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About six light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation
Ophiuchus, there is a small red dwarf named Barnard’s Star. Four planets
orbit the host, and since they are all so close to it, they are
affectionately known as hot rockies. Due to its local inhospitability and
its proximity to Earth, it was assigned a very special job. Earth is the
seed and heart of life and civilization. Everything in the Sol system
belongs to those who live there. Until Castlebourne came along, it was
assumed that Sol would remain the central hub of the galaxy. It only makes
sense. In order to preserve their resources, early colonial coordinators
decided that Barnard’s Star would be a giant celestial junkyard.
For centuries, the Core Worlds have enjoyed a post-scarcity economy, where
every basic need is met, along with many not-so-basic needs. It is entirely
plausible and easy to live quiet comfortably without spending a proverbial
dime. But it is still an economy, and it is based on a currency of
energy credits. Every day, each citizen accumulates a baseline amount of
credits, just by existing. Many leave these credits in their private
accounts, and don’t do anything with them. Others donate to those in
need—not those who need it to survive, but those who want something more.
If you find someone to donate their credits to you, or if you contribute
positively to society, you can earn extra credits. Citizens elect the
legislators who determine how much a contribution is worth, but it doesn’t
really have to have all that much technical value. You could be,
hypothetically speaking, the worst painter in the world, but if you paint a
piece of art, and provide it to the public, you have made a positive
contribution. Even if no one likes it, it is something that you created and
provided, so it counts, and you will receive credits for that. It probably
won’t be much, but it will at least blip above the baseline. Bigger
contributions lead to bigger payouts, and importantly,
combining credits with others results in a total that is more than
the sum of its parts. Because sharing and cooperation are, on their own,
considered positive contributions.
Since most amenities are provided by the state for free, what do energy
credits give you? They can pay for two major things: building something at
significant scale, or traveling somewhere of significant distance. That is
precisely why Barnard’s Star was chosen as the junkyard. It is relatively
close, so getting there is fairly easy, and once you’re there, you can go
just about anywhere else. There is always an interstellar cycler on its way
there, so you won’t have to wait long. You spend your credits on a ticket to
the junkyard, and then you’re free to apply for your own transportation.
Upon approval, rather than using up Sol’s resources, you take what raw
materials you need from Barnard’s Star. The celestial bodies which orbit it
are called the Gatewood Collective.
Very few entities live in the Gatewood Collective on a permanent basis. Most
are waiting for their applications to go through, or are actively
engineering their vessels. These parties may range from an individual to
entire fleets of colonists. Only the staff stick around. It’s there job to
decide who gets what, and to make sure colonists are doing what they’re
meant to be doing. They are the coordinators and the police. All of this
stuff is mostly free, so there is no reason to be greedy, and more to the
point, there is no reason to stay for any longer than you have to. Build
what you need, then bug out.
Not everyone follows these terms, even if they agreed to them before they
left their prior homes. That is where the police contingency comes in. So
far, it’s been mostly okay; just a few conflicts. Definitely nothing major.
There are hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy alone. It’s perfectly
reasonable to expect one of them to be limited to this one use. As
previously stated, the planets are far too difficult to colonize. It’s not
entirely impossible, but it’s fundamentally ludicrous. And yet, some are
trying.
Another six light years from Barnard’s Star is another red dwarf called Ross
154. There is nothing special about it either, so there wasn’t any interest
in colonizing it. In the middle of the 25th century, construction began on a
stellar shotgun around Ross 154. This was no weapon, though. It was designed
to harvest the violent forces of the flare star, feeding into a massive
capacitor. It took about half a century to build, and about another half to
charge. Once the energy was at its peak, they fired the weapon, not towards
Barnard’s Star, but those four hot rockies. The pulse is traveling at the
speed of light, which means it will take years for them to arrive. In
preparation for this, all other shipbuilding has been relegated to safer
regions of Gatewood.
Once the pulses hit their marks, each target will break apart in a matter of
only a few days. Anything attempting to live on it will be utterly
destroyed. The whole reason it took so long for them to build the stellar
shotgun in the first place is so they could run extremely extensive tests on
the possibility of life on the hot rockies. They found none. Even
extremophiles don’t want to live here. But some humans do. A group of
refugees from Proxima Doma made their way to the Gatewood Collective after
their own planet suffered a world ending cataclysm. They came to find a new
home, and they didn’t want to go far. They were told that Barnard’s Star was
the perfect destination, but they failed to recognize or respect the rules.
They want to stay here, which would already set a dangerous precedent, but
not only that; they want to live on a planet, as they had before.
It’s not everyone. Plenty of migrants from Doma have come, and started work
on their ships. Many didn’t bother coming this direction at all. Gatewood is
more for people who want to leave the stellar neighborhood. The majority of
the refugees wanted to stay close by, and since the destruction of their
homeworld was not their fault, the government agreed to ferry them anywhere
within 25 light years.
This one small group of rebels, however, don’t like that Barnard’s Star is
only meant to be a pitstop. They think that the legislators should treat it
like any other Core star. But if they had, there would be no conflict. If
they had given it the same colonial designation, no one would have wanted to
live here; not if they were so gung-ho on planets. They are all
uninhabitable, and the star itself is nothing special. They only want it
because they can’t have it. And that is no good reason at all.
The pulses have been sent, and there is no stopping them. The reason it’s
taking so long is because of how powerful they are. They’re designed to
obliterate planets. Even if the government wanted to back out of this
mission, they would be physically incapable of it. The process has already
begun. They’re just waiting for the results to come in, and it will not be
long now. Chief Asset Manager, Pribadium Delgado should not be entertaining
these people’s complaints. If they don’t leave Barnard’s Star e in the next
few weeks, they are going to die. That is a certainty. Now, she could remove
them forcibly, but that would be a PR disaster. Squatter’s rights were a
thing back on Earth when there was such a thing as homelessness, and they
still exist today, just on greater scales. Simply landing on their tiny
little settlement is incredibly taxing thanks to the heat and terrain. But
here she is, trying to negotiate a peaceful solution. The former Domanians
are not having it. And now, they’re trying to take her hostage. Hilarious.
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