Free Stories 2011
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Those individuals who otherwise meet the requirements for colonization, but lack funding, the Crown will cover the entire cost of transportation, including temporary housing for a period of one T-month while the applicant seeks employment. The Crown may also offer subsidized loans, payable at 2 percent interest on a 99 T-year issue. These loans are issued solely at the discretion of the Crown and are subject to a case-by-case analysis. There are no penalties for early repayment of the loan.
Terms and Conditions
The value of a land grant presumes that the new colonist is coming from the Sol system. Those who travel to the Star Kingdom from nearer systems may find that the relative cost of a land grant is lower, due to reduced travel expenses. In general, the closer a land grant is to an established population center, the lower its total area will be. The more extreme the climate is, the larger the land grant’s area will be. Some land grants with exploitable mineral resources may prove to be exceptions to this rule.
The broad geographical region of your land grant will be determined by the Crown, based on your declared skill sets. If there is a valid choice to be made, the Crown will present you with options. The exact location and acreage of your land grant within the defined geographical region will be determined by lottery overseen by agents of the Crown.
The Star Kingdom will apply direct subsidies (in effect paying part of the passage) as funding grants for colonists with skills on Appendix A. In particular, biologists, medics, veterinarians, computer technicians, programmers, civil engineers, planetologists, agronomists and teachers are in demand on Sphinx. The Crown prefers immigration by entire family groups, as they provide a much needed mutual support network on a new home.
Citizenship in the Star Kingdom, and the full protection under the law, is granted when the colonist gives their oath of fealty to the Crown. The franchise (the privilege of voting in elections for Parliament) is awarded for partially subsidized citizens one full Manticoran year (1.73 T-years) after arrival.
Fully subsidized citizens will receive the franchise when they have paid income taxes under their own name for five consecutive Manticoran years (8.65 T-years) or have served 2 Manticoran years in the Royal Armed Forces.
Full details and exceptions to these terms can be found in Appendix C.
Enjoy Your New Home
The Star Kingdom of Manticore welcomes you to Sphinx and looks forward to your work and contributions to the Kingdom as a whole. We sincerely wish you all the success in the worlds in your new home. Please feel free to contact the Ministry of Immigration with further inquiries about the Manticoran Settlement Program.
Applications can be filled out online, or in person at any offices of the Manticore Colony Trust.
Sphinx Biology Database
Planetary Overview
Sphinx: Manticore-A-IV
(4th planet out from Manticore A)
A rocky terrestroid planet orbiting Manticore A with a semi-major axis of 2.54 AU (1,273 light seconds; 21 minutes, 13 light seconds). The planetary’s physical parameters include a mass of 13.6212^24 kg (2.28 x Earth), density of 5.73 kg/m^3 (1.04 x Earth), and a concurrent surface gravity of 13.171 m/sec/sec. (1.349 x Earth). Planetary orbital velocity is 10.56 km/sec, while planetary escape velocity is 14.81 km/sec. The local planetary year is 5.2 T-years, and made up of a pattern of 46 months, alternating between 39 local days and 38 local days, with a leap day every 7 local years.
Geostationary orbit height is 53,216.45 km, and a 500 km orbit height has an orbital velocity of 10.23 km/sec. The planet has two moons, Perseus, with a diameter of 672 km and a density of 1.62 kg/m^3, orbiting with a semi-major axis of 142,000 km, and Bellerophon, with a diameter of 426 km and a density of 2.12 kg/m^3 and a semi-major axis of 332,000 km. Minor mining operations occur on both moons. Both moons combined produce tides that are less than 10 percent of Earth’s. This is not unusual, as Earth is something of an outlier as a near double planet in mass. The planetary hydrosphere is 68 percent of the planetary surface, and the total land surface area is 229 percent that of Earth’s.
