Mar 29, 2023
There's always at least one typo! I even did extra checks on this chapter. 😭
I don't really touch on it in the story, but nearly everyone speaks English. It's a combination of factors, including technological advantages favoring the language (e.g. machine learning models being more advanced in English), much of the non-English-speaking world being destroyed during the war, and some other unimportant events in the backstory. There are small populations scattered about that speak other languages as well, but most everyone has to have basic English proficiency to survive.
People in JAXA have to read and speak Russian because the blueprints, launch checklists, operating procedures, control panel labels, etc. for the Russian crafts and station segments are all in Russian. When I was doing research on the ISS, I found that most astronauts sent up there are competent Russian speakers, even though the official language on the station is English. I wanted to incorporate that into this story, and this was a good an opportunity as I've had so far.
