Post #142  October 22, 2018

“Developing Time Jumpers (Part 2)”

As fall begins, I am well into my latest Farpool novel, The Farpool: Union, which will be available by the end of 2018.

Which leads me to Time Jumpers.  Previously in The Word Shed, I have described this series this way:

1. Time Jumpers is a series of 15,000-20,000-word episodes detailing the adventures of Ultrarch-Jump Captain Monthan Dringoth and his experiences as a time jumper with the Time Guard.
2. Each episode will be about 40-60 pages, approximately 20,000 words in length.
3. A new episode will be available and uploaded every 4 weeks.
4. There will be 12 episodes.  The story will be completely serialized in about 12 months.
5. Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc. 
6. The main plotline: Time Guard must defeat the enemy Coethi and stop their efforts to disrupt or eliminate Uman settlements in the Galactic Inner Spiral and Lower Halo sectors of Uman space.  
7. Uploads will be made to www.smashwords.com on a schedule still to be released.
    
   Episode #        Title                                                    

1.             ‘Marooned in Voidtime’                                
2.             ‘Keaton’s World’
3.             ‘A Small Navigation Error’
4.             ‘Sturdivant Eleven’
5.             ‘The Time Guard’
6.             ‘First Light Corridor
7.             ‘Hapsh’m and the First Coethi Encounter’
8.             ‘Operation Galactic Hammer’
9.             ‘Byrd’s Draconis’
10.             ‘Jumpship Majoris’
11.             ‘The Planck Time’
12.             ‘The Time Twister’
     
    Currently, I am developing outlines for each episode.  I’m also developing background for the entire series.  Today, I want to lift the curtain again and give you a peek at some of this background.  Time Jumpers has an upload schedule which I can’t reveal yet, but you can anticipate that Episode 1 will be available for download sometime in the first quarter of 2019, likely February.
     
    One matter to deal with, since we are talking about traveling through time and space in the 28^th century and beyond, is to describe how the Time Guard and its parent political organization, the Uman Alliance, is organized. Below is a short description about this.

The Uman Alliance (UA)

1. UA is an outgrowth of the old United Nations of Earth.
2. Story arc for Time Jumpers takes place in late 2700s and early 2800s.  (28^th and 29^th centuries). 
3. The term ‘Uman’ is an outgrowth of the word Human and encompasses both natural human beings and post or transhumans, like cyborgs and androids and other AI entities. The UA hosts no real ‘alien’ races, as none have been discovered as of 2814 AD. All UA member states are human settlements, in one form or another.
4. By this time, human beings and human-machine entities (cyborgs and androids) have created several dozen settlements among the nearer stars. 
5. A few of these settlements are Keaton’s World (star-sun Sturdivant 2180); Gibbons’ Grotto (same sun); Telitor (star-sun Delta Recursa); Poona-Peeona (star-sun Lalande 21185); Hapsh’m (star-sun Epsilon Eridani); Byrd’s Draconis (star-sun Ross 154); and Landfall 4 (star-sun Gliese 876).  There are sixteen human settlements in near-sun space, within about 25 lightyears of the home system. 
6. In the year 2775, fourteen of these settlements formed the Uman Alliance, after a constitutional convention on Keaton’s World.  The founding date was Midtober 5, 2775 (T-001).  The Articles of Alliance are the founding documents.  They read like an updated UN Charter.  Two settlements (Gavrilon and Nanjiang, both of star-sun 40 Omicron 2) both elected to remain outside UA but cooperate closely with the Alliance.
7. UA is organizationally a close analog of the UN.  There is a General Assembly, a Secretariat and a Secretary-General, a Security Council, an Economic Council, a Court of Justice, UA Health Organization and various associated agencies and units. 
8. The Security Council has a War Department known more formally as UNIFORCE (also UmanForce or UA Force).  Time Guard is part of the UA FORCE organization. 
9. Other parts of UA Force include UA Quantum Corps and UA Frontier Corps.  Time Guard has a mandate to deal with threats and adversaries that can manipulate time streams and that threaten Uman time streams. 
10. The putative capital of UA is Paris, France.  There is an alternate capital complex on Keaton’s World and this settlement is often considered to be the real home of the UA, as its founding convention was hammered out and signed there in 2775 AD.
11. As Time Jumpers begins, the Secretary-General (S-G of UA) is Dr. Anika Steen-Dellarosa.  Her primary office is Paris, with a satellite office at Keaton’s World. By convention, the SG is an enhanced transhuman. 
     
    Okay, so that’s a little peek behind the curtains.  I’ll provide more as the year progresses and we get closer to the beginning of Time Jumpers as a series, just as a way of whetting your appetite, to learn more about what I believe will be a very intriguing series.
     
    The next post to The Word Shed comes on October 29, 2018.
     
    See you then.
     
    Phil B.