Data File Updated: Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Worlds of Humanity

What is the political structure of Humanity at this point? Does it vary from colony to colony? Is it all one unified Government? Or a bunch of little governments operating under a UN type Organization?

In 2160 CE, Human society is composed of six independent worlds (of which Earth is one), so there's no one "ruler" of Humanity. The Terran Colonial Authority (TCA) governs interstellar issues and oversees the military (Colonial Fleet) and exploration (Scout Corps) arms; and is run by a council of delegates from the six worlds. In practice, the TCA government is dominated by Earth's interests. Which is not terribly unfair, considering that the vast majority of Humanity still reside on Earth.

Each planet has its own local government (and some of the planets have more than one). All the worlds are bound together via treaty, and the TCA maintains a military fleet (and Scout Corps) and governs trade and other interstellar matters, but for most purposes each government is independent and autonomous.

Humans developed stardrive on their own, before the Orgus contact. Orgus technology isn't much more sophisticated than Human technology, but they had access to some higher-tech third-party devices through trade, so the Humans still had a lot to learn from them.  

What are the "six worlds of Humanity" mentioned by Alex?

The six worlds of humanity are named Earth, Mars, Alpha ("First"), Proxima ("Near"), Aldea ("Village") and Esperanza ("Hope").

We are presumably all familiar with Earth. 99% of all of humanity still live on Earth (about 25 billion people).

Mars was first colonized in pre-FTL days (around 2050), and has become a center of heavy industry, as carbon and greenhouse gas emissions that would be considered pollution on Earth are very welcome on Mars, to help thicken the sparse atmosphere. Mars is cold and arid, has a surface gravity of .38 G, and a very thin atmosphere, which still far too thin for humans to survive in without pressure suits. There is very little surface water, and dust storms are frequent. Mars has been the subject of early terraforming efforts, including solar mirrors to increase global temperature, and various introduced engineered species of algae to oxygenate the atmosphere. These efforts have begun to show benefit to the inhabitants, but will require hundreds more years before the planet becomes anything close to habitable by unprotected humans, and even then only in the lower altitudes. The major settlements are in the Hellas basin in the Southern Hemisphere and the Tharsis highlands in the North. There are major facilities in orbit, including several shipyards and orbital habitats. The main campus of the TCA Space Academy is located in Hellas Planitia. Population of Mars is around 50 million.

Alpha was the first extra-solar colony, located around the A star of Alpha Centauri, a trinary system. It is a cold, dry Mars-sized planet (.4 G) with a very thin atmosphere. The colony was primarily a research installation until later colonization of more distant systems allowed for the development of more infrastructure to support transit to the outer colonies, with Alpha's smaller gravity well (compared with Proxima) making it the more attractive refueling stop for outbound starships. Population about 600,000.

Proxima was the second extra-solar colony, also located in the Alpha Centauri system. It is Venus-sized, with a surface gravity of .9 G. It has an elongated orbit around the B star in the system; for most of its 15-year orbit, the planet is very cold and all the surface water is frozen; when the planet passes through perihelion, it warms up substantially and small temporary seas form, supporting primitive native microorganisms (which survive in geothermal vents during the cold periods). Human population around 18 million.

Aldea is an Earth-sized planet (1.1 G) in the Tau Ceti system. Aldea has a large amount of surface water (even more than Earth), and a dense but breathable atmosphere. Tau Ceti is an ancient Population II star more than twice the age of our Sun, so Aldea is very poor in heavy elements. Aldea's metallic core is small but geologically active, due to the tidal stresses of its large moon, providing continuing heat in an ancient core that had long since exhausted most of its small initial supply of radioactive elements. The small core and mantle support incredibly deep and very dense seas, upon which a few light and rocky continents float. Though life on Aldea is considered primitive by Earth standards, it is much, much older. Some speculate that the scarcity of heavy elements has slowed or even arrested the development of life into more advanced forms. Aldea has wet, stormy weather most of the year, driven by extreme tides. Human population about 125 million, making it the largest base of humanity outside of Earth.

