Welcome to the haphazard posting of the world/plot/story-building for my 2016 NaNoWriMo Novel! In which my Fictives and their Writer attempt to shape the rough outline of a story from the void. All of which will probably be tossed out the window when November 1st hits, but… that’s half the fun, right? 😉
This is shameless MuseFic, so there will be snark and world-building and lots of spoilers. Of course there is also a very good chance that the November story will ignore most of the spoilers, so it’s probably a 40-60 chance at best.
You have been warned…
Post Wordcount: 501
Total Wordcount: 4,373
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The three fictives had given up on both the Writer (who was still busy doodling) and the Muse (who was still trying to convince her to pick another theme) and gone for a walk into the proto-story mists as midnight approached.
“Why does the computer have to be the bad guy?” Ship complained as they made their way through the formless fog. “Computers are always the bad guy.”
“Not always,” Simon pointed out, “but I’ll concede the fact that this may be too obvious a plot point. If I’m going to be kidnapped for life, which is what it looks like, I’m with Cat: I’d prefer a bit more of a payout than just ‘we ran out of milk.’”
“I have a name,” Cat pointed out.
“Can I pronounce it?”
Cat shrugged.
“Then your name is Cat.” Simon said. “Use a little common sense.”
“Have I mentioned how glad I am that you two can’t talk to each other once the story starts?” Ship said, darting just out of reach. “Because right now I’m very very glad.”
“You’re still stuck with us for the next thirty days,” Cat pointed out. “Even if the actual story keeps us apart, there isn’t nearly enough outlining to get away with doing a MuseFic. I bet we spend half our time out in these mists arguing about plots.” He looked out into the story mists and shivered as they churned menacingly.
“I don’t think we’re chasing something,” Simon said abruptly changing the conversation. “Think about it, why bother to chase something for this long when it’s obvious you would never catch up after the first century?”
“But flip that and there’s no reason anything would be chasing us for that long either,” said Cat. “And at the speed we’re moving there isn’t time to do a proper survey of space with one ship. If they were searching for something this would be the worst way to go about it, we can only survey a small area even if we stopped at every system.”
“You just ruled out every reason for us to be traveling,” Ship said dryly.
“Remove logic from the thing chasing us,” said Cat.
“So it’s operating from a single directive and unable to deviate from that order.” Simon frowned thoughtfully. “But that would indicate a lower technology level, at least in AI, so why can’t we just outsmart them so they think we’ve been destroyed and go home?”
“Because I need them to chase me,” Ship said, after a moment of thought. “There’s something chasing me and it’s very important that they keep chasing me.”
“You’re a decoy. That’s why you need crew members, so you have life signs aboard the ship.” Cat sighed. “If they’re using a simpler technology means as long as we meet the basic parameters of what the scan is looking for, it will count us as a match.”
There was a long pause.
“Well, at least it’s a bit more exciting than milk?”
[And then November happened…]