
QUANTUM CROSSING is a daunting project. I never fancied myself masochistic, but I can think of little reason why I would subject myself to such protracted creation.
In truth, it was a desire to build something epic. I wanted my own Lord of the Rings, Dune, or perhaps A Song of Fire and Ice that is actually complete. In fact, my prime directive for this entire project is to not publish any portion of the story until every bit of it is written. We shall see how that goes as I wrap Part I.
There are titles to each of the three parts, though I change my mind on their order often. For the moment, we have DRAWN BY DISPLACEMENT (Sometimes "Drawn" is substituted by "Defined"), DEFEATED BY DISTANCE, and DAUGHTERS BY DISCORD.
The setting spans fifteen light years, taking place between Earth and the moons of Tutum in the Delta Leone star system. The super gas giant Tutum has eighteen habitable moons. For purposes of this story, three are heavily featured. Odinstone is a moon in the center of the system that also hosts the central government, known as the Octadecarchy. Latchea is a forest moon that neighbors Odinstone, but garners far less respect. In fact, a conspiracy to bar them from leadership in the Octadecarchy is underway. Skandi is the furthest habitable moon from Tutum. Its slow rotation and limited atmosphere make it a frigid ball of ice.
For the first part, there are five point-of-view characters. Emery Ide is your atypical wasteland dweller. She is equal parts Rey from Star Wars and Furiousa from the Mad Max series. Stuck in the wasteland village of Lucianhang, she makes a career out of ferrying desperate individuals to a strange rock formation called The Displacement. They believe the glowing monolith will take them back in time to live out their days in peace. Emery thinks it to be suicide. Denriel MacHenry is a young teen seeking refuge with other children from a colony ship that took eighteen years to cross interstellar space from Earth to the Delta Leone System. As they hide on the frozen moon of Skandi, Denriel deals with antagonism from her older brother, Tanis. She learns about rocky worlds she had only just set on for the first time, and mounts doubts about the people helping her fellow pilgrims. Hollis Stormwood is a reluctant gang leader in the slums of Pangolin City on Odinstone. His heart isn't into the violent actions that his position demands, though other members do not share his hesitancy. Regardless, he tries to keep the group together as he grows suspicious of his girlfriend, Alyson Borne, as she pops in and out of his struggle. Mitsky Carbine is an undersecretary to the Regent Crown of Latchea. As war brews on their home moon, Mitsky is forced into leadership in the Regent Crown's stead. Tom Freely is one of the insurgents on Latchea helping to build conflict between Latchea and the rest of the Octadecarchy. He serves as a lieutenant to the insurgent leader, Copper MacHenry. Copper, who stole the generation starships that led the group from Earth to Delta Leone, reveals his true motivations for making the interstellar journey.
As I said, these are the POV characters in the first part. There could be more added in subsequent parts. The only other one I am expecting is The Velvet Fox, a bounty hunter tasked with capturing Emery. Alyson could make an appearance, or possibly Roston Vale, a friend of Emery's, but The Fox is the only one confirmed for now.
As far as completion goes, Part I should be finished by mid-winter. What remains to write is half of Tom's section and almost all of Mitsky's. The word count is just shy of 100k. If this pace continues, the entire project will end up at around 320,000 words.
I won't get into the plot because it is complicated to summarize, synopses are the bane of my existence, and there is far too much backstory to dispense. Now is not the time for appendices. I won't bore you with The Line of Oxendine Queens, The Writ of Tameroon, or The Heidelberg Event... for now.
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