History Literature / ThePentagonWar

''The Pentagon War'' is a hard ScienceFiction novel, still in progress, that had its start over three decades ago.

In 1980, at the tender age of 15, [[Tropers/{{tracer}} this troper]] thought, "Why do wars always have ''two'' sides fighting each other? Why not a war with, say, ''five'' sides?". So saying, I hauled out my dad's mechanical typewriter and banged out a [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/stories/pentagon_1980.html 40-page story]] in which I tried to describe a "realistic" space war between five star systems. Since hyperspace corridors connected each of the five systems to its two closest neighbors, forming a crude pentagon shape in space, I called this story ''The Pentagon War''.

Important safety tip: Don't try to [[SoYouWantTo/WriteAHardScienceFictionStoryWithSpaceTravel write realistic space SF]] before you've studied high school physics.

Nevertheless, the story became one of my favorites, and wouldn't leave my mind. I fleshed out the alien species, trying to make them really ''[[StarfishAliens alien]]''. I made a [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/pentgame hex-map-based war game]] out of it, using a lot of ideas I gleaned from ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles''. I built an entire [[http://www.stellar-database.com astronomy website]] to answer the question "how far is it from star X to star Y?". I toyed off and on with turning it into a full blown novel to be ''proud'' of. I hammered on the plot elements to make 'em pass the [[{{Realism}} reality check]], both from a "is that physically possible?" standpoint and from a "what kind of moron would do such a thing?" standpoint. And, when my eyes first gazed upon the earlier version of the MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness page from this very website -- in September of 2009, nearly 30 years after writing that first draft -- I finally decided to get serious about writing the novel.

For the most part, it's the hardest piece of SF I've ever written. There's no ArtificialGravity (other than via rotation or engine thrust), no [[TractorBeam tractor beams]] (mostly), no [[FTLTravel warp drive]], no inertialess drive, no InertialDampening, no ReactionlessDrive, and ''certainly'' no [[TeleportersAndTransporters transporters]]. With the exception of the technology behind the fusion reactors, there's not a single item used in the space battles that couldn't be realistically designed with known science today. (Well, okay, there's the focused magnetic beams, but we don't talk about them in polite company.) Space is ''[[AvertedTrope not]]'' [[SpaceIsAnOcean an ocean]]. The spacecraft all have accurate delta-v budgets given the nature and quantity of their fusion fuel. It takes ''time'' to go from a standing start to 1% of the speed of light.[[note]]Three-and-a-half days, if you accelerate at 1''g''.[[/note]] Engagements are fought at ranges of thousands, and even millions, of kilometers. Even the Bussard ramscoop technology on the true starships takes the realistic density of the interstellar medium into account, and pays at least token homage to the drag problem.



Here's a link to the '''[[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/Pentagon/Pentagon1.html first chapter]]''', which contains links to all 17 subsequent chapters. As of the time of this writing, only the '''first ten chapters''' are complete, but I intend to remedy that in the coming months.

* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: The name ''Mercurand'' was coined by combining Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger from Myth/ClassicalMythology, with Gellimand, the Centaurian personification of light.

* AllThereInTheManual: The author's notes are online [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/stories/Pentagon_war_history.html here]]. I hope you like math.

* ArcWords: If you like Human-Centauri so much, why don't you just go live there?

* CasualInterplanetaryTravel: A trip to Jupiter on a liner with a QC&C engine takes about as long as a trip to Hawaii on a [[TheLoveBoat cruise ship]], and costs about as much.

* ThemeNaming: In the original 1980 40-page short story, the attack on Human-Centauri by the ''Santa Maria'' happened at the same time as two other spacecraft attacked the same system. The names of the other two attacking spacecraft? ''[[ChristopherColumbus Nina]]'' and ''[[ChristopherColumbus Pinta]]''.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Spacecraft-killing missiles destroy their target by running into them really fast. The Centaurian secret weapon is a kind of guided slug (inspired, in part, by the Observatory's secret weapon in ArthurCClarke's ''Earthlight''). The inevitable Centaurian counterattack after First Contact started with high-velocity slugs launched at Earth's ICBM silos, with the intent of taking away humans' ability to deflect asteroids -- they were going to nudge some near-Earth asteroids onto collision courses afterward, which would have qualified as even ''bigger'' kinetic weapons.

** Conversely, Centaurians' lack of a sense of smell means they also lack sinuses and nasal cavities. When they try to speak human languages, it souds like a hubad with his dose stuffed up.[[note]]It sounds like a human with his nose stuffed up.[[/note]] It also gives them an accent reminiscent of [[RockyAndBullwinkle Bullwinkle Moose]] or [[Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure Pee Wee Herman]]. This means their native words don't have M's or N's in them -- with two notable exceptions: "Gellimand" (the Centaurian personification of light), and "Krammer" (the head honcho of CN Leonis). These two Centaurian words appeared in the original 40-page short story, which was written before the author had designed the Centaurian species; they are retained for [[GrandfatherClause historical reasons only]].

** UV Ceti IV's moon is exactly 120 kilometers in diameter, the same as the [[ThatsNoMoon Death Star]] from StarWarsANewHope.

* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: The author's notes reckon history by years "A.C.", where the 1 A.C. is the year of first contact with the Alpha-Centaurians.

Here's a link to the '''[[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/Pentagon/Pentagon1.html first chapter]]''', which contains links to all 17 subsequent chapters. As of the time of this writing, only the '''first nine chapters''' are complete, but I intend to remedy that in the coming months.

* ShoutOut: The name Ken Tractor is a shout-out to Ken Tracton, author of [[http://www.scribd.com/doc/58323299/57-Practical-Programs-and-Games-in-BASIC 57 Practical Programs and Games in BASIC]].

