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by on June 5, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The events of this weekend remind me why, when I first wrote Jack of Harts, I had things get worse before things got better.

There are generations of people out there who have been taught that others are less human than they are. That others have less rights to speak for thinking the wrong thoughts. That others can be driven out of business for being the wrong religion. That others can be evicted from our schools for being the wrong skin color. That others can be killed for not being like they are.

I grew up watching Star Trek, where mankind had grown beyond those petty disagreements. It was a hopeful message for mankind, a world where we did most things right and built a world we would want to live in.

The events of this weekend remind me that there are those on this planet who do not wish to share it with people who are different than they are. We must defend ourselves from them. We must stop them. We must stand against them. We must drive them from our communities, because they will drive us from ours if we let them. We must, in the end, be willing to fight them.

If we do this well, if we do most things right, we will create that magical world that Jesus, Roddenberry, and Mister Rogers would approve of. I believe that is our future. But as this weekend proves, we have a long way to go before we get there.

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Virginia

by on June 4, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Virginia Adams was one of the first Ageless to come out of the original Peloran Treatments. She was a teenager at the time, and still wore the body of a teenager a century later when the Shang came for us. She was older in mind, of course, but many people did not see that on first meeting. Let me assure you that “Ginny” was impressive at using that to her advantage by going places where teenagers could pass without notice while adults would be stopped on sight. She was serving in the Marine Corps Reserve on New Earth when my Cowboys arrived the first time. We had taken heavy casualties against the Shang and their Chinese allies, and we needed new blood to expand our numbers. She volunteered and I have never regretted my decision to accept her.

High res version available for free on Patreon

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Abbi

by on June 3, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Abigail’s status as one of the few fully functioning AIs before Contact was instrumental in gaining access to Peloran cooperation and technologies. The Peloran cybernetic families recognized that the Adams Family treated her as a family member rather than an employee or a possession. That was real important. Virginia Adams and her Abbi ended up joining the Marine Corps Reserve together, and spent the next century enticing other recruits. Their off-duty escapades and parties were particularly legendary, and I’m not joking. They made the news. Interstellar news. I might have attended some in my time. I never met a good party I didn’t like, you know. I met them again on New Earth after The War began. The Cowboys needed new pilots, and they were ready to step up. I’ve never regretted having them on the team. They’re good people.

High res version available for free on Patreon

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Arnam

by on June 2, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

Another disadvantage the Arnam have is that they do not see as well as we do in surface daylight. Their eyes are optimized towards seeing in pitch dark, and while their multiple eyelids keep bright lights from blinding them, they lose numerous finer details in the bargain. They see the world through a haze of filters that shift the natural light spectrum, and of course they can see infrared light. They have natural heat vision, which doesn’t work so well on a hot, bright day, in the middle of a desert. But is of much more use on a cool, rainy day, in…oh…Northern Minnesota. Many Arnam happen to live there due to the pleasant, wet, and cool climate. Washington State, Maine, the British Isles, and Scandinavia house other major Arnam populations for similar reasons.

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Virginia

by on June 1, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

The Adams Family is one of the oldest great families of America, having left Britain in the 1600s. They were leading figures in the revolution against British rule, provided two presidents and numerous other public servants to the first republic, and two more presidents to the second republic. They supported and participated in the first expansion of humanity to Luna, Venus, Mars, and beyond, and helped found our first colonies on New Earth and New Washington. Virginia Adams was born into that tradition of public service, and became one of the leading proponents for cooperation with the Peloran after Contact. That is how she found herself taking the Peloran Treatments on public broadcast to prove she trusted them. Little did she know what that would mean until she began noticing the side effects that would become known as the Ageless.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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