Some background first:
background wrote:It's a sci-fi set ambiguously in the not-so-distant future, approximately twenty to fifty years ahead of our time. There's a lot of new and improved technology (although most of it is intended more for scientific than public use) as well as a noticeable cultural emphasis on STEM fields and research. There's also been a shift in higher education. Many universities have become completely specialized, focusing solely on a certain field and offering few classes and almost no majors outside of this field. Fields can revolve around concepts such as "space" (including researchers, engineers, potential astronauts, etc) or "arts" (including visual artists, writers, choreographers, etc) or "marine" (biologists, engineers, oceanographers, etc), and so on. The general concept behind these universities is to educate students alongside the people they are likely to work with in their future careers and to devote all of the university's resources to one specific field. Traditional universities still exist, but the specialized ones are considered more elite and with higher standards for education.
Alexis and Charlie are the main characters in the novel. They both attended the same university- focused on space science- until Charlie dropped out freshman year. The first book begins halfway through Alexis' senior year. Charlie, who's been traveling to observatories and etc around the country, returned to the area in the summer to try to finish her research. Realizing she can't do it alone, she goes to the one person she vaguely remembers from freshman year for help. After much convincing, Alexis agrees to work with Charlie to find proof that alien life exists. The main plot revolves around their attempts to find and track a signal successfully, and the novel ends with an alien ship crash landing before them.
My problem is that I'm not sure where I want to take the plot from there. I have two rough ideas for the following two books, but I don't know which one sounds more appealing or would work better with the plot.
Idea 1: Book 2 mainly focuses on helping the alien inside in the ship recover from the crash and hide/blend in while they try to fix the ship with their limited Earth supplies. There's strong focus on character relationships and meaningless technobabble, with an ongoing subplot featuring Alexis and Charlie's almost-not-quite relationship. A fourth character, an astronautical engineer major, will likely be introduced. At the end, they manage to fix the ship enough to get the alien back to the main shuttle. Charlie, who's always longed for adventure, decides to go with him; Alexis, who's desperate to leave a meaningful legacy, stays to present the evidence of alien life existing.
Book 3 is set two or three years later. Alexis is struggling to deal with the responsibilities of her sudden fame (giving lectures, explaining her research, giving interviews, etc) while also working towards her PhD. The alien suddenly returns, claiming that Charlie is in trouble and needs her help. The primary conflict will revolve around saving/helping Charlie. At the end, she again invites Alexis to come with her to explore the universe. Alexis feels like she's accomplished her goal and is free to pursue other dreams; she accepts and they depart.
Idea 2: In this version, the landing on Earth was intentional (though not the crashing). After his crew was hijacked by a virus/corruption in system, the alien managed to sneak off board in an escape pod and land on the closest planet in hope of finding help. The ship only takes a few days to fix in this version, since the alien has all the tools on hand, and the main conflict focuses on retaking the main ship and getting rid of the virus/corruption/etc. The ending is the same as in Idea 1.
Book 3 begins the same way. Charlie and the alien come back to visit Alexis after three years of traveling; however, the alien behind he virus of the main ship tracks Charlie back to Earth and vows to get revenge. The plot revolves around this conflict. The ending is also the same.
The first idea is more character-focused, the second is more action/plot-focused. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Sorry this is so long haha <3
(Also, does anyone have any better name ideas for Alexis? She's had that name for half a year now but it still doesn't seem to fit right ^^ )
