NationStates Jolt Archive

~ ~ ~ Mars ~ ~ ~

In a historic deal (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=430930) the Planet Mars Corporate Colony of This United State (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=this_united_state) had secured entirely three of the inner-most Moons of Neptune, in the Sol system.

Extracts from Preliminary Survey Report to the Director, T.R. Kom.

Neptune

It is the 9th planet of the Sol system, and some even say it is the most beautiful of them all. It hangs in space, a Earth sky-hued sapphire flawed only by what is called the Great Dark Spot and various smaller high level white clouds casting shadows on the opaque cloud deck below, such as the " Scooter " and the Small Dark Spot, a cyclonic wind storm. Being so far away from the sun, compared to the other planets in Sol, it should be no surprise it has a surface temperature of something like −218 °C (55 K) ...

The atmosphere is mostly composed of 3 elements, Hydrogen, Helium and Methane, and has at least four rings around it.

But, more importantly sir, is ...

Thalassa

It is the second moon of the planet Neptune. It has an orbital radius of 50,075 km and a rough diameter of around 80 km. It also has an orbital period of 0.311 d or, 7 hours and 30 minutes. There is also an orbital inclination of 0.200° to Neptune's equator. Of course, being 50,075 km to Neptune means that the orbit of Thalassa is slowly decaying due to tidal forces and it will in the very distant future, break up into another planetary ring, or even impact on Neptune's gaseous surface. We expect we shall be capable of preventing this in the long term, I am glad to say.

It is made up of mostly silicate based rock, with some very minor metallic content. It has some dirty water ice covering it. We suspect some inner pockets of water ice linked to the surface by small channels which we expect we can exploit to our advantage during material extraction for the habitation caverns, which them-selves will only be minor objectives, compared to our plan for Thalassa, the " Thalassan Yards ", a ship-yard.

There is a canyon which we plan to install the ship-yard systems in ...

Despina

Despina is the third moon of Neptune and has a very rough diameter of some 148 km because of it having an irregular shape. It also has an orbital period of 0.335 d and an orbital inclination of 0.080° again which is figured to Neptune's equator. Despina has a radius of orbit of 52,526 km, not all that much more than that of Thalassa ...

Again, it is mostly made up of silicate rock, with some water ice again present, which is seen coating most parts of the surface to a various extent. We suspect a slightly higher concentration of metals present in the over-all mass. We have definately found trace amounts of nickel and iron exposed on the surface to confirm this prospect.

How-ever, what sets Despina apart from Thalassa is that in some time in the past, perhaps before even the rise of humanity itself, it has been struck by a much smaller space body, a carbonaceous chondritic asteroid. The result of this contact is deposited on one surface of Despina, a large smear of a thick and sticky tar which is rich in both nitrogen and hydrogen. There is also some variously assorted simple, and more complicated, hydrocarbons, and most interesting, near pure carbon itself. This " smear " zone is projected to mass in at more than several million tonnes. We expect this will provide an immediate jump-start to the cavern ecology as well as greatly reducing the start-up costs, let alone the financial ramifications of the carbon when refined as ... proposed, now conservatively anticipated to be significant in both the long and short term fiscal gain, thanks to ...

Galatea

Finally, we have the fourth moon of Neptune, Galatea. Much the same as Despina, with an diameter of 158 km and an orbital radius of 61,593 km. There is an orbital period of 0.429 d at an orbital inclination of 0.065° or so.

Again, signs of dirty water ice crusting parts of the moon, made up mostly of silicate rock and stronger traces of metallic mass this time, which is anticipated to be enough to provide not only enough metal material for creating our habitation cavern, but leaving a surplus for other uses. On top of this, there is a smaller instance of another carbonaceous chondritic asteroid strike, leaving a smaller streak of the same carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen rich material on the surface which we can tap for ...

~ ~ ~ Mars - This United State - New London ~ ~ ~

" Time's definition of coal, the diamond, sir. "

T.R. Kom glanced at the ghostly image of the atomic structure of the carbon allotrope that had been cast across much of his wall length vista of New London, presently at sun-set, a full half of the upper city spread across below him, out-side his office, in ( Where else but ? ) the Directorate Tower. He stood, with his back to the room, in a dark and moody profile, the picture of film noir style, though this one was set in a sepia of polished golden light.

( So, maybe not, then. what with it not being just black and white, but, any - way ... )

" Yes, quite, Kiran. A bit of coal that stuck to the job it had to do ... Of course, it is a perfect example of the devotion to our task we must exercise, but, I expect we have more to cover than toss these words of praise for the products of the universe around ... "

" Yes sir, I have the report for you here as you - "

" Good, good ... Begin. "

" Well sir, Lucy is on target as we speak to - "

~ ~ ~ Near Neptune ~ ~ ~

The target as it was called, was Despina. That wasn't to say all three moons were not objectives, but for the present, there was the bottom line to consider, and building an entire city ( And more ... ) in the core of a rock orbiting the 9 th body in the solar system, as for all the glorious advances of humanity, science, and the work of semi-drunk ecology students at 12 o'clock at night it wasn't at all cheap, and surprisingly, T.U.S. did not have a completely blank cheque book, despite past actions.

