Press Release for Home: Interstellar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Science Fiction Novel Home: Interstellar is set during the Wars of Immigration

Late in the twenty-second century, humans inhabit thousands of colonies and space stations, but limited resources and political instability challenge what it means to be human. One twenty-two year old woman and her orphaned siblings discover how to survive in this hostile galaxy.

Pleasanton, CA. September 2015 – Impulse Fiction announces the launch of the new Sci-Fi thriller, Home: Interstellar.

"Hard sci-fi with a heart...complex, compelling tale of galactic intrigue."  --Kirkus Reviews

No one believed Meriel Hope when she said the attack on her home ship, the Princess, was piracy. There had not been a reported hijacking in a century, and she was just a twelve-year-old kid. But Meriel knew that pirates slaughtered her parents and friends and left her with the responsibility to find a safe home for her sister and the surviving orphans.

Ten years after the attack, Meriel still suffers from symptoms of PTSD while she struggles to carve out a normal life for herself on a new ship with a new job and a new romance. Unknown to her, the conspiracy behind the carnage on the Princess still plots to enslave an entire sector of space to control a priceless resource.

But Meriel and the orphans are in the way. Again.

Follow the adventures of Meriel Hope as she fights for freedom and survival in an unforgiving universe.

Impulse Fiction is proud to offer this debut novel from Ray Strong. Available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and other major distributors.

ABOUT RAY STRONG:

Ray Strong went to college to learn how to design space ships and has spent his entire career in high-tech industries. He lives in California with his wife and family. You can visit him online at https://www.facebook.com/ray.strong.399 or on twitter @RayStrong8.

Doc Ferrell Reviews Meriel's Personnel File

[Here, Doc Ferrell wants to learn more about Meriel. It's his responsibility to assure the crew of the Tiger is stable. Ferrell thinks Meriel is dangerous - 'cause she is. .. .Ray]

---

Dr. Ferrell opened a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a drink while waiting for Meriel’s file to appear.

“Open private journal. Create new record,” Ferrell commanded his link. “Title Meriel Hope. Ship ID. Subtitle summary of confidential file review. Entry. Time stamp.”

When the link chimed, he used hand motions to project the data on the wall to scan the file.

ET/2177:38:57 Enterprise Independent News Wire: LSM Princess (GCN 13442:88), family merchant ship, found near Enterprise outer beacon, Procyon system with only one survivor from an unexplained tragedy. Unfolding.

Well, that’s pretty sketchy. He did a quick search on comp with Princess and survivors and turned up only the same article.

ET/2177:38:59 Global News Network:

LSM Princess attacked in deep space by unknown assailants. Unidentified surviving minor in protective custody. Station authorities deny rumors of piracy…

Someone buried the story ten years ago. That would have made her almost twelve.

ET/2177:105:19 Meriel Hope:

Daughter of Esther and Michael Hope. Born ET 2165:85. Residence: family merchant ship Princess until attack ET.2177:37:10. Princess severely damaged and recycled. Details sealed by order superior court 4, Enterprise, to protect minor.

ET/2178:102 Meriel XX: foster child in protective custody of Enterprise Station. Released to unidentified merchant vessel, Cargo-0 trainee.

Huh. Unidentified vessel. Witness protection? he thought. So what did she witness? The next item was a news vid dated ET/2181:86:13.

"This is Lance Freiden of GNN on the dock of the LSM Thrace. Sixteen-year-old Meriel Hope has surfaced today after four years in protective custody. Hope is the only survivor of an attack on the LSM Princess. Claims of piracy have been repeatedly dismissed by authorities…"

He searched the net for more information about the Princess and Meriel but found nothing. That’s it, he thought. God, what a childhood. He scanned the training and certification logs.

“Rated nav-two, logistics-five,” Ferrell said into his link. “Ambitious.” Only twenty-two and made logistics-five. Admirable, he thought. “Marine-three.” Yikes, what’s she preparing for? He waved his hand to skip forward to the arrest record and keyed in his ID for access to her private records.

ET/2181:83 Dexter Station. Aggravated assault. Ruled self-defense.

ET/2183:147 Ross Station. Resisting arrest. Charges dropped.

ET/2184:220 Wolf Station. Disorderly conduct. Charges dropped.

ET/2184:259 Lander Station. Aggravated assault on a bouncer. Charges dismissed as self-defense. Treated in blue-zone infirmary and released to outpatient physical therapy.

Ferrell smirked. “Journal entry. Subject has evidence that she is not invulnerable,” he said.

