Line #17 Literature/JunctionPoint


1	''[[https://kapteynstar.wordpress.com/ Junction Point]]'' is a hard sci-fi serial, written by Creator/ThuktunFlishithy, author of ''Fanfic/{{Hail to the King\|ThuktunFlishithy}}'' and ''Fanfic/TheLastDaughter''. Chapters are uploaded every Wednesday and Saturday.
2
3	Liu Haipeng is a contact specialist aboard the ''Odysseus'', humanity's first interstellar spacecraft. After the discovery of signals coming from Kapteyn's Star in the early 2050's, she is sent along with three other explorers to the star system, where contact is made with a species called the ktrit'zal. As interactions begin, however, the crew begins to wonder if there are other parties at play...
4
5	''Literature/AWorldInTheRoad'' is a rewrite of the story.
6	----
7	!!This story contains examples of:
8
9	* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: A major point in the story, where Liu and Rudak trade important texts and find that they enjoy them. Rudak, especially, seems intrigued by ''the Odyssey''.
10	* AlienBlood: Ktrit'zal blood is apparently ''neon-orange'' and smells of lilac. Tianlong blood is sky-blue.
11	** Also inverted, serving as HumansThroughAlienEyes. Rudak is surprised to see that humans have red blood.
12	* AlienSky: Not as alien as other examples, but Kapteyn's Star dominates most of the sky of Mulolowa. Rayleigh scattering from the red dwarf's light results in a very pale blue, almost white, sky.
13	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Subverted. While Rudak does begin to learn a human language, he chooses Mandarin instead.
14	** Later played straight with Diplomat.
15	* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Averted. Humans can survive on Mulolowa, but it's colder and has a much thinner atmosphere. Ktrit is much hotter, with a thick atmosphere, five times the surface gravity, and is tidally locked.
16	* AllThereInTheManual: The Spacebattles thread offers some details that would otherwise be left out of the story. Notes on ktrit'zal writing, starship specifications, and so on.
17	* ApocalypseHow:
18	** Despite having an oxygenated atmosphere, Mulolowa lacks even microorganisms, which leads the crew biologist to theorize that it was scoured by a solar event.
19	** It's hinted that a Class 0 or 1 event might've occurred on Earth, as the population dropped from 10 billion to 8 in a single generation. Later confirmed to be an environmental catastrophe called the Surge.
20	** [[spoiler: The tianlong homeworld of Cefac suffered a 3a, thanks to a nuclear war.]]
21	* ArtificialGravity: Of the realistic type. ''Odysseus'' is capable of 1g of acceleration, which simulates gravity for the crew. However, when they insert into orbit and kill the engine, everything becomes weightless.
22	* BizarreAlienBiology: The ktrit'zal move like gorillas and are even bigger, yet have elephantine skin, which is rather unlike anything xenobiologistic guesses at. The tianlong are even weirder, looking more like a dragon of eastern lore and yet are somehow able to withstand hundreds of gees.
23	* BrainUploading: Tianlong, again.
24	* CasualInterstellarTravel: Averted painfully. It takes an absurd amount of energy, and the most advanced technology Earth has to offer, just to get to a 'nearby' star, and it still takes around 14 years. (5, for the crew).
25	* ColonizedSolarSystem: By the 2050's, there are small colonies and scientific outposts on the Moon, Mars, and satellites of outer planets.
26	* CoolStarship: Odysseus. Thanks to its ramscoop, it's capable of constant 1g acceleration, and is humanity's first ever starship.
27	* DeathWorld: Ktrit, by human standards. It's a tidally locked world, with ''five times'' the surface gravity of Earth. Temperatures run from tropical to water-boiling, and there is a perpetual storm on the planet's dayside, which often leads to violent weather on the nightside as well.
28	** The wildlife also sound like pieces of work. Rudak privately recounts a tale where he was almost eaten by some kind of predator called a ''vara'' when he was young.
29	* DomedHometown: Martian settlements, as offhandedly mentioned by Luís.
30	* DysonSphere: Currently considered for Sheshak.
31	* FantasticNamingConvention: Ktrit'zal are born with their given name and family name, much like a lot of humans. However, when they marry, or make someone a ''sedenbrok'' (essentially a blood-brother), they take on each other's family name as well. Family names are separated by clicks, represented as an apostrophe.
32	* FasterThanLightTravel: Only by the tianlong, and still with limitations. Also, ludicrously expensive in energy.
33	* FirstContact: The main point of the story.
34	* FoodPills: Due to the philosophical dichotomy between predatory, ancestral animal and wise sentient the tianlong actually prefer these lest they feed their inner animal.
