LOSS
This one is going to be a little different.
These characters aren't active NPCs and they aren't villains; these are characters in the background of our protagonist Gidget Starseeker and are part of the World-Building of my Space Opera Heroes Solo Campaign.
Here we go...
'The Starseekers' were a organization
of independent deep space explorers operating in and around the Frontier Sectors of Epsilon and Zeta for over 20 years. They surveyed over 50 planets in that time and made First Contact with five previously unknown starfaring species, including the Opionchidians, who are now members of the Galactic Federation.
About ten years into their activities, two of the lead surveyors, Gene (Chief Expedition Leader and owner of their starship, The Wanderer) and Gillian (Head Xenobiologist and a Xenoanthropologist) had a child, a daughter they named Gidget. The Starseekers was starting to look like a 'family business'.
Approximately 10 years later [and roughly 15 years ago] the Wanderer was investigating a Spatial Anomaly in the Zeta Sector when a discharge of unidentified energy damaged the starship severely. Gene and the ship's Chief Engineer, Gillian's Sister Ginny, had to go outside the ship to repair the damage when a second discharge appeared to vaporize Ginny! Gillian, overcome by her sister's death and her husband being in mortal danger, left her daughter with her robot companion and protector GUS and headed out as well.
Gidget's Aunt Ginny
Yes, she went outside the ship. I know what you're thinking...why her? She wasn't specifically qualified for this course of action, nor was she a particularly big fan of Zero Gravity. She did it because she felt she had to. To save her ship, your team, her husband, and her daughter, she had to do something.
She was right...to an extent. Gillian was able to assist Gene in repairing a key component that would allow the ship to escape the area and get beyond the range of the anomaly. Unfortunately, a third discharge took her and her husband away in a flash before Gidget's very eyes.
Over the next three years following the incident, the Starseekers broke up as an organization. Some just retired on the credits and accolades they'd gained during their time on the Wanderer. Others, without the leadership, vision, and charisma of Gene and Gillian, migrated to other exploration teams.
Gene, Gillian, and Ginny were the only members of their species on the team and that species is rare in the galaxy, their homeworld sitting in a sector that was practically on the opposite side of the Galactic Federation. Even then, few of them venture off their planet. Returning Gidget to other family members, if indeed any others existed, was not feasible. In addition, her parent's left the Wanderer and GUS to her.
For sometime after, Gidget remained in the custody of the Galactic Federation's Bureau of Unfulfilled Parental Guardianship until, at the age of 18, she was able to claim the Wanderer, GUS, and establish herself as Gidget Starseeker, freelance explorer.
In addition to her other adventures, Gidget is always trying to obtain information on the Spatial Anomaly that took her parents and aunt, now known as 'The Zeta Evanition Enigma'. She seeks to understand what happened, how it happened, and did they actually die. In all instances related to the Enigma, no debris, remains, or even scattered particles of the objects or beings struck by discharges from the anomaly are left behind. How is this possible? Could something other than simply 'hit by an energy blast' be going on?
The alternative is that our heroine is chasing ghosts and running from Loss.
AD
Barking Alien
*As originally noted, the proper names given to people of Gidget's species are the closest sounding Human equivalent. Family names are unpronounceable by Humans and possibly can't even be completely 'heard' with their antenna.
Evanition is an old time poetic word for someone or disappearing, vanishing, or fading from sight.
No comments:
Post a Comment