This is related to the last update I had on my writing projects, and offers a small glimpse of what is to come. In the full article I have some details on what I'm planning to do to expand my short story, A Snake in the Garden of Eden, as well as a very small excerpt from my planned micro-fiction series The Ark, and a concept pitch for another series of short fiction called Gates. If you like short science fiction stories, read the rest.
A Snake in the Garden of Eden
Okay, so as I previously mentioned, my 2 year old short story is nearing completion, and I have a few plans for it. I am planning to extend quite a few of the chapters, from High Noon onwards. After re-reading the story, I have realized that I've left a lot of things not as fleshed out as I had originally planned. I even missed entire plot points that I had set up in previous chapters, and never followed through with. I do intend to resolve all of those problems, and publish a finished version. It will probably be 40 to 50 pages long in PDF format. I'm assuming that falls well within the definition of a short story.
The Ark
So, I had these big plans for a micro-fiction series called The Ark. Well, so far, not much has happened with those ideas. With work, and home life taking up 115% of my time, I haven't really done much writing lately. Things are going to get even busier soon enough, so who knows when I'll write more of this thing. So, I offer a taste of what is to come with two excerpts that serve as an introduction to the series.
A Guide to the Records
For half a millennium, The Ark stood as a testament to the strength and will of the human race. Construction finished less than twenty years prior to the Last Great War, it is amazing that The Ark managed to survive the devastation of the Great Suffering.
The following records have all been transcribed from sources taken from The Ark itself. While the video footage is known to be accurate and unbiased, the same cannot be said for the journal entries, media stories or organizational reports. In the case of the majority of the data, there is no way to verify which version of some events is indeed the truth.
The majority of the following records have been translated from their original language into one readable by the target audience. Where certain subtlety would be lost in translation, the untranslated text may also be included. Where there is ambiguity in the translation, the original language will be supplied, in addition to all potential translations. Proper names and words which are specific to the era and/or locale, are included untranslated.
Where certain terms and concepts may be specific to the era and/or locale, entries from the dictionary and/or encyclopedia will be included for reference.
The time and date formats used in the records is the standard Uropan format. 319.126.2567 is the year 319 post-war, the 126th day (May 6th in the Gregorian calendar), and is approximately 25% into the day (would map to approximately 06:38 in the 24 hour standard time format.)
Article: "Welcome to The Ark", Date: 287.231.6591
Welcome newcomers to our great city. Formally titled New Scotia, the largest arcology in the world was constructed 300 years ago as a project of the Uropan Alliance. Having survived the Last Great War, New Scotia quickly became one of the safest places for survivors to live. With an entirely self-contained environmental, electrical and technological infrastructure, The Ark is more than a city, it is a harmonious society, promising to be the best hope for survival of the human race.
As E'rth outside withers in poison and chaos, The Ark stands as a place of peace, order and --
Original record truncated. One word appears to have been added by a vandal: "bullshit".
Gates
So, in addition to The Ark, I also have another series planned, which would be made up of short stories and micro-fiction stories, and would have two different layers to it's storyline. The first being what would happen to our economic, political and social systems if a highly efficient and low cost form of instant transportation was invented. The second layer would be an extension of the science fiction theme, about parallel universes, and would be more of a comedy/crossover-fan-fic outlet. I would hope to be able to balance the more serious first layer with the far-fetched comedy of the second layer. If it sounds overly complex, it probably is, but don't worry, it'll all make sense </rufus>
Here, is what I am calling a concept pitch. It's not really an entry in the series canon as such, but instead a meta-fiction describing the premise of the series in a few short paragraphs (writen from the point of view of one of the characters from the series.) Anyway, before I confuse you even more, here it is:
Gates: A brief history, and notes as of Yesterday
I don't think anyone really thought about the effects the gates would have.
It was originally a private company that came up with the gates; a small Canadian startup called Fizure, based out of a large warehouse in Kelowna. They promised a revolution in transportation, and by god did they deliver. After building initial gates in Kelowna and Trail, in the process proving the technology worked, they needed a larger partner to build additional gate terminals to connect to it. An obscure American technology investment company going by the name Xenotek came forward to be their partner, and promised to bring the gate system to the world.
Even at this point, before any additional gates had been commissioned, things were changing. People could buy a 5 bedroom house in Trail for $100,000 instead of the $500,000 it would cost in Kelowna, and still work in Kelowna. At first it wasn't as big, as the gate usage fees made up for the housing price differences, but as people started carpooling, it was definitely affecting the housing market. Prices in Trail went up slightly, while prices in Kelowna came down significantly. Suddenly it didn't matter where you lived anymore, as you could work anywhere.
The bigger changes came when Xenotek delivered on it's promise. With gates installed in several major cities around the world, suddenly the entire dynamic of international travel changed. Suddenly goods could be delivered from across the world at a tenth of the price of shipping or flying, and they arrived instantly. The effects on the international economy was enormous.
Fizure had become the richest and most powerful corporation in the world, and had merged with Xenotek. It is said that the original founder of Fizure wasn't able to handle the success, and rapidly lost his mind. Nobody really knows what happened to him, rumours at the time suggested that he had tested a prototype personal gate, and never came out the other side. Whatever the truth may be, about 8 months after launching the gate project, the founder vanished, and was never seen again.
