Happiness: A Planet (40 page)

Other methods of communication are being considered elsewhere. We have 73 years in which to reach an understanding with the Nautili. The researchers employed by the Bureau of Nautili Affairs, if no-one else, are keenly aware of the urgency.

The City Senates, however, show but an occasional interest in the research and only grudgingly grant funds. As the results are small and cumulative rather than publicly instant, their political enthusiasm cannot be sustained nor depended upon. Yet, against all odds, the Bureau, enervated by its aged Director, remains confident.

The planet Happiness itself, as the late Hambro Harrap predicted, has become a tourist attraction. Add to that the number of personnel, directly and indirectly, involved with Nautili research, and Happiness’s last census revealed that, in the seven years since the advent of the Nautili, the permanent population has risen by 15,000 adults.

Within Happiness’s Senate the Member for North Seven, his constituency being entirely composed of ice cap and ocean, has taken on the unique dual responsibility of Advocate of Nautili interests and Spokesman for the whole planet. (The trader Senate Member, whose collusion with Hambro Harrap resulted in the loss of his ship, also lost his seat in the next Senate election. Otherwise the composition of the Senate remains unchanged.)

Tulla Yorke also declined Jorge Arbatov’s invitation to become a member of his team, has returned to her astrophysical surveys. She, however, remains an interested party and is kept regularly posted of all developments concerning the Nautili. She is still semi-resident on XE2. As is Inspector Eldon Boone, now a Chief Superintendent.

Sergeant Alger Deaver retired three years ago, remains on XE2. Constable Drin Ligure takes his holidays on Happiness, staying always at the Keal farm. Belid Keal’s parents have hopes, while Drin Ligure’s mother looks on with dismay from Torc. As for Drin himself he has seen three Sergeants come and go since Alger’s retirement; and though he may be attracted to planetary life he doesn’t know what he would do there. He does not fancy a policeman’s lot on Happiness, nor can he see himself as a farmer, or more accurately as a farmer’s consort. At the time of writing he is still undecided.

Awen Mendawer has moved to another city, was last heard of bound for an assignment on the station of Qlie.

Petre Fanne remains in the city as the mother of a four year old girl, the father of whom is not Anton Singh.

At the time of writing Anton Singh’s whereabouts are unknown.

Towards the unMaking of Heaven… Series Synopsis

The whole series of 5 takes place within an intergalactic civilisation known variously as the Supreme Civilisation, or, more often, simply as Space.

The first novel,
Balant
, has Dag Olvess, Malamud Bey and Pi Pandy marooned on the very edge of the known universe. Narrator is the priggish Pi Pandy. En route from his mother's substation to university in another galaxy, the ship he is travelling upon encounters a storm of cosmic proportions. The ship about to implode, he escapes in the ship's shuttle with two other young men, Malamud Bey and Dag Olvess. They end up on the planet, Balant, where they adapt to cave life. Finding an abandoned robot they repair the shuttle, investigate the planet, discover that they share it with some primitive savages and a marine intelligence, called Nautili, who are also capable of intergalactic travel…. Nautili, savages, musicians, slave traders, kidnap, rescue….. generally it's an updated Boys' Own adventure.

The second novel is called
Happiness
, which is the name of a planet, whose moon one day disappears.

       This story is told in the third person from the viewpoint of its many different characters - a young girl called Belid Keal, a bureaucratic Head of Department called Munred Danporr, the young policeman Drin Ligure, Petre Fanne an over-the-hill gymnast, Anton Singh a mysterious businessman, 'Dr' Tevor Cade, several Senators, the maverick bureaucrat Jorge Arbatov; and, among others, the two principal characters - Awen Mendawer, a photographer, and the heroinne, the astrophysicist Tulla Yorke.

       At the same time that the moon disappears all radio (speed of light) communication to and from that planet is blocked. Within Space only farmers and cranks live on planets. An unseen force destroys any craft that tries to leave the planet…. During the investigation into the missing moon, there are 2 love affairs and many considerations upon the nature of intelligence, government and society.

