Haven

Description

Haven is the official name given to the second moon of the fourth planet in the Byers System. It is unusual in every way. Byers IV — generally known as the Cat's Eye — is located far outside the normal habitable zone for a G2 star; but being approximately 1.3 Jupiter masses, the gas giant provides sufficient radiant energy to keep much of Haven marginally tolerable.

Haven's rotation is unusual, since it is locked tidally with the Cat's Eye, but in the synchronized pattern of Mercury rather than always presenting the same face as does Earth's Moon. The planet is somewhat smaller than Earth, and has a much thinner atmosphere. Due to its proximity to the Cat's Eye, there is great seismic activity. During the period of formation, the tidal forces resulted in unusual patterns of vulcanism. Haven is a jumble of high mountains and deep rift valleys. Most of the mountains are high rocky peaks similar to the Andes mountains in South America on Earth.

The only temperate area is in the equatorial zone, which climatically resembles northern Scotland. Due to the thin atmosphere the only nearly comfortable area of Haven is a single deep rift valley in the equatorial area. The valley is locally called Shangri-La after a similar place in a novel of the 20th Century.

Like all life discovered so far, the indigenous plants and animals of Haven have biochemistries similar to those of Earth, but evolution has produced some unusual proteins. Needless to say, life native to Haven is extremely hardy and proved quite dangerous to the early settlers, as indicated by names such as “shark's fin,” “hangman bush,” “land gator,” “dragon,” and “wireweed.” Efforts to reseed Haven with Earth plants and animals have been only partly successful.

Early History

Discovered in 2032 by Captain Jed Byers in CDSS Ranger, Haven was considered interesting enough to be reserved for study by the Cal Tech/MIT University Consortium until Captain Byers, in conjunction with Science Officer Allan Wu, brought suit demanding payment for discovery of an inhabitable world.

The University Consortium challenged the claim on the grounds that Haven was not an “inhabitable world” within any sane definition. One particularly telling quote came from Allan Wu's own diaries: “It's not precisely a niche for life. More like a loophole.” The challenge was sustained in lower courts, but the CoDominium Council held that Byers was entitled to payment. The University Consortium set about raising the money, but failed to do so within the time limits set by the Council. It was widely rumored at the time that CoDominium Intelligence, assisted by the Bureau of Relocation, was instrumental in preventing the Universities from acquiring the needed funds.

Shortly thereafter, the wealthy Universal Church of New Harmony paid the requisite fees, including the discovery bonuses, and was given license to establish settlements.

The New Harmony expedition was led by the Reverend Charles Castell, son of New Harmony Church President Garner Bill Castell. The younger Castell's personal heroism and devotion caused the settlers, including a minority not members of the Church, to appoint Castell mayor of the first settlement and to name it after him.

The first settlement was composed of fewer than one thousand members of the New Harmony Church. They were followed by twelve thousand immigrants sent by the Bureau of Relocation. Most of those were not Church members, but had no choice but to work with and for the original inhabitants. Qualifications for full Church membership (which was a requirement for voters in Castell) were never relaxed, but a form of junior membership was instituted.

The next wave of settlers brought by BuReloc arrived unexpectedly. The attempted revolt of the iron miners of northern North America was suppressed by CoDominium Marines, and two thousand miners, mostly without families, were deported to Haven. When they discovered the strict laws prevailing in Castell they founded a rival town, which they named Hell's-A-Comin'.

In 2048 the CoDominium sent a colonial governor (consul general) to Haven, and Bureau of Relocation resumed mass shipments of involuntary colonists. An attempted rebellion of the New Harmony Church in an uneasy alliance with the miners of Hell's-A-Comin' was easily put down by a battalion of CoDominium Marines. The Reverend Charles Castell, Mayor Fineal Naha of Hell's-A-Comin', and nine other rebellion leaders were hanged. A CoDominium Navy base, surveillance and power satellites, and other amenities were established, and Haven enjoyed a brief economic boom.

This was followed by the discovery of shimmerstones in the mountains. These rare gems had become extremely popular among Earth upper classes; one particularly fine stone was sold for 3 million CD credits at an auction held in 2057. Prices today are somewhat lower, but a single stone can make a prospector wealthy for life.

Following widespread unrest within the U.S.S.R., in 2072 the Bureau of Relocation was authorized to operate within Siberia, Russian Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and other areas with high concentrations of ethnic undesirables.

A brief Introduction to the CoDominium Worlds
by Arthur Jenson
Appleton Century Crofts
Third Edition 2090

From A Brief Atlas of the Planet Haven by Colin Lyon Jones and Lilya Ivanovich Egrov. Oxford Press, AD 2427, folio:

The Shangri-La “Valley” on Haven is more than a valley. It is a great equatorial (but by no means tropical) basin of some 12 million square kilometers, large enough to hold the old United States of America. Ringing it are volcanic mountains which almost define the term “forbidding”...

North of the Shangri-La Valley and high above it — beyond the brutal mountains that rim it — lies the high steppe, a vast, continent-spanning expanse of grassland, using the term “grassland” in the Haven sense. The term moor would be almost as appropriate, because low shrubs are very much a part of it; also tundra, because much of it is underlain with permafrost. But during the long summers it thaws deeply, despite occasional long Truenights that in summer can send the temperature to -15 degrees celsius and even colder, covering the shallower pools with centimeters of ice. Also, although the atmospheric pressure on the steppe is typically about 700 millibars, the partial pressure of oxygen is only about 120 millibars, less than 60 percent of Terran sea level normal. The Haven biota, of course, have long since adapted, and in summer the high steppe produces abundant forage for livestock and wildlife.

