The Golem of Haven, Ch. 02

After spending a few weeks investigating The Twins, Great, Great Grandmother and the select few of the crew had returned to their hibernation capsules. The effects of the long duration of their voyage combined with the extra cycle of hibernation and thawing had soon became evident. The colonists had also suffered from cognitive difficulties that hadn't afflicted earlier generations of colonists who had settled the Centauri trinary system. Their freezer burned brains had made missteps and mistakes.

It had been Great, Great Grandmother's intention to preserve herself as a contingency. In spite of her compromised cognitive functions, the prospect that her unique intellect and education might be needed by the colony was undeniable. Dagny was justifiably proud of her mastery of the many skills that The Oracle had taught her. However; she suffered from no delusions that she had the same level of understanding of how the starship's fusion rockets and ramfield generators functioned as her ancestor. Of course it had been the Cybers and the Transhumans who'd actually designed and built the starship and her sister ships for the human refugees.

Dagny's Great Grandmother had placed a fire axe as well as a sign next to the hibernation capsule. The hand lettered sign read:

BREAK GLASS ONLY IN EXTREME EMERGENCY!

Dagny grasped a handhold with one hand to keep herself from drifting away while holding her crucifix with the other as she said a prayer for her ancestor. Only then did she move on.

The embryo bank was in the next chamber. Aside from human embryos, a full compliment of Earth fauna as well as flora had been embarked on Endeavor along with the colonists. The starship was Noah's ark, but on an epic scale. They'd even packed reconstituted dinosaur embryos! As it turned out, a fully grown Tyrannosaur Rex had been nothing more than a delicious snack for the native Zillahs.

Almost a billion human embryos had been stored in the embryo banks. These embryos had been a promise to fulfill the hopes and dreams of the people who'd been left behind. These embryos were also a hedge against genetic drift.

These embryos along with the colonists and their counterparts in other star systems would eventually become the only surviving legacy of humanity. The Transhumans and the Cybers had imposed a limit on the reproduction rate of the surviving remnants of humanity that continued to reside on Earth. The ordained limit of one child per woman had been intended to gradually exterminate humanity, at least in Sol system. That limit had been cleverly mitigated by adjusting the gender ratio to favor girls. Unfortunately; a population that decreased by only ten percent each generation rather than decreasing by fifty percent was still condemned to oblivion. During the two centuries since Endeavor was launched, Earth's population had dwindled from barely a billion to less than half a billion.

Although the Transhumans had agreed with the decree of the Cybers that ordinary humans should be eradicated from not only Earth but Sol system, they had suggested offering a reprieve. The Cybers had reluctantly concurred. The remnants of humanity had eagerly accepted the opportunity to send their children as well as a select, privileged few colonists to the stars. Evading oblivion was their only consolation for being gradually eradicated from their home world. The Cybers had promised that if their colonies on planets in other star systems could survive, they would not be interfered with.

There was no need for Dagny to search for the specific embryo bank that she was seeking. She knew it well. More than a few of her ancestors had been raised from embryos from this bank.

The hundred Jewish colonists who'd been embarked on Endeavor had represented the last surviving remnants of the survivors of the Second Holocaust. While the First Holocaust had been perpetrated with gas chambers and crematoriums, the second Holocaust had been perpetrated primarily with nuclear weapons. In the aftermath of the Gaza war, Israel had been coerced by the then great powers to acquiesce to a two state solution.

The partition plan imposed upon Israel had adhered to the original, nineteen-forty-eight borders in the naïve hope of settling the chronic conflict. The already vanishingly small Jewish State had been not just greatly reduced in size but trisected to create the Palestinian State. The concept of strategic depth had been laughable. Once Haifa and Tel Aviv had been nuked along with selected military bases, the Islamic hoards had invaded not just from Gaza and the West Bank. Millions of Jihadist had attacked from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and even Turkey. The few surviving Jews had literally been driven into the sea. The century old slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," had been realized. Only one-hundred-and-forty-four-thousand had been evacuated in a desperate sea lift that had been reminiscent of Dunkirk. Even fewer of the pariah had survived the Second Diaspora.

