20100630

The Imperial Act of Nonexploitation

The Imperial Act of Nonexploitation was passed in TE 123, five years after the discovery of the Kien Khwei, and was required by the Kien Khwei as a condition of opening the Kao Li trading hegemony for Imperial trade.
Major provisions of the Act included:

  1. Guaranteed native government.
  2. Minimal Imperial contact unless specifically requested.
  3. Native government to decide on all use of profits accruing from trade with the Empire.
  4. Human colony members and descendants agree to peacably and permanently vacate planet if ordered by (a) native government, or (b) Imperial government.
  5. If provision (4) is not followed, Imperial Navy will enforce it at request of native government.
  6. All natives eternally and irrevocably granted the full rights due to all Human Imperial citizens, excluding right of Galactic franchise. Any conflct between rights of Human colonists and natives will automatically be decided in favor of natives. Only an Imperial Court of Inquiry will be empowered to reverse this decision.
  7. When possible, all Colonial matters (excluding contact with Empire) will be conducted in or translated into native language whenever natives are present; native language is strongly encouraged for colonist use at all other times.
  8. All questions of natives to be answered truthfully and completely, except for matters involving Imperial Security.


copyright (c) 2010, Don Sakers
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20100623

Dynsal Moucahter-Maynemeh (A Tr#skan Tale)

When BDA Tr#ska fell in 4635 CE, the High Knight Economic was Dara Meh, and she was of course executed. Her daughter Colena and grandson Kalan were also killed by the Deletian invaders.

But Kalan Meh had a young friend, a boy of seven named Dynsal Moucahter-Maynemeh. Dynsal was overlooked when the Meh home was raided, and a minor assistant in the Knights Economic managed to get the boy off-planet safely.

Dynsal was raised in a tiny enclave of the Knights Economic on the capital world of the Duchy of Mel. By the time he was fifteen he had raised enough money through trade to purchase a secondhand starboat and cargo tenders.

At age eighteen he returned to Ermina with a brand-new starship from the Vermis shipyards; he organized a crew of Knights Economic and set out on a trade route that touched most worlds and settlements with refugee Tr#skans in the population.

When he was 22, the same year the the Deletian Monarchy was conquered, Dynsal held on R Staran the first Assembly of Tr#skan Families since BDA Tr#ska fell. A little over two hundred delegates from various surviving families attended. The business of the Assembly had much to do with inheritance disputes, but before it adjourned Dynsal passed resolutions to hold new Assemblies every ten years, and to ensure the continuity of the Tr#skan race. There was also some discussion of the possibility of getting Tr#ska back -- but the Assembly did not take Dynsal seriously and he bided his time.

When Dynsal was 26 there was a serious conflict of inheritance between two Tr#skan families claiming the precedence of the Meh family; the Galaxy's Tr#skan communities were polarized until Dynsal forced the summoning of an early Assembly to deal with the matter. At this Assembly, he and his crew were granted permission to lead an occupation mission to BDA Tr#ska.

Dynsal's crew was beaten easily by the Post-Deletian Empire, and Dynsal lost a good portion of his personal fortune. Still, by the time of the Third Assembly (this time with over two thousand attendees) when he was 32, Dymsal had regained all that he'd lost and had started building a trade fleet of six ships.

By this time the Tr#skan Trade Union was definitely finished. Even the designation of traders as "Knights Economic" had begun to fade. But Dynsal retained the title as he retained all the trappings of the Union.

The Fourth Assembly granted Dynsal, at his own request, the old Meh Family title of High Knight Economic. In his 43rd year High Knight Moucahter-Maynemeh led a 27-ship assault force against BDA Tr#ska and established a camp on Tr#skan soil. It took the Post-Deletian Empire three years to throw him off the planet. Over the next five years the Empire made constant efforts to keep Dynsal and his followers away from Tr#ska. Finally Emperor Bertilleffar I ordered BDA Tr#ska made uninhabitable; in part, Bertilleffar said, "I do not want my great-great-grandchildren to have to deal with a strong BDA Tr#ska, so now I will destroy a weak Tr#ska forever. "

A ten-year program left BDA Tr#ska's atmosphere poisoned, her temperature rising under a greenhouse effect, and her seas boiling away.

