The Pioneer left the Solar System in 2126. Evan Friday, twenty four in 2205, studies the history of the ship but does not tell us every date:
the small private farms of the early years were replaced by a food trust;
in 2160, leading Engineers provoked a violent general strike by underpaid workers in that trust;
the strike overthrew the trust;
the Engineers had wanted to divide and weaken food producers by returning them to the earlier system;
however, upper Administration preferred to socialize food production, packaging and distribution under its own bureaucracy;
Admy won and confronted Engy as a powerful new rival;
when Captain Petri died in 2162, Engy and Admy, ignoring the rule that the first mate should have succeeded, nominated instead the young Juan Gomez from Astrogation;
Astro, a small officers only group, played the two more powerful Departments off against each other;
for a few years, the overlords' bully gangs clashed, green and gray workers became restless, young officers became arrogant and exclusive and Admy used ship's law to aggrandize its leaders;
in 2171, the private forces of Engy and Admy waged war over the extent of Admy jurisdiction;
although the two small sides lacked effective weapons, there was death, damage and suspension of services;
Astro rallied police and other groups to end the war;
ship's articles were amended with police power transferred from Admy to the Captaincy, thus effectively to Astro;
Admy opposed the move but Engy supported it because it weakened Admy;
Astro acquired followers, investments and political contacts;
in 2176, lower Engy ranks violently revolted and were suppressed although the Captain's Court then made concessions disliked by most officers;
in 2182, Duncan, chief of Admy, tried to seize the Captaincy but was defeated with the help of Engy;
however, his power passed to his successor with help from Astro;
in 2187, Admy and Astro ended officer ownership of factories and socialized them, having acquired sufficient fighting strength to enforce this;
from 2187 to 2201, the ship owned all important facilities, with ultimate control exercised by the Captain and his Council;
a combine mainly of Astro officers held, and struggled to keep, the balance of power;
characteristic ship art, literature and music began plus scientific advances in astrophysics and the biological effects of cosmic radiation;
the laboring classes organized unions which merged as the Brotherhood of Workers, led by Wilson;
independents organized in Guilds but had no effective voice;
in 2201, the Council violently suppressed a general strike but let Wilson onto the Council from which position he began to make alliances with younger, more liberal, officers;
in 2205, Wilson wants all but purely personal property to belong to the ship with plants governed by workers' councils;
other factions want either a return to some earlier stage of the ship's history or an advance, e.g., to complete economic and political control by a hereditary officer caste;
Captain Gomez, chairing the Council and controlling the police, is supported by conservative officers and possibly by most commons although McMurtrie, chief of Astro, might hold ultimate power;
the ship is ready for another upheaval.
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