I’ve noticed a common thread running through so many of my Sci-fi stories. It concerns a major part of the plot of several novels.
It’s an interplanetary journey taken by the characters, for one reason or another. Often, it’s to get away from a situation, sometimes, the action takes place on the journey itself. From Andorra Pett to Kalyn Deere, as well as with many of my other characters, passenger space travel plays a huge part in their adventures.
For them to be able to make any journey, I’ve had to do a considerable amount of world-building. And it stretches across the Galaxy, into all my books and series.
In my future worlds, planets will be connected not just by the presence of human life in some sort of confederation, but by trade and tourism. There will be communication between planets, as instantaneous as the quantum entanglement system I’ve developed can make it.
Huge cargo ships will carry goods from planet to planet. Whatever one place has in abundance can be sold to those who can’t grow or make it themselves.
Because every planet in my universe is different.
Then there will be the luxury items, the Champagne and Caviar of the day. Produced on exotic planets, the rich will clamour for them and import them at vast cost.
But that’s another story. Or at least, it could be, one day. 😂
In any Galactic confederation, there will be some planets that have nothing to make or grow. Mine is no exception. That doesn’t mean they have no part to play in my future, they still have a use. They make their living from tourism, providing services or experiences, or acting as neutral locations for diplomacy and corporate negotiations.
I’m just developing one such planet now, called Pollen. It’s a barren and chemically neutral place, which makes it ideal as the repository of the genetic material that feeds and nurtures humanity, keeping it safe from alien degradation. Like a seed bank, only Sci-fi’ed up a bit to include life-forms from all the known worlds.
I digress (unusually for me).
Back to the journey. Connecting the whole civilisation together will be the hyperliners.
Creating them has been fun, I’ve managed to use my forty years of experience in shipping people and cargo around the globe to make them as realistic and familiar as any cruise liner you’ve ever seen or heard of.
I’ve spared no expense in their construction. It seemed like a good idea to make these luxury spaceships too big to ever enter a planet’s atmosphere.
Instead, they flit between worlds on circular routes, driven by faster-than-light engines and crewed in much the same way as Ocean Liners are today. In fact, the whole thing is just the same, on a larger scale. The hyperliners have all the facilities you could ask for, Restaurants, Bars, Casinos, Theatres, even Swimming Pools.
These behemoths arrive in orbit to dock with shuttlecraft that will feed them with supplies and passengers. Much the same as cruise ships anchor off port and ferry passengers ashore to see the sights.
This makes them perfect from a plotting point of view, and infinitely flexible in the part they can play in any story. Because they are your creation, you can modify their properties to suit the needs of the story and use their features to drive or confuse your characters. They can do whatever you want, subject to the usual laws of physics.
My hyperliners have played host to criminals and good guys. They’ve been used for smuggling, seen enemies become lovers, suffered hijacking and have transported people to and from the adventures of their lives.
And I’m pretty sure that they will feature in a lot more of my work.
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