ET/2185:315 Ross Station. Disorderly conduct. Charges dropped. Doctor testified as personal reference. Released without charges.

Profile—psych:

Here we are, Ferrell thought.

Tests: EMR 485. STM 223. KRTT 454, Briggs and Hall E3R4

“Tests out as a loner and driven,” Ferrell said into his link. “E3R4 borderline psychotic. Request data that produced that score.”

ET/2180:115:19.50 LSM Thrace (GCN 23492:06) X. Johansen, PhD.

Quick learner. Highly motivated. Gets along well with crew.

Continuing nightmares of childhood trauma on Princess. During therapy, she still speaks of the Princess as her ship and plans to reclaim it. She also speaks of getting custody of the other children previously from the Princess and chartering routes in Sector 42. Requests to the captain for legal assistance have been denied. Court records are sealed, and no evidence has been found of legal rights to, or existence of, the Princess or any other survivors…

Ferrell poured himself another drink. “No evidence of any other survivors.” She was alone but thinks that the other kids are still alive. “Survivor’s guilt,” he said aloud. Damn, that’s tough.

Diagnosis: severe neurotic delusions, bordering on psychosis. Severe agitation occurs when delusions are challenged. Well-adjusted teen as long as fantasy remains intact. Continuing to work with her to adapt to the reality that all of the crew and her friends on the Princess were lost.

Prescribed mandatory antipsychotics. Psychogel-H (H1804-005) (aka Aristopine).

Makes sense.

“Private journal entry,” he said. “Adaptation to trauma by creating a fictional reality. Truth too difficult to face head on.” So which world is she living in now?

ET/2184:115:20 LSM Commodore Levski (GCN 65512:43) Dr. Botev

Excellent crewmember. Commendation for diligence.

Resistant to therapy and analysis. Not willing to discuss the events on the Princess. Court records are sealed, and no evidence to substantiate delusions. Continuing mandatory antipsychotics.

ET/2186:152:12 LSM Jolly Roger (GCN 41223:21) Dr. L. Kustenov

Excellent crewman. Eager to work.

Bailed out on Lockyear for illegal tranq boost. Reluctant to discuss it. Continuing resistance to therapy and analysis. Will discuss nothing of the events on the Princess. Continuing mandatory antipsychotics. Check of comm traffic (Cpt’s approval on file) indicates communication with a low-rent lawyer (J. Bell esq. of Lockyear). Discussions confidential, but believed to regard custody of the Princess and the fictional orphans. As long as she has that fantasy to structure her reality, she appears in control. Without it, or the meds, her stability is uncertain.

ET/2186:283 Captain’s commendation for exceptional service. Unconditional recommendation.

Ferrell paced the three steps across his tiny office. Damn, he thought. The entire crew was killed—parents, kids, everyone. Man, what hell she must have been through, and maybe still going through. How could she survive? How’d she get back to a station? He sat down at the console again and drummed his fingers on his desk. Delusions and barely in control, never lost it on duty, but maybe dockside at Lander Station. Now she’s brought this cheap lawyer into her fantasy world?

“Append file, Meriel Hope,” Ferrell said. “Entry, ship ID, time stamp now, name. Begin entry. Hope comes highly recommended. No meeting yet to form professional opinion. Continue mandatory medication. Close entry. Append private journal. Entry. Insufficient information to modify treatment. Monitor to assure continuing medication. Recommend continuing trauma-counseling therapy. Close record.”

I sure hope she opens up to someone about this before it eats her up, he thought. Poor kid. It’s a shame what happened to her.

Ferrell poured himself another drink, which emptied the bottle. Huh. Whiskey rations get smaller every year that I’m out here.

.

(c) 2014, Benjamin R. Strong, Jr. 

A Child Alone ...

...

There was no color in her life then, and the incessant advertisements and colorful signage of the blue-zone bars and businesses that passed outside the window left no impression on her. She was a child alone—three years after the Princess attack. Her parents and friends were dead and her sister was light years away.

She knew what she had seen the day of the attack and could not forget, no matter how much she wanted to. The anonymous faces in white jackets with pleasant smiles had told her all the reasons why the Princess attack could not have happened the way she had said, and they complimented her on her rich fantasy life and creative imagination. But the smiles turned cold when she couldn’t align her memories to the stories they wanted, stories of drugs and intrigue that she could never believe. In their notes, her creative fantasies became delusions that had to be controlled by medication.

After months of interviews, therapy, and separation, she doubted herself, and unable to invent a story that made sense to her and them both, she stopped fighting and took the medication.

