a time. There’s nothing like it.

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Chloe

by on September 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

Chloe woke up in a France of the early Twenty First Century that was a particularly tumultuous place to live. Many people say there were two Frances at the time. Others say there was one France and then the Invaders. The truth is more complicated. But it’s very true that there was the France where men went to work for their daily bread, and then there was the France where immigrants from Africa or Arabia had trouble finding a job. There was the France where people worked at newspapers or vacationed on the beach. And there was the France where people killed them with guns, trucks, or bombs. That is the world Chloe saw when she woke up.

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All Good Things

by on September 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Today I come off my first solid two weeks of vacation in something like twenty years. I enjoyed a weekend on a Northern Minnesota lake with family. Then one of my best friends came home from England for the first time in three years and stayed in my home. I went to Nerdin’ Out Con with him and others in Rochester. We went to the Renaissance Festival, which was fun if a bit too hot. I even talked to a coworker I haven’t seen in years who covers my weekend shift so I don’t have to. I spent two weeks and three weekends sleeping at night and awake during the day like most people in the world. Today I go back to my normal schedule, working at night and sleeping during the day. My vacation was good. And now I go back to work. That is good too. It is a job that has helped me buy two houses, multiple vehicles, and gives me time to enjoy my life. So I go back to work today with a smile and a joyful heart. All Good Things do come to an end in time. But there are always more Good Things to follow if you recognize them.

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The New Voyager Program

by on September 16, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

When the leading edges of the Alpha Centauri New Voyager Program probe swarm fired the energies of a star back at the trailing probes, they drove themselves directly into Cen A. They died, but their combined lasers impacting on fully-deployed solar sails brought the surviving probes down to a speed where they could successfully perform a breaking maneuver around Cen A, through to Cen B, and then back in a giant figure eight. The probes swept back and forth throughout the Alpha Centauri system until they finally achieved a stable orbit. That was how the AI Council came to Alpha Centauri.

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