Date: Fri, 08 Sep 1995 16:22:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Alvin Plummer Subject: RICE Paper #AWP-00205: Antra Antre (Antra: Deneb/1808) A53789C-E S Cp 701 RE M0V M3V g=0.623 Day=19:26:42.00 Year (Imperial) 46d 17:13:23.10 (Local) 57d 15:52:12.34 atmos=0.2312, controlled weather (special) TNE weather +1 Temp= +29 (5/lat +44 to -6) (Season +27 to -45, 8 deg lat) daily temp range = (+8 noon, -78 midnight) Ores, Radioactives; Nonmetals; Recordings, Artforms, Software, Documents Conservative/Indifferent, Unaggressive/Concilatory, Harmonious/Xenoplobic Legal: C-9CHIB Tech: EE-EEGEE-EEEE-FG-G NOTE: due to the Worldroof - built as a major scientific experiment, and an implicit example of Imperial power to the Vargr, by order of Emperess Porfiria in 271, and finally completed in 883 - and extensive weather control (possibly the best in the Galaxy) - atmos should be changed to 1.000: thus, the air is breathable - TNE Weather changed to +8 (almost always crystal-clear weather, sometimes overcast) - daily temperature range = -10 noon, -20 midnight (Lowering the base temp to 19 degrees, but decreasing the severity of the nighttime from -78 to -20) Antra, it's worldroof one of the Seven Wonders of the Imperium, is a must for any tourist of Deneb Sector. Despite the long, tedious and invading antiViral procedures, Antra still is a busy port of call, for it's artworks and tourism sites, it's vast radioactive mines - the largest in 25 parsecs - and it's political connections. Still, caution is called for when among the xenophobic Antrans, and the beautiful towers that support the famed Worldroof is supported by some nasty foundations... Index: THE ANTIVIRAL RUNDAROUND THE WORLDROOF ARRIVING ON ANTRA FESTIVAL ATTITUDE TO VISITORS IMMIGRANTS RELIGION "WE OURSELVES" THE ANTIVIRUS RUNAROUND Situated on the very edge of the Regency/Virus border, the incoming traveller can expect Trin-level paranoia. And just as well: if for any reason Virus enters the system, the 700 million people of Antra are as dead as Dulinor. Any ship filing a direct flight plan to Antra is immediately pointed to the nearest Regency Quarrentine Office. In cooperation with the Antran government, the RQS keeps a set of specific travel routes and jump routines controlling movement within the Antran system, which vary from time to time. The computer module of flight routine for the specific time that the traders intend to be in the system is directly plugged into the various computer systems of the ship by RQS personnnel, and an RQS officer is posted to the ship for the week's trip. Before leaving for Antra, the ship is carefully checked out by an RQS team, taking a day per 100 tons displacement. Everyone is given a complete physical examination: noone with artifical inorganic enhansements is permitted to continue on the voyage, on pain of death. When they first arrive from jump the ship follows it's pre-computated flight plan to a preselected position and vector in space. The RQS officer on board must radio for a RQS cutter to meet them, using a special one-time code that only the RQS officer on board knows. NOTE: Antra is within 100 diameters of it's primary star: the ship leaves jump space between 155 and 355 light-seconds from Antra, depending on orbitl mechanics, the skill of the pilot, etc. With the pre-computed jump co-ordinates, the ship always leaves jump exactly opposite of Antra's position, 355 light-seconds away on the other side of the star. Ships that do not conform to the specific flight plan must immediately kill their velosity, and come to a dead halt. The people on board must put on their space suits and cross over to the RQS cutter. The ship is impounded, and usually considered forfeited to the Antran government if free of Virus. If the ship is found to be infected, the crew have their personalities reconstructed. Ships that don't come to a stop, for whatever reason, are destroyed. The cutter boards the ship and an RQS team carefully looks it over for Virus. Since this is a lighter team that the previous base-check, it only takes a few hours before the ship is underway again, to a nearby (usually under 20 light-seconds) RQS space station. The RQS station - basically an underarmed naval base, designed to take on a flotilla of 100 ships of up to 1000 disp tons each - AGAIN checks out the ship for Virus. After about half a day - regardless of the size of the ship, the local crew is large, good, well equipped, and fast enough to process it in under 12 hours - the ship, without it's escort but still with it's babysitting RQS officer onboard, finally heads for Antra. Your ship will be halted and inspected 10 light seconds from Antra, not by a RQS cutter by a 1000-6000 ton SDB. THE WORLDROOF As you finally approach Antra (at 1G, as per regulations), bathed under the dull red light of it's star, you start to notice that it seems to be largely encased by glass. And when you arrive at the Highport - attached to Antra by a 50 km elevator - the vast Worldroof of Antra is revealed in all it's glory. It