Mare Stellatis

Mare Stellatis was a lunar observatory installed in the far side of the moon so that observation wouldn't be affected by the Earth's light. It was named "Sea of Stars" because of the view from its instrument dome.

History

It was built on a comet crater. It became an Alliance military base supporting the far-ranging starships; robot mining machines mined ice from tunnels beneath it, which went to the Farside Colony. During the war it held 200,000 plus fleet crew and transients. After the end of the Secession War, it was abandoned as scientists moved to deep space and starships found ice in Saturn's rings.

Corrective Services decided to clean the incorrigibles out of the rehab colonies (those who failed to conform or escaped rehab) by converting it to a prison. Anyone who went there never came out. The inmates were isolated, with no C.S. staff or councellors.

Because of the lack of information, there was plenty of speculation about it and was a popular subject of netfeeds and newstapes when news was slow. Theories wanted it to be a cover-up of a secret execution program, or that it didn't exist at all, only as an official bogeyman. Most believed it to be a hell of anarchy and violence, full of criminally insane inmates forced to labor to meet their quotas.

Structure

As in the case of the Farside Colony, which was built on the same formation, its location was chosen on a site where a comet hit the moon, resulting to the presence of water and lava tubes. Life support is based on convection heating and ventilation except on a grand scale, with an ecosystem in the Garden providing food and oxygen.

Movements around levels was possible with fireman poles as well as rotating looped cables that move through ventshafts.

The hub lies right under the observatory instrument room to which it is connected with a spiraling ramp. The hub's walls are lined with hand-drawn bulletins and posters. At some point armed forces expanded it and dug concentric circles that form the "City". From the circular hub, 8 doorways led to tunnels radiating away from the center. A dozen of curved concentric circles intersected them in T-section every 50 meters. A ring tunnel leads to a section of narrower corridors and the perspaces, 5x5m rooms, where most of general labor lives. C.S. removed some of the airseals, and these had been replaced with woden doors. One radial tunnel led to the store-room and the airlock, the opposite to it led to a loom room.

The instrument room's outer edge is occupied by a large desk whose scientific intruments had been removed. Its walls covered with some kind of sprayed foam insulation. A portable wall unit sectioned off the Coordinator's office and the ramp continued up.

Right above that room there stood the observatory dome, a thin shell of long-chain polycarbonate, a perfect hemisphere 100 meters in diameter and so transparent as to be invisible. It was done up as a formal garden, with ferns and potted plants arranged artistically. When the base was converted, the C.S. took out the pressure seals. Its base was ringed by 20cm cubes to be detonated once someone caught outside, popping the dome and killing everyone.

Administration

It was ran by the Coordinator who sets things up. The Checker is his right-hand man, responsible for seeing that everything happens and checking everything (storage, water quotas, work roster, transactions with the C.S.). A dozen of monitors act like semi-formal police; disputes are rare, but malcontents go Downside. The inmates belong to 50 work groups with different jobs, whose structure is set up by itself; the leader of each group participates in the Council, which breaks down what needs to be done and the teams take care of it. Newlings first have general labor as helpers to specialist teams, and then they follow their aptitude.

Economy

It was a socioeconomic microcosm and their survival depended on exporting ice to Farside which supplied the facility in turn with power for life support. The pump room in the Garden is the heart of the economy: the artificial lake level has to be kept constant by varying the pump rate; in turn, this dictated how much power Mare Stellatis could receive, with surplus being used to receive spare parts and supplies. The Checker takes daily readings to balance the water budget. Shipments as well as new inmates (newlings) came in cargo pods on lunar shuttles from the Earth Transfer Station.

The mining of ice was left to the Downsiders; their quota is 1000 metric tons per day, which they mine in return for food; the food rate of the Downsiders was rationed according to the pump rate. The Upsiders feed the ice to a pipe which directly leads to the deuterium refinery of the Farside.

The roster portions out 14 hours per week per citizen (deskwork and light labor) plus kitchen shifts. Goods, like clothes, are hand-made in the prison, and are traded for workhours. Basic needs like food are shared to everyone, and outside this, inmates barter trade goods among themselves. More demanding jobs have a time bonus and extra work hours for community services reward more goods.

Inmates

During the war it held 200000 plus fleet crew and transients. Their living quarters became the personal space rooms ("perspace") for the later inmates. Less than one criminal in a million arrives there, resulting to almost a dozen in a year. 2000 populated the facility.

All of them were typically sterilized so that no children would be born there, with the exception of "special transports", prisoners that those high above wanted out of the way.

• Anton Vincennes or The Coordinator, a balding middle-aged but powerful looking man with an aura of authority. He had a dark complexion and a scar across his left cheek.
• Stelchek or The Checker, a short bookish person. He showed Lewis Tyrell around.
• Storna was a tall, buxom negress who moved like a cat. She came to the airlock and harassed Lewis Tyrell when he arrived.
• Miklos "Mike" companion to Michelle, he came to the evening gathering at the Garden.
• Michelle "Miche" a blonde woman companion to Miklos, she came to the evening gathering at the Garden.
• Cynthia friend to Mike and Mich, he came to the evening gathering at the Garden.
• Valia a woman of Asian features that is a member of the Council. She was in the airlock when Tyrell arrived, she came to the evening gathering at the Garden.
• Lorili "Lori" an attractive middle-aged woman who works in the loom.
• Tombuol, a technician of the hardware group, a large quiet man working in the pump room.
• Lewis Tyrell

Trivia

The name is wrong Latin for "Sea of Stars"; it actually means "Sea at/with the Starry". It is probably supposed to represent Mare Stellatum (Starry Sea) or Mare Stellarum (Sea of Stars).