The Opposite Force
Extracted from Scrivener backup: The Opposite Force.bak2019-04-28T18-01
Draft
Front Matter
Quote
“I want to be a force for real good. In other words.
I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world,
but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.”
\
- John Coltrane
Ogunde
When The Bombs Flew
Affairs aboard the International Space Station were surprisingly well mannered 3 months after the world had ended. Russian and American earthborne annihilation had not compelled their respective orbital citizens to do the same. Commander Eikichi Goto was relieved he hadn’t had to come in the middle of something like that.
Relive the moment the bombs flew. How everyone reacted. Reveals characters efficiently.
It wasn’t all bad. The day after the blasts the had stopped with all the science experiments. Eikichi was doing one about BLANK. He was still keeping up with the VEGGIE project but had happily dropped robotics and gravity experiments. His cucumbers were near to ripening and provided a practical food source if things went sideways. The others had mostly stopped their projects and despite being commander he thought it cruel for make them continue with tasks that were objectively speaking pointless now. He knew his command held a lot less auhority now that the countries they all had stitched into their jumpsuit shoulders no longer existed.
He was only the second Japanese to command the ISS after the national hero Koichi Wakata.
Weightlessness effected everyone differently. For RUSSIAN A, it meant a vein in his forehead swelled to make it look like he was eternally holding in a fart.
A relay satellite beamed their transmission to a receiving antenna in White Sands, New Mexico. There had been no detonations near the antenna so it was still in operation.
Mission Control survived the initial blast radius of Houston’s nuke but the people on he ground were quick to forget the problems of 3 people in space for their own, more pressing needs.
After that, a lot of military posts responded, but never prolonged. Enough for them to piece together the key rivals who had butted heads in what Rus A had coined the 5 hour war.
They had maintained communications for a month with CFB Cold Lake in Canada. At that point the black carbon was getting too thick and they bid them good luck as they went to bunker down with the rations they had. Each astronaut had their own liasion on the ground during their shift awake that they bonded with and gathered intel from. It was a flurry of entering and exiting friends, dwindling in supply. Ike knew in a way that they were listening to humanity die.
After the initial shock the next conversation had been school playgroundesque as “who shoot first?”
The Iranians bombed Tel Aviv. The Pakistanis bombed Delhi and the North Koreans bombed Seoul. After than the bombs came in dozens of cities, not singles. No one knew who had bombed first, and even if any of the above were the root culprit either.
Communcations
Ike talking with a base outside of Chennai
The refugees are overcrowding the cities. The military cannot keep us safe anymore. The navy is shipping us out to the Andaman Islands. God be with you.
They are the last launch capable site we were in contact with. No one is coming for us. Either we find our own way down or we die up here.
\
Time To Leave
Ike is in the cupola.
Every free moment before the doom, he would he down into the cupola and earth gaze. It was a popular past time for many other astronauts past. He worked shifts alongside Phil, who was usually happier lifting weights. Better for Ike as the cupola wasn’t big enough for 2. It was a small glass dome buttressed by supporting scaffold, than poked out nadir of the ISS.
The earth was massive and not all of it was visible at once from the height of their orbit. After a while he had begun to recognize where they by way of cloud formations, ocean visibility and soil type. Now he was able to tell by observing their position in relations to the giant black carbon cloud that shrouded half the sphere. It had begun almost immediately after the blasts. There were multiple plumes from cities in the more industrious countries. Those eventually combined to form masses that approximates the geographic shapes of the main nuclear victim states; US, Russia, China, India, Europe. Their position on the same hemisphere meant that wind eventually combined them all to form one massive swirl and turn the Earth into a muddy marble. The southern hemisphere was no longer pristine either, and a dusty soot hung over it as well, but it was nothing in comparision to the black mass north of it, that was so think in an increasing maount of places that no sunlight shined through, and no night lights beamed out. The north was asleep in a blanket of suffocation now. It would not emerge any of the in the astronauts’ lives.
He calls a meeting.
Preparations
Staying Behind
Ike is in the cupola again.
The Last Face
RUSSIAN A reached to close the Soyuz hatch from the inside. His face was the last that Eikichi would ever see.
To Be
Detach From Station
When the Russians detached from the ISS, they didn’t feel much of anything. The clamps slowly unclenched and it took the Soyuz about 20 minutes to drift a safe distance away from the ISS before they could perform the first burn. Well, the ship didn’t feel much of anything. Sydney felt a bit apprehensive.
