I know more about Starfleet and the USA than home

I have spent the longest time poking around at military ranks.
Wikli says British rank systems are used throughout the Commonwealth, or at least lots of bits of them are basically the same. So that's a whole lot of different places using the same like the RAF. Means carting it wholesale into the future won't sound quite so much like it all got colonised by the USA... just remind everywhere it once was colonised by us.

I looked at other languages too. I learned a new word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_ranks_of_ancient_Greece>Chiliarch, which is someone in charge of a thousand people.
I think -arch words can work pretty good because they sound like hierarchy, but I couldn't put them in order without looking up a ton of stuff.
Same like with Roman ranks, they linger in the language but I couldn't figure who was the boss of who without lots of reading.

I have developed Opinions on how many points a star should have.
I have decided I like bar codes.
You know what I have not done?
Written a single word of story. :eyeroll:

The basic problem is all this all is obviously more interesting, because I discover vast areas of my own ignorance and have clicky links to follow to fill it in. That other stuff is just stories I can make up my own self. Obviously.

*sigh*

I'm thinking I could go back to writing about merchant ships and thieves (and giving up before its finished anyway).

If I invent a military I have to figure out who they think they're fighting. I hadn't got around to that yet.
Or possibly I have if I paste together two different plot bunnies.

... then I have two different Malcolm Reed avatars wandering around.
... my brain needs a bigger cast list.

Original Fic: Sliding the Ladder [First draft]

People who only travel one stop never get why we call it the Ladder. It’s a long, slow, haul up or down to the Gate, a carefully choreographed high inclination dance with every other packet and carrier waiting, then one flash of blue white light, and back down or up to the dance in the next star system. One bright hoop does not a ladder make.

I lay cradled in flight gel, secure from all g-shock any human could survive. ( Read more... )