That Which Was Once My Soul

My latest science fiction short story was published by Ad Astra, and you can read it here: https://www.adastrasf.com/that-which-was-once-my-soul/

“That Which Was Once My Soul” tells the story of Velka, daughter of a Noblewoman on the icy planet of Ekath. Velka is crushed by the endless demands of her own self-expectations and a gnawing need for certainty that she refers to as The Serpent.

I’d like to expand the piece at some point into a novel featuring a large cast of characters journeying through the cosmos together, each with personal wounds that need healing, each looking for something in the vastness of space and among the countless human colony worlds that will fill the holes in their hearts. But perhaps they’re looking to the sky to provide a sense of completeness that only God can give.

One idea I want to focus on with this world’s setting is cultural divergence. While the real world has thousands of unique cultures with real and important differences, it seems like over the past few centuries we’ve developed a surprising number of similarities, at least superficially.

Let me give you an example: From what I understand (correct me if I’m wrong), 500 years ago, different regions would have very different styles of clothing. The clothing in China would look nothing like the clothing in Europe which would look nothing like the clothing in Africa. Today, however, you can drive through the Middle East and see people dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts that would look right at home in America. Suits and ties are seemingly universal for businesspeople everywhere. You can fly to the opposite side of the planet and find many of the same restaurant brands that you’d see back home. There are a lot of differences, too, of course. Political and religious beliefs differ widely. But it seems that instant communication and the ability to travel anywhere on the planet within a day have led to more cultural overlap.

But what if, in the future, this trend reversed. What if humans developed faster-than-light travel that enabled us to colonize hundreds of uninhabited planets, but we lacked faster-than-light communication to keep these planets easily connected. If interstellar travel is moderately expensive or difficult, perhaps groups would find themselves essentially isolated. Over the past century, humanity has grown more interconnected, but what if in the future it becomes less?

Would it be possible for a group to maintain a common culture if separated between star systems? Could a single government control multiple planets? Imagine being President of a multi-planet nation and having regions under your control but having no way to receive news and updates other than sending a spaceship on a month-long trip to check. In many ways, this might be more like societies in ancient history. The Roman Emperor couldn’t get real-time updates from distant regions the way a modern ruler could. The only way for him to send orders or receive information was by sending people on horseback. In this sci-fi universe, the situation would be similar: the fastest way to communicate would be a person carrying a message.

In modern times, people can get live news from the most distant countries, but without instant communication, events could happen in places so far away that the news won’t reach you in your lifetime. The people in such a future might not even know how many countries exist nor how many planets were inhabited if people can spread more quickly than communication. It would be like ancient times where you know what’s going on in your country and generally what’s happening in the surrounding ones but have only vague legends of the lands beyond those and no knowledge whatsoever of places even more distant. We would once again have a map–a starmap–with empty space along the edges.