by Wil C. Fry
2304: crew of Tau Ceti starship (launched in 2209) is awakened after 95 years of travel, to make modifications: nuclear reactor improvements, mass converter, gravitic propulsion; new ETA (with only 9 light-years left to travel): 2318
: same procedure is followed for ship launched in 2260; they have 17.5 light years to go; new ETA: 2323
2308: Earth's population down to 12 billion because of World War V; Venus' and Mars' combined total population: one billion; the orbiting stations around the four inner planets total one billion; the Fifth Planet's New Republic (FPNR), J.U.M., and OSR (now including Pluto) total another one half billion
2309: World War Five-B ("small nuclear war" in Asia); the rest of the Solar Federation expels Terra from their ranks; the Dohr habitat sides with Terra, thus leaving the Federation; Most other Terran-orbit space cities withdrew from the Federation, and became independent; Mars-Ceres Republic is overthrown in a violent coup detat, becoming the "Martian Empire"; ME bombs Venus into submission, to expand the Empire; Hope City becomes rich, selling foodstuffs to starving colonies and even Terra
2309: Hope City launches their fifth starship, this one heading out behind Nadyozhda; destination: same as Nadyozhda, unless nothing good is found there; then it will continue on past; holding 10,000 people, most in cryostasis
2315: Hope arrives at Banard's Star System; finds two inhabitable planets, one race of intelligent, humanoid life
2316: Terra again falls from the inside, historians call it World War VI; the anarchy lasts for four years
2317: Republic of Bliss is formed, a representative democracy
2318: Dr. Robert Gillespie Adams-Muñoz dies at 218 years of age, so far, the oldest man alive until his death; the next oldest man is 207, not counting the crew of the Nadyozhda, or anyone else who has been in cryostasis
2318: Starship arrives at Tau Ceti, finding two inhabitable planets, colonization ratings: 62% and 88%. Planets named Carolyn and Newhome
2319: Second ship arrives at Bliss, Banard's Star
2320: Dohr, the oldest space city, brings Terra to its knees with the new particle beam technology, forms the New Terran Federation (NTF), controlled from orbit; all government offices for the NTF are in Dohr
2323: First contact with the "Farlans", intelligent inhabitants of Banard's Star's second planet; their ship arrived in Bliss orbit, and a treaty of mutual respect was born
2324: Third starship arrives at destination: 200 people are left on a planet with a 41% colonization rating, name it Exile; the other 800 go on to their next destination; ETA 2342
2330: After ten years of rebuilding from WW6, the NTF is once again allowed to send men into space, but only after a careful selection process; Terran population is down to 10 billion, but rising again
2332: The Martian Empire, now 23 years old, begins to take over the FPNR, taking the mining bases one by one; at the same time, Martian warships head out toward JUM, and OSR, attempting to gain control of the entire solar system.
2337: All of JUM, and most of FPNR have been enveloped by Mars' Empire; OSR remains independent - they had a lot of time to prepare defenses, besides, the distances involved for the invaders was vast
2338: Hope City, now by far the richest government outside of ME, unites with Luna, to begin preparing massive defenses, in the event that ME tries to take them; The space cities in Terran orbit - excluding Dohr - form the United Terran Orbiting Cities (UTOC), for the same reason
2340: Hope City, with a population of over 10 million, has for years been charging every outgoing colonist a large sum, and has been the largest exporter of foodstuffs for over a century; not only that, any starship returning from the distant colonies would dock there; HC joins with Phobos (which has remained ind. from ME) and OSR and Pluto to form the New Solar Federation.
