Timeline

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Season 0: The Beginning of Fenspace

2006-2007

Late 2006 - Early 2007: Handwavium is "invented." Samples are sent to high-security mundane labs for analysis.

Spring 2007: The handwavium manages to slip past the security and starts filtering into fandom.

May 10, 2007: SS Uncertainty launches.

August 31, 2007: Nippon 2007 (Worldcon Yokohama) - The first public demonstration of the power of handwavium when an enterprising fan refits his car and flies to Japan for the con; NASA/DARPA/USAF establish Transrationality Scientific Assessment Bureau (TSAB) to study and reverse-engineer handwavium devices.

Fall 2007: That Con - Enterprising idiot spikes the hospitality suite food with concentrated handwavium, causing unexpected biomods in the convention goers. USGov goes nuts, "quarantines" the guests until they make their own escape.

November 2007: The Pearl Forrester, among others, begins a short but very successful space tourism service, earning enough money from celebrities like The Donald, etc. to be very comfortable.

December, 2007: Kazakh government agrees to sell the abandoned Buran space shuttle hull 1.02 Ptichka to Sandwich Group, LLC.

Fall/Winter 2007: First wave of handwavium-equipped explorers hit orbit, Luna, Mars.

2008

Winter 2007/08: The Professor hits Paris with much bwahahaha-ing; Hermes Universal Deliveries founded; Rockhounds, Inc. orbits their first Space Rock.

Feburary (n+15), 2008: Wave Convoy's escape to orbit becomes one of the staple clips for Fen exodus documentaries. Shuko, last of the original 17 biomod subjects still on Earth leaves with him.

March 21, 2008: SS Epsilon Blade, the first purpose-built Fenship, launched.

April 4, 2008: Noah Scott begins construction of L5 station Stellvia.

April 13, 2008: Ptichka arrives at Wittman Field, Oshkosh, WI for refitting.

Spring 2008: The fan eventually known as "Mr. Morden" inadvertantly provokes the Russian Federation to formally declare the ownership of Handwavium or use of 'wavetech items by anyone but licensed professionals to be illegal.

May 4, 2008: Warsie Earth-Luna L5 base established. Important Warsie holiday - the first official annual May the Fourth Be With You Day.

May 21, 2008: AIs Sora Hasegawa, Natsuko Aki, and Agatha Clay "wake up", the first of Noah Scott's "angels" to gain self-awareness. Natsuko and Agatha immediately leave for Mars. Over the next two days, AIs Kohran Li, Yoriko Nikaido, and Yayoi Fujisawa "wake up". It is uncertain whether they are the first humaniform AIs in Fenspace (it is possible that the Professor's companions might be older), but they are the oldest documented self-aware androids in space.

Summer 2008: Arbitrary and nebulous cutoff point for being considered one of the "First Fen"; major factions begin moving off Earth en masse; Professor steals/borrows/blackmails the Sol Bianca from the Danish crown and makes his way offworld; work started to turn 498 Tokio into Seijutaigakure no Sato.

June 21, 2008: The Jason leaves Earth onboard the Fateful Lightning.

July 4, 2008: Floating Island launches.

October 12, 2008: USSR Ptichka leaves Wittman Field during a standoff with state and federal law-enforcement officers.

October 20, 2008: US government passes draconian handwavium restrictions in wake of the Ptichka incident, to take effect on December 1.

October 18, 2008: SS Galaxy Express 999 launches.

November 30, 2008: SS Pinafore (nee Pinnafarina) departs US airspace just ahead of American anti-handwavium legislation taking effect.

Fall 2008: Mars Terraforming Project begins. Colonel Stephen Caldwell, USAF, appointed administrator of TSAB Station Benjamin Franklin. A lone moron claiming to be the Professor attempts to hold the world hostage by threatening to drop kinetic weapons on major cities; shortly afterwards he is handed over to the USCG Admiralty Court for trial by Mr Morden. Shortly after that, Morden is awarded a full pardon by the Russian President and the Russian Federation Air Force assign him the honorary rank of Colonel before throwing him into the River Volga.

December 1, 2008: Anti-handwavium laws go into effect in the United States. Many American fen give up US citizenship in response, taking Australian citizenship instead.

Winter 2008/09: Senshi settle on (above) Venus; Venus Terraforming Project begins.

