Confederation: The Habitat Tranquillity

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Tranquillity

Tranquillity itself is an independent bitek habitat orbiting 587,000km above the gas giant Mirchusko. It was germinated in 2428 by the then Crown Prince of Kulu, Michael Saldana. There are no other human settlements in the system.

History

The star system itself is unremarkable, and was first visited in 2420 by a Kulu Royal Navy scoutship, the Ethlyn. Routine survey probes revealed the Ruin Ring, which generated considerable interest among the xenoc researchers across the Confederation. There was no trace of the Laymil race who had lived in the habitats, nor was there any trace of them on any of the solid planets or gas giant moons. The combined Royal Navy and Nova Kong University team which was sent to investigate, estimated that there was anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 Laymil habitats orbiting Mirchusko, and they all disintegrated at the same time: 2400 years previously, plus or minus 25 years. Remaining  particles range in size from dust motes up to habitat shell sections 200m in diameter.  Clearly a long term archealogical investigative project would be required to reach full understanding of the tragedy.
Kulu filed a settlement claim on the system with the Confederation in 2422. It was at this point that Crown Prince Michael began to take a personal interest in the Ruin Rings.  The motivation behind this interest was never fully explained, but there are two probable reasons.

The first possibility is that he became obsessed with the causes of the Laymil habitats’ disintegration. It is widely supposed that the Laymil underwent a mass suicide, since an accident on such a scale is virtually inconceivable for a race of their technological advancement, and fragments of records found since then have strengthened this theory, so it may well be that he wanted to know if the human race could ever find itself in a similar position.

The second reason suggested is that he deliberately used the Ruin Ring to initiate conflict with his own family. The prospect of a life of 180 years dedicated solely to public service, when one’s every second  has been planned weeks or even years in advance, is not something readily acceptable to everyone, even someone enjoying the privileges accorded to the Saldanas.  Prince Michael may have seen the discovery of the Run Rings as his escape from another hundred years of excruciating boredom. He was sixty seven at the time and his father, King James, was already ailing.

Whatever the reason, he instigated a vast research project into the Laymil. Against all tradition, and with near total family disapproval, he ordered the cloning of a bitek habitat from Tropicana (even he wasn’t radical enough to approach the Edenists for one) and had it germinated on an asteroid orbiting 587,000km above Mirchuko. He also diverted considerable Kulu Corporation funds to construct a cloudscoop so that Tranquillity and its support stations would be completely self sufficient.

Whilst bitek is the logical solution  to supporting a community devoted to academic research in an isolated star system, its use was a severe breach with accepted Christian ethics (because of its association with affinity). Michael then compounded his crime by using neuron symbionts to establish an affinity bond with Tranquillity. After this, he ordered a modified affinity gene to be spliced into the DNA of his own son, Maurice, so that the boy would also be able to communicate with Tranquillity. This last act, committed in 2432, the year his father King James died, was the last straw as far as the Saldana family was concerned. Michael, in so blatantly disregarding his role as defender of Christianity in the Kingdom, was clearly unfit to rule. The was thus never crowned, and his brother Lukas became King instead.

Michael and the infant Maurice were excommunicated, and banished to Tranquillity (Michael’s wife, Princess Ginevra, did not accompaby him to Tranquillity but went into exile on Avon, supported financially by the Saldana family until she died in 2487), and the habitat was granted to them as a dukedom in perpetuity. In 2440, Michael declared independence from the Kulu Kingdom, and no attempt was made by Lukas to reclaim it (possibly a situation planned for by Michael, since it would have been politically difficult for the King of Kulu to reclaim a bitek construct, not to mention one owned by his older bother). So Michael became known as the Lord of Ruin, a title Maurice assumed on his father’s death in 2513.

Cut off from the virtually bottomless funding of the Kulu Corporation and the Royal Treasury, and alone in a star system with no terracompatible planet, and with only eight industrial stations, financial expediency became paramount (certainly in their early years), and the original research project into the Laymil and their suicide was considerably downgraded. However, Michael went on to establish Tanquillity as in important trading station, a Blackhawk base, outsystem banking centre and tax haven, so that foreign currency earnings were maintained, which he them could then continue to spend on the research to which he had devoted his life.

The Lords of Ruin
Michael   2440-2513
Maurice 2513-2601
Ione  2601 –

Ione was gestated in 2593, in a womb analogue organ similar to those used by Voidhawks. Maurice is known to have had several other children (conceived naturally), all of whom left to become Edenists. Maurice wanted to avoid the situation where several rival candidates would be eligible to control Tranquillity.

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Economy

Michael’s triumph in making Tranquillity financially viable is a feat almost equal to that of his celebrated forebear, Richard, which is a fact not overlooked by historians specialising in the Saldana family.

After the declaration in independence in 2440, Tranquillity’s population numbered 17,000, consisting of Michael’s personal retainers (who had remained loyal), the xenoc research staff (only 20 percent remained, the rest returned to Kulu), the cloudscoop crew and a skeleton crew manning the industrial stations, plus a few Royal Navy officers responsible for the strategic-defense platform ( most of whom had been black listed anyway). Turning such a motley collection of resources and people into a successful mini-nation was by any standards, nothing short of miraculous.

With no outstanding debts on the cloudscoop, Michael offered HE3 at a price 10% lower than the Edenists, turning Tranquillity into an important port for starships in that sector of the Confederation. He wrote a simplified version of the original Kulu constitution, which was enforced by the habitat consciousness. Such an Adamist-Edenist culture combination proved popular, especially with the relaxed banking laws Michael included in his constitution, and so immigration began. Low taxes and a guaranteed crime free environment, as well as the notoriety of Michael himself, helped attract the wealthy to Tranquillity. The habitat soon began to prosper as a trading and finance centre. Finally he offered Tranqullity as a base for Blackhawk mating flights, an action which turned the habitat into the premier Blackhawk port in the Confederation, eventually supplanting Valisk. Several prominent astronautics companies have established industrial stations to support the starships calling at Tranquillity, and most of the multi-stellar corporations have offices inside the habitat.