covering over 80% of Antra, composed by a mosaic of hexagonal "glass" cells suspended in the air by 1,774 2km high 'tower groups'. Each 'tower group' is composed of seven towers: six towers supports the roof, generates power (via both capturing a small percent of the star's radiated energy and the 200-300 km winds), and provides the best weather control in the Regency (or for that matter, in the preCollapse Imperium). The seventh tower is either an industrial or residential centre. Industrial centres were built with 5,000 inhabitants, residental centres - basically tower cities, in a style familiar on high-tech worlds - holds up to 500,000 people. No ship ever lands on Antra: the high-atmosphere winds are both fast and fickle, continually shifting to equalize the tempertature between the dark and light sides of Antra. Also, it's a security measure by the Antrans to again insure that Virus doesn't get in. Thus, all transport is via the Highport elevator. (REFEREE: Why doesn't the atmosphere flow out of the 20% of the world not covered by the Worldroof? Ask the British Interplanetary Society: they're the ones who came up with this crazy idea! The 'high-winds' part is a natural consequence of equalizing the temperatures, and moderating the nighttime low to the extent that the Antran want to: it should be doable given TL E tech.) ARRIVING ON ANTRA All people, articles and cargo is completely checked out by local antiVirus teams on the Highport, taking another day. (This includes medical examinations: no people with ANY artifical inorganic enhansements is permitted insystem. If caught in this stage of the game, they will be killed.) Another quickie 'make sure' check is made before leaving the elevator, and a final antiViral team awaits to greet the players just as they step off the 30 minute journey on the massive elevator, for another full check of everyone and everything. (An entire RICE paper can be written on security procedures within the Regency, from the ultra-lax standards in the Seven Sisters to the short-and-vicious procedures of Trin, from the short and effective procedures of Vincennes to long, bureaucratic and paranoaic restrictions for Antra.) FESTIVAL The first thing everyone does after arrival is look up at the immense hexagonal grid over them. Throughout most of the year, you'll only see a crystal clear, cloudless sky, faintly outlined with hundreds of hexagons. In the nighttime, the outlines glow faintly red: but that is all. But, if you arrived during the two-week Blazing Lights Festival, you'd see some fantastic pattern of lights and graphics in the sky, surpassing anything you may have seen in a VR tube. These Festivals have become more and more ornate since the Collapse, now including sound's and wind patterns specifically created for the artist, generated by the weather control system (imagine immense, organ-like sounds emminating from the roof and the winds: absolutely overwhelming). Of course, tickets for Antra tends to skyrocket as the Festival nears: not offically, of course, but the cost in bribes and favours can get very severe. Regardless of the offically fixed passenger prices (rumour has it that, even in the Wilds, they haven't changed a bit!), you only see the best and the wealthiest arrive on Antra in time for the Festival. Festival serves not only as the premiere social event of the subsector, but as one of five or six events of sector-wide reputation, and thus a location where Things Happen and media attention is guarenteed. Archduke Norris, for example, formally announced the engagement of his daughter on Antra. ATTITUDE TO VISITORS Despite the waves of visitors to Antra, despite their standing as a subsector capital, and despite their A-class port, Antrans are intensely xenophobic. They detest foreginers who don't fit into their ways, or don't understand their arts. Usually, this loathing is displayed by rudeness or by mocking the ignorance of visitors. The more upper-class folk will tend to prefer to use a biting wit, or cruel puns. The lower class Antrans prefer a more direct approach: never giving a visitor the benefit of the doubt, shouting down any attempt to offer an opinion, or a light beating if a visitor gets too uppity. Visitors being raped and killed in certain neighbourhoods after dark is not unknown. But vying head to head with this xenophobia is a great fear and respect for large organizations. The Antrans are very aware of how close they are to joining a thousand dead worlds, and how badly they need the protection of the Regency government. Thus, often they deny their unwarrented actions, or say that it's just a joke, or otherwise try to soothe the waters. Their comedies often revolve on how to make a fool of visitors, how to hurt them savagely, and yet have the visitors still love you. Traders should be cautious here: some friction is inevitable, and many routine liasion tasks need to be increased one difficulty level. Always be aware that much of the hostility that Antrans feel towards you is simply cultural, and can be handled with