Adventures In Re-Imagination #4
COVENTRY
Original premise: Based on the Heinlein "Future History" novellas. In 2012, a radical social ultraconservative man name of Nehmiah Scudder gets elected to the Presidency of the United States. He then suspends the Constitution, enacts the New Crusade to nationalize the Protestant and Evangelist Churches, and begins the totalitarian American Inquisition genocide against Catholicism, Orthodox Churches and non-Christian faiths. As First Prophet he rules America for decades, even after his own physical death. It isn't until well into the 22nd Century that his regime is overthrown and the United States is restored.
American society is radically different after the Second Revolution and subsequent Reconstruction. Two generations later, a young man named David MacKinnon is convicted of the crime of Simple Assault and given a choice of medical treatment or exile. He chooses exile, and is sent to Coventry. Coventry is an open-air megaprison in a reservation that had belonged to a Native American tribe that was exterminated by the Scudder regime. Now it's ruled by the misfits of American society, divided into three realms: New America (basically a parody of lawful order administered by organized crime lords), the Free State (run by fascists and skinheads) and the Angels (the remnants of the Scudder ideology). David, who had hoped to find a peaceful and solitary place to homestead, immediately gets into trouble in New America and is busted out of Death Row by Fader Magee, a professional thief. The New Americans are organizing with the Free State, whom they had been at war with up to then, in an attempt to break out of Coventry and start a rebellion in the greater U.S. Upon learning the news, Fader reveals to Magee that he is a spy for the Secret Service, and the two of them try to get out of Coventry themselves to warn the Army. They succeed, but only through the most hazardous of circumstances. MacKinnon is paroled for "good behavior".
Reimagined: The discoveries of possible inhabitable planets in other star systems and of faster-than-light space travel lead to the idea of exploratory and colonization missions beyond the Solar System. However, the first FTL space travel system available is too bulky and energy-dependent for practical multi-use starships at the moment--what is possible is a device that accelerates single-use, disposable craft on one-way journeys from Earth to the new planets. The governments of Earth decide that the best way to proceed with colonization is to send convicts out to the new planets as the vanguard and force them to do the grunt work of building the colonies. Coventry is selected as one of the colonies.
MacKinnon arrives at Coventry to find that the convicts have invented their own starship drive and have been building warships to attack Earth. He and Fader hijack one and there is an interstellar chase. Can they make it back to Earth before a nuclear war breaks out in the heavens?
Original premise: Based on the Heinlein "Future History" novellas. In 2012, a radical social ultraconservative man name of Nehmiah Scudder gets elected to the Presidency of the United States. He then suspends the Constitution, enacts the New Crusade to nationalize the Protestant and Evangelist Churches, and begins the totalitarian American Inquisition genocide against Catholicism, Orthodox Churches and non-Christian faiths. As First Prophet he rules America for decades, even after his own physical death. It isn't until well into the 22nd Century that his regime is overthrown and the United States is restored.
American society is radically different after the Second Revolution and subsequent Reconstruction. Two generations later, a young man named David MacKinnon is convicted of the crime of Simple Assault and given a choice of medical treatment or exile. He chooses exile, and is sent to Coventry. Coventry is an open-air megaprison in a reservation that had belonged to a Native American tribe that was exterminated by the Scudder regime. Now it's ruled by the misfits of American society, divided into three realms: New America (basically a parody of lawful order administered by organized crime lords), the Free State (run by fascists and skinheads) and the Angels (the remnants of the Scudder ideology). David, who had hoped to find a peaceful and solitary place to homestead, immediately gets into trouble in New America and is busted out of Death Row by Fader Magee, a professional thief. The New Americans are organizing with the Free State, whom they had been at war with up to then, in an attempt to break out of Coventry and start a rebellion in the greater U.S. Upon learning the news, Fader reveals to Magee that he is a spy for the Secret Service, and the two of them try to get out of Coventry themselves to warn the Army. They succeed, but only through the most hazardous of circumstances. MacKinnon is paroled for "good behavior".
Reimagined: The discoveries of possible inhabitable planets in other star systems and of faster-than-light space travel lead to the idea of exploratory and colonization missions beyond the Solar System. However, the first FTL space travel system available is too bulky and energy-dependent for practical multi-use starships at the moment--what is possible is a device that accelerates single-use, disposable craft on one-way journeys from Earth to the new planets. The governments of Earth decide that the best way to proceed with colonization is to send convicts out to the new planets as the vanguard and force them to do the grunt work of building the colonies. Coventry is selected as one of the colonies.
MacKinnon arrives at Coventry to find that the convicts have invented their own starship drive and have been building warships to attack Earth. He and Fader hijack one and there is an interstellar chase. Can they make it back to Earth before a nuclear war breaks out in the heavens?