The planetary axial tilt is 14.51 degrees, and the land horizon is roughly 5.76 km, and the nautical horizon at 12.87 km. The planetary instellation averages roughly 73 W/m^2, or a bit less than 17 percent of Sol’s; this lack of instellation is compensated for by a much higher greenhouse gas percentage than Earth’s; the planetary CO2 levels at surface partial pressure can cause rapid breathing syndrome in new arrivals as their breathing reflex adjusts. When all factors (albedo, greenhouse gas mix and instellation are accounted for) the average surface temperature of Sphinx is 285 Kelvin, or 12 degrees Centigrade; this is a full 10 degrees cooler than Earth.
The combination of low axial tilt and low instellation means the planetary ice caps are prominent, greatly impacting planetary albedo. This has secondary effects on the planet’s climate and recent geological and biological history.
Recent Geological History
Sphinx has an unusually thick mantle for a planet of its mass and density and has a lower level of tectonic activity than its mass and size would otherwise indicate. This is still somewhat higher than Old Earth. Sphinx’s topography, as is typical of planets in its mass range, is of very deep seas and mountainous continents. Most of the land on Sphinx is, geologicaly speaking, fairly young, and large basin-lands are much less prominent on the planetary map.
This lower than typical level of tectonic activity and assessments of Sphinx’s Milankovic periodicity (shifts in its orbital eccentricity and the traverse of its axial tilt) indicate that until roughly 30,000 T-years ago, +/-10,000 T-years, Sphinx’s ice caps extended nearly twice as far towards the equator as they do now. It is thought that the Stubleford Traps formation in northern Slocum, near the northern pole, may have released enough CO2 into the atmosphere to trigger a glacial retreat. This area of active volcanism appears to be over a mantle plume hotspot and is still active; it is roughly the size of the region of Brazil on Old Earth.
The low temperature differential between the equatorial oceans and the poles inhibits ocean current circulation, and the lower axial tilt means that seasons are less extreme on Sphinx, though they are longer. Sphinx’s equatorial regions do not get as hot as Earth’s, but the degree to which the climate changes per degree of latitude away from the equator is lower than on Earth, until the glacial region is reached, at which point the temperature gradient drops suddenly.
There is ample biological evidence for a recent glacial retreat on Sphinx. The Sphinxian climate has gotten warmer and wetter, and there are many species that still show adaptations such as larger sizes and thicker coats for a colder climate, and there is a great deal of evidence indicating that species are moving into new biomes, looking for new or different food sources.
In a very real sense, the human colonization on Sphinx appears to have arrived during a period of geology-and-climate induced punctuated equilibrium.
Biological Assay of the Tannerman Gulf Region
On a planet with as many diverse biomes as Sphinx has, a full planetary biological assay will be the work of a T-century or more. There’s simply insufficient manpower to do it, and too many pressing needs on the limited number of biologists available, many of whom do double and triple duty as veterinarians and as first responders. What follows is excerpts from the biological assay for the Tannerman Gulf Region, located on the western coast of Haley’s Land, and is where a number of new homesteads and freeholds have been established.
Generalized Biome and Climate
The Tannerman Gulf region has a slightly warmer than average climate for its latitude, due to an offshore warm water current heading southward along the coast of Haley Land. Much of this air is trapped by the mountain ranges on the eastern boundaries of the region. The eastern portion of the ranges are drier, have larger native biomes and have been mapped by aerial survey and ground penetrating radar for topography, but have no human settlements as of the time of this writing, and have had only four overland expeditions in
them in the last fifty T-years.
The Tannerman Gulf region has frequent mild rains, as is typical for the weather patterns off of the ocean, and (for Sphinx) comparatively mild winters for its latitude; the snow generally lasts for a month or two per heavy snowfall, melting off, in patches, before the next snowfall hits, and winters in this region start and end with a rainy season; overall the “climactic” winter lasts a bit over a T-year. Temperatures in the winter are mild, going down to -10 to -15 centigrade in the coldest part of the winter.
By contrast, the summers are comparatively cool and pleasant, and the thicker Sphinxian atmosphere and lower instellation make heat stroke and sunburn almost unheard of. Scorchingly hot days in the Tannerman Gulf region get into the high 20s to low 30s.