" Oh ... bollocks "

Quite.

But then again, it was this very fiscal reality that had precipitated the ever-so-carefully-plotted events to follow.

~ ~ ~ Despina - Surface ~ ~ ~

The first vessel to turn up above, and soon to be seen on, Despina was an automated affair, for the most part. At least as far as the process of getting there, and attaching itself to the moon. The rest was the work of a few engineers in their armoured suits. That is of course, only when they had to brave temperatures close to - 200 °C, which need we say it, is so fucking cold it isn't funny. Lucky for these brave few, as a critical suit failure would turn them into an instant freeze dried meal ... Still, it was the very advances in humanity and science and etc, etc, etc above that meant such labor was only a small percentage of their total effort.

The rest was setting dials, reading gauges and doing some boring lab work. Though it was, at least, important lab work. Their task was to run final checks that the machinery below, above, and all around them was not only keeping them alive, but also able to function as it had been planned to do.

It did ...

Roving sub-sentient drone units, in effect over-sized, semi-smart vacuum cleaners with a few extras attached, began to crawl over the moon where the smear of carbonaceous chondritic detrius lay, sucking up the raw material. Mean-while, a mechanised hose assembly had been drawn out from beneath the factory, and sucked up the very same. It was all fed into the core of the vessel, a molecular lathe, which churned out pure, refined mass, into seperate storage bins woven from the silicate rock around it.

There was an awful lot of plain old carbon produced, with a degree of purity that even the best of analytical labs in the entire solar system would be hard pressed to find fault in.

Of course, as far as This United State cared, their labs were the best ( Up them-selves much ? Well yes, but it was just .... academic pride, really. ) and thus wouldn't find fault, as they'd designed the lathes them-self, heh.

~ ~ ~ Mars - This United State - New London ~ ~ ~

" Of course sir, there is ... "

" Yes, yes I know, - "

Sadly, -

1) Refined carbon

2) ...

3) PROFIT !

- isn't the most complete example of financial stratergy ever devised, now is it ...

" - but I think that concern of yours, though fair enough to have, will change soon. It is a simple matter of our finding the right customer for what we will not use, and we have not become one of the greatest retail powers on all of Mars for nothing. No, not for nothing, at all ... "

And so it was, that subtle, but wisely placed, feelers went out into the Solar markets. Oddly enough, one of them would be sent quite close ( By standards of solar system ditances, of course ... ) by to Lucy and her produce ...

~ ~ ~ Despina ~ ~ ~

T.R. Kom didn't exactly get out of This United State, or even New London itself much, aside from the odd jump into cyber-space, of which further contact with the Queendom had precipitated beyond closed Directorate usage into a public service the Directorate had to host eventually, such was the eventual demand for stable and secure service.

( It was also very profitable to run access in New London, while also being classed as a public service which the Directorate would fund, there-fore was funded, if only to keep an eye on just what people got up to. Oh, and earn a fee from most of the mostly willing populance, heh. )

How-ever, it was moments like this, he remembered he didn't usually want to ...

( Aside from the fact that absolute rule can really cramp your style and ability to go on extended holiday, you can, after all, only delegate so far when you're still mostly human, and before your rule stops being as " absolute " as you want it to be. )

He was standing on the " bridge " of a 7.5 km ( Or there-abouts ) Type One Management Buyout Command Carrier of ZMI manufacture. This wasn't strictly a bad thing, after all, he'd gotten it " on the cheap (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=424048) " even if it had come from with decommissioned stock. It had, at least, had all of the primary systems intact.

How-ever, just as one can only rule absolutely and delegate so far when you're such a person as T.R. Kom, one can also only delegate and automate command and ship-board operations so far too.

Especially on a ship that would normally have a full crew of 20,000 trained staff.

" Well this is just fucked up ... "

" Sir ? "

" Never-mind, carry on. "

The easiest part had been the de-moth-balling operation. It was a simple matter ( In a relative way of speaking ) of shipping up the green crews en-masse, all 1000 or so of them, along with supplies, and re-activating more than just a few sleeping systems ...

By which is meant a lot of sleeping systems.

Of course, next had been the big step of connecting the crew with something just a little bit more realistic then the T.U.S. Merchant Marine Academy simulations, no matter how good they'd been. After only killing one small T.U.S. Traffic Observation Satellite that hadn't been moved out of the way fast enough, they'd gotten to Despina, all the way out at the edge of the system with no other real mishap.

* There had been a small fire some-where, something to do with AC / DC current not being matched up correctly because of newer T.U.S. gear and older ship-board system components. It was a good ship, but it was probably a good thing for ZMI they were introducing a new version ...

