Isolation Dome, #5

by tycho garen
31st October

This week’s story has been another installment from the Trailing Edge story that I’ve been working on for a while. We haven’t had a Trailing Edge story in a while, but this story is a follow up on the previous “Mars L4 Outpost” story. This is the fifth and final part, but you can still parts one, part two part three and part four. Thanks again for reading.

“…as a result of these events–which I will endeavor to keep you informed of as I learn more–the crew and I have decided that in light of these events we will redirect to Europa, where we will be the first residents of that Colony structure.” Perr said. When she realized that her next act as “liaison” would involve speaking before people her first thought was “maybe I should change,” but managed to banish her vanity.

“Because this is clearly unscheduled, we will need to begin rationing food and other supplies so that we have enough,” Perr said. The crowd grew restless, and the truth was that she didn’t have answers to such specific issues yet. No one did. “We’ll learn more in the coming weeks, and though I have absolutely no clue what to make of any of this, I think its important that we start working for the future.” Perr wasn’t sure what had changed in her: She had started the day tired of the trip and disdainful of all the people she was “stuck with,” and after a brush with total shock her mind was clear, and she was business.

Maybe it was too much time cleaning things up for her brother, dealing with politicians, with upset people, and speaking in front of people. Edwin had called it her “secret reserve,” after she had talked one of Salimia’s bosses in the Marrakesh Dome government into providing relief supplies to the people left in the London and Paris Domes. Edwin, ever the optimist hadn’t thought that they’d be able to do it, but after the second twelve hour day Perr stood up turned it on, and twenty minutes later they had an agreement from the Dome’s administrative council. It took considerably longer to scrape Salimia’s jaw off the floor.

“I would love to be able to answer your question, to sort out the details of how we’re going to make it through the next few months, but the truth is that I don’t know much more than what I’ve already told you.” Perr said, and a murmur swept the crowd. “I’d like to stay and talk with you more personally so we–all–can start figuring out what happens next. And lets meet again here tomorrow and for as long as it takes to figure out what comes next, and what comes after that.” Perr took a deep breath. “Hell, by the time we get to Europa, we’ll be sick and tired of talking about what comes next. Thank you all.”

The crowd laughed at Perr’s last words, and the room was covered by the roar of everyone talking at once.

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Isolation Dome, #4

by tycho garen
30th October

This week’s story is another from the Trailing Edge story that I’ve been working on for a while. We haven’t had a Trailing Edge story in a while, but this story is a follow up on the previous “Mars L4 Outpost” story. This is the fourth part of five, you can read part one, here, part two here, and part three here. Enjoy!

“Obviously we can’t direct the ship there, all the other transports and outposts within range of the outpost filled passed capacity, particularly in response to this. It’s irrelevant, we’re going to have to redirect somewhere else,” Jensen said. He wasn’t used to talking this much all at once, but Perr was staring blankly at him, and it was clear that she couldn’t quite comprehend the situation.

The crew had known for hours that this was happening and had done a remarkable job of keeping it under wraps, which was only a function of how distant the crew was from the passengers, not the size of the ship. So, Jensen knew that it was a lot to take in, and somehow if only for a moment, he felt compassion for her.

“Wait, it failed?” Perr asked. She’d become less outraged, and more confused.

“Yes.”

“As in the air ran out?”

“Well, not yet–we think–but lets say yes,” Jensen said.

“Wait, not yet?”

Jensen stared back, incredulous. “It didn’t breach…” his voice trailed off and the closed his eyes. “It’s actually more than a bit frightening to think about that kind of death, but there are no ships within range, let alone that have the right spare hardware, and we’ve checked a couple of times.”

“We’re like 3 days out, and we’re just coasting in? Why can’t go for a burn–or whatever–and make it?”

“Because we don’t have a replacement unit, because we don’t have the capacity to take on refugees, because we wouldn’t have enough fuel to get back to Mars, much less anywhere else,” the Captain explained. “These things have all been decided, and you’re not here to help us with this. Frankly even we don’t have the kind of expertise we would need to… freelance.”