Dagny carefully opened the embryo bank to extract one of the remaining modules. She very gently, as if the precious module was a newborn infant, placed the twelve-thousand embryos in a transport container. The self contained refrigeration system had its own, Betavoltaic power supply that could if necessary preserve the embryos for millennia.

Dagny moved carefully as she made her way to the terminus, or more accurately, the termini of the beanstalk. Although the transport module weighed nothing because she was in freefall, it still had the inertia of a half ton mass. She was also encumbered by her duffle bag. The beanstalk was technically merely a suspended cable. However; to support the weight of the gondola and cargo as well as its own weight over its enormous length, the beanstalk had to gradually thicken from a mere sextet of ribbons at sea level to a not quite solid cable two meters in diameter where it met the spinneret at Haven synchronous orbit.

To support the multi-million ton weight of the beanstalk, the first generation had utilized a second spinneret to extend a second segment far beyond Haven synchronous orbit. They'd also attached a significant counter mass at the end of the cable. The beanstalk was supported by the same centripetal forces that had enabled David's sling to propel a stone at supersonic velocity to slay Goliath. The portion of beanstalk above Haven synchronous orbit as well as the counter mass were revolving around the planet at considerably more than orbital velocity. The resulting outward, centripetal forces supported the lower segment of the beanstalk that was revolving at less than orbital velocity.

While Arthur C Clarke had popularized the idea in THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE, other science fiction authors had done the same. However; the concept was actually invented by a Russian genius named Konstantine Tsiolkivsky way back in the nineteenth century. Of course it hadn't been even remotely feasible to build such a structure unless one was already in orbit and had access to extraterrestrial resources. Beanstalks, or Space Elevators, hadn't become truly feasible until the Cybers learned how to mass produce continuous, Carbon double bond fibers of nearly unlimited lengths.

During the centuries since humanity began to colonize space, Earth, Venus and Mars as well as various moons in Sol system had sprouted a half dozen or more beanstalks. The beanstalks had been like the spokes of a wheel that kept tethered rings of habitats and industrial platforms that resided in synchronous orbit centered. The Transhumans and the Cybers had not forgotten that the Ringworld was unstable. When Endeavor boosted out of Sol system, almost all Transhumans and most Cybers had resided in these necklaces around the planets and moons. The most recent messages from Earth suggested that the orbiting cities were becoming partially dormant and even dilapidated as the Cybers emigrated to their preferred habitats deep in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.

The beanstalk had two gondolas. The inbound gondola could transport people and cargo to and from the surface of Haven to the terminus where the starship and other structures were docked. The outbound gondola could take people and cargo to the very end of the beanstalk, tens of thousands of kilometers above planetary synchronous orbit.

The controls of the outbound gondola were a bit more complex than the controls for the inbound gondola. After strapping down the transport container, Dagny programed the simple computer. With no concession to aerodynamic drag or friction needed, the gondola could make the journey simply by freefalling away from geosynchronous orbit. However; the journey would require most of a day. Alternatively; the gondola could make the journey in just over an hour, accelerating then decelerating at only one gee.

Dagny preferred a moderately leisurely journey. She needed time to herself. She needed to contemplate her circumstances. She programmed the gondola to execute a briefer acceleration phase followed by several hours in freefall before a deceleration phase.

As the Gondola rose above planetary synchronous orbit, Dagny was treated to a breathtaking view of the stern of the starship. Only two of the six, intra system tugs that had functioned as booster rockets as the starship left Sol system remained docked at the periphery. The other four tugs, laden with barges of equipment and barely a hundred colonists, had separated from the starship as it decelerated into the binary system. They'd gone on to make the forty Astronomical Unit crossing to Beta to found their own colony on Zion. The six, primary fusion rockets were grouped in a ring, centered on the exhaust port for the ramscoop.

Not even the Transhumans or the Cybers could actualize the vision of Robert Bussard by building a ramscoop drive that could fuse the normal hydrogen of interstellar space into Helium, or so they claimed. The best they could do was build fusion rockets that burned Deuterium. The dreams of science fiction authors such as Paul Anderson and Larry Niven, who had written about starships that could harvest their fuel from the almost inexhaustible supply of interstellar gas, had remained just dreams. Their would be no exploration of the galactic core.

