Hello, my name is Charles

by on January 29, 2012 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We literally ran into a serious problem in our first century of hyperspace exploration.  Our hyperdrives were so sensitive to interference, we had to fly “up” or “down” from the sun to escape the solar wind and all the junk in orbit to find clean, interstellar space.  But the bubble of clean space Terra resides in is only 300 lightyears across.  Outside that bubble, where space gets dirty, our drives died.  We were trapped in that bubble.  Then the Peloran came.

 Comment 

Hello, my name is Jack

by on January 28, 2012 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There’s this bar at Gateway called Cowboy Joe’s.  There’s a room in the back reserved for anyone who flew with the Peloran, regardless of nationality.  There’s cheap honeyed ale, cheaper beer, free conversations, and a place to step away from the world there in that room.  And there’s a shot glass on the wall with the name of each one of us that is no longer here stenciled into it.  I go there every chance I get, and tell a story about one of them I knew.  We all do.

 Comment 

Hello, my name is Betty

by on January 27, 2012 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We do investigations sometimes.  I remember one day we were at a school at the request of the principal, but nobody else knew.  I was walking around the halls and one of the administrators thought I was a substitute teacher who was late.  We were there to investigate, so I didn’t correct her.  I actually enjoyed the class.  So did all the boys I was teaching.  The school said they were the best-behaved class all year and hired me on the spot.  I still love that job.

 Comment 

Hello, my name is Charles

by on January 26, 2012 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Our first hyperdrive was so slow it took a year to fly to Alpha Centauri.  We spent decades exploring just the systems within fifty lightyears of Earth on those drives.  They were so expensive that only the rich or the governments could afford to build them.  After Contact, the Peloran taught us how to build cheap drives.  The oppressed and huddled masses traveled to new worlds in search of fresh starts, and that has changed everything for the better.

 Comment 

Hello, my name is Jack

by on January 25, 2012 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve been to a lot of worlds in my lifetime.  During The War, I fought over or on them.  After that, I just flew around.  There are a number of them I don’t like, but most planets have something I like on them, some reason to return.  There’s one I’ve come back to more than once over the years.  Its name is Minneterte, the world of many lakes.  The Dakota and the Arnam colonized it together, and it has some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen.  I love that place.

 Comment