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Colony Universe

Drive Systems

by EAB

The current Generation of Alchibah Drive Systems began with basic research by Dr. Ashcroft Andrews into a Kinetic Shield System.

The First generation Shield could stop a .30 Cal UNWG Issue Penetrator round when powered by a simple 15 Amp, 120 Volt Circuit. At this point Dr. Andrews attempted to bury his research and carried the only fully documented files with him to Alchibah.

A diluted version of his findings made there way to RJ Hamilton’s “BUGOUT” project and was used as the basis of the Gravity Grabber Drive that was used to allow The Mayflower to generate enough Delta-Vee to escape the Solar System via the Alchibah wormhole.

Once on Alchibah the system was presented to Dr. Hibbs, he conceived of a way to bend the planar shield of the basic Andrews Shield into a Hemispherical Shield.

Andrews and Hibbs knew if they could combine two Andrews-Hibbs Shields that they could protect a ship from any angle. The problem lay in the requirement for a vent for the Dee-Hee Drive System.

Then Dr. Chandler entered the equation. He postulated that if a Andrews-Hibbs Shield could be modulated that it could provide motive force without the need for a Drive Exhaust. In other words a reactionless Drive.

His postulation was correct, the first Andrews-Chandler-Hibbs drive did in fact not need a reaction component as long as it was at least at least 15 Ft. above a planetary body. It did need a reaction drive to establish that minimum separation or bad things would happen.

The First generation allowed for a 4:1 Ratio between Real G Rates and Perceived G Rates. Thus a Pilot felt 4 G’s when in fact they were pulling 16 G’s Real Acceleration. Unfortunately they could could not leave the Deep gravity well of the Planet and were essentially Atmospheric Craft drives.

Dr. Chandler finally had a brainstorm he just could not explain, what would happen if the Exciter Circuit were first brought up in the Spin Axis of the Mayflower. When that unit was first brought up and tested at maximum acceleration by Dr. Andrews; Dr.’s Hibbs and Chandler promptly named it the ACHE Drive; right after they returned from Sick Bay. This version of the Drive was called the System Version as it appeared to be tied to the System Gravity well and could function as a deep space drive

The First Generation System Drive had a 10:1 reduction ratio. At the time of the Rogon incursion; components were in place for a 10:1 Planetary drive and a 25:1 System Drive although none had been installed.

The “Mad Whackos” as they are affectionately known long for the day that they can take a ship beyond the Hyper-Limit of Alchibah and run up an Exciter Out There!

Respectfully Summited
Alchibah Year 8 Day 235
Terrence Thomas Stuart

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Native Species of Alchibah

by EAB

Animals: This section is a work in progress.

Alchelos:
Bison like grazer discovered first on plains north of the inland sea Gitche Gumee. Mammalian in nature six legged, ten feet long and five foot high at the shoulder. Their heads are very flat and wide being set low on the body with a short, perhaps foot long, neck. Fully grown they could weigh upwards of 3000 lbs. Possessing a fine durable leather hide and edible meat. Domestication experiments are underway.

Aladillo: A very full body, about 12 inches long and low to the ground is covered by a hard segmented shell. It has a tapering tail half again as long as the body. The tail ends in a two inch ball covered with pointy spikes. It looked like a mace and was used in the same manner. A scavenger commonly found in the Liberty City area.

Slizard: Generic name for a variety of lizard like species ranging from 6 inches in length to well over 20 feet. The larger slizards had backbones that could be 3 foot off the ground and could raise their heads another foot or more. The smaller specimens were six legged, the larger ones were segmented and grew additional legs as segments were added. The legs of each pair were slightly offset giving a rolling gait. Carnivorous and ubiquitous to the entire planet.

Stream Fish:
“Fish or Stream Trout” was what we called all of them, and though there were many types this description is typical. The smallest edible sizes were about 5 inches long, looking vaguely like, and related to, the Slizard, but instead of legs they had slightly opposed fins, three sets of them and as the length increased other sets would grow in front of the bifurcated tail. They sparkled in the sun with prism like scales on top. The undersides were generally a pale almost bluish white. Most had two rows of small pointed teeth in the mouth which extended about an inch down the length of the slender body.

Ratoid: Small slizard, a foot in length, forest dwelling but most often seen around carrion.

