Starflight, p.1
Starflight, page 1
Starflight:
Tales from the Starport Lounge
A Starflight Universe Anthology
Three Ravens Publishing
Chickamauga, GA, USA
Starflight: Tales from the Starport Lounge
Is a collective work of contributing authors and Published by Three Ravens Publishing
threeravenspublishing@gmail.com
P.O. Box 851 Chickamauga, Ga 30707
https://www.threeravenspublishing.com
Copyright © 2021 by Three Ravens Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, contact the publisher listed above, addressed “Attention: Permissions”.
Publishers Note: This is a collective work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE by Michael Gants, Copyright © 2021 by Michael Gants
CHOICES by Christopher Woods, Copyright © 2021 by Christopher Woods
BLACK BOX BLUES by Philip Booker, Copyright © 2021 by Philip K Booker
ROCK OF TRUTH by Bart Kemper, Copyright © 2021 by Bart Kemper
OBLIGATIONS by Marissa Wolf, Copyright © 2021 by Marissa Wolf
HINDSIGHT By R. J. Ladon, Copyright © 2021 by R. J. Ladon
PEACESTONE by Brisco Woods, Copyright © 2021 by Brisco Woods
EVERYONE GETS WHAT HE HAS COMING by D. J. Butler, Copyright © 2021 by D. J. Butler
A NEW BEGINNING by J. F. Posthumus, Copyright © 2021 by J. F. Posthumus
FIRE AT WILL by Declan Finn, Copyright © 2021 by Declan Finn
HERO OF ARTH by David A. Tatum, Copyright © 2021 by David A. Tatum
ROVER RESCUE by Michael J Allen, Copyright © 2021 by Michael J Allen
TERRITORY by Nick Steverson, Copyright © 2021 by Nick Steverson
TURN OF LUCK by William Joseph Roberts, Copyright © 2021 by William Joseph Roberts
ALWAYS ON DUTY by Benjamin Tyler Smith, Copyright © 2021 by Benjamin Tyler Smith
TO CACHE A KILLER by Michael J. Ciaravella, Copyright © 2021 by Michael J. Ciaravella
THROUGH THE TIME LENS by Robert Silverberg, Copyright © 2021 by Robert Silverberg
Cover art by Luca Oleastri
rotwangstudio.com
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-951768-30-0
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-951768-31-7
Table of Contents
Opening
Those Who Came Before
Choices
Black Box Blues
The Rock of Truth
Obligations
Hindsight
Peacestone
Everyone Gets What They Have Coming
A New Beginning
Fire at Will
Hiro of Arth
Rover Rescue
Territory
Turn of Luck
Always on Duty
To Cache A Killer
Through The Time Lens
Opening
By: Greg Johnson
Starflight was started in 1982, and really got off the ground in 1983. It was published in 1986, with Starflight 2 coming out in 1989. This all feels like ancient history now. Just to put things into perspective, these were the days of vector graphics games, and arcade games like Space Wars, Space Invaders, and Centipede. We started building Starflight for the Atari 800, and then switched to the Tandy Computer when our publisher decided it should be played on the PC. In those days no one thought people would want games on the PC, and Starflight ended up being the very first game on the PC to sell 100,000 units and prove there was a market. All of this is to say that it was the dark ages of games. Electronic Arts had only about 20 employees, and no one really knew how to make games yet, we all just made it up as we went along. There was a lot of excitement and a tremendous amount of freedom, as no one really had any expectations of what a game should or shouldn’t be. Once a year the tight knit group of developers for EA came together and shared what they had discovered about making games. This little gathering is what eventually turned into GDC, the massive yearly Game Developers Conference. This is all why Starflight ended up being the very first open world story game… we built the game not knowing if it would work or not and having no roadmap. It was deeply inspired by Star Trek. Our fantasy was to give people that experience of being out in a big open Universe, populated by strange alien races and cultures, with strange histories, relationships, and mysteries to solve. In retrospect it was a crazy ambitious thing to do, especially with a randomly generated Universe of planets you could land on, all on a tiny floppy disk. Thankfully we were shielded by our ignorance and enthusiasm, so we dove in head first.
I was the one who came up with the entire Universe of characters and situations, as I was the only designer on the project. Of course the whole team contributed ideas and inspiration, but it was really my fantasy Universe that manifested. It was a universe of obnoxious, blustering Spemin, competitive Thrynn, philosophical Elowan, and the oddly awkward and overly formal Veloxi. As for the backstory and mystery of game one, well it’s probably ok to give spoilers when a game is 35 years old… that came as quite an epiphany.
For those unfamiliar with the original Starflight story, the core idea was that alien races were moving in a wave across the galaxy, creating conflict as they encroached on others, with the most aggressive races like the bizarrely mysterious Uhlek, and the religiously fanatic Gazurtoid, causing the most problems. This migration of spacefaring races was occuring because the stars were strangely going nova in a continuous wave, moving slowly outward from the core of the galaxy, and wiping out all life in its path. As a player, you start the game from a colony planet called Arth, and you discover that planet Earth, just a child’s story on your planet, was real and is in the dead zone. You also encounter the Mechans, a race of robots created by the old Earthlings, who happen to know a lot about old Earth.
