Daven Laure, a Ranger of the Commonalty, visits the planet, Serieve, which is still at an early stage of settlement. We are asked to imagine something more than just a planet orbiting a star very far from the Solar System. Not only is Serieve in another spiral arm of the galaxy but also it is close to the northern edge of that spiral arm. Beyond that edge is the galactic halo with thin gas, little dust and old, widely scattered globular clusters. The local interstellar medium has not been much enriched by earlier stellar generations. Consequently, most stars and their planetary systems lack heavy metals.
Early settlers usually spread across a planet, at least in the civilization where the Commonalty operates. Much later, wildernesses must be preserved while large families come to be discouraged and emigration encouraged. However, Serievans have built high on an arctic island where ocean currents make the water mineral-rich so that extraction is more profitable here than it would be further south.
Although stars are widely scattered, about four parsecs apart, they remain many. Surrounded by the unknown while still needing to spend most of their effort in developing themselves, the Serievans must proceed slowly and cautiously. The completely unknown is only a few light-years away and the mysterious Kirkasanters have come from there, from the Dragon's Head sector where exploration is only beginning. In an interstellar civilization, the frontier and exploration beyond it never cease.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The real world got in the way of me commenting the last couple of days.
At least there's a frontier, in the FTL interstellar sense, for those planets which have enough technology to make use of the hyperdrive! In the chaos of the Long Night after the Empire fell we know many colonies relapsed to barbarism or even savagery. Lokon, in "The Sharing of Flesh," being one example.
Other colonies, dependent on advanced tech to be habitable, just died--gruesomely!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment