#interplanetary

Black Spire Outpost, Batuu, Outer Rim. (2024)

Galaxis (1995, William Mesa)

Also known as: Terminal Force

(Or where FTL is a rare arcane technology.)

Part 1: New Forest

When she awoke, she found that she was resting on a soft springy surface. Small spines poked her as she rolled off of her back and sat up. Evergreen needles. She ran her fingers through them and looked up at the trees around her “where am I?” she whispered.

This place felt whispery, with no usual forest noises: no animals scurrying about, no wind in the trees. Everything stood very still. She slowly got to her feet “oww.” She rubbed her arms; they felt slightly bruised; actually, her whole body was sore. “Did I fall?” She looked around and laughed softly “Oh, they’re tiny?” she smiled up at the trees. They were in fact very small trees. None stood any taller than 7 feet and most were between 4 and 6. When she stood up, she could see right over the top of the tree in front of her.

she yawned and tried to think back to how she had gotten here. It was quite odd, and why were there so many sapling trees all in one place? She couldn’t really remember anything. “I hope I didn’t hit my head… do I normally talk to myself this much I wonder?” She smiled again.

This place was odd, but it had some sort of pleasant feeling to it. The temperature wasn’t too warm or too cold. The air felt brisk, like a fall or spring morning. She still wasn’t sure exactly which season it was. A lot was missing from her memory actually. “Perhaps I’ve got a concussion” for some reason she found this funny “yeah, probably…” she rubbed her head, but it didn’t hurt at all.

She soon forgot about the possibility of concussion as she began walking through the trees. The needles were soft and springy under her feet and the air smelled sweet from the evergreen sap. It was sunny but not oppressively so, she felt happy. She hummed a wordless tune as she walked through the New Forest. She realized that’s what she was calling the place in her head: New Forest. It was a funny name for the little woods, a bit whimsical and absurd, she thought, but fitting. After all she was new to the woods and the tiny trees seemed rather new and young as well.

Her stomach grumbled and she vaguely remembered reading somewhere that one could eat pine needles; She wasn’t sure that the trees were pine, but they seemed close enough. She picked a green bunch of needles from one of the little green trees and tasted them. They were slightly sweet and fresh tasting, they reminded her of the snow with maple syrup she had tried as a child.

She remembered how she had eaten the whole bowl of sweetened ice powder, and how she had asked Mom for more. The thought made her stop walking. Mom. Was Mom supposed to be with her? Why was she by herself? Perhaps it was fine. She wasn’t a child anymore but still; she felt certain she didn’t normally walk in forests alone. She was usually with a friends or something, wasn’t she? She glanced around, but the woods remained empty of all non-vegetative life. She started walking again, speeding up to a brisk trot. She almost tripped over a protruding evergreen root and found herself at the bank of a small brook.

She wasn’t sure how far or how long she had walked, but her body suddenly felt very tired. She took a seat on a boulder at the edge of the water and sighed “where am I?” The shock finally seemed to be wearing off and for the first time that morning, she was scared.

Part 2: Westward

She yawned and rubbed her eyes; she had fallen asleep slumped forward on the boulder. It was now midday and the sun was a bit hotter. The situation seemed brighter after her nap. She stretched and stood up. Then looked down into the brook.

“Oh…” she giggled as she finally spotted the first sign of other creatures in the wood. In the water, small silver fish were darting back and forth and nibbling on the algae on the little pebbles along the creek bed. At least she wasn’t totally alone.

She could survive here in the New Forest. There didn’t seem to be any larger animals to be scared of, and she could eat from the pines, drink brook water, and perhaps catch some fish. For a moment she wanted to stay there on the edge of the brook, just living like that for a while and waiting to be found. But she shook off the thought; she couldn’t have been out completely alone. She didn’t like not knowing how she had gotten where she was, and who she was missing.

She looked up at the golden sun and noticed it seemed to be moving slightly to her right. Ok, so she was facing south. The place she had originally woken up in the New forest was roughly north of the brook. She decided to follow the sun and head west. She had a rough idea that maybe the daylight would last longer if she headed toward the sunset.

She walked for several hours. At first she moved quickly, but eventually she slowed to a steady plodding pace. She took several breaks, sitting under trees or at new brooks and snacking on more fresh evergreen needles. She still liked the flavor, but the thin green spines weren’t very filling. She kept walking.

All at once the New Forest ended and she was among mature trees. They seemed to be of the same or a similar species to the earlier saplings, but they were much taller. She studied the rough pillared trunks, noting how she couldn't reach even the lowest branches. She thought about turning back as her stomach grumbled but she decided to keep going “You can do this…” she looked around to find the speaker, but it was only herself. After walking a bit further she found some mushrooms and picked them. She stored them in her pockets but decided she wouldn’t try them unless she was absolutely starving. She had known evergreen needles were edible; she wasn’t near as sure about strange mushrooms.

Sojourner-1 is ready for Operation Jolly Roger.

