Economy
Avon’s economy has benefited enormously from the Confederation presence. Planetary service industries support the Assembly compound and the embassies. The asteroid settlement industry stations are heavily (though not exclusively) involved with Confederation fleet contracts. As a consequence, the starship manufacturing capability among the local asteroid settlements is almost as advanced as Earth’s and the Kulu Kingdom’s.
There are fifteen asteroid settlements in orbit around the planet (including Trafalgar), and eighty-four independent settlements in the asteroid belt. The asteroid settlement population is 15,000,000.
The safety provided by basing the 1st Fleet in this system means that piracy has become essentially nonexistent, which in conjunction with the large influx of starships on government business has helped establish Avon as a substantial port in its own right.
He3 Mining
There is a large Edenist presence in the Avon system, orbiting Ocymum. There are twelve cloudscoops mining the gas giants, providing fuel for the copious starship traffic as well as the rest of the system’s industrial facilities.
The cloudscoops are tended by twenty-five bitek habitats, which possess a considerable number of attendant industrial stations. Many joint commercial enterprises have been formed with the Adamist asteroid settlements, and Avon companies. The Edenist population is 45,000,000.
Trafalgar
Trafalgar is a stony-iron asteroid, approximately the shape of a peanut, 11km long, and 4.5km at its widest. There are three cylindrical chambers hollowed into it, each 3.5km long and 1.5km in radius. All of these support numerous caverns. It has two large spherical counter-rotating spaceports, and three docking ridge ledges at each end for voidhawks and blackhawks. The asteroid has no attendant industrial stations like ordinary asteroid settlements.
Legally, the asteroid is Confederation territory and the First Admiral is its governor, responsible for all civil and military aspects of its operation. There is no internal industry or economy, all supplies coming from the Avon system, although there are protein vats which can support the population in an emergency.
Trafalgar is home to the Navy Academy, which trains all career officers. It also houses the principal Marine training barracks.
Its population is 80 percent transient. There are many civilian employees providing basic engineering and administrative services, and a small entertainments and leisure activities trade flourishes, mainly restaurants and clubs for off-duty personnel. These establishments are usually Avon company franchises. For long-term leave, naval personnel normally visit the planet itself.
The civilian contract worker population is 125,000, and the naval personnel 190,000 (including 1st Fleet crews).
6. Lalonde
Lalonde is a terracompatible planet 319 light-years from Earth. Colonization is open to both humans and Tyrathca.
Star System Physical Data
There are five solid planets and five gas giants. The star is a G7 type. There is one asteroid belt. The solid planets:
The asteroid belt orbits between 372m and 485m km from the star.
There are five gas giants.
Lalonde
Physical Data
The planet has a rotation period of 26 hours 19 minutes, and a year of 295 days. Gravity is 0.91 standard. There is a 7° axial tilt which, combined with its proximity to the star, gives Lalonde a hot climate. The equatorial zone is uninhabitable by humans, and sub-tropical climate extends to the polar regions. There are no ice caps. The one (northern) polar continent, Wyman, has a slightly cooler climate, but is subject to severe storms when the cool air and arid hot air fronts clash. Humidity is high right across the planet.
There are three moons. The innermost, Rennison, is airless, 1,300km in diameter, with an orbital altitude of 275,000km, giving it a period of fifteen days. It has been heavily cratered, and possesses a grey-brown regolith. The second innermost, Beriana, is 900km in diameter, with an orbital altitude of 397,000km, giving it a period of twenty-nine days. It has a few large craters, and is a dull yellow in color. The outermost moon, Diranol, is 4,800km in diameter, with an orbital altitude of 520,000km, giving it a period of thirty-five days. It is very similar to Mars, with an iron oxide regolith, and a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere.
The tides produced by these three moons, especially when in conjunction, are very powerful, and low-lying coastal areas are regularly flooded, leading to the extensive evolution of saltwater-resistant plants.
One-fifth of Lalonde’s surface is land, and there are six continents: Sarell (equatorial), Wyman (polar), Amarisk (northern, the largest), Clopton, Knape, and Mosedale.
Only Amarisk is inhabited. It covers an area of 6m km2, with fold mountains—the Puttack range, in the east, leading down to savannahs in the west. The largest river, the Juliffe, is 1,900km long, with a tributary network rivaling Earth’s Amazon. The capital city is Durringham (population 175,000), situated at the mouth of the Juliffe, on its northern bank (the river being 12km wide there). The planetary population is 12,000,000 including 850,000 Tyrathca.
History
Lalonde was discovered in 2576, and opened for colonization in 2582. After the scoutship which discovered it put the settlement rights up for sale, they were bought by a venture company which went on to form the Lalonde Development Company. The LDC attracted enough funding to mount a biological survey, which was completed in 2578, clearing the biosphere for human colonization. At this point the LDC was floated on the O’Neill Halo stock exchange, looking for full start-up fund investment. Shares were optioned by the following companies:
12 percent Lithcoine astronautics, registered in the O’Neill Halo.