2340 (August): starship launched in 2302 arrives at its destination system, finding one planet with a colonization rating at 94% (as good as Terra before the Industrial Revolution); planet is named Sovyershyenstvo ("Perfection" in Russian); name is shortened to Sovyersh for English colonists
2341: First trade ship arrives from the Republic of Bliss, docking at Hope City; Scientists from around the solar system arrived to look over Hope, to study the effects of high speed travel through the distances between the stars
2341: When Hope heads back toward Bliss, several delegates are on board, from the New Solar Federation, to talk about setting up an interstellar Federation of human-occupied planets, and to talk to the Farlans
2342: Third starship arrives at second destination, finds 91% colonization planet; names it Terra II
2344: The NTF, still under the control of Dohr, is finally allowed to join the NSF, as long as they agree to the strict guidelines controlling emigration
2346: The Martian Empire takes Phobos, and attacks Hope City; within months, the Luna/Hope City armada had beaten the tired Martian fleet; asteroid miners resume their Fifth's Planet Republic, Phobos joins with the new Free Mars, The Republic of Venus sends six ships full of raw materials to Hope City out of gratitude; all the new nations join the NSF
2350: Hope City (the capital of the NSF) is now building starships faster than they can find crews and colonists. 99.7% of the colonist candidates come from Terra; and 95% of the selected candidates come from Terra; requirements: small chance of hereditary illness, perfect or correctable vision, perfect hearing, good fitness, education, money (to pay the high emigration charge), ability to bear children, etc.; every time enough candidates pass the tests, Hope City sends out another ship, or fills up a ship returning from the colonies; about one a year, average colonist load: 10,000
2350: POPULATIONS:
Republic of Venus: 750 million
NTF: 11 Billion
UTOC: 1.1 Billion
Hope City: 11 million
Luna Confederacy: 3 million
Free Mars: 700 million
FPR (now inc.Ceres): 20 million
JUM: 12 million
OSR: 6 million
Pluto: 500
TOTAL: 13.7 Billion
2350: LIFE EXPECTANCIES:
UTOC, Luna, JUM: 270 years
Republic of Venus, Free Mars, JUM: 250 years
Hope City, OSR: 242 years
Pluto: 194 years
New Terran Federation / Dohr: 151 years
Terra II, Farla: 185 years
Bliss, Carolyn, Newhome, Sovyersh: 181 years
Exile: 148 years
2376: First radio messages reach NSF from Terra II, thirty-four light years away; by that time, the colony has already survived a two-year plague (2344-46), and has grown from 800 to 2,100 people
2380: Jose Riceberger VI, in conjunction with Hope City, starts the "JRB Trading Company", building five brand new starships, the five largest ever built
2383: The five ships depart the Sol System, headed for the five known inhabited systems, each bearing items needed for those particular locations; and ordered to bring back whatever would sell back home; the crews were not placed in cryostasis, since because of time dilation the trips would seem much shorter to them (the pilot to Bliss would only experience a year or so of travel, even though in real time the trip would take almost eight years.)
2401: Bliss' population reaches one million in First City (the capital), and 6 million overall
2429: Forrest Harmon, Senior, ex-Senator of Bliss, reaches 300 years of age, the first to do so (although 150 of them were spent in cryostasis aboard Hope.
2430: Terra once again begins a starship program, constructing the largest ship ever, in orbit next to Dohr, using materials mined from the ocean floors, and taken into orbit using a-grav
2431: Hope City is now sending out more than 40,000 colonists per year, each of them paying a year's wage for the privilege; Terra's ship, called The Exodus, leaves Earth orbit, carrying 1.2 million colonists, all heading for Newhome and Carolyn, ETA 2447
2440: JUM and OSR merge to form the Republic of the Outer Planets (ROP)
2441:
the FPR joins ROP; ROP remains a part of the Solar Federation
2447: The Exodus reaches Newhome, where the inhabitants force the Terrans to undergo strenuous medical examinations before landing; only 600,000 of the 1.2 million colonists are allowed to land; those remaining on the ship fly on to Carolyn; only 300,000 are allowed to ground there; the remaining 300,000 travel on to Exile, arriving in 2060
2451: Terra launches the Exodus II, heading for Bliss, holding almost 2 million people
2455: Hope City copies Terra, and begins building much larger ships, using materials shipped from ROP, but still maintains the very strict requirements
2459: The Exodus II arrives at Bliss, where none of the colonists are allowed to land; the ship goes to Farla, where the same refusal is offered; frustrated, the Terrans launch missiles on the Farlans; an orbiting defense station destroys the Exodus II
2460: Exodus I arrives at Exile, where the remaining 300,000 colonists are allowed to land.
