Divided Loyalties #2

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 5th September 2008. (commentary)

This is the second and final installment of the sixth Station Keeping episode “Divided Loyalties.” This episode develops the character Nan Gee, who first appeared in Diplomacy Maneuvers. Enjoy and look for a new installment from Knowing Mars starting on Monday.

Nan almost tripped on a box as she walked into her office. “How’d they get that in here?” She wondered.

She put her bag down next to her desk and walked carefully back to the package. There was a blank piece of paper fastened to the top of the box. She lifted it carefully, and on the back she read: “Nan: Hope these help. Hanm will be free.”

The memory of last night’s comm call came rushing back. “I guess it wasn’t a fake or a dream,” she muttered as she set the paper back on top of the box. She sat down at the desk and called up the communications log.

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” She asked, only slightly disturbed that she was talking to herself.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • •

Divided Loyalties #1

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 4th September 2008. (commentary)

This is the first installment of the sixth Station Keeping episode “Divided Loyalties,” which will be presented in two parts. This episode develops the character Nan Gee, who first appeared in Diplomacy Maneuvers. Look for the second part, tomorrow.

Nan rolled over for the third time in as many minutes, and tried to ignore in incessant pinging from her communications panel. She was stuck in that twilight space where her grasp of reality and the limits of possibility were tenuous at best.

She relented and stood up. The comm was on the opposite wall and squinting, she stumbled across the room to activate it. “Maybe turning up the lights would help,” she thought, a bit late to do anything about it, and when the video system didn’t activate she was glad that she hadn’t. “Hello?” she asked, after a long moment. She wasn’t used to the audio comm, particularly when half asleep.

“Ms. Gee, I can’t tell you my name,” the voice on the other end spewed from the speaker with an astonishing speed. “But I’m with the Hanmist Resistance, and–” Nan would have cut him off sooner had she not been yawning.

“What do you want. It’s the middle of the damn night up here.” She wasn’t sure what time it was, or even if night was the right word to describe the time on the station. Hell, she didn’t even know if this call was legitimate: the voice wasn’t any that she recognized. Her caller knew more about her than she did him, if it was a him, and she wanted to even that playing field as soon as possible.

“We know your work, and we we’re building a network of supporters. You’re position on Hanm Centre will be very valuable to us when we come–”

“Come? I haven’t been notified of anything.” Nan thumbed up the lights and squared her shoulders, in a hopes of sounding more authoritative.

“We support you, we support Hanm. We just want you to be ready for us when we come…”

“Oh come on, no one actually talks like that,” Nan thought to herself. “How will I get in touch with you?” She changed strategies and hoped that the person on the other end couldn’t hear her eyes rolling: it was probably better to play along with this, even if it were a prank, but she didn’t have to like it. And hell, if there was a Hanmist movement around to talk to her, this couldn’t be a bad thing.

“You’ll know. Do we have your support?”

“I support anything that’s good for Hanm.” Just ambiguous enough, and ultimately true, she thought.

“Good, expect a package with more information soon. Hanm Will be free.” the words were uttered with a dispassionate murmur that sent a tremble down Nan’s spine.

“Ok, thank you.” Nan responded politely before she cut the connection. “Log last transmission and send the details to…” her command was punctuated by a brisk entry of a code for her terminal in her office. There was supposed to be a way for her to do this verbally, but she always felt that it was easier and more secure to just enter the code by hand.

Her command sequence was short, and she still hoped that she’d be able get back to sleep. She cut the lights and stumbled back to bed. The revolution would wait until morning at least.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • •

The Historical Moment

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 29th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the fifth installment of the Station Keeping story. This episode comes to us from the history compiled by J. Tiltsten, written several hundred years after the conclusion of these stories. I hope you enjoy, and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday.

