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. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)
H Trope: adaptational heroism
Current Event: “Throughout this work, we advance four primary ideas: (a)The concept of heroism is a way to unify several types of courageous or brave actions that have largely been treated independently in the literature to date; (b) that the simple presence of risk accompanying prosocial behavior is not enoughto define heroism; (c) heroism is viewed as distinct from otherprosocial activities, such as compassion and altruism (and may represent an entirely different behavior); and (d) that while heroism is primarily a positive and prosocial act, a simplistic view of this behavior misses important (and sometimes negative) aspects of the phenomenon.” (http://www.scribd.com/doc/161425346/A-Conceptual-Analysis-and-Differentiation-Between-Heroic-Action-and-Altruism)
Altered Definition: This idea originally meant that when people write scripts of books, they make the main character BETTER than they really were. No doubt – in the HP books, H himself is a jerk. They maintained that pretty much in the movies, but he STILL came across as “wunderkind”. I interpreted this to mean that a normal person will become a hero under the correct set of circumstances: to win the girl, save his parents, get the golden fleece, whatever. It takes a really good writer to create a situation and character in which the character even CAN become a hero…
“My baby sister tells me you can help us find Carlos,” Carmita Rodriguez Cruz said. Her eyes narrowed, “She’d better be right.”
Austin Ventura remembered then that she was also taking kickboxing lessons – and that his best friend was missing. “I’m not sure exactly where he is. I just know that there are certain places he’s likely to be.” He dared, “We’re in probability together. You do the math.”
She scowled darkly at him, but didn’t contradict him.
Score one, he said to himself.
Paulina Rodriguez Cruz, sister to Los Traviesos Gemelos, said, “Quit flirting, you two! Carlos has been kidnapped and we have to rescue him!”
Austin exclaimed, “I’m not flirting!”
Looking at him, Carmita said, “She’s right, A-man.” Looking at Paulina, she said, “¿Qué te hace pensar que fue secuestrado?”
“I have another question for you, dear sister – what would he be doing out in the middle of the night, by himself, without telling one of the three of us? Aren’t those enough reasons?”
“The bigger question is why would anyone kidnap him,” said Austin.
Carmita bristled, “Just ‘cause he’s not rich like you, doesn’t mean that there’s no reason to kidnap him!”
“You two have to cut it out! Carlos may need us out there!” Carmita and Austin looked at each other then looked away, hanging their heads. “You both know that Carlos is a better person than all three of us put together.”
Austin felt a chill run up his spine. He said, “What would that have to do with kidnapping?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just…felt right. Don’t you think?”
He grimaced as a chilly breeze blew from across the parking lot, chasing bits and pieces of leaves and paper over to them. “Much as I know about him, I have to say I agree.”
“What do you mean?” Carmita said. “I’m his twin. I’m just as good as him!”
“Better,” Austin said.
“What?”
“You’re better than him in everything. It’s like when you guys were conceived, you sucked all the talent out of him. You got everything.” Carmita was glaring at him. He added slowly, “You got everything except his good heart.” She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it. Austin said, “You look like los peces de colores loco.”
“A crazy goldfish?” she echoed, puzzled.
“Yep. You ever seen one?”
“No.”
“Sure you have. Someone who’s locked up and can’t do a single thing – and if they don’t start moving, it’s gonna drive ‘em crazy.”
Paulina said, “Fits you like a glove, Cabroncita.”
Carmita snorted and said, “Let’s get going.” She tossed her gigantic purse over her shoulder, “A-man, we’re gonna need your car.”
Source: http://www.remezcla.com/2012/latin/top-5-latino-halloween-legends-and-monsters/ -- Carlos’ kidnapper #1? (http://able2know.org/topic/26631-1)
Names: ♂ Mexico, Mexico; ♂ Minnesota, Italy (= “baby in the woods”, “foundling”); ♀ Spanish form of French name ‘Paul’
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg
Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…
“…Rura Penthe was said to be an ‘asteroid archipelago’ in the script for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, though the same screenplay otherwise treated it as a single asteroid (with two references to things being ‘on Rura Penthe’) and dialogue in the film also established Rura Penthe as a single asteroid.”