10 percent Miconia industrial, registered in the O’Neill Halo.
8 percent Forvoit mining, registered on Avon.
15 percent Sandering Civil Engineering, registered on New California.
7 percent Nares industries, registered on Argonne.
5 percent the Jovian Bank.
2 percent the Royal Kulu Bank.
10 percent the Tyrathca government central economic council.
31 percent held by various trusts, banks, and individuals, with no such holding exceeding 1 percent.
Lalonde is officially a EuroChristian ethnic world, and Christian missions are granted land by the Development Corporation governor. Although open to all people who fall within its ethnic stream, the LDC recommends that immigrants should have geneering that enables them to withstand the strong UV light of the sun. The Tyrathca immigrants are all farmers, cultivating the rygar crop (see Vegetation, page 157).
With so many stage-one planets currently open for immigration, the Lalonde Development Corporation had a lot of trouble attracting funding for start-up. Without Tyrathca support it is unlikely the project would have got off the ground for several decades more. (There are over twenty-five terracompatible planets that have passed their biological clearance review by the Confederation Xenobiological Hazard
Assessment Board, and are waiting colony start-up funds from the owners of their settlement rights.)
It is rare for a planet to be opened on a budget quite as small as that which the Lalonde Development Corporation has available. However, it has achieved most of the criteria required for successful colonization, though the standard of living for its population is generally lower than equivalent planets.
The Lalonde Development Corporation is responsible for law enforcement and civil administration until 2670, or when the population reaches 75,000,000 whichever comes first. Town councils (for towns with a population over 7,500) with the authority to pass local bylaws will be permitted from 2625 onwards; county councils after 2635; state councils after 2650. Until then, towns and counties are run by company managers who are only obliged to “consult” with any local bodies. Newly established villages (with small populations) are given a settlement supervisor by the Development Corporation, who is responsible for upholding the law in his or her district as well as adv
ising on agriculture and building construction. The LDC also employs marshals (inevitably combat-boosted) to quell any major disturbance and track down groups of outlaws in the countryside outside Durringham.
Tyrathca settlements are run along standard Tyrathca clan lines. There are no joint settlements.
Economy
Lalonde is still in its first development stage, and the society is primitive. The majority of human immigrants to date have been people wishing to farm. The Development Corporation gives each immigrant (over nineteen years old) seventy-five hectares, and children of settlers are also entitled to seventy-five hectares when they too reach the age of nineteen. Because of the competition between colony worlds (in 2610 there are thirty-nine of them accepting immigrants), the Development Corporation decided to accept category 3 convicts (non-lethal) as involuntary transportees from Confederation planets (mostly from Earth).
The Tyrathca came to Lalonde exclusively to farm the rygar crop, which grows only in mountainous regions. There was a large initial batch of breeders, with a small retinue of vassal castes, who arrived in 2585. They settled the Puttack Mountains, where they form an isolated community of their own. Starships chartered by the Tyrathca Central Economic Council to maintain contact have VTOL spaceplaces capable of bypassing Durringham spaceport and landing directly at the Tyrathca settlements.
Human colonists are now progressing further up the Juliffe River for their land grants, and are establishing villages close to the Tyrathca, though there has been minimal contact so far. The constitution allows for distinct habitation areas for both races, ceding most mountain ranges to the Tyrathca and ensuring natural segregation so that interspecies incidents are kept to a minimum.
The Tyrathca do export some of their crop to their homeworld, Hesperi-LN, but this trade makes little impact on Lalonde’s planetary economy as a whole. There are no metalled roads or rail networks. Transport is centered around the Juliffe and its tributaries, with a considerable quantity of river traffic (another factor in favor of reduced-cost colony start-up). To encourage boat building, the Development Corporation provides loans for thermal-exchange furnaces and electric motors to power ships constructed out of native timber. Durringham has a flourishing shipyard industry.
So far, 90 percent of all human settlements have been made on the banks of the Juliffe and its tributaries.
There is little manufacturing industry in terms of machinery and electrical goods on the planet, and none at all outside Durringham. Those manufactured goods which are produced are basic implements for households and farming, and solar-cell roofing panels. One company, Parry Engineering, has started to make powerbikes capable of using the mud tracks between villages. With several service companies maintaining the engines and equipment used by the larger ships, it is expected that future industrial growth will be led by that sector in conjunction with requirements for mechanized farm machinery.
The planet has no communication net, not even in Durringham. There is a communications satellite permitting a minimum of communication between the governor’s office and LDC representatives in the countryside.
One asteroid, Kenyon, has been maneuvered into orbit, 112,000km above the planet, but mining machinery has not yet been shipped in there. A caretaker station owned by the Development Corporation is attached. This whole asteroid project can only be regarded as highly premature.
There are no independent asteroid settlements.
