A different take on interstellar travel

The concept of interplanetary travel is a very important aspect of any space opera, where popping around from planet to planet is an integral part of the action. Think Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly and the like.And, of course, my SF books.

Several years ago I wrote an article explaining my notion of interplanetary travel, which involved taking advantage of dimensions beyond our height, width, and depth geometry. This is an excerpt from that article.

"Take a piece of A4 paper. Let’s label two diagonally opposite corners as A and B. Starting from B, we can reach A by going straight up one side then along the top to A. Hang on, you say, wouldn’t you just go across the diagonal, thereby reducing the distance and time taken? Sure you would. Now curl the paper over into a cylinder. All you have to do to get from B to A is move along a straight line. The length of the line will depend on how you make the roll (short edges together or long edges together).

Now take point A in one hand and point B in the other and bring them together so they meet. Getting from B to A in this instance is like walking from one room into another."

 You'll find the full article here.

Recently I've been reading Holly Lisle's books set in her Settled Space universe. She has taken this idea of foldable space to a whole new level. In space it's possible to travel vast distances by using origami points. In one section of Hunting the Corrigan's Blood the MC, Cadence Drake, watches an old vid of Isas Yamamoto explaining how his hyperspace drive works.

“Akiko wanted a crane,” Yamamoto said, smiling down at his little girl. 

“And I was folding it for her—like so.” 

He handed the finished crane to his daughter and took a sheet of paper from the little carved table beside him. He lifted it up and made a crease in the paper, and then another. While he folded it, he talked. 

“It occurred to me that the nature of origami, that is, the art of folding paper, was very much like the problem humanity faced in reaching the stars. Origami is folding two-dimensional paper into three-dimensional objects. Space travel through hyperspace is the folding of a three-dimensional universe into four spatial dimensions to shorten the distances between points.”   

He held up the partially finished crane. It didn’t look like much yet. “You see—I am taking something that was in essence two-dimensional, and I am changing it into something three-dimensional.”

 ***

To me, this is a delightful combination of the concept of worm holes through space with the folding of space through multiple dimensions. The paths are fixed, straight lines from one origami point to another.

But there's more to it than that.

Later in the same section, Yamamoto says,

"Life is not a thing of three dimensions. It is not limited by up and across and back. Life encompasses space, and time, and it goes beyond that. It touches infinity. You sit watching me right now, and in another probability, another child who is also you sits watching another me. In another probability, another child who is also you sits where you are sitting, but that child isn’t listening the way you are. 

In an infinite number of probabilities, an infinite number of children who are also you do an infinite number of things, and none of them can see or hear each other. So how can all of these yous do similar things? You are linked together through hyperspace. The infinite number of three-dimensional yous are all part of a single meta-you, whose home is hyperspace.”

 ***

And that is significant because when a person goes through an origami point, they encounter all those other yous. Here's the first instance we come across of Cadence's ship going through an origami point.

"Space, still and silent and serene, filled with stars that promise everything. Everything. Think of the perfection of space, the glorious swirl of a nebula splashed against the velvet dark—

“Six…five…four…three…”

I am Cadence Drake, captain and owner of the Hope’s Reward. 

“Two.”

I am strong. I know who I am. 

“One.”

I know what I believe.

“Insertion.”

I was no longer alone. In my chair, in my head, I could feel the rest of myself, the multidimensional self that takes its mundane shapes as an infinite number of Cadence Drakes in an infinite number of universes connected by the fact that we are one. Infinite. Of a magnitude with the heavens. And we are more than infinite mirrored and fragmented parts; we are also a single whole. An Entity. We touch, we mirror, we remain Me through that portion of our self, or perhaps I should say Self, that has its home in hyperspace. A part of me can look infinity in the eye and not flinch. A part of me is enormous and magnificent and beyond the pain and the suffering and the despair of my infinite mirrored fragmented mortal three-dimensional lives; is so beyond my limitations and weaknesses and frailties that it regards the infinite parts of me with some tenderness but also with mild, superior amusement.  I am small, puny, insignificant. Mortal. Human. A creature of limited flesh and limited intellect, for a burning expanse of non-time forced to see myself not only as I am, but as I could be in all my infinite capacity, knowing that when the moment ends my sudden wisdom, my godhood, will be stripped from me and I will be thrown naked and shivering and frightened and mortal back into the domain of death.

