A Timeline of Newer York

Michael Scott Shappe -

This is a living document that will be updated...maybe not every time I write a Newer York story, but reasonably often, to provide the chronology. Honestly, it's as much too keep it all straight in my own head as anything else!

298* Before Starfall

Dream of Spring begins its acceleration upwell from Earth, carrying a Community of about 10,000. The bulk of the Community are members of the Outbound Chabad, a Jewish-derived faith convinced that human salvation lies elsewhere than Earth, led by a chief rabbi called the First Rebbe. There are also about 500 crew members, not all of whom are part of the Chabad at all, commanded by the First Admiral, who are also considered part of the Community. This is not without friction, but the Founders spent years reading not just science, but science fiction, before they built their generation ship, and they're determined to make it work. (No story just yet, but I kinda know what happens).

0 Starfall

Dream of Spring arrives in TRAPPIST-1 system. The first year is simply dubbed Starfall, and forms the basis for the calendar.

  • "Chop wood. Carry water. Kvetch." The Community realizes the planet they set their hopes on, dubbed Fourth in English and Revi'i in Hebrew, is problematic for human habitation. The decision is made to instead exploit the advanced manufacturing capabilities inherited from (what they believed were) Old Earth's Last Days, and the mineral wealth of the inner asteroid belt, as a start, to build build out a city of stations.

3 After Starfall

The rebellion. Richard Silver, his wife Anna bat Mordechai, and several others reject the plebiscite that ratified the "orbital" option and attempt to take over the Dream of Spring. The Last Rebbe is killed attempting to deal peace with them. The surviving rebels are sentenced to exile to Revi'i, despite that it is not fully human compatible.

103 After Starfall

There is a brief scare when a long-period comet is mistaken for a possible alien intrusion.

145 After Starfall

Old Earth, which was not so dead as all that, yet, successfully cracks FTL, inventing the Skip Drive. The Skip reduces trips that would have taken hundreds of years, to hundreds of days--not exactly instantaneous, but at least making interstellar travel feasible.

215 After Starfall

247 After Starfall: Rediscovery

  • "Won't you be my neighbor?" Earth ship Lewis and Clark arrives in TRAPPIST-1 expecting to find it empty, and finds the early stages of Newer York spreading out in the Inner Belt instead.
  • "Planning for guests" The Mayor, the Admiral, and the Chief Rabbi discuss how to handle their unexpected visitors...
  • "Someone's knockin' on the door" Lewis and Clark docks for the first time at Newer York.
  • "Who are you when you're at home?" A slice of the Mayor's home-life on the day Lewis and Clark are set to arrive at the station.
  • "Sombeody's ringin' the bell" part 1, part 2, to be continued. The Mayor, the Admiral, and the Rabbi meet with the senior officers of Lewis and Clark. Not everyone is prepared to leave it in their hands...
  • "And now, the news..." The headlines the morning Lewis and Clark returns to contact with Earth.
  • "Overheard in Newer York: Antelope" A few years later, two children discuss some of what they're being taught about a new exchange of biodiversity with Old Earth.
  • "Overheard in Newer York: Coffee" An early immigrant to Newer York from Earth learns some surprising things.

462 After Starfall

523 After Starfall

Newer York has established itself, and the social system that it developed during the original journey has become the basis for a new kind of city culture. Newer York Station itself is a tremendous, six-ringed station, whose hub is still recognizably the hub of Dream of Spring, but dozens of other stations dot the Inner Belt, and other locations around the system have outposts as well.

*The Community is aware that it was subject to time dilation en route, but its calendar deliberately reflects only their own lived experience. Believing as they did that they'd never again be in contact with Earth, or with any other system, nothing else made sense at the time.