[really, really Infinities] strange things are afoot

[robkelk]

Meta: I have a promotion board tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow evening, a friend and I will get a beer (either celebratory or commiseratory - and it's only one beer because the forecast is for a half-foot of snow tomorrow). Thursday, I have meetings at work. Friday... after work, I should be able to take a stab at wikifying at least the core of this stuff.

So I need a name for the alternate. Any ideas, anyone?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Rajvik]

Fenspace Dark
 

[shaderic]

I don't like using the word 'Dark' here.

Given the strong focus on the Gate so far, I think it'd almost be better to go with a name based on that.

I like 'Gate Crashers'.

Seeing as the first major story is coalescing around them, I find it fitting. Fen Space is about the Fen, and while Gate Crashers doesn't neccesarily need to be about the Gate, their non-existence in the mainline creates a decent mental jump-off point.

[Dartz]

Turn A Fenspace?

Perhaps with the same implications? It's only a matter of time before one crashes through into regular model Fenspace.... where hilarity ensues.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

Fenspace Dark

This alternate isn't a dystopia, either.

I'd like to save "Fenspace Dark" for the nobody's-even-suggested-it-yet alternate where there's armed hostilities between the VVS and StellviaCorp, with Sora either caught in the middle or an early fatality (also known as "the setting where Agatha didn't leave Stellvia the day she Awakened" or "the setting nobody wants to write").
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

"Gernsbeck-3".
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[M Fnord]

Nah, don't want to overpopulate the Gernsback-* lines with our own nonsense, might make Evil Stevie sad.

If we need a slightly clunky animeesque name (and, well, I suppose we do) how about something like Fenspace Weave?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Well, the name doesn't need to be animesque - it just needs to be.

The wiki doesn't like null strings as names, after all.

So, does anyone like any of the proposed names enough to cast a second vote for it?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

A lot of people of Earth tend to dismiss the Convention as malcontents, bitterly clinging to fake futures on the edge of the system while all the real work - that is, the work undertaken by the Space Powers - is done in cislunar and to a smaller extent Mars. The line many are fond of is "the Fen are trying to make the world like Star Trek." There's some truth to that. Certainly the technological utopia is something we strive for, and out of all the myriad memes and concepts we've taken from a hundred-odd years of science fiction the Federation's system of government best fits what we're trying to build out here. But we're not trying to make the world like Star Trek. If anything, the people of Earth are trying, and we're doing our level best to stop them.

How's that? Well, this is a bit arcane for non-Fen but bear with me. The Star Trek series happens in the 23rd and 24th centuries, everybody knows that. What most people tend to forget, unless they're serious Star Trek fans, is that the 21st century of that timeline was not a pleasant place. There were wars, inequality, injustice by the bucketload, finally culminating in a War to End Everything that very nearly did the trick. They never give hard numbers in the shows, but it's clear a significant percentage of the human race dies between the years 2000 and 2100.

If you look at Earth, you see wars, inequality and injustice by the bucketload. We wish to stop this process before it spirals out of control into a final war, to leapfrog the human misery and find a new path. Maybe we can't... but we will continue to try.

~ Jedi Master Alyssa Houten (2039)

Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Foxboy]

LG: Well, to be honest, I started by dinking around with a grey-box I found while on a nature walk with my nephew. Not really doing much, but when I found out I could kludge up a reprap of sorts...

PLAYBOY: And that led to your 'sleeves?'

LG: Indirectly. I used it to build the tools to build the tools, you see. The very first project that was more than 'ooh shiny' was an exoskeletal support frame for my father. Got him out of his wheelchair and walking under 'his own power.' When I found out how easy it was to produce biomimetics, I called my friend [rogue transhumanist Asmodeus Gray,] and I said, "Azzy? How would you like to build a Hall of Presidents to make Disney weep?"

PLAYBOY: What did he say?

LG: Can we make Miss February instead? [Laughter]

--- Excerpt from an interview with Eljay Goddard, Playboy Magazine, April 2024
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Bob Schroeck]

Mm. How about, as a tag for the universe, "Fenspace Hard"? Or perhaps "Hardspace"?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

I'm not particularly fond of "Turn A" or "Gernsback-3" - both of those have some connotations that I think don't really fit the new setting.

So, counting votes so far:

• "Gate Crashers" - one for
  
• "Fenspace Weave" - one for
  
• "Fenspace Hard" - one for
  
• "Hardspace" - one for
  
• "Turn A Fenspace" - one for, one against
  
• "Gernsback-3" - one for, two against
  
• "Fenspace Dark" - one for, two against
  

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[HRogge]

Gate Crashers sounds nice.

[Star Ranger4]

Of those I've heard, I'll throw my weight with the Gate Crashers as well
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[M Fnord]

Brainstorm with me!

Working on a framework of the Fenspace Convention:

* The Convention is more homogenous here than in the mainline. 'Factions' based on individual properties don't exist as separate governments, to the extent they exist here they're more like, well, fan clubs.

* There's a few groups in the Convention based around properties that are more than just fan clubs - the Jedi Order being the biggest - but they're not their own governments or anything.

