Post
#15 January 25, 2016
As mentioned in previous posts, I’m currently
writing a science fiction novel called The
Farpool. This story is set mostly in
the 22nd century, Earth time, but also on an ocean world called
Seome six thousand light years away.
It’s a story about the adventures of Chase Meyer and Angie Gilliam. Here’s the original book description:
Two
teen-agers, Chase Meyer and Angie Gilliam, witness a curious waterspout off the
Gulf Coast hamlet of Scotland Beach, Florida.
After the spout disappears, they take Chase’s boat out to investigate an
unusual and persistent whirlpool in the ocean.
They spot two marine animals, clad in what looks like suits or
armor. The creatures blind them with
some kind of device. The creatures then
disappear into the whirlpool. The
teen-agers find themselves trapped in the same vortex and wind up catapulted
six thousand light years and hundreds of years into the future, to an ocean
world called Seome.
The
whirlpool is known to the Seomish as the Farpool. It’s a wormhole through space and time. Chase and Angie arrive in this ocean world,
riven by conflict and wracked by terrible sound and vibration from a weapons
base on a small island, a base set up by Umans, star-faring descendants of the
very human race the teen-agers come from.
The weapon is called a Time Twister.
The Umans are using it to fight off a malevolent enemy race called the
Coethi; one of the side effects of the Twister’s operation is a wormhole that
the Seomish have termed the Farpool.
Now
Chase and Angie find themselves in the midst of Seome’s existential
crisis. The Seomish realize that the
teenagers are intelligent beings related to the Umans and prevail on Chase and
Angie to undergo surgical modifications to be able to survive in the oceans of
Seome and to negotiate with their Uman descendants to shut down or move the
Time Twister. But the Umans are
desperate themselves and initially refuse to cooperate. Now the Seomish have to take matters into
their own hands. Worse, Angie’s homesick
and wants to go back through the Farpool, even modified as she is, back to
Earth of the 22nd century.
Now
Chase and Angie are in a race against time and destiny. Chase wants to stay behind, to learn more
about this amazing world and its marine civilization, and to work with his
new–found Seomish friends to help the Umans dismantle the Twister and relocate
it before the Coethi attack again and destroy Seome. But the challenge is this: the Farpool
depends on the Twister working. If it’s
shut down, no one knows if it will operate the same way again. The Farpool may disappear. Chase and Angie now must make a decision:
stay with their new found Seomish family, or attempt a dangerous
re-modification and try to go back through the Farpool before it is gone
forever.
The
decision they make may send them back through time and space to their home
world and time. But that same decision
may well doom their Seomish friends to complete annihilation at the hands of
the Coethi.
It
will be the hardest decision Chase and Angie have ever made.
To provide a little information about the world they
wind up in, here are some details from the Appendix about Seome….
The
Language
Seomish is designed phonetically to carry well in a
water medium. Hard, clicking consonants are common. The ‘p’ or ‘puh’ sound, made by violent
expulsion of air is also common. Modulation
of the voice stream, particularly at high frequencies (sounding much like a
human whistle) produces the characteristic “wheeee” sound, which is a root of
many words. Translation from Seomish to
human languages like English requires some inspired speculation, since so many
Seomish phrases seem to be little more than grunts or groans, modulated in
frequency and duration.
Most Seomish words are grouped according to several
characteristics: (1) Who is speaking (the personal); (2) who is being spoken to
(the indicative); (3) state of mind of the speaker (the conditional); (4) the
kel-standing of the conversants (the intimant).
Each classification has a set of characteristic
pre-consonants, to indicate the nature of the coming words, etc. Thus:
1.
k’,
kee, t’
2.
tch,
g, j, oot
3.
m’,
p’, puh’ (both anger, dislike, distaste, etc), sh, sz (both joyful)
4.
each
kel identifies itself with a unique set of capitalized consonants, like a vocal
coat of arms. Example: t’milee, or
CHE’oray…Seomish versus Timily or
Chory…English.
The World
Here’s
a map of Seome. This was previously
posted last October, 2015, in a separate post about world-building.
Seome is one of four planets, two large gas
giants and two smaller terrestrial rock-core worlds, orbiting the star-sun
Sigma Albeth B. The other planets are
uninhabited.
Neither small planet has any natural
satellite but both gas giants have literally scores of satellites in orbit
about them.
Seome is about 11,500 kilometers in
diameter and its gravity is slightly less than Earth’s. Of particular note is the planet’s perpetual
cloud cover, permanent except for one location: the summit peak of the island
of Ordeld in the northeastern sea, at certain times of the year.
Seome has two seasons: high storm and low
storm, roughly corresponding to periods of greater and lesser storm
activity. The planet rotates nearly
twice as fast as Earth, so the “day” is only half as long. However, the low light level doesn’t really
reflect the speed of rotation. It is
uniformly low.
The planet has a magnetic field and an
iron core. Earthquakes are common, often
creating tsunamis that dwarf anything seen on Earth.
The period of solar revolution is about
18 Earth months, 50% longer. In other
words, one Earth year is 2/3 a Seome year.
A Seome year is called a mah
and it corresponds to one complete north-south-north migration cycle of the
planktonic mah’jeet organisms.
The Seomish breathe through gills,
extracting oxygen from the water that is strained through gill slits on either
side of the head, which is really only an extension of the main body
trunk. The body is streamlined for speed
(up to 20 km/hr for healthy males at maturity) which is generated by lateral
undulations of the caudal, or tail fin.
The peduncle is the muscle that moves this fin.
