A Brief History of Space Travel in the ASH Universe copyright 2000 by Dave Van Domelen updated 2007 Introduction: This file was originally written as a reference document shared only with the other ASH writers, and it was even misplaced for a while (it would have been nice to have it around when I was writing the Pranir history story!). But now it's resurfaced, and I've touched it up a bit for public viewing. This is considered to be more or less the "true" story, although what characters in 2025 believe to be true often contradicts it, for various reasons. Knowledge is lost, or kept hidden; politics result in the downplaying of certain things and the emphasis of others, etc. There are also some inconsistencies resulting from simple errors on my part: one reason I'm posting this now is to make sure it's easily accessible and I don't contradict myself even more. }-> Most dates are approximate. ============================================================================= 1,000,000 BC: The T!rir start to colonize the galaxy. Due to a feature of their logical system, they never develop FTL technology, as they feel it is patently impossible. However, their expertise in biotechnology allows this insectoid race (they are endoskeletal and have lung-like breathing systems, but share many surface characteristics with Terran insects) to use slower than light ships and hibernation systems to travel to the stars. The remarkably stable and consensus-driven T!rir society can function as a cohesive whole despite long travel and communication times. 500,000 BC: The apex of T!rir civilization. Accumulated genetic tinkering that has allowed them to colonize even marginal worlds (and to them, a marginal world is practically lethal for a human) has exacted its cost. The race has become extremely long-lived, but fertility has dropped dramatically. Reproduction no longer meets the population needs of an expanding empire, and cloning experiments end so horribly that the T!rir abandon the idea forever. 100,000 BC: The T!rir have abandoned smaller colony worlds entirely, on the grounds that they will never reach a socially viable size (T!rir are uncomfortable in small groups, preferring large hive-like social structures). Often, advanced technology is left behind as being redundant on the world they are returning to, or because it is considered dangerous and best forgotten. 10,000 BC: The followers of Santarus arrive on the planet that will eventually be called Santar. Santarus plucks them from about 100 BC as part of a plan to ensure he'd always have a core of followers that could not be wiped out by a historical alteration made by one of his rivals. He sets them up on a livable world and ensures that their culture would remain stable and true to the values he believed in. Then he is wiped out in the Causality Wars. Oops. 5,000 BC: The Santari reach their low point. The gifts of Santarus keep them from totally degenerating into barbarism, but the old democractic ideals have long been lost, and a number of warlords rule the planet. 1 AD: Santari civilization, dominated politically by the Great Houses, has reached a level of technology that Earth won't reach until the 20th Century. There is some cultural variety at this point, but nothing compared to Earth's. If you were to consider Earth's cultures to be like different species of animal, then Santar's cultures would be like different breeds of dog. Still much room for variety, but they're all dogs. The main benefit of this cultural unity is that Santar is moving towards a world government, despite the power of the Great Houses. 1000 AD: The Santari develop hyperdrive and start colonizing their nearest neighbors. Among the first planets they discover is an old T!rir world, and the technology abandoned there helps them refine their crude and dangerous hyperspace engines (while the T!rir had no hyperdrive of their own, more advanced power and control systems greatly enhanced Santari drives). Where it originally took a year to reach the closest inhabitable worlds, now the same worlds can be reached in months. The Great Houses start to actively search for abandoned alien technology. 1200 AD: The Santari run into an odd economic conundrum. They have a cultural expectation that those with wealth and power should have servants to attend to their needs and wants. But any Santari who goes into space is almost automatically rich and powerful thanks to the way the expansionist economy is geared. Robots are used by some, but they don't have to social cachet of living servants. Then the Santari discover Eprani, the homeworld of the Pranir. They find a society just entering its industrial age...sophisticated enough to make for good servants, but "primitive" enough to accept the role of servant. While the four-armed furry ophidians appear odd to Santari eyes, they do seem to make excellent servants. The Santari are careful not to trade anything to the Pranir that could let them become an independent space power, of course. However, while very sophisticated scientifically, the Santari are not exactly the galaxy's best traders. The Pranir, whose world was resource-poor to begin with, became aggressive traders amongst each other. By the time of first contact, their real government was an alliance of trading families, with the nominal government being puppets of the traders. The Families (who start calling themselves Great Houses in imitation of the Santari ruling families) recognize the potential in contact with the Santari, and start to put a devious and long-range plan into effect. They sell their own brightest scientists into servitude contracts, to act as spies and learn all they could. Once a few of these scientist-spies had return, the Pranir start making trades for things that seem innocent enough, but which can be used to develop very advanced technology. 