Aelwyd: Home: Caelestis Series

By Louisa Locke

In the late 21st century, ten Founding Families fulfilled a nearly century-long plan to escape the dying Earth and travel to the Andromeda galaxy to establish a new society on the planet they named New Eden. One of those first settlers, Kammie Gunther, is finding it particularly hard to adapt. Born on a space station, having never before breathed fresh air, seen a horizon, or felt wind and rain on her face, Kammie finds everything unsettling. It doesn't help that when she awoke from cryostasis she discovered her mother had remarried and she now has a younger step-brother. As she faces a new life, on a new world, with a new family, Kammie wonders if she will ever find a place in the universe that feels like home.

Aelwyd, a short story, is a work in the open-source, multi-author Paradisi Chronicles and is a good introduction to Louisa Locke's Caelestis trilogy (Between Mountain and Sea, Under Two Moons, Through Ddaera's Touch.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. Louisa Locke
• Release date: Jun 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393345497

Book preview

Aelwyd: Home

AELWYD: HOME

Caelestis Series Short Story

LOUISA LOCKE

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Originally published in Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi (2016) part of the Future Chronicles anthology series created by Samuel Peralta.

Copyright © 2016 by Mary Louisa Locke

All rights reserved.

Cover design © 2020 Michelle Huffaker

All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Aelwyd: Home

Other Works by Author

Other Works in the Paradisi Chronicles

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, the problems of climate change, epidemics, civil war, cyber terrorism, and nuclear proliferation have set Earth on a path of escalating disasters.

In the year 2025 AD, ten men and women come together to address these problems. These individuals each have enormous personal wealth that they made in a variety of commercial enterprises around the globe. What they have in common besides their great wealth is a deep pessimism about the future of Earth and an enormous optimism about space exploration as the only viable solution for the continuation of humankind. To that end, these men and women, who call themselves the Founders, begin the Paradisi Project.

The purpose of the Paradisi Project is the colonization of New Eden, a recently discovered planet in the Andromeda Galaxy that scientists deem capable of sustaining human life. The Paradisi Project harnesses the best minds on Earth to develop the scientific breakthroughs in interstellar travel and wormhole technology needed to transport the ten Founding Families to New Eden to establish a viable colony. Once there, their mission will be to ensure that this new colony doesn’t make the same mistakes that are destroying Earth.

By 2092 AD, the Paradisi Project has achieved its goals. With Earth continuing on its path to destruction, a fleet of ten ships are launched, each carrying 10,000 passengers––Founding Family members, their loyal employees, and the staff necessary to build a new civilization once their journey ends. What the Founders didn’t count on was that, even though they easily conquer the technologically backward natives they encounter when they first arrive, these Ddaerans have mystifying powers that will make them dangerous enemies.

Meanwhile, the Founders had left behind the SS Challenge, the 11th ship and the prototype for the rest of the Nautilus Fleet. The Reachers, employees of the Reach Corp, were promised passage on this ship if they retrofitted it for the long journey to New Eden, and as a reward for their role building the space elevators, stations, and ships that made the Paradisi Project possible, but when the time comes for their journey to New Eden, they face nothing but betrayal.

By the fifth generation of settlement, New Eden isn’t quite the paradise the Founders hoped for, and there are the beginnings of a movement to resist the ten Founding Families and the Council of Ten that governs the world.

Between Mountain and Sea (Caelestis Series Book 1) features