The Seomish have two dorsal fins, one
over the midsection and one just forward of the peduncle. Along with a pair of anal fins (beneath the
second dorsal), a small pair of vestigial pectoral fins attached to the
forearms (above the wrist) provides anti-roll stability. The arms and the tail give maneuvering and
braking power and the arms are tucked against the sides of speed.
The Seomish have evolved an internal gas
bladder, dorsally located, to help them maintain buoyancy. The presence of this organ limits the depth
and vertical range of their natural movement but technological developments can
overcome these obstacles.
The Seomish have relatively poor
eyesight, good vision not being essential in the often dark, murky waters of
Seome. They have no tear ducts or
eyelids.
The Seomish can smell the difference not only in
body odors but in various kinds of water, according to its salt, dirt, or
nutrient content. They have words for
all these. Because olfactory impressions
tend to disperse slowly, the Seomish do not separate the past from the present
as readily as humans. Instead, they view
the past as living in the present, as a shadow or ghost or alternate spirit of
the present.
The Seomish sense of hearing is acute and far-ranging. Just below the mouth, at the rear of the
throat and forward of the gill cavity, is a small bag-like organ, called a
soundsac, or shkelt. It is an echo-location system that emits
low-frequency waves that can carry for upwards of thirty to fifty kilometers,
depending on the location of the deep-level sound channel (the ootkeeor, or “discovering water”). Much of the Seomish language consists of
grunts, whistles and clicks, all sounds that travel well in water.
The Seomish also possess a pressure-sensitive
lateral line organ. The organ functions
as a true sixth sense and is sensitive to low-frequency vibrations. It is used for short-range guidance,
collision avoidance and for determining the present state of the ambient water
as well as local currents.
Seomish are heterosexual and reproduce by
copulation, the female bearing live young after a gestation period of about one
and a half mah.
Seomish males usually live to an average age of 150 mah (see Seomish time-keeping) and
females somewhat longer, 160 mah.
The Seomish have silvery-gray skin, smooth,
non-scaly at maturity. They are born
pinkish-white and aging gradually darkens the skin.
Average weight for a mature Seomish male is 230
kilograms. Females weigh somewhat less.
Seomish
Timekeeping
Time on Seome is defined by the period it takes for
the vast hordes of planktonic mah’jeet
to complete one pole-to-pole migration cycle.
This basic unit is called the mah
and is equivalent to about eighteen Terran months.
The mah is further subdivided into six parts, one
for each of the Five Daughters and one for the Father Shooki. These subdivisions are called emtemah and each is roughly equivalent
to about three Terran months.
The Seomish have no astronomical concept of a “day”
(having no knowledge of a sun or planetary bodies or motions) but they are
aware of variations in light which penetrates the water. A day-night cycle to them means one cycle of
light, then no light, then light again.
The words are puh’kel and puh’tchoot. The popular explanation for light is that the
surface is full of floating luminescent creatures which shine their radiance
into the depths to create the day and then sleep to create the night.
The Seomish call each one thousand mah period a metamah, or epoch. These periods are usually named for the
oldest Metah in the world at that time.
The current epoch is 735 mah old and was given the designation Tekpotu,
for the reigning Metah of Ork’et at that time.
The six emtemah are called, in order: Shookem,
Omtorem, Skortem, Epkosem, Orketem and Ponketem.
The Seomish have two other words which they use to
divide the year into halves. These words
refer to the condition of the water at the time of the mah’jeet migration. They are lit’kel
(clear water) and mah’kel (fiery
water). Since mah’jeet can be dangerous,
mah’kel is a time to remain in the cities.
In the Terran-Standard numbering system, the current
Seomish mah would be written as follows:
735.5 Tk, meaning the fifth emtemah of the seven hundred thirty fifth mah in
the epoch of Tekpotu.
Following is a brief timeline of major events in
contemporary Seomish history.
Highlights
of the Current Historical Epoch of Tekpotu
Mah Event
22.1 The Peace of
Tekpotu…putting an end to a 30-mah long period of isolation and border disputes
between Omt’or and Ponk’et.
105.6 Extraction, isolation and
synthesis of the memory drug tekn’een
by Omtorish scientists
357-9 Metah of Sk’ort dies;
Eepkostic plot charged; live k’orpuh released in Kekah--many deaths; Skortish
retaliate by melting ice; truce comes
405.2 Berserk seamother kills
pilgrims at Pillars of Shooki; extermination attempt fails when beast leaves
water (first recorded case in current epoch)
622.1 Discovery of Unknown Relic
in Opuhte of Ponk’el; disputes over custody; theory of ancient, unrecorded
marine civilization
628.4 Ponkti restrict access to
Pillars, leading to confrontation at Serpentine; sporadic clashes
629.6-630.5 Ponk’et agrees to discuss situation,
leading to Shrine Treaty and Agreement of Puh’t
649-651 Pal’penk herds decimated by
disease, traced to new mutation in mah’jeet; Seomish deaths lead to antidote
after Ponkti efforts to exterminate mah’jeet are blocked by Omt’or
700-705 Potu shortage as a result of
Orketish kip’t accident, spilling toxic wastes into potu beds; monetary panic
ensues and inter-kel trade drops off until stocks increase
719.1 Death of Hildrah tu, Metah
of Omt’or; succession of Iltereedah luk’t
So this is a little primer about the world that
Chase and Angie find themselves on when they fall into the Farpool. Fortunately, the Farpool works both
ways. But you’ll have to read the
finished novel to find out what happens to them. Look for it this spring or early summer,
initially at smashwords.com.
The next post comes on February 1.
See you then.
Phil B.
No comments:
Post a Comment