Human
life is not radically different to now. More technology, better
medical treatment, but sociologically the same. Space travel has
enabled colonies to be settled on the Moon and some other planets,
some of which are in other solar systems.
Among the Kestrel crew, Enns comes
from Alpha, the first colony outside our solar system. Ryan comes
from another colony world (Orion 3) that sought to return to simple
pre-technology living, or at least minimal technology and mostly
physical labour. This backfired when they lost their doctor and
couldn't find someone with the older healing skills, or who was
willing to 'rough it' on their terms.
Space
travel also brought contact with aliens, and PACT was formed as a
sort of United Nations in space. When Earth developed warp drive, for faster-than-light travel, they were invited to join. The Kestrel works for the
'peace-keeping' arm and acts as a fast-response diplomatic and
trouble-shooting force. All the ships are named after birds of prey.
There are other sections of PACT which we do
not meet, which deal with exchange of technology and ideas, shared
scientific and other developments, cultural exchange, and trade. They
encourage diversity in their crews to promote inter-species
understanding. Out of 11 crew, two (Enns & Ryan) are humans not
from Earth, and two (Reuel & Balitoth) are aliens. Dr Grace is
from Earth but has worked away from Earth for many years, most
recently on a space station. This may apply to some of the other
human crew also.
The alien species in PACT are from Altair, Zoa, Kohath, Ana, Ochra and Caspar. In the first book in the series we meet them all. Just because they are part of the alliance, doesn't mean they all get on well. When a representative of each species is added to the Kestrel crew, the overcrowding bring out all sorts of frictions. I'll be blogging about the species in the weeks to come as well as introducing the crew.
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