Posted by: Konisforce
« on: March 30, 2013, 12:03:27 AM »~~~
The Office of Dylan Wall, Commissioner of the Stellar Colonial Administration
The Office of Dylan Wall, Commissioner of the Stellar Colonial Administration
A familiar rap at the door. Commissioner Wall looks up at Jones slips into the room. “Mr. Mann to see you, sir, if you are available.”
Wall nods quickly. “You’re right to interrupt me, Jones. Curtis is always a welcome diversion. Please show him in.”
“Yes sir. And the tea service?”
Wall smiles and nods, then stands as Curtis Mann enters the room. “Welcome, Curtis. Your first time to the new offices, I believe?”
Curtis hangs his own hat and coat then turns to the massive picture window. The view looks west from the new ‘sky scraper’ in the Docklands, built from aether elements and towering fifty stories into the air. Neutronium structural elements combined to create a light-weight, stiff frame from which to hang more conventional elements.
“I have not, my friend. It is as splendid as promised.” Mann crosses to the window and stares out. An East-Indiaman class freighter of the Jarvis Colony Company is gliding down in the embrace of the aether beams to come to rest in the commercial slips of the London Orbital Transit Station. “Tell me, did you really pick this location for the reasons they say?”
Wall smiles. “To keep watch over the East India Company’s holdings in London? Certainly.” He gestures to the tea service Jones has lain on the sideboard. “And spoiling the view of the Creekmouth Merchant’s Club was simply an added bonus. I am told that the Stellar Colonial offices glow wonderfully when the sun sets behind them . . .”
Mann grins and seats himself while Wall pours. “I’m afraid this isn’t entirely a social call, Commissioner.”
Wall seats himself with his own cup and scowls faintly. Mann continues, “I’ve just heard the news from the Admiralty. Duffy is to be First Lord.”
Wall makes a noise something like a growl of distaste. “Blast. Nothing to be done for it?”
Mann shakes his head. “Nothing to be done by my office, and I’m told that the Admiralty has tried to think of a way around it. But he has the greatest seniority, enough allies, and no compelling reason not to grant him the post.”
“Aside from the fact that he will make a dog’s breakfast of it.” Wall all but slams the cup down on his desk. “Honestly, there are times when I wonder how the Empire has made it this far at all.”
“Why, on the backs of dependable civil servants like yourself, my dear Mr. Wall.”
Wall waves the phrase aside. “I do not like the direction this is headed. First Lord Sutton had a healthy disregard for all this adventuring and glory-mongering, and at least wanted a strong aether navy – any aether navy – before we went poking about. Duffy is too infatuated with the ideas of the Martians. You know they say he is secretly a Red Cultist?”
Mann fixes the Commissioner with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t think much of my skills, do you?”
“What? Oh, of course, of course. If he were you would’ve found it and we would be welcoming Admiral Giles into the First Lord’s seat, I know. But it’s a statement about him that such a rumour would start in the first place. An Olympian Admiral. Not likely.”
“So, what’s to be done about it?”
Wall shrugs, and spreads his hands. “What is there to do? The damned Kingmakers are solidly mercantilist, and mercantilism means colonies. I already lost the shipyard battle for the Harbor class, and now that I have and the Portsmouth has been floated, Surrey is open for business interests. The East India Company will do what they always do, and we’ll soon have a few million on Boreas and Zephyr. I can at least slow down terraforming on those worlds to make them less attractive, but Boreas is already breathable, though damnably cold, I am led to believe. Someone will settle there. Probably the Colonial Americans, with their damned pioneer spirit.”
Mann lets the rant roll on until it runs out of energy. “Are you really so anti-colonial as all that? It’s a particular place you find yourself – the head of Stellar Colonial who wants nothing more than to keep everyone on Earth.”
Wall shakes his head, resigned. “Oh, you know it’s not all that. I’m not against the idea of the colonies . . . the same urge which led to the colonization of New England has led to Mars and now Surrey. I support it, but I want it done right. What if the Ohio territories had housed an unknown empire with access to gauss artillery and sorium-fueled armored knights? Wouldn’t we have wanted to tread a bit more lightly in the founding of Plymouth?”
“But we haven’t seen such an empire. We haven’t met anyone.”
“Yet. And we know there used to be such an empire. The very fact that we are only middlingly advanced among the three civilizations we know – us, the Martians, and the Areans – should be enough to give anyone pause.”
Mann swirls the last of his tea. “I know the irony of my saying this, but you worry altogether too much, Dylan.”
“Oh, I hope so, Curtis. I truly hope so.”
