B. J. Creighton
realizes that the awful demons plaguing him result from memories of a previous
life in the twenty-fifth century. The recollections of that time, a series
of memoirs, are being written in the form of novels to avoid accusations
of irrationality and are done in an attempt to purge himself of his demons.
Creighton acknowledges that some of these memoirs are based on histories that he read or saw and some on his own direct observations. As spaceman Sanchez he was a member of the crew on some missions that are far beyond twenty-first century understanding. Arthur C. Clarke correctly observed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In Creighton's case, this would be, any recollections of a sufficiently different time are indistinguishable from psychosis.
The principal forces in that life were his Captain, the Chief Engineer, and the Chief Scientist on his ship. At the time of meeting:
The initial mission for the Vandies is to take a group of explorers/colonists to a watery planet around Groombridge 1618, "Groovy," about which only a little is known because the probe that created the superstring failed to transmit photographic data after its arrival. They find a marginally hospitable planet so the explorers do become colonists, as they had hoped. Just before the Vandenberg's planned departure they make the acquaintance of the gentle and highly intelligent "otters," scrubbing return plans. The creatures are dubbed "Chewies" and the rest of the first volume of Creighton's memoirs deals with the humans interaction with the Chewies and with another intelligent species that they call "orcs." The orcs are bellicose and numerous.
There is a synopsis of the first volume of the memoirs following the figures below. Note that it explains this entire episode in Sanchez' life (Creighton's previous incarnation) so you should not read it if you want to see the story as it unfolded to the Vandies on Groovy or how Horse coped with the IRS on his return.
The technology available for instellar travel in the twenty-fifth century is to use superstrings or wormholes. They have been created to allow reasonable-time travel to a number of nearby stars. Because strings are multi-dimensional objects, they require traversal at just the right position, speed and acceleration. Photons cannot follow them because they travel too fast, which implies that communication from another star takes longer to reach Earth than it takes for the ship to return.
Synopsis follows below. Stop here if you want to see the story unfold as it did for the participants. This first volume of Creighton's memoirs is called Stringship Vandenberg.
Learning too late that his generosity is being taxed, Horse Cooke fails to see that successfully fighting orcs on Groovy may have been easier than fighting the IRS at home.
Unable to do better, an acquaintance, Kossy, joins him as Chief Scientist. Despite apprehensions of the long trip away from anything human, they arrive safely. During the trip Horse starts an affair with one of the colonists while her son entertains colonists and crew by writing and staging plays about being lost in space.
Though the planet they seek, Groovy, is nearly completely ocean covered, it does have enough land for colonization. With the help of the Vandenberg crew, the colonists build themselves two fortified cities, one to live in and one in case they are forced to flee. Though the oceans are full of fearsome monsters, the land animals appear to pose no threat to the colony. The Vandies expect that the second city will be used when there is dissension among the colonists themselves.
Following the general directive that no animal may be killed unless it harms a human first, the colonists start a systematic massacre of the plesiosaurs only after a colonist is eaten by one. With the colonists settled and apparently safe on land, the Vandenberg plans to leave. As Horse is having a final rendezvous with his lover, her son announces that he has talked to one of the otter-like mammals they have seen. Unbelieving his words but believing in his imagination, they follow the boy and learn that the "chewies" have learned to speak English. All return plans are now cancelled as Horse stays to collect as much information about these creatures as possible. Kossy, a linguist, is especially intrigued by their click language, reminiscent of the sonar of Earth's whales. The humans start daily meetings with the chewies, developing reciprocal fondness. Their leader, Dominque, provides encyclopedic information about Groovy, which the humans put in written form.
The Vandies decide that the chewies are much more intelligent than humans but have no written or electronic communication. In many areas such as computer development and software they are far ahead of Earth, and in others, such as electronics and flight, they are far behind. The lack of electronics is the reason that SETI has never detected them.
Soon the colony is attacked by bipedal spear-toting walruses, "orcs," that seek to avenge the plesiosaur carnage. As the humans prepare to defend Vandyville, Kossy, who has studied Groovian diseases and languages, walks out to the orcs and tells them the humans have contracted a local plague and requests their help. His ploy scares them off for a couple of days.
Because there was no expectation of combat on space missions, none of the crew is well trained in combat and there are few weapons on the Vandenberg to defend the new colony. Chief Engineer CVI and her crew build medieval weapons such as trebuchets, but with a decidedly modern twist--they use napalm projectiles. The orcan army of this watery world is unfamiliar with fire and learns a difficult lesson about its efficacy.
The final tally in the return attack: several hundred orc casualties, no human losses. Despite Dominique's warning that another attack is imminent, the humans are caught completely by surprise when the orcs tunnel up from under them. Heroics by several of the Vandies lead to the same result, convincing the orcs not to bother the humans again. The chewies reward the humans by trading a tonne of platinum for some electronics. Horse divides the metal among all the returning Vandies, his superiors and his command. To ensure bonuses for his crew, Horse orders the distribution of the metal long before return to Earth. With the worry that the crew will not be able to profit from the metal Horse also arranges for all to learn how to make money from talk show appearances.
When they encounter a ship on its way to rescue them, Horse provides a lavish meal for both crews. On finishing the meal there is some horror when the visiting crew learns that the meal was not pork, but orc, the third white meat. Nevertheless, the crews fraternize extensively. The Vandenberg crew is satisfied by their trip and most relish their anticipated celebrity, demonstrated by the popularity of toy trebuchets they've made for the crew of the "rescuing" ship.
When they reach Earth, Horse's seditious exec reports him to the IRS for the tax reward for not paying taxes on the hoard of platinum. Everyone had been delighted with their bonus until the IRS duns Horse for taxes on the gifts he has made. Horse's closest friends, Kossy and CVI think that the Admiral's exec is causing his tax problems, but see no way to circumvent him. Horse believes that the Admiral's exec has fixed his problem with the IRS and is pleased with the trip and looks forward to promotion to Commander because of its success.
Mr. Creighton expects to write three episodes as a trilogy to resolve the issues surrounding of Horse's problems with the IRS and the relationship between the humans and the four indigenous intelligent creatures on Groovy.
To contact B. J. Creighton, send email to b j c at bj creighton dot com (all without the spaces and with the usual punctuation signs).