State of play (brief) (Patreon)

I added a little text to an Instagram Story yesterday to tell people about the Patreon page, so I thought I'd share it here too. It's a brief description of where this story begins.

This Weird-Field World begins in 2089, on an Earth that has managed to stave off the worst predictions of climate and population catastrophe, but one that still struggles with rising sea levels, inequality, food poverty, and disease epidemics.

Humanity is just beginning to reach out in to the solar system with sustained crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt. Over one hundred and eighty thousand people live in Earth orbit, three thousand on the Moon, and hundreds on Mars.

Earth feels like it’s at the dawn of a new and promising Golden Age, despite the problems that still exist.

Then a signal arrives. A verifiably alien signal. It’s not just a calling card, it’s not a message of existence like Earth sent in to space on Voyager.

It’s a set of instructions.

To build a spaceship.