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| An Overview of Division One Headquarters |
Stephanie Osborn
describes herself as an award-winning Interstellar Woman of Mystery. She’s a
20+-year space program veteran with multiple STEM degrees who has also authored,
co-authored, or contributed to more than forty books. Her new Division One
series is her take on the urban legend of mysterious people who make
things...disappear. Learn more about Stephanie and her books at her website. http://www.stephanie-osborn.com/
Division One Headquarters
In the Division One series, I go back to the
urban legend of beings who show up at UFO sightings, alien abductions, etc. and
make the evidence...disappear...to craft my vision of the universe we don’t
know about. Division
One chronicles this universe through the eyes of recruit Megan
McAllister, aka Omega, and her experienced partner, Echo, the first team in the
Pan-Galactic Division One Agency’s new Alpha Line special-missions department,
as they handle everything from lost alien children to extraterrestrial
assassination attempts and more.
Yes, it’s using the same core reference material as
certain movies, but this same urban legend has been used not only in the
eponymous films (and comics, novelizations, cartoon, etc.), but also in the Matrix films, The X-Files, The Outer Limits,
and more. The trick is to put my own spin on the urban legend...which I’ve
done, in spades. In my universe, they are the local precinct of the
Pan-Galactic Law Enforcement Association—not
an independent organization, but the local branch of the galactic government.
Each galactic division is a “precinct,” each world a “state.” And Earth is the
HQ for Division One.
As it’s pretty much the
travel/finance/cuisine/anything else capital of the world, the Agency
headquarters is set in greater New York City. But where, exactly? A quick bit
of google-fu turned up Division Street in Brooklyn! Perfect! A bit more
research discovered a little Jewish school just off the East River near the end
of the street. And one of the founding members, now the Director, is Jewish.
And they have this nifty-cool space warp that they can use to share the
building—expanding
it to skyscraper proportions—without
anyone in, or OUT of, the school the wiser.
So Division One headquarters is on Division Avenue in
Brooklyn, on the corner of the intersection with Kent Ave, within sight of the
East River. The building is four stories externally. There is a brownstone
neighborhood along the street as you go east, including corner markets where
Agent Echo might pick up his partner’s favorite chocolate stout on his way back
from grabbing sandwiches at the local kosher deli, two blocks down and a
favorite haunt of the agents. There’s a ball field across the street, several
high-rise apartment/condo buildings down both Division and Kent, and the
nearest parking garage is “warped” into Headquarters to allow for a vehicle
hangar.
As Echo told his trainee/partner, Omega, “...It’s a
simple dimensional warp. We can continue to expand our operations on the
inside, as required, without anyone on the outside being the wiser. On the
outside, this building has something like two or three stories, four if you
count the basement. Inside, we have over a hundred floors, above and below
ground.” These floors include facilities, the various Agency departments, alien
embassies, and billeting for all the agents stationed there.
There are plenty of shops, movie theaters, and a
mega-mall nearby, as well as small parks to provide for recreation for the
agents, and some of those apartment buildings down the street actually house
agents who want a bit more freedom than the billets in Headquarters allows. Though, with essentially unlimited space, those
in-house quarters are really pretty darn comfy, especially compared to the stereotypical
cramped apartments around the Big Apple.
The only thing they don’t have are windows, due to
security issues.
Never mind how you’d cram hundred windows into what is only a 4-story building
on the outside. As Omega considered, “I got no idea how that would work, with
the space warp thing and so many floors inside, but not outside. Might come
across from the outside looking like giant insect eyes or something.”
All in all, the Headquarters building is intended to
be inconspicuous, with enough exits in different places among the surrounding
blocks that all of the coming and going can be easily explained; the majority
of the alien arrivals and departures actually occur via a sophisticated
underground maglev train system, and they’re not seen “topside.” Air- and
spacecraft ports are located outside the boroughs, to minimize possible
inadvertent sightings.
I have a lot of fun writing in this universe, and
I’ve put a lot of effort into building a detailed “parallel,” hidden universe
that coexists with “the real world.” I hope you’re intrigued enough to check it
out; I think it’ll be fun for you, too.
Phantoms
The Division One series, Book 8
Has Alpha One been played?
At long last, Echo and Omega are going on their first real
date, and Echo pulls out all the stops.
But when he introduces Omega to a Broadway star, they find
art imitating life, as a dangerous nonhuman entity plagues the theater.
Alpha One goes undercover to bring to light what’s really
happening. But is the entity after the show’s leads...or have Echo and Omega
been played?
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2 comments:
Thank you for having me today! (Sorry I'm late; I was rather unexpectedly under the weather.) I do hope your readers enjoy my little discussion; world-building is an important part of creating a believable story, especially when that story is universal in scope!
It was a pleasure to have you as a guest, Stephanie.
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