The gates hadn't even reached their first anniversary when the International Gate Commission was formed. Started by the United Nations, and backed by many major countries, it seized control over the existing gates, the technology behind them and even the companies behind the project. The Gate Commission was beyond any single country, above any single corporation, or government.
Soon it was clear that the traditional concept of borders and nationality were being eroded by the gates. Some countries fought against the gates on the grounds of sovereignty, while others embraced the new border-less world. This progression went on for about a year, during which the United Nations itself evolved into a de-facto world government. Extremists existed on both sides of the issue, but the UN had a lot of power, including the entire military of the nation formerly known as the United States of America.
Even if the country in question didn't already have a gate in it, it was more than likely that the countries around it already had many. It's amazing how many troops can suddenly show up on your doorstep when all they have to do is drive through a gate.
Within 5 years, the entire concept of nations was gone, and traditional economics had been thrown out the window.
In this new age our use of petroleum based fuels has been reduced by 75%, with most personal vehicles now replaced by fully electric cars and mass transit, now that travel between cities can be done via gate. With affordable housing being near centres of employment no longer an issue, the gap between the rich and the poor has greatly decreased, as the basic quality of life has risen everywhere. Interestingly, the academics who loved to argue about whether socialism or capitalism would be the future, were sorely disappointed when neither did. Instead after the initial aggressive dictatorship imposed by the IGC was replaced by a more technocratic organization, a hybrid political and economic system emerged, where private property and corporations exist beside publicly administered health care, education and transportation. The social politics of yesteryear may still linger in the form of social conservatives who protest many aspects of modern life, but their voices have not affected the policies of the UN, which has been as socially liberal as possible. Now that said, elections are not as common as they were before. The general public does not go the polls to elect leaders at all. Instead, the technocratic leadership of the IGC has spread to the UN World Council itself. Representatives are chosen based on their academic knowledge and practical experience. They are chosen by their peers, who elect new members when previous ones resign or are forced out by a non-confidence vote. While it may not be a perfect world, it seems to work, and aside from the usual groups of dissidents, most of the general public doesn't really care about how it works, just that it does.
Someone waking up from a coma would assume they've been asleep for 100 years for how different the world has become in a few short years.
Unfortunately, the changes I've described so far were just the beginning.
As I said before, I don't think anyone ever considered the side effects of gate technology. Not just the political, social and economic ones, but the scientific ones too. Every minute we are opening up fissures in the space-time continuum, tearing holes in the fabric of reality. Yes, it has had many beneficial effects, but nobody has seen the terrible truth of what else it is changing.
According to several theories of various scientific and/or philosophical origin, there are an infinite number of parallel universes, where every possible reality exists. Well, we now know for certain that this is true.
The basic design of the gates is simple. One gate terminal connects to the other, and a fissure is opened up between them. You could consider it an artificial micro-wormhole.
Well, these micro-wormholes are doing more than bridging two locations on a tiny, insignificant planet. They are bridging those parallel universes as well.
Whenever a gate is opened, there is the possibility of it creating a shadow gate elsewhere. The shadow gates are usually found within a few kilometres of one of the locations the original gate bridged, although I have found a few hundreds of kilometres from any known gate terminal.
The shadow gates only have one opening in our world, for the on the other side, is an entirely different reality. Endless potential realities, being opened to us every minute. Most of the shadow gates are highly unstable and are gone in microseconds. However, some can last several minutes, and there are at least three that I have found, which have proven to be highly stable, having lasted over three months so far.
The group I work with has built devices to monitor the shadow gates. According to our estimations, at least two out of the three stable ones, will last over a year. More than long enough for cross contamination of the two realities to occur.
I can't say we're innocent by any stretch. I myself have gone through one of the shadow gates. I found a world, vastly different from our own, and yet oddly similar. I am quite sure it was still Earth, but at some point in a distant future. It seemed have suffered from some terrible disaster, and knowing our history, I would wager a guess at a world war that nearly ended the world. Not a pretty sight, and not somewhere I'd want to go on vacation. While there, I observed some of the people from that reality, and do not want to think about what would happen if they were to find the shadow gate and come through into our world.
In addition to the monitoring device, we have been working on a machine to attempt to control the shadow gates. If it is perfected, we'll be able to open and close gates to parallel universes as easily as we open standard gates to other places on our planet.
I will be testing the prototype tomorrow. I will report back on the results.
Summary and Disclaimer
That's it for now, a few of the ideas floating in my head for strange scifi stories. I have a few ideas of how to work on both of the series, including a crossover that will be reflected in both storylines.
While everything posted so far is rated PG, I'm sure there will be some NC-17 stuff showing up, and I'll be sure to point out the potentially offensive content in the article description. When Webtoo Websight 6 arrives, the serials will become an ongoing part of the main index, and will be able to be viewed not only in the blog style "newest chapter first" format, but in the traditional "chronological order" format as well.
And, I shouldn't have to mention it as there is a nice copyright link at the bottom of every page here, but just in case someone can't read (how you got this far I'll never know), all of the content in this post is copyright © Timothy M. Totten (that's me!) and you may not copy, reproduce or republish it without my explicit permission. I will most likely say yes if you ask, so please ask me. Easy isn't it?
Have a great New Year, catch you in 2010!