And now T.R. Kom realised he'd ( Well, a lackey, but lucky for the lackey he was pissed off at himself more so than they ) left his favourite brand of bottled mineral water behind on a loading palette.

" Un-fucking be - "

" Sir ? "

" Don't you have a ship to run ? "

" Yessir ... sorry, sir ... "

" * grunt * "

How-ever, they were here, and the first step in making a real mark on Despina had begun at last.

Actually, it'd begun several hours ago when they'd, quiet literally, blown a hole in the side of Despina. That the hole was only 500 m wide, and about as deep, was beside the point. The fact was, they'd made all that matter that had been there, go away, for-ever. Well, that was their theory, and in several months, it wasn't as if it'd have any-where else to come back to, heh. Now they were pulse firing the spinal mounted cannon and carving a perfect tunnel into the mass-core of the moon, changing it for-ever.

And it was working rather well.

With some subtle changes, it shouldn't be too hard to add a dog-leg or four to the tunnel, and the other tunnels they'd also carve, thus preventing a future mass weapon strike blasting directly what would become the central cavern, to be over 50 kilometers across in terms of " useful " space.

Dog leg bends, on top of blast-doors as thick as an olympic swimming-pool is long.

But they'd only be installed ( Counter-sunk, mind you ) after the cavern itself was carved, and the inner surface was vitrified over 500 m deep via several means, chemical and other, to make sure no atmosphere would ever leak out that way, and the only way to access the Cavern not using a blast-door lined tunnel would be to physically crack it open with more conventional nuclear weapon-strikes then you'd like to ever think about.

T.R. Kom frowned and walked back to his make-shift command-cabin, followed by a 6 man / woman strong " Ninja " team, ever present, ghosting him both in and out of New London.

They all still had a long way to go.

~ ~ ~ Despina ~ ~ ~

The tunnels into the massive heart of Despina were since completed, and so in fact was the main cavern, all 50 km across of it, that being thanks to some moderate tweaking of the spinal mounted weapon on the Type One Management Buyout Command Carrier. The same principles and device used there let them carve out yet another tunnel, this one about 5 km long ( Far smaller on the range of scale compared to the others, you should realise ) to another " deep " point in the over-all mass in the rough shape of Despina, where another cavern was cast out of the mass, itself also 5 km, in diameter. It would serve as an excellent administration and command point for the Directorate to lodge itself into.

This would, after all, be their new " capital " in time.

Soon enough, with the main excavations completed, the blast doors were installed, counter-sunk into position of course, and usefully, in a security sense, also hard-wired to be impossible to open all at once, or from out-side. Various dogs-leg turns had been carved of course, with at least four of them to each tunnel from the surface to the main cavern, making direct fire from outside very unlikely to penetrate that far and say, vent the sizable atmosphere and every-one in it to the cold hard vacuum outside their nice shell. One would have a better time trying to crack the place like a nut, and with some future construction effort, that'd be bloody hard, too.

While the cavern surfaces were vitrified, making them solid to a depth of 500 M, and thus air-tight, the same was to eventually be done to the surface of Despina. On top of this, there was a plan to, in the distant future, cover the huge area in some sort of armor coating.

--- --- --- --- ---

This wasn't to say there hadn't been problems ...

While there was the usual difficulty expected in adapting old technology, creating new, and keeping everything chugging along together with everything else, there was also the odd nasty surprise in store. One of which, an absolute pain for a while, was the discovery of chemoheterotrophic and lithoheterotrophic bacteria living in the sticky hydrocarbon rich tar.

Normally, this wouldn't be too bad a thing, in fact, bacteria living in vacuum like this, from a nano / bio-engineering point, would be rather nice to examine and maybe use later, in some way, somehow ...

( And they were, but this is another matter ... )

However, the " space suit " coating the cells " wore " ( Much like the cell wall of a plant-cell, really ) was playing merry hell on the molecular lathes used by Lucy and other such astro-industrial / refinery and / or fabrication units on site. While the molecular lathes could break down massive amounts of virtually anything that wasn't, well, dark matter, it was a bit of a problem when a life-form turned up ( Still alive, that is ! ) that could breed and feed on the intricate internal components. It was also very expensive to repair.

There was also a decrease in the amount of pure carbon removed for ... advertised sales, if only briefly.

However, it was resolved eventually, and the only surviving bacterial growth was in cultures and remembered in gene sequance records. Progress got to march on at the usual pace again.

And Despina wasn't the only moon of Neptune and now T.U.S. which was changing ...

~ ~ ~ Thalassa ~ ~ ~

Despina wasn't the only This United State holding being " renovated " under the banner of new owner-ship. Even though Thalassa didn't have that same hydrocarbon rich smear that T.U.S. had been lucky enough to find on both Despina and Galatea, it had another feature that could, with some careful effort, be made just as useful to them.

