Cellan:Brainstorming

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This is a brainstorming page. It holds various ideas that haven't yet been implemented or fleshed-out.

Other drive possibilities

Stuff from Trello

Putting it here so it doesn't get lost. A lot of this has changed significantly since brainstorming in Trello.

Info

Shipyard Tales Tales from the Celestial Lance Other titles?

Set in a space station located at Rho* Boötis (149 ly, part of the Celestial Lance (Geng He) in Chinese constellations)

Military science fiction, space opera following characters in a large starport dealing with building new spaceships, munitions and ordnance, repairing damaged ships, shipping companies, government agencies, upgrading old ships, personnel, and people in the shops and other civilian support businesses and services.

Come up with a background for the station, the name(s) of the groups that use it, group that runs it, etc. Create a background document to give to potential contributors so they can pick how they want to contribute.

Potential locations:

Pollux (34 ly) Epsilon Cygni (73 ly) Kappa Ophiuchi (91.5 ly) Lambda Boötis (99 ly, Xuángē, Sombre Lance) Gamma Draconis (154 ly,

Islander references

Details to figure out

Economy Politics and political groups Religious groups Aliens (races, how powerful are they, etc.)

People who know about shared worlds

Jody Lynn Nye recommends talking to the following about shared world contracts:

Bill Fawcett (Jody's husband) bill@billfawcett.com The Fleet - ask about contracts

Lynn Abbey (Jody emailed her my contact info)

Astronomers to contact

Eric Hintz, eric_hintz@byu.edu, 801-422-4168

Possible connections with actual and legendary events

  • D. A. Lunan, "Spaceprobe from Epsilon Bootes," Spaceflight (British Interplanetary Society), 1973.
  • Message from a Star..., Time, 9 April 1973 (HBLL, Floor 2N, Periodicals, AP 2.T37, v95:no2(1970)-v132:no8(1988)
  • Have Merlin (from King Arthur stories) be a Renn, the race that built Cellan Three
  • Have Grendel be connected to the Kimmalevoi, and Beowulf be connected to the Renn.

Use scientist and author names some

From the Periodic table article: Richard Feynman John Emsley Albert Khazan


Authors to hint at: A. E. Van Vogt James H. Schmitz Edgar Rice Burroughs Roger Zelazny Octavia Butler


Star systems

    • Hemelein Prime / Rho Boötis:** K4III orange giant. 149 ly from Sol in almost the opposite direction from Capella and higher above the galactic plane. Location of Cellan Three space station, location of initial stories

Name one of the systems Hagoth. Named after a system explorer. Home of the Hagoth Shipyards.

    • Alcyone / Eta Tauri:** Multiple star system, A is a B5IIIe blue-white giant with two smaller companions. About 440 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Atlas / 27 Tauri:** Triple star system, A is a B8III blue-white giant with two smaller companions. About 431 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Capella / Alpha Aurigae:** HL (two red dwarf stars, M2.5V (H) and M4 (L)), contains the Capella Shipyards, the largest shipyards ever built by humans. About 45 ly from Sol, almost in the opposite direction of Hemelein Prime
    • Celaeno / 16 Tauri:** B7IV blue-white subgiant. About 430 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • CY Boötis:** M3IIIa red giant variable star about 760 +/- 70 ly from Sol. Visually just southwest from Arcturus
    • Elnath / Beta Tauri:** B7III blue giant. General area (several star systems near there) where Kimmalevoi are usually found. About 132 ly from Sol, in the same direction as Capella, but higher above the galactic plane.
    • Electra / 17 Tauri:** B6IIIe blue-white giant. About 370 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Maia / 20 Tauri:** B8III blue giant. About 400 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Merope / 23 Tauri:** B6IVe blue-white subgiant. About 360 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Pleione / 28 Tauri:** B8IVpe blue-white subgiant. About 440 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Sterope I, Sterope II / 21 Tauri, 22 Tauri:** Binary system, B8V (I) main sequence dwarf and A0Vn (II) main sequence dwarf. Found in the same general direction as Capella.
    • Taygeta / 19 Tauri:** A is B6V blue-white subgiant, B is UNKNOWN. About 440 ly from Sol in the same direction as Capella.
    • Polaris B:** F3 main-sequence star, about 443 ly directly north of Sol the solar plane. It's companion, Polaris Aa is called the "North Star". The wormhole from Hemelein 6wa goes to Polaris 4wb. The wormhole Polaris 4wa goes to Arcturus N2w.

Sloroc

Sentient

The Sloroc bear vague resemblance to sloths, on Old Earth. Adult Sloroc stand 2-3 meters tall and are completely covered in vibrantly colored baby-soft "fur." Though Sloroc have no eyes, they can still perceive their surroundings remarkably well. Their "fur" is really millions of fine cilia that perceive and relay even the slightest movement of air or vibrating footsteps. Even Elves cannot sneak up on a Sloroc. Sloroc also have a strong ultrasonic array, located beneath the large lump on their foreheads. Though perfectly capable of communicating with their mouths, they prefer to save said orfices for the finer pleasures of eating and communicate telepathically.

Sloroc are very fond of food and drink, and often become rotund in old age.

Though normally as friendly and peaceful (and slow!) as the sloths they resemble, Sloroc can be formidable foes. Their hands and feet sheathe wicked-sharp claws, meant to keep them secure in the massive trees of their homeworld, but equally effective at ripping apart anything that threatens them. Also, they can send focused sonic blasts, strong enough to stun a grown human and kill smaller creatures, from their forehead arrays. Their ships are almost always equipped with a much more powerful version of the same sonic blast.

