Traitor

For Crossed Spaces

When I found the submission callout to Rhiza Edge’s Crossed Spaces anthology on a writer’s Facebook group, my imagination immediately began to fire up. What could I write about? What other worlds could I discover? Editors, Lynne Stringer and R.A. Stephens, wanted to find stories that would give the writer (and reader) an opportunity to escape the surreal and sometimes frightening environment going on around them, amid a global pandemic. Covid had just emerged, and our lives were thrown into chaos. The headlines and stories shown in the media at the time were a constant pendulum-swing, truly awful and heartbreaking one minute, inspirational the next. And what struck me most was the human behaviour on display. There was the good, like the essential workers putting in long hours at the frontline caring for others, along with the not so good, such as the toilet paper wars and the selfish flouting of restrictions causing potential harm to the most vulnerable among us.

I wanted to show that dichotomy of human behaviour in my story. But I also wanted it to appeal to a young adult audience. And I had a yearning to write a sci-fi story. So, that’s where the idea for Traitor began.

When I thought about space exploration, my mind immediately went to the cliché of terrifying aliens out to kill innocent human beings. But then, isn’t the whole concept of finding other worlds capable of supporting human life simply a way to exploit another planet, use their resources as our own precious resources dwindle? So, I thought about who the true villains are. Maybe, it isn’t the alien after all.

The voice of my scientist main character, Callan Sorensen, came through naturally, and I had a lot of fun playing around with the character of Captain Brenthon Tate. I saw the two young adults juxtaposed, a thoughtful and curious scientist in a moral fight with both himself and with the ignorance, indifference and selfishness of humanity, as represented by the ship’s captain. I wanted the two to bang heads, and in so doing, show the good and the bad of human behaviour.

And I also wanted to show an alien that was far more advanced than us. A pacifistic race who could manipulate a situation without resorting to violence, one who values their young and who listens before acting, a thoughtful people who choose to be progressive rather than reactionary.

Essentially though, I wanted to leave the reader to reflect on human behaviour at its best and worst.

Poor Callan is left conflicted, having to make a choice between his morals and his loyalty. The choice is high stakes, a choice that would brand him a traitor to his own race. I’d like to hope the reader is left wondering what they would choose, especially when life gets a little tough. Would they choose to be selfish, like Captain Brenthon Tate, knock over an elderly lady in a rush to grab another twenty-four roll pack of toilet paper? Or would they choose to be selfless, like Callan Sorensen? I know which side of the coin I’d prefer to be on.