I am the official caste-level messenger for Breathe Easy’s
first off-planet mining excursion, which will take place on Europa.
I have to offer a caveat: I do not represent the Hou leaders of Breathe Easy. I was recently de-casted in court, although I am from the Gadhavi caste. My name is Aelis. You may have heard about me in the news.
Breathe Easy has honored me with this responsibility, to communicate with the working classes at Breathe Easy on their behalf. I realize that writing is an antiquated form of communication, but I am trying to get used to it before we leave. As a former Gadhavi, I have administrative training, which means I am more familiar with language, writing, and presentation than many of my fellow colonists will be, and I suspect that is why Breathe Easy chose me to represent them. We will be far away on a large moon, so not only will communication take some time to reach Earth, but as some of the first outer solar system settlers, we will need to conserve our computers’ processing power and memory. But Breathe Easy wanted to make sure the public was current on how our colony was doing, so … here we go!
I’m writing this from my own apartment, which won’t be mine for much longer. I was surprised that I was allowed to keep the apartment this long, actually, as I was not employable during my two-year trial. But I digress.
If you have not heard from one of the Hou or Arany managers yet, let me explain the project to you. Like many mining companies, Breathe Easy decided to reach out to those of us who are officially unemployable, whether because we were de-casted, or recently emigrated to this country and need to be integrated. While I struggled in court, I began to see advertisements for their mining operation on Europa, and asked my court-appointed attorney if the program might perhaps take me on for rehabilitation. I am fortunate that they agreed.
Breathe Easy is a company that, quietly and efficiently, has been mining ocean water for several decades. As more ice melts all over the world, there’s more water for the company to process for consumption. They pull out salt for food production, some other trace minerals, some oxygen for oxygen bars, but most famously, they supply drinking water to about half our continent. Truly, they do amazing work!
As you know, there’s a huge amount of competition for asteroids to mine, and some long-existing colonies in space have proven their economic worth and in the last twenty or so years they were officially Incorporated. But, no other businesses have thought of going out past the asteroid belt to mine some other parts of the solar system. It’s not like anyone else is using it! And it was only ever just barely explored before the December 21st Revolution and subsequent Declaration of Incorporated Personhood and the Amendment to Structured Society and Right Living.
We know so little about this place called Europa. It’s one of Jupiter’s four largest moons, so we know it will take a few weeks for us to get there. We know it has a liquid ocean with less mineral content than Earth’s ocean, and we know it’s just a little smaller than our own moon. We have records that the ice is not too difficult to drill through. Apparently, original estimates from the old National Aeronautics and Space Administration suggested the ice might be hundreds of kilometers thick, but it turned out that in some places, the ice melted on a seasonal cycle and it was only a few kilometers thick. At worst, it was 20 kilometers thick. For a company as industrious as Breathe Easy, this is no problem!
Breathe Easy’s plan is to take over the existing station there, and build several extra junctures onto it with pieces from our space craft. The original drilling site was in an area called the Conamara Chaos, a place with lots of constant melting, so we should be able to find the original docking station. I have no idea how to do that, but I’ve been assured that we’ll get the best training available in the week that we’re at the Moon Base.
Once we find the docking station, we’ll still have to live on the craft for a few more weeks while we affix air and water filtration systems, then readjust to close to normal Earth pressure. NASA’s station was sunk deep into the waters of the moon, to approximate Earth gravity as much as possible using the pressure of the ocean. There’s still no good ways to imitate gravity, so we might suffer some physical side effects, but everyone I’ve asked has said that those aren’t serious. Maybe some stomach trouble, but it will go away once our bodies adjust.
So, as we adjust to the new gravity, we’ll also take pieces of our ship and build onto the station, we will have workout rooms and living spaces, and we must start a garden, upgrade generators, install new quantum computers, air and water and waste filters … there will be so much to work on! That’s why, I’ve been told, the initial team is entirely women. Most of them are from the bottom castes, because they have the right skills necessary to do the hard labor. There will be a second wave of colonists joining us in six months, I’ve been told, but I have not been told if they will be upper or lower caste, immigrants or nationals, etc. I have been told that the group will most likely be men, as we will be on Europa long-term and Breathe Easy does not want us to become lonely. Although men do not work in the same kinds of hands-on, physical jobs, their focus on the political will help us communicate with Earth and keep our culture overall more structured and efficient. There was an insinuation of more … “companionship” … so perhaps we will be assigned husbands.
Considering my first marriage, I can’t say I would be disappointed to have someone else worry about companionship for me.