Dynsal was now 61 years old and had in his lifetime made and lost several fortunes. All he had left was a ship and some expensive cargoes -- he sold them all to hire a Borshallan investigative team to come to BDA Tr#ska and estimate a price for terraforming the world. The figure Dynsal was quoted was far beyond a world's ransom...it was, in fact, slightly more than the total profits from the Tr#skan Trade Union during its entire history.

At the Sixth Assembly Dynsal presented this finding, and asked that the Assembly begin a program dedicated to raising the money and the military forces that would be necessary to reclaim the Tr#skan homeworld. But by now there were few had ever set foot on Tr#ska, and although they had a feeling of racial commonality, the Assembled Families voted not to begin Dynsal's program.

Dynsal gathered a few faithful about himself, styling them all as Knights Economic. Then he bought a small ship and hit the trade lanes once again. By trade and investment Dynsal built his capital, and by the time of the Seventh Assembly (when he was 72), he arrived in a kilometer-long ship modelled after the ships of the Independent Traders. At that Assembly Dynsal announced his formation of Independent Trade Ship Kalan Meh, with the chartered purpose of raising funds to buy back BDA Tr#tska for the Tr#skans.

Dynsal died at 91, just tendays before the Ninth Assembly. At that time, the Kalan Meh had not even paid off its original debts.

But Dynsal's dream did not die, and the Five Hundred Twenty-Eighth Assembly opened seven years ahead of schedule on a fully-restored and habitable BDA Tr#ska in the year 9743 CE, at which time the Kalan Meh was finally removed from service and made into a monument to the man who had bought a world back, Dynsal Moucahter-Maynemeh.


copyright (c) 2010, Don Sakers
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20100616

Nexus Travel Advisories: Indian Subcontinent (June 2042)

Arunachal: Sporadic ethnic violence. Travelers are cautioned not to travel outside major cities at night. Arunachal is a developing country with a parliamentary government. Adequate medical care is available in major cities. Roads, communications, and Net services are adequate.

Assam: Sporadic ethnic violence. Travelers are cautioned not to travel outside major cities at night. The area near the Bangladesh border should be avoided due to frequent disease outbreaks. Assam is a developing country with a parliamentary monarchy. Adequate medical care is available in major cities. Roads, communications, and Net services are adequate.

Baluchistan: Armed battles between clans are frequent. Travelers are cautioned to avoid the interior unless escorted by armed guards. The capital, Quetta, is quieter than the interior, but has experienced serious ethnic violence recently. Baluchistan is a developing country with few natural resources and an ineffective coalition government. Medical care is poor. Roads, communications, and Net services are adequate in the capital, poor beyond.

Bangladesh: Travelers to Bangladesh are cautioned that medical care is minimal to nonexistent. Disease is rampant, especially in the capital city of Dhaka. Bangladesh has a subsistence economy and an ineffective government. Roads, communications, and Net services are poor to nonexistent.

Goa: No advisory. Goa is a medium-income city-state with a fairly-developed economy. Medical care is good. Roads, communications, and Net services are good.

Gujarat: Ethnic violence and border raids along the Baluchistan border. Travelers in this region are urged to use caution. Gujarat is a developing country with a parliamentary democracy. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Hindustan: No advisory. Hindustan is an economically developed democratic republic. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Hyderabad: No advisory. Hyderabad is an economically developed democratic republic. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Indian Federation: No advisory. The Indian Federation is an economically developed democratic republic. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Karnataka: No advisory. Karnataka is an economically developed constitutional monarchy. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Kashmir: Travelers are cautioned that large regions near the ruins of Sinagar are still contaminated with unacceptable levels of radioactive fallout. Extreme care should be exercised to avoid lingering when traveling into the Vale of Kashmir. Due to dangerous security conditions, caution is essential when traveling overland through the tribal areas to the Khyber Pass. Monthly steam train excursion for tourists through the Khyber Pass is well protected by local authorities. Kashmir is an undeveloped country with many autonomous tribal areas. Medical care is poor. Roads, communications, and Net services are poor. Contamination by radioactive fallout is a constant danger.

Kerala: No advisory. Kerala is an economically developed democratic republic. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Maharashira: No advisory. Maharashira is an economically developed constitutional monarchy. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Mizoram: Sporadic ethnic violence. Travelers are cautioned not to travel outside major cities at night. The area near the Bangladesh border should be avoided due to frequent disease outbreaks. Mizoram is a developing country with a parliamentary monarchy. Adequate medical care is available in major cities. Roads, communications, and Net services are adequate.