Re-entry
Gravity
Rest
Offering
Outskirts
The sand storms let up.
MAKE IT SEEM LIKE SYD is alive, but really the narrative has switched to the Russians.
They fashion a wheelbarrow out of supplies. One persion carries the wheelbarrow. One person has the makarov. One person navigates.
\
Proof
Digging
Ready For Winter
Expression
No Longer Human
Edema causes his upper body and face to swell.
His heart is very weak and he has lost a lot of muscle and bone mass,
Lack of good sleep drives in antzy.
Ike didn’t look abundantly human anymore.
Angel
He was presiding over the end times.
Look through many religions for examples of angels/arbiters of death. Have Ike equate himself with them and decide to fulfill his destiny.
\
Buddha described 4600 CE
as the year his teachings will be forgetten.
The
seven trumpets
sounded by seven angels. There were only six astronauts so rounding error.
\
“How little it takes to make us happy! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music life would be a mistake. The German even imagines God as singing songs.”
— Nietzsche,Twilight of the Idols
”In some remote corner of the universe, poured out and glittering in innumerable solar systems, there once was a star on which clever animals invented knowledge. That was the haughtiest and most mendacious minute of world history’yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star grew cold, and the clever animals had to die.
One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life. It is human, rather, and only its owner and producer gives it such importance, as if the world pivoted around it. But if we could communicate with the mosquito, then we would learn that it floats through the air with the same self-importance, feeling within itself the flying center of the world.”
Nietzsche,On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense
\
Research
New META
What are the key interpersonal conflicts?
Let’s have an earthbound originating perspective as well perhaps.
"" - There was little risk of a coup or outright conflict happening aboard the station, as our very survival depended on a complex calendart of upkeep tasks that couldn’t be done without 7 out of 8 of us continuing to handcuff-free.
Core conflict: We need to protect humanity, but due to scarce resources, we can only protect it’s essense? What is the essence of human pursuit?
The captain - intellectual enlightenment, but his time in space alone results in him becoming more and more primitive as time swells on, so his real lesson is that we need companionship.
The failed expedition - to survive at all costs, but he comes to realize there are certain prices he is not willing to pay. He dies, this means the real lesson is that we need sacrifice.
The successful expedition - To live morally. He does immoral things to keep going. The real lesson is to be adaptive. The very best, and rigidest among us, do not survive.
Analogy - man leaving paradise (the ISS) to venture to the dangerous Earth. The remaining occupant is God. This illusion will plague our surviving occupant.
Conflict Ideas:
Loss of Loved Ones - this will hit everybody to some degree. Not too many bachelors in space. One character could be swayed on where to land based on where their loved ones were. "" If we land on a different continent, we swore to wave off the infintessimlly small chance to run across family members in the wasteland one day.
Man vs Nature - first at top the space station, as the teams try to fleetingly manage how much longer they can stay alive with what they have. Then on the surface, a team facing a nuclear wasteland.
Man vs Self - the lone occupant of the ISS tries his best to expand past his corporeal being to be a God.
Love - one of the surviving party falls in love with a surface dweller?
The Astronauts -
META
Story starts after the nuclear war.
6 astronauts
3 usa
2 rus
1 jpn
I THINK I’LL STAY UP HERE. For one dude, half rations will last for 3 years.
The world is covered in a bloud of black carbon, or most of it. They predict re-entry based on what parts are visible.
The Soyuz capsules are valid for 6 months so they chances to re-enter are time senstive.
Part 1: The crew on the ISS.
Part 2: The demise of the 2 person pod.
Part 3: The fate of the 3 person pod.
Epilogue: ISS astronaut’s suicide.
Possible landing sites: Australia (Perth). New Zealand (south island). South Africa
Places with lots of shelters: Switzerland. Finland.
There are those who fail, those who win, and those who chose to play an entirely different game.
The volatility of humankind could bring an end to civilization, but it could just as plausibly birth it once more.
Civilization, like jazz, is improvisation that can result in beauty and accomplishment?
The spacesuits weigh 300 pounds so they can’t wear them on earth.
Ike looses bone and muscle destiny. He looks like a different person and maybe not even human. He grows crazy.
The story is about how people cope with loss. Some move forward and fail, some move forward and succeed. Some dwell and get consumed.
When coping with lose, you may chose to move forward at your own peril. Or you can choose to dwell and surely be consumed.