George Zebrowski: “It is the twenty-first century. Convicts are sentenced to asteroids that move in ever-widening solar orbits, timed to return when their terms run out. But a few ambitious administrators discover that small ‘errors’ in velocity can rid them of selected groups altogether: the hardcore violent, the mentally defective, and especially the political dissidents. Enduring the black vise of interstellar space-time, these human rejects--men and women mixed together--create their own Darwinian societies, struggling to survive. Back on Earth, a handful of sympathetic and curious scientists have not forgotten these lost citizens. When a technological breakthrough makes it possible to overtake these scattered asteroids, a courageous team sets out to go where none has willingly gone before. What they discover in these ‘brute orbits’ is both provocative and moving--a startling vision of humanity you will never forget.
So, my idea for making prisons out of asteroids isn’t new; but then, in the Bible, it’s written in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been, it is what will be, And what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.”
What am I bringing new to the concept in my short story, “Rez Ex of the Space Drones vs the Brigands of Space”?
Couple things: My prisoners are trained (one might say “brutally”) with the intent of creating a team who will not JUST serve their time, but create something of value for (supposedly “all of Humanity”, but in reality, some corporation that has invested in the infrastructure of an asteroid with the ability to house the prisoners, mine identified minerals, and make a profit – while offering anyone who survives and behaves themselves WHILE making money for the company, will receive a pardon, as well as the opportunity to work-for-pay for the company and leave behind a crowded Earth and become among the first citizens of Sol…)
Of COURSE not everything goes as planned – either with the prisoners OR the mining; and the possibilities of wealth for the plucking without having to WORK for it is too much for some.
Now – notice I called the villains of my story “brigands” rather than “pirates” – which seems to be a normal way of naming the individuals who plunder the loot from others who came by the valuables at LEAST in an approved, criminal-prisoners-sort-of-way…
But why the change? Because of the definitions:
Pirate:
1) “a person who attacks and robs ships at sea.”
2) “a person who appropriates or reproduces the work of another for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright.”
3) “rob or plunder (a ship).”
Brigand:
1) “a member of a gang that ambushes and robs people in forests and mountains.”
While neither one of the definitions is really accurate, brigand is the one that fits most of the facts best: “a gang”, and “mountains”. As far as pirates, there is no “sea (implying liquid water)” in space, the second isn’t appropriate (usually and certainly not in this story) because intellectual property isn’t part of the story at all, and again, while they might technically be plundering a “ship”, ships are generally understood to be on liquid water somewhere (though the argument could be made that a vehicle carrying people and their equipment in space COULD be called a “ship”, though just as easily, it could be called a wagon train or a dump truck, or even a “mobile mine”…
I’ve decided to call my erstwhile and stereotypical “pirates”, BRIGANDS instead.
Of COURSE, to keep the story moving, my “bad guys” act like stereotypical “pirates” who lived and worked in the Caribbean. However, Wikipedia notes: “Brigandage is the life and practice of highway (the orbit of an asteroid could certainly correctly be described as being on a “highway” around the Sun) robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who is typically part of a gang and lives by pillage and robbery. (my bad guys/gals are CERTAINLY a gang who are attempting to create a new job by pillaging and robbing orbiting asteroid mines).
“The word brigand entered English as brigant via French from Italian as early as 1400. Under the laws of war, soldiers acting on their own recognizance without operating in chain of command are brigands, liable to be tried under civilian laws as common criminals. However, on occasions brigands are not mere malefactors, but may be rebels against a state or union perceived as the enemy.”
I find that this is enough for today; but NOT all I have to say!
Today’s Source:
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
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? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
Fantasy Trope: Fantasy that is an “Appeal to a pastoral ideal: Much genre fantasy, of all genres, appeals to the pastoral ideal…There are some fantasies, however, which…deliberately take the opposite stance...”
Current Event: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/10/asia/china-pika-magic-rabbit-new-risk/
Wú Méi Hé pursed her lips and shook her head, saying, “This is bad.”
Sūn Wén, her partner and sometime boyfriend, grunted and said, “So you say.”
