Ok, @daughterofheartshaven, @moonrabbitwriter, and @dauntlessdraupadi all wanted to hear about To Die Among the Stars, so I guess I'm infodumping about it this morning instead of actually writing it :)
I got 20,000 words into the first draft last time, and though I'm restarting it I'm only barely messing with the concept on this one. The premise is such:
The year is 2197. Earth is full. Mars is full. Universities, laboratories, and homesteads abound on the 5 dwarf planets and certain moons, but the rest of the solar system is too hot, too cold, or too gaseous to live in. Humans are ready to explore the rest of the universe.
But there are several problems. FTL travel has been deemed scientifically impossible. Cryosleep, while useful on short hops between planets, is dangerous after 6 months and deadly after 8. Thus, no ship is built to last for long trips and they have no long-term data on humans living in space without the protection of a planet or moon. Controlled experiments can only do so much.
The first company to ever try this, based on Mars, spent most of their money on a ship with replenishing fuel that wouldn't tear itself apart at 1/5 light speed. They needed living subjects from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and demographics. They didn't have the money to convince anyone to give up the rest of their life to the project. Plus they didn't want to lose their talent on a first attempt. So they looked around to take "volunteers" that no one would miss. The mission would be kept quiet until its success or failure, anyway, to put the right spin on it to fund more once the lessons were learned.
10 people were gathered and sent off in the firection of Proxima Centauri to see how far they could get; if the ship lasted 20 years, they might make it there.
Wire Gai: from the "underworld" (factory section below Mars' surface), a former factory worker who lost both his arms in an accident and has been scraping a living from selling scrap in the literal black market since.
Pixel Gai: Wire's younger sibling, autistic and nonverbal, with a love of diagrams and of fixing mods and tech based on them, though usually not for any money since no one down there has any.
Ri Laoye: from the surface, populated by ordinary people, but with the caveat that you took care of yourself or were taken care of by family. He used to work in a school but got a set of illicit mods—which most people who didn't trust or couldn't afford official ones did—and there was something wrong with them, so that they scrambled his brain. His brother, a shuttle driver, tried to support him, but his behavior got too erratic and he ended up on the streets, under threat of being sent to the underworld or shipped off planet if he bothers the wrong people.
Wolfy Jones: also from the surface. Was a promising young scientist 20 years ago, until she developed schizophrenia. Helping people manage mental illness costs money, so it's easier just to ignore it and, as she found her family no longer willing to be supportive, she wound up homeless, too, and currently her only friend is Ri.
Twig Villagrana Flores: from the spires, the shining wealthy level of towers and bridges extending up high into the artificial atmosphere. Officially labeled only odd (partly because I haven't decided in what way he's neurodivergent yet), and up here that's handled by handing off family members to asylums and visiting them on holidays. Twig is shy and a bit isolated, fond of soft and pretty things. Over the last decade, his family have all but stopped visiting.
Tzipporah Lehr: also from the surface, and though she had a moderately severe chronic illness, has a mother and sister willing to support her even if it puts a strain on them. She has friends. She feels like a terrible burden, though.
Za'Niyah Gobena: also from the spires. Was part of a trend a couple decades ago to completely lab-design perfect children. The popularity faded when it turned out you can't predict what a person will do with their free will, and the design process often caused genetic mutations that resulted in disabilities, but the children remain. Za'Niyah has a severe but stable ataxia condition and lives a comfortable but isolated life with parents and siblings who largely ignore her.
Acorn: not from Mars at all, but showed up on a transport one day with forged paper and, according to the official records, started making trouble. A teenager with clear trauma and ADHD, as well as extremely obvious but beautiful illicit mods, she was eventually arrested and given a choice between prison and an experiment. She was told it was non-invasive, but not that it involved dying in space. No one knows much about her (including me xD).
Void: from a lab on Deimos. Was among the first truly sentient AIs made 30 years ago, but was an early version. Is completely aware of its own existence, but is laggy and buggy and in a clunky casing, only kept around because of laws against killing sentient beings. Can, however, be sold for science. Was called he and named something like Bob originally, but chose its own name and pronouns.
Peppermint: from the same lab as Void. The product of military-funded genetic experiments a decade ago, Peppermint was the only augmented being to survive to adulthood and is still useless for what was wanted. Their senses are heightened and they look like a human-animal hybrid, but they are not much stronger than a human, and is generally gentle and academic rather than physical. They also chose their own names and pronouns, and as they are legally sentient but not legally a person can be sold but not killed.
The story cycles between 4 POV characters as they are taken, given minimal training for a fully automated ship, and sent off into the unknown completely alone.
