Notes on the Many Worlds Project

The Many Worlds Project, a larger piece I have been trying to put together, will probably occupy the majority of my posts here. So I figured I should give a little overview of what I plan for this piece.

The idea of the Many Worlds came to me when I was thinking about the idea of a Dyson sphere, a sphere that completely surrounds the sun at a distance roughly the orbit of the earth. I did some research and found out this is not actually what a Dyson Sphere was, but the idea persisted. But I thought why settle for a world contained in a ball when you could have a solar system within a sphere. A structure so large it contains the entirety of out solar system. These worlds all orbit a sun within this gigantic structure, and there are many many worlds contained within it.

Also I imagined that within this sphere there would be atmosphere. One could travel between planets in an F-16 or a hot air balloon, or if a man was daring and crazy enough, be flung from the surface to escape velocity and float to the next world.

This is all of course impossible. I have had a number of conversations with friends of mine who are physics majors and they have explained the reasons why all of this is impossible. However the impossible has never gotten in the way of a good story.

Onus is the name of the structure which holds all these planets, and the worlds inside are called the Many Worlds of Onus.

I have a crude diagram of all the planets held within:

I'll give more indepth descriptions of each world later but for now the basics are this:

Xirus: This planet is very close to the sun and therefore is nearly inhospitable to life. It's coldest days are some of the hottest on earth, and only those adapted to heat can survive there for very long. During its orbit cycle where it is even closer flares lick the surface of the planet.

Garren and Sikasta: Both more hospitable than Xirus but still harsh places to live. Garren is a world of deserts while Sikasta is full of hot savannahs and jungle.

Maedus, Fortyne, Elayne: These three worlds are the most temperature seeing weather much like the Earth, but lacking much of the extremes. These worlds are envied by the others.

Icene and Harantos: Cold worlds inhabited by people used to such hardships. On Harantos the people have become more beastlike, with thick hair and thicker skin. While on Icene the people living there quickly went underground developing into Albinos.

Roamus: So far away from the sun that it's warmth barely touches it. It orbits close to the edge of Onus. There is nothing here except ice and forgotten things.

Beyond the shell of Onus there is void, or so the people living within Onus believe. The old Legend goes that Onus is a living being, and it formed this shell so that there would be something from nothing. Onus felt a need to create and used his body to shield his creation from the void.

The worlds live at a technology level approximating the renaissance, however there are ancient technologies around all of the many worlds. Most of this technology has to do with manipulating a crystal found throughout the worlds. It is harder than any other material and some devices can make it as malleable of clay. No one knows where these devices came from.

There is also an easier method of travel between the worlds, another relic left behind that the people of the many worlds use. Gigantic portals held in crystal frames that connect the worlds in a strange gate network.

By the way the gates are set up you can see where certain planets may come into conflict and how Fortyne has become the center of the many worlds.

In general my project is to write a number of short stories set in the Many Worlds which may in time become a novel in itself. More though it is just a place to play with this world I have created in my head. More stories and information to come.

Prelude

This is a piece from a larger work I am messing around with. I am taking a tip from Indiana Jones in this piece.

The Sun shone distant and cold, little more than a star in the sky. Four men trudged slowly across the gray and lifeless dirt that stretched on as far as one could see. Three of the men were wrapped up in wool from head to toe, the fourth stood with his bare face exposed to the blasts of icy wind

The bare faced man gazed over the monotonous terrain and somehow picked a course, pointing and shouting orders. The men spread out lying down in the dirt. The fourth stood in the middle of them and activating a device on his wrists, he put his palms together. He slid his hands in opposite directions and a sheet of liquid poured from palm to palm slowly hardening into crystal. He spread his hands about four feet apart then stopped. He flicked the excess from the now formed crystal blade.

Another gust of wind rushed over the men, shards of ice cut the bare faced man’s face. He didn’t move up to cover it, though warmth was rushing out as steam from the small cut.
Before him out of nothingness rose a formless black shadow, towering as tall as three men.
“Voidshaped!” yelled one of the men lying in the dirt.