The steppe is by no means uniform. Rugged ranges of hills and low mountains interrupt it. Lakes and ponds are more or less numerous in some locales, though many dry up by late summer. Most are more or less drinkable. Elsewhere it is necessary to dig for water, rock permitting, or drill for it. Here and there are raw lava flows, sometimes extending for scores of kilometers, virtually barren of forage or wildlife, their sharp rough surfaces capable of ruining boots and the hooves of horses or muskylope in an hours' passage. In other areas are badlands — tangles of gullies, many of them blind — almost impossible to pass without guides, and as unpeopled as the lava flows.

Haven may be divided into roughly three main areas, each with its characteristic settlement history. The great equatorial lowland of the Shangri-La Valley was first claimed by the Church of New Harmony, religious sectaries of Americ descent; subsequent settlers were mainly also Americ and Russki, adopting an economy of farming, sedentary ranching, mining and, under the Empire of Man, some urban development. The massive spread of continental stepped surrounding the Shangri-La and its ring of mountains received a much more varied immigration, most of whom adopted ranching or even nomadic pastoralism as their means of livelihood; small peripheral valleys suitable for marginal agriculture were claimed by a wild assortment of smaller groups.

The southern and equatorial oceans and their islands — some of which are as large as Earth's Ireland — are a relatively favorable zone, by Haven standards if no other. Their potential attracted a variety of voluntary emigrants during the last years of the CoDominium, mostly NeoLibertarian and Royalist groups from Northern Europe, who built on native traditions to establish a pelagic culture....

From Report on Sector Seven, Citadel Intelligence, Archives, Threat Analysis Division, Ethnic substudies, by Analyst Fifth Rank Grishnak, 2920; ammend:

...unfortunately, logistical difficulties constrain operations from Angband Base against the cattle territory known as the Pale, inhabited by the haBandari.

The haBandari are a post-Sauron-contact ethnic group. Linguistic and genetic analysis indicate very mixed background, now stabilized as a neorace; see references, Ashkenazim, Leituas, Harmony/Americ. Significant deviations from human-norm clines are traceable to admixtures of Frystaat ancestry; extreme selective pressures among the human-norm settlers of that planet produced genetic modifications comparable in a few respects to those introduced on Homeworld by the eugenics programs of the Sauron Unified State before the wars with the Empire (see genetic analysis, attached). The haBandari population is in excess of 200,000; the Pale also contains some 150,000 of Americ-descended religio-political subgroup known as the Edenites, who are associated with the haBandari in a dominance/symbiosis linkage. The haBandari speak a language of their own, Bandarit; computer analysis indicates this arose as a creolized contact-pidgin between Americ and New Hebrew, with substantial contributions from Afrikaans and Lithuanian (see linguistic analysis, attached).

As indicated by the population density, the haBandari practice a mixed economy, with sedentary livestock ranching on their unusually productive steppe and mixed irrigation farming in the Eden Valley, a large and relatively fertile lowland with air pressure sufficient for low-risk pregnancy among human norms. Yields are compatible with extensive investment and empirical understanding of plant/animal genetics. Research indicates highly developed handicrafts and intermediate-technology extractive-manufacturing industries, including paper, flintlock firearms, gunpowder, glass, small quantities of high-carbon steel; the above goods are exported in some quantity, mainly in exchange for raw materials. Government is an elective monarchy with oligarchic and democratic features and highly effective military forces, by cattle standards.

My analysis indicates the extreme desirability of bringing the haBandari under our hegemony and levying genetic and economic tribute from this rich source of goods and desirable genes. Further Intelligence operations are imperative.

From: Annual Field Intelligence Reports, Angband Base, relayed to Citadel Intelligence Division, Archives, Threat Analysis Division, Ethnic substudies, 2920, ammend:

... item 17: Analyst Fourth Rank Grishnak, seven periods without reports while on detached duty with haBandari Project, presumed lost while infiltrating enemy territory. item 18: maintenance on ...

From A Student's Book by Myner Klint bar Terborch fan Reenan, Eden Valley, Ilona'sstaad, 2927:

... so good places to live are few and widely spaced out on Haven, apart from the Shangri-La Valley, which the Saurons dominate. People must live widely scattered where there is water or good land, or move in little bands across the steppe; even rarer are areas low enough for women to bear their children safely. Wide distances and little travel mean that customs and beliefs grow very differently. Greed or need often makes it necessary to fight, to take away what is needed for life from others. The Saurons take much from many peoples, leaving them to struggle over the scraps. We haBandari fight to hold what is ours, but experience has shown us it is often more profitable to talk and trade...

... few people ever came to Haven of their own will. Even the first settlers, the Church of New Harmony, emigrated to escape persecution and came to Haven because it was all they could afford. During the CoDominium, the United States and Soviet Union used Haven as a place for those they were ashamed to kill openly, instead letting the planet do it for them. Even with advanced machines such as we know only through stories, this is a hard place for humans to live. When the CoDominium died there was hardship almost as terrible as that which followed the coming of the Saurons centuries later. The Empire of Man made life a little easier, and large populations grew up around its fusion plants and food factories; after a while, it also began sending its troublesome people to Haven. Our Founder, Piet van Reenan, was one such. When the Empire fell, it was those who had kept to the outback and had as little as they could to do with the Imperial machine-economy who were the most likely to survive....

...some of the peoples we know today on Haven bear the same names and have many of the same customs and language as their very ancient ancestors. Our world is a place where it is very easy for small groups of people to live apart from their neighbors. The coming of the Saurons was a period of great change; in the generations that followed, many settlements were broken up, many people forced to wander in search of new homes. Most of these died, but some — our own ancestors among them — settled and formed new, mixed peoples in refuges they found or made...

From War World, Vol. I: The Burning Eye, and Vol. III: Sauron Dominion created by Jerry Pournelle, edited by John Carr and Roland Green (Baen, 1988 & 1991).

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