Exploring the Inherited Stars Worlds - Part I

Juggernaut which will be releasing as part of Pets in Space® 5 on October 6th, will be the earliest Inherited Stars series story to date, occurring approximately five calendars (years) before the anchor novel, Inherit the Stars. 

It involves a major discovery buried deep in an ancient lava tube on LaGuardia...as well as a startling anomaly that will forever alter the destiny of the known galaxy. 

If you missed my announcement last week, Pets in Space® 5 is now available for pre-order at most major vendors. It will only be available for a limited time, and will once again support our Hero-Dogs charity with 10% of all royalties from both pre-orders and the first month's sales going to the organization. We've donated $15,300 in the last 4 years, and hope to make this another banner year. 

Click here to see the vendors for pre-order.

Today I'm going to blog a bit about the history of the planet where Juggernaut is based (and attempt to do it without spoilers) to give readers a sense of the foundation for my upcoming story.

A Brief History of the Inherited Stars 

Centuries before Juggernaut opens, the first human colonists arrived via a spatial vortex, a cross-rip in time and space, to colonize an Earth-like planet. They named the planet Draxis somewhat in jest, as the word in their language meant "here there be dragons" the designation on old maps for uncharted and unknown areas. 

For this reason, the dragon became the symbol of the monarchy of Draxis, though as it turned out the connection to dragons wouldn't stop there. The population on Draxis grew over the centuries, and later certain groups began to expand outward to a variety of other habitable "goldilocks" planets in a scattering of solar systems. 

This expansion occurred after the arrival of those whom the Draxians called the Firelords, a large and growing population with conflicting beliefs that both provided the Draxians the ability to settle other planets, and also gave them the desire to do so to flee an evolving culture of which many didn't approve. This societal upheaval resulted in the name of the planet being changed from Draxis to LaGuardia. 

LaGuardia was based on the Spanish word for "watch tower" or "lookout" and the meaning behind the inhabitants--LaGuardians--essentially means "those who keep watch." It was also influenced by the family name Laguardia which descendants claim means "the guardian." Either turned out to be a very appropriate title for the planet that legend claimed orbited nearest to the spatial vortex that brought the colonists from Original Earth and centuries later also brought The Firelords.

More About Draxis 

When Draxis was first discovered during an exploratory mission from Earth, it was dubbed a dead planet. Without a single living organism discovered on the world, it had an otherwise perfect environment for human life in terms of air, water and climate, though it tended to have a hot, dry climate more akin to Earth's Middle East. In spite of the challenges, Draxis was soon colonized. 

Early scientists theorized that the planet may have once supported life, but that all living beings had been erased in some sort of catastrophic event--like a gamma ray burst or solar flare--except whatever had befallen the planet didn't harm the atmosphere or oceans--only eliminated all living things and any evidence of their existence. Due to these factors, some scientists believed Draxis was a primordial planet that had not yet developed life. Others argued that the planet was too far along its geological timeline with conditions too perfect not to have evolving life, at least the microbial level. However, no fossils were ever found on the planet according to historical records. 

Although Draxis had the climate to support life from Earth, what it didn't have was the ability to support food production in what was essentially sterile sand. The Draxian scientists and leaders addressed this by first establishing an artificial ecosystem and later transplanting it around their early cities in what they dubbed "fertile rings." These bands of established farmland were further enriched with organic materials generated by the population, and as the cities expanded, so did the fertile rings that surrounded them, slowly transforming more and more of the barren planet into viable farming and gardening land.

Once the colony cities and their jump-started ecosystem became self-sustaining, more select flora and fauna species were introduced from Earth, including marine species, though they tended to rapidly evolve to adapt to conditions on the alien world. Some of the mutations, especially those in an expansive forested area that later became known as The Black Stand, grew to enormous size and required special stewardship to protect both the evolving species and the human settlers in the area. 

A greater variety of domestic animals were also later introduced, though they remained very rare and selectively bred. A few species also arrived on Draxis as accidental stowaways, which had both beneficial and disastrous consequences.

Check in next week to read about the worlds of the Alliance--the bad guys of the Inherited Stars universe.

Have a great week.