The Confederation Handbook (13 page)

Ideally the DDA should have
taken this into account at the start, and at the very least limited
the companies exploiting the Dorados to those from African-ethnic
star systems. In view of the inescapable conflict that will arise in
one or two generations’ time, it would be fair to say that the
plight of the Garissa survivors is not entirely over.

Economy

Naturally this is centered
on producing and exporting astroengineering alloys, but basic
material production is increasingly being complemented with component
manufacturing, as companies invest in more sophisticated industrial
stations. It is DDA policy that within ten years the Dorados will
have the capacity to produce entire mining and refining stations
in-system. After that they hope to build swiftly towards indigenous
ZTT starship production. Most of the major multistellar companies
have expressed a high degree of interest in the Dorados, and those
who do not already have functioning industrial facilities there have
at least got a local office. One of the largest investors in the
system is the Kulu Corporation.

Transport also accounts for
a large part of the economy. Inter-asteroid freight is a healthy
business, with many local companies involved. Five major
interstellar-line companies have port facilities in the Dorados, with
their fleets supporting the bulk alloy export market. Other majors
have included it on their schedules, providing regular flights out to
most Confederation systems. Local spaceship companies are now
starting to expand into the interstellar field, with considerable
success.

Defense

With the entire output of the industrial stations marked for export,
and the asteroid inhabitants providing a large market for imported
food and luxury items, starship movements in and out of the system
are considerable. This makes them prime targets for piracy.

Consequently, the largest
single expenditure of the DDA is on defense. All the asteroids have
extensive SD weapons platform networks, and the sensor network in
both the local asteroid cluster and overall system coverage is first
rate. A small squadron of combat-capable starships is kept on
permanent patrol. Again because of the nationality issue, most of
their crews are hired from outside. A large number of them are
ex-Kulu Navy personnel.

Edenist
Habitats

The Edenist were
enthusiastic supporters of the industrial development of the Dorado
asteroids. So far, two Edenist habitats have been germinated in orbit
around Duida. The first, Ramtheni, is twenty-eight years old and is
now mature enough to support a 50,000-strong population, a number
which is reaching the top limit for such a young habitat. The second
habitat is Sehad, which was germinated in 2599; initial habitability
maturation is expected there in 2622.

The Edenists have so far constructed one cloudscoop, which became
operational in 2585. As reflects this system’s unique status,
it is extremely unusual for the Edenists to begin construction of a
cloudscoop before the local habitat is mature (normally no market for
He3in any quantity exists in a system for its first century). In
order to get the cloudscoop built and operational, they had to live
in artificial stations, which goes against the main thrust of their
culture. However, the eventual rewards of large-scale He3orders, to
power the fusion generators in both industrial and mining stations of
the Dorados, far outweighed any inconveniences meanwhile.

With the first habitat now
matured, and the cloudscoop functional, the Edenists have been swift
to participate in the Dorados’ industrial potential. There are
over fifteen large industrial stations outside Ramtheni, and the
Edenist groups have many joint-venture enterprises at the asteroids
themselves.

Total Edenist population is
55,000, and a third habitat is planned for germination in 2615.

New California is a
terracompatible planet 130 light-years from Earth. It is an ethnic US
Pacific-coast planet discovered in 2156, and opened for colonization
in 2163. The initial development company funding was raised by the
Californian State of Govcentral through a rights issue and loan
guarantees.

The New California star
system has four solid planets, and three gas giants. There are three
major asteroid belts. The star is a G5 type, known as Visalia.

There are four solid
planets.

There are three gas giants.

The first asteroid belt,
Lyll, orbits between New California and Salinas. The second asteroid
belt, Piute, orbits between Santa Rosa and Yosemite. The third
asteroid belt, Dana, orbits between Sacramento and Tehachapi. Both
Lyll and Dana have several industrial settlements.

New California has
fifty-three asteroids in orbit 150,000km above it, all moved into
place from Lyll by nuclear explosions, and all now settled.

Physical
Data

There are four moons. Samoa
and Orick are a binary pair.

New California’s year
is 359 days long. The planet has a 0.97 standard gravity, planetary
rotation is 24 hours 7 minutes, and axial inclination is 2.3°.

Its atmosphere is 76 percent
nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.02 percent carbon dioxide. Pressure is
standard.

Thirty-eight percent of its
surface is land. There are six main continents, Kalmath, Medford,
Fortuna, Shastad (arctic), Teham, and Alturas. A group of large
islands, the Santa Crutz archipelago off the shore of Kalmath, is in
a climate zone similar to the old California, and is heavily
populated. The climate embraces a normal range, which provides a
southern polar ice cap.

The capital is San Angeles,
on Kalmuth’s coast, with a population of 5,700,000. The total
planetary population is 890,000,000.

History

New California was settled
during the Great Dispersal, and was the first planet to introduce an
ethnic streaming policy, which caused some considerable controversy
in the Govcentral senate at the time. However, as the early
multicultural colonies were undergoing significant levels of civil
unrest, and in two cases outright revolution, this screening process
was eventually allowed to remain uncontested. After this, many
individual Govcentral states followed suit in sponsoring their own
ethnic-streaming colonies.

Originally only residents of
the state of California were accepted for immigration, though this
requirement has now been relaxed so that emigrants from any
ethnic-compatible planet in the Confederation may apply. Immigration
is now typically 35,000 people a year.

The planet is a democratic
republic with a President, Senate, and Congress. Its constitution is
modeled on the original American constitution, but with alterations:
typically, the environmental protection clause which ensures against
high-population clustering outside San Angeles (the planet pioneered
asteroid metal mining and Falling Jumbo foamed lifting bodies (FJs),
purely to avoid strip mining), and the permitting of “weakâ€

Star System
Physical Data

The Srinagar star system has
three solid planets and five gas giants. There is one asteroid belt.
The star is a G2 type.

