01:19 pm - [Fenspace!] Adventures in unholy crossovers
This is a little ditty I put together for Fenspace!, then decided it was way too outre for prime time, as it were. So, outside of a restricted part of FenWiki and here, this one hasn't seen a wider audience. I'm only posting it here because a) it's kind of interesting, in a trainwreck sort of way, and b) I feel a need to start using this LJ more often.
So, with that in mind I give you instructions on How To Build a Battlestar Galactica (new version) / Fenspace Crossover Story Without Ruining The Metafictional Appeal.
INGREDIENTS:
* One as-ordered copy of Fenspace!
* An incomplete understanding of FTL physics
* The Galactican faction (for those not up on Fenspace jargon, these are the collected Battlestar Galactica fan clubs acting as a quasi-national government In Space)
* A nasty sense of irony
GENERAL TIMEBASE: Between 2020-2030 for the first phase, the second can happen at almost any point afterwards. A Nextgen setting where Earth has reached Pax Mundania and Fenspace now covers multiple solar systems with sizable populations is probably the best one to cut down on unnecessary Drama.
For nBSG, make your call depending on how many (and how Angst-filled) you want the Colonials to be. Personally, I like a discovery point around where they find New Caprica in nBSG.
PREMISE: Everybody knows the basics of this particular story.
“The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. There are many copies. And they have a plan.” The remnant of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, surviving the holocaust of their home worlds, wander the galaxy in search of their long-lost brothers on the Thirteenth Colony, Earth.
That's what the Colonials know. This is what's really going on:
Fenspace in the early years was a cauldron of weird science and weirder technologies. Handwavium made many things possible, but there were still many mysteries. Among these was the exact nature of faster-than-light travel. It was possible, but the math suggested there were more ways to make it work than the one limited handwavium engine. The Galactican faction, a group looking for a remote world they could call their own, heavily researched different methods of FTL travel. Eventually they found an engine that appeared to be perfectly tuned for their use.
So one morning, the Galacticans packed up all their ships and space stations, fired up their jump engines and vanished on their Exodus. It wasn't until after they'd left that other fen looked at their FTL calculations and realized the Galacticans' mistake. Their method of FTL worked, but there was a bug in the physics. The jump didn't just send them across 4,000 light years of space, it also sent them back 4,000 years in time.
Time passed. The Galacticans rebuilt their society along the paths laid down by their Fen ancestors. They built up Kobol as their homeworld, Earth and Fenspace faded into myth… and things happened almost exactly like the prophecies said they would.
Now, a generation after their ancestors left Earth the decendants of the Galacticans are coming home for the first time in thousands of years.
And they're bringing company. Better stock up on groceries.
The base idea for this one was shamelessly lifted from Charlie Stross' Eschaton novels, though in this case it was human overeagerness and not godlike AIs that stranded a group of people thousands of years away. Everything else is entirely my fault.