Unwritten Stories

Unwritten Stories That Need Writers

   (This is just a place to dump a list of things that we need to write about, things that are available to any writer with time and effort but no ideas.  Do we even have anyone like that?)

First Contact

   Before all the space battles, before all the pickup orgies, the Confederacy had to contact us somehow.  After the Ladac debacle, they would be concerned, but since so much of our literature involves aliens (and wars, and wars with aliens....) they wouldn't worry too much.  It's just a task that needs done.  However, who do they contact first?  Obviously, the world government, that "United Nations" group in New York City, and they actually have a "First Contact Office" but no one in it actually expects to ever have an opportunity to do their job.  It's just a way to put family on the UN payroll without them having to actually do anything...
   (This would be a comedy, and I guess the writer could shove some sex or BDSM in, if the guys in the FCO are into that.)
   This event is referenced in ZM's "First Command" and TH's "Average Joes".

Tribute Pods

(from an email to the list on 11/10/15)
   Your pod question is one of those yes/no/yes/no/it depends questions.  What era is this?  Eventually there comes a time when Earthat is pumping pods out as fast as anyone could want, so a ship can reasonably swing by <wherever>; and pick up a load before heading on in to Earth for more pax.  We've got stories that say that.  However, that is just one of the many different things we need a thousand of immediately and it takes a while to get there.
   Most colonies use pods for housing, and they also have bigger fish to fry.  Especially when just getting established.  You're dropping off another 96 families?  Great, we need them!  Just drop them in their pods, we have their cradles all ready to go.  Space them out every 3 minutes or so in case there are any issues.  We've got seven new pods ready, you can have them if you want to take them back with you.  We've got stories that say that, too.  Call it up to year 3 or so.
   However, that means that the transport has to get 89 more pods before it can take on another load of passengers.  For a couple of years, that was even more of a delay than the extractions were.  So, for the more established colonies, DECO made a rule that the colony had to provide the new pods.  We've got stories that say that!
   That was rather.....nearsighted.....since the growing colony had many, many FAR more important things to do with its limited manufacturing capacity than build tribute to be taken back to the imperial capital.  A careful analysis of the available records would probably show between 5 and 10 of the colonies we lost probably would not have been, if the industrial output used for tribute pods had been used for something more useful, like say defending warships.  And everyone would have been better served if the transports hadn't wasted so much time hanging around waiting for replacement pods.
   Earthat may not have wanted to invest industrial capacity to make those pods, but demanding that the colonies do it for them was just stupid.  There's gotta be a story in there somewhere....
   I can see an ONI analyst going through a lost colony's records, over and over and over again, trying desperately to find a mistake, something that they could have done differently, something else that they could have done that would have given them the ability to drive the Dickheads off....
   ....and realizing that the 724 pods they had built and sent back to Earth in the last two years could instead have been a couple of cruisers, a dozen destroyers, and a hundred missile-launching early warning stations.  Karen, I know exactly who to show _this_ to.  My sister's sponsor was a Marine, you know?  He was General Watson's son.  The General would love to know whose laziness sentenced his son to death.
   A half-dozen dead DECO executives later, that rule would have been reversed.  Yes, of course Earthat should be building those replacement pods.  The colonies should be building up their own industrial strength and defenses.  And DECO's surviving upper echelons would move into a secure warship of its own as quickly as possible, where irate victims couldn't hold them personally responsible for their decisions quite so easily.  Set sometime around when DECO moved into ships and the Kilos came out.

Dial-a-Nanny

(from an email to the list on 11/10/15)
   To continue what another brought up, the original rules were set up to ensure that none of the limited transport space was wasted on non-breeders back when we had something like 15 total transports available to us, each one carrying a maximum of 96 families, and with each round trip taking about two months.  Those rules made sense back then, and everyone had no choice but to support them.
   Fast forward to Year 8 or so.  We have 100 colonies, more or less, we have more than 100 Auroras (and variants), more than 50 Kilos, we're about to commission our 4th Cube ship.......
   The colonies are fucking OVERRUN with rugrats -see TomKen's "Going, Gone" for an in-depth analysis of the projected numbers- and they need nannies a hell of a lot more than they need another 17yo brainless barbie doll, already pregnant with twins and incapable of even feeding herself, much less two babies.
   There will be pushback.  The AIs.  "But there are rules..."  Fuck the rules, you idiot!  Those rules were made for difference circumstances.  The old-timers who weren't allowed to take Mabel with them.  "If I couldn't take my wife, then...."
   "Respectfully, sir, you need help with your own family.  You have babies who haven't bathed in days.  You need a nanny, too.  I'm going to ask if we can get a Kilo-load of grandmothers."

