A peek at a prologue

As I continue to find myself in the grips of actual, real paid work, I have no original content. Please consider this exclusive peek at the prologue of the book I'm currently working on as a settlemet. 

Prologue: Also known as 'How The Earth Went South'

When planet Earth decided to blow itself up in a haze of nuclear inspired glory, it wasn't considered as terrible an incident as one would think. Let's face facts, by the point that the twenty fourth century came around Earth was a bit of a dump. As more and more people had emigrated off to live out their dreams on the frontiers of space, those who were left behind were little more than the dregs of society.

And the dregs gave an admirable effort in the running of the planet. Initially, a few major players in the whole global politics and business scene stayed behind. They said they would never give up their beloved home world for the cold, dark horribleness of space. Their children, however, often had a different point of view and as the older generations of Earth loving folk died off, their genetic replacements happily took to the skies and went to have space adventures.

As more and more of the traditionally successful left, so to did the institutions and organisations that generally bred their prominence. Eventually, all that was left population wise were those who you wouldn't trust with a pair of safety scissors, the sorts of people who complain about the quality of television that is on at 4 in the morning and the criminally insane. And when those sorts are left to rule over a planet, little things like civilisation and culture pretty much go out the window. No matter what way you slice it, Murder She Wrote is not comparable to Othello.

To begin with, the Galactic Federation tried to take care of the danger zone known as Earth. They tried sending aid and providing some positive economical and political influence. But, as ever when such things are forced on people who just aren't interested in helping the common folk, all they did was swell the pockets of those in charge. Those that actually needed the little things like clean water and some food were, once again, left to twiddle their thumbs and hope that enough fell down through the system.

Eventually, the Galactic Federation got the right old hump with Earth and their pilfering, ungrateful ways. Despite being an organisation started by the human race on the exodus from Earth, the Federation finally ran out of patience with their old planet. The turnover of generations cut the bonds of sentiment with the planet and the Federation gave up, instead focusing their efforts in escaping the Milky Way to try to find other intelligent races who might actually want their help.

A few people trickled off Earth and into the larger space community, but for all intents and purposes the dregs that made up the population of the Homeworld were left to their own devices. And when people are left to their own devices with a chip on their shoulder, bad things normally happen.

In this case, the bad things started off with in fighting. The factions of countries that had formed their own little cliques all blamed each other for arsing off the Galactic Federation and their lovely, 'throw money at it to solve the problem' ways. This disagreement between folks eventually went from petty name calling to little skirmish battles, as each group fought to be the dominant one who would take over the world before currying back the favour of Galactic Federation and their sexy free money. Except it is human nature to not be able to just have little skirmishes. It is human nature to escalate things and not let bygones be bygones.

And when the people having a feud are the dregs of human society who have access to weapons of mass destruction, it became blissfully easy to see where things were heading. On an idle Tuesday afternoon at some point in an unseasonably warm autumn, countries finally had enough of each other and started to send nuclear weapons flying around the globe to land wherever they fancied. To say it left the earth a bit of a mess is an understatement. It wasn't completely trashed, but it definitely went down the used car jargon rankings from 'slightly used' to 'perfect for a restoration project'.

After everyone was done unloading their arsenals of death at each other, there wasn't a whole lot left. Most of the world was a great big crater while the parts that were habitable enjoyed a nice nuclear winter. The Galactic Federation, perhaps feeling a trifle guilty over leaving a planet to self destruct, gave them a little bit of help. They alleviated the nuclear winter in the area that was once the ancient city of London while dumping some old space station modules to help give civilisation a bit of a kick start. Eventually, enough people migrated that way and the human population of Earth began to grow once more. From either word of mouth that spread to the various enclaves that had appeared around the world or after being actively sought out and found on reconnaissance missions, the lost human souls all eventually came to London. This time, however, it was as a singularity.

To begin with, it was glorious. All of humanity joining under one banner in order to rebuild their shattered planet, vowing never again to let their differences get in the way of things. Oh, it was a wonder to behold. Except, once again, human nature sort of always gets in the way of wondrous events. When there is a chance to seize absolute power, people want to seize it absolutely. When there is only one sauce of authority, people will question it all the time.

Eventually, the rebooted human race went much the same of the old way. New London soon turned into a new and updated version of Kowloon Walled City. Instead of being the starting point for the Federation to return the planet that they emerged from to it's former glory, New London became one of the staple stops on the tours of the seediest parts of the universe. It bred crime, it bred illegality and it became a base for many of the worst characters. The fact that the Galactic Federation had given up on it meant that if you wanted to stay off their radar, that was the place you went on your holidays. Or emigrated to.

