July 31, 2183 “I wish you wouldn’t go,” Frank said. Jenny frowned unhappily. Linda said nothing. She’d had this conversation with Jenny in the dorm, over and over for weeks. It was too late to repeat it now. But Frank…
Category: The History of the United Colonies
Lifesystems
April 7, 2183 Charles Safreth’s title was governor, of a state within the North American Continental Directorate. But he was really a mayor, and of a city that down on the planet would likely be called no more than a…
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Theories
(Program note: I originally intended this “History of the Colonies” series to be weekly posts, but I’ve fallen into more of an every-other-week schedule. That probably makes more sense, since I have actual novel-writing to do as well, not to…
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Complications
Spring, 2183 Throughout the first half of 2183, the Offworld Colonies began making plans that, with hindsight, clearly pointed in the direction of independence from the Terran Federation. Historians today continue to debate whether Colonial leaders intended to move toward…
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Inauguration Day
Monday, January 27, 2183 The alarm that any offworlder must have felt at the election of Alexander Monroe, and the broad gains in the Terran parliament by his Born to the Earth party, had only intensified in the eleven weeks…
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Consequences
Thursday, November 7, 2182 (Terran Press Syndicate, 1200 GMT) All around the world, Terrans went to the polls today amid ongoing civil unrest following the solar event two weeks ago, which some are now calling “the Hiccup.” In the wake…
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Charles Versus Charles
The interviewer packed up her camera and departed, leaving Charles Safreth sitting behind his desk facing the frowning expressions of his campaign manager Arthur Norris and PR director Carol Tolbert. “Well,” said Arthur at last. “That could have gone better.”…
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I Know This
There were no old buildings on the campus of Star City University. The Colony itself was only 32 years old— nearly 33, if you counted from Charter Day coming up in January. Or 37 if you counted from the day…
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The Hiccup
October 24, 2182, 0600 GMT Eric Ivanov started awake, tense and shivering, to the sound of his bedside alarm pinging its final warning. Somehow he’d slept through the half hour of gentler sounds it started with— which normally woke him…
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October 2182: The Warning
In 2182, the Terran Federation consisted of six Continental Directorates, although in that election year twenty-four member states of them had sponsored a proposal to reorganize, seeking to leave their parent directorates and unite to form a seventh. Every Continental…
