Sci-Fi Cinderella plot musings

[jeriendhal]

Think I finally figured out who Cindy's Fairy Godmachine is going to be and firmed up the plot a bit. From the looks of things the story is going to be set about two hundred years down the road from the humanity's Awakening on the Ring, after humans start going to the stars.



Cindy finds a very much illegal Groupmind morph with a sentient AI, on the human colony where she's indentured. The off-Ring colony that the Groupmind created managed to cut itself off from the Groupmind proper, fortunately without the morphs going Skynet on them, and with the mini-Mind's advanced processing + Human Ingenuity (tm) created with first Gate that allowed interstellar travel. [1] Unfortunately you still need a sub-light ship to get the Gate where you need to go, which meant they needed the Groupmind's resources to build the ships to get them there. Fortunately for handwave reasons the Groupmind was willing to go along with the idea.

Currently the extra-Solar colonies are in an uneasy state of detente with the Groupmind. Trade exists, and even cultural exchanges, but there is much suspicion between the two parties, especially given the Groupmind would really like to "help" all the people living off the Ring, who could be so much more comfortable if they came home.

Cindy's prince turns out to be a Ring born human currently serving with his family as an ambassador to the colony where she lives.

[1] Point-to-point travel ala SG-1, sized somewhere between an Ancients Gate and the skyscraper sized ones of haikujaguar's Kherisdhar stories.


Quotes:

"So you're really an Indian prince?"

"Technically. After the British left my family was mostly known for car manufacturing though..."

Comments

[mehhayperson.livejournal.com]

I could see the Groupmind going along with getting a Gate somewhere on the condition the Ring people and their morphs are also allowed to come and go as they please. That would allow the Groupmind some oversight into what's going on, and having morphs around would mean that they could help protect these silly off-Ring humans.