Now this one I like to do a little bit different than the standard way. It works best later on if you do it normally, but it's more fun to write a spoiler-free version that sets up the story without telling it.
Here's the tease:
The Travellers are advanced nomadic space-faring humans dedicated to peaceful science, hunted across the galaxy by an unstoppable menace. The People of the Ice are stone age humans with a rich oral history, driven to live on the ice cap by dangerous barbarians to the south. Despite their vastly different levels of technology, they are kindred cultures. James Houston, a Traveller anthropologist, spends a month living among The People, until a frantic evacuation calls him back to space. When his shuttle fails and crash-lands, he must cross a thousand kilometres of barbarian-infested tundra to safety with five of The People...and none of his advanced technology.
Here's the more functional, but less exciting version:
James Houston, a space-age anthropologist from the nomadic Travellers, spends a month living among The People of the Ice, a tribe of stone-age feral humans on the arctic ice cap of an old colony world. When the menace that keeps the Travellers ever on the move threatens, Houston's shuttle fails to reach orbit and crash-lands, leaving him stranded. Accompanied by five of the People, he must now cross a thousand kilometres of barbarian-held tundra to rescue -- only to miss his salvation by the final forty kilometres. Now trapped and hunted by both barbarians and a vast steam-age empire, he and the one Person of the Ice that survived the dangerous and ultimately pointless journey try to find a new life, unaware that the Travellers in orbit above have renounced their institutional policy of cowardice and are attempting to rescue them. In the end, the bold and risky rescue succeeds, and in the process changes Houston, his saviours, and the entire Traveller culture forever.
If you like, share yours in the comments below.
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