Minkowski
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Astrography
Druj
A red giant. Attracts drones.
Mara
The fearsome black hole at the heart of the system is named Mara. Its attendant accretion disc sheds light comparable to the sun, along with a much larger quantity of high-energy radiation. The blazing disc, perpendicular jets and twinkling posthuman satellites were noted as one of the 'Seven Wonders of the Human Sphere' in the travel text of the same name.
Posthuman Structures
Many rings of elaborate diamondoid objects encircle the black hole and its jets. They are believed to be scientific instruments. One houses a research station that studies the structures and Mara itself, but many of the others are being dismantled for useful components that find their way into everything from FTL drives to lightweight shielded spacesuits.
Yama
Yama is a large rocky planet massing nine Earths. It has an excess of high-mass elements and is a prime source of fissile material. Rrobotic mining operations dot the surface.
Yami
Yami is a small watery planet massing one-third Earth. Microbial life is present, along with remains of more complex forms.
Naraka
Naraka masses a mere 0.05 Jupiters and contains a high proportion of water vapour. It is orbited by the helium-mining colony Oneill.
Heaven's Stair
Minkowski's primary asteroid belt, also known as 'Changcheng' or simply 'the Belt' lies between Naraka and Xibalba. The majority of the Minkowskan population lives here, in the major colony complexes Gagarin and Tereshkova.
Xibalba
Xibalba masses 2 Jupiters and contains a high proportion of methane.
Diyu
Diyu masses 0.5 Jupiters and is almost exclusively hydrogen and helium based. It is orbited by the helium-mining colony Einstein.
Biology
Minkowskans are very much changed from their original form, having rewritten their DNA to match their new environment.
Physiology
Minkowskans at first glance are short, slim humans, being engineered for small stature and to deposit little fat. Their only particularly obvious alteration is their hand-like feet.
Feet aside, the most radical changes to Minkowskan physiology are invisible. Their musculature is optimised for twitch rather than sustained force, and their skeleton is designed along similar lines, with significant cartilage and limited calcium. The circulatory system is likewise rebiased to compensate for the lack of gravity. Minkowskans never suffer from space adaption syndrome, being naturally adapted to zero-gravity from birth, however they are vulnerable to their own array of issues on planets and gravitated structures.
Minkowskan skin ranges in tone from pale brown to pitch black. Mechanically, it is thick and reduced in elasticity to prevent bloat under vacuum. It is resistant to high-energy radiation and can rapidly switch between glossy reflective and matte radiative modes to optimise heat control in space. Furthermore when exposed to vacuum their skin wrinkles into tiny ridges and folds to maximise radiation area. The price paid for this density and complexity of machinery is reduced sensation - over much of the skin, Minkowskan nerve sensitivity is reduced from the baseline norm. It also impedes hearing slightly due to thickness of the eardrum. In compensation, Minkowskans have enhanced visual acuity and incredible ability to operate in extremes of light, aided by a tapetum lucidum and a secondary eyelid that protects against vacuum and intense light. They also possess a superhuman sense of smell to help police air quality, and a highly-advanced kinaesthetic sense.
Said vacuum adaptions are of course useless without the ability to survive the lack of air. For this reasons Minkowskans have engineered the ability to 'shut down' their lungs, preventing transport across the alveolar membranes and halting the loss of blood oxygen normal lungs suffer when exposed to vacuum. Their blood itself is extensively redesigned with many times the oxygen capacity of baselines, and the ability to exchange oxygen with a special gland below the liver which stores it chemically. With these enhancements a well-prepared Minkowskan can survive in vacuum for half an hour or more before suffering from significant medical problems.
Outside of space, in temperature-controlled, zero-gravity environments, hair and sweat cause more problems than they solve. Minkowskans posess neither, and typically lose excess heat by the somewhat less elegant method of panting.