“You don’t?” Perr said, and abruptly took her hand off the terminal she had stared to lean into. “Then why am I here?”

“Because the colonial authority demands that we get your input before we lock in the new course–a procedural holdover, I assure you–and more pragmatically we need someone like you to help us tell rest of the passeng–”

“Where are we going,” Perr said, catching up with the conversation again.

Jensen stiffened. “Well, Mars Colony has offered you accommodation and docking rights–”

“–Mars Colony is overcrowded already, that’s why we’re bound for the L4 Station,” Perr said.

“–or if we time it right we should be able to make it to the new colony on Europa–”

“We’ll go there,” Perr said.

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Isolation Dome, #3

by tycho garen
29th October

This week’s story is another from the Trailing Edge story that I’ve been working on for a while. We haven’t had a Trailing Edge story in a while, but this story is a follow up on the previous “Mars L4 Outpost” story. This is the third part of five, you can read part one, here, and part two, here. Enjoy!

“You’ve been designated passenger representative, Perr Noam, and we are mandated to consult with you regarding our current situation.” The words shot out of the man–Perr presumed him the Captain, though no there were no introductions to him or any of the other crew. There were no questions posed, and all though Perr had plenty of inquires there was no room for questions.

He continued, seemingly, without so much as breathing, “We have just recieved word tha–”

“Wait. Passenger representative? Me? By who? When? And while we’re at it, who the hell are you?” Perr said. Thanks to her youthful idealism, and later her brother–wait this wasn’t about Ediwn, was it?–she’d spent plenty of time negotiating with authority figures.

“The computer selected a slate based upon experience, record, and notoriety amongst the passengers, and then when the need arose you were selected by quick polling by the residents. This is democracy in it’s most efficient and streamlined form.” He wanted to add “or what passes for it,” but decided against it. If being rigid and cold would get him through this meeting faster, he’d take it.

“What if I don’t want this at all and decided to quit?” Perr demanded.

“But you do and you won’t. The colonial administrations’ charter demands that in times of crisis, when possible that leaders consult vested constituencies. As the commander of this transport–Captain Jensen, by the way, didn’t you read the flight information when you came aboard? anyway–I’m duty bound to follow this stupid rule, if I want to have a job, and thus a ride home, after we make port. As this is one of those times where the logs will show that it was possible to consult the passengers’ constituency, I called you in. So here you are. Now, are you ready to find out what this crisis is, or would you rather argue about the colonial authorities rules?”

“Lets hear it.”

“Yesterday evening, the environmental systems on the Mars L4 Outpost Erlang failed–”

“What?!” Perr cried. That was of course, exactly where the transport ship was bound for.

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Isolation Dome, #2

by tycho garen
28th October

This week’s story is another from the Trailing Edge story that I’ve been working on for a while. We haven’t had a Trailing Edge story in a while, but this story is a follow up on the previous “Mars L4 Outpost” story. This is the second part of five, you can read part one, here and please enjoy!

The terminal pad buzzed for the third time in as many minutes before Perr reached over to get it. The technology at their disposal on the transport ship was absurd. She wasn’t even sure they sold gear that was this fancy on Earth. Maybe keeping people enthralled with nifty gadgets kept them docile and calm for the long trip.

After the first few days–at least for Perr Noam–it had lost the glean. At first she couldn’t get over the experience of lying in bed and having a terminal, and then she realized that it was the same as the other terminals, limited and lagged off the main feed–more understandable now that they were in deep space, than when they were four blocks from the data center–just like on Earth. But after a few days, Perr just started to ignore it, and by now it was a miracle that she could find the damn thing. Thankfully, the cabin was small enough that she could pick up the tablet without getting up.

She hefted the device onto her lap; and thumbed the activation switch.

