Red Claw
Page 34
And, Saunders wondered, what if —
APPENDIX 1
GALAPEDIA
The Free Encyclopedia
Terraforming
* * *
From the Galapedia, the free encyclopedia for all sentient species in the Solar Neighbourhood and beyond.
Terraforming (“Earth-shaping”, from the Latin terra + form) of a planet, moon or other body is the process of making it inhabitable for human beings by altering its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth. The word itself was invented by science fiction writer Jack Nicolson in his 1942 story “Collision Orbit” and later in a series of stories published as Seette Ship in 1951. SF author Roger Zelazny pioneered the use of the word “worldscaping,” though it never caught on; and some scientists prefer to refer to the process as geoengineering or ecopoiesis (the creation of an ecology that did not previously exist, but not necessarily resembling that of Earth).
The terraforming of the Earth Solar System was a slow process, costly in human lives. It took a century to terraform Mars and 150 years to terraform Venus. However, the development of nano-technology and the development of the Bostock battery has made it possible to terraform a planet in less than 20 years.
The standard terraforming technique, known as TFX, involves the use of four terraforming satellites in orbit around the target planet. (These are sometimes colloquially referred to as Horsemen — Horseman 1, Horseman 2, Horseman 3, Horseman 4 — for reasons lost in the mists of time.) Each TFS (Terraforming Satellite) will drop Nanonets over every part of the globe which then begin the process of transforming the planet’s atmosphere into an 80 per cent nitrogen/20 per cent oxygen blend. The nets are designed to self-replicate, releasing billions of micro-organisms which are bio-engineered to absorb almost any gas and turn it into an Earth atmosphere blend at a prodigious rate until a breathable atmosphere is achieved; at which point a negative feedback loop will deftly kill all these engineered micro-organisms.
As part of this process, each Horseman will rain down upon the target planet poisons and non-radioactive fusion missiles in order to purge the target planet of all indigenous life-forms, even extremophile bacteria. This is in adherence to CSO’s Guidelines 40 a (i), which states that human settlers should never have to face the threat of being attacked by alien life on a terraformed planet, as occurred on Meconium.
In the case of planets that are too hot or too cold or have other geographical defects (such as an excessive tendency towards vulcanism, earthquakes, tidal waves or comet strikes) or that rotate too fast or rotate too slowly, or have too many suns or have annoyingly small suns or outrageously over-active suns, then more radical techniques of planetary and astrophysical engineering will be required. These include:
Solar Acceleration: throwing fusion bombs into a sun to make it burn more brightly.
Orbital Adjustment: hurling huge great missiles at a planet in order to change its orbit by small increments, or by a lot. It is generally considered wise not to inhabit a planet that is being orbitally adjusted.
“Tidying up the backyard”: hurling missiles and bombs and antimatter bombs at moons and asteroids and planetary rings that may be creating undesired tidal forces or which make the region of space around the planet look messy.
In the case of planets that already have a breathable atmosphere, the terraforming process is much simpler, and consists simply of the extermination, extinction and annihilation of all indigenous life, sentient and non-sentient, using all the techniques of planetary genocide available to the Horsemen.
Strict protocols exist (see CSO’s Guidelines 457 b (viii)) to ensure that full scientific analysis and studies are performed on any and all alien species which are to be rendered extinct. Key specimens are of course stored in embryo form or allowed to roam free in one of the many excellent Galactic Zoos.