There are three solid
planets.

There are five gas giants.

The asteroid belt orbits
between Bomhus and Kohistan, and it has eighty-seven settlements.
Srinagar has twelve industrialized asteroids in orbit, all moved into
place by nuclear explosives. Both of Kohistan’s Trojan clusters
have asteroid settlements.

Physical
Data

There are three moons.

Srinagar’s year is 429
days long. The planet’s gravity is 1.18 standard, planetary
rotation is 23 hours 8 minutes, axial inclination is 2°. Its
atmosphere is 73 percent nitrogen, 24 percent oxygen. Pressure is 1.3
standard.

Forty-two percent of the
surface is land. There are four main continents: Santal, Hazaribagh,
Ranchi, and Sundargarth. A small island, Chamba, is arctic. The seas
are populated with a number of large islands, too. The climate is
generally drier than on most worlds, because of the smaller seas. The
capital city is Chaibassa, on the west coast of Hazaribagh.

The principal orbiting
asteroid is Dindori, which is Srinagar’s main naval base and
the command center for the planetary SD network.

The total planetary
population is 800,000,000.

History

Srinagar is a
terracompatible, Hindu-ethnic world settled during the Great
Dispersal, starting from 2178. It was funded by five Indian states,
which still own considerable stock in various planetary enterprises.
The planet is a democratic republic, although both main political
parties are heavily religious. It is quite extensively
industrialized, and has a slightly below-average standard of living.
Political and financial scandals are commonplace, and politically
motivated violence there is above average.

There is a national Senate, continental Parliaments, and strong
regional Assemblies. Although technically capitalist oriented, a
great many companies are state sponsored, or partially owned by the
state, through local-government development councils. These companies
tend to be essential to the local economic infrastructure, such as
food-processing plants in agrarian regions, vehicle factories in
cities, etc. The price of this social-economic policy is such that
the companies tend to lack the efficiency levels of the
pure-capitalist worlds such as New California. In compensation,
Srinagar has a much lower unemployment level, and a job with a
company is generally “for life.â€

The independent habitat
Valisk orbits Opuntia. Despite its deterioration since Rubra’s
death, it remains an important economic asset to the system as a
whole (see Valisk, below).

Valisk is an independent
(non-Edenist) habitat orbiting 470,000km above the gas giant Opuntia,
in the Srinagar star system.

History

Valisk was germinated in
2306 by Rubra, an Edenist Serpent born in Machaon, a habitat orbiting
Kohistan. It is 30km long and 12km in diameter. As with Edenist
habitats, there is a starscraper band around its center. The climate
is different from the usual sub-tropical environment favored by
Edenists: scrub desert predominates one half, blending into a
savannah plain before reaching the standard circumfluous saltwater
reservoir at the end.

Rubra was nothing like as
antagonistic and hostile as Laton proved to be almost three centuries
later. He simply wanted somewhere which provided a benign environment
without the stifling constraints of Edenism (a common Serpent
rationale). Rubra became a Serpent at forty-four, selling his
(considerable) share in his family engineering concern, and set up
his own as a trader in one of the asteroid settlements in Kohistan’s
trailing Trojan point, owning and leasing a fleet of six
interplanetary cargo ships. As this was a time of commercial growth
in the Trojan point he made a considerable fortune.

After twelve years his company, Magellanic Itg, had expanded into
manufacturing and mining, owning industrial stations in twenty-three
industrial asteroids. Its trading arm moved into interstellar travel,
with fifteen starships as well as fifty interplanetary ships. At this
point he germinated Valisk, gambling his entire company by mortgaging
most of it to raise the collateral he needed for cloning a habitat
seed. He turned to Tropicana’s biotechnology companies to
produce this seed, which taxed even their considerable resources.
However, they eventually succeeded, though there was a rumor at the
time that somehow or other Rubra had actually acquired the DNA code
for a habitat before he left Machaon (it is unlikely that he would
possess enough money to fund DNA design himself—or that
Tropicana had the facilities and specialists to perform such a
monumental task).

After successful
germination, Valisk grew at the same rate as any standard Edenist
habitat. Rubra loaded the neural strata with a modified version of
the standard initializing thought routines (again rumored to be a
pirate copy of Edenist routines). From its maturation onwards, the
habitat served as a base for his starship fleet, and for various
industrial stations. Curiously, no attempt was ever made to mine
He3from the gas giant. Again it is speculated that Rubra was
distancing himself deliberately from the activities of his earlier
culture.

Valisk became a corporate state, existing primarily to endorse and
support Magellanic Itg. Rubra wrote a very loose constitution giving
himself and his heirs the position of executive committee, with
elected local councils and commerce association groups set up to
advise the committee. This element of democracy was intended to
comply with basic Confederation membership rules, thus qualifying as
an independent state, and therefore ensuring a seat in the
Confederation Assembly (Valisk only ever applied for observer status,
which it still retains).

In practice the executive
committee takes advice from no one, but runs the habitat in
conjunction with the personality (see Rubra’s Family,
page
214
) purely in order to benefit Magellanic Itg.

Although this newly grown
Valisk was a financially advantageous location from which to run his
ever-expanding fleet of starships, the habitat still needed to
attract a base population in order to provide it with a viable
civilization. Industrial companies establishing locally registered
stations were therefore granted weapons and research licenses, which
were extremely liberal. Valisk thus started to attract companies
specializing in military hardware.