Wii, as her friends called her, said, “How can incorporating ancient magical rites into what’s supposed to be a computer-controlled irrigation system be a bad thing?”
Sunny, as her friends insisted on calling him, shrugged. “It just makes things twice as hard. First they’re learning how the system works, then they have to learn antiquated rituals that will only slow things down.”
Wii stood up straight, peering through the heavy security glass. “This is the latter part of the Twenty-first Century, the whole point of the Central Party’s Future Program is to catapult us over the pathetic remnants of the American technological and educational edifice and prove once and for all…”
Sunny rolled his eyes and turned away, “I’m a member of the Communist Party just like you are. We’re ahead of the Americans; after being behind the Americans; after being ahead of the Egyptians; after being behind the Egyptians...”
“Stop already! I get your point. We’re finally a 21st Century people. The religious rituals they want to perform have all the significance of Santa Claus does to American post-Christians.”
Sunny hummed, then said, “I’m not sure the rituals are as insignificant as you think they are.”
She turned on him. “That’s absurd! What makes you think…”
He lifted his chin and said, “It may have something to do with that…um…thing growing over the substation.” She spun back to the window in time to see a cloud of brown-laced storm cloud forming the vague shape of a Chinese magic-rabbit...
Names: ♀ China (woman martial arts); ♂ Guangdong, China
On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways, the rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered.
When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?”
I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?”
We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!” Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings continues below.
The grandkids pushed them aside and went to Roza, gently taking her hands and leading her past Sturdlan Vilbix, ignoring them.
As they did, every piece of spy equipment Turdland’s people had brought had its electronics and quantum circuits scrambled. Turdland shouted, “Hey!” and they found themselves alone – and in the flesh without the Image Enhancement Field surrounding them.
I was startled to see “they” were a “he” with blaze orange hair, coiffed into something they’d called a beehive in the 1960s – the grandkids’ great great grandmother had worn one just like it, but brunette instead of orange. It wasn’t really flattering on either Studland’s real or virtual face.
They stood looking like a pretty ordinary early-forties-with-no-life-extension-procedures person with a slightly crooked nose, the skin damage caused by acne just under his eyes, and a remarkable five-feet-eleven-inches (1.8 meters for a small slice of Earth) of non-height, and I said, “Nice to finally meet the unenhanced you, Brad.”
His eyes bugged, he looked wildly around him, seeing his monster-multiple-sense-recording drones and sputtered. “You’ve destroyed a billion credits of…”
“We didn’t destroy anything, Brad. It’s all been deactivated and gently dropped to the lunar surface. The grandkids – two of whom are twenty-nine-year-old-Earth-standard and so are legal chaperones to your superstar.”
“She’s not ‘my’ superstar! She belongs to all of…”
I tapped my Fourfold cellphone and it unfolded into a laptop screen and lit. “According to this, while you do indeed release her artistic output to the rest of the System you both do so solely to,” I glanced down to read it precisely, “ ‘consumers who can appreciate the brilliance of ‘Roza Rymbayeva Golovkin, Six-Times-Great-Granddaughter Of The Last Walker’ and have been rigorously cleared by the RRGSTGGOTSLW Corporation’ – which, my grandkids’ diggerprograms inform me consists entirely of yourself.”
A dark, raging anger burbled to the surface, darkening the person’s face. Their arms twitched and they looked surprised. They twitched harder, then stomped a foot. Their visage darkened even more and they leaned closer to me and breathed, “I can still kill you with my unenhanced muscles. I was once…”
“A fake MMA champion. Yeah, Natalie was quick to find that because her father was a REAL MMA competitor when he legitimately served in Combined Forces back in the day.”
“I served…”
I cut them off, “Beers. At a really…how can I put this diplomatically?” I paused, “Let’s just say that your bartending license was as fake as all of your other licenses. So, lets skip the rest of your empty threats…”
“I’ll show YOU EMPTY!” They twitched and then froze in place.” I could still see their muscles pulling against the restraint-field the grands had thrown up around him.