Contents
1 History of scholarly study
2 Requirements for sustaining terrestrial life
3 Paraterraforming and nanoterraforming
4 Earth System Terraforming
4.1 Mars
4.2 Venus
4.3 Moons of Jupiter
4.4 Titan
4.5 Earth’s Moon
4.6 Asteroid Belt
4.7 Disney Planet (aka Pluto)
5 Stage 1 Solar Neighbourhood Terraforming (The First Planets)
5.1 Hope
5.2 Kornbluth
5.3 Cambria
5.4 Gullyfoyle
5.5 Pixar
5.6 Fecunda
5.7 New Earth
5.8 Rebus
5.9 Meconium
5.10 Hecuba
5.11 Heorot
5.12 Niven
5.13 Jarrold
5.14 Newton
5.15 Luce
5.16 Mavis
5.17 The Other New Earth
5.18 Xanadu
5.19 Adama
5.20 Hades
5.21 Asgard
5.22 Shadalia
5.23 Home
5.24 Moist
5.25 Verdant
5.26 Fresh Start
5.27 Journey’s End
5.28 It’ll Do
5.29 New Earth the Third
5.30 Atlantis
5.31 Marvel
5.32 Stan Lee
5.33 New World
5.34 Serenity
5.35 Kaos
5.36 Thank Fuck We’re Here
5.37 Olympus
5.38 Rachel
5.39 Clytemnestra
5.40 Paxton
5.41 Weisman
5.42 Zeigfield
6 Stage 2 Solar Neighbourhood Terraforming (The Later Planets)
(see separate index — 10,345 entries)
7 Ethical issues (DELETED)
8 Political and economic issues
9 Songs about terraforming
10 Cool time-lapse film footage of planets being terraformed
11 List of exterminated alien species; see Encyclopedia of Alien Life (Extinct or in Zoos), Walkley Press, 3,340,002 volume
12 Arguments against Terraforming (DELETED)
[edit] History of scholarly study
It has been suggested that Planetary genocide and Mass Extinctions be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
APPENDIX 2
GALAPEDIA
The Free Encyclopedia
Carl Saunders
* * *
From Galapedia, the free encyclopedia for all sentient species in the Solar Neighbourhood and beyond.
Carl Saunders
Photograph
no longer
valid after
face
transplant
Born 4 January 2301
Croydon
Greater London, England
Died Not yet
Residence Unknown due to fugitive status
Nationality English
Fields Zoology, taxonomy, geology, mathematics, poker
Institutions University of Oxford
Royal Society
Institute of Zoology
Croydon Poker School
Alma mater Jesus College, Oxford
Doctoral adviser Paul Bostock
Doctoral students William Whiston
John Wickins
Geraldine Pournelle
Nigel Burt
Andrew Hooperman
Jane Shillaker
Angela Shillaker
Robert Butler
Carlo Dusi
Lisa Neeley
Emma Adams
Alliea Nazar
Felicity Carpenter
Kurt McLeod
Elizabeth O’Halloran
Brian Dunnigan
Many More
Known for Encyclopedia of Alien Life
Theory of accelerated evolution
Attempted murder of Andrew Hooperman, colleague and former student
Creation of the first human–dinosaur chimaera
(Timothy Blake, s
ee GW entry here.)
Carl Saunders FRS is an English naturalist, explorer, professional poker player and xenobiologist. His Encyclopedia of Alien Life is said to be the greatest single work in the history of natural science. In this work, Saunders describes every species and genus of animal and plant and single-cell life on every planet ever explored by humanity. Saunders describes and classifies each species he encounters in meticulous and relentless detail, and yet also magically conjures up a sense of the alien creatures’ habitat and lifestyle and psychology in a prose style that is hauntingly evocative, and sinaesthetically vivid, and emotionally overwhelming, and spiritually compelling, and truthful, and sublime, superb, delicious, and witty, and verbose, and prolix, and strangely addictive.
His diligence as a classifier and alien “twitcher” is matched by his phenomenal theoretical expertise. He is the founder of the theory of accelerated evolution which has made possible the creation of the four key subspecies of humanity, namely Lopers, Cat People, Vacuum Dwellers and Computer Brains, and is also a pioneer of the microbiological 22-digit classification system for life, which he later disowned because he felt it lacked “soul”.
Saunders’s career has been marked by controversy, chiefly relating to his long and bitter feud with fellow naturalist and xenobiologist Andrew Hooperman. Rumours abound that Saunders left Hooperman for dead after a violent drink-fuelled altercation during their legendary Amazon Expedition, though Saunders has always roundly denied this, claiming instead that Hooperman is a “ludicrous fantasist”, a “buffoon” and a “fraud”.