The Necessity of Hanmist Studies, Part I

by Professor Jonathan Tiltsten

Unlike some other pivotal moments in the development of human colonial efforts on other worlds, many documents survive from the period just before and during the occupation of a space station in-orbit of the rim-world “Hanm.” Though in retrospect it is widely accepted, and obvious to many scholars of post-League political organization that the events on Hanm Centre were very important, if not key in determining the organization of human government for the next hundred years; at the time, the key actors in this milieux were not only unaware of their coming role in history, but also the importance of their moment. First a letter from the papers of Commander Eli Banner, the first commander of Hanm Centre, written shortly before he departed for Hanm:

Sometimes I think I’m getting too old for field assignments, but it’s better than getting fat and old behind a desk core-side, a lowly commander would never get chosen for a relativity cruise cycle1. But I’m basically unattached, and I have some experience in the field, but who knows anyway. This time period never did suit me, and it’ll be interesting to see how the world looks on the other side. A of a long flight; not that the core will matter very much out there I trust. I just hope I get a chance to come back someday.

At the same time, the leaders of the civilian government on the colony world Hanm knew that change in the status quo, at least for their people, was imminent–and strictly speaking, it was–their opposition was to the league presence on Hanm Centre, not, in their mind, to the entire League, as it would later become.2 Or the interstellar political status quo of the previous thousand years. Indeed it we now think that it would have been at least a generation on Hanm from the time that Eli Banner departed the core-side world until he and his convoy would arrive on Hanm.

This is an excerpt from an editorial circulated by early “Hanmist”[^ists] shortly the Navy confirmed that it was sending a high level operations convoy after Commander Eli Banner left the core for Hanm Centre.

Above all, I would like to express my objection to the fact that the outpost currently under-construction in high orbit of the planet will be operated and governed by the League’s Navy. While an easily accessible space outpost in this part of the galaxy is not inherently objectionable, I would like to locate my resistance to Hanm Centre not in terms of resistance to the League at large, but rather in acknowledgment of the fact that the Civil authority on Hanm was not–according to the public record–consulted by the League authorities, and furthermore, the fact that the station is not to be administered or overseen by Hanmish authorities. Indeed, there is no reason that it can be directed and administered by the civil authorities on Hanm, who would surely be the best suited given their experience with the region.

As we can see, the seeds of the “Hanmist Separation” movement were significantly more modest than the militant movement that would follow in their name. In an age where the technology of space travel had paradoxically brought time and history to a virtual stand still, it took by the standards of the day, only a paltry handful of years for the Hanmist movement to sour. Though from our contemporary perspective this may not seem particularly remarkable, it must have been–particularly to the then unknowing Eli Banner.



Notes:

  1. Key leaders of the League and Navy during this era were frequently cycled on and off interstellar flights to help provide continuity with the League’s longer term missions on outer worlds. This kept some level of stability, but meant that policy changed back and forth as various leaders came on and off the cruises. ↩

  2. In fairness, it is only in retrospect that we can make this claim, in a lot of ways, Hanm Centre was of a guilded age of a dying empire of sorts, and the accomplishments of the station and it’s crew though too numerous to list here, were not typical of any late imperial project. afn:istsz:”Hamnism” refers to the political movement started on Hanm (that quickly spread to other large rim worlds) that advocated independence and separation from the League, the policies of continued colonization, and distant centralized government. ↩

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: •

Station Keeping #2: Arrival (Part 2)

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 28th July 2008. (commentary)

This is the second and final part of the second episode of the Station Keeping serial. You can read Part 1 here.

Docking

David Conrad and Marc Perrin stepped off the shuttle they owned onto the docking ramp to find the entire cavernous bay devoid of people. They stood on the other side of their air lock in silence, waiting for something to happen.

Marc rubbed his eyes, which had begun to tear from exhaustion: “Aren’t we supposed to have a landing party, here? or something?” Marc whispered, leaning slightly toward David.

“I guess not, we’re just normal folk now, I guess.”

“Speak for yourself, I actually have a job here,” Marc said, pinching his shirt where the rank pin would have been, had he been wearing a uniform. Actually, given that he was in civvies he almost hoped that there wouldn’t be a welcoming party.