The Edenist Habitat
In 2602 the Edenists germinated Aethra in orbit above Murora, and it will be fully grown in 2630. There is no cloudscoop, and there is almost no He3 usage at all in the system. Durringham has a few generators, principally for the spaceplanes which bring colonists down from their starships. All their He3 is imported.
A small inhabited station with thirty personnel is maintained in orbit around Murora to monitor and assist Aethra’s growth. Crew duty tours are five (Earth) months, and a voidhawk visits every six weeks from the Jospool star system, the nearest fully developed system, eight light-years away.
Vegetation
As a stage-one colony, Lalonde is heavily reliant on its aboriginal plant species for many aspects of everyday life. Some are integral to the local economy, while others are highly detrimental.
Kerriaiweed
A tenacious reed which grows in the low-lying coastal areas, and can withstand being submerged in salt water. It has a mat root system to hold the sandy soil together.
Mayope
A very slow-growing riverbank tree with big scarlet flowers and black bark. It requires a wet soil. The wood is extremely hard, and difficult to ignite, making it ideal for constructing both buildings and ships. Logging operations are extensive, as is the sawmill industry which has built up around heavy demand. There is considerable worry that this resource will be badly depleted in another thirty years, and the governor is encouraging sustainable forestry initiatives. Because of mayope’s slow growth rate, it is doubtful that this will be a practical solution.
Cherry oak
A tall tree with white bark, its leaves are small, and the fruit resembles an acorn in shape, but bright red. It is edible, with a nutty taste.
Gigantea
A tree with an outer coating like thick mauve-brown coconut hair instead of a true bark. Its branches all slope downwards, and the leaves are pale green. It requires deep moist loam to grow in, and is prevalent close to rivers and lakes. Heights of up to 220m have been recorded, with trunks in excess of 40m in diameter on the largest specimens. The LDC governor has given these all preservation status, and felling them for timber is strictly prohibited.
Vines
There are two hundred different species of vines growing in the forests. The most important are:
Tinnus,blue flower, fast-growing ground cover.
Acillus,yellow flower, green fruit, tree climber.
Isonar,big (1m) scarlet and blue flower, fast-growing ground creeper.
Danzar,small dark purple tubular flower, white fruit, poisonous, tree.
Canus,a small evergreen plant with a four-month cycle: when cut and dried, it can be smoked as a mild hallucinogen.
Foltwine,freshwater aquatic, like a thick brown ribbon, very slippery. It grows so thickly in some places in the Juliffe that it impedes boat traffic. Boats with cutting cables stretched between them patrol regularly to keep navigation channels open in shallow areas, and are funded by the Development Corporation. Any swimmers who get caught in foltwine escape with great difficulty.
Snowlily, freshwater aquatic. Its baseplants grow along the side of the river, and produce a large (2m) white saucer-like leaf with a kernel at the center. When it is mature, the leaf will detach and float downstream until it snags, then it roots. Lasting
for about ten days, this happens twice every (local) year, in February and August. The entire Juliffe tributary network is planted with snowlilies, and the last 500km of river becomes a solid mass of white leaves during each flowering season. All travel along this section is suspended during that season: the sheer proliferation of snowlilies makes the use of any kind of boat impossible. Consequently, river captains have petitioned the governor’s office for a virus that will kill off the baseplant, but this request has been repeatedly refused, such ecocide being strictly forbidden by the Confederation. Thus there is no practical method of ridding the River Juliffe of this hazard.
Elwisie, edible fruit (for humans) cultivated extensively. A short (3m high) tree with yellow leaves, and a 10cm diameter spheroid fruit with a thick dark purple skin. The fruit has a peach-like pulp, and can be eaten either cooked or raw.
Rygar, edible berry (for the Tyrathca), regarded as a delicacy. It grows in bush form, producing clusters of green berries which gradually solidify into a solid nutlike sphere. These are then picked, their shells peeled, and the center ground up. The Tyrathca use the powder for making beverage drinks or for mixing with sugar to create a fudge.
Animals
The animals follow a standar
d evolutionary pattern. There are fish, amphibians, and mammals, and all are two-gender. The mammals are quadrupeds, and most possess tails, but their hands or paws have six digits. Fur has not evolved, so scales or smooth hide is the norm, to allow cooling in the planet’s hot climate.
Kroclion
A large (4m long, 1.7m high) carnivorous animal with dark grey-green scales, it is a highly territorial jungle dweller (occupying an area of roughly 5km2). It bears some resemblance to the Earth crocodile, but its legs are longer and the hindquarters taper down to a long (3m) whip-like tail. It can reach only a steady trot, but once it is running very little can stop it, normal jungle undergrowth posing no problem. It eats vennal and sayce (see below), and will also attack humans and Tyrathca, though a large amount of xenoc flesh will poison it. Although the kroclion is a jungle dweller, it does not like the kind of excessive humidity found by the rivers, thus making the inhabited lands relatively clear of this problem so far. However, when the colonists start to expand out from the river margins, kroclions will start to pose a problem.