In any event, players gradually find out that there was a race of ancient beings (who had the very uninspired name of “the Ancients”), and these Ancients had left behind ruins with piles of a strange mineral substance called Endurium that has special properties which are needed for faster than light travel. All of the space faring races, including you the player, competes to collect and use these super valuable minerals. The big reveal… is that the ancients never actually left. They are still here, and the Endurium you have been collecting and burning up in your engines throughout the game, IS the Ancients. The Ancients happen to be a silicon-based life form that operates in an “orders of magnitude slower” scale of time. To this type of life form, carbon life developed in the galaxy and in a flash it evolved, just like a fast growing bacteria, and started wiping them out. Their response was to defend themselves against this disease, and purge carbon-based life with stars going nova. Basically, towards the end of the game players find out that they are the aggressor, and players are forced into an interesting ethical dilemma. Cool huh? Especially for a game from 1986.
I remember being very excited when this story came together in my mind. Every now and then when you are designing a game, or writing a story you struggle and struggle, not knowing how it will all fit together, and then one day when you are relaxed and not even trying, the clouds in your mind clear and you see it all clearly. That’s what it was like for me back then, and as it was the first game of my long career, it was a very special moment. From there it was a long three years of trying to figure out how to get the game built, with a fantastic but inexperienced team, and how to not get cancelled by our publisher for taking 3 times longer than we were originally supposed to take (not much has changed in the games industry by the way).
Somehow, we managed to make it to the end and get the game released. I can’t tell you how exciting that was for all of us. Since then Starflight has inspired so many people in the industry. I have often been told it was the game that made one person or another devote their lives to developing games. Recently I was surprised and overjoyed to find that there is a group of talented writers who want to pay tribute to the Starflight Universe by setting original stories in it, and putting them together in an anthology. I don’t believe anyone could be more excited than me to read what they have come up with. The Starflight Universe, to this day, is still very dear to my heart. I’d like to offer a special thank you to Scott Tackett and Three Ravens Publishing for putting this anthology together, and also to Scott and all of the other talented authors who contributed to this. I’ll also take the opportunity to give a big life-long shout out of warm appreciation to the old Starflight Team. Alec, Tim, Dr. Bob, and Rich, the late Dave Boulton, and of course Rod, our fearless leader. We made something that continues to inspire and entertain people. It’s hard to ask for more than that.
Those Who Came Before
By: Michael Gants
Remote Base One, Havis Heavy Industrial Corporation’s current testing facility, lay three hundred and eighty-six kilometers of desolate desert and lifeless terrain behind them. Everywhere Sarah Everhart stared, the blasted landscape that ma de up much of the Southern Hot Zone appeared the same. Twisted craters pock-marked the soil, evidence of a long-ago bombardment by the aliens who had attacked the planet over a thousand years earlier. When life appeared on Arth, it seemed it ignored this part. Nothing grew here, not even lichens. Stillness ruled beyond the occasional dust devil dancing in the wind. The landscape was an inverted garden of rock and quartz sand; full of ridges and valleys that crossed each other, still ripples in a frozen pond. They looked little different from when they formed during the attack, except time and weather had softened the sharp edges.
A voice jolted Sarah out of her daydreaming. “Sahnuli, recommend adjusting course to the south, left for ten degrees. I am reading increased radiation levels ahead of us. Probability is high that we are approaching a ground zero point,” stated Phxnolx, the expedition’s sensor specialist.
“The land ahead in that direction is rising again,” intoned Sahnuli as he pressed down on the accelerator. The whine of the electric drive motors increased as the computer routed more power to them. Slightly slowing as the treads bit into the rocky ridge, the terrain vehicle tipped skyward to meet the newest obstacle.
“I am aware; however, it is better to lengthen the trip than drive through that much radiation. If it is a ground zero, even our shielding is not that good,” Phxnolx intoned dryly, his clipped accent belying an Eastern Island’s origin.
Sahnuli replied in a serious tone, “I am in harmony with your suggestion.”
Sarah smiled as the Elowan’s scent gained the overlay of thyme. In displaying emotion, Elowan faces weren’t anywhere near as mobile as Human or Thrynn, nor could they use Velox antenna position and color changes. They instead expressed most emotions through subtle scent changes. Thyme-like scent expressed humor. Her smile faded a bit as she contemplated the map displayed on her screen. “Fox, why are you suggesting south instead of north?” she asked, using the Velox’s Human nickname.
“I have a high probability reading in that direction on the sniffer. I am attempting to verify it and the rad spike ahead of us gives me a good reason to.” His antenna drooped momentarily, the Velox equivalent of shrugging, and looked up cabin at the navigator. “Currently, there is not anywhere else we need to be.”