Structure
Part 1: ISS
Title: Ogunde
The astronauts decide where they want to land on Earth. The Japanese astronaut tries to decide if he wants to join them,
Part 2: Outback
Title: To Be
The American astronauts land in the outback and fail to find civilization. They die.
Part 3: Farm
Title: Offering
The Russian astronauts find a farm and help build a fallout shelter with the community. They prepare for a long life underground.
Part 4: The End
Title: Expression
The Japanese astronaut has lived many months in space and sees the last nighttime lights of civilization extinguish. He commits suicide as presumably the last of his kind.
”It was not impossible that he was the last of his kind.”
Detailed
Part 1: Ogunde
Part 2: To Be
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- Soyuz 1 detaches from the ISS and burns to get into orbit behind it.\
- They burn to lower Earth orbit and enter the atmosphere at the right angle.\
- They start to feel the first effects of gravity.\
- They jettison the other 2 compartments and start feeling violent and spinning.\
- The capsule rights itself.\
- They deploy the parachute and slow down. Sydney sees the outback out of the window.\
- They land. \
- They feel incredibly weak and nauseous.\
- They decide to sleep and eat rations to recupaerate.\
- They forget to cut the chute and fly away with the wind. Phil had his seat belt off and bumped around to cut himself on soemthing.\
- He bleeds a lot internally and becomes even weaker. \
- Syd tries to save him but can’t.\
- Syd leaves the capsule in search of help but does not get far before he falls down and collapses.\
- He crawls back to the capsule to eat. He falls asleep and never wakes up.
Characters
Eikichi Goto
His first name means “supremely fortunate”
He is nicknamed Ike by the Americans after their president.
Sydney Vernon
Phillip Kirchner
Bobrov Larion (Larya) Sergeyevich
Ilyin Timofrey (Timeo?) Rodionovich
(Female)
Lobachyova Larissa Nikolayevna
Philosophy
Eschatology - part of theology concerned with the final events of history.
Ogunde
Truby
- Weakness and Need
Ike fears a simpler society and needs sophistication.
\ - Desire
Ike wants to keep on living life unchanged.
\ - Opponent
Ike is opposed by the plans of the other astronauts and the deterioration of the earth and ISS.
\ - Plan
Ike decides to stay aboard.
\ - Battle
He must convince the others to let him stay.
\ - Self Revelation
Ike realizes that he is condemning himself to eternal isolation and suicide.
\ - New Equilibrium
Ike is left alone in a prison of his chosing.
Structure
Motifs: Ike’s main experiment
The view of the earth out the window
His jazz records
His books
The limited remainder of his authority. For the majority of the story he is worried about it but he finally uses it to his benefit to enhance his aims of staying.
Conflict:
Stay: Ike
Go: Syd / Rus C
Wait: Phil / Rus B
Who cares: Rus A
Syd - Hopeful
Ike - Hopeless
Rus A - Pragmatic
Priorities:
Develop Ika, Syd and Rus A so they can each be protags. That leaves 3 minor characters to be fleshed out in the other parts.
Plot:
The last communication from some source comes in and they realize that they have no more contact with Earth.
Ike calls a planning session once they are all awake.
They explain lack of land communication.
They lay out intelligence and possible plans of action.
It is decided to look for suitable landing sites.
They prepare rations and the landing craft.
Ike thinks about leaving and what lies below.
They pick a landing site and make final preparations.
Ike calls a meeting and tells them he will stay aboard.
They have an argument but realize they cannot force Ike to come along.
They say goodbye.
There are russian made sections of the station.
The cupola Is the viewing deck. Ike can tell where they are based on soil makeup, oceans and cloud formations. Now he could get his bearing based on black carbon build up.
Foreshadow winds and dust storms in 2
nd
part in 1
st
part.
The 2 man team gets in trouble when their parachute blows them away. One member gets a cut leg.
The 3 man team prove themselves to the farm by showing them their descent module.
The Soyuz is the workhorse of spaceflight. Designed in 1968 and still in use.
The americans forget to unhook the parachute and wind blows them away until one of them gets injured.
Ike returns to the cupola twice.
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Ike
Ike\
- Caring\
- Morbid
Cultured
Sophisticated
Funny
Leader
Frustrated
Distracted\
Offering
Structure
They are already building the bunker when the Ruskies show up. It was not build before the bombs but after. They are a group of 2-3 family farms getting by.