The message read, “Report to command post, with haste,” and then repeated several times. Perr found herself entranced by the message and a bit confused. “Command post?” She wondered. “What on Earth–or, um whatever–what is this?” She chuckled at her slip, stood up, careful not to hit her head anywhere straightened her clothes, though it was a lost cause and she didn’t care, and walked out the door.

She had spent a great deal of time exploring the ship in the first week, getting a lay of the land, talking to the other colonists, by day eight or nine, she couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to be nice to the poor suckers who “were so happy to be off of Earth finally,” or who “just couldn’t wait to see their dearest friend who left Earth years ago.” Except it was clear that they were scared shitless and they didn’t know anyone who lived outside of their historic consortia.1 Perr lost interest entirely.

Thankfully, she still knew her way around the ship or so she thought. The deck plan was gridded easy to navigate, she thought, as long as you were confident of where you were going, but all the intersections looked the same almost immediately.

“Ms. Noam?”

Perr spun around to see a worried looking crewman–Rick, she thought, or maybe it was Robert, the men all looked alike–walking toward her at a good clip. “Yes? I was on my way.”

“It’s um, that way,” he said, pointing to his right.

“Of course,” Perr said, spoken before she had decided weather to act flippant or irritated. When Rob (or was it Reg?) held an unyielding stare, Perr decided that indecision was probably the right approach. “After you,” she said.

“This just got weird, really weird” she thought, and then she remembered that she was on a colonial transport ship. A ship that was flinging her across the solar system to a space station where se was going to start a new life, after spending most of her last one trying to keep people from doing just this. “No, this started out weird.“



Notes:

  1. Consortia were established, generally along the old national boundaries, and served some of the same cultural functions, though they were endowed with virtually no political meaning or power. ↩

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Isolation Dome #1

by tycho garen
27th October

Welcome to another week of original SF at Critical Futures! This time I have another story from the Trailing Edge story that I’ve been working on for a while. We haven’t had a Trailing Edge story in a while, but this story is a follow up on the previous “Mars L4 Outpost” story. This is the first part of five, and a new installment will drop every day this week.

“What is it this time Edwin?” Perr asked, before she had even closed the door to her brother’s flat. Actually, she had invited herself over this time–but it went smoother this way and Edwin, as always, played into the script.

“Well, I think if we can get an agreement or pledge from the authority in Cairo Dome, we might have enough people to–” Edwin said, walking briskly out of kitchen and into the main room in his apartment. “If you want to come to the meeting in a week, it would help a lot.”

“You’re kidding me,” Perr said, falling down on the couch.

“No, why?” Ediwn sounded surprised, though more at the interruption than the sentiment.

“Because you’ve never gotten Cairo Dome to agree to anything more than turning the lights out when they leave. They’re all but paying people to leave–not that you can blame them–and you think they’re going to lift a finger to help you “

“But, it’s the right thing to do.” Edwin said. “You know that. They know that, they’ll see in the end.”

“The end? When’s that going to be? And will there be running water in the end?” They were starting to have this fight more often these days.

“In Marrakesh? Ha! Don’t worry about the water. For better or worse the supply for the spaceport comes through here, remember.

“That’s all sorts of scary,” Perr said. She shot a wary look at the sink in the corner, but quickly turned back to Ediwn. “I’m going to take this next transport off world.”

Edwin should have been more surprised. He should have been more angry, more betrayed. Something. Anything. He was quite busy, he reasoned, and Perr hadn’t had the same enthusiasm in the next last few years that she had right after the riots. “Oh.”

His mind quickly shifted to the summit, to Marrakesh dome, to saving what was left of Earth, and continuing to rebuild from the Riots. There was still much work left to be done.

Perr didn’t excuse herself immediately, though it ultimately was the last time she saw her brother. They didn’t talk about anything of particular: Perr’s partner, children, minutia about the flight, their parents. The visa riots. Their first couple of years of Marrakesh.