35	* GeniusLoci: Diplomat spends millennia uploaded into his starship.
36	* GlowingFlora: When Liu steps into Rudak's habitat dome, she notes that every surface is coated in plant-like life that glows in a variety of colors, though Rudak himself has no bioluminescence.
37	* {{Heavyworlder}}: Ktrit'zal. Since their homeworld has a surface gravity of 5gs, they're incredibly powerful. Liu mentions that Rudak's arms are almost as thick as her torso, and apparently females are even ''bigger''.
38	* HumanPopsicle: As the sole non-essential crew member of the ''Odysseus'', Liu spent most of the travel time in some form of this. [[spoiler: A transplanted population of humans and neanderthals was also transported this way.]]
39	* HumansThroughAlienEyes: Some chapters are written from the perspective of the ktrit’zal Rudak and give insights into his thoughts on humans and human culture.
40	* InterspeciesFriendship: Liu and Rudak. [[spoiler: Eventually, they become blood-siblings.]]
41	* ImAHumanitarian: The tianlong funeral rites are this ritualised.
42	* LongevityTreatment: Discussed by Liu and Luís, as well as Rudak.
43	* LongLived: ''Humans'' are this to ktrit'zal, as it later turns out. Rudak, who's old enough to be a father, is [[spoiler: only ''seven'']]. The tianlong have them both beat, though, since ''age'' is [[TheAgeless something irrelevant for them now]].
44	* MulticulturalAlienPlanet: On Ktrit there are at least four major religions, and likely many more minor ones, ethnically diverse populations, prejudices, an array of family structures.
45	* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Discussed, and averted. Both humans and ktrit'zal take great care not to contaminate each other until they're sure they won't give each other plagues. Eventually, it seems that at least ''some'' things on each side are ingestible, as Rudak was able to drink green tea without trouble.
46	* NonActionGuy: The entire cast, save for a single instance in Diplomat's backstory.
47	* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Averted. Each human character is an expert in their own field, but not in each others'. Liu, the main character, is a xenoanthropologist; she can decipher alien languages and is knowledgable about biology, but the physics of several key technologies is lost on her.
48	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: A species-wide example with the tianlong. It's not the actual name of their species (''Rudak'' actually came up with the moniker, of all people), and is the Mandarin word for 'celestial/heavenly dragon'. Though the tianlong have their own name for their species, as per WordOfGod, it has yet to be shown in-story.
49	* OrionDrive: The ktrit’zal ''Allmother’s Light'' uses such a drive to overcome the five gee of Ktrit.
50	* PerfectHealth: The tianlong.
51	* RamScoop: Part of ''Odysseus''’ drive.
52	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler: Diplomat/Teksha is over ''100,000 years old''.]]
53	* ReallyWasBornYesterday: [[spoiler: In contrast to the above, it's revealed that Rudak, who's old enough to be a father, is ''seven''.]]
54	* SapientShip
55	* ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Averted. The travel time between stars is realistic so far.
56	* ShownTheirWork: Everything within the story has, so far, stayed within the realm of scientific plausibility. [[spoiler: The so-called 'starbridges', however, have brought this into question.]]
57	* SolarFlareDisaster: Speculated as the reason Mulolowa is a barren world, despite microfossils of recent life.
58	* SpaceElevator: It is briefly mentioned that Earth started work on one while the crew was en route to Kapteyn's Star.
59	* SpacePeople: Implied to be the case with many of the tianlong.
60	* StarfishAliens: The ktrit'zal. They're bear-sized quadrupeds with a lot of muscle packed onto their squat frames, and have natural armor plates. They have four eyes (though apparently they're have astigmatism), delicate palps along their snout that act a lot like whiskers, and large ears that can fold against their heads. They're less tolerant of the cold than humans, have ''neon orange'' blood, apparently get motion sickness easier, and their vocalizations run a gamut broader than that of a human's. Their reproduction is unknown, but from what has been mentioned, it's likely very different from ours. [[spoiler: They also only live a fraction of a typical human lifespan]].
61	* TimeDilation: Why the voyage to Kapteyn's Star is "only" five years for the crew.
62	* TidallyLockedPlanet: Ktrit, a superheavy ‘eyeball Earth’.
63	* {{Transhuman}}: Well, more like transtianlong.
64	* WeaponizedExhaust: Considered and discussed by ''Odysseus''’ crew before approaching ''Allmother’s Light''. They emphatically don’t want to fry the other ship just because they can’t back into a nice orbit, nor do they want to get too close to the ship that craps nuclear explosions.
65	* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "You see, our peoples have met before."]]

Context Literature / JunctionPoint