1300 AD: The Santari finally meet the T!rir face to face. There is an exchange of technology, although the T!rir have degenerated too far as a society to do much with their side of the bargain in the short term. Vastly improved Santari hyperdrives can now travel in weeks what had before taken months, and colonization takes off in a big way. It's the second golden age of Santari expansion. The T!rir are careful to hold back the majority of their technology (especially biotech and weapons of planetary devastation), reasoning that they can use these secrets as bargaining chips later. Santari demand for Pranir servants skyrockets, and a great many incautious Santari hand over important technology in exchange for manpower. Additionally, Santari have now gotten used to having Pranir around, and are starting to treat them more like equals, teaching them how to use Santari technology and entrusting them with more important duties. They're still servants, but they are valued servants. 1400 AD: Santari expansion reaches a practical limit. Ships can go farther, but communication is simply not fast or efficient enough to keep the Santari Empire together. Additionally, many smaller empires and hegemonies have been encountered and absorbed, creating administrative difficulties. Santari going into space are no longer automatically rich. There is public outcry for Santari jobs to go to Santari people, and Pranir indenture contracts are slowly dropped or no longer renewed. There is an influx of highly trained and intelligent Pranir back to Eprani. 1500 AD: The Pranir launch their first trade fleet. It has required the effort of almost everyone on Eprani, and stripped the world of most of its vital resources, but the Pranir have become a spacefaring race in spite of Santari precautions. Pranir history records this (when it mentions it at all) as the Great Gamble...had it failed, they would have a dead world and useless spaceships. However, Pranir prefer to think of their expansion into the stars as inevitable, and most histories treat the Great Gamble as more of a clever ploy that got things moving with a minimum of fuss, focusing more on a small core of ships bought off-world and downplaying the native-built fleets of slower, smaller craft. Each of the six main Families has its own flotilla of trade ships, and trading territories are initially set by contracts (but immediately start to mix and muddle). Thanks to their aggressive trading spirit and desperate need to make back their investment before the homeworld dies, the Pranir bring more cultures into closer contact than ever before. They also start to discover old T!rir caches that the Santari missed. 1600 AD: The old Santari Space Empire can no longer impose order from above. Thanks to Pranir efforts, too many worlds are aware of exactly where they stand in the Empire, and they don't like it. The T!rir step forward to propose a consensus-driven democratic system, offering to support any such government formed with infusions of T!rir technology. In the centuries since learning FTL was possible, the T!rir Consensus's greatest minds have made tremendous leaps in science and technology, and now have more to offer than the dribs and drabs they hoarded in previous centuries. Within a generation, the Planetary Confederation is a reality. 1700 AD: The Galactic Warrior Corps is formed, with a dual purpose. On the surface, it is to replace the old Imperial Armada's role of keeping the peace and dealing with space piracy and unruly Pranir. Secretly, however, its job is to protect the Confederation from dangerous technologies, such as those the T!rir scientists are turning out. Additionally, the Scytharian Mining Company comes to prominence and causes Confederation-wide scandal in the process. One of the major taboos of Santari culture is violation of the purity of the body. Transplants are acceptable (if difficult due to problems in the Santari gene pool), but cybernetics disgust the average Santari. This attitude has also percolated through to other races in contact with the Santari. What the Scytharians have done, however, is enlist the biotech expertise of a few T!rir scientists to create cyborgs capable of mining valuable ores in conditions that would destroy purely organic or purely inorganic lifeforms. The original cyborgs are death-penalty prisoners who are harvested for their organs for transplant. The harvested organs are replaced with cybernetic implants and the cyborgs' brains are shackled with biochips to keep them loyal. The Scytharians are seen as monsters, creators of abominations...but they're also financially successful. 1800 AD: The GWC enlists the aid of Scytharia to help create a special sort of agent. A somewhat amorphous species on a windswept planet has evolved natural antigravity and bioelectricity abilities, and the Corps wants them to be turned into humanoids that could pass as Santari. After a number of failed attempts, the "Deltan" agents start to filter into the GWC. Later in the century, Pranir discover Earth at the edges of Planetary Confederation space. Their visits are responsible for many "UFO" sightings, and after a few abductions these unethical (even for a Pranir) traders discover that humans make great organ donors for Santari. "Organlegging" is kept to a minimum, however, because the GWC patrols the area vigilantly to protect a species that has been tagged as "promising." 1902 AD: A Scytharian ore-carrier crashes on Earth, where Khadam will one day be founded. Mindful of the chaos caused by the Pranir, the Santari use their clout in the Confederation to make sure Earth stays off-limits, preventing a rescue operation. If humans make it to the stars on their own, they will be asked to join...but right now they're at a juncture where they might just absorb any technology given to them and go wild with it. The Santari are not interested in creating another Pranir problem. Also, there are some disturbing indications that science doesn't work "right" on Earth, and Earth is secretly marked for careful study and isolation. Mid-1900s: Khadam accidentally launches the rescue beacon for the Scytharian ship, which alerts more Pranir that there's Someone Down There. Khadamite scientists also study both the ship and the Scytharian cyborgs in cold storage on board. Increased Pranir activity is responsible for many of the UFO sightings of the period, although other sightings are caused by secret government Supertech research. But Roswell was really just a crashed balloon that was part of Project Mogul, ironically. 