David chuckled. A uniformed figure trotted briskly across the far side of the docking bay and he waved. “I guess that’s your welcoming party,” David said as they began to walk down the ramp.

“Sirs, sorry. We’re still a bit short staffed: the real crew doesn’t get here till the beginning of the week after next–our time.” Joshua was still a bit out of breath from his heroic run down from the command center. “I’m Joshua Sian, Lieutenant. I’ve been keeping the lights on, and organizing the last construction details before the crew gets here. Is there anything I can do to help you move in? A tour?”

“It’s David,” David responded looking distracted by the wall behind Sian.

“Sir?” Sian asked, looking quickly over his shoulder.

“It’s just David these days, none of this sir stuff.”

“Oh, right, sir–Daivd.” Sian corrected himself, and suppressed a squirm. There was silence.

“We have some crates that should probably be unloaded before we move the shuttle out of this bay, if you could arrange for that it would be great.” Marc said, taking charge of the conversation. “The deceleration was a bit longer than we expected and I for one am a bit too tired for a tour right now. Can we schedule one for tomorrow?”

“Sure, that would be great, s-” Sian stopped and looked puzzled for a moment.

David, was by now far more interested in inspecting the facilitates–albeit from a distance–than just about anything, including awkward young commissioned officers.

“Are the crates marked?” Sian asked.

“Should be.” Marc confirmed, before swallowing a yawn.

“I’ll get someone down here to take care of that right away.” Sian made a note on a micro-tablet that he seemed to produce from thin air. “Can I show you to your quarters now?” He offered.

“That would be great,” Marc said. When Sian turned around, Marc glared at David and mouthed “Way to be the strange one, fix it would you.”

David looked quizzically at Marc, and then getting a clue stepped up next to Joshua; “What’s the construction schedule looking like at this point?” he asked.

“We’re doing pretty good, but nothing is really fast enough. Ever.” Sian was caught off guard by the sudden interest, but as David asked more questions about the station and the Lieutenant fell more into his comfort zone, he relaxed.

Marc smiled, and yawned again as they made their way to their quarters. He watched the two men talk, and tried to track the conversion, but he quickly admitted to himself that he no interest in keeping up with the discussion. He could hardly think about anything except the amount of time between the present and the soonest opportunity to sleep.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • • • • •

Station Keeping #2: Arrival (Part 1)

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 25th July 2008. (commentary)

This is part one of the second episode of the Station Keeping serial. The second and final part will be posted on Monday.

Office Space

“Damnit!” Taila exclaimed throwing her notes on the desk. She had sent a message to Joshua Sian on Hanm Centre, without attaching the crew rotation that she had promised. Normally such an error wouldn’t have caused much of a problem, but the time delay between her ship and the station for messages was still too long for comfort. She had to wait for the response before she could go off duty, so Talia’s shift just got a little bit longer: “it’s not like there’s anything worth doing, cooped up on the ship like this anyway,” she said to no one in particular and leaned back in the chair.

The doors opened to the skipper’s office with out warning and Talia sat up with a start.

“Skippers’ office, eh?” Eli Banner said, surprised. Though he attempted to act as if he was expecting to find Talia in his office.

“Sorry, sir.” Talia moved to vacate the chair in a rush, but when the skipper sat down in one of the other chairs, she relaxed and stayed in the chair. “I was just coordinating our arrival with Joshua Sian on the station, and wanted some quiet to write the messages–because we’re still text-only. Besides, the computer and crew don’t need me to watch over them while they slow down… so slowly” she reported, still somewhat uncomfortable sitting on this side of the desk.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it, it’s just a room,” Eli said. Had there been actual business for the day, he might have been more interested in reclaiming his office, but it was just as well, the entire crew was engaged of tedious game of appearing busy while trying to hide the fact that they were all bored out of their minds. “What did Sian have to say for himself? Keeping the station in one piece I trust?”

