Ask Me Anything -- Keldin Sands

What were your initial thoughts upon being woken up and told you're the captain now?

For a solid week, I was dead certain that I was dreaming. I mean. I went to sleep under the assumption I’d be waking up in orbit around Hylara, then suddenly I’m waking up in the medbay but we’re still years away and the crew isn’t there and instead there’s these new people and the captain is Doctor Aspen Greaves? And then everyone’s like, oh, actually you’re the captain now? Yeah, I definitely assumed this was a coma dream. It took me a while to accept otherwise.

To be honest, even now, if I do suddenly wake up in orbit around Hylara with Captain Reimann there, I won’t be entirely surprised. I’d definitely be relieved.

Are you concerned that there are also colonists planted on the Courageous by whomever planted the crew members to sabotage/experiment on the ship?

Oh, yes. If that wasn’t a serious risk, I wouldn’t have been recruited.

Do you feel like the stressors of the many situations are getting to you?

I’ve been overstressed since I woke up from chronostasis. At this rate I’m just doing my best to keep the ship in one piece and the crew from degenerating into a violent stress-crazed mob.

When you first read Kinoshita's notes what did you think of former Captain Reimann's admittance that he also had a loved one aboard the ship? Did you sympathise with him?

Well, I went through proper channels and got clearance, and he smuggled someone aboard the ship against the rules, so I’m not sure how well he expected that to pan out. I mean. I do sympathise in that his loved one died; he had no reason to expect that. But he should’ve obeyed the rules, they’re there for a reason.

Do you regret taking the offer to be placed on the Courageous?

Yes! This is NOT what I signed up for!

Are there any Tarandran customs, or holidays you hope to continue on Hylara?

I don’t know how taxation will work on Hylara – I imagine that we’ll be working with a central planned economy for at least the duration of my lifetime so taxes won’t be a thing – but I intend to find some way to continue to celebrate the Yeartithe. It’s a beautiful little celebration done in Tarandra once per year, where families and friends gather for a party and exchange small gifts in thanks for the value that they provide each other. People are assured of what value they bring to the family and the community, and children are encouraged to think of their potential and showered with praise about what strong an asset they will become. Once everyone’s gotten their valuations straight, they’re ready to submit their taxes to the government as a final gift and acknowledgement of mutual value between themselves and Tarandra itself, the largest of their communities below humanity itself. It’s a wonderful celebration of individuals, families and communities, and how we help each other and bring value to the whole. Even if the economics are wildly different on Hylara, I hope to maintain enough of the celebration to keep the spirit.

It’s also a very popular time of year for marriages, adoptions, and sorting out inheritances, because doing so at the very beginning of the financial year makes next year’s Yeartithe so much simpler.

How did you meet your husband? Did you propose, or did he?

He’s a painter. My house needed painting. We got to talking when we were sorting out a shortage of Pigment XV-1994 and whether we should wait a month for resupply or just bite the bullet and go with Pigment XV-1983 instead. Ket looked me right in the eye and told me that I’d be staring at the walls of this living room for years and I didn’t need to settle for second best, snatched the pen out of my hand and rescheduled the painting for a month later on my wall calendar.

Three months later I told him he was right, I wouldn’t need to settle for second best, and I asked him to marry me. The Sands’ were a much more high profile family than the Yorlas, so convincing his family wasn’t hard; I bought him into the family with a three year free property lease for his mother that I borrowed off my grandmother in exchange for a concession on some unrelated complex family issues, and we were married by the end of the year.

If you hadn't joined the Javelin Program, what would your dream life have been?

Probably a peaceful life of designing spaceship engines and sipping tea with Ket in a Pigment XV-1994 coloured living room.

What made you fall in love with your husband?

I’m a stubborn guy, and so is he. We were always there to second-guess each others’ decisions and not let the other one get carried away with something that, in hindsight, would turn out to be very stupid. It’s a valuable asset to bring into a family or a business.

Do you miss Tarandan? What is the one thing you'd bring from there if you could?

My husband! Haha, I know, that’s a coward’s answer. The real answer is the food. The food on this ship is as good as the crew can make it, but it’s always a bit unfamiliar. It reminds me how far from home I really am.

If I could bring anything from Earth, it would be the sunset. I hope that when we build the environmental domes on Hylara, they’re transparent, or at least have windows. I want to sip coffee with Ket while watching the sunset again.

How do you imagine your first sight of Hylara?

Boringly, I expect it will be a long-distance image from the onboard light telescope, followed by an analysis from our Kleiner array to check whether Earth’s long-range data on the exoplanet is correct. We’ll want accurate data on Hylara as quickly as possible. At that distance, it’ll just be a dot in space.

Earth said that there’s a chance that there might be water oceans. I hope they’re right. It would be amazing to see oceans when we get close enough.

What are your hopes for the kind of society you guys will build when you get to the planet?

As stable and prosperous a society as we can. It’s going to be a lot of work. I don’t agree with the selection of colonists – an 80% criminal population is a horribly unstable start, and the non-criminal filtering process wasn’t all that great either. Being able to get these people all working together in a society where all of our needs are provided for and nobody’s going to steal or abuse or kill each other will be a massive challenge.

Fortunately, it won’t be my challenge. My job is to get us to the planet; the establishment of the colony can fall into more professional hands.

Did you have any pets before you left?

I had a small flock of pigeons a few years ago, but I handed them off before being selected for the program.

What do you think of Aspen now that you’ve met them, as opposed to only having read their books?

They’re… not what I expected.  In writing, they’re much clearer, more direct, more certain. In person, they’re quite changeable and difficult to understand.

I think I just need to get to know them better.

What will you do if your husband doesn't make it?

I don’t know. I promised him I’d keep going. That was the promise we made to each other before going into chronostasis – if either of us had to keep going alone, we would.

But I can’t do that if he dies here. Too much is riding on my shoulders right now. If he dies, I’m going to be in a bad way for a long time, so that can’t happen until the ship and the colony no longer rely on me.

What was the worst bet you ever lost?

Oh I don’t gamble. Gambling is a mug’s game. I’ll take small ‘bets’ on the ship occasionally to help promote crew cohesion, but since the point of those is the social cohesion and not the stakes, merely taking them is a win.