The Confederation Handbook Read Online Free PDF

Confederation,
provide a huge market. Although He3is Edenism’s main export,
their high-technology astroengineering industries are also extremely
competitive, and sell throughout the Confederation. Even though He3is
carried almost exclusively by voidhawks and Edenist-owned tankers,
the shipment of manufactured goods is put out to free tender, and
Adamist starships obtain a high percentage of the contracts. There
are over 20,000 starship movements daily in the Jovian system, making
it the busiest sector in the Confederation.

Habitats
    These are bitek cylinders of living, highly modified coral (polyp),
always found in orbit around gas giants. All Edenists live in these
enclaves, with the exception of Atlantis ( see
page 53 ). In the Jovian system they orbit 550,000km above
the planet, which puts them above the orbit of Io and its lethal flux
tube and hazardous ion torus, but they keep well within the planetary
magnetosphere, thus giving them a sidereal period of about two days.
    They are grown from seeds
(teardrop shaped, approximately 150m long and 50m wide), which are
manufactured in specialist bitek stations, and are the largest
artificial creatures ever designed (voidhawks and blackhawks claim to
be more sophisticated). A new seed will be removed from its
manufacturing station and germinated before being attached to a small
asteroid (1km diameter) which contains appropriate trace minerals to
support its initial growth phase. The first stage of germination
produces a membrane which envelopes the entire asteroid, and then
digestion begins inside. The membrane is flooded with enzyme fluid to
break up the minerals, and these are reabsorbed by a root network.
Minerals and organic compounds are processed inside the seed by
rudimentary organs, and so polyp growth begins.
    Once the basic cylinder
shape is achieved, after four to six years, the seed and membrane sac
digestive mechanism withers away and disengages. The cylinder at this
point is 2km long, and is little more than an empty shell with a more
sophisticated digestive system at one end. A new asteroid is
maneuvered into its maw (a hemispherical indentation at one end,
covered with spinelike cilia), and the primary digestion process
begins. Growth to full size takes up to thirty years, and several
asteroids are ingested during this time.

Layout and Composition
    The first habitat to be
germinated, Eden itself, is 10km long and 3km wide; the second,
Pallas, is 15km long and 5km wide. Both are still alive, as cellular
regeneration is constant provided the maw is fed with raw material.
More modern habitats are up to 45km long and 10km wide, with
hemispherical endcaps, and an external ring of starscrapers around
the center. They rotate along their long axis to provide a 0.9
gravity field in the park, and a standard Earth gravity at the base
of the starscrapers. Each habitat will typically house up to
2,000,000 people. The shell is 500m thick in total, which is more
than sufficient to protect the inhabitants from Jupiter’s (and
all other gas giants’) hostile radiation environment.
    The external layer is made
up from a crust of dead polyp 20m thick, which is gradually abraded
away by particle impacts and vacuum ablation, though there are
several surface sections of living sensitive cells which allow the
habitat to “seeâ€

Starscrapers
    Starscrapers are tower-like
accommodation sections, up to 500m long, which protrude from the
central section of the habitat, forming an equatorial band. There are
windows on every level, giving spectacular views over the gas giants
and their moon systems, and these are all fitted with irises which
close during radiation storms. Essentially they are vertical towns,
containing every civic amenity from individual apartments to
theaters, with shops, bars, and offices included. Most Edenists live
inside a habitat’s starscraper, given that there are few other
internal structures; Edenists like to keep the chamber