The Universe - or Nothing Part 55

Establish and administer inst.i.tutions for law enforcement, public health, education and other community affairs.

Group Two (Charon) Mission

Convert Lamplight into a food-growing and processing plant capable of feeding the entire Plutonian permanent and transit populations, and on-site personnel at the Logistics Depot and the Terminals Construction Site. Encapsulate Lamplight in an impermeable radiation-resistant plastic membrane and introduce and maintain constant temperature and air-moisture and other agriculture-supportive atmosphere and environment that meets prevailing deep s.p.a.ce colony or equal standards;

Constructively use Charon's and Pluto's water ice and substances generated as waste and by-products of human habitation throughout the Pluto and near s.p.a.ce sectors. Conduct research and develop drip, hydroponics and other agricultural systems, protein synthesis and manufacture, and ship to Coldfield, the Slingshot work site and the Logistics Depot high-quality foodstuffs suitable for storage and consumption. Charon operations are to be fully automated and robotically maintained.

In support of the Charon agricultural mission, Planet Pluto, the Slingshot Logistics Depot, the Terminals' construction site, and ships moored or in transit within the Special Zone const.i.tute an integrated ecological ent.i.ty. All organics and all mineral and chemical plant growth stimulants, such as discarded or excess food and fluids, bio-waste, usable industrial and community waste, and cadavers are committed to processing as fertilizers or for specialized application to the creation of foodstuffs. Organic waste and cadaver parts unsuitable for constructive purposes (fertilizer) on Charon will be fully sterilized and reduced as close as practicable to zero residue.

Group Three (Logistics Depot) Mission

Construct a s.p.a.ce station to specification above Coldfield and designate it 'Slingshot Logistics Depot'. Arrange for the depot to serve for central receiving, warehousing and shipping center for materiel committed to the Slingshot Terminals, and for processing materiel through all active Planet Pluto surface and sub-surface technical and servicing facilities;

Provide the Depot with facilities and train its personnel for emergency backup in manufacturing and servicing capabilities redundant to those on the planet;

Create a highest level technical capability to synthesize materials, and manufacture, fabricate, test and calibrate those precision parts, tools and accessories which are best made in the micro-gravity and pollution-free conditions of deep s.p.a.ce and/or safely distant from Pluto's and Charon's surfaces and their gravitational influences;

Augment the Depot's security with a gated force field that fully encapsulates and protects the Depot and all vessels engaged in loading and off-loading personnel and materiel; patrols contiguous s.p.a.ce and keeps the Logistics Depot and UIPS citizens and property self-sufficient and safe from disease, hara.s.sment and harm;

Install on the Logistics Depot and at the Terminals Construction Sites independent communications, cargo, living organism teleport centers, each capable of receiving and dispatching authorized cargoes, pa.s.sengers, dispatches and communications via conventional, spunnel, and specified non-conventional channels.

The Terminals Construction Site is the focal point of UIPS operations. The Construction Site's mission is to research, design, fabricate, test, a.s.semble and, ultimately, launch, position at destinations and operate, monitor and maintain the Slingshot Extractor and Collector terminals en route and at their destinations.

The planning did not antic.i.p.ate the dissolution of the United Planetary System, the creation of independent and estranged Regions in their place, and a hostile government on Pluto.

Military forces had been non-existent for more than fifteen hundred years when the colonies of the Outer Region seceded from the United Planetary System.

Weapons of ma.s.s destruction had had no purpose since the birth of the first World Federation in the fourth century of the Interplanetary Era.

In place of an organized military, the succeeding World Federation had created an Interplanetary Constabulary to protect lives and property, investigate crimes, control traffic, and maintain general order. Their charter extended to all planets, satellites, colonies, outposts, stations, and all places throughout the void into which humankind had ventured.

The mission of the Constabulary remained unchanged during political reorganizations within the first World Federation and its successors. Its agents ranged the Solar System, and performed their duties quietly and efficiently. Few dared challenge their authority. When challenges did occur, they were not for long.

War, and the effects of war on people and things were forgotten.

It was inconceivable, in those times, that the region beyond the Asteroids would become politically and culturally alienated from the unified community that humankind had created to guide them into the future. History, the citizens of the world concluded, had demonstrated the impotence of the ancient, long-discarded array of adversarial nation-states and come-by-chance leaders to govern an intellectually advanced species.

No one expected a return to the old, long-discarded ways.

When separation of the Inner and Outer Regions became inevitable, scholars in both Regions explored the possible and the probable relationships that might develop under the new order. The studies predicted that politically independent nation-states would create multilateral alignments and conflicting societies, lifestyles and philosophies.