The formless shadow slowly grew fluctuating arms and legs. The edges of its form ebbed back and force like the tides. It turned to the man who had shouted. The bare faced man stepped forward and sliced at the creature’s new formed leg. The thing let out a wordless cry and near soundless cry, little more than the hissing of air, and swung one of its malformed limbs at the bare-faced man. He rolled backwards to avoid the blow.

“Now!”

The other three leaped up from the ground throwing nets, the cross sections of -which were coated with the same crystal of the bare-faced man’s sword. They landed on their mark and the creature shrank as it looked as though it was curling up under the nets.

The bare-faced man rushed forward stabbing again. The three others pulled ropes to tighten the nets against the creature’s thrashing. A few more stabs and the creature’s thrashing weakened. The battle was nearly won.

One of the three lines that held the ropes went limp. The three men looked to the man who should have been holding the third line. They saw a smaller shadowy shape. The shape rushed the bare-faced man. The bare-faced man raised his sword and sliced at the onrushing shadow, but it warped away from the blade and struck the bare-faced man off his feet. He landed on his back hard.

The two other men strained against the larger creatures renewed thrashing. The ropes ripped out of their hands and the creature tossed the nets aside. One of the two acted quickly pulling a knife of alloyed crystal and leaped into the shadowy mass, stabbing. The shadow enveloped him as he entered.

The bare-faced man held his blade point up as the smaller creature pummeled down on top of him. He caught its side and shoved it off. He stabbed downward as he rolled on top of it, pinning it to the ground. It thrashed and vanished. He stood up pulling his blade from the dirt and looked towards the thrashing mass. The man who had entered cut his way through. The gap the man created slowly closed behind him and he fell to the ground. The creature writhed, its created limbs twisting and entangling. After moments of agony it lost its form, a shadow again it flitted away. The bare faced man and the only other man left standing converged on the man who had clawed his way through the creature. He lay face down in the dirt his clothing torn from head to toe. Where it not for the collection of cuts and gouges covering his body he would still soon freeze. There was no sign of the fourth.

“Daniel, give him your cloak,” said the bare faced man.

Daniel still shaking from the fight stammered, “but… I’ll freeze.”

The bare faced man scowled and “Without your cloak you might freeze. Without your cloak Isaac will freeze. Do as I say we aren’t leaving him behind.”

Daniel removed the outer most covering of his body and wrapped wounded Isaac in it. He looked up to the bare faced man and said, “But where are we taking him, back to the Gate?”

The bare faced man shook his head. “You will, I can’t, I have to go after that thing.”

“But, you can’t take it alone…” Daniel began, but the bare faced man cut him off.

“You were no help this time, what makes you think you can help me now.” The bare faced man brushed some of the frozen blood from his face. “No the only use you are is to ferry brave Isaac back to the gate, maybe he will fight again if you move quickly.”

Daniel bowed his head, and lifted Isaac up. Isaac feebly held onto Daniel. “Can you walk Isaac?”

Isaac nodded slowly.

“I’ll get him to safety Solomon.” Daniel said to the bare faced man.

Solomon pointed to Isaac’s knife. “Take it. We don’t know if the Voidshaped is headed for the gate. Onus help us if it is.”

“I won’t fail you again Solomon,” said Daniel.

Train musings

This was a bit I wrote on the train going to work. Enjoy my train musings.

I am sitting on the train. There is a strange liquid covering the upper seating area's floor. It has no apparent smell.

The train is a microcosm of our world. We sit minding our own business stuffed in with people we don't know. Right now I see around the train a few business men working on their computers, two women of asian descent talking and drinking coffee. A young man sits in front of me doing homework. I say young man but looking at him I'd guess late high school early college. The size of the textbook suggests math or science, since as an english major I never had to heft tomes of that size.

A pair of middle aged couples sit on the lower level of the train. One couple looking possibly older than the other. Possible relation? Two generations on a train to chicago to see the city. Often families do that go to distant places in order to feel as though they are together. The idea of the family road trip for example. Or rather it is a chance to experience new things as a family.

