SEARCH PARAMETERS:
2062–2301
Twenty-first Century Multinational Efforts
Twenty-second and Twenty-third Century Alliance and Corporate Expeditions
2062
Lunar subterranean research facilities are established ($23 trillion over budget). Industrial ring station at Lagrange Point 5 engages in zero-G production of purer metals and more perfect/larger crystal growth.
2068
First Martian outpost is founded, paving way for colonization via corporate sponsorship. The rich, the politically affluent, and the scientific community flock to Mars. Construction begins on orbital living environments.
2071
Europa deep-core drilling operation draws 150,000 workers and becomes largest offworld settlement to date. Efforts yield discovery of microorganisms living beneath ice crust. Concurrent experiments in molecular nanotechnology give rise to first generation of new high-strength, low-weight materials for computers and launch vehicles.
2077
Titan moon mine goes on-line. During first month of operation, 1,902 miners killed in worst offworld disaster. Terraforming experiments with blue-green algae begin on Venus.
2085
Oberon mountain mines yield $500 trillion in resources during first six months of operation. Profits dubbed by media as “Shakespeare’s Blessing,” since moon was named after character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Need for skilled workers creates job rush among lower and middle classes, who leave Terra in droves. Physically challenged persons seek freedom of zero-G living environments.
2099
During construction of way station on Neptune’s moon Nereid, ruins of ancient alien race are discovered. Humanity has proof that we are not alone. Unable to decipher the aliens’name, scientists simply call them “The Race.” Corporations and licensors make fortunes on everything from alien T-shirts to nose rings.
2101
Rim stations are constructed in orbit of Pluto and moon Charon. Experiments with faster-than-light travel via Telic drive result in serious loss of equipment and personnel. Exploratory ship Godspeed estimated to lie six trillion years in future.
During next four decades, upper-class residents of many offworld colonies begin to return home. Living offworld, though initially glamorous, is ultimately rough and miserable. Real estate prices on Terra soar. Middle and lower classes are slowly driven off Terra for “better opportunities” offworld.
2144
Alien engine dubbed the Tecnocabalistic Drive System (TDS) yields development of second-generation Telic drive: the Trans Advanced Wave Theory (TAWT) drive. First craft equipped with TAWT drive reaches star Rigil Kent A with forty thousand volunteers. Some colonists have terminal diseases or genetic defects from offworld living and seek a sanctuary to die or live without persecution. Colony established on planet Kennedy-Centauri. Despite deaths, population is projected to quadruple within twenty years.
2158
Rogolov-Barnard is discovered in the Barnard’s Star solar system. First extrasolar mining operation established in primary colony of Lhasa. Population reaches four million within two standard years.
2179
Multinational exploratory ship Driftmadien finally completed in Rogolov-Barnard orbit. Ship leaves for Wolf 359 solar system and returns within a year with news that the second planet from sun is suitable for colonization, though conditions are not much better than on planet Kennedy-Centauri. Citizens of Rogolov-Barnard are lured to this new colony with promises of triple pay by multinational conglomerates who seek to exploit this new world’s natural resources. Nearly one million leave to settle on Wolf Bane II.
2180
Driftmadien is scheduled to leave during February 2180 for Lalande 21185 solar system, 1.5 light-years away, but the ship is held back because of political turmoil on Terra.
During the next forty years, bloody conventional and biological wars lead to the establishment of the Eastern and Western Alliances, which “unite” people of Terra in two great superpowers reminiscent of the twentieth-century balance of power. Alliances’ first act: declare Earth a “protected planet” because ecological catastrophe looms on horizon. Colonists are only allowed to return to Earth via new passports approved by the government. Processing time: five to ten years. Criminals with sentences of five or more years are deported to the newly established Uruk Sulcus Penitentiary on the Jovian moon Ganymede.
2220
Expansion resumes in earnest, while Terra barely escapes ecocatastrophe. Satellite Gatewood-Callista is discovered in the Lalande 21185 system, orbiting Saturn-like gas giant 21185 b. This moon is a harsh, inhospitable world rich in ore deposits. Within four years, subterranean colonies and accompanying mining facilities serve as home to nearly ninety million. Gatewood-Callista becomes the most profitable colony in existence and boasts most complex orbiting launch and research platform to date.
2233
Colonial expansion resumes after a second lag due to market crash. Inte-Micro Corporation violates Colonial Prudence Order and “tawts out” 11.2 light-years. Ursula-Gates is discovered in orbit of star 61 Cygni A. In a series of brilliant legal maneuvers, lawyers from Inte-Micro Corporation claim squatters’ rights for this new world and establish a precedent for independent exploration (the Colonization Ordinance of 2233 is written and approved by the alliances). Inte-Micro will own the colony but pay heavy taxes for the right to sell goods and services to other Alliance-held colonies. Extraterrestrial artifacts found on the planet are the exclusive property of the alliances.
2234
Riding on the heels of Inte-Micro’s victory, Exxo-Tally Corporation launches a colonization effort to planet Drummer-Fire in the UV Ceti binary star system. Among the colonizing team are the astronomers who discovered the planet: Michele Drummer and her husband, Paul Fire. The planet is quickly dubbed a sister world of Mars since its atmosphere and surface are similar. The first attempt at colonization fails, as nearly ten thousand are lost in one sandstorm that lasts several months. By year’s end, a second attempt is launched, Quonset City is founded (population 21,000), and in March 2236 miners uncover vast archaeological ruins of “The Race,” now known as the Racinians. Nearly one million researchers pour into Drummer-Fire, turning the colony into a Shangri-La for scientists and a lucrative venture for Exxo-Tally Corporation.
