BARD PAPER: OPAL8673 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
BARD PAPER: OPAL8673 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
(A version of Dekha is bundled in Galactic 2.4. See Dekha for details. However my version of Dekha was written up before I had access to Galactic, and I prefer it to the RICE paper.)
In hindsight, there seemed to exist in the old Imperium a hubristic if not suicidal impulse on the part of some high population worlds, specifically those small barren rocks minus an atmosphere or hydrosphere. As these worlds grew in population into the tens of billions, the impulse of their governments was to contruct "snailshells", literally massive concentric buildings that covered the entire globe from pode to antipode in metal, ceramic and plastic. Such worlds took on the appearance of a metallic mollusk, gleaming in the starry sky against the backlight of glittering towers that pierced the shell like waving antenna.
The only problem with this arrangement was its sheer inefficiency. Megastructures of this size created massive containment problems when placed in a vacuum. Solid structures of any kind leak air and water to some minute degree; but when there are exposed structures and seams to the degree of tens or hundreds of square miles, "minute" can mean buckets. And then there is the problem of heating and cooling such a structure in an affordable way. And they were built and designed in a dehumanising brute force method that left little consideration for comfort or communal identity. Safety standards were hard to enforce in buildings on this scale, built as they often were in rapid sucession. In other words they were drafty uncomfortable slums on a titanic scale. Naturally Virus turned such well made deathtraps into killing fields, blasting people into space, killing them with automated machinery, asphyxiating them in fires or by bleeding off the air, drowning them in water main bursts.. etc..
Dekha was first settled in 186 by Vilani settlers from Dagudashaag sector. Unlike most vacuum world colonists, these lacked the resources or the wherewithal to build exposed structures on the surface; and the local asteroid and comet orbits made bombardment of the surface a real threat. As a result they dug massive warrens underground. Because of its proximity to a pair of large asteroid belts, including one possessing nearly inexhaustable amounts of nickel-iron and other heavy elements, the system was industrialised early on. By utilising the so called "fishbowl effect" industrial facilities could be built anywhere, and on a massive but affordable scale as raw materials and finished goods were carried by conveyor, pipeline or rail to facilities around the circumference of the planet. Because the population built underground, heating/cooling and life support costs were greatly lowered. The frozen surface prevented air and water from leaking into space, and simplified structural construction.
Dekha is known as the Piggybank of Deneb. As wealth increased, the local government was able to afford the installation of more artificial gravity in inhabited areas, and built a massive water reservoir at the planetary core over the centuries, expanding it a little at a time till its internal capacity was greater than many oceans, filled with cometary debris or raw materials brought from nearby "Warm Jupiters." Despite a lack of sophisticated starport facilities, local industry advanced to the highest levels attained in the Third Imperium. With increasing leisure time came more experimentation into science and advanced engineering, and the creation of the local Imperial University system of colleges and technical schools.
Since the Collapse, Dekha has become one of the most important worlds in the Regency. Government money and private investment have taken advantage of its highly educated workforce, and well developed infrastructure to make the world one of the largest shipbuilders in the Spinward Extents. The population has increased heavily, and expansion of the underground arcos has accelerated for the possibility of a hundred billion citizens. Dekha is banging on the TL-16 door, and is considered to be a distant second to Vincennes in technological advancement. Its rivalry with the Emerald City goes back centuries, and has heated up since Vincennes became more engaged in offworld affairs. The rivalry is mostly friendly competition, as both worlds recognise the need for cooperation, and for advancing local technological levels. But it has its rough spots as the incomplete naval bases above both worlds, the victims of mutual political wrangling and meddling.