Yesterday I was thinking about the kind of thing I wanted to do after Away From Home, or after Chapter 20 to be precise. I won't spoil the story too much for now, but the ending of Away From Home as I originally planned it left the characters in a very troubling position, but not necessarily an urgent one. It allows for a number of possibilities.
My first plan involved a predictable continuation of the story as it is playing out now. After the events of Chapters 1-20, Meeki would find herself in the aftermath of the great battle without coming out totally intact. She was going to be making a difficult decision regarding her future. Would she join the government to help clean up the problems that arise in Away From Home? Would she remain with the Innocent Girls and support their ideas, as chaotic as the group is? Or would she avoid both teams entirely and return to as normal life a life as possible in the relative safety of a new home? I suppose I could predict what might have happened between these three choices, but I think it might not have been a good continuation of the story for several reasons relating to Braya.
My second plan was to have an emotional breaking-off of the Innocent Girls. An emergency would force them apart into two groups, and the separation was going to split Meeki from her family. It was going to be somewhat of a hostage situation, in which a friend would became an enemy and take the family hostage on a planet-wide chase of some sort. All the while, bad things are happening elsewhere on the planets. I was very much pleased with this idea for a time, even though I didn't really put much thought into it at the time. Overall, it would be an emotional thing that leads into a new mission. But still, it wasn't something that called Braya much into play.
I won't tell you what I have current planned, other than it will center on Braya. It won't be in the way that some chapters have previously focused on her. Rather, it will be a very different sort of focus and in a very different situation. It's something that would have happened eventually due to the nature of the Braya character, but I wanted to bring her forward sooner rather than later. But don't take this to mean I am throwing everything onto the table so early. There is still much more to the mythology and history of Aster and Newhope that I haven't even hinted at so far.