The Confederation Handbook (2 page)

Biological
clearance

This entails proving that native organisms do not harbor a
bacteriological threat. Given the efficiency of today’s Adamist
immunology systems, it would have to be a highly potent xenoc
bacteria or virus which could pose a threat to human life. Only seven
newly discovered planets have been disqualified on these grounds in
the last hundred years. The existence of native vegetation which has
human-compatible protein structure is also a big plus factor in favor
of settlement, especially if the species then proves popular, and
even more so if the planetary climate is unique (see Norfolk,
page
162
). Clearance certification is given by the
Confederation assessment board, which reviews the results of the
ecological analysis team which the owner of the new settlement rights
needs to provide. The Confederation does not undertake any analysis
work itself.

It is not legally necessary
to have Confederation certification before opening a planet to
settlement; however, because of the board’s impartiality this
certificate is a guarantee of safety, and only the most foolhardy of
colonists would attempt to settle a planet when certification has not
been applied for.

Indigenous
sentient species

These are an automatic
disqualification for settlement. In the case of a xenoc species which
had not yet achieved an industrial-level civilization, further
contact is prohibited by the Confederation Assembly in order to
prevent cultural contamination. So far only one pre-industrial
species has been found: the Jiciro. Confederation Navy monitor
satellites have been placed in their star system to monitor
compliance with the no-contact law, while universities sponsored by
the Assembly maintain a discreet watch on the Jiciro civilization via
stealthed low-orbit observation satellites.

Contact with xenocs is automatically permitted when they have a
spacefaring technology, although precisely what capability must be
demonstrated is subject to debate. A life-support capsule launched
into orbit with a chemical rocket is not usually deemed sufficient,
whereas regular interplanetary flights are. Discovery of
Confederation monitoring systems would also be a valid means of
proving technological maturity. The only exception to this rule so
far have been the Kiint, who are simply not interested in space
travel but whose social and cultural maturity obviously exceeds both
Adamist and Edenist levels.

Resources

The mining of planetary
mineral resources, with its subsequent environmental contamination,
is no longer practiced, thanks to the perfection of cost-effective
asteroid mineral-extraction techniques. However, this does mean that
a star system must have sufficient asteroids in convenient orbits
before the establishment of a technological- and industrial-based
colony can be considered. Planets in a star system without an
asteroid ring are usually settled by groups searching only for a
pastoral existence. There is no legal prohibition against developing
planetary surface mining if this pastoral life is rejected at a later
date. But disaffected colonists searching for a more technologically
advanced culture tend to emigrate to a world with a culture they find
more acceptable than farming and base-line manufacturing.

Gas giants

Because of the cost involved in importing He3to a system which does
not have a gas giant, any asteroid settlements in such a system will
suffer economic penalties in comparison to settlements in other
systems where He3is mined, and therefore cheaper (see Edenist
Economy,
page 39
, for the
two-tier price system). Therefore a gas giant which can be mined for
He3has become a prerequisite in establishing a (non-pastoral) colony,
unless there are exceptional extenuating circumstances. Any
institution attempting to set up a system-wide colonization project
(apart from the Kulu Kingdom principalities) has to have Edenist
cooperation, although this is granted in virtually all cases,
provided the founders (normally a development company) can
successfully demonstrate the project’s viability. Edenists will
not help founders who devise a deliberately oppressive constitution.

These are written by the
founding group, who may incorporate any doctrine they wish (see Gas
giants, above, for Edenist censure). However, as nearly all colonies
are now founded by financial concerns, constitutions are designed to
encourage industry and commerce in order to pay off the original
investment. This tends to negate any restrictive or oppressive
charter which would inhibit wealth creation, and of course it has to
provide enough incentives—such as free land and low-interest
loans—to attract colonists.

Usually the founding institution will form the initial government,
which will gradually abrogate its control to the population as the
investment is paid off. A timescale for this is often written into
the constitution, typically seventy to a hundred years. Even when the
institution itself relinquishes political control, it will invariably
remain the largest single corporate entity in the star system, and so
will continue to generate a return on its investment. It is therefore
in the institution’s own interest to create a properly working
economy.

Zero-gee industrial stations
form an integral part of any star system’s technoeconomy.
Planets and asteroid settlements need each other in order to trade
and enhance their economies, therefore any attempt to colonize a
planet with an industrial-based society must also include the
establishment of asteroid settlements within the star system.

Asteroid settlements retain
a degree of independence from the planetary government, but when full
industrialization is achieved a system-wide congress is usually
formed to cover defense, criminal extradition, currency regulations,
mutual economic policy, transport regulations, etc. (the Edenist
habitat will not form part of the congress). It is usually this
congress which sends a representative to sit in the Confederation
Assembly on Avon, and to speak for the whole star system.

Asteroid settlements use a mix of fusion and solar power, depending
on location. They always try to be self-sufficient in food
production, using protein vats and hydroponics. The cavern chamber
biosphere is usually planted with fruit trees and edible vegetation.
Like Edenist habitats, the asteroid settlements provide a healthy
market for imported food.

There are two types of—or
locations for—asteroid settlements.

High orbit

Typically in orbit 100,000km
above the terracompatible planet, these are asteroids with a high
metallic content, and have been maneuvered into their orbit by a
series of controlled nuclear explosions. They average 30–40km
in diameter, and in their first stages provide nothing but raw metal
for the planetary industries. The number of asteroids thus captured
is in direct proportion to the planet’s population, and a newly
founded colony will only have one orbiting asteroid for probably the
first hundred years. After that, as industrial capacity expands, more
asteroids will be captured to feed it. A rough guide to how long a
planet has been industrialized is the number of asteroids in its
orbit.