2237
Sirius (B I) is founded by Eastern Alliance explorers. Large deposits of oil and natural gas are discovered at planet’s poles as well as on ocean floor. With help of Exxo-Tally Corporation, alliances build first offworld deep-sea oil rigs and, utilizing Racinian tecnocabalistic methods, draw more oil from the planet in one year than was drawn from Earth during the entire twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
2242
Inte-Micro Corporation explorers venture to the Luyten 789-6 solar system and discover the first relatively warm planet in orbit around a red dwarf star. In its warmest regions, Lorellus’s surface temperature reaches -20°C. The corporation begins building mobile manufacturing plants to produce electronic components from semiconductor materials. Executives envision a global industrial park that can operate sans environmental regulations.
2255
Planet Aire-Wu, colonized by the Inte-Micro Corporation, becomes the first known world with a breathable atmosphere. Planet is remarkably similar to Earth, though oceans make up only fourteen percent of its surface. More Racinian ruins are discovered, and scientists speculate that alien technology created the breathable atmosphere. Aire-Wu becomes the chief exporter of grain, raw timber, asbestos, and gypsum. Nearly seventy-one percent of its surface is forestland. Both Inte-Micro and Exxo-Tally establish corporate headquarters on Aire-Wu’s lone moon, Theta-Marcus.
2266
Mining of bauxite begins on the fifth planet in the Ross 248 solar system. Inte-Micro Corporation CEO Tamer Yatanaya names planet Allah-Trope and declares it a retreat for Muslims being persecuted by Eastern Alliance powers. Allah-Trope becomes the first offworld colony with one predominant religion.
By year’s end, floating research operations are dropped onto planet Epsilon Eri III—a world entirely covered by warm oceans whose salt content is only slightly higher than that of Terra’s oceans. Thousands of new microorganisms are discovered. Aquacultural experiments yield new food sources for a human population that now numbers twenty billion, with six billion living in Sol system colonies and nearly five billion in extrasolar settlements.
2268
During a miscalculation of his ship’s TAWT drive, Aire-Wuian freighter pilot Nicholas Popkin accidentally reaches a moon of gas giant 70 Virginis b in a star system seventy-eight light-years from Earth. Popkin becomes farthest human from home. (Data speculative. No other information available.)
2271
Unhappy with present costs and security conditions provided by Eastern and Western Alliance military, Inte-Micro and Exxo-Tally propose the formation of Twelve System Guard Corps, a military force operated and funded by the corporations. Alliances oppose formation unless the Guard Corps becomes a branch of alliance military. Corporate execs reluctantly agree. The Twelve System Guard Corps is formally created on April 8, 2271, by act of the East-West Assembly.
2273
World of Nau Dane is found in Ross 128 system and claimed by Exxo-Tally Corporation, though the right to colonize this new planet remains under dispute for nine years. Eastern Alliance explorers arrive on the dark side during the same month, claim the world for their own, and name it Zheng He. Exxo-Tally representatives square off with Twelve System Guard Corps troops. No shots are fired, but the incident marks the beginning of a cold war between colonial corporations and alliances.
2284
First convention of business and political leaders from all extrasolar and solar colonies is held in Columbia Colony, on planet Rexi-Calhoon. An informal assembly is created. Negotiations begin to establish a new Colonial Alliance. Two high-ranking officials from the Twelve System Guard Corps attend this convention to listen to arguments about why they should break from the alliances and become a new colonial military force.
By midyear, nearly one million Exxo-Tally employees have been killed on the frigid world of Icillica, in the Procyon Binary star system. Akin to the old Russian Arctic and yielding similar deposits of nickel, iron ore, and apatite, Icillica is predicted to become the next Gatewood-Callista and geologic cash cow for colonies. Life support systems in forty-seven of fifty-one mining facilities go offline, as do all three redundancy systems. Corporate investigators declare the malfunctions an act of sabotage but cannot gather enough evidence to formally indict alliance military.
2285
Construction begins on the agricultural domes of Tau CetiXI. No other planet has soil more fertile and adaptable to Terran-based crops. With grain production on Aire-Wu cut in half by an unknown disease, Tau Ceti XI becomes the leading producer of grain, forage, fruit, nut, vegetable, and nonfood crops, as well as the leader in development of new chemicals from organic raw materials. Inte-Micro and Exxo-Tally begin formal and covert negotiations with Twelve System Guard Corps representatives who favor colonial secession. Construction begins on the first colonial military base within Tau Ceti’s agricultural domes.
2299
Kapteyn Beta, a small, geologically active world in Kapteyn’s Star system, becomes the last formal colony (as of this access date), with a mere 10,000 geologists and volcanologists living on an orbital ring station in gravitationally stable Lagrange point. A second, nonscientific, station is completed by the end of the year for “industrial use.” Researchers contact colonial officials to report that the second station is an alliance military outpost.
2300
The Twelve System Guard Corps is renamed the Seventeen System Guard Corps. Representatives from all offworld systems make formal announcement of the formation of the new Colonial Alliance. East and West Alliances fail to recognize new government.
2301
Expansion halts.