Plot summary
The year is 2070. The United Republic of America, under an authoritarian conservative New Christian Right regime constructed after the Second American Revolution, is managed by Liberty Party autocrats. It faces economic sanctions from other powers due to its repressive and xenophobic policies, notably its unilateral establishment of an orbiting nuclear weapons delivery system. The nation has built its first starship: the URSS Alabama. The welcoming celebration for Captain Robert E. Lee takes a sudden turn when Lee initiates his plan to steal the Alabama. Working with a handful of conspirators, Lee manages to alter the computer software and override the clearance codes. URS soldiers storm aboard to stop Lee, but they are too late. Not wishing to abandon their orders, Colonel Reese and the other soldiers become stowaways.
Captain Lee knew exactly what he was doing. His destination: the 47 Ursae Majoris system, some 46 light years away—far enough to escape the tyrannical United Republic. At a cruise velocity of .2 c, Alabama would not arrive at its destination until 230 Earth years have passed. So the crew of 104 soldiers, scientists, and civilians were put in biostasis, to be awakened from their virtual immortality by the ship's AI 226 years into the future. (Four years are spared due to time dilation.) 47 Ursae Majoris' system has four planets—named Fox, Raven, Bear and Wolf after Native American mythology. Bear has six satellites—Dog, Hawk, Eagle, Coyote, Snake and Goat. Of these six, Coyote is large enough to support its own biosphere. [3]
Just three months into the journey, something goes terribly wrong. Leslie Gillis, the senior communications officer, is awakened from biostasis. Expecting the year to be 2300, Gillis is horrified when he questions the AI. There was a mixup, and now it is inexplicably impossible for Gillis to return to his dreamless sleep. His options are either suicide or a lonely existence. While suicide may be more honorable than consuming his crewmates' rations, Gillis chooses life.
After a brief chat with the AI, Gillis learns that Eric Gunther was originally scheduled to awaken three months into the trip. Gunther is an agent for the URA, and was to attempt to contact the president or destroy the ship. The program was changed at the last minute to wake someone else instead—Gillis. Gillis leaves a note for Captain Lee explaining Gunther's plot. Why they were changed at the last minute remains a mystery, but it was a change that would cost Gillis his life.
During his solitary life, he does everything he can to keep from going insane, attempting to eat and sleep at regular hours, reading all of the books available, playing chess against the AI, writing stories, and painting. Using practically all of the ship's art supplies, Gillis creates a story about a prince named Rupurt and the fantastic alien world he lives in. He paints scenes of his books on the walls. Eventually, Gillis dies in his old age after a fall from a ladder while trying to get a better look at an alien ship he has seen. The AI automatically expels his body into space and sails on to 47 Ursae Majoris with no more incidents.
The crew is awakened as planned in the year 2300. The Alabama has entered the 47 Ursae Majoris system and is approaching its third planet, Bear (currently known as 47 Ursae Majoris b) is a gas giant. Coyote, its fourth moon, is larger than Mars and is lush with green plants and rivers of water. This will be the crew's new home. Captain Lee directs the landing procedures of the two ships docked to the Alabama, the Wallace and the Helms.
The crew finds Coyote to be habitable, but very peculiar nevertheless. Its seasons change at a much slower rate than Earth's. A year for Coyote consists of 1,096 days, with days lasting 27 hours. Lifeforms on Coyote seem similar to those on Earth at first glance, but behave in unique ways. As described in Gillis' novel, the world is home to gigantic bird-like creatures which are anything but friendly. The settlers call them "boids", which is Gillis' term for the beasts in his novel. Boids are common in the grasslands around the new settlement.
The remainder of Coyote follows the adventures of Carlos Montero and Wendy Gunther along the banks of the equatorial river which stretches around Coyote.
USS Kearsarge, a Mohican-class sloop-of-war, is best known for her defeat of the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France during the American Civil War.
CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy. The vessel was built in Birkenhead on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England, by John Laird Sons and Company. Launched as Enrica, she was fitted out as a cruiser and commissioned as CSS Alabama on August 24, 1862. Under Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama served as a successful commerce raider, attacking, capturing, and burning Union merchant and naval ships in the North Atlantic, as well as intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. The Alabama continued its wrath through the West Indies and further into the East Indies, destroying over seven ships before returning to Europe. On June 11, 1864, the Alabama arrived at Cherbourg, France, where she was overhauled. Shortly after, a Union sloop-of-war, USS Kearsarge, arrived; and on June 19, the Battle of Cherbourg commenced outside the port of Cherbourg, France, whereby the Kearsarge sank the Alabama in approximately one hour after the Alabama's opening shot.
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The Enemy Below is a 1957 American DeLuxe Color war film in CinemaScope about a battle between an American destroyer escort and a German U-boat during World War II. It stars Robert Mitchum and Curd Jürgens as the American and German commanding officers, respectively. Produced and directed by Dick Powell, the film was based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Denys Rayner, a British naval officer involved in antisubmarine warfare throughout the Battle of the Atlantic.
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The Lemarean Calendar is used by the colonists on the moon Coyote as described in the science fiction trilogy of the same name by author Allen Steele. The trilogy, including Coyote (2002), Coyote Rising (2004), and Coyote Frontier (2005), describes the exploration and settlement of a habitable moon orbiting a ringed jovian in the 47 Ursae Majoris system.
Sleeper is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first Sleeper is the name of a series of five destructive robots created by the Red Skull. The second Sleeper is a Symbiote.
Pirates of Treasure Island is a 2006 American comedy-drama film produced by The Asylum, loosely adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
Spindrift is a 2007 science fiction novel by American writer Allen Steele. Spindrift is set within the same universe as the Coyote trilogy but was written as a stand-alone novel. Steele has stated that he wrote Spindrift because he was "tired of the militaristic sort of space opera that says that any contact between humans and aliens will necessarily be hostile".
The Maersk Alabamahijacking began on 8 April 2009, when four pirates in the Somali Basin seized the Danish/U.S. cargo ship Maersk Alabama at a distance of 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on April 12.
Richard Phillips is an American merchant mariner and author who served as captain of the MV Maersk Alabama during its hijacking by Somali pirates in April 2009.
El Barco is a Spanish mystery TV series created by Álex Pina and Iván Escobar. and produced by Globomedia for Antena 3. The series was broadcast from January 17, 2011 until February 21, 2013. The series combines elements of drama, mystery and action, a formula that was very popular between 2007 and 2010.
Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was a naval operation by the Republic of Korea Navy against Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea. The operation was spurred by the pirates' seizure of the South Korean chemical tanker Samho Jewelry. In response, the South Korean government sent a destroyer and 30 naval commandos to retake the ship and rescue its crew. After trailing the tanker for several days and fighting a preliminary engagement that neutralized four of the pirates, the South Korean forces retook the ship by force on January 21, 2011, in a successful boarding action that resulted in the deaths of eight and the capture of five out of thirteen pirates.
Earth Unaware is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston in the Ender's Game series. Published in 2012, it is the first book of a prequel trilogy to Ender's Game. The novel is set before Ender Wiggin is born and tells the story of the first Formic War. Earth Afire, the second book in the trilogy, was released on June 4, 2013, and the conclusion, Earth Awakens, was released June 10, 2014.
The Colors of Space is a 1963 science fiction novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Boy Fortune Hunters is a series of six adventure novels for adolescent boys. The series was written by L. Frank Baum, using the pseudonym of Floyd Akers, and published by Reilly & Britton. Howard Heath illustrated the books.