Regarding the method of
settlement, to begin with a central habitation chamber will be
hollowed out of the rock and the whole asteroid given a rotation to
provide gravity. Hydrocarbons are then processed to provide a
habitable biosphere within the chamber. Because of the cost of
shipping in the necessary chemicals, scoutships will always try and
locate a metallic asteroid with a smear of hydrocarbons, usually left
over from a past collision with a carbonaceous chondritic asteroid.

As the population of an asteroid increases, and the metal ore
reserves decline, so the asteroid turns to manufacturing as its
principal economic activity. In turn it will start to import raw
material, facilitating the capture of new asteroids.

The population of a mature
asteroid settlement can reach 100,000, though it rarely exceeds this.
Politically, the high-orbit asteroids are nearly always under the
control of the planetary government. Certainly this is the case to
start with; but as the star system economy develops, companies may
well fund their own capture missions and mining settlements.

Free
settlements

These can be sited anywhere
in the star system, though investors prefer asteroids close enough to
the sun to use solar-power arrays, eliminating He3costs. Asteroids
with large and varied mineral reserves are sought, because of the
disparate material requirements of the industrial stations they
serve. High-technology zero-gee products are the only exports from
these settlements, so they are usually founded several decades after
the first batch of colonists arrive on a planet, when a market for
their goods is beginning to materialize. Like the mining asteroids in
planetary orbit, the habitation chamber is hollowed out of the
asteroid itself, providing the inhabitants with several kilometers of
rock as protection from cosmic radiation and attacks from mercenary
starships. That population is usually around 100,000, although the
larger asteroids, containing several habitation chambers, can carry
populations as high as 250,000.

In parallel with the institutions that found planetary development,
it is companies which finance the construction of asteroid
settlements, and their control is never entirely relinquished. All
asteroid settlements are essentially company towns. The major (and
rare) exception to this is when the star system is being developed by
an ideological or religious concern, in which case they will also pay
for their own asteroid settlements.

Attack by mercenary
starships is a very real threat for asteroid settlements and planets
alike, and all governments fear an assault by a political rival using
antimatter. As a consequence, any industrial planet has to devote a
healthy percentage of its gross domestic product to building and
maintaining a strategic-defense network. Earth’s O’Neill
Halo defenses are widely regarded as impregnable by any fleet another
Confederation world could throw at it.

In combination with the SD
network, the major line of defense for any world is its designated
emergence zones. As a general rule, starships are not allowed to
emerge within 100,000km of an inhabited planet. They are required to
jump into the emergence zone, and request flight clearance from the
local traffic control authority before approaching their destination,
giving naval ships time to perform an inspection when deemed
necessary. The SD platforms will shoot at any starship violating this
restriction, which is automatically assumed to be on a hostile strike
mission.

In wealthy star systems, with a large interplanetary (non-FTL drive)
spaceship fleet shipping products between asteroid settlements and
the inhabited planet, navy ships are on regular patrol to prevent
acts of piracy by starships who can immediately jump out-system as
soon as the looted cargo has been taken on board. It is this kind of
piracy which forms the vast majority of deep-space crime and, given
the lack of supralight communications, is the most successful. With
the maneuverability of mercenary ships (see Starships,
page
57
), even a two-minute response time is often inadequate.
Apart from voidhawks, few navy starships could jump to the aid of a
ship under attack within a quarter of an hour.

The term Edenist derives
from the first bitek habitat to be germinated: Eden. It was
germinated in Jupiter orbit by the JSKP (Jovian Sky Power
Corporation) to provide a dormitory and engineering support facility
for its He3mining operation within the gas giant’s atmosphere.
The affinity bond had just been discovered by Wing-Tsit Chong, and
all sub-sentient bitek organisms were implanted with a symbiont
neuron so that they could receive direct instructions from a human.

Affinity is a silent voice, also capable of carrying a sensorium,
similar to classic telepathy. Between individual Edenists it has a
range of about 100km. A bitek habitat can receive from and
communicate with other habitats, bitek organisms, and Edenists over a
100,000km range. With 4,250 mature habitats orbiting Jupiter, these
provide an affinity zone, or relay, across the whole Jovian moon
system. The combined Jovian habitats’ affinity can communicate
with the habitats orbiting Saturn, no matter what their relative
orbital positions, and also contact voidhawks within Neptune’s
orbit (see later for voidhawk affinity ability).

Until 2065 affinity bonds
were unique, allowing one person to control just one servitor animal.
This was accomplished by using a pair of cloned symbiont neurons, one
of which was implanted in a human’s brain, the other in the
servitor, providing the user with a kind of telepathy.

Such an arrangement was
obviously impractical for controlling an entity as vast as a habitat,
so Eden itself was given a neural strata which would be sentient,
allowing it to regulate and control all its own functions. Wing-Tsit
Chong contributed to the project by developing the habitat’s
thought routines, and by modifying affinity to provide a communal
affinity symbiont allowing everyone to converse with both the habitat
and each other. He then went on to incorporate the affinity neural
architecture into a gene sequence which could be spliced into a
fetus, giving a child the same ability from birth. Those children
were the first to grow up in this unique environment, sharing their
thoughts with each other and with Eden. While not entirely
eliminating negative traits such as jealousy, such an atmosphere
conducive to honesty and trust greatly reduced them. A hint of what
was to come...