Galaxy Trolls
From the author...
From the beginning I wanted this story to be the wildest thing anyone would come across in a long time. I wanted to challenge audiences' acceptance without breaking traditional narrative rules. It's not that I shy from breaking narrative rules, but I really wanted to challenge audience's acceptance early on even within the rules. If the audience couldn't accept the premise of the first 10 minutes, nor figure out where it was going without spelling it out (at least enough to hang on), then they would not accept the world I was preparing to reveal...a world that is deep, yet not fully serious.
On the surface, Galaxy Trolls is about courage, friendship and human development, three things that are very important to me. The premise of the story is something akin to that of an advanced intelligence animal rescue program. Our heroes (the orphans) are the animal analogy, at least from the perspective of 2000-year old bio-form model Xeraphis. And just like any animal rescue program, the orphans are taken in, restored to proper health (to a level of moral, physical and educational excellence) and later returned to the wild (earth). Well...they are returned if they survive, and there are no shortage of dangers where they go. 'Cause here's the twist, she doesn't do the hard parts for the orphans. It is the kids themselves who do all the work, the rescuing, restoring each other to health, and all the rest. They are guided, coached and encouraged, but they still are the ones that need to put in the real risk and effort.
As far as AI nannies go, Xeraphis is fairly clever. She's confident but somewhat quirky and awkward. She's seen a lot in her 2,000 years and a lot more in her previous-simulated-life. She never does share what those previous-simulated-life experiences were, just that no temptation could ever interest her enough to go back. But it needed to be tough. All AI need to first prove their commitment to service of others before they are let into the "real" universe with others who she would serve.
The story has a rather traditional adversary, Zorn. Traditional in a sense. The lines between good and evil are fairly clear in this regard. He's a bad guy. But where he comes from and what he's after is a bit more involved. It all centers on the "Veil of Thalamus". I cannot tell you here what this veil is, nor how incredibly fragile and important it is. All I can say that all intelligent beings have it. Zorn is after Dieter because of something powerfully useful about his...or his absence thereof.
Actually, by the time the story gets to the Germany scene, it's pretty clear a lot of people are after Dieter, though all for different reasons. There's irony in this that Dieter is the type of kid the world typically tries to forget. He's the type of kid hidden from the world, tucked away in some dark room of a clinic basement of some remote village. But he is about to embark on a very important adventure, one he has known about and been waiting for as long as he can remember. And even if anyone ever would have believed him in telling them where he's going it wouldn't have mattered. He wouldn't have any way of telling anyone. After all, Dieter is so severely brain-injured that on most days he can't even lift a finger, much less form a full sentence.
I wrote Galaxy Trolls to turn traditional expectations upside down, at least for a thought. Aliens aren't monsters; they're just kids. Time travel isn't impossible; it's like anything...the more you do it, the easier it gets. Space is not dangerous, at least not compared to Earth. AI is not to be feared. In fact, in the absence of a loving mother and father, it's commonly understood throughout the galaxy that the next best guardians for human kids are an AI nanny and an aloof and uninvolved Zeta Reticulin. So look carefully. The story happens fast. Every second counts. - J. Noel Cook