The most fundamental, but also most invisible change to Minkowskan physiology is the alterations to the human genetic system. Minkowskan DNA is multiply-redundant and the replication systems contain extensive error checking. These modifications have made Minkowskans all but immune to the deleterious effect of the radiation that soaks their system, at the cost of slowed growth - wounds take longer to heal, and gestation and aging proceed at approximately 3/4 the baseline rate.
Psychology
Minkowskans think differently. They would say better.
Some Minkowskan intelligence structures are significantly enlarged and changed from the baseline. Apart from superior kinaesthetic sense and orientation, Minkowskan mechanical and spatial reasoning is dramatically improved and also broadened - the Minkowskan brain can comprehend and analyse inhuman distances and geometries with (relative) ease. However such optimisation has its drawbacks - while never suffering from agora- or claustrophobia, many Minkowskans find two-dimensional environments psychologically oppressive.
Continuous life in a hostile environment, where single mistakes could injure dozens or hundreds, has given rise to the half-natural half-nurtured ability to rapidly internalise routines and precautions. Minkowskans are inherently conscientious and conservative, and it is this ability as much as their spatial intellect that has given them their engineering tradition and made their society so resistant to outside influences. The obvious downside is however in effect - Minkowskans are xenophobic, intolerant, and often overly hostile to new ideas.
More controversially for some observers, the neural structures that give rise to spirituality have also been enhanced. It is almost unheard of to find an atheist Minkowskan - those who do leave the Cavorite faith join another religion.
Minkowskans Abroad
Minkowskans experiencing protracted gravity can suffer an array of medical issues, including muscle fatigue, skeletal deformation, unreliable balance and cardiovascular problems. Due to obstruction from the religious establishment and a lack of the enormous research infrastructure of the Core, progress on developing easy countermeasures to these problems has been slow.
Beyond the physiological issues are the psychological issues of never learning to deal with pervasive gravity. Many Minkowskans never learn to walk, although it is mandatory for members of the military. More important to many Minkowskans is the spiritual aspect, that compels them to undertake frequent rituals to cleanse and shield their soul while exposed to the influence of the Adversary.
Popular ways to make stays in gravity more enjoyable include light exoskeletons, mobile furniture, and swimming.
Sociology
Economy
Shipyards, mining, whaling.
Culture
Airctopuses and xenophobia.
Language
As a strongly multinational colony, English was the natural choice for Minkowski. The government embraced this, and Minkowskan children - natural or artificial - were educated in a modified version of the Standard English form devised in the 2030s for international education. This was however done with the understanding that language is mutable, and over time the form, both taught and used, has been modified by the cultures the colonists came from, and the culture they have found themselves in.
Food
Meatball trees.
Clothing
Skintight spacesuits.
Religion
Gravity is the destructive influence of the Adversary, only by abandoning it can our souls ascend to Heaven.
Heterodox Sects
The Etheric Tendency of the Eschatonic Church is not a sect of Cavorism, but it does bear some similarities.
Art and Literature
Politics
History
Timeline
- 2068: Dr. Evan Cavor flees Earth on the eve of the retroviral decision, taking his followers with him.
- 2070: The Cavor Longshot arrives in the system immediately christened Minkowski. The stations around Mara are active, and declared off-limits.
- 2071: Confirmed feral drone sighting by asteroid surveyors. The worker is described as 'curious and friendly', and is assumed to be of posthuman origin.
- 2072: Further study is called off when an observation craft is attacked and eaten by the drones it was shadowing.
- 2074: Drones attack the Minkowskan colony, but are beaten off with improvised weapons stockpiled for the eventuality.
- 2076: After further attacks, work begins to change the Minkowskan home asteroid orbit.
- 2082: Posthuman machinery around Mara goes silent. An expedition returns with several interesting artefacts.
- 2084: The new orbit is established away from the asteroid belt.
- 2087: 'Component mining' of posthuman machinery begins.
- 2095: Dr. Cavor completes the homo caelum genetic template.