General storylines

So, what should those stories be about? That's what I asked myself, and after giving it some thought, these were my answers, or rather, the questions I determined Asimov had left unasnwered:

• At the end of Foundation ad Earth, we were left with several unanswered questions. How would Daneel merge his brain with Fallom's? What happened to the virus the Alphans had given to the  protagonists? What would happen to the Solarians? Did Daneel know what happened to Melpomenia and Aurora? Were our protagonists going to visit those other 47 Spacer worlds too, and what would they find there? What alien threats might Daneel's Galaxia have to face?
• At the end of Robots and Empire, Undersecretary Quintana is still waiting outside for Daneel. How is he going to explain those two unconscious Auroran prisoners and the deactivated Giskard? How would he explain the presnece of those Aurorans there without inciting an interstellar conflict at a time Settlers and Spacers are trying to lay bridges and work together? Would he be able to persuade her to trust him and keep it secret? Would he need to use his newly acquired mental powers on her for that? Would he trust in his ability to use them without causing any harm? After Amadiro and Mandamus had their plans wiped off their memories, what would they still remember about having traveled to Earth, and what other effects may the wipe have had on them? And since Foundation and Earth had established D.G. had taken Gladia to Melpomenia too, when would they head over there, and what for?
• The previous ones were the questions I had mainly thought of 25 years ago, but now I thought of some additional ones. What happened between Mother Earth and The Caves of Steel to change what the Pacific Project had expected to achieve after 100 years? Why weren't robots widely adopted on Earth yet, even after 1000 years? Why did the Spacers establish Spacetown, when they had expressed their intention to leave Earth alone forever? How did the Cities grow and why were ground vehicles mostly abandoned (except for use by the authorities, apparently) in favor of conveyor belts?

So, going by those questions, I determined I'd like to work on the following stories:

• A story set after Foundation and Earth, featuring Daneel, Fallom, Bliss, Pelorat and Trevize, in which  Daneel would proceed to eliminate the remains of the Alphan virus from them first, then have them assist him with his merger with Fallom. After determining the success of the procedure, they'd proceed back to Solaria and face the Solarians, trying to convince them to come out of their isolation and join the rest of humanity. After that, they might head out of the Milky Way in the direction of the Magellanic Clouds, only to run into an alien ship or more. Pelorat, being an historian, may recall the story of the Cepheidans from Blind Alley, how the Empire had run into them, how they appeared to have some sort of mind-reading abilities, and how they had hijacked all those ships and fled in that same direction. After so many centuries, the Cepheidans may not like it too much that humans are showing up again, and this time, they may have had time to further develop their technology aside from their sociology, and their mental powers may have expanded too. Back then I had determined the story was getting complex enough to split it into two parts, titled After the Foundation and Beyond the Foundation, respectively. However, when I revived Project Asenion, I had forgotten about the complexity and chose to name it Foundation's Trial, instead, a title I like better; but after reviewing my old notes, I thought maybe I could keep the new title, and split the story into Part 1 (subtitled After the Foundation) and Part 2 (likewise, subtitled Beyond the Foundation).
• A story set after Robots and Empire, in which Daneel would have to deal with the aforementioned issues, and D.G. would take Gladia to Melpomenia to take part at an interstellar conference being celebrated in the Hall of Worlds (or whatever that building was called), where the fate of the Solarians would be discussed, how the other Spacer worlds may eventually meet a similar fate, and how it would be in the best interest of everyone that Spacers and Settlers cooperate in the further colonization of the Milky Way. Even with his knowledge of his plans for Earth having been wiped off his brain, Amadiro's hate towards the planet and its inhabitants may be so deeply rooted that he's come up with another plan, and sees the Melpomenian conference (and the rest of the Spacer worlds) as treacherous, and in a nod to The Currents of Space is planning to turn Melpomenia's sun into a nova while the conference is taking place. While Gladia remians at the conference, D.G. is sent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of some Settler ships, which will eventually turn out to be connected to Amadiro's plan. At the same time, some people on Earth may have found out about Amadiro's and Mandamus' plan to increase the planet's radioactivity, and plan to retaliate with a bioweapon targeted at the Spacers. The title I had thought back then for this story was Robots at Twilight, since Robots of Twilight might be too similar to The Robots of Dawn. However, now that I went back to it, the story grew more complex, and I split the "Earth's retaliation" subplot into a separate story set as a sequel, and titled Robots and Earth, since it would focus more on Earth and the hate some groups still harbor towards the Spacers. For Robots at Twilight, I had added a storyline in which Daneel, having been previously partnered with Elijah Baley, is recalled to Aurora to investigate the mysterious death of Mandamus at the Auroran Robotics Institute, his final words being apparently a nonsensical riddle caused by damage to the brain. At the same time, Daneel has to prevent Giskard's remains from being taken by people who may be able to examine them and determine his abilities and how to duplicate them.
• Finally, the new story I thought of would focus on a young Lije Baley, and it would be set 25 years before The Caves of Steel, when both he and Julius Enderby are 17 years old, about to graduate from school, with no plans for their future whatsoever, and Spacetown has just been erected, with the so-called "Barrier Riots" erupting shortly thereafter, incited by some group of people trying to use it for their own political benefit. The title I chose is The Undying Past, and it will have Lije and Julius getting caught right in the middle of it, having been chosen as the two "useful idiots" whose deaths would be blamed on the Spacers. It will include several references to stories from The Complete Robot, including The Bicentennial Man, and of course, to Mother Earth, plus some other short stories not usually linked to the Robots/Empire/Foundation universe. Eventually, I may think of a sequel to this one, too, set some years later, around the time when Lije meets Jessie.

So, that's it, roughly. I have notes for several plot points and even lines of dialogue and various scenes from the differnt stories, and I have started writing the first few paragraphs for Chapter 1 of The Undying Past already. Once I finish the rest of the chapter, I'll publish it in its own post.

See you in the future!