Notes

This story was originally planned to be included in the very first cycle. It ended up fitting better in this second cycle, though. It’s about the Chain of Food for almost 100% of the story. And the Heavenmatter is important here, which you only really learn about in this cycle.

That shift to a new location, however, did change the original idea of the story.

The original draft was closer to horror: humans send out exploration ships and none of them return. They want to ask what’s happening by landing on the closest inhabited planet, when the planet is suddenly gone. This would make it a story about humans being hunted left and right by Planeats—by terrible monsters.

Of course, the story still has the same general idea. But I decided to focus on different aspects.

• The rise of AI ( = artifically intelligent computers and robots) that the world has seen, especially in recent times. It both sketches a beautiful vision of the future and an incredible nightmare, especially for creative people like me. I wanted to write a story about it while it was relevant; though it’ll probably be relevant for decades.
• Almost all the stories in this cycle end with a physical fight or battle. That’s quite logical, as the Chain of Food is about battling for survival and eating others. I didn’t want to repeat myself too much, however.
• Additionally, physical battles are boring if you don’t care about the characters or don’t really believe things could end badly. (Unfamiliar people who shoot at each other, or swing fists, until one happens to remain and “wins” is rarely interesting.)

This changed the story to one where they don’t directly fight the Planeats (for the most part). The battle takes place in the background, while you really focus on a father-son relationship, and the human-robot relationship. I could’ve told the story from the perspective of a HERO pilot, or that Delja woman. It probably would’ve been a fine story too.

With the method I chose, however, I could do multiple things at once and save the last chapters from becoming nothing but “fight, fight, fight, lose (because they’re fighting monsters the size of PLANETS)”. I could also continue earlier stories a bit more easily.

My larger gripe with the story is perhaps that beating the Planeats—a gigantic threat to which we build for some time—in a single short story is a bit too quick. That’s why the Planeats (and AR-BOT) might yet live …

Other remarks?

As usual with this time period, my notes are short! It’s not based on some true history and any scientific underpinning it has was set up in earlier stories.

I’d love to explain how our current AI works. But the story really doesn’t revolve around it enough to make this relevant. Additionally, in a few hundred years, it might be that our spaceships use completely different techniques for robots.

More and more stories will come about computers, algorithms, and possible visions for the future of technology. I’ll go into more detail then, when the story truly focuses on it.

Characters

• Arren (son Captain): very intelligent, has made some amazing inventions (such as AR-BOT and AR-GLASS). Sincerely believes his work is the future and that it’s stupid to do anything manually or even have jobs anymore.
• Kirren (Captain): purposely uses outdated or manual methods, such as a pirate steering wheel and paper maps of the known universe, as he can’t trust the judgment of a robot or computer.
• Jannih (leader of radio communication): large responsibility, especially in terms of communication and messaging. Insecure, easily scared, but tries to overcome that. Always walks around with a hand radio.
• Begha-ti-Rac (leader Delja): created Planeats by combining Heavenmatter. That almost made the entire Delja population go extinct. Is fine with cooperating with humans, but the real truth and intentions are always hidden behind a cool mask. Out of revenge, she does a final suicide mission to poison a Planeat and save the humans (for now).
• AR-BOT: doesn’t necessarily have a personality, as it’s just a robot finetuned by Arren to have a female voice, make no jokes, and show no emotino. This programming does lead the robot to often say the same things (such as “I really must insist that you perform action X.”)