Part I . . . Notes, References, and Shoutouts (Prologue, Chapters 1-3)
(RTO Supplement #1)
Please note: Return to Oreana is a sequel to Four Months in May (serialized here on Substack). While not essential to read the latter first, I would recommend doing so. This first supplement, therefore, makes several references back to Four Months in May. Subsequent supplements will focus strictly on Joanni and the Eridanus’ Return to Oreana.
Joanni Neiswender walked down the hallway of the ISEA Headquarters Annex . . .
ISEA is an acronym for the Intragalactic Space Exploration Agency, the mammoth organization regulating space travel and space exploration for this collective of planetary governments.
Joanni was pleased to see that her friend’s rise through the ranks had done little to diminish the audaciousness of her apparel.
Revisit Four Months in May. Chapter 14. People With Dignity for the backstory of Joanni’s initial impression of Brennan Vela: “. . .she [Joanni] did not like her excessive under-eye makeup albeit in the common style of Altruz IV, nor did she appreciate the clinging, inappropriate fit of her clothing.” Despite her questionable style, Ms. Vela turned out to be one of the most competent of the diplomatic staff on board the Eridanus for the initial trip to Oreana, and later became a close friend to Joanni.
Brennan Vela’s character is based, in part, on a young woman who roomed on my senior college dorm hall. I disapproved of her, as she did not exhibit the proper feminist college co-ed style and behavior of the rest of us at the time. She had a loud group of male friends who frequently came around and she never seemed to study. Of course, upon graduation, I discovered she was among the top of our class and had been admitted to a prestigious law school. A classic case of don’t judge a book by its cover.
“The old Primora you knew was better. It hasn’t been the same since she was disposed of.”
Primora is the Oreanian title for the highest ranking member of the Governing Council. The declension is always female.
Chapter 1. Return to Launch Point
Annoyed at himself, he stopped, but it was just as well he had hurried along, because he entered the transport bay just as canister #6 starting spinning.
Again, see Four Months in May. Chapter 4. Heard as Well as Seen for an explanation of transport tube technology:
Joanni hated transport tube technology, which consisted of stepping into a rotating cylinder on the starbase, punching a few keys, then dematerializing and rematerializing in another rotating cylinder aboard ship. The ship’s canister would slowly stop rotating, the door would slide open, and there you were.
“Is my office with the window still there, or did you and he turn that into something else as well?” Joanni asked, following her own train of thought. She suddenly looked panicked. “You didn’t assign it to someone else, did you?”
Captain Chipman’s charming gesture to Joanni in giving her a “room with a view”, is detailed in Four Months in May. Chapter 19. Through a Window Darkly.:
As a gift to her, and with the help of Eric Matulis, Chipman had secretly rigged up a private office, complete with window, in a storage section at one end of the deck that housed the ship’s officer quarters. A desk was put up against the one window in the storage bay, additional air circulation and electrical wiring for lighting installed thanks to the Eridanus’ head engineer, and module walls positioned to give Joanni her very own private "corner office with a view” where she could sit and work or look at the stars to her heart’s content
What earth people used to call kosläpp: the happiness animals exhibited—prancing and kicking up their heels—when released out into the sunlight after being enclosed in a barn all winter.
Chapter 3. A Seminar on the Planetary Cultures of the TempiP45XS Galaxy
“The mutual cooperation treaty provides ISEA-funded orbital security for the planet in addition to security for the excavation and transport activities and personnel connected with the mining of vouronium on the surface. The Council has shown no gratitude for this protection and no inclination to abide by restrictions on exclusive mining rights as provided for in the treaty.”
Chapter 4. The Nature of Our Purple World
. . . suffers from a lack of balance between what we would call male and female energy. Oreana is a matriarchal society in which the heads of family and state are female. Orean men are shuffled off to the distant plateaus of vouronium to provide material benefits, in particular electricity, and the culture subsequently suffers from a lack of drive as well as from the absence of any desire to build, explore, or grow.
This type of societal setup was similarly described in a quote post by Mary Harrington from November 27, 2023, specifically, this excerpt:
. . . what will happen to this purple world . . .
Oreana is often referred to as a ‘purple world’ due to its dark, murky atmosphere, the sweeping plateaus and other outcroppings of vouronium, and the burgundy hardpan soil.
Top Image: Heading back out. Source: Detail (Hubble image) from James Webb Space Telescope image: “NGC 346: Hubble and Webb Observations.” NASA, December 16, 2024.