Graphics of a logo with text reading "Blue Sky Nine" overlaid on a circle that is bottom half mercator projection lines and top half a shooting star against a black background
Vision board labelled "mining crew" showing orange hi vis overalls, a blue singlet, a bubble helmet, a lighter and gatorade bong, a can of premix Bundaberg rum and coke, steelcap work boots, and an Australian flag patch with the Union Jack replaced with the Aboriginal flag. To the right of these items is an illustrated figure wearing the above and throwing an airlock switch
Photo of a loungeroom partially converted into a spaceship cabin set with equipment for a shoot, featuring three figures, two male, one in orange pants and a blue top holding a sign saying "universal basic income studios", the other in orange pants and a white singlet, grinning, and a female figure in reflective goggles and a dark jumpsuit gesturing at the other two
Screenshot of a text document reading "Computer (voice): The ship’s computer can communicate verbally. That doesn’t mean it’s
intelligent. Despite ostensibly running the systems of an advanced interstellar spaceship it
can and does encounter the same frequency of errors as an early 2000’s desktop PC,due to an in-universe ban on advanced AI systems. Can be text to speech but the ideal casting would be Robbie McGregor, the SBS guy himself. Through cosmic accident or deliberate upgrade (or both in one incident) the ship gains true machine sentience, a fact it initially tries to hide from the crew due to the AI ban but eventually has to come clean on after acting against flight inputs to save crew lives. From that point forward we learn that the ship, still with the deep authoritative masculine voice Australian crew implicitly trust, self-identifies as female, as all ships are historically considered to be and for the exact reasoning that she sustains life (the crew) within her womb (hull) which nobody is exactly comfortably hearing about. This is important as it allows for exploration of gender identity designation as a cultural or anthropological trait, as well as the inverse, eg: “objects” being able to correct their own misgendering, and gender identity as a non-biological construct when applied to a sentient being that possesses a self-referential understanding of humanity, but none of the biology thereof. Many science fiction and even fantasy properties have explored the question of what it means to be a human even if one is not a member of homo sapiens, for example an android like Data from Star Trek, or a demon like Hellboy f rom Hellboy. Blue Sky Nine is the first work of media to explore the question of what it means to be a woman, even if you are a spaceship."
Hey bluesky nerds! If you like sci fi written by trans women you'll love Blue Sky Nine (title unrelated to platform), a comedy about a future where Australia looks to the stars for new sources of coal and work for the dole placements. Follow for development news & please boost to find our audience!