I’ve heard that there might be Araboa coming with us, as well. I admit, that thought frightens me, but there was that recent case of that Araboa man who won a court battle to be integrated into civilized society. He’s a happy Ikin these days, or was as of the last article that was published about him.
Maybe we’ll like it enough on Europa to stay forever. Maybe that’s the point. It’s an escape for me, I can only guess what sort of escape it will be for most of the others.
If you know anything about history, you may know about the original settlement on Europa: it was a group of scientists who were there to test long-term exposure to non-Earth gravity, and do scientific research on Europa. There was no reason for them to be there other than curiosity, which seems very strange to most of us now, I know. Of course, a lot of what I’ve taught myself was due to curiosity, so it’s good to know that sometimes, there’s a financial benefit at the end of that tunnel!
But back to the colony: they were there for a couple of years, I think, when their food and air began to run out. Granted, back in that time, they rarely went into space, and now we go into space all the time to mine asteroids and visit the moon and Mars. We’re pretty familiar with getting around and surviving for at least a year at a time. And, the grand hotels of Mars grow their own food, so we know pretty well how to do that, too! I think the focus of our food supply might be more water-based, but there’s lots of people on Earth who practice aquaponics and such, and I bet there’s a few of those people in our group. But, anyway, the primitive early group from NASA died before they could leave the colony. It’s tragic, isn’t it? NASA couldn’t get them out in time – and afterward, they didn’t get any missions funded because it seemed too dangerous.
Breathe Easy is willing to dispel that myth of danger. I’m excited to help them.
Oh, also: apparently the original colony was called “Europa Station One.” Not a very original name, right? I mean, it’s easy to imagine that they wanted more stations in time, but you’d think they’d start naming them, like we name cities. Creative names, that remind us of grandeur and success. Now that Breathe Easy has purchased the station, it will be called Rabbah. That sounded very Biblical and foreboding, so I decided to look it up. It means “The City of Waters,” because in the area where the ancient Hebrews lived, a group had a city at the intersection of two large rivers. There was supposed to be a sarcophagus there, too – it first made me think that the original station was the sarcophagus, and I felt scared because of the association! But I thought about it, and I think they just used a Biblical word because, well, we use so few old superstitious words these days, and it is sort of like going on a pilgrimage. We’re going on a pilgrimage to new waters, to find ourselves.
I have to offer a caveat: I do not represent the Hou leaders of Breathe Easy. I was recently de-casted in court, although I am from the Gadhavi caste. My name is Aelis. You may have heard about me in the news.
Breathe Easy has honored me with this responsibility, to communicate with the working classes at Breathe Easy on their behalf. I realize that writing is an antiquated form of communication, but I am trying to get used to it before we leave. As a former Gadhavi, I have administrative training, which means I am more familiar with language, writing, and presentation than many of my fellow colonists will be, and I suspect that is why Breathe Easy chose me to represent them. We will be far away on a large moon, so not only will communication take some time to reach Earth, but as some of the first outer solar system settlers, we will need to conserve our computers’ processing power and memory. But Breathe Easy wanted to make sure the public was current on how our colony was doing, so … here we go!
I’m writing this from my own apartment, which won’t be mine for much longer. I was surprised that I was allowed to keep the apartment this long, actually, as I was not employable during my two-year trial. But I digress.
If you have not heard from one of the Hou or Arany managers yet, let me explain the project to you. Like many mining companies, Breathe Easy decided to reach out to those of us who are officially unemployable, whether because we were de-casted, or recently emigrated to this country and need to be integrated. While I struggled in court, I began to see advertisements for their mining operation on Europa, and asked my court-appointed attorney if the program might perhaps take me on for rehabilitation. I am fortunate that they agreed.
Breathe Easy is a company that, quietly and efficiently, has been mining ocean water for several decades. As more ice melts all over the world, there’s more water for the company to process for consumption. They pull out salt for food production, some other trace minerals, some oxygen for oxygen bars, but most famously, they supply drinking water to about half our continent. Truly, they do amazing work!
As you know, there’s a huge amount of competition for asteroids to mine, and some long-existing colonies in space have proven their economic worth and in the last twenty or so years they were officially Incorporated. But, no other businesses have thought of going out past the asteroid belt to mine some other parts of the solar system. It’s not like anyone else is using it! And it was only ever just barely explored before the December 21st Revolution and subsequent Declaration of Incorporated Personhood and the Amendment to Structured Society and Right Living.