Young and old, you see the pairing often and it invokes a warm feeling. The feeling that perhaps those two people are related and the older is sharing her experience while the younger shares her energy. Perhaps the two are simply different in age, no relation of blood but they share the same exchange, wisdom for energy.

The two men at the end of the train sit next to their backpacks. I myself have placed my messenger bag in the seat facing me on the train. We have marked out our territories made it clear that strangers should not sit near us. Lord knows what could happen if someone new sat next to us. Change is a terrifying thing, it takes us out of our comfort zones. Solitude is often a very comfortable thing.

I have taken the train two times a day for the past four and a half months, only two occasions have I noticed two complete strangers talking to each other.

One was these two college students who had been forced to sit next to each other, due to the heavy traffic on the train that day. One was a young man in his late teens early 20s the other a girl of the same age. She was from abroad, or recently moved to the US, since she had a very thick Japanese accent. The two seemed to have no problem communicating. I sat across the aisle from them and saw a lady in her mid 30s turn to them and ask if they had known each other, they said no. She commented on how nice it was that they have kicked up such a conversation.

The second was between two men, one a young man probably a junior in high school, the other a young man who had just graduated and was currently working in the banking industry. This was about the time of discussion of the fannie mae bailout. He was talking to the younger man about banking and currency. He came to the idea that since currency only equals buying power that eventually currency will be gone. We will see the emergence of the Amero to combat the Euro and then maybe an asian currency and an african currency as the world economies become more and more entwined. Eventually all we have is a credit score.

The other young man was going to see his grandmother for the weekend. He stated he had to go see them every couple of months to keep the birthday money coming in. But he was very interested in economics.

This was a conversation I jumped into from time to time. However only after I made a chuckle at a comment and the older man, about my age, turned to me and said I could chime in at any time.

I corrected him about a minor historical note he was making about germany inbetween the World Wars.

This is of course only the positive I am noting. There was an instance of negative interaction between people on the train. I remember a very distinct situation in which a man was extremely agitated and yelling at everyone in the train car.

He was an older man, with a long grey beard and long grey hair, all of it sitcking out in wild directions. He wore a hat indicated that he was a veteran. He had a walker, and this was what began his agitation. His walker was in the middle of the aisle during the afternoon rush. I was walking up the aisle looking for a place to sit. Now I saw just beyond the walker a row of seats perpendicular to the old veteran.

The man in front of me pushed the walker aside, he was in a hurry it seemed. I began walking past the man and saw the walker swing back at me. The handle of the walker hit at crotch level. Nothing more than a light tap but I felt my progeny wince for a second. The man began yelling. Saying how could you fuckers kick my walker. I slipped by the walker since I am a skinny guy and sat in one of the free seats. Sure he was agitated but I figured he'd be over it after that outburst.

I sat down. There was a bald middle aged man to my left. He wore large circular rimmed glasses and had a distinct look of apprehension. I soon understood why.

The old vet started yelling about how everyone in the train car were a bunch of pussies. How he was a special ops and he could fight anyone in the train and kill them with his bare hands. He challenged anyone to fight him.

At this point there was a line of people stopped behind the walker which no one was willing to move now. A man thin man in a grey pinstripe suit, with gray hair and a worried smile, asked the man if he could walk by. The vet said, sure you can squeeze by if you got no balls. The man squeezed by pushing the walker only slightly. The old vet said yeah you got no balls there do ya.

People quietly moved past as the man kept yelling. He made a comment about how all his friends had died defending us pussies and not one of us had the courage to fight him.

At this point I heard a message over the intercom telling all the conductors to come to the car I was sitting in.

Three of them came in, and the first moved the man's walker aside and told him he was getting off. The old man asked what stop it was and the conductor replied it didn't matter it was his. He asked for his walker, said he couldn't walk without it. The conductors gave it to him and as the old man walked out he flicked off the whole car. The conductor behind him swatted the hand out of the air. That was that, he was left at the Clybourn stop some ten miles out of the city.

I guess this is why we defend our space so fervently. We know that if we claim a spot people will be less likely to sit there and it reduces the chance of having someone sit next to us who will disturb our solitude.

Ogilvie Transportation Center is the next stop, time to go to work.