About the Story

Salvage Background: The Transit

by Cindy Rae

Episode 1 of Salvage finds our protagonist on her way to another planet.

Spreading to the Stars

Interstellar travel has been around for awhile, about a hundred and fifty years or so, and now humankind is colonizing other planets. Space is vast, and suitable planets are few, but, in addition to the handful of colony worlds, man also has spread out in ships to build space stations, mining operations, fabrication centers, and more.

Humans are the only known sentient life form.

Kaylah’s Journey

Kaylah is traveling with her family to Perth, a new colony world. The colony founders, a much smaller group, are already on-planet preparing for the second wave of settlers, including Kaylah and her family, to arrive on the aging transport, Brio’s Hope.

Rate of Travel

The settlers are not wealthy by Earth’s standards. Most colonists are not. The wealthy travel on the large, luxurious starliners which speed across the inky darkness to tourist spots before zipping back to Earth. The settlers travel on cheaper, slower transports.

Image of girl like Kaylah by Enrique Meseguer on Pixabay

Kaylah: Salvage’s Protagonist

by Cindy Rae

Character Notes on Kaylah

The protagonist of the Salvage series is Kaylah. Here are a few of my notes about her. Read more about her specifically in these posts or read more about Salvage here.

Naming Kaylah

Since Kaylah is part Cajun, I considered quite a few names for her:

Kaylah's father is part Cajun: Acadiana Louisiana Region, Wikimedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Acadiana Louisana Region, Wikimedia

Top Names: Ezelle, Zellie

Cajun girl names: Acadia, Adrienne, Alette, Alexandrine, Alexia, Ameline, Avoyelles, Cezelia, Edmee (Edmay), Eliette, Ezora, Karelle, Karine, Katia, Leonie, Marielle, Sidonie, Zeline

Other names: Kirra, Kira, Tyra, Tirra, Thea, Kyrine, Kireen, Zelelle, Kette, Cadia, Elonie, Zelia, Ezelle

Cajun Vs. Acadian

A Side Note

Wikipedia lumps Cajun, Acadian, and Creole folk in together a bit more than I would. While I believe southern Louisiana is a melting pot of ethnicity, subcultures exist even today.
A friend in college was offended if you called him, or his family, Cajun. They had been in Louisiana for many generations long before the Cajuns showed up.
I never heard him use the word Acadian, but I think that’s with whom he would identify.

Kaylah’s Description

Logically minded, yet not logical about her gift. She suffers from a delay in processing negative emotions, which causes her problems. Blind spots. Socially inept,

Short curly black hair. Petite. Voracious mind. Unsophisticated. Knows a great deal about space, especially astronomy. Easily blushes. Thin.

Likes to move sometimes when thinking or dealing with something. Awkward when watched. Quiet unless you know her well. Loner. Introvert. Anxiety issues. Processes emotions after the fact.

She sometimes offends people without knowing because of her emotional immaturity. Naïve. Gift of encouragement, tries to help others, likes to feel needed; loyal; unlucky; defends the innocent; persistent, courageous, kind, ingenius, loyal, weird sense of humor; doesn’t know how charming she is to other people (some of them, anyway). On occasion spunky.

Father is part Cajun, mother is a heartland mix of Irish, English, Scottish, German.

What Does She Want?

To survive. To be accepted by others. To be left alone. To study the stars.

What Lies Does She Believe?

People will reject her. She’s a freak and a failure. She’s not lovable. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. Space is safe. Her family is normal. She can be an astronomer even on the colony planet.

Water Reclamation in Space: Salvage Story Research

by Cindy Rae

Let’s talk some background for the Salvage series: the science facts behind water reclamation in space.

Although the series isn’t meant to be hard science fiction — I’m sure serious pundits can poke holes in the technical aspects a parsec long — here are a few notes about existing technology onboard the International Space Station. 1 Continue reading →Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2020 Cindy Rae Johnson

Salvage: Emmett’s Function

by Cindy Rae

In the first episode of Salvage we are introduced to Emmett. He’s the helmsman and (possible spoiler) assistant medic onboard the long-haul transport, Brio’s Hope.

In the book his function is to tell the parts of the story Kaylah cannot, and to illustrate not only the “coolness” of space but, more critically to the story, how dangerous space travel is.

This plot thread involving the ship through the eyes of Emmett has been on of the most frustrating to nail down. Too much of Emmett’s story lessens the emphasis of the dangers of space travel. Too little impact, and you won’t care much about Emmett.

I’m trying to work him as a foil, too, if possible, in contrast to Kaylah’s lack of power, lack of control, and fearfulness. There’s also a contrast between Emmett’s warmth and the doctor’s coldness.

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Salvage Premise and Synopsis

by Cindy Rae

As a beginning writer, I’ve struggled with describing my story ideas.  After research, thought, and effort around the definitions of idea, concept, premise, synopsis, and theme in writing, I discovered a solid concept, premise, and synopsis can help me craft the story more robustly.

I came up with the following premise and synopsis for Salvage:
Continue reading →

by Cindy Rae

Dim lights flickered on, illuminating curved metal walls extending into darkness. While he waited, he put one hand on the smooth metal, envisioning the giant struts just outside, encasing the tube and holding the water tanks fast to the body of Brio’s Hope.
From down the corridor came soft sounds, a light series of tapping soon followed by tiny green lights swirling around the tube, moving closer. Soon he could see the crowd of centipede-like robots spiraling around the corridor walls, the cleaning brushes sweeping around conduit and pipe. They soon streamed around him, on their way to their docking stations.