2461: Terra receives the message from Exodus I, about their treatment on Newhom and Carolyn, and complains to Hope City; Hope City tells Terra to find her own colonizable planets, if they don't want to screen their colonists
2469: The next starship to arrive from Bliss in the Sol System gives Terra the ultimatum: send no more ships to Bliss, unless the colonists have been more thoroughly tested; no other planet or habitat wanted Terra's sick, poor, and disenfranchised
2480: Dohr celebrates 150 years of keeping Terra from a major war, and the success of their population control measures
2500: Starship from Hope City arrives at a new solar system, 32 light-years from Sol, carrying a million colonists; half land on Paradise, and half on Kracyvy (Russian for "Beautiful")
2504: Beginning of First Interstellar War; Six Terran warships arrive in Banard's Star System, begin bombing Bliss and Farla; Farlans are the biggest part of the defense; Bliss uses the defense systems aboard the Hope and other starships to fight off the Terrans
2505: NTF takes on Hope City, half of which is destroyed; Luna comes to the rescue, chasing the NTF ships back to Terra; Dohr is completely destroyed, and hundreds of nuclear missiles are fired at Terra's surface; particle beam weapons are also used
2507: Terran warships return to Bliss and Farla, after spending three years hiding among the outer planets of that system, repairing; this time they are met in space, and two are destroyed; a third is chased out of the system by the Farlans and captured; the other three flee into space at high speed;
2508: Terra attacks Luna and Hope City; this time, ships from Venus and Mars are on hand to assist them; the Terran fleet is defeated again, but more than half of Luna's population is wiped out, as well as more of Hope City
2509: The Solar Federation blockades Terra, shooting down any ship that lifts off, and using the particle beam to destroy space ship construction sites on the surface; UTOC participates completely
2525: The three Terran warships that fled Bliss find a new solar system, and colonize New Mars and Apollos; because of limited quantities of females, a polygamous society develops, with women in charge of everything but the military
2530: Bliss builds her first starship, a trader; begins regular trips to Hope City, along with Hope.
2540: Hope City is completely rebuilt, but Luna is the new capital of the Solar Federation; oldest human ever dies in Luna City, at the age of 340 - she is survived by eleven generations of descendants
2550: Terra's population reaches two billion again, many are mutants, alive only through the use of drugs
2552: A JRB trader is destroyed between solar systems by a speck of dust;
2559: work begins on a "ramjet scoop", a magnetic field ahead of the starship which will gather up stray atoms from space, to use as fuel, and to protect future ships from collisions
2560: A pilot from JRB Trading Company retires after180 years of running between planets - he was one of the originals; due to the effect of time dilation, he is only 80 years old, subjective time;
2575: First ramjet ship is completed, the New Breed; she is launched toward Terra II, carrying 15,000 passengers;
2588: Improvement on the longevity treatment gives each person an average of 35-40 extra years
2609: New Breed arrives at Terra II, making it the fastest trip ever between the two solar systems, averaging 99% of light speed; the crew only spent six months on the 34 year trip
2612: After secretly building starships under the oceans, Terrans launch one last attack against the Solar Federation; Twenty sleek warships ravage the Sol System for three years; Stations in Terran orbit have had enough; Terran life is bombed out of existence
2615: The last Terran warship is tracked down and destroyed
2631: The last of the UTOC stations moves out of Terran orbit; UTOC is dissolved, splitting into UMOC, UVOC, and ULOC
2640: Oldest living human dies on Ganymede at 389 years
2641: Newhome becomes first of the colony worlds to surpass one billion in population
2644: Bliss also surpasses one billion; only Venus and Mars contain more humans than these two colony worlds;
2645: New Breed returns to Sol System with a load of cargo, and 300 tourists from Terra II; after six months of sightseeing, the ship returns to Terra II, with 20,000 more colonists, most of them from Luna
2646: Venus withdraws from the Solar Federation; Mars follows suit;
2647: The Republic of the Outer Planets withdraws from the SF, leaving only the orbiting city Federations, Hope City, and Luna; trade comes to a halt in the Sol System, although all the independent governments continue to trade with the Colonies
2650: After 125 years of isolation, Terran colonists on New Mars and Apollos launch their own ramjet - developed separately from the ones in the Sol System - toward their home system
2674: Second Interstellar War begins when the T.S.S. Babylon arrives in the Sol System
2674: Last known full-blooded Farlan dies of old age; all others have interbred with humans
2675: After wreaking a year of havoc in the Sol System, the Babylon heads back to Apollos, thus the end of the SIW
2678: Seismic shifting on Paradise causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, killing 80% of the inhabitants
