I first met Julie and Alex in orchestra and marching band. Sorta. I played violin and guitar. They played the flute and trumpet. We didn’t really spend much time together. Plus that was back in my “girls are icky” stage. I didn’t know them really. Though I do remember them being first seat in their instruments and me trying to show I was better than they were. Keyword there. Trying. Not that I’d ever admit it at the time, but they were better than me. A lot better.
Everybody knew each other in the business of creating virtual worlds. They went to school together, worked together, and played each other’s games. They grew up together in a ragtag mess of dreams that most knew they were never get rich on. Then big business came in and began throwing movie budgets around at single games. But the same handful of people did the making and the writing about them.
The War hit us unprepared and unready, but we survived. We rebuilt. Third Fleet took us two years to assemble from the dribs and drabs of new construction, demothballed ships, or stray ships that got home. We launched from Earth ready to kick their asses to the other side of the galaxy. We smashed the Russians at Procyon, Mayer, and Zeta Reticuli. We crushed the Chinese at Cygni, Alsafi, and Eridani. We were feeling pretty ducky after that. Epsilon Reticuli was supposed to end The War once and for all. It didn’t work.
With Socialist Germany destroyed and parceled up into Allied hands, Russia was the only remaining great nation where socialist principles held sway. But it was a broken nation and would take generations to rebuild into anything approaching the remaining power of the new NATO alliance. So The West discounted Russia as a real threat. Everyone took notice though when socialist rebels rose up to topple the governments of Korea and China.
My parents enrolled me in every music class they could in school. Choir. Orchestra. Marching band. I learned how to play the violin for orchestra. I learned guitar for marching band, which was fun, and then got to march behind the majorettes. That was awesome. I went to Minnesota state music festivals every year, and we even marched at the Snow Bowl Parade a few times. We didn’t even need warm weather gear for that. The marching kept us warm enough all we needed was earmuffs and we were good to go. Those were the days.
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