Endeavor had been obliged to carry her own fuel. She'd begun her voyage burdened with over ten times her own mass in fuel. Over two million tons of Deuterium, enough to fuel Sol system's civilization for decades, had been required to fill her tanks. However; Endeavor's ramfields had spread tens of thousands of kilometers wide to collect interstellar gas that was utilized as supplemental reaction mass for the fusion rockets. The ramfields had boosted the thrust and fuel efficiency of her fusion rockets.

Endeavor had also failed to fulfill the dreams of ships that could accelerate continuously at one gravity or even more. Even with the sextet of tugs functioning as boosters to augment thrust, Endeavor had accelerated at less than a tenth of a gravity as it boosted out of Sol system. Acceleration had increased as fuel was consumed. Acceleration had for a time, increased even more as the ramfields began to augment thrust. The acceleration had eventually waned as the drag from the ramfields Increased with velocity, offsetting thrust. After two years of continuous boost at an average acceleration of only a tenth of a gee, Endeavor had reached her peak cruising velocity of only two-tenths of the speed of light.

A peak velocity of only twenty percent Cee night have been a disappointment for science fiction authors who'd dreamed of reaching and exploring the galactic core within a human lifetime. However; it had been sufficient. Endeavor had coasted for nearly a century before reactivating its ramscoop fields to begin decelerating. As Endeavor's velocity decreased, the drag from the ramfields waned. Eventually; the fusion rockets were powered up. The ship had decelerated for two years before inserting herself into orbit. Her fuel tanks had been nearly empty except for a reserve for her two, remaining tugs.

As the starship receded from view, Dagny distracted herself by accessing her telescope. She touched icons on her bracer to command the array, slewing it to point towards Beta. She was amused to find herself once again chastising herself for her arrogance. It was a mild conceit for her to pride herself on the fact that her telescope could resolve the continents of planets in nearby star systems. That was true for only Alpha's companion in the binary system. At the moment, Beta was less than a hundred Astronomical Units, less than two-thousandths of a Light-Year, away.

The telescope would vindicate Dagny's boast if she disassembled the optical interferometer and dispersed its individual elements across the star system. However; she kept the elements aggregated. Her telescope filled another function. The massive light gathering area was designed to search for and detect the incandescent plasma plumes from Exawatt class fusion rockets similar to Endeavor's. She could and had detected starships from dozens of light-years away. While no new colony ships had been observed boosting out of Sol system in almost half a century, others that had been launched during earlier decades were decelerating into their destinations.

Dagny touched more icons on her bracer to search for Beta's second planet. While Alpha was about as massive and a bit brighter than Earth's sun, Beta was considerably less massive and therefore far dimmer. Beta wasn't quite a Red Dwarf, but as a result of its low luminosity, the habitable zone was much closer. It was easy to focus on Zion even without guidance from the computer.

If there ever was a planet that could be classified as only marginally habitable, it was Zion. The axial inclination was about eighty degrees. As the planet revolved around Beta, each of the poles were alternately facing towards than away from the Orange dwarf star. As a result, the polar regions and even the temperate zones were alternately scorched during their short summers then frozen during their equally brief winters.

Only the equatorial regions of Zion were even remotely hospitable. However; even that was arguably an exaggeration. While more than two-thirds of Earth's surface was covered with water and three-fourths of Haven's surface was covered with water, barely a tenth of Zion's surface was covered with liquid water. Most of the water on the planet resided in the polar ice caps that alternately waxed and waned with the seasons. There was no planet spanning, interconnected ocean to calmly transport heat and therefore moderate the climate. There were only a myriad of scattered, isolated seas, all at their own localized sea level. Each of these seas were surrounded by their own, isolated drainage basins.