Esperanza is the newest colony, and the farthest away from Earth (at 82 Eridani). Esperanza is arid but Earth-sized (.8 G). Like Tau Ceti, 82 Eridani is an ancient Population II star with very low metallicity, and Esperanza is metal-poor. Esperanza is arid, cold, dark, and plagued by near-constant dust storms. The main benefit of the Esperanza system is its strategic location, being the only G-type star along the route leading out of the relatively isolated bubble of Human space. Ambitious terraforming projects have begun on Esperanza, but are in their earliest stages. Population: 5 million.

Is there much colonization outside of these six worlds? In asteroid belts or Ort clouds or whatever?
There are outposts, mining camps and the like elsewhere in these systems (and perhaps in other systems as well), but these six are the permanent settlements.
And how much commerce is there between the various colonies?
A lot. The colonies are still heavily dependent on Earth and Mars for many supplies, especially finished goods, as well as immigrants, and there are a lot of raw materials traveling the return route from the colonies to Sol. There's enough commercial shipping for the TCA to need to build a fleet to keep it in line.

So we can assume that piracy is a very real threat? What about the behaviour of the pirates? Are they likely to cripple a ship for its supplies, capture it and ransom the crew and/or ship?

The Terran Colonial Fleet exists to deter a number of potential threats to interstellar shipping: piracy, smuggling, hijacking, terrorism, and sabotage or blockade by rival merchants or nations. Since starships are often more valuable than the cargo they carry, both would be targets of potential pirates. A side-benefit of the Fleet is defense against potential alien hostiles, which is one reason there are some heavier ships (such as the heavy cruisers) which are not strictly necessary for patrol duties, and probably spend most of their time docked at base.

If someone did have black market goods where would they most likely be offloaded, aside from independent operators? Where are independents, i.e. pirates, fringe groups, exiled criminals, religious extremists, etc. most likely to settle?

Along with the high cost of operating a warship, the biggest obstacle to piracy is the lack of a base from which to refuel and a market for stolen goods. Starship fuel requires substantial infrastructure to refine and store. Few criminal organizations would have the resources to establish an outpost in deep space, and any such base would probably be quickly found and destroyed by the Fleet. So, criminals and smugglers have to be sneaky... a shady corporation, for example, might buy goods stolen from a rival and shelter the thieves.

Where are independents, i.e. pirates, fringe groups, exiled criminals, religious extremists, etc. most likely to settle?

In this early phase of colonization, passage offworld is very expensive; nations do not pay to move criminals and malcontents to the stars. The vast majority of the colonists must either pay their own way offworld or have valuable skills to offer a corporate or government employer.

Rogue asteroids come to mind for their defensive and resource values, space stations, or planetary bodies, etc. How would colonial and naval authorities deal with this?

They'd move in and either take the base over, or simply destroy it if capture seemed too difficult.

Due to the inter-colony trade is there a significant number of independent merchants? How do independent merchants react to piracy, i.e. do they trade with the pirated goods, set up agreements to move through pirate space, etc.

Starships are very expensive to build and to operate. The majority of transport ships are owned by large corporations; some are operated by smaller companies, and a few are independently operated. Regardless of who owns the ship, all cargoes have to pass customs at local ports, so shippers have to be careful about where their cargoes come from; illegal cargoes must be carefully "laundered" to disguise their origins.

How did all of these groups react to the news of alien presence?

The opening of alien markets will definitely be good news for merchants... both legitimate and otherwise. The existence of a dozen or so alien markets that are not under the control of TCA regulations will no doubt be a boon to would-be pirates or smugglers. But this would be after the war is concluded, assuming that humanity survives. Currently, no one but a select few agents of the government (notably the Scout Corps) has any physical means of contacting the distant alien nations.
With its population of 250 millions, wouldn't Aldea be quickly gaining on Mars as humanity's second planet?
Yes, Aldea is the most influential of the colonies. Mars still has more industry, however, as they got a 50-year head start and specialize in industrial production. Mars is a haven for industry, as many activities that would be considered polluting on other worlds are considered beneficial on Mars.

Is there a set of standards that these governments must meet in order to be recognized? Sort of like the standards that NATO imposes (civilian control of the military, etc) on prospective members?

I would expect that the TCA charter would include a sort of "bill of rights" that signatories would have to abide by. The TCA has limited ability to enforce these rules, but I like to think that autocracy will be out of style by 2160. Setting up an interstellar colony requires a lot of money and entrepreneurship and advanced technical know-how... it's hard to imagine the sort of thug-states we have on Earth arising on the new colonies, unless something goes terribly wrong after landfall. Oppression is bad for business.