Uglasaur: Iguana like but with much shorter tails. Needle sharp teeth. When fully grown up to a hundred and forty lbs. Intelligence similar to an earthly dog and can to be domesticated. Nocturnal hunter and meat eater.

Unicow

A large bovine appearing species which roam the upland plains of the Northern Continent of Alchibah. Only the six legs seemed to separate them from the Earth bovines such as Deer and Elk.

The flesh of this animal fooled the Diagnostic capabilities of the Primary Lab. It’s properties were so close to that of Earth Beef that the Computers rejected them as fake test runs. Attempts were made to tame them as Cattle had been tamed on Earth. All attempts failed, they are a wild species who will not be tamed.

They became the favorite hunting species for the Humans on Alchibah. Their single Unicorn like horn became the favorite wall trophy for a household. They are smart, fast and highly prized.

Meat from the Unicow was the early favorite on Alchibah. The advent of Cloned Earth Cattle moved them into a game Animal status. They are now hunted for their status and successful hunters are well renowned.

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Constitution

by EAB

The Constitution of Liberty City, Colony Alchibah

We the People of Liberty Township do Solemnly Declare that a Government cannot be Legitimate without the Consent of the Governed and that only authority expressly delegated by vote of the Citizenry may be exercised by said Government.

Article 1
1.1 This Constitution shall be the only document delegating such authority and will take effect at a date determined by, and upon ratification of, 75% of the eligible voting population.
1.2. For the purpose of ratifying this constitution all colonists, having reached the age of sixteen as determined by date of birth on the planet Earth, and capable of voting without the direct assistance of others, shall be eligible to vote. All other dates and times referenced in this Constitution shall be based on time as reckoned on the planet Alchibah and start from the landing of the colony ship Mayflower.
1.3 After ratification, the voting for, and approval of, maters delegated to government by this constitution shall be restricted to those who were eligible to vote upon said ratification, or; have attained the age of six years and 500 days, and have publicly sworn an oath to support and defend the terms and conditions of this document, and, if not arriving on the colony ship Mayflower, have resided within Liberty Township for a period of 500 days. Those so qualified will hereafter be referred to as Citizens.
1.4 The privileges and responsibilities of a Citizen may be terminated only by the free public attestation of said Citizen, or upon conviction of high crimes against the Constitution, or upon his death.

Article 2
2.1 The government shall consist of the Citizenry, a body composed of all of the Citizens, and such subsidiary bodies as authorized by it. The Citizenry will convene at times and locations of it’s choosing but must convene at least twice in every calendar year. This meeting shall convene on the 10th day and the 550th day of each year at the governmental seat in Liberty City or at such a location as directed by a majority vote of the Citizenry, and be presided over by the most recently elected Chairman of the Liberty Council. The Citizenry shall be the primary legislative body and have supreme authority in all matters governmental.
2.2 The primary executive body shall be the Liberty Council whose duty will include the day to day operation of the government and such other duties as the Citizenry may require of it. There shall be an odd number of Citizens numbering no less than five elected to the Liberty Council by vote of the Citizenry and under rules which the Citizenry shall approve. The terms of Council members shall be limited to no more than two years without reconfirmation by the Citizenry.
2.3 The Liberty Council established by this constitution shall, within 30 days of their election, recommend to the Citizenry for approval a Judicial Tribunal which shall include provision for determination of fact, pronouncement of sentence, and appeal procedure. In cases involving Constitutional question the Citizenry shall have final appeal authority.
In recognition of the fact that man being imperfect, then so must be the results of his labors and intentions, the means for modifying this constitution shall be as follows.

