A Future We'd Like to See 1.0 - Introduction
By Twoflower (Copyright 1993)
 
     Science fiction stories come and go, detailing the exploits
of heroic men and women as the forge bold new frontiers in the
unknown, pausing only to strike dramatic poses for the camera.
 
     This is not a series like that.
 
     This is a series of short stories taking place in a future
we'd like to see, as the title implies.  We'd like to see it,
repeat, SEE it, not live in it, because it's not a fun place to
live in at all.
 
     A brief history lesson shout set the stage...
 
     Thanks to some travelling tourists from another planet,
Earth got space-faring technology it only dreamed of in cheap
sci-fi syndication shows centuries before it really should have. 
Being the pleasant, cooperative, kindly race we are, we proceeded
to immediately lay claim to most of the galaxy whether it liked
it or not.
 
     Of course, the problem was that we weren't the only people
out there trying to lay claim to the universe.  Three other major
races fought and strived to settle and explore the galaxy.  There
were the green, furry rabbitoid Ytts, who were an easygoing
species unless you cross them.  Cute 'n fuzzy fluffy Murfles,
with cute purple fur and glossy black eyes and a serious attitude
that you can only get by being considered 'cute' by one
civilization too many.  Purple skinned, green antennaed Sarens
happily dealt in trading to both sides of the unofficial war,
profiting from arms sales, and living like kings.  Well, not like
kings, but definitely like very rich people.
 
     Earth made for an unexpected third contender between the
Ytts and the Murfles.  However, this is not a war story, because
President Doofman (the only president in Earth history to be
elected by mistake) went and got all the species leaders drunk,
then had them sign complicated alliance pacts.  When the
hangovers cleared, the Terran Confederation was born, and unless
said political leaders wanted to be kicked out of office for
being gullible fools, they pretended it was their idea all along.
 
     So now it is the future, or rather present day to the
denizens of the future, and the Terran Confederation owns a
pretty hefty slab of the galaxy.  (The only neighbors are the
traders, pirates and mercenaries that lurk in the Anarchy Zones
outside of Terran space, but I'm afraid they don't count in the
census.)  The four species interact, mix, and generally play the
political dance with such incredible finesse that nothing ever
gets done at all at the United Planets building on newly-named
Terra.
 
     A sprawl that huge is much like a brontosaurus, in that if
you kick one end, it takes a long time for the other end to say
'Ow!'.  Communication, quite frankly, sucks between colonies,
ports, and planets.  Police forces are practically nonexistent
unless you want to fork over money to hire out a squad from the
Space Patrol, the Heavily Armed Ambassadors of Friendship and
Fun, or the Not So Secret Agent Corporation.  (In order of cheap,
ineffective service to expensive, ineffective service.)  Sure,
there's the TC-managed Starfleet, but you'd need a serious
political favor if you want one of THOSE ships guarding your
rear.
 
     Take four alien races, half a million worlds, no phone lines
(at least no reliable ones) and not enough law enforcement to
cover the area and you've got a universe of chaos being
advertised as order.  This is the story, or rather, stories of
the people who strive to survive in this mess.  The tales of
those who break the law, and those who enforce it (for a price). 
Or just the tales of those caught up in technology, walking the
traditional tightrope of those who run the nets and systems on
the newly devised VOSnet (Virtual reality Operating System).
 
     We'd like to see a future like this, maybe in the movies, or
in short stories.  You couldn't pay me to live there.