A day before he's supposed to leave for University, Fian Eklund discovers a serious problem. With his father's strangle hold tightening, a run for the interstellar border is called for if Fian is ever to become master of his own life...
Taking place within the narrative of Earth Girl, the first eleven chapters of Deltan Escape were released on Janet Edwards website to celebrate New Year 2022. The final extended version is slated for publication at a later date.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Seems to be a common problem in Delta Sector, due to the sector's values reinforcing controlling parents.
- Having already tried to force Fian to study Science instead of History by blackmailing tutors, Fian's father moves on to framing him for assault, effectively using the justice system as his own personal goon squad to control his son.
- On his way to Beta Sector, Fian joins a whole group being helped out of similar situations. At one point, he helps repel a woman trying to prevent her niece and nephew leaving with their father, who was injured by their other father.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Wallam-Crane Charitable Foundation have a whole section devoted to helping people escape from abusive situations by sneaking to different sectors. At Year End, there's an especially big rush of escapees like Fian trying to get to other sectors the moment they turn eighteen, and the Foundation helps by working with security to get people through their portals as soon as possible (much to Fian's relief, as he was worried about making all his connections). There are even specialists offering advice to people in Fian's specific jam, needing to outrun a restraining order.
- Black Sheep: Fian is the one history nerd in a family of scientific geniuses. To compound the problem, his father is excessively proud of being descended from Jorgen Eklund, founder of Cioni's Apprentices and the family live on Hercules, the most scientifically-minded in the whole of science-obsessed Delta Sector. He's had to study History in secret, and ends up having to sneak away to start University.
- Call-Back: In a story from Earth 2788, Fian's father used blackmail to try and get Fian thrown off his University course in an attempt to force him to study science. That story ended with Playdon pretending to agree to expel Fian on some pretext, while privately noting that Eklund Sr will not enjoy attempting to follow through on his threat. Presumably he's since realised the plan won't work, because he's now trying other means of controlling his son's life.
- Call-Forward:
- Fian's father won't shut up about being the grandson of the founder of Cioni's Apprentices, which Fian does not consider anything to brag about. In Earth Flight, Cioni's Apprentices use their illegal research to save Jarra.
- In Earth Girl, Fian and Jarra share a bottle of wine that Fian bought right after turning eighteen in accordance with Delta sector tradition. Fian alludes to that tradition while discussing his travel plans with his friends, when one friend reminds him and Fian replies that he can still do it, the shop just won't be local. Presumably he buys it from either Beta Sector or Earth.
- Chekhov's Gun: Fian having learned to whistle machine language to control his hover luggage, apparently for pranking purposes. It comes in handy when he has to use every bag he's got to take everything he owns, knowing his father will throw away anything he leaves out of spite. Finally, he uses it to block a woman from reaching the niece and nephew she's trying to prevent from skipping sectors with their father.
- Cliffhanger: Downplayed. The sample chapters end with Fian having just arrived in Beta Sector, presumably now safe from his father's control. However, he still has quite a lot of cross-sector travel to go, starting with a twenty-one-hour layover on Romulus. Plenty of time for a badly-behaved Deltan to get in all sorts of trouble...
- Cope by Pretending: An eight-year-old girl in Fian's group is coping with the trauma of her mother breaking her father's arm as he tried to get the kids away from her abuse by pretending the toy wand she has is real. The spell is broken when the kids' aunt arrives to try and prevent them from leaving.Girl: I don’t like this. I don’t like this. I don’t like this.
- Determinator: Fian proves Jarra's point that Fian is harder to bully than a concraz wall. With Eklund Sr using the justice system to try and force his son into the course and life he wants him to have, Fian quietly and calmly sidesteps him, sneaking out of the house and travelling cross-sector throughout the night if that's what it takes.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Fian's mother is annoyed that his father hasn't made any decisions about renewing their marriage contract. Readers of Earth Star know he's planning to let the contract lapse now that he's got what he wanted from her (two children to continue his infamous ancestor's legacy).
- Fian considers travelling through Beta Sector a Godzilla Threshold due to their salacious (largely undeserved) reputation. Later, he'll join a Beta Sector clan, and consider them his real family.
- Fian and others are helped by the Wallam-Crane Charitable Foundation, whose founder is an ancestor of Jarra's.
- Frame-Up: Fian's father tries to stop him leaving for University by getting one of his research assistants to press phony assault charges against him, resulting in a restraining order that prevents him leaving Delta Sector until the case is resolved. The charges are easily disproved as Fian has a rock-solid alibi, but by the time his case is heard, he'll have lost his University place.
- Good Lawyers, Good Clients: Fian's lawyer. Despite being newly qualified that week, he successfully finds Fian a loophole to leave Delta Sector before his restraining order comes into effect. And he does it all pro bono, to return an old favour from his cousin Playdon.
- Irony: Having deigned to agree to attend the Nobel prize ceremony, Fian's father is forced to make travel plans in a hurry. Fian's mother is concerned that a last-minute cancellation puts Fian on the same journey as his father. Fian reassures her; the cancellation was him, as he's travelling over half a day earlier than planned to foil his father's plans.
- It's All About Me: Fian's father seems to think the universe exists to serve him. He thinks nothing of manipulating the justice system to control his son, the implication being that this is what he assumes it's for. He acts like a brat over not winning the Nobel prize, explicitly referring to it as stolen rather than simply awarded to someone else.
- Loophole Abuse: A rare heroic version. Fian's restraining order doesn't go into effect until he's eighteen, which happens at midnight on Year End. He also can't travel interstellar unaccompanied until then, but because of the way Year End works across planets, he has fifty-one minutes between turning eighteen according to his home planet of Hercules (and being allowed to travel interstellar) and turning eighteen according to Delta Sector (and his restraining order going into effect, preventing him from travelling). If Fian can get from Hercules to any other sector in those fifty-one minutes, he'll be free to take up his University place without problems, as long as he doesn't return to Delta Sector before the situation is resolved.
- Mama Bear: Downplayed. Fian's mother won't stand up to his father overtly, but she's supportive of his goals and will absolutely help him sneak out of the house to sidestep his father's machinations.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Fian's father hadn't smugly contacted University Asgard to tell them Fian wouldn't be taking his place, Playdon wouldn't have called Fian to find out the truth and inform him of the problem while there was still a chance to fix it.
- Smug Snake: Fian's father freaks him out by smiling at him for the first time ever, tipping him off that something's wrong. Nothing that makes his father happy is going to be good for Fian.
- Serious Business: The Deltan tradition of buying wine as soon as you're legally allowed to, on Year Day when you turn eighteen. One of Fian's friends is concerned that he won't be able to, as he'll be in Beta Sector.Fian: I’ll be following the tradition. I’ll just be going to a shop a bit further away than usual.
- Rule of Three: Fian sees in the new year three times during his journey; once on his home planet of Hercules, once on Hathor on his way to the Cross-Sector gate, and once on Romulus, signalling that he's successfully evaded the restraining order by reaching Beta Sector.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Variation. The woman attempting to prevent her niece and nephew leaving with their father is plenty provocative, but isn't attempting to touch Fian sexually; he just prevents her reaching her targets by physically getting in the way and trusting to the rigid Deltan behavioural codes to keep her from shoving her way past. She tries to shove past him anyway, but he holds firm and the girl next to Fian pretends to mistake the woman for a pervert, giving Security an excuse to arrest her.Girl: So, you’re one of those people who get their thrills from touching strangers. Get away from us, pervert!
- You Shall Not Pass!: Fian protects three people from a family member determined to stop them leaving by physically barring the way. She tries to dodge past him, but others join Fian in resisting.