Article 3
3.1 All Citizens shall by right be able to petition for change, or addition, to the Constitution and there shall be two such means of effecting said change.
3.2 The first. and more limited of these, shall be a call for Constitutional Proclamation. This Proclamation must be limited in nature, apply only to the instance at hand, and shall never be considered to have changed the original intent of the document. Any Citizen may call for such a Prolamation at any meeting of the Citizenry. Debate may begin at once but final debate and a vote must be scheduled prior to adjournment of the session in which such call is made. This final debate and vote cannot be scheduled less than 20 or more than 40 days after the initial proposal, unless 75% of the Citizenry present declare in the initial debate that it can be voted on sooner, in which case the final vote can take place as soon as one day after the initial proposal. In this case every effort must be made to immediately inform the Citizenry not present at the initial meeting of the proposal and the time of the final debate and vote. A Constitutional Proclamation will require a 75% vote in favor of passage and a minimum of 50% of the total Citizenry to be voting, and will go into affect no later than 30 days after the date of its passage.
3.3 The second shall be a petition for Constitutional Change. This petition shall be introduced to the Citizenry as described in section 3.2 but must also include a document describing the section to be changed or the addition to be made and giving the exact wording of this change or addition. It may address at most one article. Debate may begin at once but final debate and a vote must be scheduled prior to adjournment of the session in which such call is made. This final debate and vote cannot be scheduled less than 50 or more than 100 days after the initial proposal. A Constitutional Change will require a 75% vote in favor of passage and a minimum of 65% of the total Citizenry to be voting, and will go into affect no earlier than 60 days after the date of it’s approval.
3.4 An enactment by either of the above proposals may not be construed so as to enable civil or criminal proceedings relating to actions constitutional prior to it’s passage.
We hold the following rights to be fundamental but as the people are the owners and holders of all rights. Those not enumerated herein shall not be considered as having any lesser protection under the Constitution.

Article 4
4.1 No law shall be made favoring, prohibiting or restricting the exercise of religion unless such religious exercise shall threaten the existence of the state.
4.2 No law shall be made restricting freedom of speech, writing or any other form of creative or political expression, except in instances of violence, direct incitation of violence and treason. Treason shall be defined as intentionally aiding a declared enemy of the state, or an organization dedicated to the overthrow of the government by means that are not otherwise Constitutionally protected.
4.3 No law shall be made restricting the right of the people to peaceably assemble.
4.4 No law shall be made restricting the right of the people to petition the government or peacefully protest government excepting when such protest would involve private trespass or prohibit others from exercising their Constitutional rights.
4.5 No law shall be made restricting the right of the people to bear arms for the defense of themselves or the State. The ownership and use of weapons of mass destruction shall, however, be restricted. The definition of weapons of mass destruction may not include those appropriate for an individual’s defense of him or herself or the State, and shall include at a minimum nuclear weapons (explosives), biological weapons and chemical weapons, as well as other weapons the Citizenry shall decide upon as detailed in Article 3.3.
4.6 The equality of rights under the law of any Citizen shall not be arbitrarily denied or abridged on account of any factor which does not directly threaten the existence of the State or likely cause direct harm to the health or safety of the public.

Article 5
5.1 The Citizenry shall set all rules and procedures necessary for setting the governments proper scope of responsibility, and once in place such rules shall not be changed without a majority vote of all the Citizens.
5.2 The purpose of this Constitution is to permanently set the principals of government. It is not an evolving, living document. It’s words are literal and shall have the meaning of original intent. Challenges to any interpretation of this Constitution based on this clause must be addressed by a Constitutional Amendment changing or clarifying the language.

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Shuttle Craft

by EAB

Originally lifeboats for the tour ship Lancer, the Mayflower crew have modified these to serve as transport, defensive, and exploration craft for the colonists on Alchibah.


alt_shuttle_400.jpg

The original lifeboats could hold ten-twelve people, not in comfort, for emergency evacuations of large tour ships. They have been modified and renamed shuttle craft. Several seats were removed to increase fuel and cargo capacity. Additional shielding was added and a nano-paint coating put on to allow the shuttle to blend in (camouflage) with it’s surroundings. The crash bar in front was modified. One forward beam now has a laser cannon, the other will have a fireball launcher when Doctors Hibbes and Chandler perfect the device, and a small hatch on top exposes a 100mm projectile gun. Dr. Ash Andrew’s field shields have been incorporated.

Size: 60 foot wingspan
Height: 25 feet
Seats four although a bench along one wall of the cabin can serve in a jiffy for a couple others. Full bathroom with shower. Small galley and ship stores. Pull down bunks for four. Small table and entertainment center in limited living space. They’re not especially fast but serve their purpose well. These are tough little ships that can launch and land vertically.

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Light Cargo Bus

by EAB

The Mayflower crew produced two small cargo buses. One for the colonists in Liberty, and one for use by the Mayflower crew itself for ferrying supplies to and from the planet without having to resort to the huge Galileo Ore Ship which was too large and wasteful of fuel.


cargo_bus_in_field_400.jpg

Literally cobbled together from old storage containers, the cargo bus isn’t pretty, isn’t fast, has very limited shielding, but serves it’s purpose well. Eight large engines that can swing on an axis allow vertical takeoffs and landings and provide impressive lifting power for heavy loads.