~~~
Excerpted from the notes of Commissioner Dylan Wall of the British Stellar Colonial Administration
Excerpted from the notes of Commissioner Dylan Wall of the British Stellar Colonial Administration
19th of October, 1855 – I suppose it is a glorious day for the Empire, but it’s the culmination of a lost rearguard action for me. The Plymouth, lead ship of the new Harbor class of jump tender, is floating today from the Plymouth Civilian Shipyards. I had fought the East India Company and the House of Burghers against its design in the first place, and then against retooling the Plymouth Civilian Shipyards, and finally, against scrapping the half-completed Viceroy colony ship that was a-building in the slips. That last decision was more than purely political: nearly a dozen ready-made biological suspension facilities wasted, the keel broken up, hardly anything to be salvaged. Such a waste, and all to speed the opening of Surrey to commercial traffic by nine months, at best. She is even now paddling her way out to the Middlesex-Surrey aether tunnel, to sit and shepherd colonists and freighters out to Surrey. I’ll soon have to appoint viceroys, and set up a new department, and . . . oh, what a bother.
29th of October, 1855 – After completing her overhaul (and receiving a much-needed new captain) the Hydra is sent on her way to the Middlesex system. In yet another breach of the supposedly ironclad prohibition on exploration, she is to search the gated jump point far out-system to solar northeast that the [/i]Chimera[/i] discovered a few months back. Loathe as I am to see any further surveys done, even I must admit this makes sense – a jump gate from Sol to Middlesex, and now one from Middlesex to Hampshire. I’m not tempted by expectations that we’ll find the Martians in Hampshire, but knowing what is beyond a wide open door is prudent by any standard. I only hope that future jump points without gates manage to remain unexplored until such time as a workable aether navy is there to protect them.
8th of January, 1856 – The Hydra has sent back word that there are four colonizeable planets in Hampshire, including one that might already host life. In a joint meeting with the Admiralty, the Stellar Administration, and the Stellar Matters Board of Parliament I gritted my teeth and voted to allow the survey of Hampshire. Jump gates on both sides of both tunnels connect to Sol, and the real possibility of life on the fourth planet means I would rather risk exposure and know of any potential threats than wait for a fleet to glide through.
29th of February – The Plymouth Shipyards have finished their preparations to begin producing the Pikeman class patrol ship. Because of the large size and complexity of its engines, I have seen fit to redirect some of our fabrication energies away from the terraformers for Mars and toward creating the engines whole-hog before the ship is built. It should save as many as four months in the production of the ships. The first two ships – tentatively named Pikeman and Halberdier – have been laid down.
4th of March – It has been overshadowed by the Martian colonial effort, of course, but Ganymede now boasts a population of nearly two millions, with more coming all the time. Overcrowding has become an issue. I have requested that the Army provide me with troops to help keep order, and the decision has been made to kill two birds with one stone and send the 44th (Novgorod) Pioneers to quell the unrest and conduct what archaeology they can. If Ganymede’s ruins prove to be anything like those on Mars, I would not be surprised to find sky factories present as well.
16th of April - I have maneuvered a contract with two of the major shipping corporations to purchase their shipyard for governmental use. With the Burghers now in control of Plymouth Civilian and the East India Spaceworks permanently churning out freighters and colonials, I find that my ability to provide support craft is quite limited. The Walton-Clarke shipyards should help ease that to a degree, and perhaps allow for a new tanker design to be built. Recovered reserves of refined sorium on Mars have now exceeded all current production on Earth, which simply will not do when the planet is plagued by the occasional battle with clockwork men.
The deal cost five million pounds, of which one million each will go to Walton Interstellar Colony Lines and Clarke Logistics. The remainder must be spent on transport, retooling, and job programs to alleviate the disruptions. But all told I feel it a bargain.
19th of April – Despite a great battle in Parliament, the lion’s share of subsidy programs for Martian colonists have been allowed to lapse. Shipments of penal inmates, land grants, and direct monetary subsidies and grants have ceased, so the flow of colonists to Mars can be expected to fall off to a mere trickle of its former torrent. One can hope.
14th of May – I had been hearing news of First Lord Sutton’s ill health for years now – his drinking, surely – but it has been made official. Mann came to me today to inform me that Jay Duffy will be his replacement. Aside from extensive political contacts, he has some skill in terraforming practices and was on the first xenoarcheological dig on Mars. Not what I am looking for in a First Lord. But he does have a fire in his belly, and I am told he has been agitating for a comprehensive reform of the survey practices for a year or more. The Hydra is overdue to report in, so he does have something of a point in that regard.
4th of June – More fuel found on Mars. Nearly twice the current store on Earth. It simply will not do. And I’m told the continuing survey of Surrey has revealed a large store of sorium in the upper atmosphere of the tenth planet, a gas giant. It is some three times farther out than Jupiter, which may prove to be a problem. And the current theory stands that there is no solid matter in such a planet, so harvesting would be an even larger one. For now, sorium is by far the least of my worries where stores of aether elements are concerned.
5th of August – Something of a setback but as of yet not a full-blown disaster. I was hoping for a sky factory on Ganymede, but instead of 44th Pioneers have run into clockwork men. Colonel Kieran Brady has sent back requests for reinforcements and the Homefront is already preparing to transport militiamen and knights to the scene. The initial reports are that the 44th Novgorod lost one third of their strength in the first engagement to contain the outbreak, but I do not place much stock in such reports, preliminary as they are. It is only three weeks’ time before the Homefront arrives with the cream of the British Army.