Of course, how the hell this feature, an almost linear, smooth-walled canyon, running 2 km wide, 10 km long and about 2.5 km deep could have naturally formed on this silicate rock clump orbiting Neptune was a bit of a mystery. However, any concept of geological reality aside ...

The plan was that it'd be turned into a ship-yard. Nothing all that fancy, it would more than likely just churn out cargo ships and the odd frigate or larger for T.U.S. Customs, as well as being an in-house source for the Strategic Defense Network components T.U.S. would seed around the orbits of Galatea, Despina and Thalassa itself, for the odd bit of area denial and large-scale proximity defense of the three moons.

It was all planned out in fine detail, that by the time Despina was ready for habitation by the citizens of T.U.S. that Thalassa would be ready to extrude the S.D. Network components that would stand ready to defend their society, in the long term.

~ ~ ~ Despina ~ ~ ~

By now, the real construction had begun. Aside from, you know, that giant hole and tunnel and all. Cliche hyper-bole aside, this was a simple enough process. Buildings were built as large modules, wrapped in protective " sheeting " and foam, and dragged and pinned onto long scaffolds with little else other than engines and controls attached. The result ?

A lot of ultra-minimalist Christmas Tree look-a-likes floating towards Despina in a stately fashion.

When they got there though, they were " pulled off the tree ", un-wrapped and sent down the Great Tunnel to the Main Cavern. These were made, by the way, the official names, if only to kill certain " vagina " and " womb " referances being made by disgruntled Marketers. At this point, they, the building modules, were manipulated in the zero-g environment by small utility tug " ships " and over-sized power suits working away inside the Main Cavern. They were screwed into position at a foundation level, then more pre-planned, pre-built modules could be stuck on top. There was a pre-layed foundation of an epoxy like stuff sprayed on the vitrified surface, it acted as a shock absorber, of sorts, should it ever be required.When the lights were turned on, well, when they were eventually made, then turned on, there would be the spherically inverted world of a shining city, one that may well rival the brilliance of that one of which was spoken of by a fellow called Aquinas ...

( Titanic ego, perhaps, but it was a rather impressive looking bit of building. )

Of course this one would shine with the warmth of neon, and the solidity of chrome, stain-less steel, glass and polished marble, and the fruits of commerce, of course, rather than other more non-physical " traditionally glorious " attributes, like " faith ", and other warm and fuzzy things that had no real market value ...

Still, it would be shiny ... ! That was what counted !

The same went for the Directorate Cavern, which would serve not only as a Capital within a Capital, or an office in an office, or a benign brain tumor in a tele-marketer, ( Ponder the thinking of that one ) - what-have, you but also as the utilities control hub for the city.

The utilities ... well, they were quite something ...

Of course, the Directorate Cavern had a lot more security, and in such a hostile-to-human-life-environment as say, deep but still solar space, you didn't want any old crazy getting their hands on something like the atmosphere controls.

Better the devil you work for, than some-one who'll kill you instead of giving you a competitive salary offer.

~ ~ ~ Thalassa ~ ~ ~

Thalassa was quicker to come to fruit. It was a smaller operation in the grand scale though, again, most components were built far off-site, shipped across system then installed in " pockets " dug into the side of the Canyon. Again, this was named the " Grand Canyonade " as the very same disgruntled Marketers had been calling it " The Vertical Smile - She Goes Down For a Mile " . Moving right along ...

Huge habitation complexes, design offices, utility systems, giant construction booms, storage tanks, heat banks, ( Yes, " banks ". It is just a bit cold out there ... ) - the whole sha-bang was to be built into the Canyonade of Thalassa. Sooner, rather than later ( Good from an investment P.OV. you should realise ) basic cargo ships had been put together, and put to work, not to mention sold. Soon, busines was booming, and Thalassan Shipping Systems was making a small but solid name for itself in the solar community.

Plans for a Frigate class vessel, to defend the colonies, were also on the drawing-board ...

Plans for a Cruiser ranged class of vessel were all-ready, well ...

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

The Main Cavern of Despina was almost complete. The inner surface of the sphere was decked out with tall ( Each of which was usually no less than 2.5 km high and with many at or over 10 km ... ) chrome and glass dressed towers in every direction, in a pattern not much unlike that of a finely detailed electronic circuit. Dotted in with them stood large expanses of green private parks and the white lines of mono-rails. It was interesting to note, the roof of near every structure over 1 km high was painted in semi-reflective paint, polarised specifically to give off a sky-blue hue. Why this was so would soon be clear, but for the moment it was the fact that all the real heavy-duty construction was finally complete that mattered.

Of course, all was still mostly dark, and definately air-less. Nor was there any gravity just yet.

The first part of that was about to change. The second part would not be resolved for some time just yet, though.

( So don't hold your breath, tee-hee ! )

~ ~ ~ Despina - Directorate Cavern ~ ~ ~

" Okay, let us begin. ", came the voice of the head engineer.