finesse - or even turned into an advantage - if you know what you are doing. Also be aware that they do not so much want to kill you has to humiliate you, to wound your pride without being hurt in return. Some traders are good enough, and have enough leverage, that they can fight head-to-head with the Antrans. Most - including almost all free traders, who are always a cargo-load away from disaster - simply have to take it, in order to get that cargo you need. Sorry: the law level of this world does not allow you to carry any weapons off the ship - although at least they don't impound them off-ship. IMMIGRANTS Of course, not all starship traffic is related to the Festival. After Virus was halted at Catacomb and Deneb, (and several small, sharp battles were fought right here) Antra found itself not only having to rebuid from Vargr pillaging and stupid stunts (more than one Vargr corsair met it's end on the Worldroof, weakening it's integrity), but also having to rewire everything to meet anti-Viral spec's. Also, Antra made very heavy use of robots: without them, Antra simply couldn't meet the demands that rebuilding made. In the end, Antra - which prides itself on tight population control - had to allow massive immigration to provide a workforce. The population rose from 500 million to 700 million, almost all from immigration from nearby Uakari (Antra: Deneb/1710 C5349AA-7). These immigrants are loathed by native Antrans, and considered low-brow, low-tech thugs. They are not permitted to bring any family, and workers who get pregnant are given the choice of leaving or having an abortion: if they stay, a one-time contraceptive is administered to insure sterility, with an antedote given when the working women leave. Despite the fact that they are paid ten times the amount they would earn back home, unrest festers in the shantytowns of Antra, kept near the industrial towers and far from the tower cities where Antrans live. The immigrants hate the veiled (or, often, completly open) contempt and hatred that are held in by the xenophobic Antrans, who believe that they are doing the Uakari an unmerited, and unthanked, favour. The immigrants - refered to as "visiting workers" by upper-class Antrans, "thugees" by lower-class Antrans, and "toilers" by themselves - are hired on one, five, or ten-year workterms, with a continous flow of about 2 million people either entering or leaving Antra (keeping over 40,000 subsidized liners employed). The immigrant workforce has been in decline for the last 20 years, and now make up 170 million people: native born Antrans and non-computerized machinery have been slowly spqeezing them out, and the immigrant workforce is predicted to be all gone in 20 years. RELIGION When the first survey ship's arrived from Corridor, there were a series of egnamic, artifical lines and curves on the earth. Etched out in black stone, and often half a mile wide, they can be seen from low orbit. They do definitely make out patterns, but no one has ever managed to successfuly translate them. No one knows who made these lines, or can even guess how old they are, but the Black Lines are a major factor in the many local beliefs. The largest local religions insists that the lines were made from an ancient civilization, trying to tell Antran - who, of all the people of the universe, have alone been blessed with the Lines - the secrets of the universe. Equally dominant in Antran philosophy is evolution, but as a doctrine rather than a scientific theory. This doctrine - never formally organized, it has no offical name, but commonly called the Promethians - most believe that humaniti, even postCollapse humaniti, is marching on to a higher goal, continually evolving themselves to spread their genes and power throughout the Universe. The Black Liners believe that other human civilizations have transended this universe millions of years ago, and that current humaniti (including the Zhos, Vilani, and Solomani) are simply walking on a well-trod path. While they certainly don't believe in the God of the Solomani monotheists, they do believe that there is a guiding Spirit of Humaniti over all, and that a glorious unity of souls await's us after death. The Promethians, in contrast, does not care for such a soft-headed concept as a sweet afterlife, ruled over by kindly spirits, and would laugh out loud in contempt at the concept of a stern and conquering Judge, weighting the lives of men in the balance. They do, however, believe that we can gain a kind of immortality, not by some impossible resurrection, but by doing great and astounding deeds, by inspired leadership, by securing a great insight into the nature of things that will leave the universe a better place than before. Both religions are often in contention with each other ("Supersitious fables!" vs. "Connect, man! Connect!"). Both gag at the sight of other religions, esp. Christians ("I can't believe that ignorant people like you exist in this day and age!", "Onward walks the spiritually blind, refusing in their narrowmindedness to open