M Fnord Wrote:Driving far past the current timeline endpoint and cast is encouraged. Some of our cast may be immortal but that doesn't mean they always have to be in the driver's seat. N-generation descendants are always a cool thing, just sayin'.
Well, this is a pretty big idea for a story ... so what better to do than focus on the lives of two people?
I never knew Earth, and I never will.
My great-grandparents came from Earth - I suppose everybody's great-grandparents came from Earth - but my grandparents were born in space, and my parents almost never visited a planetary surface. I never got around to it. (Great-aunt Yayoi - yes, Good Queen Yayoi - says I'm not missing much, but my parents say she's always been a space pilot. What would she know about planets?)
We tried building a set of space mirrors the way we did around Venus, but trying to cool Earth that way caused problems in the biosphere. A few of the Mads proposed building really big radiator fins, but let's be real: there's no place to anchor them on Earth's surface. We finally had to face it: we weren't going to reverse the runaway heating effect as long as people lived on the planet. So mankind decided to abandon Earth and let it heal itself. Nobody gets to go Down now, unless they're piloting ships to bring people Up.
At least we don't have to choose who gets to live in space. There's plenty of room and plenty of work for everyone. Make it to Sanctuary and you can stop running ... and the same with the other cities we'd founded on planets orbiting other stars. It's up to us in the Convention to help ease the way for everyone coming from Earth - to let them know where they can run to, and not overwhelm the famous places. That's what we excel at, here at the endpoint of the Road to the Stars - "Stella Via," or "Stell-Via" in some old documents written by somebody who didn't know how to spell Latin correctly. (Great-aunt says it was my great-grandfather. I don't know much about the near-mythical Noah Scott outside of what's in the history files, but Great-aunt was there.)
So that's why we met - she was fresh Up from Earth, and I was helping people find their space legs. I still remember the first thing she said to me: "Excuse me, but could you help me find my room?"
Yes, it wasn't the most romantic line. But does that really matter?
"Certainly, miss ...?"
"Jemima Swinton."
"And I'm Charles Swansen, but everybody calls me Charlie." Instead of my full name, Charles Jaguar Swansen-Scott. It's a mouthful, and she didn't need to know I'm one of the major shareholders in SV-GW. I checked my safeprim, which had already called up her file. "That's a happy coincidence; you're billeted in the Station Core, near my quarters. The rooms there are quite comfortable; they used to be hotel rooms back in the early 21st."
"Oh, dear. They aren't handwaved, are they?"
I still can't understand that attitude, but even then I knew enough to set people's minds at ease. "Oh, no! They date back to the days of the Whole Fenspace Catalog, so you don't need to worry about that."
I couldn't help but fall in love with her smile.
Long story sideways, I escorted Jemima to her room, and then to dinner, where she told me tales about Earth. Or, at least, about the fascinating things she used to do in England. Riding horses single-file along the narrow paths through the farm fields, boating in the canals between London's towers, playing a game called "tennis" - all things I've never done and never will do. And that evening, I showed her the view from the dome at the top of Stell-Via ... and helped her postpone the next leg of her trip to Sanctuary.
Yes, it was a terrible abuse of my power. If we let people stay, where would the next shipload of Earth people wait for their ships?
But it meant being able to spend more time with Jem.
More later...
Oh, and a quote:
The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever.
-- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1895
--
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