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pentagon_2_9639.png
[[caption-width:350:Probably not UsefulNotes/ThePentagon you had in mind.]]

No relation to ''ThePentagonWars''.

* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: The name ''Mercurand'' was coined by combining Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger from ClassicalMythology, with Gellimand, the Centaurian personification of light.

* FantasticSlurs: Humans who dislike Centaurians refer to them as "xorns," after the monster in [[DungeonsAndDragons AD&D]] that they vaguely resemble.

* JohannSebastianBach: While waiting in line for the Sirius/Human-Centauri hyper hole, James Carter plays [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/Pentagon/Wir%20Eilen.mid "Wir Eilen Mit Schwachen"]] from Cantata #78 to pass the time.

* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: When Centaurians first encountered us primitive, backwards humans, they had already harnessed the power of controlled proton fusion in the QC&C reactor, and built interstellar {{Ramscoop}}s that conquered the drag problem. Yet, they'd never even thought of computers or nuclear weapons.

* TheRedPlanet: Mars is home to two Solar states, named Mars and North Mars. In the early history of TheVerse, the two territories grew to each others' borders and had a war, until Earth intervened and subjugated ''both'' of them.

* OhMyGods: Lt. Colonel Doe, being a true-blue Human-Centaurian, says "Plague's poison!" where most people today might say something like "Good lord!"

* OhMyGods: Lt. Colonel Doe says "Plague's poison!" where most people today might say something like "Good lord!"

* GetOnWithItAlready: Nearly the first ''half'' of chapter 7 is one long InfoDump, covering the entire history of Human-Centauri, Centaurian social structure, the first year of the War, the potential time-paradox implications of linked hyper holes, and (for all I know) the virtues of flossing your teeth[[note]]not that Centaurians ''have'' teeth[[/note]].

* ShoutOut: The name Ken Tractor is a shout-out to Ken Tracton, author of [http://www.scribd.com/doc/58323299/57-Practical-Programs-and-Games-in-BASIC 57 Practical Programs and Games in BASIC].

* ShoutOut: The name Ken Tractor is a shout-out to Ken Tracton, author of several books on TRS80 BASIC.

* HumansThroughAlienEyes: "Whenever Torra touched a human, it felt jarringly ''warm'', like a piece of equipment about to overheat. Half the time, they seemed to be complaining about this or that 'smell,' as though their ability to sense trace chemicals in the air were a curse. The other half of the time, they were obsessed with their mates, or with finding a mate, with the same fervency a Centaurian obsesses over its clan. And that didn't count the 8 hours out of every 24 those bipeds frittered their long lives away asleep. And they were so ''picky'' about pronouns, with this one demanding to be called 'he' and that one screaming to be called 'she'."

For the most part, it's the hardest piece of SF I've ever written. There's no ArtificialGravity (other than via rotation or engine thrust), no [[TractorBeam tractor beams]] (mostly), no [[FTLTravel warp drive]], no inertialess drive, no InertialDampening, no ReactionlessDrive, and ''certainly'' no [[TeleportersAndTransporters transporters]]. With the exception of the technology behind the fusion reactors, there's not a single item used in the space battles that couldn't be realistically designed with known science today. (Well, okay, there's the focused magnetic beams, but we don't talk about them in polite company.) Space is ''[[AvertedTrope not]]'' [[SpaceIsAnOcean an ocean]]. The spacecraft all have accurate delta-v budgets given the nature and quantity of their fusion fuel. It takes ''time'' to go from a standing start to 1% of the speed of light.[[hottip:*:Three-and-a-half days, if you accelerate at 1''g''.]] Engagements are fought at ranges of thousands, and even millions, of kilometers. Even the Bussard ramscoop technology on the true starships takes the realistic density of the interstellar medium into account, and pays at least token homage to the drag problem.

* GetOnWithItAlready: Nearly the first ''half'' of chapter 7 is one long InfoDump, covering the entire history of Human-Centauri, Centaurian social structure, the first year of the War, the potential time-paradox implications of linked hyper holes, and (for all I know) the virtues of flossing your teeth[[hottip:*:not that Centaurians ''have'' teeth]].

** Conversely, Centaurians' lack of a sense of smell means they also lack sinuses and nasal cavities. When they try to speak human languages, it souds like a hubad with his dose stuffed up.[[hottip:*:It sounds like a human with his nose stuffed up.]] It also gives them an accent reminiscent of [[RockyAndBullwinkle Bullwinkle Moose]] or [[Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure Pee Wee Herman]]. This means their native words don't have M's or N's in them -- with two notable exceptions: "Gellimand" (the Centaurian personification of light), and "Krammer" (the head honcho of CN Leonis). These two Centaurian words appeared in the original 40-page short story, which was written before the author had designed the Centaurian species; they are retained for [[GrandfatherClause historical reasons only]].

* SleeperStarship: Arnold's starship in chapter 1. It was a distinct improvement over the slower-than-light starships of a century earlier, which lacked HumanPopsickle technology.

* AuthorityInNameOnly: Håkan Brezhnev is the Ayatollah of Sirius. The only time any Ayatollah had any real power was in the first two years of the Sirius A IV colony.

* {{Brainwashed}}: The CN Leonis system is populated primarily by Centaurians. Humans living in the CN Leonis system are taught by their Centaurian masters, from an early age, that their purpose in life is to serve and protect CN Leonis. The most KnightTemplar-ish of these brainwashing victims form the backbone of the Leonian "Fanatic Brigade," which is sent on the suicide missions that Centaurians would be psychologically incapable of performing themselves.