Include a MacGuffin?
Include a MacGuffin, possibly a genetically engineered monkey-like pet with vocal skills and cognition similar to a 10-year-old human. Assign the protagonist the MacGuffin, or have him find it, then have it turn out later that the completely honest MacGuffin is acting as an unwitting spy for an antagonist.
The much-loved pet should be simultaneously guilty of spying, and causing the protagonist harm, but completely blameless. It should be an unwitting pawn in a game it cannot understand.
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Model the senior leadership of the Eliza like in Plato's Republic. This includes relationships to children, foreign policy.
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What happened to the nukes? Many degraded without maintenance to replace, some bought by Eliza/Garbi Elizondo.
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Find a way to explore ares of the population outside of the dunbars. This might include other countries, islands, or areas within the mainstream where the dunbar system hasn't completed its takeover. Aapo needs to temporarily physically escape the authorities at some point.
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Does the conventicle that moves Mars exist within or outside of the dunbar/temple/sanctuary system? Probably inside a sanctuary, where politics is more dynamic than it can be in the dunbars. Some conventicles may be allowed, or tolerated, and others beyond the approved limits.
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Complete the Note to the Reader (front-back-matter/note-to-the-reader.tex) once the terminology (terminology.md) is complete.
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Series of interludes: Each named Rock makes progress.
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Later chapter: Mars moves. View of event from news media, Mars satellites, rovers. Bacterial life on Mars? Effects?
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Later chapter: There is crisis on Earth as it disturbs Earth's orbit. The result is to move Earth slightly outward, back toward the middle of the Goldilocks Zone, and assisting with global warming.
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Details of moving an asteroid with a spacecraft from asteroid gravity tractor.