their Third Eye, and see the significance of the Lines!") "WE OURSELVES" The Antrans area highly extroverted, social, and fanciful people. Of the "Imperial" race (standard Solomani/Vilani parentage), they are only ho-hum physically, without the supernatural elegance and perfect physique that bioengineering grants most citizens of high-tech worlds. They take no particular pride in their status as subsector capital, but do take pride in their artistic endeavors. Their buildings, while not particularly 'artistic', do radiate a certain grace, a certain lightness. Their most famed artist's are sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, but approach their work with a disiplined hand. Even third-rate artists from Antra are highly valued elsewhere: their command of the repitore of Imperial culture is unmatched elsewhere, their intense understanding and respect of their audience (even as they recoil at their alieness) is known to all. There are several rituals and notable variations on Antra that should be noted by the casual traveller. * Greeting: when two friends meet, they give the standard greeting "Howdo?", then they both circle a point halfway between them in silence. After two revolutions, they clap hands and hug affectionately. * Children: Antrans love their children immensely, and enjoy showing them the world they live in. They happily haul their children to work, to play, to shop, to visit lovers, even to see (and laugh at) visitors. What they *won't* allow is for some filthy stranger to touch their children. Expect serious verbal abuse if you dare do so. * Life: Antra has no native lifeforms, and the locals have chosen to introduce nothing but plants and insects: but (after a chechup) the Antrans will allow animals on the world, as long as they are T-linked. (T-links come in two parts: one part goes on the owner's body, and the other around the animal's neck. If the animal leaves a certain distance from the owner, it soffers pain: if it crosses another threshhold, it dies.) * Clothing: Antrans have a sharp sense of what look's good: often their taste runs to simple and elegant, but many like large and loud. Either way, their clothing is comfortable, loose-fitting and of good quality. They don't go for effect-clothing, but there is a current fad for biolumenescent contact lenses (bright yellow, or Denebian red eyes, is the most desired.) * Food: While the Antrans have good taste everywhere else, they don't cut it when it comes to the belley. Then, they simply want it hot, spicy, and in He-man servings. Everything else is just a frill. * Literacy: Antrans, like most TL C+ societies, are functionally post-literate. However, old-fashioned bookreading is a growing fad among the elite, and the fad is starting to show up in popular culture. Regular life is much the same as on other high-tech worlds, with the cycle of conception (by whatever means), genetic therapy, birth, infant training, carrer selection, child-specific VR education, work, sex, ageing, and death. Marriages are rare (even for a high-tech world), but more people choose to raise children than on the typical High Stellar world. Antrans also place a higher value on "high-brow" culture and sophistication rather than focus on simple 'stupid-foreginer' entertainment like some mindless talk show or sitcoms. The Immigrants, isolated in their shantytowns, live a different life. Imagine a vast, dirty-grey tent city, connected by a chain of fabric tunnels. Gangs of shadowy figures, huddled together, march from the asture factory towers to their ragged tents, to hide from the bitter -20 C cold. Inside, in a city without children, live the hard-bitten men who do the work meant for machines. Someone will die on the job tomorrow when their safety lines finally snap (Antrans don't waste grav belts on 'trash': men are far cheaper than grav belts to replace), or when their poorly maintained equipment is tested once too often. However, more deaths occur outside of the factories than inside. With only the most superficial medical care, a large portion of the workers are slowly dying (or going mad, or losing their vision) due to the noxious fumes of their work. (Remember, the robots that did the jobs before them didn't have to worry about breathing, or heat stroke, or the pounding noise destroying their eardrums). Moreover, the largely male workers get into endless fights, with handmade guns or knives. Women workers are sometimes left alone, but often are forced to take on a lover for protection, or simply for some companionship in their hard life. (Note: In many areas, the tent cities are pressurized, connected by a maze of fabric tunnels. Well, they are supposed to be presurized: the poor-quality tents they were given is not built to take the damage the workers often inflict on it.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alvin Plummer "Preserve what we created, Norris, and remember what we stood for." - Strephon, 179-1126 Reply to: alvin.plummer@SHERIDANC.ON.CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------