Control: Battle at Malachi Station…
I, Daniel Trump, wrote a novel. It’s about fear and building a life for one’s self. Also, the novel tries to be a fun and exciting space adventure about a group of wonderful heroes trying to save a space station from terrible tragedy and adversity. This one has less of a woke agenda and more of a set of unforgettable characters well developed.
It took me six months and a hell of a lot of hours of work. I started with the idea of writing a story about the Black Plague in London in 1348 — with London being a place with 75,000 people and a growing middle-class and a lot of class divides. Then the story somehow turned into an outer-space adventure with a space station which resembled a trade center much like 1348 London. The plague remained, and the idea of creating a trade route remained, but the idea of barbarians attacking became a central part of the story. AI’s somehow jumped into the mix, pre-formed, having a strong say into how the story developed. They became powerful beings towards the top of society, smart and dignified and managing everything for the humans who were mostly below them in social standing.
This story has themes of fear and morality, with battles being difficult and brutal. I wanted to show the characters who are flawed and not at all perfect in this story. The paladin feels scared and doesn’t want to fight anyone, and his sergeant has to work a couple hours after drinking and sleeping with someone all night long. People throw up or run away during combat. Some morals are thrown out in favor of personal wealth or survival.
Malachi Station became an important setting for the story. I really liked the way I described it. It’s a research center and cultural hub between Earth and alien planets — like the walren home planet. The walrens are a race of werewolf-like people, and some humans come to worship one of their leaders, a powerful man who demands success and ambition from his human followers. He challenges them to post online about their accomplishments and rates and reviews the best ones.
The college is another important aspect of the station. It’s a cultural mecca for rich and upper-middle-class students from Earth to come to study. The students create a vibrant art house-feel for the social areas of the station.
The Order of Paladins home base is on the station. Marcos leads them. He is a crafty veteran of countless battles. The paladins train and support from the station. They use it to rest and recover.
Bad guys. I know — a story with a plague doesn’t need bad guys. I heard a story about people sending plague victims into opposing cities with catapults and realized that the people attacking the station needed to teleport plague-stricken bodies into Malachi Station and cause a viral outbreak of a Black Plague-like problem. That seemed to me to be the genesis of a decent threat and set of circumstances around which to base a novel. Bad guys were born — very bad bad guys. These bad guys are reprehensible — and a confused and scared young genius is helping them. He just wants to stand up to the elite corruption and doesn’t understand what he is getting into. I thought that his arc would be interesting to look into.
I created The Battle at Malachi Station to craft a fun adventure story with characters that the reader can love. I feel like I have accomplished that. Do check it out if you want, or not, as you wish. It is three dollars on amazon right now.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