2009

2009: Wally Hendricks discovers the dwarf star Nemesis and its planet Azkaban. The Wizarding World declares the star's existence a secret.

January 18, 2009: Representative Susan Happey (R-KS) introduces to the United States House of Representatives H.R.451, "The Subversive Literature Act of 2009", a proposed law that would classify science fiction and fantasy as obscene and criminalize their possession and sale within the United States. The bill is hastily withdrawn when its careless co-sponsors realize just what Happey actually talked them into signing onto, but not before a massive backlash from the media industry and very sincere threats from Disney, Warner Brothers and dozens of other companies to move offshore should the law get out of committee.

Spring 2009: Trekkies and Galaxy Express stage the Great Beijing Fake-Out; Natsuko Aki accepts job with the Helium Police Department; Agatha Clay leaves Mars for parts unknown.

July 1, 2009: Noah Scott founds Stellvia Corporation.

Summer 2009: Anticipation (aka Worldcon Floating Island) - First off-Earth Worldcon; first Articles of Convention produced, voted on; Kaboomite becomes known because of a testing accident at Worldcon. (No fatalities, but total property damage runs over $10,000,000.) Those in the know refuse to discuss what kaboomite is; its use within 1000km of any ship or station is outlawed in the Articles of Convention drafted at Worldcon. Afterwards, a substantial amount of 'Dane/Fen trade moves away from Earth orbit and into Fenspace proper.

August 15, 2009: World Watch One launches from the Northeast Texas countryside.

September 21, 2009: SS Admiral Heinlein launches.

September 23, 2009: Hephaestus lifts from rural Alaska, completely ruining one young USAF pilot's day.

September 28, 2009: Qin Shihuangdi launches.

Winter 2009/2010: USS Miranda leaves on its five-year mission to take astronomical readings from locations far from Sol.

2010

January 1, 2010: The Banzai Institute for Biomedical Research and Strategic Information established as a non-profit organization, headquartered in Irving, Texas, with a sister office in London, England.

March 2010: KandorCon - First formal Convention; treaty between the Fandom nation - now formally called the Fenspace Convention - and the governments of Earth. Blanket amnesty given to all fen who left Earth during the hardest parts of the handwavium restrictions.

May 2010: The first class (of five students, including Leda Swansen) graduates from the Vesta Institute of Biochemistry.

August 15, 2010: The Banzai Institute Shuttle HB88, better known as the Jet Car, makes its maiden flight. Airspace is violated, windows are shattered, and the speed of sound is broken. The Blue Blazer Irregulars realize one of the Jet Car's quirks (Leadfoot Syndrome, see Ship Registry) firsthand.

August 16, 2010: The crew of World Watch One finish repairs to the windows of Mrs. Johnson's home outside of Wichita Falls, Texas. Upon departing, they manage to keep the Jet Car at the speed limit until they reach the Oklahoma border.

September 4-6, 2010: The Jet Car is stolen for the first time by an attendee of the 2010 Burning Man Festival at Black Rock, South Dakota. A merry chase ensues, with the Jet Car disrupting several camps at the festival. The Blue Blazer Irregulars retrieve the car and depart the festival on Monday. On their way out, they set a personal record of 400 mph across the Playa, before taking off.

2011

May 2011: Crystal Kyoto, the last of the Crystal Cities, is launched.

July 1, 2011: SC Virgil Samms launched.

July 14, 2011: Airbus first launches the prototype Airbus A510, the first mass-produced ship made by an Earthside corporation.

September 2011: A group of drones steal a Toyota Corolla Le 2005 from their owner. 36 hours later, the Schrottplatz is named, and leaves Earth.

2012

March 31, 2012: Less hidebound elements of the US Navy (and the last action of a retiring Admiral) launches USS Stingray (SSN 2161-X), a black project that was willing to deal with fennish quirks.

April 20, 2012: The SP Grover's Corners lifts off from West Virginia and in the process plunges the United States into a new round of antihandwavium paranoia.

Season 1: Great Justice and the Boskone War; the Miranda mission; the Delta Pavonis expedition

May 7, 2012: SOS-Con, also known as Suzumiya's Convention - SOS-dan calls a Convention under the emergency clause. Operation Great Justice begins.

July 10, 2012: President Rudy Guiliani signs the Federal Land Theft Prevention Act of 2012 into law.