“It’s not fin–” Talia began, but of course Banner knew that already. “More or less, I suppose: I have to resend some data to the station before I can go off duty, but I think we’ve made all the necessary arrangements for docking,” she said, offering a printout report of the docking plan.

“The other ships aren’t going to be happy about having to wait so long to disembark.” He commented and handed the paper back.

“It happens, they’ll deal.”

Eli chuckled, “We’ll make a station governor of you yet.” Talia didn’t quite manage to stifle a glare. Eli continued “relax, get some sleep: I don’t have anything scheduled for this shift so I can I’ll send the message.”

“It’s alright, really, my mistake.” Talia paused, but before Eli could agree “I can’t decide what’s worse, the thought of staying on this ship for another instant, or the thought of spending the next several years of my life on a station in orbit of Hanm.”

“Easy; this ship is worse than the station. Now give me that paper, before I put a mark on your record for sitting in my chair,” he joked. They stood and he grew serious for a moment “It all different, it always is, but you’ll do fine.” He punctuated his sentence with a smile, as he took her stack of files.

“You’re probably right. Good shift, sir,” she said, before turning to leave the office. “Lets avoid doing that again, shall we?” she thought after the door shut.

permalink • • one comment
tagged: • • • • •

Station Keeping: Setting the Stage

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 22nd July 2008. (commentary)

This is the introductory chapter of Station Keeping A serial space opera story that I wrote with a few friends last year. This episode is self contained, and maybe familiar to you, but SK is without a home at the moment, so I thought reposting it would be worthwhile, and since there will be new Station Keeping, some background is in order… Enjoy!

Centuries of colonization, growth, and settlement have left scores of small and mid-sized human outposts on as many worlds. Rather than continue a disorganized and largely unnecessary program of expansion the League, or what remained of the central government, decided to concentrate its resources on developing existing outposts and supporting smaller and established populations. With good reason, many doubted the intentions and abilities of this project: resources were limited, and the mostly irrelevant mandates of the League did not inspire confidence.

Hanm Centre was one of the first outposts that the League and its often laughable Navy established as part of this most recent attempt. In high orbit of the small colony world Hanm, the space station was to be the focal point of the League’s efforts on several worlds. Despite the possibility of growth many on Hanm worried about the effects of the attention on their way of life. Some object to the League because they figure better to leave well enough alone—Hanm, like many outlying settlements was basically self sufficient and the larger issues of humanity’s unification were largely irrelevant—but there was another, more vocal faction on the colony that wasn’t strictly opposed to the effort to federate the outposts, settlements and colonies; they were simply opposed to the potentially hegemonic League.

These circumstances left Hanm Centre, and it’s residents, in a unique position to observe and act in the outcome of this debate. Life would go on: there wasn’t a group of any importance that advocated for a “retreat,” to the “core-side” worlds, neither was anyone particularly opposed to the existence of the Hanm Centre station. Many expected that whatever happened on Hanm Centre would have no profound impact to the planet below and the progress of the Leagues development.

Despite the potential truth of these prognostications, the residents of Hanm, and the later the station, mostly laughed or scoffed when they read the kinds of statements made by the syndicated news commentators: everyone was keen to point out that the news services were based on different worlds.

The station was still new, so new that construction wasn’t even completely finished. Much of the permanent staff had yet to arrive, even. So, although everyone in the universe with a connection to the news-feeds thought that the situation on Hanm—the planet and the station—was the shape of things to come, the residents were of course more concerned with the construction schedules and the pending arrival of the next automated delivery transport. These concerns were complicated by the fact that a predominance of the station’s occupants were transitory: there for temporary work, or pausing for a moment on the journey to other colonies and outposts. Despite this, there could be little question that everyone—-the League, the colonists on Hanm, the station’s residents, the settlers on the neighboring worlds, and observers on dozens of worlds were eagerly waiting for further news of Hanm Centre.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • •
•