And then, as the day cycle drew to a close, Perr left to return to her flat to continue her preparations.

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Mars L4 Outpost, #2

by tycho garen
3rd September

I present to you the second part of another essay from the writings of Leon Winter, our guide for the Trailing Edge stories. The first essay can be found here, and I hope you enjoy.

The incident at Mars L4 didn’t slow the exodus from earth; it did however, speed up the occupation of the moons in the outer system, and it did foreclose the possibility of any long-lasting settlement of any of the L4 or L5 points. Europa first, but ultimately the rest of the Jovian system and Titan.

If the Visa Riots were the spark that started the exodus in earnest, Mars L4 was the fuel that kept it going. I can’t fathom this, I’m sure that had I been there I would have predicted that a tragedy with one of the colonies would have discouraged further colonization.

Clearly that wasn’t the case. Except in the limited form that people were completely unwilling to settle on space outposts like Mars L4. Within five years, all of these habitats had been abandoned, some people even went back to Earth, which was still overcrowded, but most moved on to Mars, the Moon, laid the basis for some of the outer colonies. More than anything thing else the legacy of the Mars L4 disaster was the concentrated development of the OuterColonies.1.

The road that lead humanity to settled on Europa and Titan was difficult and fraught. So many people missed so much: the people that never got to leave Earth, the people lost at Mars L4, the generations of people who never got to see Earth. And yet, for a time, I think Titan and Europa represented the very best of what humanity was capable.

– Leon Winter



Notes:

  1. I am throughly a product of the society of the outer colonies, as I suspect most of the people reading this are as well. The great ships bound for other solar systems bring not the children of Earth but the people of Europa and Titan to the galaxy. Though I still get nostalgic for Earth, it would be thoroughly incorrect to think that any of my relations for the past three–very long generations–had spent any substantial amount of time on the planet. ↩

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Mars L4 Outpost, #1

by tycho garen
2nd September

I present to you another essay from the writings of Leon Winter, our guide for the Trailing Edge stories. This essay will be posted in two parts, and I hope you enjoy.

Though it is hundreds of years past, the collapse of the Mars L4 Outpost remains a vivid and touchstone for most of us that remain.

Outposts and colonies had failed before; but some how, in the early cases, the collapses happened with enough warning to stage evacuations, or before the colony superstructures had become activated.

Mars L4 was different. There was no warning. And no recourse.

Somehow, disasters in space colonization had always seemed like hurricanes: devastating, huge, but visible on the horizon. Mars L4 was an earthquake by comparison: Dangerous, and a known possibility, and seemingly never predictable in the specific instance.

L4/L5 stations were great joys of the orbital mechanics: stable, easy to maintain, large, but particularly as you got further from the sun they were pretty far flung. Though we still do not know what happened to the station–aside from the fact that the air processing system failed–the tragedy was caused by the distance between the station and help.

What we do know is that one of the station’s central air processing unit–and it’s backup(s)–failed. It was 15 days out from the nearest ship.

Any outpost or settlement is always the most vulnerable when it is new, and this is especially true in space before routines are established, when hardware is newly fabricated, and software is largely untested. These factors probably all combined at Mars L4, but in the final analysis it’s difficult to determine if the station collapsed because of simple hardware error or because of some sort of programing mishap. That detail is lost to us, and the station itself has long since been scrapped.

If such a thing had happened on one of the colony structures on, say Mars–as it surely did in the early days of the colonies–there would have been ships, nearby stations, and other colony structures that would have been able to evacuate the population, fix the malfunction and then re-inhabit the structure when it was safe. What might have been lost to history as a routine maintenance situation, is instead remembered as the only instance where a fully populated space colony was lost with all hands in the entire history of human space occupation.

Though to be fair, the extra-solar colonization project is subject to the same challenges as Mars L4, but it will be generations before the news of those outposts reach us. At any rate I hope that we have learned our lesson from Mars L4, but I fear that we have not.

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