Length: 45 feet
Height: 20 feet
Seating: Two
Cargo capacity: 30 tons

Accomodations: None. Just the pilot’s seat and one for a passenger. No galley, bunks, or living space. Think of it as a tractor trailer. Tiny water closet.

Cargo buses are designed for travel around the planet or for travel to the Mayflower or one of Alchibah’s moons. They are not designed for nor capable of interplanetary travel.

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The Surprise Cruiser

by EAB

Personal cruisers were all the rage among the wealthy back on Earth. One such, belonging to Stelco was used by Rocco to rescue Captain Travis from the UNWG (Goonies) Earth agents.


Surprise Cruiser

While quite fast, there are only two seats on board, along with pull-down bunks for sleeping. A very small galley, and no real cargo space. Living space is limited to a small dining table and entertainment center.

Personal cruisers are designed for skipping around the world quickly, making trips to orbiting resorts, and for interplanetary travel. They are not interstellar ships by design.

Length: 35 feet.

Upon reaching Alchibah, the Mayflower crew modified The Surprise cruiser. Life support systems were removed. One laser canon from the old Lancer ship was installed. One nuclear device was also put on board as a “suicide device” for ramming hostile ships. Additional fuel storage was added, and The Surprise was sent out with two robots (so they could change each other’s batteries) to the exit of the wormhole to investigate why the sentry craft left there had stopped transmitting.

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Devils

by EAB

So called because of their small pointy ears, the “Devils” have shown themselves to be the friendliest and smartest animals we’ve encountered so far (17 days planet side) here on Alchibah.

devil_250.jpg
There are few birds on this planet and devils aren’t really birds so much as leathery winged mammals covered in soft fur, much like bats back on Earth. Adult devils stand about 14-16 inches tall and have wild colorings but the overall color scheme seems to be a devilish pink. They weigh about four pounds.

What caught our attention is that they are not afraid of us, quickly learn words and their meanings (at least for objects so far) and also have their own vocabulary. There are (or were) plenty of birds on Earth that could mimic human speech but these little devils actually understand the meaning and can put together very, very simple noun-verb type sentences.

Some of the early words of theirs that colonist Kara has observed:

Gup = Hi

Cappi = a local shellfish

Paac = small slizzard (another local animal)

PaacPaac = large slizzard

Lil’li = a fish in the river

Teh = the predominate pine-like trees in the area

Panna = the electric tree we discovered

More words will be added shortly as well as their behavior patterns as Kara and other colonists interact and study these remarkable creatures.

They also seem to grasp simple concepts such as trading for food (ours for theirs) and greeting and leaving. I’d put their “intelligence” at about that of a human six-year-olds.

What the heck, they don’t cuddle like cats and dogs but we don’t have cats and dogs at the moment and actually, having someone (some thing) that understands us and that we can also understand is not a bad thing when starting a new life on a world far from Earth.

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The Sentinal

by EAB

Better Safe than Sorry

Painting by Travis. Mayflower Archives.

We exited the Alchibah Wormhole, adjusted course, and headed towards home. Looking at some of the data captured from Ashcroft’s cruiser gave pause. It seemed that the Goonies might be coming after us. We couldn’t be sure if they had the capability but that was one of the things to question Ash about when he came out of cryo.

Aboard the Mayflower we had two of the telescopic observatories left over from those R.J. Hamilton had built to locate the wormhole itself. We left one of them monitoring the exit end of the hole and the surrounding space. It was supposed to be solar powered but this far from a good light source we had to use one of the nuclear batteries intended for the robots. If it detected anything coming through at least we would know long before it could reach us. Still light speed communication but it would beat a ship by 6 months at least. It would have been nice to drop off a picket ship and have it waiting to meet them unawares but we just didn’t have the people or the armed ship to do that.

We planed to leave the other observatory in orbit around our new planet and use it to gather information about the rest of the system. Its’ optics and electronics were actually better than any of the shipboard navigational tool on the Mayflower for a task like that.