The head engineer stood at the main monitor panel, and began to give commands in a flat monotone to those around the control room, whom stood at a series of consoles.

" Power up exo-feed source, mark ... "

~ ~ ~ Despina - Surface ~ ~ ~

The shafts were only 2.5 km deep, and vitrified to 250 m out. They were only 500 m across. These were more recent additions to Despina than any of the other work, but just as critical. At the base of each one was a super-tokomak reactor array, 500 m tall. Above it, a series of blast doors, again counter-sunk into the rock around them, just like with the Main Tunnel. These served as a service passage to, and to of course protect, the reactors. Under the reactors, totally filling the precisely carved shafts they had been installed over, was kilometers of a huge, single, solid, superconductor cable. All these cables fed from their parent reactor into the core of Despina, past the layer of vitrified rock, into sub-stations and other ... critical components ... then on into the power grid of the entire colony.

There were many of them, these tokamak arrays, and they were all well spaced apart. This was so in the event that one of the confinement coils failed, the resulting explosion not trigger the others near-by to precipitate a similar disaster on a greater scale. With luck, it would also channel up the shaft, and the blast doors would fail if struck from behind by such a force in such a way as to release the pent-up energy, protecting the stretch of superconductor cable from too much damage, saving money should part of it ever need to be replaced.

There was also a lot of extra capacity built in. This was a matter of peoples lives, very rich peoples lives, so no fucking around was ever to be considered in matters of population-safety.

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

The ... critical components ... were a series of gravity generators and projectors. Again, many of them. Spaced in a uniform manner across the inner surface of the Main Cavern and installed in the vitrified rock, joined to the massive superconductor cables, which then broke off from them, they created a precise 1 Earth Gravity Force environment in the Main cavern. The same with the Main Tunnel. There was a seperate system installed in the Directorate Cavern. This had a seperate power-source, too. The Directorate Cavern also controlled gravity in the " small " tunnel between it and the Main Cavern.

However, there was a 3rd power and gravity system, this may have been the most interesting, too.

As if suspended in mid-air by magic ( Not magic, but science that may as well be unless you planned to devote your life to learning it ... ) sat a perfect sphere, 500 m across. The surface was as dark as the artificial night around it. Inside it, a seperate power source was all-ready running. So was the gravity emitter and projector system keeping it in the perfect middle of the great empty space above the many towers. So were many fail-safes.

~ ~ ~ Despina - Directorate Cavern ~ ~ ~

" Flip the switch, on-gravity. "

Silence filled the minutes as the then automated system charged up, till -

" Spike ! Sir, Single Earth Gravity Force active and the feed-back line is now smooth. "

" Okay. Run diagnostic check on Mass Photon Emitter System. "

" Sir, running ... "

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

Inside the hanging sphere, now named the Mass Photon Emitter System, several moments passed. Some-where inside the machine, a green LED blinked several times, before coming fully to electron filled life.

~ ~ ~ Despina - Directorate Cavern ~ ~ ~

" M.P.E.S is all good. "

" Okay, punch it. ", came the soft monotone from the head engineer.

The room was silent a moment more, before the tech strode across to a small panel, and picking up a small hammer, struck a small glass panel that looked very much like part of an old fire-alarm system. The tech then pushed the button beneath itwith a straining index finger. Every free monitor panel in the room showed a different perspective of the Main Cavern, from both security, and special, this-event-only cameras. The clapping even began before the full effect was even visible.

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

It was if the Great Black Lesbian In The Sky had spoken " Fiat Lux ! ".

( Again ... )

In the dark-ness, there was nothing. Or maybe something, because moments later, a soft copper ball shone high up in the vacuum, until seconds later -

Instant dawn. Just add power.

From any point in the Main Cavern, one could see above them a sky of soft metallic blue, broken only by a fine silver tracery, and dull stars of rich green.

This was why so many rooves were painted as they had been.

If one was to stand on a tower, you would notice, of course, the fact the sky began on the ground, and in fact curved up one side, and then down behind you. Then you'd get dizzy and fall over. Most people did. This was why most streets didn't run long enough for the curviture to be so distinct. This had been a primary design factor. It was just a big sphere, after-all, and no-one wanted every weak stomach in the place letting loose as soon as they step off a transport. Then again, the fact you technically had an asteroid + a small city hanging over your head, not to mention a ( Colder than the real, though. ) mini-sun ...

How-ever, thanks to some of the cameras, it was obvious, and just simply breath taking when they thought about it ...

( Of course, if one was to be standing in there with-out an enviro-suit, you would, quite literally, be without any breath, heh. )

... No atmosphere was a help at that moment, no real gas content cut a lot of distance distortion, resulting in perfect image clarity, not that the optics couldn't have done it.


~ ~ ~ Despina - Directorate Cavern ~ ~ ~

The cheering died down, as did the clapping, as they returned back to work, all smiling.

