When You're In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Scream … by Marva Dasef
When You're In Space,Nobody Can Hear You Scream…
Happy Holidays!
Christmas, Hanukkah, and Eid Al-fitr are behind us, at least on the Earth calendar, and almost to New Year's Day. When writing science fiction, dealing with multiple worlds and cultures is common. The question is how do these people coordinate between each other.
In my SFR, "Ultimate Duty," human space is under the power of the monolithic SemCorp. Created when the Semyon-Bratva Cartel merged with Canopis Corporation, SemCorp evolved into the de facto government. Eventually, twenty-three inhabited worlds merged into a massive commercial enterprise. At first, the individual planets maintained separate governments, but over the years, they became superfluous and all but disappeared.
I had to decide how the disparate worlds kept on a schedule. After all, merchant freighters have to know when to make pick ups from one world, and the destination for the merchandise needs to know when it will arrive.
The easiest method, and one enforceable when all the planets are under the thumb of a single entity is to set every planet's "clock" in relation to each other. I settled on using earth time because I found it easier to deal with as a writer, and readers didn't have to figure out some esoteric clock/calendar system.Obviously, those twenty-three worlds will not only have a different clock depending on the rotation of the planet on its axis, but each will also have a different length of year. So different days, different years. How do you keep a calendar so you know when to celebrate New Year's or the Chairman's birthday or whatever?
Feeling the holiday spirit yet?
Another characteristic of the worlds is that each was settled by a particular earth group. My heroine's home world, Acadia, was originally by French speaking people are Canadian, French, and Cajun people of the old (defunct) United States. The hero is from a Brazilian-based planet called Brasilia. New Mecca became home to Muslims. Deutchlund inhabited by Germans, and so on.I thought not, but let me forge ahead anyway.
You'd think that all the settled planets would be a mixture of all kinds of earth races (extraterrestrials haven't made an appearance yet, but who can blame them). And hundreds years after settling, most of the planets are as polyglot as many countries are today.
But people tend to hold to traditions, so it's easy to imagine that the French, Brazilian, and German based planets still celebrated some type of Christmas holiday. The only religion I comment on is the Muslim population of New Mecca. There's a reason for that which you'll discover if you read the book. And to that purpose, I'll be giving away an ebook or two. Just leave a comment with some facsimile of your email address to win a PDF of "Ultimate Duty."
ULTIMATE DUTY
by Marva Dasef http://marvadasef.com/ http://mgddasef.blogspot.com/
Publisher Eternal Press http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615722280
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxaTLrg5c5A
Amazon ebook: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004ASND8O
Blurb:
Remy Belieux, a woman born into a life of servitude on a repressive factory planet, is desperate for a different life. When she's accepted into the Space Service Academy, run by the organization that enslaves her planet, she discovers the truth behind generations of rebellion. Now, she must decide what to believe, where her ultimate duty lies, and fight for more than her life against impossible odds.
Excerpt:
Remy and Garrett arrived at the outer wall path that led to the dock ports. Remy hoped at least one shuttle was still attached to the station. She dropped to the floor and peered down the slope of the passageway. Two guards stood at the entrance to bay 5. Luckily, they faced the opposite direction. Remy slid back and pointed silently, then held up two fingers. Garrett nodded and pointed left and then at himself. Remy nodded.
With no way to get any closer unseen, they must use speed instead. Both stepped back a couple of paces, so they'd hit the corner at full tilt. A nod from Garrett, and they sprinted through the twenty meters separating them from the guards. One guard turned to look only when Remy and Garrett were close enough to attack. The guard yelled, "Halt!" as he raised the barrel of his blaster. The second guard turned with a confused expression and didn't manage to raise his own weapon before Remy reached him.
Remy felt her mind and body slip into fighting mode. Time slowed for her, and she noted every detail of the guard's stance. She leaped high in the air, her legs coiled like springs. The second guard finally lifted his rifle but never had the chance to fire. Remy drove both feet into his abdomen, slamming him against the wall with the force of her strike. In the low gravity she landed easily on her feet crouched and ready. She crossed her arms against her torso, grabbing the guard's belt with her left hand and prepared to strike with her right. The man's eyes widened when Remy's backhand arced toward him. The force of the blow across his jaw sent him tumbling to the floor.
