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FREEFALL: No Fate
Chapter 7: We Happy Few
When I was in college, I started writing a series of science fiction stories collectively titled FREEFALL. They were set in a semi-parallel universe, where a family named Quinn (and yes, they are mighty) turns a textile business into a powerful multi-national conglomerate. By the mid-21st century, the company now named “Quintex” actually has enough power to challenge the United Nations of Earth when violence erupts in the mining colonies of “the Torus”–the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
I had a lot of fun writing those stories. And when I put them online in the mid-1990s, it was one of the few pieces of science fiction available on the Internet. I got fan email from people all over the country, and even one from Australia. I even made it onto Sergey Brin’s booklist.
But I stopped writing FREEFALL. Like the song says, life is what happens when you’re making other plans. I have no regrets about working my ass off, doing some good, and collecting some money during the dot-com bubble, but now, I’m doing my best to honor my true calling. I never forgot how much I love writing. I just didn’t remember to make it a priority.
I recently dug out a bunch of my old notes and outlines for FREEFALL stories. I was surprised to find that one of the outlines, Tail of Night, bore more than a passing resemblance to my second NaNoWriMo novel, Waypoint Kangaroo. Both involve the hijacking of a large spacegoing object by someone who tries to turn that object into a deadly projectile. In Night, it’s Halley’s Comet; in Kangaroo, it’s an interplanetary cruise ship. A lot of years, and 9/11, passed between that outline and this novel, but I guess some ideas just grab hold of you and don’t let go.
I was in the middle of a twelve-part story titled No Fate when I abandoned FREEFALL. I just finished Chapter 7, “We Happy Few.” I’ll post an update here whenever I publish a new chapter, which will be once a month between now and the end of May.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should go write back to that guy who emailed me in 2005 wanting to “catch up with the end of the story.” Better late than never, right?
~CKL
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