It was at this point in writing this novel, that it was becoming apparent that the story had more than one distinct sub-story. The first was an introduction to the universe and to one of the civilizations that inhabited it. The Xrans, as a civilization, were established as one of the story’s complex characters – their story being told as a study of their alien anthropology.
The second sub-story followed the humex (the biological partnership of human and Xran) west, across an entire continent and on into a second – 8,500 miles in all – to a point on the Earth, Nexra, chosen from orbit as the most favorable location for not only developing empire, but as the rendezvous point for the expected multi-Xran descents from orbit. The choice assumed the descent groups would land above the equator and in a common hemisphere with Nexra. But the landing locations identified were just a lightly educated guess. Many of the ancient technologies and discoveries were made during this trek: the wheel, building construction techniques, continual progress on sailing techniques and the assembly of ever larger ships, transport wagon development, bridge construction, copper discovery, money and banking, windmill development, the discovery of horses, among many others. The humex learned quickly how to manipulate their environment with the tools they found and developed along the way - necessity being the mother of invention.
The third sub-story would concentrate on the development and political rise of Nexra. Although, the humex developed processes to assimilate various, albeit occasional, human cultures along the way to Nexra, the increasing numbers of human tribes in the proximity of Nexra, called for a very sophisticated rework of those processes. These human tribes, in addition to being culturally different and more sophisticated than the early eastern human tribes, had unique qualities that were important to add to the humex civilization. This assimilation process was long and complicated. As has been written, fairness and evenly distributed prosperity were the watchwords of the humex. With everyone within the civilization happily contributing at each of their highest levels, the humex continued to advance exponentially.
Along with the social advances addressed by the third sub-story, the processes governing the physical layout of Nexra would be covered. Land set aside for residential, commercial and agricultural uses were defined and mapped efficiently in the usual humex way. A major port on the Great Sea was developed as were ever larger ships – both for commercial hauling and passenger transportation. The entire great sea basin gradually came under Nexran rule and the anthropology of efficiently blending human societies with humex societies was at the top of the political to-do list for the humex.
At this point, I was certain of at least three more sub-story divisions, (1) The Middle Descents – covering the second and third Xran descents from orbit; (2) The Rescue Voyage, covering the rescue, half way around the world, of the middle two descent groups; and (3) Millenium, which summarizes one thousand years of humex progress, and follows archaeological adventurers retracing the original trail and outposts left by the humex pioneers on their way to Nexra. The last sub-story contains some surprising events and discoveries.