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Wormhole Communications

by EAB

At the request of Capt. Travis an intensive and rigorous investigation was undertaken on the mass of data collected by William Bartlett during the outbound transit ‘SOL to Alchibah’.

The data cube covering the actual transit was cataloged to separate the various types of observational data. The first set of data analyzed was the Electro-Mechanical realm (which includes the Radio Frequency sub-domain).

Here the physics of the wormhole delivered it first punch. The Gravatetic Lens Effect which compressed the EM input of the entire 180 degrees of the wormhole aperture into the central tube, created a massive ‘White Noise’ problem. This discrimination problem was estimated to require tuners of a least four orders of magnitude better than any scanner in existence to even separate an EM stream from the background clutter!

Attention then turned to the Light Frequency Bands to explore the possibility of high powered Lasers. There the wormhole physics delivered the second and final blow. The Gravatetic Wave Effect caused by the constant variance of the gravitational energy literally forced frequency changes and variations in the Light Bands themselves. Worse, this variation was totally random and affected the modulating frequencies of any signal system at a different rate from that of the carrier frequency. This was in effect, the best scrambler system ever devised; but unlike manmade systems, it had no key! There was no conceivable way to decode the result!

As a final control two attempts were made to determine the spectral signatures of the two stars involved as seen through the wormhole. First the analysis focused on Alchibah on the approach to the wormhole, then SOL on the exit run. It proved impossible to isolate even the spectral signature of the stars involved!

In a very unscientific statement one member of the EAB summed up the communications though the wormhole problem with the following “You got two chances, Slim and None. But, Slim done caught the bus for Hotlanta.”

Coherent Communications through a wormhole are impossible!

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Wormhole Theory

by EAB

Blackholes, Wormholes, and Spin Tubes

Much of the following is speculation based upon the Alchibah Wormhole. Current theory is still evolving. The demonstrated existence of the Alchibah Wormhole has disproven some previously accepted ideas.

1. The maximum speed of anything in the universe is 186,000 mps. The speed of light in a vacuum.

2. Most of the matter in the Universe is unobserved and is in fact unobservable.

3. Stars travel particular evolutionary paths depending on their original size.

4. Small stars use up their hydrogen fuel and grow dim and cold. This takes so long that they are likely to be around for 100 billion years or more. The age of the universe seems to be less than 20 billion years.

5. Larger stars shine, expand, explode, and collapse. As they collapse they become White Dwarf stars, (dense), Neutron stars, (extremely dense), and, if their original mass is great enough they become blackholes. A blackhole is so massive that the escape velocity at its surface, called the Event Horizon, is greater than the speed of light, 186,000 mps. Imagine taking a star twice as large as the Sun and compressing it till it is less than 10 miles in diameter.

6. The more mass a star begins with the shorter its lifetime. If it is massive enough to becomes a blackhole the more massive it is the larger the diameter of the event horizon.

7. All stars rotate. The more they shrink in size the faster they spin. This is called the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum.

8. A blackhole spins extremely rapidly. Its spin axis is the entry point to what we call a Wormhole. Any attempt to get closer to the blackhole center than the diameter of its event horizon, unless one is at the spin axis, causes one to vanish permanently from the observable universe.

9. A first approximation of a spinning blackhole would be a sphere with a hole from one side to the other at the spin axis. A second and better view would be of a spinning tube. The length of the tube is proportional to the blackhole mass. As a simplification we could say that the length of the Alchibah Wormhole Spin Tube is 47 light years. The tubes internal diameter is proportional to the rotational rate and the velocity of the object entering the Spin Tube. The outer diameter of the sphere or tube wall is the Blackhole event horizon. The inner diameter may be considered as the Spin Tube or Wormhole event horizon.

Spin Tube Length = k x Blackhole Mass.

Spin Tube Dia. = k x sqrt(Rotation Rate x Entry Speed).

The value of k has yet to be determined. As it may not be linear. The discovery and exploration of a few more wormholes should settle the question.

10. It is obvious from the above that the more massive the blackhole the longer the spin tube. And as entry velocities decrease the more critical is exact alignment with the axial center if one is to avoid the spin tube event horizon.

11. A rotating blackhole will have a wormhole entrance at both the north and south pole of spin. It is unknown whether the spin tubes from either end lead to the same terminus. All entries at the Solar end of the Alchibah Wormhole have been through the same Spin Pole.

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