Then again, humans have always been inventive in ways to make life miserable for each other, so who can tell what new conflicts might arise?

Of course, the millennia-old conflicts between the social and ethnic groups on Earth will still exist (and some of these will no doubt be carried to the stars), but I think the most oppressive of governments will have been cleaned out by then. In 2160 anybody with access to the appropriate materials can make a weapon of mass destruction... so a nation that has internal strife is a clear and present danger to the world at large, and the other nations won't sit by and wait for something to go wrong; they'll move in and clean house. I think the "Bush doctrine" of preemption against rogue states is going to become, of necessity, standard operating procedure.

Actually, in a way, this would be sort of a return to the way things used to be in ancient times. If you couldn't keep your own country under control, your neighbors would take you out in a heartbeat. The motivations may have been different, but the result was the same.

I would expect that individual countries still exist, much as they are today, and are still sovereign to a certain extent, in the same way that states are locally run in the United States. I haven't given the matter too much thought (as it's not directly relevant to the story), but I assume that each planet will have its own self-determined government (Earth's would probably be a decentralized federation similar to the United Nations, but hopefully more effective). Management of inter-planetary issues falls under the auspices of the Terran Colonial Authority, which is the government organization dealt with in the story (i.e., Alex's bosses).

The Terran Fleet

Humanity has many more starships than are directly involved with the Alien Contact mission (including military warships), but few that can travel such a long distance without resupply. Which is why the Scout Corps (whose peacetime job is deep-space research) got the call.

For a list of active Terran military vessels as of the time of Alex's departure from Esperanza, 17 May 2160, see the Terran Ship Classes entry.

Colonial warships are armed with a combination of point-defense laser turrets, heavy lasers, mass driver turrets, and missile tubes. The Bennet-class scout is armed with two missile tubes and a single point-defense twin-laser turret. The "modified-Bennet" refit adds a third (rear-firing) missile tube, and two medium mass-driver turrets port/starboard.

The five main ships involved in the Alien Contact mission are Pellew, Utsumi, Bellarmine, Matveyev and Prabhu.

The standard armament for Terran warships includes lasers, mass drivers, and missiles (nuclear-tipped and otherwise). Terran missiles are primitive by Loroi or Umiak standards (they probably have about a 10G burn; the Tempest could easily outrun them), but Bellarmine did have them.

Out of curiosity, how does this rank up to the Loroi/Umiak fleet technologies, size, and numbers?

Numbers-wise, there are about as many ships in the Tempest's squadron (27) as in the whole Terran fleet. Which is about what one would expect of respectively sized nations (four inhabited star systems versus about fifty).

Size-wise, they are roughly comparable to Loroi vessels. The Loroi destroyer is about 250 meters long; the cruiser 400m or so, the Tempest in the 750-775m range.

Tech-wise, the Loroi are about three generations ahead of the Terrans; Terran vessels have no defensive screens, and are limited to about 6G acceleration. Loroi ships can sustain 30G acceleration, and their blasters and pulse cannon do a lot more damage at much greater ranges than lasers (although the Loroi do still use lasers for point-defense weapons, and are considered quaint for still using them). The Loroi were using weapons and systems similar to what the Terrans have now (plus fighters) in the big war that formed their empire several hundred years ago.

I'm surprised (except for space considerations) that the Bellarmine wouldn't have an aft "chaser" torpedo tube-if only to keep people away from it while it's running away at full speed for the hyperspace limit.

Bellarmine's weapon systems were an afterthought; she wasn't really designed as a warship. But torpedoes fired from the forward tubes can track a target no matter where it is. Torpedo combat is long-range combat. The ejection from the tube is just to get the torpedo far enough from the launching vehicle so that it can safely light its drive.

Humanity has a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. Can't we use them as some sort of weapon in this war?

I don't think current nuclear warheads have anywhere near a 158 year lifespan, but no doubt there will be plenty of new and effective warheads at hand in 2160. Such warheads are relatively cheap; it's the devices required to deliver them on target that are expensive. A missile that can reliably deliver a warhead to a 30G accelerating target at 1 light-second range is beyond human technology in 2160.