November 6, 2012: Democrat Andrew Cuomo elected President of the United States.

December 12, 2012: Miranda detects an alien automated beacon, 1000 light years from Sol.

2013

Early 2013: Azkaban Prison completed by the Wizards, and turned over to the Convention when the planet's existence is revealed.

January 9, 2013: Crystal Osaka destroyed during anti-zwilnick activity.

April 13, 2013: A.C. Peters takes possession of a prize ship, and rechristens it the White Stallion

May 16, 2013: After a major disagreement as to how to prosecute the war, Noah Scott is removed from the Operation Great Justice general staff.

May 18, 2013: Noah Scott evicts the SOS-Dan from Stellvia, citing contract violation as cause. Operation Great Justice transfers its flag to Grover's Corners.

May 29 - June 5, 2013: The Interdimensional Incursion Incident: A group of extradimemsional visitors arrives on Stellvia, almost-accidentally tours Fenspace (meeting a sizable minority of the BNF in the process), and leaves after causing some minor changes to the greater political situation. They leave behind what would come to be known as the Whole Fenspace Catalog.

June 2013: Space Patrol founded.

Fall 2013: SerenityCon, Fenspace's best example of irony because of the attack by a truly massive Boskonian force. An edited version of the Whole Fenspace Catalog is released to the general public at SerenityCon. Operation Great Justice transfers its flag to Arisia Station and begins the final offensive against the Boskonians.

Fall through Winter 2013: Jupiter Mining Corporation begins offering high-paying jobs with good benefits -- and free transport -- to American miners put out of work by the unanticipated side effects of the Land Theft Act; more than ten thousand miners (and their families) take advantage of the offer.

2014

January 2014: The Fall of Boskone Prime; the end of Operation Great Justice as chartered at SOS-Con. The core of Great Justice becomes an interfactional defence body called "Great Justice".

Season 2: The Great Age of Exploration

February 2014: In order to solve the housing crisis caused by people fleeing the Main Belt during the Boskone War, The Fenspace Convention purchases surplus 'Dane housing, dismantling, shipping, and reassembling it on Mars, Ganymede, and other locations.

March 15, 2014: Noah Scott and Leda Swansen marry.

March 18, 2014: Malaclypse Fnord appears before a United States Congressional committee to discuss handwavium and NASA. Misunderstandings about the purpose of the meeting beforehand cause a panic across Fenspace.

April 1, 2014: The April Fool's Purchase - in order to contain some of the fallout from the March 18 Congressional hearing, Stellvia Corporation buys the space-operations and space-exploration divisions of NASA and reorganizes them as the Artemis Foundation.

April 7, 2014: Federal Land Theft Prevention Act of 2012 is repealed.

October 10, 2014: Stellvia Corporation declares independence from all Earth governments. Helen Scott is born.

2015

Information for 2015-2022 will be forthcoming as soon as somebody can decide what's important enough to be listed in the timeline. The raw data is available on the forums, at http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/sreply/105167/-Meta-RFC-Fenspace-2022-take-2

Fenspace Infinities

Commisar's Note: The following events have been chronicled in complete and incomplete Fenspace stories as posted to the board. However, as they deal with a period after The Great Age of Exploration, they have been tagged as "noncanonical" for the time being. Depending on the ebb and flow of Fenspace storytelling, some of these events may become canonical. Some may not. The only way to know for certain is to keep watching the skies. Thank you. --Mal-3

2012+(n+(<=5)): Engineers on Hephaestus invent the Sparkman-Hermes Fluidic Bearing Reactionless Drive Electrical Turbine, a nearly-unlimited source of nearly-free electrical power.

May 21, 2058: "Boskonian" coup in the city of Helium, on Mars. The coup is put down within a week.

2088: The entire planet Earth is absorbed into a posthuman gestalt mind. Mundane and fendane refugee crisis in Fenspace.

2098: The posthuman Earth is reconfigured into material for a matrioshka brain. Fen evacuate Fenspace, moving Mars, Venus, Luna and other major settlements to Beta Coma Berenices.

Fall 2157 - Summer 2158: Zeta Tucanae system mapped "down to its larger asteroids".

May 21, 2208: Beta Hydri colony station destroyed because of stellar flares; there are no survivors.

Notes