[Placeholder] (Complete) NaNoWriMo 2016

And Then There Was Plot

"I have it!" The Writer dragged her fictives behind her into the Library write-in. "I finally found the thing that is going to give us an actual plot!"

"What? Who? Where are we?" Objected Simon as they were dragged into a new meeting room filled with tables packed with the shades of other NaNoers. "This isn't our library."

"It's a different library," the Writer said, setting up her stuff on one of the tables. "This is a one-time event instead of the weekly write-in at the other library. Don't worry, we'll be going back to that one, but this one is where I traditionally get caught back up, or even ahead of the word count goals."

"You're just under six thousand words behind," said Cat. "I don't care how good this new idea is, there's no way you are going to write that much today."

The Writer gave him a glare.

"Statistically he's right," pointed out Ship who was hovering safely out of reach. "I know we're only a third of the way in, but that's easily twice your best day so far."

"New. Idea." Growled the Writer.

"So share," said Simon as he summoned his comfy leather chair and wooden side table from the story mists. He pulled a stiff drink and his tablet out from between the cushions.

Cat eyed the chair and then looked around the room for a good place to summon the sofa. Sadly this room was a little more packed and a little less furniture friendly. With a grumble he summoned a giant beanbag chair instead and tromped circles in it until he'd found the perfect position to nap.

Ship just hovered.

"Right, so wormholes." The Writer flipped open her story notebook. "Look we know ship uses wormholes to scout with and that it takes an enormous draw of power to create them. Hence the having to stop to use them and the tiny size and lifespan of said wormholes. Simon had the idea the other day–"

"You're welcome, not that you ever said thank you."

"– that another ship could have made a wormhole large enough to push a ship through. Hence us finding a colony or a crashed colony ship ahead of us. Which is a great reason to land on a planet. And thank you." The Writer grumped.

"And that somehow makes a storyline?" Asked a muffled Cat from his cocoon of beanbag nirvana. "Also, you use 'hence' too much."

"Look, the basic idea what that at the end of all this you'd get a choice to go home again, right?" The Writer tapped the earlier outlines. "I didn't know how to get there before, but I do now."

"Wormholes?" Asked Ship sarcastically.

"Shut up, it works." The Writer snapped. "Look, wormholes bend space and time, right? So while I was looking at the distance side of things, it occurred to me we could use them for time as well. So if we can figure out how they work then Ship could, in theory, use them to send you back to the point right after you were abducted."

"But that also means the ship or colony that we find–"

"Could be from significantly more in the past." The Writer finished up for Ship who had dropped down to where he could scan the handwritten notes more effectively.

"But if we figure out wormholes, couldn't the bad guys figure them out and then go back to the past and kill all the colony ships before they leave?" Simon was starting to parse down the various timelines in his head. "Or is this something the bad guys don't have? Would it be possible for them to replicate the technology if they got their hands on the information?"

"It's not something they have," confirmed Ship. "But if they found a crashed ship, eventually they would be able to backwards engineer the technology. And since this is time travel we're talking about, they technically have an infinite amount of time to come up with the idea."