Sarah glanced back at him, then back to her screen. “Alright. I am a little concerned because on the overheads it looks like we are moving deeper into a heavily bombed zone by going south. Which could lead us into even more ground zeroes.”
“I will keep close eyes on both the radiation meters and the sensor readings. If things begin to change in a negative direction, we can return here and try the more northerly course. They planned this entire mission around getting real-time data on the vehicle’s capabilities.” He clicked his mandibles in humor. “Rougher ground means better testing.”
The vehicle lurched over a set of heavy ripples, and the crew bounced around in their seats. “Better testing. . .Right.” Sarah adjusted her harness, tightening it slightly around her shoulders. “More bouncing and careening around inside as well,” she muttered to herself.
Sahnuli slowed the big terrain vehicle as it approached the position.
“Another two hundred. . .one hundred. . .stop.”
The fifty-ton vehicle rocked gently as it came to a stop. Eight leveling jacks lowered underneath, lifting the vehicle off its tracks. The computer adjusted each jack independently, jostling the vehicle until the sensors read a level position.
The computer flashed a notice on the vehicle’s HUD. “Vehicle leveled.” Sahnuli stated. “Ready to commence mining test.”
Gareth Moore, the team’s mining specialist, tapped an icon on his screen and grasped the waldo’s control. Silently, the massive drilling system swung out from the front of the cab, just forward of the crew entrance. Guided by Gareth’s steady hand, a small probe arm gracefully positioned itself over the vein of tin that Phxnolx’s sensor drone had located. The sampling laser glowed green momentarily.
“Tin ore is ninety-six-point four eight percent pure.” The Velox clicked his mandibles together in satisfaction. His delicate fingers danced over the sensor touchscreen. “Seismic deep scan indicates approximately four-point three metric tons of tin in this vein.” He waved the screen to another data page. “Cargo capacity is currently at seven percent. Sufficient room in the cargo hold for the entire amount.”
“Looks like a nice haul,” Gareth commented. “Starting removal.”
The onboard mining computer translated Phxnolx’s sensor scans into a three-dimensional map for the operation. Then the multitude of sampling probes, drilling lasers, physical drill heads, and manipulator arms that made up the mining rig swung into action. All the material; the tin ore, dirt, and non-tin metallics were excised from the vein. Plasma beds melted the ore and then a conveyor system deposited the molten metal into speed cooling forms. It shunted the remaining materials into a holding bay. Once the tin ingots were solid, another robotic system removed them from the forms and stacked them carefully inside the cargo compartment. Another portion of the system began refilling the excavated holes with the unused materials, quickly emptying the holding compartment. The entire operation from start to finish took forty-seven minutes.
“Truly, a system well thought out and designed. Over four metric tons of metal removed, prepped, and stored in less than an hour. It even restored the ground to the best possible condition.” Indeed, aside from the deep curve of a new valley, the land looked barely disturbed. Even the slight haze of dust quickly settled. Like most Elowan, Sahnuli believed in minimizing the environmental impact of construction or mining. “Readings in the cargo compartment?”
Sarah ran her hand across her screen. “Looks like the filters removed most of the contamination during the melt. The cargo hold has a slightly increased background radiation. Still within allowable limits.” She tapped a note into the computer. “I’ll pass that on for evaluation. Maybe the next upgrade can sift through the metal and remove anything that is radioactive. That would minimize the need for the heavy shielding.” Sarah finished her note and ran a quick verification cycle. “That finishes that one. Fox, what does the Overview satellite say?”
“Another significant concentration of metals detected north and west, twenty-five point seven five kilometers. Unknown type, unknown quantity.”
Gareth shook his head and laughed. “Overheads can spot the deposits. They can’t give us anything more useful than a general location. I guess that’s why the company spent so much money on the drones.”
The Velox nodded in agreement. “Easier to use local resources for final evaluation than attempting to sample from space. I do not think any of us would be comfortable with a laser shot down that is strong enough for spectrographic evaluation.”
Everyone joined in the laughter at that. Sahnuli shifted the crawler into forward motion, driving around the newly created valley. The thick wide tracks spread the vehicle’s fifty-metric-ton weight across a large area, minimizing any tendency to slip or sink in. Dirt flattened under the tread plates as the crawler picked up speed to its maximum of sixty-four kilometers per hour.
“I could just see it,” said Sarah as she updated the route on the nav screen. She spoke in a fake announcer’s style voice. “This just in. Less than two hours ago, a sampling laser from space pierced a fully loaded dirigible transport out of Sinar. In other news, Space Lasers and Mining Incorporated have discovered new deposits of iron and gold along one of the most heavily trafficked air routes on Arth.”
“I am sure that is the most likely outcome if companies were to use space laser measurement. Let’s hope that the people in charge stick with the drone system.” Sahnuli waved a frond, pointing out through the windscreen. “I like the idea of seeing where the laser comes from rather than being a target.”
Sarah held up a hand as her console began alarming. “Five kilometers from target. Sahn, let’s stop here. Fox, prep the drone.”
