Second Contact
Introduction
Carl Sagon wrote only one science fiction novel, his other works were non-fiction and essays on subjects related to Astronomy. I've had an idea for a story along similar lines for some time but I could never work out a decent setting, cast of characters, or a good enough outline of just where I wanted to go with the plot. All I had was this idea for the 'Eureka' moment when the great discovery is made.
After reading 'Contact', and quite some time later seeing the movie which was closely based on it, I slowly got the idea that my story nugget could be written as a sort of prequel and sequel to Carl's. The book and the movie take place in different time settings, the former begins around the time of the Vietnam war, and the movie pulls in contemporary settings during the Clinton years (The president was actually 'photo shopped' into the movie, against his wishes.) I didn't see the need to pay strict attention to an actual place in time, this is a loosely based on elements of both the movie and the book in many regards. If you see continuity errors with the original story, keep your discoveries to yourself! This work is intended to stand on its own, though it does bootstrap itself using characters, places, and events from 'Contact'. So it is a "fan fiction" in that light.
This novel was originally written as a NaNoWrimo (National November Novel writing month) project. It was my very first effort for this contest, and originally I wasn't very happy with the experience. Writing a 50,000 plus word story in a mere thirty days time is a real rush job, especially if you only have a few hours every few nights, and maybe several more over the weekends to do it. With no time to do any needed research, you only have the knowledge in your head to base facts on. Of course Google does help, but ….
I left the manuscript alone for a few years with no thought of posting it anywhere, but I recently decided to re-read it again. I had remembered that I'd made use of SpaceX in the plot, and with the recent launch of the Falcon Heavy with Elon's Tesla roadster as payload, I had to dig it up.
I actually couldn't believe that I wrote this. For a rush job, it was fairly well constructed. There are a few plot elements that never did get fully fleshed out, with one major one simply being abandoned without further development. Still, other than my usual spelling, grammar, and word choice errors, it actually seemed to hold up well, far from the disaster that I had feared when I abandoned it.
I've edited the work, and rewritten parts of it to bring a few things up to date, mostly to reflect recent developments at SpaceX, as their rockets played a part in this story. I've decided that I will post this up to Fan Fiction, though the effort will take some time. The working title remains as "Second Contact" for now, but I have a strong feeling that it will be renamed sometime before the final chapter is uploaded here. I also expect I'll rewrite a few chapters, or expand some of them. So consider this a work in progress.