It's disorienting at first, but humans who come in contact with Sloroc often come to really enjoy their telepathic communication, as it often translates to the human brain as stunning images of how the Sloroc perceive the universe around them.

Clicks

Sentient

Though they bear an unfortunate resemblance to giant cockroaches, Clicks (so called by humans who, for the most part, just plain can't pronounce their name for themselves) are about the friendliest beings you could ever hope to meet.

They're very social, tended to congregate in massive metropolises on their homeworld, and tend toward very large ships (or space stations...they love space stations, all the beings coming and going!) in their space travels.

Their native language is composed of clicking, whirring noises made with their mandibles. Humans can learn to understand it easily enough, but very, very few can speak it well enough to be understood. (Clicks understand how hard their language is for folks without exoskeletons, and appreciate and encourage any attempt, however clumsy.)

Clicks have learned to speak most common "squishy" (humans, elves, fae, Sloroc, etc.) languages, by blowing air past the soft, flexible "fingers" near their mandibles (used to maneuver "difficult" food into their mouths, normally). This gives them very soft, whispery voices very incongruent with their generally ebullient personalities.

Clicks tend to be marvelously creative, excellent at cooperative projects, and surprisingly skilled at grasping (though not always following) different cultures' social graces. Clicks struggle with tasks and projects requiring prolonged focus, and they cannot keep a secret to save their souls.

Though very tolerant of other species' ways, Clicks retain a fairly rigid (and somewhat determined by biology, though space travel and evolution have eroded those boundaries) caste system in their own culture.

Acknowledgements for Hemelein Discovery

Jeff Creer for being a sounding board

Thanks to John K. Lundwall for answering some astronomical questions. Thanks to Lehua Parker for help with Hawaiian and Polynesian name and culture questions. Thanks to Narresh Valdaria and Juhi Fragrant for answering some questions about Indian names and culture. Thanks to Jody Lynn Nye for letting me bend her ear about this book and this series.

Thanks to Cedar Sanderson, Barry Bickmore, and Debbie Belnap Barlow for help with chemistry magic (creating new elements is fun!). And thanks to Albert Khazan for suggesting heavier elements could exist. http://www.ptep-online.com/2009/PP-17-L4.PDF

Thanks to Matthew J. Kirby for giving me a lot of good questions that helped flesh-out the background and story. It helped make the story stronger.

Thanks to Heather for helping me flesh-out this world and believing in my ability to actually write a good story.

Thanks to Ron Kihara for helping me gain access to some setting reference articles.

Thanks to Kevin J. Anderson, Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, A. C. Crispin, Julie E. Czerneda, Gordon R. Dickson, Eric Flint, Nancy Fulda, Anne McCaffrey, Michael McCollum, Ryō Mizuno, Elizabeth Moon, Hiroyuki Morioka, Larry Niven, Diann Thornley Read, Gene Roddenberry, James H. Schmitz, Robert Silverberg, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Eric James Stone, J. Michael Strazynski, Haruka Takachiho, Yoshiki Tanaka, Howard Tayler, Brad R. Torgersen, A. E. Van Vogt, David Weber, K.D. Wentworth, Dave Wolverton, and Timothy Zahn for inspiring my love of space opera and hard(ish) science fiction.

Thanks to John Berkey, Don Dixon, Bob Eggleton, Stephen Hickman, Stephan Martinière, Leiji Matsumoto, David Mattingly, Haruhiko Mikimoto, David Seeley, Kenichi Sonoda, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, and Stephen Youll for creating awesome and inspirational art that expanded my imagination and drove me to seek out strange new worlds.

Acknowledgements for Hemelein volume 2

Narresh Valdaria for answering some questions about Indian place naming.

Maybe check with James Goldberg.

Old plot info for Hemelein Discovery

~~Time frame for storyline: 48-72 hours~~

~~Watabe arrives and discovers station, sends message drone back through wormhole, mole in ORGNAME sends news of station discovery to ShadowOrg, who quickly dispatches task force to get as much as possible from the station before ORGNAME gets around to sending help. ~~

~~Alternately, have system scanned by initial unmanned probe prior to Watabe arriving, that probe came back with data indicating some electromagnetic sources that seemed to be technological in nature. Watabe was dispatched by ORGNAME shortly before ShadowOrg also sent a small task force to retrieve as much tech as possible before ORGNAME could react.~~

~~ShadowOrg comes and takes over station while only Watabe is there. They are trying to steal as much tech and data as possible.~~

    • Perhaps have Watabe develop a rapport with the AI running the station** ~~so it trusts her and helps her defeat the ShadowOrg.~~ **The AI would help explain why the station is in such good condition.**

~~Maybe have one of the alien races the humans interact with be a benevolent advanced race that created the station and orchestrated the humans finding it to see what they would do with it. ~~

Misc links

Chapter quotes

  • "That's impossible. You can't have an element that heavy. It violates Bohr's model!" - Professor Soandso, on the announcement of the element Hemeleinium in 4056

Possible anthology

Shipyard Tales Tales from Cellan Three Station Other titles?

Military science fiction, space opera following characters in a large starport dealing with building new spaceships, munitions and ordnance, repairing damaged ships, shipping companies, government agencies, upgrading old ships, personnel, and people in the shops and other civilian support businesses and services.

Come up with a background for the station, the name(s) of the groups that use it, group that runs it, etc. Create a background document to give to potential contributors so they can pick how they want to contribute.

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