We know so little about this place called Europa. It’s one of Jupiter’s four largest moons, so we know it will take a few weeks for us to get there. We know it has a liquid ocean with less mineral content than Earth’s ocean, and we know it’s just a little smaller than our own moon. We have records that the ice is not too difficult to drill through. Apparently, original estimates from the old National Aeronautics and Space Administration suggested the ice might be hundreds of kilometers thick, but it turned out that in some places, the ice melted on a seasonal cycle and it was only a few kilometers thick. At worst, it was 20 kilometers thick. For a company as industrious as Breathe Easy, this is no problem!
Breathe Easy’s plan is to take over the existing station there, and build several extra junctures onto it with pieces from our space craft. The original drilling site was in an area called the Conamara Chaos, a place with lots of constant melting, so we should be able to find the original docking station. I have no idea how to do that, but I’ve been assured that we’ll get the best training available in the week that we’re at the Moon Base.
Once we find the docking station, we’ll still have to live on the craft for a few more weeks while we affix air and water filtration systems, then readjust to close to normal Earth pressure. NASA’s station was sunk deep into the waters of the moon, to approximate Earth gravity as much as possible using the pressure of the ocean. There’s still no good ways to imitate gravity, so we might suffer some physical side effects, but everyone I’ve asked has said that those aren’t serious. Maybe some stomach trouble, but it will go away once our bodies adjust.
So, as we adjust to the new gravity, we’ll also take pieces of our ship and build onto the station, we will have workout rooms and living spaces, and we must start a garden, upgrade generators, install new quantum computers, air and water and waste filters … there will be so much to work on! That’s why, I’ve been told, the initial team is entirely women. Most of them are from the bottom castes, because they have the right skills necessary to do the hard labor. There will be a second wave of colonists joining us in six months, I’ve been told, but I have not been told if they will be upper or lower caste, immigrants or nationals, etc. I have been told that the group will most likely be men, as we will be on Europa long-term and Breathe Easy does not want us to become lonely. Although men do not work in the same kinds of hands-on, physical jobs, their focus on the political will help us communicate with Earth and keep our culture overall more structured and efficient. There was an insinuation of more … “companionship” … so perhaps we will be assigned husbands.
Considering my first marriage, I can’t say I would be disappointed to have someone else worry about companionship for me.
I’ve heard that there might be Araboa coming with us, as well. I admit, that thought frightens me, but there was that recent case of that Araboa man who won a court battle to be integrated into civilized society. He’s a happy Ikin these days, or was as of the last article that was published about him.
Maybe we’ll like it enough on Europa to stay forever. Maybe that’s the point. It’s an escape for me, I can only guess what sort of escape it will be for most of the others.
If you know anything about history, you may know about the original settlement on Europa: it was a group of scientists who were there to test long-term exposure to non-Earth gravity, and do scientific research on Europa. There was no reason for them to be there other than curiosity, which seems very strange to most of us now, I know. Of course, a lot of what I’ve taught myself was due to curiosity, so it’s good to know that sometimes, there’s a financial benefit at the end of that tunnel!
But back to the colony: they were there for a couple of years, I think, when their food and air began to run out. Granted, back in that time, they rarely went into space, and now we go into space all the time to mine asteroids and visit the moon and Mars. We’re pretty familiar with getting around and surviving for at least a year at a time. And, the grand hotels of Mars grow their own food, so we know pretty well how to do that, too! I think the focus of our food supply might be more water-based, but there’s lots of people on Earth who practice aquaponics and such, and I bet there’s a few of those people in our group. But, anyway, the primitive early group from NASA died before they could leave the colony. It’s tragic, isn’t it? NASA couldn’t get them out in time – and afterward, they didn’t get any missions funded because it seemed too dangerous.
Breathe Easy is willing to dispel that myth of danger. I’m excited to help them.
Oh, also: apparently the original colony was called “Europa Station One.” Not a very original name, right? I mean, it’s easy to imagine that they wanted more stations in time, but you’d think they’d start naming them, like we name cities. Creative names, that remind us of grandeur and success. Now that Breathe Easy has purchased the station, it will be called Rabbah. That sounded very Biblical and foreboding, so I decided to look it up. It means “The City of Waters,” because in the area where the ancient Hebrews lived, a group had a city at the intersection of two large rivers. There was supposed to be a sarcophagus there, too – it first made me think that the original station was the sarcophagus, and I felt scared because of the association! But I thought about it, and I think they just used a Biblical word because, well, we use so few old superstitious words these days, and it is sort of like going on a pilgrimage. We’re going on a pilgrimage to new waters, to find ourselves.
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