SW09: December 2009 #2: The Book of Ends
Scott Eiler
Wyatt Ferguson.
There are giant tankers in the Atlantic, and swimming M&M-shaped
robots that threaten to interfere with them. The Book of Ends uses the
robots to instruct how to avoid injury, and it's funny.
* ... The Trillions have landed in El Jadida, on the mid-coast of
Morocco. This ship is not from Mercury; the ship there spiraled into
the Sun along with its host planet. This ship is new to the Solar
System. The immigrants are coming, despite the failed colonies. Two of
their colonizer robots roam the world to prepare the landing points.
There used to be five robots, but three of them ran into damage early
on.
* The Trillion have started using their robotic tech to mine
Earth's oceans. Their small robots look like M&M cartoons, only
they're white.
* They've started training their colonists to interact with
Earthlings. Their instructional video uses the robots to show all the
ways people can die here. They called it "The Book of Ends". Someone
got that video and put it on YouTube. It's a hit. (18 Dec)
This time of year, I usually try to tell us what we've learned. The
Trillions and their enemies have tried to trump our species. But we've
survived. Indeed, things have barely changed so far.
* The Earth day is now 23:45 hours instead of 24:00, so mornings
creep up. As a species we seem to want longer days, but we seem to be
used to days that are too short. So far, people cope by resetting
their watches every morning.
* For the moment, the Earth is closer to the Sun than usual.
Everyone's celebrating Summer in December right now. Next year, we'll
see what happens when June and December are both out near the orbit of
Mars. We might need an old-Earth 365-day calendar alongside a new-
Earth 520-day one. Mayas did that, so there's precedent. I sense a
really big holiday coming along in 520 days... that is to say, June of
old year 2011, New Year's Day of new year 2.
I'm much like The Trillions, because I have my own Book of Ends. Back
in 2004 I saw a doomsday scenario where 2011 was important. The world
has changed in ways we could never have foreseen, but doomsday seems
to be on or ahead of schedule.
Now, how's the rest of the world reacting?
* The Russian Federation wasn't keen on cooperating with The
Trillions. Oh well. Malcolm Dunevoy, ally of Russia but enemy of The
Trillions, now resides in Russia in the New Russian style. Russia 2010
looks to be much like U.S. 1870, only with spaceships and Russian
mafia to help the robber barons thrive.
* Iranians are officially as obnoxious and disregarding of civil
liberties as ever. But they quietly released and exiled their
imprisoned superhumans during the approach of Planet Iv. The rogue
nation of Tuvalu also loaned their superhumans (mostly pirate
vampires) to the world survival effort.
* The rogue nation of Vojvodina was not at all confident in their
planet's survival. They've dropped off the face of the Earth! They're
probably not back in the realm of dreams; Vojvodina's status came from
dream personnel expelled from there. Best guess is, their leader the
Vojvodar took them through the Siege Perilous, back into time to the
glory days, just to kick more Turkish ass.
* Other time travellers are kind of stuck, because they don't have
a new target programmed yet. The old target led straight to Pancho
Villa. They're waiting for a new target until they see what the
Vovjodars do to history now.
* Adolf Hitler, having time-travelled himself the hard way, is now
a city councilman in south Nashville, Tennessee. Reportedly he fits in
nicely with the constituency there.
* Mary Mystery is about as powerful as ever. Unlike most women,
she didn't sacrifice her power for piddly stuff like saving Earth.
Next year we'll see how well Earth survives when it goes out toward
Mars and the crops don't grow. Let's hope we get some comic-book super-
science going - and for once use it to save us all.
---
Author's Notes:
This tale is available at http://www.eilertech.com/stories/2009/trillions.htm#ends
. It is my annual year-end summary to the ongoing Superhuman World
series. During the next few weeks I will add hyperlinks to many
stories that it references, but the summary itself should not change
much.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Andrew Perron
Hmmmmm. You know, I think that, even in this summarized format, you need
more detail; as it stands, even as an IC report with he proper context,
this would be a bit confusing.
> * They've started training their colonists to interact with
> Earthlings. Their instructional video uses the robots to show all the
> ways people can die here. They called it "The Book of Ends". Someone
> got that video and put it on YouTube. It's a hit. (18 Dec)
Like, why is it a hit? At first, I thought it was because everyone was
looking at it because they were worried about the Trillions analyzing how
to kill humans, but when I reread, it mentioned at the top that it was
funny.
> * For the moment, the Earth is closer to the Sun than usual.
> Everyone's celebrating Summer in December right now. Next year, we'll
> see what happens when June and December are both out near the orbit of
> Mars. We might need an old-Earth 365-day calendar alongside a new-
> Earth 520-day one. Mayas did that, so there's precedent. I sense a
> really big holiday coming along in 520 days... that is to say, June of
> old year 2011, New Year's Day of new year 2.
So its orbit is still changing, or...?
> The rogue
> nation of Tuvalu also loaned their superhumans (mostly pirate
> vampires) to the world survival effort.