They took into account evolving technological and industrial capabilities, prevailing energy and declining reserves of industrial metals, minerals, and other usable substances and related them to the Solar System's demographic trends and resources predictions. When the United Planetary System dissolved, the successor UIPS felt it had no choice but to continue the Slingshot program.

The conclusions of humankind's most distinguished scientists and philosophers suggested that two independent orders in s.p.a.ce would bring with them a heightened likelihood of social and technological dislocations and disruptions. There would be interregional and, within INOR, international compet.i.tion that would increase the rate of depletion in resources. There would be a mult.i.tude of disputes, often intentionally misinterpreted, to resolve territorial and jurisdictional differences that were already caught up in and molded by the dynamics of orbiting planets, and their satellites and connecting s.p.a.ce-ways.

The effects on Slingshot could be catastrophic.

Its security was paramount. Immediately following separation of the two Regions the President of the new UIPS directed the creation of a powerful Military s.p.a.ce Force.

The UIPS searched the ancient archives of Earth's military history and designed weapons of defense and offense. Ships of war and their supporting systems were brought back into being, and spunnel gateways expanded to accommodate them. A militant phoenix rose from its ancient ashes.

The Military s.p.a.ce Force was charged with patrolling the s.p.a.ce-ways beyond the Asteroids to protect UIPS vital interests. Their responsibilities included protecting the lives of UIPS citizens and private and government property throughout INOR wherever they happened to be, in s.p.a.ce or on the surfaces of planets and satellites.

The role and intent of the UIPS military was explained to all INOR governments. "The Military s.p.a.ce Force," proclaimed the President of the UIPS, "would remain until INOR's member Nations were sufficiently stabilized to partic.i.p.ate in ensuring peaceful coexistence and pa.s.sage along s.p.a.ce-ways and at moorings throughout the Outer Region, and separately and collectively agree to partic.i.p.ate in and support the Slingshot Program."

INOR, as a Federation, interpreted the formation of the UIPS Military s.p.a.ce Force and the President's proclamation on its role as contemptuous of their social and political maturity. The outcome was predictable.

Local INOR Defense Forces were hastily organized and equipped. Dozens of ships of war were built and many s.p.a.ce transports were converted into armed vessels. Each INOR government, using self-defense as justification, established controlled corridors extending hundreds of thousands of kilometers into its contiguous s.p.a.ce, often far beyond their legitimate jurisdictions. Pa.s.sengers and crews of foreign s.p.a.ce transports, pa.s.senger liners, and utility and pleasure craft, whatever their points of foreign origin or destination, required visas, local pilots, and armed escorts upon arrivals and departures. Suspicions festered on all sides.

It was an era of international and interregional political tensions and hara.s.sment, and military, technological and industrial sabotage and espionage. The history of Earth's ancients had returned to haunt the solar community.

The rate of depletion in the Solar Community's reserves of vital but nonrenewable substances rose rapidly.

Appendix

Principles of Governance Among Nations in s.p.a.ce

An article by the a.s.sociate General Counsel for the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution reported in THE FUTURIST, page 60, May-June 1990 (Common Era) that the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution's National Air and s.p.a.ce Museum had speculated on a Declaration of First Principles for the Governance of Outer s.p.a.ce Societies. The project's partic.i.p.ants represented a broad array of disciplines and interests, including engineering, biomedicine, law, economics, psychology, bioethics, and philosophy. Rather than attempting to frame an actual const.i.tution for s.p.a.ce societies, which normally would be reserved for sovereign governments. The doc.u.ment would be a reference for interested government ent.i.ties responsible for s.p.a.ce policy, and to define the fundamental rights and freedoms of those who might some day migrate to s.p.a.ce.

I wrote to the article's author, told him I was working on this story and included a draft of 'core principles' I had drafted. I asked for more information on the Smithsonian's study. The author's reply included a copy of the Declaration and permission to quote from it. It follows:

Astrolaw: Carrying Human Rights into Outer s.p.a.ce

On the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Const.i.tution of the United States of America and in commemoration and furtherance of its values, we the undersigned pet.i.tioners,

Bearing witness to the exploration and inevitable settlement of outer s.p.a.ce;

Recognizing the universal longing for life, liberty, equality, peace and security;

Expressing our unshakable belief in the dignity of the individual;

Placing our trust in societies that guarantee their members full protection of the law, due process and equal protection under the law;

Reaffirm our faith in fundamental freedoms;

Mindful, as were our nation's founders, of the self-evident truth that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights;

Recognizing the responsibility of a government to protect the rights of the governed to exist and evolve;