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Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

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Original title: Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series — Story illustration
Story cover artwork · AI-created artwork, not an official cover of the original work.

[Premise: First contact between dragons and humans, with technology at dawn of the information age. Book 1 complete, Book 2 writing in progress.] What if, billions of years ago, Earth formed a little differently? A bit less iron, a bit more water, and the first humans evolve upon a lone continent, surrounded by vast oceans that span 97.5% of the planet's (...)

Original fiction. Characters and events are invented.

Edited by: Huangguo Drama · Updated:

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Stories

### Chapter 1: Announcement Information

Hello everyone!

After almost a year of writing and editing, the rewrite is finally complete!

For any newcomers, this story takes place in a universe where humans evolved upon an ocean world.

These humans were landlocked upon their native continent, but eventually made their way to the second industrial revolution before discovering other landmasses across the world.

Book 1 covers the journey of the first successful expedition to these foreign lands, which are inhabited by many strange and alien creatures.

This chapter contains maps and some preliminary information about this world, but the actual story starts with the next chapter.

For returning readers, I ended up making quite a few changes, as well as completely rewriting the first 120k words or so (with some significant changes to the rest). I could post an exhaustive list of changes at the end of this volume, if that's something that people would like to see.

As per popular request, the original draft version of the story is preserved as a separate volume. These chapters will also be prefaced with [OLD] in their title.

This story of mine was inspired by works like The Martian and Project Hail Mary (By Andy Weir), and the Temeraire series (By Naomi Novik).

VikasRao on Deviantart has also been a great help in providing and inspiring ideas for this story, and their work on speculatively biology (featuring realistic dragons) is insanely detailed.

I wrote this story for several reasons, but mostly in an attempt to cover a more interesting and sensible first contact scenario. I also wanted to create a "magical" world without magic – reality can be stranger and far more interesting than fiction, after all.

And finally, special thanks to my beta readers for their help and feedback!

Reference information

Maps:

Earth:

Alt-Earth (In Real Units)

Earth

Mass

4.7725×10^24 kg

5.97×10^24 kg

Radius

6371 km

6371 km

Gravity

7.85 m/s^2 (80% Earth gravity)

9.81 m/s^2

Day

24 hours

24 hours

Year

420.1 days

365.24 days

Magnetic field

15,000 - 55,000 nT (Slightly weaker than Earth's due to more iron and less nickel within its core)

25,000 - 65,000 nT

Distance from sun

1.1 AU (163.480 million km)

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Perihelion: 161,807,881 km

Aphelion: 167,307,471 km

1 AU (148.93 million km)

Perihelion: 147,098,074

Aphelion: 152,097,701

Average Intensity of Energy received from Sun

1124 W/m^2

1360 W/m^2

Atmospheric Pressure

1.5 atm, 152.0 kPa

1 atm, 101.3 kPa

Atmospheric Composition

79.63% Nitrogen

18.31% Oxygen

2.045% Argon

0.015% CO2, H2, & trace gasses

78.08% Nitrogen

20.95% Oxygen

0.93% Argon

0.04% CO2 & trace gases

Average Temperature

16.1°C

13.9°C

Moon:

Alt-Moon

Real Moon

Mass

1.62% of IRL Earth

or

9.79689745 × 10 22 kilograms

1.2% of Earth

or

7.34767309 × 10 22 kilograms

Diameter

3,814 km

3,474.8 km

Orbital Period

35 days, 1.3 hours

27 days

Average Orbital Distance

422,100 km

384,400 km

Scientific Units:

Alt-Earth

Real Units

Measurement of Length

Same as Real Unit, as it was initially based on 1/10,000 of the distance from equator to north pole.

Redefined using a physical bar of metal.

Plans to be defined as 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of the krypton-86 atom in a vacuum are in progress.

Distance light travels in 1/299792458 of a second

Measurement of Mass

1 liter (dm^3) of water at max density, higher atmospheric pressure means 1 alt-kg is greater than 1 kg, but by an insignificant amount.

NOTE: Mass =/= weight

Since gravity is 80% earth gravity, 100 kg on a scale will show 80 kg.

100 kg is still 100 kg on this planet, it just weighs less.

Defined in terms of planck constant

Measurement of Time

1 second = 1/36288000 of a year

Minutes and hours are the same, for a total of 420 days in a year (exact value: 420.1 days)

Time it takes for caesium 133 atom, to vibrate 9,192,631,770 times

Measurement of Temperature

Like the metric system, this world uses the freezing point of water as 0° while the boiling point is 100°. However, the thicker atmosphere causes the boiling point of water to be a little higher, meaning their 100° is actually our 111.91°C.

The freezing point of water is not significantly affected by the difference in atmospheric pressure.

Melting Point of water @1 atm = 0°C

Boiling Point of water @1 atm = 100°C

(Currently defined by Kelvin, which is defined by the Boltzmann constant)

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### Chapter 2: Chapter 1 Day 10 14 Disaster

e·mer·gence

noun

The process of coming into view or becoming exposed after being concealed.

The process of coming into being, or of becoming important or prominent.

-Oxford Languages

In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.

-Wikipedia

Prologue

We set sail because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new land to be explored, and we must explore for the benefit of all people!

The casualties inflicted by the pneumonic plague have made it evident that, if we wish to ensure mankind’s continued existence, we must explore and develop these unknown lands, to protect ourselves from future disasters – because there will be more! The next plague might not be so easily cured, or perhaps Mount Diadem will erupt just as it did a thousand years ago.

We take our modern comforts for granted, but these luxuries only exist because we made them, because we decided to focus our energy, our skills, and our talent, to make something that will benefit humanity as a whole!

First our ancestors mastered fire and iron. They used the blessings of our homeland, built shelters to withstand the cruelty of nature, and thrived as a species!

But they didn’t stop there, did they? No! They continued to progress! They solved problems, engineered solutions! They struggled through war, pestilence, famine, and yet they continued to advance, because that is what it means to be human!

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