Even the head engineer, which was something nice.

~ ~ ~ Mars - This United State - New London ~ ~ ~

In New London, the cheering had not died down. A whole new world, a whole new future for many, though still in total luxury, heh, shone across the inside of the Dome. It was the first day of " national " holiday ever declared in This United State, New London.

But then, it was reason to celebrate.

" A life of Even Greater Prosperity and All New and Improved Adventure Awaits You on the Off World Colonies ! "

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

Soon, there would be air ...

~ ~ ~ Despina - Various Locations ~ ~ ~

Now the Main and Directorate Cavern construction was finished, and utility links, etc, had all been installed, it was time to pressurise the Main Cavern, as well as the Directorate Cavern, which was only all-ready pressurised in some localised places, due it being the command hub of the entire Despina operation. Another, more recent feature to the effort since the " sun " was turned on, was a huge series of tanks of different sorts being built into a new, last-minute chamber, opposite the Directorate Cavern entrance in the Main Cavern, and connected to the Main Cavern by a 500 m shaft.

The chamber was designated part of the Main Cavern, and the huge tanks would serve much like the utility systems in This United State, New London, did. If not exactly the same, but on a larger scale. They would hold air, other gases, wastes, both organic and not, clean drinking water as well as chemical " stocks " for the Molecular Lathes that powered much of the finer points of T.U.S. Industry and broad-base consumer product creation. A lot of waste, again both organic and not, was also recycled with these. Eventually, pipes fed and gained most of these sources into pipes which ran into and out of the Main Cavern, and then broke up into smaller and smaller pipes to different areas of inner Despina, like the branches on a tree from the " bough " of the small tunnel.

To create drinking water and air for the best human breathing, the dirty ice from out-side was broken up, and fed down a long, long, long, temporary pipe, down the Main Tunnel, arcing out into the Main Cavern, with a smooth bending causing it to thus turn 90 degrees in the sky, and appear to come down out of the sky like a monochrome-rainbow and " fall " into the small joint-tunnel to the Utility Cavern. In here, the ice was melted, the slush purified, and the clean water split up into dioxygen and hydrogen or piped into storage tanks. The free hydrogen made a nice source of extra fuel, while much of the oxygen was mixed with trace gases to make it " comfortable " for humans to respirate with.

Eventually, there were several " full charges " of atmosphere stored under extreme pressure, and the pipe from out-side was taken apart and fed into the system as stock metals and molecules. All the primary blast-doors shut, cutting the whole inner system off from the Main Tunnel, and the cold space beyond.

Over several weeks, the Main Cavern and Directorate Cavern were pressurised. Transparent atmospheric covers across the parks and " green spots " in the Main Cavern were removed. Sprinklers came on. Water flowed.

Security systems showed the process had been gradual enough that no structural damage was detected, nor had any windows been blown in. As a precaution, most buildings had been built " open ", with doors and windows to be closed before the population arrived. Holding tanks in the side of the Main Tunnel would pressurise / depressurise each segment if required, but these were usually kept at vacuum anyway.

In the future, surface facilities would feed the utility systems with water and pre-processed breathing air, down more tunnels, yet to be made though, into Despina and specifically into the Utility Cavern, but for now the entire system was operating, with a large safety margin.

Despina was finally ready to become a home for millions.

~ ~ ~ Mars - This United State - New London ~ ~ ~

The office was dark, and T.R. Kom was a pitch-black figure in it, sombre and back-lit in his chair by the gold glazed glory of an artificial sunset painted across the Arcology Dome by a variety of techno-wizardry, itself banal compared to much of what-else powered the society of This United State. In his office, a large room, which took up at least a full half of the floor, he was not alone. Decorating the couches, and chairs, and in some cases, even throw-cushions, sat or sprawled a variety of business-suited figures, most old, some young, all wearing generous cuts of cloth, a definite mark of prosperity in any place and time. The room was dark, so much such that no other real detail could be described of the guests, or the host.

Moody, eh ? Well, they had come to discuss what would pass for a minor conspiracy, or even diversion for some, in such a day and age.

" Of all the animals that have evolved on Earth, human beings are the most remarkable. They've developed industries, technologies and machines that in the last few hundred years, have fundamentally changed human society ... "

In the dark, several heads gave a nod of agreement. Though, none thought to question T.R. Kom's wording of such a statement.

" We're going to contribute to this trend ... "

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern ~ ~ ~

By now, the city had began to open up. Shops were open, doing trade. Cafes sold coffee, tea, and every beverage under the sun, and in fact, several other suns, too. Pubs, cock-tail bars, clubs, all were busy for every hour they were open, many all day and all night, such could be demand. Apartment towers filled, gorgeous private hanging gardens were tended, hydroponic vats in industrial halls beneath them harvested from. Warehouses filled, and emptied. Various mono-rail routes, arteries of commerce, pumped across the inverse spherical surface, woven in and around the towers and complex lots. With night and day, seasons came and went, releasing rainbows of colour in gene-tailored plants, a softer beauty amongst the harder chrome lines and glass facades of the towers, out-shone only by the artificial sun high above, and the photonic cries of neon signage all around.