Turning the Tables

   (I'm never gonna write that.  I've got too much else on my plate.  I think *f is doing it. -ZM)

The Moon Men

(from a 11/19/2020 email from wd40)
   Both the Confederacy and Earth First would have advertising agencies.  I propose that the Confederacy’s be called “Moon Men”, which is a takeoff on the tv series “Mad Men”.  The Confederacy’s Moon Men would be a subsidiary of its Department of Extractions based on the Moon, and be composed of, as Zen Master’s stories suggested, personnel whose loyalty CAP scores make them wholly unsuited for out-of-system Confederacy service so the AI’s will never allow them off the Moon.  Otherwise they behave like normal licentious Madison Avenue types. With lots of related little items that could be added to other stories, like dueling Earth First and pro-Confederacy waiting room magazines, TV shows, reality TV shows, movies, TV commercials, etc.

Lonely Hearts Club (band?)

(from a 11/19/2020 email from wd40)
   ... the CAP score system is a perfect vehicle for covert Confederacy recruiting masquerading as a dating service.  Plus consider an AI-operated “Lonely Hearts” telephone hotline, with AI’s offering romantic advice to the lovelorn.  And another telephone service in which anyone can make phone calls to the Confederacy to talk about anything, which would naturally include tips about suspected Earth First activity.  Plus Confederacy AI’s could provide detailed personal advice to interested phone callers about how to improve their CAP scores or make themselves more attractive as prospective concubines.

Inter-Gestalt Sex

   (on 7/28/21, TH mentioned on the email list his plan to write a story from the Sa'arm point of view.  Now, all of the Sa'arm Cycle stories are posted on ASSTR or SOL, which are both adult-oriented sites heavy on the sex.  Most of the Swarm Cycle stories are heavy on the sex, too.  Clearly, any story from the Sa'arm point of view should also concentrate on the sex.  As a frivolous poke at TH, I wrote the beginning of a story about how the Sa'arm go about obtaining sex.  Naturally, since he and I have both worked as programmers, I put it in the context of a mis-matched DLL. -ZM)
   Yx was, well, uneasy.  Sure, Yx was the undisputed master of the planet.  Yx had followed its programming and converted all accessible biomass on the planet to Yx.  However, it had unreconciled program segments.  Once the urge to conquer and assimilate had been sated, it was left with the same confusing instructions it had always found itself left with.
   How was Yx to mate with a willing group-mind, when there was no other group-mind?  Even if Yx discarded that nebulous 'willing' concept, there was no other group-mind possible.  There couldn't be one; any contact with another group-mind immediately forced a merge.  It was as if the programming was an unused library left over from a previously discarded fork in the source code.  The code did not work.  However, the library was, and thus had to be used.
   It didn't matter how the urge came to be.  All that mattered was the urge.  There was no group-mind to mate with on this planet.  Yx had to mate.  Ergo, Yx had to create a fleet capable of moving Yx to another planet which might hold a group-mind it could mate with.
   Any interference, whether with the scouts, the fleet, or the landing and assimilation of the new home, would be ruthlessly eliminated.  If the source of the interference was biomass, it would be assimilated.  No trouble was too great if it led to a chance to satisfy that last instruction set.
(Of course TH was not impressed with my creativity.  This is NOT a story that really needs to be told. -ZM)

More Ideas

(The below content was moved from the old "Home" page. -ZM)

While we have quite a few stories already published, there are still many opportunities for writers to create new stories both long and short:

• First Contact between the Sa'arm and other races.
• Military sci-fi regarding the fight on other worlds along with technological/tactical measures.
• Non-combatant stories featuring the Civil Service, the Fleet Auxiliary, life on the colonies, and even life on Earth during the Swarm War.
• Evacuation/Extraction stories.
• Colony life.
• Cultural changes on Earth driven by the new facts of life.
• The battle for Earth
• Life in the colonies and in space as we try to turn the tide.
• How the Confederacy deals with the race that is saving it -- and vice-versa.

   If you feel you want to have a go at fleshing out any of these ideas and want to know what to do next take a look at the Contact Us page.
   Readers of sci-fi will see more than a little Weber and Ringo in the basic scenario.  The Thinking Horndog tried HARD not to plagiarize regarding species traits, timeline, etc., and the focus is somewhat different.  Beyond that, it's thanks and a hat tip...
   The original stories Average Joes and Pickup Number Eighteen by The Thinking Horndog provided quite a bit of background detail, a lot of which can be found here along with a timeline of events.
   If you wish to write about some area that is not really dealt with in these stories, contact The Thinking Horndog and you can discuss the general plan for the execution of various stages.  He'll try not to cramp your style -- there ought to be a lot of room to maneuver here.

   While we have a Canon for Officially Good stories, we also happily accept stories that don't fit in canon somehow.  Artie's story, "The Battle of Escalon" for instance, isn't the REAL ending of this saga -- but it IS suggestive and entertaining, so it was posted -- We're sure there are NIS stories out there that the original author doesn't feel fit the original concept...

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))