[GZG] Re: Re: Hello List and some ruminations on FTL

Hi All,

Thanks for the very useful and thought provoking replies.  I've added
some
thoughts and comments below:

> From: Frits Kuijlman <frits@kuijlman.net>
> It is some time since I did anything with the background of the
> VRC/URC, but here is the cartography:
> http://www.frits.cistron.nl/tuffleyverse/vrc/cartography.html
>
> It is basically a string of systems going into the depths of space.
> When I put this background together the requirements I used were
> either a usefull system with possibly habitable planets, or a stopover
> system (ltt 11585) to bridge really long travel distances. The maximum
> acceptable jump distance I used was about 7LY as you can see from the
> table.

Thanks for the link, Frits.  I like the background work you've done on
the
VRC.  It makes sense that the VRC would be looking for
habital/terraforming
worlds as they need the population base, particularly if they're
concerned
about a possible cataclasym on Earth.

Given that the Tuffleyverse is currently in it's 3rd major war (and that
of
some considerable duration), I would expect that other powers would also
be
thinking seriously about major settlement programmes.  There are two
major
problems with mass resettlement that I can think of.  1) how to shift
the
population (number of hulls) and 2) what to do with them when they first
arrive on the new world.

Peter Hamilton is a writer who has most recently, to my knowledge,
considered this second problem in 'The Reality Dysfunction'.  An
expanding
human colonization programme dumps city-bred newbies on a frontier world
where they're expected to do physical labour (the horror!) and work for
their food.  Of course things go horribly wrong (well, who wants to read
a
story where they live happily ever after in some bucolic Garden of Eden?
Boring! :) ), though for other reasons.  I seem to recall Jerry
Pournelle's
Falkenburg (sp?) saga started in a similar fashion with all the poor
people
being shipped off Earth so the nice people could have some elbow room
:).

For a serious look at how interstellar colonies might be established,
read
Duncan Lunan's 'Man and the Stars'.

A thought on VRC space (Fritsspace? :) ), you mention that VRC also has
mining operations in (some?) neighboring systems and I notice that there
are
several stars fairly close to your 'jump' link.  I would suggest that
there
is little hindering (except perhaps cost) VRC putting stations, similar
to
those in CJ Cherryh's Union/Alliance stories, into likely systems as
bases
for mining operations.	The advantages are that the stations can either
be
built modular with material FTLed in, or boosted in at sub-light speeds
(VRC
is supposed to plan far ahead - send in the exploritory miners to survey
the
system for the mining/processing plant that will arrive in 5 to 10 years
at
sub-light.  When the station arrives, the best lodes will already be
surveyed and the 300 mass station will fire up and begin producing a
return
almost before it's drives are cold).

>From a game point of view, there could be both FT and SG scenarios
around
protecting miners/prospectors, the mining station, itself, and what
about a
fleet encounter in the deep dark when someone stumbles across the
station
boodling along at a high fraction of C?

Regards

David

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