Punjab: Sectarian violence continues, especially in the north. Visitors are cautioned to avoid public transportation and crowded areas. Punjab is a developing country with a parliamentary monarchy. Adequate medical care is available in major cities. Roads are crowded, poorly maintained, and poorly signed. Communications are good in major cities, poor in rural areas. Adequate Net services are available in major cities.

Rajasthan: Sporadic ethnic violence in the area west of National Highway 15. Rajasthan is an economically developed democratic republic. Adequate medical care is available in major population centers, but is usually limited in rural areas. Roads are congested and poorly maintained. Communications and Net services are adequate.

Sikkim: Currently under Nexus interdict; no travel or communications permitted.

Sri Lanka: No advisory. Sri Lanka is a medium-income country with a well-developed economy. Medical care is good. Roads, communications, and Net services are excellent.

Tamil Nadu: No advisory. Tamil Nadu is a medium-income country with a fairly-developed economy. Medical care is good. Roads, communications, and Net services are good.


copyright (c) 2010, Don Sakers
Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna
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20100609

Albanath and Eklaid

Albanath and Eklaid are two of the Gathered Worlds in the same planetary system in the Galactic Core. The star is a G4 yellow sun with luminosity 1.02 times Sol.


The first three planets are small, rocky, uninhabitable worlds with masses ranging from 2% to 6% of Earth's. Albanath is the fourth planet and Eklaid is the fifth. The remaining three planets are Jovian gas giants.


Albanath is a near-twin of Earth. It lies at almost exactly the same distance from its sun, its diameter is only 3% larger than Earth's, and it has 92% of Earth's mass. The Albanathian year lasts 326 Terran days, which is 242 local days (the local day is 32.3 hours). Receiving 11% more heath & light from its hotter sun, Albanath is a warmer world than Earth.

Albanath was settled by Kreen refugees from the Barentikater supernova in the Kreen year 28,521 (approximately 770,000 BCE). The colonization of Albanath introduced a new element into Barentikaterian architecture, a jarring note: the harsh, acute angle and solids based upon it. Albanathian architecture to this day retains that element of shock, that jarring quality in an otherwise-smooth line. Otherwise, Albanath resembles a rather moderate Barentikater IV, with architectural shapes drawn from the harmonies of conic sections, variations on sweeping, curved solids, the spheroids and spirals and arcs of sophisticated analytical geometry, rather than the straight lines and angles of Human classical geometry.

The oldest and most influential chaio on Albanath, ban Tau chaio, lives along the River Shatmisp.

About 2600 CE, the Galactic Riders helped many inhabitants of Albanath move to a new world, Shay Nabath.


Eklaid, home to a small population of Sebhra, is primarily a military base. Its one settlement is a low valley with a breathable atmosphere, and is little more than a spaceport, a plantation of food crops, and herds of food animals. In other areas of the planet, automata carry on the work of building units in a vast war fleet.

Eklaid was annexed by Kaylpeskrit and settled about 3,000 BCE, but major construction of the fleet began only about 2500 CE. The ultimate purpose of this fleet is unknown.



copyright (c) 2010, Don Sakers
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20100603

Mathematical Sociology

Beginning in First Terran Empire times, sociology became a mathematical discipline and a recognized science akin to the physical sciences in rigor.

The scientist Camplowicz was one of the pioneers of the field. Her work in the history and sociology of minorities remained a classic in the field for centuries. Camplowicz identified what she called the "delta-prime factor," which was a measure of the influence that minorities have on the general society. Once delta-prime reaches a critical value of 1300, a minority has reached the point where it is in no danger from the general society; at higher delta-prime levels, the minority actually becomes fashionable and in-demand.

The planetary sociologist Pilli defined five nonsequential stages in a planet's technological development, ranging from primitive Edens (stage 1),through the worst excesses of early 21st century Terra or later Laxus and Lucifer (stage 4). Pilli's five stages culminated with contemporary technology integrated into natural paradise, like Helox. A fully-mutable environment, totally dependent on technology (i.e. Wakmarrel) is Stage Six.

A typical sociological equation contains such elements as:
  • Delta-sub-aleph (which can be integrated several times)
  • Holman factors
  • Lemme responses


copyright (c) 2010, Don Sakers
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