Thoughts About The "Thoughts About The Expanse" Panel

***spoilers, natch***

This was one of the sessions I actively wanted to go to but Managing Worldcon Life got in the way. (If I've reconstructed correctly - never certain!- this session was on the same day as the big Worldcon philharmonic concert and immediately before it? If that's right - in theory, it should have been possible to do both, one straight after the other, BUT in reality, this hour got eaten up in queueing time.

So, delighted to find it in the replays and an early priority to listen to - and very glad I did, if mainly to feel the waves of joy and affection rising as I was reminded how VERY MUCH I loved this show*.

*Yes, I know that The Expanse is also an impressive series of novels and novellas as well, but I have mostly - not read these. Yet. They are firmly IN my TBR but as with Worldcon, life has so far Intervened.

=========================================

Right, I'd written the bits above and below the === then got called away [dinner awaits no blogging, dahlings] and then... forgot to return - so the middle segment was NEARLY just the following:

Some of the panel content here.

But - hurrah - started on the next blog and wanted to link it to what that clever Caroline Mersey said about it, only to discover that... she said nothing (as reported here). Oops and - corrected.

In fact almost all of the next part is CM's pitch for why The Expanse is the greatest TV SF series of the 21st century // worldcon Aug 2024

Her pitch revolved around the treatment of sexuality and gender:

This show is the most progressive recent SFF show, particularly in the way it queers gender and sexuality in ways we rarely see on TV.

The power is how it normalises and embeds its treatment. It has poly relationships – almost unheard of in commercial productions. Holden’s family of origin. It’s not just about the tax breaks. Drummer’s crew of space pirates. More complex than a traditional love triangle (tho Draomi is a canon relationship YAY.) This is a show that consistently queers and interrogates expected gender roles. Bobby Draper: not sexualised, not all-powerful, seeks help. Peaches: classic tale of angry superhero on a revenge trip who earns her redemption. Drummer: uber-competent but also with brittle edges.

The exception to the excellence is Julie Mao – the fetishised object of a middle aged white guy’s obsession. CM comments that book one was pretty standard male-oriented SF – very blokey, testosterone-fuelled – but complimented the two writers for how they responded to receiving that feedback, gender flipping certain characters from book two onwards and allowing the story to unfold as it did.

CM's summary of what she loves about the show is made with reference to the final three episodes of S5:

The story around Naomi’s resilience – her desperate determination to save the Roci from Inaros’s trap – we don’t breathe until she does again – amazing engineering ingenuity – while she’s trying to send a signal and break the trap. We have Amos and Peaches and their hugely daring escape from Earth. Avasarala’s coup. Drummer’s torn loyalties – but we’ve also got: how you best deal with your sex pest cast member by writing them out in a way that respects the character but conclusively rules out a return. Those episodes exemplify the most striking and my favourite things about the series.

There was really only one point I *really* wanted to grab from the rest of the session and I *believe* it was lawyer Wes Rist who made it:

Noting the benefit to the quality of the story - its complexity, its ambiguity, the kinks away from expected narratives - that they had several “goes” at it. The role playing game. The books (and novellas filling out the world between the main stories). And then the show.

=========================================

Finishing up by I'm listing out the panel members, incl their varied backgrounds, along with a sort-of-summary of what they said about themselves. To me, this is synecdochal (??) of the identity and value-set of the series and the quality of its appeal i.e. appeals to and relevant to, well, lots of people but almost certainly including:

people who are interested in politics and/or international relations and/or Marxism and/or debating between different philosophies;

people who like hard science and realistic space battles - slash - pouring of liquids in zero G;

people who want to imagine human futures across and within the solar system and the social - slash - economic - slash - politics impacts and implications involved in becoming a bi-planetary species and/or a multi-space location capitalist construct; and

people who want to imagine alternative gendered futures.

[Also, people who think about the Roman empire alot. Perhaps daily.]

These, then, are the panellists:

Sven von Vittorelli is a conservation biologist from Germany, who told the room that his day job is often filled with frustration, with the sense of coming up against the boundaries of what's possible, and so chooses to enrich his life through engaging with science fiction.

[Writing - he's working on the first novel in a hard SF series, which appealed to me immediately because it namechecks Shackleton in the title, Shackleton Ridge. And as a fan - he won me over again by naming Firefly and Battlestar Galactica as series he loved on the way to becoming a fan of The Expanse.]

Wes Rist is an international human rights lawyer whose day job involves working on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - clearly, seriously heavy, and also, deeply relevant to the political context, themes and developments of The Expanse series.

[He clarified, of course, that his views expressed here, are personal - he's working in some capacity for the US government but not speaking for his employer HERE.]

Bob Hranek has a tech background, initially for the US Airforce (5 yrs), then for the US min of defence (35 years) focused on aerospace systems - he pointed out that any views expressed were his own and not those of his employer (prompting the same from WR).

He joked that given his background he would generally, in the context of The Expanse, be expected to be representing [Evil! Tech! And Weapons! Giant!] Protogen.

Caroline Mersey is a cos player and book nerd and organises lots of book events in her spare time, including the 'Super Relaxed Fantasy Bookclub' - every second Tuesday in London. [Must attempt to go...]