That said, nukes are still nukes, and kinetic energy is still kinetic energy. Under the right circumstances at close range, a Terran warship could do very significant damage to a Loroi or Umiak vessel. The problem is achieving those circumstances.

Do we have carriers? or do the heavy cruisers carry a significant number of fighters? I know that a fighter won't be very effective but alas they are so glamorous.

Humans do have unmanned fighters that operate from bases and stations, but they haven't yet built any carriers. The other warships have shuttle bays that could theoretically carry a small handful of fighters. If the need arose, a transport could conceivably be converted into a makeshift light carrier.

The Bellarmine Incident

The second (and third, and fourth) strike against the Bellarmine should indicate that the attack was no accident. And 60 kilometers is considered very close range here; especially since some of the combatants are over 1 km long. Bellarmine herself is (or rather was) 190m in length.  

When the second strike "ignited" the Bellarmine's fuel tanks, what sort of fuel ignited? If it was 5,000 tons of anti-matter, we wouldn't be enjoying this comic 'cause our friend Alex would be a spike in the universal background radiation level. If it was hydrogen, what ignited? Did the energy weapon strike cause the hydrogen to fuse, resulting a massive explosion? Or was this a "mechanical" explosion - the liquid/slush hydrogen was rapidly converted to gas by the energy weapon strike, and we're seeing the equivalent of "steam explosion".

The Bellarmine's main tanks would have been liquid hydrogen, fuel for a fusion drive. Secondary tanks would have contained oxygen and other substances. I'm not enough of a physicist to know exactly what will happen chemically to liquid hydrogen when you subject it to intense heat in the direct absence of oxygen, but as you've suggested there would be at the very least a pressure explosion (as the fuel tank was ruptured), and there was enough oxygen in the vicinity (from storage tanks and escaping atmosphere) to create a noticeable fireball. I don't think the fuel would have reached fusion temperature; I assume a thermonuclear explosion at such close range would have been inescapably lethal to Alex. So, technically only a portion of the fuel would have "ignited" -- that is, burned chemically as a result of contact with oxygen.

Isn't it unwise to send out manned scouts, thus declaring our existence to the combatants? Wouldn't unmanned, remotely controlled probes have been a better idea? And why was the Bellarmine sent out alone? Sounds like the mission was set up to fail.

The problem with sending an unmanned "probe" is that there is no faster-than-light communication by which to relay information back to base; the ship must return with a report. So, there is no such thing as a "remote control" starship.

As for having an AI control the ship, I don't see the advantage. The same steps can be taken to "sanitize" a manned ship information-wise to prevent an enemy from learning the location of Earth as can be taken with an unmanned ship, but remember that the whole idea was to eventually make contact; according to their intelligence, eventual contact with the warring parties is inevitable. Both sides are expanding in attempt to gain needed resources. As for the choice of whether to hide or attempt contact, this issue has already been discussed. The story of Humanity cowering in a hole until the Umiak arrive to conquer them wouldn't have made for a very interesting storyline, in my opinion. The scout's intention was to gather intelligence first and contact second, as the Bellarmine was attempting to do; that there happened to be a hostile vessel in their lap was unforeseeable bad luck.

And as far as contact is concerned, the idea is that the scouts must be able to make decisions on the spot, as they can't call home for instructions. Would you want to trust an AI with the future of your species? I wouldn't. Programmers are very clever people, but communications with other sentient beings is not their strong suit. (I should know, I'm a programmer.)

Time is an important factor to Humanity. Hostile scouts could discover Earth tomorrow or five years in the future. It has already taken more than 6 months to organize the contact mission, and the Bellarmine spent almost two months making the 200 light year journey; to report back takes another two months. There isn't a lot of time to waste.

Why send in Bellarmine alone? If ships were sent in pairs, one could stay at the jump point and report if the other was destroyed.

Humanity doesn't have an unlimited supply of long-range starships. The Scout Corps only has six such ships, and four of them are involved in this mission (along with a fifth long-range transport that serves as a refueling point and relay station between the scouts and home base). Not knowing the precise location of either the Umiak or Loroi, the planners chose to spread their 4 scouts across a large area, hoping to find what they were looking for. Two groups of two ships each is, in my opinion, putting too many eggs in too few baskets. The Bellarmine has been destroyed, but there are still three other scouts out there.