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The Habitat

Tanquillity follows the structure, general layout, and internal functions of Edenist habitats; however, at 65km long and 17km wide, it is the largest so far germinated in the Confederation (Its internal biosphere amounts to an area of 3,471 km², larger than Luxembourg). It orbits 590,000km above Mirchusko, outside the Ring Ruin, and has the usual band of starscrapers around the centre, 500m long. The cavern climate is subtropical, and there is a circumfluous saltwater reservoir at one end, 8km wide and 300m deep, with several islands. The central cavern vegetation is a mixture of many different kinds introduced from terracompatible planets across the Confederation.

There are two voidhawk/Blackhawk docking ledges on the endcap, with radii of 2.5km and 5km respectively. The non-rotational spaceport is a disc 4km in diameter, supported by an axis spindle 3km long; it is powered by fusion generators and does not receive electricity from the habitat’s induction cables. The endcap maw is orientated towards galactic south (corresponding with Mirchusko’s magnetic field). The population in 2610 is 3,100,000.

Tranquillity is designed to support 5,000,000 people, so while there is no need yet  for a second habitat, one will eventually have to be germinated if its population continues to expand at its current rate. Since it will have to be financed by the Lord of Ruin, this notion gives credibility to the considerable speculation of a new Saldana dynasty arising there.

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Habitat Consciousness

This is the principal difference between Tranquillity and an Edenist habitat. While able to communicate with Edenists using affinity, the consciousness is answerable only to the Lord of Ruin. There is no multiplicity since, on dying, the Lords of Ruin choose not to transfer their memories into the neural strata, nor will the personality accept the memories of a dying Edenist (though it will store them for retrieval by a voidhawk should an Edenist die while resident). It is a singleton mentality.

As with Edenist habitats, the personality provides the civil administration and financial service, and in these respects is incorruptible. However, as the inhabitants are not Edenists, a physical security construct has been included in the habitat servitor genealogy. The personality, in conjunction with the Lord of Ruin, is reasonably tolerant of wayward human behaviour, but comes down hard on major transgressions. The habitat contains a great number of rich immegrés essential to the economy, and their piece of mind is paramount.

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The Tranquillity Serjeants

The serjeants act as a police force for the habitat personality, enforcing the law. They are not individually sentient, but are controlled by the habitat personality, and their brains are forms of bitek processor circuitry enabling them to perform  simple functions such as patrolling and observing without constant supervision. They are also responsive to the Lord of Ruin, who can use his or her affinity to direct them, but they do not receive affinity commands from Edenists.

Serjeants are humanoid bitek constructs, 2m tall with a reddish brown exoskeleton, their joints covered by segmented rings allowing limbs full articulation. Their heads have a sculpted appearance, with the eyes concealed within a deep horizontal gash for protection. There is a mouth with a hinged jaw, but no teeth; the nose is a simple oval inlet hole beteen the mouth and eye gash; each ear is a hole in the centre of a petal pattern on either side of the head. Their hands have five fingers and a thumb, enabling them to use any equipment designed for humans. Their feet have no toes, however. They have the ability to talk, though individual units simply relay whatever the habitat personality itself wishes to say, normally informing wrongdoers of which law they have broken, why they are being arrested etc.

Serjeants digest a special protein paste exuded by the habitat food synthesis organs. They have no sexual traits, and their eggs are produced inside an ovary organ within Tranquillity’s servitor facility. The hatchery is contained in caverns in the southern endcap and, after they hatch out, serjeants take 15 months to reach full size, living for approximately 50 years.

All serjeants are armed with nervejam sticks; projectile or beam weapons are only issued in times of emergency. Their size, strength and threatening appearance are often enough in themselves to quell any disturbances in pubs and clubs.

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Tranquillity Defence
   
When Michael took control of Traquillity, the Royal Kulu Navy left behind seven strategic defence platforms, capable of providing close range cover around the habitat. The cloudscoop was protected by its own beam weapons.

Since then the Lords of Ruin have extensively upgraded the SD platform network as the starship taffic requirements have expanded. Manufacturing and service contracts are awarded to astroengineering companies which have local stations, and Tranquillity is now self sufficient in its defence requirements. A 100,000km emergence exclusion zone is in force around the habitat. Tranqulity is linked into the defence net via bitek processors, and runs it without human intervention (with the exception of the Lord of Ruin). Maintenance is performed by local companies.

The habitat personality also monitors the Ruin Ring to ensure that starships are not engaged in illegal scavenging operations. If one is found, then either a Blackhawk will be contracted to intercept, or if the starship jumps outsystem before interception, a Confederation regional law violation alert will be issued, empowering national governments and Navy vessels to apprehend the offending ship, with no statute of limitations.

Blackhawks are usually hired by Tranquillity should any naval type action be required (specifically anti-piracy), and a store of combat wasps is maintained for this purpose. The simple presence of so many blackhawks in the star system should be deterrence enough to Adamist starship pirates. The Blackhawk captains do show a certain loyalty to the Lord of Ruin for opening Tranquillity as a base for mating flights. And, of course, Tranquillity supplies the blackhawks with the nutrient fluid they possess. The blackhawks and Tranquillity have a friendly relationship, with the bitek ships telling the habitat of the various sights and gossip across the Confederation.