* The Convention is organized like a convention.
** At the top there's a convention committee (concom) which handles the executive issues.
** Then there's departments below the concom. Every convention needs at least the following: Programming, Logistics, Security, Health & Safety, Guest Services.
*** Programming makes sure there's stuff for the attendees to do when at the con.
*** Logistics makes sure that the venue is set up and runs smoothly.
*** Security keeps the drunks and the creepers out.
*** Health & Safety makes sure the attendees don't hurt themselves or others.
*** Guest Services keeps the GoHs and other rabble happily drunk (but not too drunk, I could tell you stories...)
*** A con may have other departments (Art Show, Dealer's Room, Cosplay etc.) but these five are the key bits for a barebones con.

* So the question is, how do we transform this model into something like a working government?
** Concom is the simplest one as the executive/legislative. Popular election for the concom, with overall executive appointed from within the ranks Westminster style?
*** What about representation? More Westminster style, each member of the Convention elect an MC maybe? Must discuss...
** The departments all need new names (except Security, which we've already seen in C-Sec).
** Programming's role is a bit murky here
** Logistics prob. the most important department of them all, responsible for everything from new habitats to the post office.
*** Fastest & most badass ships in the solar system, capable of regular 5G burns? The Fenspace Postal Service. FedEx can suck their drive plasma.
** Security, again something we've seen, takes up role half Starfleet, half army, half police, half CIA (that's four halves! That's terrible!)
** Health & Safety, not sure. Responsible for the general welfare maybe? NHS + social safety net?
** Guest Services, maybe diplomatic in nature? Dept of Foreign Affairs?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Dakota]

I'll throw in for Gate Crashers as well
_______________________________________________________________
Characters
Sabre Fang
Dakota

[robkelk]

"Gate Crashers" it is.

And I'm up to post #21 in my "extract and wikify data from the thread" project.

Edit: The very beginning of a start of a presence is now on the wiki: http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... e_Crashers]the first paragraph of the Main Page (I already have ideas on how to expand this) and a http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... GC-History]History and Current Events page, plus the requisite Category and (currently-empty) Template
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

SHIPS OF THE WEAVE

I was going to do something in-universe originally, a few blurbs with representative pictures, but then I decided that I shouldn’t be the one having all the fun, right? So instead I’m going to blather on about design philosophies and other boring things.

‘Danelaw ships tend to be grounded more in lightsci or ‘hard’ science-fiction than Fen ships. A lot of ‘Danelaw craft are actually viewgraph specials from The Coming Future of Aerospace[tm] that were reworked from old concept art and sketchy blueprints once handwavium came around to make them somewhat cost-effective. Things that were plausible but prohibitively expensive in the old regime suddenly became viable again once the necessary groundwork had been done, and so on.

Visual inspiration for ‘Danelaw spacecraft comes from aerospace ‘what-ifs’ 1979 – 2010 (covering pretty much everything from Gerry O’Neill to Skylon), as well as hard-sf (or ‘hard’-sf) titans like 2001, 2010, 2300 AD, Babylon 5, Mobile Suit Gundam (no, really), BattleTech (no, really), Traveller, Halo/Gears of War/the whole ‘gritty space shooter’ genre, the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, the works of Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Jerry Pournelle, Arthur C Clarke, etc. ‘Danelaw spacecraft tend to be put together pretty well, and they also tend to be big. Not like mile-long monsters or anything – not by 2039 anyway, shit’s still pretty expensive – but the Space Powers generally throw heavier craft around than anybody else. This is a reflection of the lightsci origins of most of this technology, and even if it’s been leavened with graysci engines and darksci artificial gravity, it still tends to be... a bit imposing.

~***~

Fen spacecraft come in two major varieties: backyarders and everything else. Backyarders are the original spacecraft used by the Fen to get into orbit and start colonizing. The name pretty much says it all; they were built in somebody’s backyard out of blackboxes and whatever else might be handy. A decent pilot could make orbit and come back in a backyarder; a skilled pilot could land on the moon with one and a skilled and lucky pilot could land on the moon and return to Earth. Backyarder rockets represent the DIY spirit of the mainline in a lot of ways, and the ones that didn’t crash or explode or were abandoned are still in service in 2039.

Once the Fen established themselves (and more importantly established an industrial base of their own), the backyarders started to fade in favor of a more ‘Conventional’ raygun gothic aesthetic. Visual inspiration comes from many of the great properties of course but also from the old old stuff, the classic Flash Gordon / Dan Dare designs. Lots and lots of unnecessary streamlining and chrome plating. Because the industrial bases are smaller Fen ships also tend to be smaller, relying on darksci engines to make up for lack of fabrication space. Not as often bound by large organizations, Fen craft also have a lot of bespoke work meaning that only the ship’s primary maintainer knows how (or why) any of it works.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Black Aeronaut]

.... Okay, Black Aeronaut Technologies is definitely going to be a juggernaut of Fennish ship building. In fact, it'd probably be the first builder that will work in scales of 1000m and greater.