The abundance of water, and relatively recent soil formation make the dominant fauna of the region mixed copses of picketwood, with groves of crown oak and near pine interspersed. Forest fires are sometimes a risk during the height of summer. In the drier areas to the east of the Copperwall Mountains, other tree species, notably rock wood, have a wider range.
Picketwood
The picketwood makes up the dominant arboreal habitat in the Tannerman Bay region. It is a dual-deciduous softwood tree with a fairly quick growth rate, and sends down runners from its lower braches; these runners become nodal trunks, allowing the picketwood to asexually spread over large areas. The actual photosynthetic canopy of picketwoods starts roughly 20 meters up in a mature trunk, and remains productive well past the initial rainy season of winter.
Picketwoods offer a moderating impact on the local biome. Picketwood leaf-mass drop provides compost for wintering shrubs, which fix nitrogen in the soil for the picket-wood’s root structures to absorb. The bark is rough gray and black, with four lobed-splay patterned leaves. Typical height for a mature picket-wood tree is 35-45 meters.
Near Pine
The second most populous tree type, the near pine is an evergreen softwood with hairy seedpods and a deeply furrowed rough bark. The trees are highly resinous, and their seeds are edible, if enough effort is made to extract them from the seedpod; the oil from them can be used for cooking and is considered something of a delicacy if caught right near the end of the fall rainy season. The seed pods estivate through the winter, and when conditions are right, new near pine seedlings grow rapidly in the spring. When fully mature, near pines form relatively thick trunked trees reaching 62 meters in height, taking nearly 20 T-years to reach this height, and can grow by as much as 3 meters in a growing season. Near pines appear to be in the process of being displaced by picketwoods and crown oaks.
Red Spruce
The red spruce is altitude adapted, and because of this, appears to have less competition for its ecological niche; stands of red spruce are seen on the sides of the mountains to the east of Tannerman Bay, and aerial surveys show that their range extends into the dryer areas beyond. Another evergreen, Red Spruce has scaled, very dark blue-green leaves and a pyramidal form. Its seedpods are smoother than the near pine’s, but the seeds themselves are bitter tasting with an alkaloid that makes them unpalatable to Terrestrial life, and causes allergic reactions in some. This same alkaloid allows the seed pods to pass through the digestive tract of Sphinxian chipmunks without harm. The name comes from the russet color of its wood, which is prized for decorative woodwork. Average height of a mature red spruce is about 17 meters (56 feet). It does not grow as rapidly as a near pine does.
Crown Oak
The crown oak is a dual deciduous tree that produces pine-needle like filament leaves for the winter months, sheds them in the spring, and generates five-lobed leaves more suited to a wetter climate in spring to last through the summer months. It is adapted to a drier climate than the near pine, and as the area around the Tannerman Gulf dries in adjustment to climate change, it is opportunistically expanding into ranges left open by wildfires which devastate the near pine stands. At full height, this tree reaches a height of 80 meters. Efforts are underway to sustainably harvest timber from this tree for furniture and flooring, and it is seen as a potentially valuable export commodity.
Rock Tree
Rock trees appear to be a living fossil species; their tall, straight trunk and long narrow leaves make them well suited to shorter growing seasons and extreme cold. They can survive on much less moisture than picketwoods and near pines, and are more common east of the mountains, though stands of them are scattered throughout the picketwood forests. Their name come from the unusually high concentrations of bonded silicates in the cell walls of the trunk, making for a very fire resistant and difficult to cut wood. The wood itself is nearly fireproof for temperatures commonly found in nature. There are several varieties, known for the color of the lumber, which is labor intensive to gather, and process, but highly in demand.
Lace Willow
The lace willow is a common understory runner-plant, and is a relative of the same genus as the picketwood, though it is most common in marshy areas. It has streamer-like leaves, and the Tannerman Gulf area appears to be the southern edge of its natural range. The name comes from the pierced meshlike nature of the leaves, which are used to capture insect analogs and drop them down as a source of nutrients into the root structure.