Plutorats came for the novelty, their hangers-on came with them. What had been with New London, so was so here. But now they also came to get away from the heat of the heart of Sol, to a world away from the world, to live out their days in a safety bought from distance. And stringent security. As it had been in New London, and still was ...

" The Exodus " was by no means quick, but over time, the population increased. It wasn't all that long into the grand scheme when over 1 million T.U.S. Citizens called Despina home. 2 million still called New London home, too. Despite the distance, many foreign visitors came, too. Just the spectacle alone was still worth something to many. Of course, many more came to enjoy the mass consensual hedonism, and the shopping ...

~ ~ ~ Mars - This United State - New London ~ ~ ~

" The Human machine, as we knew it ... At birth, every child is a unique individual with its own set of genes, derived from each of its parents, with the possibility of random mutations. We have of course since inserted our own genetic screw-driver into the machine, so that where once only fate and evolution stepped in to tinker, we now dance around chromosones and spin them into a weave of our own desires with which to drape across the future ... "

...

" The human Machine, more machine than it ever used to be, where now the common addition of pseudo-biological and nano-scopic mechanical components to human physiology has gifted the human being with powers beyond those once dreamed of as the hall-mark of mythos and god-hood. But there is still one fault in the design the human machine. For the the functions it may perform, it has an ... annoying habit of being switched off too easily, and often early, for our liking ... "

...

" As you all know, this is to be contribution. "

~ ~ ~ Despina - Main Cavern - A Hotel ~ ~ ~

There was a small but important conference going on with about a dozen men present ...

" So, we're all here to make some real money boys. First we show them our muscle, we show the people in this crazy glitter city their police are just a bunch of kids. "

" Sure boss, we get it ! "

" No, you do not ... So I'll tell you. We're going to do a bit of destabilisation as they call it. For those of you who don't know what that is, and I'm pretty sure that'll be all of you chimps, I'll explain it real easy-like for you. We're going to position bombs, really big bombs, with timers, in these big shopping districts. In the bars, in the resteraunts, any-where else that a lot of people like to gather together for a good time around these parts. These people will get so scared they won't go out, they won't leave their nice, cushy apartments. Until, their apartments start exploding, too.

" Yeah boss ! "

" Yeah ! "

" A real blast of an idea ! "

" Right, right, I see you all still don't get it ... So when all these big bombs go off, these people, they'll be screaming at their police, at their so-called Di-rect-or-ate, why can't these blasts be stopped ? They'll yell and holler like kiddies for an end to it all. This Directorate mob will be real desperate and so then we make our demands, that - "

What was in effect a monologue ceased as there was a twin-thump against the carpet out-side the conference room, on the other side of the closed door, - where the Leader had put two of his biggest goons on guard duty. As one, the Leader and a dozen other men in the conference room went for guns in shoulder-holsters as they started to stand up from their chairs positioned around the long conference table in the middle of the room.

" Raid ! A goddam - "

The door was blown clean off the hinges, and a small, dark, matte-finish metal ball that looked like a -

" Christ ! A sodding gren - "

It landed square before them on the table, rolled along, tipping over a standard cheap vase of flowers then ...

- The gravity grenade wasn't a dime-a-dozen device. It was a careful and precise application of various anti-gravity technologies. What made it special was that it had these components miniturised and bound up inside a spherical emirter surface with programming, sensor and a power source, a package just a bit bigger than a base-ball. However, to make it portable enough to be effective in raids like this, the power source was a high-energy charged capacitator-like device. There was no temperature shielding or heat sink, either, so during discharge and gravity-effect generation, well, it got rather warm for something the size and shape of a base-ball. It could be programmed, input depending on how far the arming-handle was rotated before the pin was pulled. This meant set variable outputs were available, depending on field conditions.

The design meant that seconds after it was deployed in a room, the sensors would activate, compute, begin discharge, position itself in the middle of the room as a result, and well -

It shot up into mid-air, in the middle of the room. For those in the room, it was as if the world had been picked up and shaken, then tipped off a cliff to land against a big slab of concrete. As the small ball-object hovered there, it grew cherry-red with heat, as it pumped out over 25 g-forces in force into the confines of the room, for a full 5 second period, picking up and throwing the men and the Leader, against the walls, floor, even the ceiling such was the power of the field. Noses, arms, legs and ribs broke by both force and connection with new surfaces. Voices cried out, about once from every person in the room, as the sudden pressure forced air from their lungs. Bruises formed quickly on skin from the new weight of wrist-watches, rings, one or two pairs of glasses, even. Spare, loose change in pockets was like a single long hammer blow against legs and chests, all-ready agonised by the crushing force.