[Dakota]

Dakota - Suffered crippling injuries in the early years of the wave craze when a 'backyarder' he was helping a friend with shifted suddenly. Resulting in the loss of his legs below the knees and reduction of mobility in one arm. His home built cybernetic digitigrade legs drew the attention of a 'dane company working on bring cyber prosthetic limbs to the marketplace. He worked for them the next few years as a spokes person and helping with the blackbox side of things. This resulted in his first run ins with what would become known as 'Creepers' in Fen lingo while still looking human.
It was after a rather violent run in with one that he decided to dive right into near full cyber conversion. Turning him from simply a human with cyber prosthetics into a full blown anthro two-tailed fox morph with chocolate colored fur. Borrowing more then just his appearance from his Champions online character he also took the same name. Shortly after this he headed UP and joined the Fen in poking around the edges of the system.

Currently Dakota operates as a Vulture from his tank-tracked ROV carrier crawler while still drawing royalties from a couple of 'danelaw patents he jointly holds with the 'daneside prosthetic company. Dakota should be treated as a low end combat rated cyber morph if approached by Security.

"People have asked me why, my answer? Why not. I was already drawing rather creepy attention as a squishy human with a pair of prosthetic legs. Might as well go whole hog and be less squishy while tapping into two of my fandoms doing so."

_______________________________________________________________
Characters
Sabre Fang
Dakota

[robkelk]

Actual content - up to post #90 in this thread, but not including any story fragments - is now on the wiki. And the navigation template works now, too.

http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... e_Crashers]Have at it...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

WORLDS OF NOTE

Every world in the gate network has its own unique database of addresses. Most have upwards of 100-2,000 unique addresses, while certain 'node worlds' have databases that run into the low six digits. No gate address can be used anywhere except at that gate; gates that connect to the same place use entirely different addresses. Attempts to connect to a gate using addresses not in the database have ended... poorly.

Strangelove: A post-apocalyptic Gaian world where the residents nuked themselves into oblivion roughly 2,500 - 3,000 years ago, taking most of the biosphere with them. Important due to the discovery of the Great What, otherwise of marginal value. (Grand Central)

New Cornwall: Mercurian rockball in orbit around a mostly-dead white dwarf star. The Convention set up metals mining facilities to support Solward industries. (Oberon)

Nevermore: Gaian world with extensive ruins of an alien civilization dating roughly 65,000 years BP. (Oberon)

Hyboria: Gaian world in orbit around Delta Pavonis, extensive glaciation but quite pleasant at the tropical latitudes. Best known as the closest gate location to Sol and the largest Fen colony in the Weave. (Oberon)

Fiddler's Green: Gaian world in orbit around Zeta 1 Reticuli. The gate only connects to Oberon and Hyboria, creating the Local Triangle. (Oberon)

Shanxi: Martian world with a small preserved Strangelovian outpost near the gate. Originally thought to be non-human in origin. (Strangelove / Oberon)

Polyphemus: Gate emplaced on an asteroid (Brinker's Rock) in semi-synchronous orbit around a Jovian world roughly 3 Jupiter masses in size. (Grand Central)

New Grantville: A proto-Venusian world in orbit around a brown dwarf. The thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere traps just enough heat to make the place somewhat livable. (Grand Central)

Bronson Alpha / Bronson Beta: Twin Gaian worlds that orbit a common point roughly 100 km above their surfaces. Tidal forces make each planet into an egg shape, as well as sharing a common atmosphere. (Grand Central)

Dylath-Leen: A post-Gaian world around a blue-white giant, home to some of the oldest alien ruins known (~7,500,000 BP). (Grand Central)

---

Please feel free to add your own contributions to the list. Just remember that 1) there aren't any live sapient aliens yet, 2) gates don't have to connect straight away, they can be on other planets, and 3) not every gate goes to something life-bearing. Have fun. ~ The Mgt.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Dakota]

2011 - Somewhere in South Carolina
I could lay here and mourn the loss of my legs, but my gaze kept falling on the blackbox in the corner. Reaching out I snagged my sketch book with my good arm. Bracing it with my damaged arm I got to drawing. People where building spaceships in their backyard. Much like the one that fell out of it's cradle and crushed my legs. The pencil flew across the page as I drew. I don't blame my friend for it, god rest his soul, nether of us suspected that the his ship would shift suddenly like that. I figure a new pair of legs wouldn't be that hard. I'll have to do some research to see if anyone had data on how to hook them up without surgery to my nervous system. Maybe even a powered brace for my left arm to overcome the damaged muscles.
Ever since that weird stuff showed up a few years ago, it's been pretty clear. The the Future was now within reach if you dared and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to dare.

_______________________________________________________________
Characters
Sabre Fang
Dakota

[ECSNorway]

WORLDS OF NOTE

Bronson Alpha / Bronson Beta: Twin Gaian worlds that orbit a common point roughly 100 km above their surfaces. Tidal forces make each planet into an egg shape, as well as sharing a common atmosphere. (Grand Central)

One really has to wonder about the orbital element of these two... but then the name is clearly an homage, so.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Star Ranger4]

... I was about to ask if Bronson Charlie was a rouge planet of on a quest of vengence.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children