Spike Blossom / Spike Thorn
A native Sphinxian flowering shrub which fills much the same niche as azaleas or laurels, attaining a maximum height of about 3.6 meters. Its leaves are dark green and spade shaped, and it produces very sharp thorns up to 10 centimeters in length. Its blossoms, which come in many different colors, are vaguely tulip shaped and are prized for the flavor their pollen gives to honey produced by imported terrestrial honey bees.
Range Barley
This woody plant is a low moisture adapted relative of the near pine, and its westernmost range creeps around the eastern mountains bordering the Tannerman Gulf region. It grows to roughly three meters in height, with a single trunk that’s roughly 3 cm in diameter, and produces very small forms of the near pine’s needles. During the fall, it produces a lighter weight seed pod at the crown of the plant; the center of the plant is a woody pulp that can be ground and used as a flour, or be made as a porridge. The seed pods are high in tannic acid and have to be blanched before they're edible, but can also be used to supplement the pulp. While the Range Barley has a number of similarities to terrestrial grasses in its growth cycle, and as an edible food source, it is not a wind-blown self-pollinating grass such as might be found on Old Earth. It is a curiousity because it appears to be a recent mutation. It is thought that tuskelopes (see below) eat range barley when they can find stands of it, but there are few areas in the Tannerman Gulf region where picketwood and range barley grow near each other.
Tanapple
A native Sphinxian fruit shrub that grows in moist moderate climates, the fruiting mechanism is triggered by environmental factors which have so far proven difficult to isolate; it is considered, after the range barley, to be the likeliest native Sphinxian plant to become domesticated and cultivated for food. The shrub grows in the understory area beneath picketwoods and crown oaks, and has a blade-like leaf structure. The fruiting body shows up after the first snowfall each year, and is a multi-segmented fruiting body that’s the color of a green apple, in a thick rind reminiscent of terrestrial citrus. It is tart, and sweet, and used locally for preserves, jams, pies, and as a garnish for poultry and ham.
Native Fauna
Nearly all Sphinxian life forms have hexapedal bilateral symmetry, and the species near the Tannerman Gulf region follow this body plan. In areas where the dominant plant life is the picketwood, the middle set of and forward set of limbs are commonly dual purpose, with the mid-limbs configured for grasping and locomotion and the forelimbs specialized for grasping itself.
Nearly every species of animal on Sphinx is exothermic; this is nearly a requirement for surviving the long winters. Unlike plants, which remain in the same place, animal species tend to migrate, in response to seasonal changes,
mating habits, and pursuit of food sources. There is a large amount that is unknown about Sphinxian biota, even in this area. It is a widely held contention among Sphinxian Forestry Service biologists that there are at least two medium-to-large herbivorous species that have not been directly or indirectly observed yet.
Most Sphinxian animal life—even many species with “bird-like” names, more closely resemble Terrestrial mammals than birds or reptiles. The dividing line on local naming conventions is based in part on the whim of the first researcher to write a report on the species, and secondarily based on whether the species lays eggs for overwintering while the parents estivate, or whether they remain active year round and bear live young.
It is important, again, to emphasize that what is known about species on Sphinx is more broadly defined by what we don’t know than what we actually do know.
Chipmunk
The Sphinxian chipmunk looks virtually nothing like its Terrestrial namesake, being the size of a small dog. The animal is a full-year active exothermic burrowing husker that lives off of the seed pods and fruits of the understory plant-life. The forelimbs and mid-limbs allow a little bit of arboreal movement. Its range appears to be tightly constrained by the picketwood environment. They appear to have a natural life span of two Sphinxian years, and are opportunists. Their burrowing ability allows them to dig through foundations and into greenhouses. In some areas of human settlements, they are on their way towards displacing Mankind’s oldest companion, the rat, as the greatest danger to household food storage and garbage disposal.