Disclaimer: There will be typos probably, I’m typing fast and just letting my mind go crazy.
2/1/2022
Welcome to the second entry of my blog where I discuss the development of the story I’m currently writing, Saviors of Novus. These entries are a place for me to ramble on about the details of my story, and also so I can sort of vent my creativity without having to worry about sentence structure and other aspects of writing a well thought out story. Simply put, I sometimes need to write without thinking, if that make any sense. Now, onward to the actual entry!
This is a story that will, sometimes, heavily rely on specific details regarding the spacecraft the characters of the story will travel on. This spacecraft will be their home, their place of safety among the various hostile cosmic environments they will traverse. It will become a character in of itself, as it will play a major role in seeing the cast through many hardships and challenges. This spacecraft is lovingly, and purposefully named, Divinity’s Guile. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of a name for an epic spaceship that has a long history of accomplishments among the people who built it. Indeed it is famous among the Novusion people, mostly for the discoveries its made over the past few decades. Speaking of decades, its hardly the same ship as it was when it was first built physically. Constant replacements of parts, including the very hull itself, has rendered the original off the assembly line model non existent, but it still bears the same name, the same reputation. This reputation it has gained wouldn’t have been possible if not for the captains who’ve commanded it over the years. Perhaps since it first made a name for itself, each captain felt it was their duty to see to it that the ship continued to make history; a special responsibility that came with the command of such a vessel.
This story will need to be well structured and well thought out. This means I will need to have a clear design of the ship in mind. I will need to have a general understanding of every corridor, every module, where the crew eats, sleeps, etc. I will need to have a basic explanation for how the ship works, how it bends spacetime when in warp, how it constructs Bridges between the stars. I will need to work out how many crewmembers it takes to man her, the overall size of the ship, its exterior design, which of course is very fun to do.
When it comes to the exterior design I want something that looks sexy, powerful, and intimidating all at once. Sleek, practical, and firmly structured. If I were to reference other ships from other works off science fiction, a lot of Star Wars ships come to mind, such as the Queen of Naboo’s transport they use to initially escape in Episode 1, love that ship, but of course the Divinity’s Guile is going to be a much larger vessel. The recent development of Star Citizen, an impressive video game from a technical standpoint, has some of the most intriguing and absolutely stunning ship designs I’ve ever seen, so take a look at any capital class ships from that game and I’d be inspired by each and every one of them.
I have a strong desire to have a lot of practicality and functionality cleverly integrated into a sleek and beautiful design. So I will be doing a lot of research into what a spaceship needs to actually stay protected, to function, and to keep its crew alive. Of course this story will take place in the future, so some liberties if not a lot will need to be taken, but I want there to be a firm foundation of real science at the core of its design, and every other ship’s design in this story. I recently finished watching the final season of The Expanse, a fantastic science fiction show also based off of a successful book series, and its been praised for its heavy use of real science when it comes to the design of its ships and the way space combat is experienced and carried out. This is all another reason why I haven’t done much plot work yet, as I’ve been focusing on developing the various technologies in the universe of this story. I very much want to establish a firm foundation on which I can build my story, a story I’ve been dreaming about for years and years.
I don’t have much more to share on the Divinity’s Guile at the moment, other than that it will be a part of the story in nearly every chapter. The story will see moments of growth and doubt aboard this ship, challenges and loss, but in the end, a triumphant crew who faced the odds, and braved the enormous ferocity of an unforgiving universe that is hostile towards all life wherever you go.
I’m working on a poem, or speech, whatever it will be called in the end, that the crew will recite before the beginning and ending of a journey. Here is what I have so far, but I haven’t worked on it for some time.
“We who dare to be fooled, challenged by Divinity’s Guile, enter a lightless void, yet to none we pray. We cross the river Styx, upon a bridge we ourselves lay, and to no boatman for passage do we pay. Our journeys forever we will share, for we are the one’s who dare. Divinity’s Guile we shall conquer, for none we will lose to Davy Jones’ locker.”
I will end this entry with another overview of the two primary methods of faster than light travel in my story. They are both familiar in some shape or form in other works of science fiction, but I intend for these two methods to be crucial to vital plot points throughout the story. For a captain, the lesser of two evils is often a choice they must make, and Aiden Mar will have to face such trials often.
In my last and first entry I briefly covered Bridges. A Bridge is the name given to a wormhole that a spaceship creates to travel from one star system to the next. Some Bridges can take months to cross, while others only a few minutes. A Bridge’s length is determined by a few factors. The first of which is safety. A Bridge’s safety can be determined by the distance in which a ship is attempting to cross, the interdimensional stability of the region in which the Bridge is being constructed, the performance of the ship’s S.T.A.R. engine (whether it be in good condition and working order or not,) and the amount of time that is taken to construct the Bridge. When one has the luxury of taking the time to ensure all these factors contribute to the creation of a safe and well constructed Bridge, then safe passage is almost guaranteed. However, when even one of these factors are not met, or are poorly executed, then the integrity of the Bridge may become compromised, and the journey across it may not be as smooth and safe as the travelers would desire. Like I said in the previous entry, these dangerous or perilous Bridges can be compared to a storm a ship must sail through, and the fate of the ship and crew may become uncertain. Such scenarios will often arise when speed is of the utmost importance, and other factors must be sacrificed to make the journey in time to achieve whatever the goal may be.
Warp, the first faster than light technology was the creation of a warp bubble around a spacecraft where spacetime in front of the ship is being expanded and spacetime behind the ship is being constricted. The reason this method is not used for interstellar travel is because Bridges can shorten the journey considerably. Warp is primarily used after crossing Bridges to navigate the star systems with ease and efficiency, but when used in atmosphere and within the gravity well of planets it takes a considerable amount of energy to sustain itself, and so in most scenarios the ship must resort to standard propulsion from its thrusters and engines.
This concludes my second blog post where I ramble on about the development of my story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I love sharing my thoughts and ideas around my story and I can’t wait to further develop these technologies among other details that will then allow me to write the actual story with ease with everything else already taken care of. I hope you have a blessed morning, afternoon, or evening depending on when you read this, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!