Diaspora -- Concordia

[bluegargantua]

Concordia: T-2 E4 R0

Concordia is the Confederation's greatest technological achievement although some might argue they were merely building on the shoulders of giants. The Concordia system consists of a small star embedded within a large cloud of gas. The cloud is dense enough and contains enough oxygen that humans could easily survive in the open within a fairly thick band. It's not clear is this was a natural formation or the leftover remnants of some massive engineering project from a prior civilization. In any event, there was massive amounts of habitable space, the only thing missing was something to stand on. Confederation scientists fixed this problem by genetically engineering a wide range of plants and animals that could survive in the free-fall conditions of Concordia. A distant tours of asteroids (similar to the Oort cloud) were mined to provide minerals and to provide lattice-work structures for plants and buildings. Eventually, an immense ecosystem was built up and this provided enough organic materials to create small rings to provide gravity.

After that, the Confederation shipped in pioneers as quickly as it could fill the ships. Concordia was sold as an idyllic paradise so it didn't take much to get people to sign on. And for the most part, life within the system was pretty idyllic. The free-fall environment made industrial progress difficult, but the abundance of organic substitutes made life easy enough that the few space stations maintained near the slipknots to manage stellar traffic could provide all the high-tech needs of the system.

The disruption of the former Confederation system had little impact on the Concordia system as a whole and there are a number of residents who aren't even aware of the event. These days, Apex ships keep a tight watch over the system and do their best to mitigate traffic from Eigen. Eigen smugglers still make an effort to get through but often find that their efforts are less lucrative than they'd like since Concordians aren't interested in a lot of what the smugglers offer and have little to pay for the things they do want. The smugglers have found that human trafficking is the most lucrative scheme.

Living in a zero-G environment, Concordians make extremely capable spacers once they've been given some training in using high-tech equipment. Although the hard labor and close confines of starships can be hard on their psyches, younger Concordians with a sense of wanderlust, can easily get jobs on starships. A tour of a few years can provide them with a significant grubstake when they return. With the vast population, there are often thousands of Concordians competing for a few slots and the Eigen have been quick to exploit those who didn't quite make the cut. Smugglers offer to take potential recruits out of the system to Eigen where they can get a job, but their labor contracts are often a quick trip to indentured servitude.

Aspects:

• Life in Free-Fall
  
• An Ecosystem of Leisure
  
• Adventures Are Fun!
  

later
Tom