“You know, Brad, I’m gonna give you exactly one time to make this all right. You’re going to give Rosa back her life – and that includes ownership of all her music that is currently funding your not only greedy lifestyle but a lifestyle astoundingly debauched depraved, and corrupt, reminding me of a politician from the early 21st century who ran for a high office a couple times. Now, I’m going to release the field around your head. You can respond, but before you start cussing me out, I’d like you to remind you that we have all of the records you’ve tampered with, as well as how you’ve set up the dispersal of fees and investments so that most go to you and a fraction goes to Rosa. You can still manage her fame – which appears to have been the case before you got greedy.” Brad’s face grew red. “Hmmm…maybe you do have a conscience that might be shocked back to life. We’ll see. I expect to hear two words from you. Those words are, ‘I accept’. If those are not the words I hear, the AI is recording this entire encounter and will broadcast this event to our lawyers – as well as several lawyers you have retained in various places both normal and amazingly corrupt. Also, in the event you totally lose it, this encounter will instantly be broadcast live to several live feeds – and instantaneously translated into forty-three languages. Am I clear?” Brad’s eyes had nearly bugged out of their sockets. “I expect two words from your mouth. If it’s more than that, all of this as well as your records and passwords will be broadcast to anywhere Humans are listening.”
I grinned at him. I waited. The grands were waiting too. Probably Natalie – who had just finished her training as a sergeant in the Solar Marines – was a specialist. It wasn’t clear exactly what she’d specialized in, but I don’t dig that deeply into my kids or grandkids’ lives.
I waited a bit longer then opened my mouth…
Resources: The Moon Trees, https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/ ; https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html Image: https://external-preview.redd.it/xL2Y2UHb2B0JN5P162FShQfxqCTYNuOp3WEYxdF86j4.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6955074e421a5e98c69b2da35179a3a91faa5662
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. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”
SF Trope: Intelligent Robots
Current Event: This Arizona wildfire was predicted to go down in history as the Third Largest in that state. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43290922/ns/weather/ If it continues much longer, it may well go down as the second largest – maybe even the biggest one ever. They’ll bring in everything to stop it. Eventually, there will be robots – not humanoid ones like in I, Robot, but more like water, fire and chemical squirting tanks. Or possibly like the robots above. Of course, they’ll have to have a certain amount of autonomy. So what happens to them after the fire?
“The fire was a decade ago! Everything should be fine!” said Ismat Hassan.
“I’m not worried about the fire. This was one of the first sites that ever used an entirely robotic firefighter team,” said Mohini Jyotsana.
“Whad’ya mean?”
She rolled her eyes, “Do you EVER do anything but watch racing and car part Youtubes?”
“Yeah,” he said, sullen.
“Right. If you did, you’d know that they started using robotic firefighters like “RS1-T2 Thermite, the initial firefighting robot; unveiled in 2012 and based on technology created for the U.S. Army. These robots are, technologically speaking, distant descendants of those, and were deployed in the Western Drought Fires of 2027.”
“Oh, yeah, the year Climate Change almost…”
“It wasn’t Climate Change – that’s massive and happens over periods of thousands of years: this was pure Human stupidity – California doesn’t EVER clear brush, and idiots toss cigarettes wherever they feel like it and figure ‘the government’ will take care of all that stupid stuff. Their job is to eat, drink, and then eat some more, watch Youtubes, and blame someone or something else besides their relentless pursuit of laziness and self-pleasure…”
Ismat was staring at her and finally said, “No, tell me how you REALLY feel.”
“2027 was the first year Californians deployed entirely robotic firefighters.”
Ismat shook his head. “Sounds like using wild robotic firefighters was the stupid part!”
Mohini studied him for a moment then nodding, said, “It might just have been one of the dumbest things we’ve ever done.”
Ismat blinked several times before he could say, “You’re agreeing with me?”
She looked at the edge of the fire through her binoculars, then readjusted her chest microphone and called down the LiveTV drone. When it was buzzing as it hovered in front of her, she said, “This is Mohini Jyotsana reporting at the edge of the Western Drought Fire near East Los Angeles where I just witnessed the recently deployed robotic firefighter squadron lighting fires…”
Names: ♀Korea, Near-east ; ♂ India, Rapper
Source: https://online.eou.edu/resources/article/future-of-firefighting-firefighting-robots/
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg
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