Potted plants, along with virtually everything else not nailed, bolted and welded down, and even some of those things, were picked up by the effect of the device and thrown, to blow apart in a spectacular fashion against the walls. One, by chance of position, shot out like a missile into the room beyond, from where the device had came from to begin with. It blew itself apart against the far wall, causing harm to no-one. Unlike most of the items in the conference room did to those all-ready in pain around them.

Then, suddenly, the un-earthly ( How ... appropriate ) force ceased at the 5 second point. Men dropped from where they were pinned against walls, most of them totally unconcious by then. A few groaned where they lay. In the case of the Leader, he fell from where he was pinned, having been hoisted up against the ceiling, and was dropped by the reversion to normal gravity on Despina, without any ceremony at all, and so - onto the sharp, splintered remains of the conferance table and broken-down door.

The cherry-red ball dropped down onto the remains beside him, now worth-less and useless, internal mechanism fused at the molecular level beyond any semblance to orginal crafting, where it began to smoulder with the wood and release acrid smoke into the atmosphere.

Then, almost faster than the un-aug'd eye can see, the " Ninja " team executed a " perfect " entry into the room, where the six men and women fanned out. There were a dozen " hostiles " prone on the floor, and moments later, two dozen shots rang out. One shot directed to the heart, another to the head, of the individuals since knocked-out. This had been a small operation in all, with all links to and from it being traced before-hand, being dealt with, this was the closing of the case. When it came to attacks upon the civilian population, planned or, the horror of it, actually carried out, the Directorate issued a single mandate to the Justice Directorate.

" We must oppose them, and use any, be it a devious, or ruthless - method in order to defeat them ... "

- It had also proved that the gravity grenades worked a charm in dis-arming such soft targets as these. Of course, they were designed to be a non lethal device, but then this was just a trial for them, they had proven useful, but this case had warranted ... alternative methods, it had been seen by the powers which be. Mind you, the devices were not cheap to begin with, and this trial aside, so only for use in special cases of counter-terrorism and anti-crime. They could prove useful boarding vessels, maybe. An idea with some interesting commercial applications, perhaps.

The conference room and surrounding structure would need a little repair work done, too ...

The four ships moved on-wards while still quite close together, making their way towards the edge of the Sol system, having begun their journey from the area of the orbital tracks of the three T.U.S. Neptune holdings, the natural moons of Despina, Galatea and Thalassa.

The largest ship was the most important, really. Named Dream A Little Dream it was a fully-automated colony vessel with 10,000 brave souls aboard, in a sort of analogue to cryogenic suspension. All colonists were experts in one field or another, from biology to ballistics, from photonics to photography, and none were above the age of thirty. All were genetically diverse, and would naturally be able to access the requisite technology to ensure no negative potential of such a small seed stock for a population. Talking of seed stock, there was some of that on another vessel in the group of four, but that is another thing. Also aboard was the sum of all knowledge of This United State society in protected drives. Back-ups were aboard the other ships. There would be no lack of information.

The next ship was, in effect, a hospital ship. Named the Adequate Dosage it too was controlled by autonomous, non-human systems. Upon arrival it would serve the sleeping crew and passengers of the Dream A Little Dream with the pinnacle of medical technology and aide that was available at launch. It would also serve as a fully kitted-up research post. Held in stasis was a plethora of medicants, as well as human ... samples. This would in the end give an extra boost to the population. It was the smallest ship of the four.

Next there was the Harvest Moon which as the name may imply was bound to be a veritable celestial garden, at least in time. It was almost as large as the Dream A Little Dream but not quite. The automated systems, aside from running the ship, keeping it on course, and of course, in one peice, also ran pre-programmed agricultural experiments, involving both genetics and adaptive engineering. Eventually it would help the colonists jump-start an ecology to suit them.

Finally there was the Shock and Ore which was as the name would suggest a mining, refinery and general purpose industrial production vessel. It'd help jump start production of what-ever the ten-thousand colonists required that hadn't been packed aboard the Dream A Little Dream or any of the other three ships.

Why all the bother ?

The poplation of Despina had risen to 5.5 million and while there was still room to spare, it didn't hurt T.U.S. to ... experiment with what it defined as some of the yearly surplus of materials and human resources. That and it served as a good release valve in the society to those whom had a wander lust that a commercial ship route job or Defense Directorate patrol or task-force posting wouldn't sate. Soon enough Galatea too would be open to the T.U.S. consumer-citizen population as well, once the finishing touches were finished, and while this would siphon off quite a number from Despina and the T.U.S. Mars territory itself, that wouldn't last forever. It too would become a population base given time and generate an even greater number of colonists.

The destination was un-known to virtually all bar, perhaps, T.R. Kom and the ship computers, and the pre-programmed, random - barring final destination jump, the consecutive trip-drive jumps couldn't be traced. With any luck, crew and cargo, if there was a difference, would arrive ... where - ever they were going, un-molested.