| Generated by Google VideoFX text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 2 |
I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve addressed you, my imaginary
audience. Sometimes I like to introduce new microfiction series as one of
the characters, or the in-universe narrator, or someone else involved in the
canon. Sometimes, however, it’s best if I just come at it as myself. In the
end, I decided to do it this way, because there’s no good way for a
character to prepare their readers for what they’re going to write. These
are going to be formatted as customer reviews, and people don’t typically
plan such writings. They have the experiences, and write how they feel in
that moment. I know that there are going to be 99 of these in totals, but
the narrating reviewer wouldn’t really know that. In fact, I’m still not
sure if the reviews are going to be from the perspective of one person who
visited multiple domes, or if each one will be from a different person. I
may leave it up in the air, because when it comes to real reviews, most
people don’t have reviewers that they follow. I mean, I think it
happens, but there’s often that trope with a prolific business reviewer who
believes that their thoughts are important to other customers, and the joke
is that no one really cares that much about any single review, and they
probably don’t pay much attention to a reviewer’s history. Anyway, here’s
the story. About 108 light years from Earth, there’s a planet called
Castlebourne. It falls into the category of a Charter World. Now, what is
that? Well, the closest neighboring star systems to Earth are known as the
Core Worlds. We’re a tight-knit group. They were colonized through
state-sponsored missions, they belong to a uniform, cohesive government, and
they follow all the rules. In return, they get military protection, and
resource exchanges without question. Stellar Neighborhood systems also
receive military protection and aid, but at a lower priority to the Core.
They don’t have to be post-scarcity societies, but their government can’t be
oppressive, violent, or unfair. Civilizations in the Charter Cloud are
expected to get there on their own, and for the most part, handle their own
needs. They can’t take military action against a Core or Neighborhood
system, but they’re not entitled to military protection from the
Core. They can execute trade negotiations, but nothing is guaranteed. Any
colony beyond this range is totally out of the Core’s control, and can do
whatever they want, but the downside is they get nothing.
Castlebourne enjoys really strong ties to the Sol System. Despite being as
far out into the galaxy as they are, they’ve been granted a number of
charters. They’ve been afforded technology, power allotments, and additional
ships in order to accomplish their goals. This is because Castlebourne
offers a lot to all citizens of the inner colony bands. Almost the entire
surface is littered with tens of thousands of geodesic domes. Most of these
will be pressurized, and become habitable eventually, but it takes a lot of
work, and a ton of resources. That’s why these charters are so important.
These domes offer visitors all sorts of entertainment and amusement
potential. Some are recreational, some of relaxational, some are for
exploration, some are wildlife preserves. Many of them are just for the
permanent inhabitants to live, and cultivate their independent society.
There are two gargantuan oceans at the poles. This planet boasts having
everything you could ever want. You can travel there using a fractional
ship, but it’s going to take you over a hundred years to reach it. If you’re
lucky, you might be able to get on a ship with a reframe engine, which will
take around two months. But most people don’t see any point in this. They
instead transfer their consciousnesses across the interstellar void via
advanced quantum tunneling, and download into new substrates. It takes about
an hour, and that’s it. Not every dome is available. There are just so many
of them, and only so many sufficiently original ideas. But believe me, there
are plenty of them. There is more than enough to see to occupy your time for
decades. It would be pretty tough to get bored on Castlebourne. Like I said,
the next 99 stories will be in the form of customer reviews, told from a
person (or people) who had some meaningful visit there, and they barely
scratch the surface. I could write a fictional review every weekday for the
next forty years, and still not even come close to covering them all.
Hopefully, these are the most interesting, at least out of the domes that
were ready at the purported time of writing according to the set time period
around the Grand Opening in the year 2500. Read them all, and decide for
yourselves if Castlebourne is a place that you would like to travel to some
day.
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