Now at fifteen, she had no friends and desired none. There was only the job and the biological need to be suitably compliant for the leadership and the young men on her ship. She thought only of her mission to get a part to repair her power loader, without which she would fail her cargo-2 rating and not see the increased income for another year.

Within that lifeless, gray world, a young blond girl bordered the tram accompanied by an older woman who gave her a pathetic smile. From somewhere, Meriel remembered the faces and returned the weak smile, but there was no emotional tug of recognition, and she looked away. It was her sister, Elizabeth, with Aunt Teddy.
 

Elizabeth sat next to Meriel and took her hand. “I’ve been looking for you, Sis,” Elizabeth said.
 

“Uh-huh,” Meriel said.
 

“Where did you go, M?” Elizabeth asked. “I miss you.”

 Meriel shrugged. The briefest memory flickered that once in her life, this young girl meant more to her than life itself, but the thought slipped away, and she just shrugged.

A tear rolled down Elizabeth’s cheek. “We’ve been at the same docks, and you never come by,” she said. “You don’t answer my texts any more. It’s like you don’t remember me at all.”

Meriel shrugged again and turned to the window wondering when the blond person would leave.

Reflected in the window, Mariel watched Elizabeth reach out to her. But just before touching the scar on Meriel’s neck, Elizabeth’s hand clenched into a fist and her frown changed to a scowl. She pulled her hand back, opened Meriel’s purse and rummaged through the contents until she found what she was looking for—the meds, Aristopine, the same drug that the doctors planned to give her and the other orphans from the Princess.

Elizabeth held the tube of meds up. Teddy nodded and tapped her link a few times and looked up to check the tram stops. Four stops later, Teddy waved to Elizabeth who took Meriel’s arm.

“Come with me,” Elizabeth said and stood.

 

...

(From Home: Interstellar, Chapter 3: Lander, On station. Get it at Amazon or iTunes.)

Be not the stone upon which the wave of history crashes ...

“Be not the stone upon which the wave of history crashes; be the wheel upon which it turns.”

From The Diary of Neuchar de Merlner, Europa, 2112

(See the full quote in Home: Interstellar, now available at Amazon.)

As If by God's Hand

"... Once in an age the forces of darkness align to bend the arc of history.

"And once in an age, the arc of history bends around the wheel of one committed person who, acting from his or her own virtuous interests, changes the course of humanity: the child who raises the flag above the barricades, the mother who thrusts the picture of her murdered child before the dead eyes of the tyrant, the girl who refuses to deny her love for God even while her flesh burns at the stake—individuals who grip a shred of civilization with both hands and will not give it up ..."

 

From The Diary of Neuchar de Merlner, Europa, 2112

Verse 34: Nova Conta, Section 3

Comme Si Dans les Mains de Dieu (As If by God’s Hand)

(See the full quote in the post to the right, or in the appendix to Home: Interstellar, now available at Amazon)

 

Home: Interstellar is live!

Launch day is here! Orders can be fulfilled at links to the right.

Where did the idea originate for Home: Interstellar?

The idea for Home began as a story I told my niece. She was having trouble with bullies at school (*), bullies that she thought overwhelming. She said she was just a little kid and the school did not help. She felt helpless and sad and wished she were a superhero. I told her not to let bullies stop her from doing what she wanted because there will always be bullies, at school, at work, and in the world. I told her bullies always want you to feel alone and helpless, so don’t be alone. I also wanted her to learn to defend herself: I’ve been bullied too, and I know they don’t stop unless they are stopped by someone. When you resist bullies, you are not just fighting for yourself and what you care about, but you are helping all the other victims of bullies.

We’re not superheroes, but they’re not supervillains either, and we should not be afraid to defend ourselves. So I made up a story to illustrate.

The short story was of a child freezing in the hold of a starship, hiding from pirates, too small to defend herself and the other children on her ship from armed and ruthless villains. A decade later those same pirates came after her again. But she wasn’t a child any longer and had ten years to prepare just in case. It was not easy: she had to train hard, overcome her own fears, and then rally others the help her. But she did it. Her bullies turned out not to be just pirates, but a whole conspiracy of galactic bad guys and she was just in the way. But she never stopped fighting for what she cared about.

I first put Meriel's story to rhyme after reading "John Brown's Body," the epic Civil War poem by Steven Vincent Benet.It's really hard to write decent poetry and  my attempt brought my friends to tears...of laughter. The poem glossed over her character and stressed her heroism, so that it read more like a child's version of Beowolf. Over many years, I got to know Meriel much better and fleshed out a real story.

(*) Side note: my niece is a black belt TaiKwonDo now. Her mom was the real hero of that story.