Wait what. More about pirate vampires, please. o.o
> * Adolf Hitler, having time-travelled himself the hard way, is now
> a city councilman in south Nashville, Tennessee. Reportedly he fits in
> nicely with the constituency there.
How'd a German war criminal become a small-time American politician? @-@
> Next year we'll see how well Earth survives when it goes out toward
> Mars and the crops don't grow. Let's hope we get some comic-book super-
> science going - and for once use it to save us all.
Good note to go out on!
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, moar worldbuilding
Scott Eiler
On Dec 26, 3:52 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:36:52 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:
>
> Hmmmmm. You know, I think that, even in this summarized format, you need
> more detail; as it stands, even as an IC report with he proper context,
> this would be a bit confusing.
I'll work on the detail. Meanwhile, I've gotten the hyperlinks in to
the web page.
> > * They've started training their colonists to interact with
> > Earthlings. Their instructional video uses the robots to show all the
> > ways people can die here. They called it "The Book of Ends". Someone
> > got that video and put it on YouTube. It's a hit. (18 Dec)
>
> Like, why is it a hit? At first, I thought it was because everyone was
> looking at it because they were worried about the Trillions analyzing how
> to kill humans, but when I reread, it mentioned at the top that it was
> funny.
It's so funny, people think it's a parody.
> > * For the moment, the Earth is closer to the Sun than usual.
> > Everyone's celebrating Summer in December right now. Next year, we'll
> > see what happens when June and December are both out near the orbit of
> > Mars. We might need an old-Earth 365-day calendar alongside a new-
> > Earth 520-day one. Mayas did that, so there's precedent. I sense a
> > really big holiday coming along in 520 days... that is to say, June of
> > old year 2011, New Year's Day of new year 2.
>
> So its orbit is still changing, or...?
The orbit is still changed, but predictable. However, it'll be good
to see the predictions actually come true the first time.
> > The rogue
> > nation of Tuvalu also loaned their superhumans (mostly pirate
> > vampires) to the world survival effort.
>
> Wait what. More about pirate vampires, please. o.o
http://www.eilertech.com/stories/2009/journal.htm#leo has much more.
Arrrr.
> > * Adolf Hitler, having time-travelled himself the hard way, is now
> > a city councilman in south Nashville, Tennessee. Reportedly he fits in
> > nicely with the constituency there.
>
> How'd a German war criminal become a small-time American politician? @-@
He came from a reality where he married a nice Jewish girl, grew a
full mustache and beard, and overthrew Stalin. People don't recognize
him here.
... Welcome to my 2009. I considered tracking some of the plot
threads from previous years, but there's quite enough going on in the
story as is.
Andrew Perron
> Thanks for the comments, Andrew.
No prob'm!
> I'll work on the detail. Meanwhile, I've gotten the hyperlinks in to
> the web page.
Perhaps you could put them at the bottom of the RACC post?
>>> * They've started training their colonists to interact with
>>> Earthlings. Their instructional video uses the robots to show all the
>>> ways people can die here. They called it "The Book of Ends". Someone
>>> got that video and put it on YouTube. It's a hit. (18 Dec)
>>
>> Like, why is it a hit? At first, I thought it was because everyone was
>> looking at it because they were worried about the Trillions analyzing how
>> to kill humans, but when I reread, it mentioned at the top that it was
>> funny.
>
> It's so funny, people think it's a parody.
Ahhhh. A sort of culture-difference-weirdness thing?
>>> * For the moment, the Earth is closer to the Sun than usual.
>>> Everyone's celebrating Summer in December right now. Next year, we'll
>>> see what happens when June and December are both out near the orbit of
>>> Mars. We might need an old-Earth 365-day calendar alongside a new-
>>> Earth 520-day one. Mayas did that, so there's precedent. I sense a
>>> really big holiday coming along in 520 days... that is to say, June of
>>> old year 2011, New Year's Day of new year 2.
>>
>> So its orbit is still changing, or...?
>
> The orbit is still changed, but predictable. However, it'll be good
> to see the predictions actually come true the first time.
Oh, wait, I see. So half the year it's close to the sun, and the other
half it isn't. Way more elongated.
>>> The rogue
>>> nation of Tuvalu also loaned their superhumans (mostly pirate
>>> vampires) to the world survival effort.
>>
>> Wait what. More about pirate vampires, please. o.o
>
> http://www.eilertech.com/stories/2009/journal.htm#leo has much more.
> Arrrr.
Oooooo. Interesting... >>c
>>> * Adolf Hitler, having time-travelled himself the hard way, is now
>>> a city councilman in south Nashville, Tennessee. Reportedly he fits in
>>> nicely with the constituency there.
>>
>> How'd a German war criminal become a small-time American politician? @-@
>
> He came from a reality where he married a nice Jewish girl, grew a
> full mustache and beard, and overthrew Stalin. People don't recognize
> him here.
Ahhhhh. Good Twins are more fun than Evil ones, IMHO!
> ... Welcome to my 2009. I considered tracking some of the plot
> threads from previous years, but there's quite enough going on in the
> story as is.
Still, some exposition really needs to be in there. And it's not like it's
painfully long as it is...
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, linecount!