1970s: The Galactic Warrior Corps finally decides that they need to send an observer down to Earth to determine exactly what the situation is. Delta Rose is assigned to the planet and becomes a well-known superhero, although her alien nature is kept secret. Her reports about the Magene scare her superiors, who consider the entire planet to be a dangerous superweapon. As a compromise with those who oppose planetary genocide, Earth is put under quarantine. Officially this is to keep the Pranir and other opportunists out, but it's really to keep the humans in. In 1979, Delta Rose goes public as a representative of the Planetary Confederation. 1980s: A relatively quiet time, but by the end of the decade Earth starts to experience invasions from other realities rather than from other planets. Outer space is all but neglected by humanity as they concentrate on other dimensions for several years. 1990s: Thanks to supertech and the abilities of certain superhumans, Earth finally gets into space. Solar Max spends much of his time exploring the galaxy, going far beyond the limits of the Planetary Confederation, even beyond the wider sphere of influence the Pranir have. The Arcanovore, destroyer of the mystic civilization of Alpha Centauri (the only race other than humanity to develop magic), attacks Earth and is contained, attracting a great deal of attention from certain quarters. Then 1998 comes around and it all crashes. 2000s: The Pranir start to move in. Political instability within the Planetary Confederation, combined with the assumption that all those with the Magene have died, results in Delta Rose being recalled and the quarantine being less carefully maintained. Khadam finds itself becoming a sort of Hong Kong for aliens of all stripes, mainly Pranir. 2010s: Word reaches the GWC that paranormals are being born again. Their position within the Planetary Confederation has become more and more untenable, and they know it's only a matter of time before the Great Houses start making grabs for the advanced technology the Corps guard. The T!rir have run out of new technology that they can safely bribe others with, and the Corps starts to destroy some of the more dangerous things that they guard. There is some discussion of using a starkiller weapon to permanently solve the "human problem," but Delta Rose lobbies to be allowed to try another plan first. She travels back to Earth and takes a position in the new United World government. From there, she starts to manipulate the new generation of superhumans in hopes of creating teams of superheroes that can defend Earth from any alien powers that might try to use them as weapons (or grab the still-trapped Arcanovore). 2020s: The Planetary Confederation is starting to become a joke. Earth manages to repel a number of incursions (including an attempt to steal the Arcanovore) thanks to ASH and other teams Delta Rose helped create from behind the scenes. Delta Rose also takes on an extremely powerful deputy and gives him advanced T!rir technology to help him both defend Earth and seek out troubles before they become too big to stop. A planetkiller weapon is finally deployed as a last-ditch measure to deal with the mad god Rebus, but Earth is spared destruction by either Rebus or the weapon. The fact that Terran superhumans can redirect the energies of a planetkiller weapon makes the rest of the galaxy nervous...those who have the clearance to know about it, at any rate. The Terran space program is still largely limited to orbital stations, although a moonbase is planned, built on the remains of an old supervillain base. National governments have trouble allocating money for too much space exploration and development, on the grounds that it's cheaper to buy the information from other races or hire them to act as ferries. Venus is mystically terraformed in 2025, and several colonies are established either intentionally or accidentally (Montreal having been banished to the planet in 2024, protected from the harsh conditions by the Viau twins). Additionally, Khadam secretly establishes a presence on Mars. Supernormal means and alien help are still required to maintain transportation to and from Venus. Beyond: At some point, the Planetary Confederation completely collapses, and the Santari engage in civil wars that reduce their influence significantly. Many Santari worlds are cut off from space flight and start to regress to a technological base that they can sustain on purely local resources. While superhumans become rarer and rarer on Earth, the secrets of tachyonic transformation are unlocked, resulting in the Twist Drive (which "twists" a ship 90 degrees in complex space, making it mathematically "imaginary" and thus faster than light). Humanity expands for a few centuries, absorbing a number of the "lost" Santari worlds. Eventually, the remaining core of the Santari Empire becomes aware of Terran expansion. Acquiring the secret of Twist Drive, the Santari enter a third age of expansion, which halts abruptly when the Santari Empire runs into the Terran-dominated United Worlds. A centuries-long war erupts along the border, while both powers expand outward, away from each other. ============================================================================= Addendum: Yes, the GWC's secret purpose is a lot like the recently retconned reasoning behind the Science Police in the Legion of Super-Heroes setting. I'm pretty sure I came up with it on my own, though. }->