Which is a shame really. London hadn't been all that badly damaged when the world cut off it's nose to spite it's face. If anything, the whole area had been improved as a stray bomb had landed in Slough. But a self governing cesspool it never the less became.

Earth became nothing but a second thought. Even those who actively tried to separate themselves from the Federation, the Rebels, didn't go there. By the time the 26th century came about, the old Homeworld Earth was, if anything, a taboo. Not one soul of humanity looked back there.

Well, maybe one...

Paid Work Foils Us Again

Sorry for no update yesterday. That pesky paid work got in the way. I suppose I could have knocked something together at 3am when I finished, but didn't think I should inflict a foul mouthed rant at you guys. I like you too much.

I'll be back tomorrow with a real life, sensible post.

Cat Story

I swear to you that this story is true. This is the kind of silly life I lead.

On Friday, I didn't get done working till rather late. By that point, I couldn't be jacked to go and have a proper night out so I just made like a sad old man and walked up to the local pub for a few beers.

All seemed perfectly normal, I said hello to a few people and meandered outside for a cigarette. While outside doing my bestest to shorten my lifespan, I noticed a ginger cat chilling in the smoking area. Now, I hadn't ever seen this cat before in my life. It seemed quite friendly though. After a bit of investigation, I found out that someone had brought it down from another pub and that it was “his” cat. When he went to leave, he picked the cat up by the scruff, literally threw it in his jacked and marched off. I did think “what a prick” but, as I'm British so very reserved, didn't say anything to him. Before I finished my cigarette, though, he had thrown the thing back in the pub on his way off to god knows where.

Now, as always when you get a slightly odd situation in a pub, a roomful of men dissect and over analyse it. It all adds to the drama. We decided it didn't know where it was, as when all the humans went away the cat continued to just chill out outside. We decided it wasn't local to the pub (well, local in cat terms...) as nobody had seen it before. We therefore decided that the guy who had grabbed it and brought it down was in fact that much of an assclown that he grabbed a random cat. Come to think about it, yesterday when I mentioned that someone should do something I was told “I wouldn't, he will burn your house down.” Nice guy, then.

I considered bringing it home, but then thought better of it. It might have wandered home, it didn't seem in too much danger of being hit by a car and seeing as I was staying with my parents I didn't think they would like having this random cat brought home. Plus, we only put the family cat down last week. Too soon, man, too soon...

Anyway, I was last one out the pub. I suppose that is pretty normal really. I said goodbye to the cat, stuck in my headphones and began the walk back home. Except, when I stopped and got to the main road, I saw this little thing dart along the street. The sodding cat had followed me. I thought, as I was walking in the direction from which it was earlier snatched, it was just on it's way home. Except when I crossed the road, so did it. And when I walked down my road, so did it. It was most definitely following me. When I got to within about 30 metres of my house I was sure that it did not belong to anyone down my street and that it was for the best if I just brought the little critter back to mine. It happily followed me, and was in the front door as soon as I opened it.

Now, I had a decision to make. I had this random, strange cat follow me home. What the hell do you do? Looking at it, it had been well fed, although it showed a few signs of recent weight loss. I decided to chuck the thing some food and then went about my business. It seemed happy to chill out in the house. It unlocked the cat flap and it even went out and came back in.

By the time I went to sleep, I had shut it in the kitchen so it could get outside but not get around the rest of the house. In the morning, it was gone. I assumed it had gotten over being grabbed and yanked by the cuff, had some food and just sort of catted off somewhere.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the thing turfed back up. My dad instantly recognised the thing as a local cat who used to both play with the old family cat and sometimes sneak in and try to steal our old cat's food. Safe in the knowledge it was local, we just ignored it and thought it would go home at some point when it got hungry.

Except, it didn't. It hung around all evening. And all night. I heard it meowing when I went to sleep, and when I woke up this morning I heard it meow again. It hadn't been anywhere but our front door step. Taking pity on it, we gave it some food. It had been there all night and, although I don't exactly want the thing keeping on coming back, felt sorry for it.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. TL;DR - This damned cat followed me home and is trying to move in. Tomorrow we'll call the RSPCA and get some advice. Might even see if they will send an officer to give it a scan and see if it's chipped (no collar, you see). Assuming that nobody has reported the thing missing to the RSPCA, which they may well have done as it would have been missing since Friday afternoon, we will see if it can be identified. Failing that, we'll leave it with them.

Then, we get a really effed up decision. What happens if nobody claims him or an owner can't be found? Do... do we keep it?

Sort of nothingy post I know, but all weekend has been focused around this darn cat.