Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
SF Trope: cross-species love interests
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GloFish
First thing I think of here is Spock’s parents, Amanda (the Human) and Sarek (the Vulcan). Granted, they’re humanoid – which means they are built along the same general lines. Star Trek was famous for this with half-breeds popping occasionally in all of the series.
But what if we throw in teenagers here? What if we throw in “forbidden” relationships, aliens and tension?
What if…
Eliana Hotu’a is of Hitorangi descent and works for Earth Government on Rapa Nui. Her people sold the island to Earth’s government when it offered an unbeatable price because they wanted to place the Human capitol there to remind all Humans of…well, lots of things. She is all for the new capitol being on Rapa Nui and has been to school on the mainland in Santiago, Chile at Universidad de Santiago de Chile where she’s majoring in astrophysics. She just finished her first year there and returned home to DRAMA. Her parents are pro-development of the island, but neither went to school beyond upper elementary school. Both of her older brothers – neither of whom did online school past graduation, are hunting and fishing guides. They are vehemently against it: “We’ve been pushed around by Euros for millennia! It’s time we made our own choices and decided our own destiny!” She argues that the stars are the destiny of ALL Humanity. Her brothers laugh her out of the house.
A young !clash!, One Scale Branded With High Academic Achievement, is with its parents who are on Earth as liaison with the physics community to develop fusion power, is on Earth to LEARN as much as it can. It is also under strict orders to NOT fraternize with Human young.
Eliana and One Scale meet several times and escaping elders and other boring people, begin to develop a relationship that begins with “hanging out”, proceeds to fishing together and then talking tattoos and then proceeding to space. They discover their mutual interest in astrophysics, but when she asks what he wants to be after his education is finished, he doesn’t understand the question. He will be a nuclear fusion physicist like his parents.
Among his people, vocation is predetermined and a matter of breeding as well as education. She feels sorry for him. He feels sorry for HER – not to know exactly how one’s life is going to spin out. One night while fishing, they overhear Eliana’s brothers and some of their friends – and an obviously alien influence – plotting to murder some of the aliens on the island. The capitol is still in the throes of being established and security isn’t perfect...
When they are captured, One Scale smacks a few heads together and accidentally kills one of Eliana’s brothers.
The incident comes to the attention of the Shabe and the Department of Off-Earth Affairs and then grows into an interstellar incident. It also ruins Eliana’s and One Scale’s budding relationship.
Or does it? Also – WHOM is using WHOM?
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