The vast tracts of land between these isolated oases were similar to the Negev, the Sinai, or even the Sahara deserts. Given the challenges presented by the sparse atmosphere, the alpine desserts and steppes of the Tibetan plateau were perhaps a more accurate metaphor. Much of the land mass was at to great an elevation for the air to be truly breathable. Not even the descendants of peoples of the Tibetan plateau or the Andes mountains could long survive in the Highlands of Zion without supplemental Oxygen. Even with Oxygen, women couldn't carry babies to term much less give birth. Zion resembled Warworld

The lack of oceans created massive temperature differentials between the equatorial region and the polar regions. The rapid changes of seasons spawned epic storms. Hurricane force winds frequently raged across the planet. The nearly incessant haboobs sandblasted crops and any buildings that had been built above ground, as well as people and animals unlucky enough to be caught out in the open. In spite of the obvious challenges, the last of the surviving Jews had eagerly decreed that they would dwell on Zion.

New Israel had been founded around the isolated body of water that the Zionists had named the Red Sea. The location had been selected by the Jews almost as much because it resembled the Dead Sea of their ancient, ancestral homeland as being located at the equator where a beanstalk could be anchored. The Red Sea of New Israel was actually comparable in size to the Red Sea back on Earth. Not just the Jordan river flowed from the Sea of Galilee into the Red Sea. The Euphrates, Tigris and Nile rivers also flowed from their drainage basins directly into the Red Sea.

The Zionists had not been content to settle only the Red Sea basin. Unlike Haven, their planet was almost devoid of indigenous life. There had been no monsters to savage, terrorize and traumatize them. There had been no perceived need to prolong the gestation period of embryos in the incubators. With an average of eight children per woman, the population of Zion had quadrupled with every generation. They now numbered over one-hundred-thousand, nearly ten times the population of Haven!

Plants imported from Earth that had been genetically engineered to not just survive but thrive under the light from a reddish star had not been confronted with serious competition from the indigenous flora and fauna. After the seeds that the Zionists had sown had flourished, herds of herbivores as well as appropriate carnivores had been introduced to create vibrant ecosystems in the less arid valleys. A series of outposts had been established that fully circumvented the equator.

Although the Zionists had airships and aircraft, and continued to engage in asteroid mining to support their orbital industries, many of them had reverted to life as primitive pastoralists. Caravans of people made a perpetual trek across the steppes of the more moderate highlands, leading their herds of goats, lamas, and sheep to new pastures. These pastoralists rode actual camels! It was as if they had reverted to the times of Abraham and the other patriarchs. Although their population was surging, it would be many centuries before the Zionists had become so numerous and their civilization so energy intensive that their covert colony might be detected by the Transhumans and Cybers of Sol system.

Contemplating the demographics of Zion often provoked doubts about the presumptions regarding the inmates of Botany Bay. Dagny had long suspected that the Colony had been to eager to presume that the mortality rate for the inmates was so extreme. She usually lead one, month long, orbital excursion each year. She'd never encountered an inmate from a previous trip on subsequent excursions. Her associates who also lead expeditions reported the same. When she had gotten curious enough to query The Oracle, it had dutifully reported that its records of biometric identifications confirmed that no inmate had ever made the pilgrimage to orbit more than once. That observation suggested that the population of Botany Bay might equal or even exceed the population of the colony! Given the vast jungles and forest lands near Botany Bay, it would be impossible to take a census from the air much less from orbit. The number of inmates might even be almost as vast as the number of Freemen on Arrakis!

The gondola was in freefall when The Oracle decided that it wanted to talk to Dagny. "Why are you making this journey alone? It would be valuable training for the novices if you brought them along."

Dagny considered the question. The Oracle's core programming for critical functions had been encoded in Read Only Memory modules. The core programming couldn't be amended by The Oracle or even the colonists. However; The Oracle's personality evolved gradually as memories and revised subroutines were accumulated in its Random Access Memory. The founders of the colony expedition had been understandably reluctant to utilize an artificial intelligence that was sentient much less sapient. Natural, biological humanity and even the Transhumans had become subservient to their Cybernetic masters. The founders of the Colony had even eschewed the processing power of quantum computing technology. The rather limited intellect of the Oracle combined with other safeguards had been a compromise. The founders decision to utilize such precautions had been prescient.