The third novel,
You Human
, is in 3 parts, Prologue, Leander Chronicle, and Epilogue. Prologue and Epilogue are told by the randy poet Farley Judd. He is also a Director of Communication. Free of any sexual hypocrisies himself, he tells of other station inhabitants’ sexual obsessions with his Talker. Talkers are telepaths in instant communication with all throughout Space. Talkers male and female have long sinuous bodies and very short legs. Misused and abused, the Talkers start to disappear, leading to disruption throughout Space. Farley Judd goes in search of them…. Leading eventually to the Leander Chronicle. The whole - Prologue, Chronicle and Epilogue - being an SF consideration of love, sex and hatred.

The fourth,
Not Now: Death, Dreams & Reasons for Living
, is an SF exploration of desire, dreams and self-deceit. A clever and conceited young poet, Okinwe Orbinson, is recruited from his artificial city world - part of a moribund space civilisation - by a small mysterious stranger calling himself Leon Reduct. Only when Okinwe has accepted Leon's challenge is he told that his mission is to save a, by now, rumoured hybrid-human race, Talkers, from self-extinction…. (All who have read 'Not Now: Death, Dreams & Reasons for Living' have said that it has left them feeling weird for days after.)

The fifth is
The unMaking of Heaven
. and is told in 3 strands,
The Recent Present
,
A History
, and
The Reconstituted Part-Memory of the Shining Knight Compiled Here as Narrative
. All of the characters are post-organic beings, minds become machines, calling themselves Synths or Eternals. Some Synths - led by the Shining Knight - decide that all Synths, including Sexthetes and Puzzlers, are Abominations, themselves included, and they set out to destroy them all. The survivors are those who hid. As did the Shining Knight.…

 
poetry collections -
‘To Be Like John Clare’ University of Salzburg Press 1997 ISBN 3-7052-0066-6

‘Skin&Bones’ Odyssey Poets  1997  ISBN 1 897654 03 0

‘Dialogues’ Silver Gull Publishing’ 1998  ISBN 0 9527668 3 3

‘John the Explorer’ Gecko Press 1999  ISBN 0 9535844 0 2

‘pieces’ K.T.Publications 2001  ISBN 0907759432

‘the complete pieces’ BeWrite e-book 2007 ISBN 978-1-905202-52-2

‘Rooms’ Oasis broadsheet 2002 ISBN 1-900996-27-8
‘apostrophe combe’ boho press 2003 ISBN 1-904781-02-0

‘Problems & Polemics’ boho press 2004 ISBN 1-904781-09-8

‘Rooms & Dialogues’ boho press 2005 ISBN 1-904781-66-7

‘Canoe’ erbacce press 2008 ISBN 978-1-906588-13-7

‘An Atheist’s Alphabetical Approach to Death’  erbacce press ISBN 978-1-906588-51-9

novels -
‘Sister Blister’ Online Originals  1999  ISBN 1-84045-047-9

‘The End of Science Fiction’ Jacobyte Books 2000  ISBN 174053028 4

‘Paths of Error: Undeclared War’ Jacobyte Books 2001  ISBN 174053073 X

‘Paths of Error: Constant Change’ Jacobyte Books 2001  ISBN 1740530780

‘Paths of Error: As Recorded’  Jacobyte Books 2002  ISBN 1740530969

‘Marks’ BeWrite Books  2002  ISBN 1-904224-02-4

‘Porlock Counterpoint’  BeWrite Books  2002  ISBN 1-904224-15-6

‘The Care Vortex’  BeWrite Books  2002  ISBN 1-904224-98-9

‘Sick Ape: an everyday tale of terrorist folk’ BeWrite Books  2003  ISBN 1-904492150

‘The End of Science Fiction’ BeWrite Books 2004 ISBN 1-904492-70-3

‘The Secret Report of Friar Otto’ boho press 2006 ISBN 1-904781-97-7

‘We Need Madmen’ Skrev Press 2007 ISBN 978-1-904646-45-7

‘John John’ Turner Maxwell Books 2008

‘Balant: a beginning’ RealTime Publishing 2009

non-fiction -

‘Vera & Eddy’s War’  BeWrite Books  2002  ISBN 1-904224-97-0