And the infinite frightened fragments of my greater Self clamor in my head. I am a doctor, on my way to a new world, armed with hope and knowledge, but now fear, too, for I have never taken this shortcut through the stars. I am a dancer; and I am a thief; and a renegade and a lover and a mother and I am old and young and I have a thousand faces and a thousand names a million names a billion names and I know them all all all all and every detail of every life that goes with them and they are nothing nothing nothing because these fragments of my true self are nothing these tiny mortal scraps are meaningless are nothing but I am Cadence Drake I am Cadence Drake I am Cadence Drake— “

—I am Cadence Drake—”

 ***

This pull of the multi-verse happens every single time a person goes through an origami point. Which is why most people are placed in a form of suspended animation for the few moments it takes to go through. Ship's captains, however, have to be awake, aware and in control.

It's such a powerful image. Lisle uses this downside of space travel as an arc in her stories, not so much for the crossing itself but what goes through Cadence's head as she traverses the point. All the regrets, all the possibilities, all the 'if onlys'.

For most authors, real space disappears in hyperspace. We all remember the stream of stars in the Millenium Falcon's front screen. Other people imagine it as grey and formless. My shift space is a bit more colourful than most. I imagine it as a kaleidoscope, rather like those we played with as kids.

But this mental twist to inter-stellar travel is a new one to me. 

From a writing craft perspective, I also admired the way Lisle avoided an info-dump and explained what happens at origami poits as a narrative that is part of the story. We also learn a little about Cadence's history through this device. It's woth taking notes.

For readers, it's a space opera thriller and I loved it. You'll find my review of Hunting the Corrigan's Blood here.

Quotes from Lisle, Holly. Hunting the Corrigan's Blood (A Cadence Drake Novel Book 1) . Holly Lisle. Kindle Edition.

Hunting the Corrigan's Blood - a space opera thriller

After I finished reading Holly Lisle's Tales from the Longview series, I bought her two Cadence Drake novels which take place before the Longview books and set the scene for that series. I wanted to know more about the people the author calls 'Legends'.

The first book, Hunting the Corrigan's Blood, introduces Cadence (Cady) Drake and her partner, Badger. If you're looking for diversity, these two have it in spades. Badger is an albino and Cady is a genetically-engineered hodge-podge, designed by her mother using DNA from three different 'fathers'.  To say Cady doesn't get on with her mother is an understatement – and she doesn't have a father, both factors which have influenced her development as an individual.  There's no way this book is a romance – but there is a love interest which plays an important role in the development of Cady's character.

We meet Cady in rather dramatic circumstances, shackled to a corpse and stuffed into a locker on a space station. It's a graphic scene, very well written but within the context of the rest of the story I wasn't convinced as to why the villains would do that. But I was certainly interested enough to keep reading.

This book is a thriller/detective story with steadily escalating stakes, twists, and turns. It's crammed with believable tech. I especially liked the Medix, a box which can fix all ailments and rejuvenate the human body. An hour in one of these can substitute for a good night's sleep and a few days will repair broken bones and missing limbs. And change your appearance if you want – bigger boobs, less backside – that sort of thing.

In true space opera fashion Cady and Badger move from planet to planet to space station in search of the stolen space ship Corrigan's Blood and find themselves mixed up in something increasingly sinister.  The world-building is excellent, with believable high-tech space stations contrasting with settlements on planets intent on going back to non-tech roots, a little like the Amish in Pennsylvania. One planet is called 'Up Yours'. So very Australian :)

I've said many times that I don't read horror. I've never watched any of the Alien franchise despite the sexy space ships and I don't watch series like The Walking Dead. There are elements in this book which come close to horror. The villains are spectacular. Although I often cringed I couldn't look away as the odds against Cady and Badger rose.

You probably realise I loved it.

Here's the blurb:

DESCRIPTION: Cadence Drake takes on a job finding a missing space yacht--a job that turns into a deadly nightmare. This is the first novel in the Cadence Drake series of linked stand-alones.

--------Cadence Drake is a finder of lost things. Badger Bede is a technical wizard adept at creating programs that make Cady's life easier. Both are handy with a stunner.

All their talents are put to the test as they search for the Corrigan's Blood, a new kind of TFN-drive spaceship with some very special abilities. At first it looks like their dream job -- the job that will allow them to pay off their own ship, the Hope's Reward, and to be more picky about the clients and work they accept -- but they quickly learn that every dream has a price.

Because behind the stolen ship lies the mystery of the people who stole it, people who appear to be using this insanely expensive vessel and others like it to smuggle inexpensive medicine to people who don't need it.

And behind that mystery is another...

Why are all these people linked to Cady's past and the one person who made it impossible for her to ever go home again?

And why does everyone in the universe want Cady dead? 

You'll find the book at Amazon. Or visit Holly's website.