Earth-Space

So, if you were paying attention on Facebook today, you'll know I have a little announcement to make.

BUT I'm going to make you read to the bottom of this post before I'll tell you what it is. Mwahaha!



As promised, this week we're talking about some of the background information for the short story on which I'm working. The three things I'm going to explain are Earth-Space, the Hunters, and the ship Apollo. In this, I'm hoping you'll get a better idea of what's going on around the story, and that you'll better understand the characters and their motivations.

Today:

Earth-Space

Much like characters, it all boils down to just describing what the thing is, and how it relates to the story in general.

• Founded in the late 2100's, Earth-Space is planet Earth's premiere space exploration program. They train hundreds of thousands of cadets every year, including all three of our main characters. 
• Every nation on Earth is a part of Earth-Space, but Mission Control (the primary base of operations) is located in Houston, TX, because the initiative was founded there. 
• Earth-Space is built up of both scientists and military officers. Scientists have partnered with engineers and technicians to build eight different classes of space ships, all of which are able to travel long distance (into other galaxies, say) and are capable of holding at least fifteen people comfortably. There are approximately one hundred of these ships currently in operation.
• Earth-Space, at the time of the short story, has been operational for more than a hundred years. The kinks have been worked out of the system, and they work on Earth with the Peoples of Earth Commonwealth, which was founded as a uniting government for the world to prepare the peoples of the planet for the case of extraterrestrial life. 
• New officers, recruits, and cadets are given housing in their base of operations. Bases of operations are within the capital city of every nation, allowing people to remain in their homeland while they are planetside and while training. Primary operations, however, remains fixed in Houston, TX. Mission Control is the largest operation center, the only hub large enough to house all data gathered in all space missions, and the only place capable of contacting and guiding every ship in their fleet, simultaneously. 
• The vast majority of people on Earth now come to Earth-Space for testing when they are children. If they pass the test and are accepted into the program, they will be brought to live in one of the bases of operation when they are fifteen years old. From there, they are fully trained for whatever position they are found most apt to achieve (science, combat, etc), and are given assignment when they are twenty to thirty years old. Most new recruits want to go into space as their primary goal, but only about 25% are qualified for even short-term space missions. However, every recruit is taken into space in their third year of training, as part of the testing procedure.
• Earth-Space is the hub for twelve International Space Stations (ISS-Alpha through ISS-12), where the majority of space exploration and experimentation is carried out. These stations are large enough to house over 1/3 of the in-flight population of Earth-Space, though at any given time they each have a staff of 200. These stations are hubs for ES ships in the area. 
• Earth-Space is incredibly restrictive when it comes to who will be able to make the jump into space for short or long term missions, and when they will be able to do so. Many cadets are prevented from entering space after testing due to psychological evaluations or poor test results, and many others are prevented from testing entirely due to their lower-class parentage. ES hides most of this information from the public eye, even though they maintain a public face that all their data is shared with the world. 
• Over seventy-five years ago, when Earth-Space was still working with only three stations and only the power of half the globe, a faction broke off from the whole. This faction refer to themselves as Hunters. They take both resources and people from Earth-Space, people who would not ordinarily been allowed on long-term space missions, and give them a home on the stolen original space station, ISS-Origin. 
• Since the Hunters have broken off from ES, the program has been forced to send more military support into space. The majority of officers are now trained in combat, even if they are in science divisions. Every one of their ships is in danger, since the Hunters have come into being. 
• Four years ago, after an attack on one of their larger ships, Earth-Space signed a secret treaty with the Hunters. Due to the common knowledge that Earth-Space refuses to negotiate with terrorists, this treaty has been kept from the public, and even from the ears of their own officers.
• Since the treaty has been put in place, fewer accidents have come to pass. But the Hunters still attack several of Earth-Space's ships, especially those carrying new recruits on their first voyages into space.

In a nutshell, that's all you need to know about Earth-Space, at least for the duration of this story. You'll find out much more later on, when you read the books from whence this comes.

For a short story, remember, the reader doesn't always need to know the backstory of programs like this. Most of what I've just given you is information that I won't bother to put into the short. For one, it's a little dull. For another, it takes up a lot of my wordage—and I don't like to use words on things that don't need to be said.

Again, everything pertaining to Earth-Space and any information about this series are Copyrighted by RAD Writing, who purchased the rights to the series before I even finished it. I love them.


Oh wait.


There was something I was supposed to tell you, wasn't there?


Yeah, there was...

The Announcement

You already know that this series is leading up to a short story.


What you don't know is that it's also going to be the lead-in to 2016, the big kick-off to the biggest news of spring... the coming of my next novel.

Cedwig: People in the Vines

Sneak peak, here in Too Many Books To Count, January 1, 2016.


Did you notice I changed the name?

[love]

{Rani Divine}