According to Hooperman, the two scientists became separated from the rest of the party and trapped in the depths of the rainforest. During this time together, the two men jointly discovered a species of nocturnal hummingbird which they named Eulidia hoopermani. Elated by this triumph, the two men celebrated by drinking half a litre of 100-year-old malt whisky from Hooperman’s flask. Hooperman passed out, and when he recovered Saunders had fled, taking with him the hummingbird and all the supplies.
Hooperman, with rare courage, according to his own vivid accounts, struggled through the rainforest, despite contracting malaria and suffering extreme dehydration and hunger. When he reached civilisation he was nursed back to health by kindly nuns. And on recovering consciousness, he immediately wrote an account on his blog of the whole tawdry betrayal, which was widely reported by the print and internet press and was the basis for a dire TV movie called Deadly Feud in the Forest.
Saunders, by contrast, argues that Hooperman’s account is bollocks, the product of a crazed mind. According to Saunders, the whisky they drank was 25 years old, not 100, and they drank in moderation. During the night, however, Hooperman crept away carrying the hummingbird. When he finally awoke — after his usual deep and untroubled sleep — Saunders was amused at the joke, and cheerfully strolled fifty or so miles to civilisation. There he was dumbfounded to learn that Hooperman had accused him of attempted murder. Saunders further argued that his subsequent treatment at the hands of the Peruvian police was brutal and unfair; but his allegations that police officers took bribes from Hooperman with an instruction to “give the bastard a walloping” were never substantiated.
Many books have been written about this notorious affair, including Deadly Feud: How Saunders Betrayed Hooperman by Robert Hooperman, the scientist’s adopted son, and Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: the Hummingbird, Saunders and Hooperman, by Arnold Michaelson.
The controversy heightened when, after years of rivalry between the two men, Hooperman published his essay “J’accuse Carl Saunders”, in which he accused his former mentor and colleague of falsifying data about alien species and plagiarising the work of others, notably Hooperman himself. Saunders subsequently took out a libel action against Hooperman. In this celebrated legal action Saunders chose to represent himself, and after forty consecutive days in the witness stand, talking eloquently and swiftly and entirely without notes, he succeeded in refuting every allegation made against him and won substantial damages. Hooperman was forced to self-publish a humiliating rebuttal of his wholly fallacious and malicous accusations, entitled And Yet It Moves.
The enmity between these two scientists erupted into violence when Hooperman was nearly killed by a bomb inserted in the cover of an illustrated edition of Hooperman’s much-acclaimed Hooperman’s Tree of Life. Police quickly identified Carl Saunders as the chief suspect, after discovering an email sent to Hooperman in which Saunders wrote: “Serves you right, you evil bastard! You deserve to die!”
Carl Saunders is currently a fugitive from the law and faces the death penalty. His Encyclopedia of Alien Life, however, continues to be updated online, thanks to the thousands of researchers, many of them former students of Saunders, who have dedicated themselves to continuing his work.
Contents
• 1 Biography
• 1.1 Early years
• 1.2 Middle years
• 1.3 Post-Rejuve Years
• 1.3.1 Natural Science
• 1.3.2 Alien Science
• 1.3.3 Theoretical work
• 1.4 Post-Fugitive developments
• 2 The Chimaera
• 2.1 The process of dinosaur DNA extraction
• 2.2 Controversy and eco-terrorism
• 2.3 Homo saurus interviewed
• 3 Saunders and Hooperman: dawn of the feud
• 4 Saunders disgraced
• 5 Hooperman disgraced
• 6 Fisticuffs in the Royal Society café
• 7 The Encyclopedia of Alien Life
• 8 Accelerated Evolution
• 9 The Saunders 22-Digit Taxonomy System
• 10 Saunders’s repudiation of the Saunders
22-Digit Taxonomy System
• 11 The general annoyance at Saunders’s repudiation of the Saunders 22-Digit Taxonomy System
• 12 Fame and Infamy
• 13 Poker: the Saunders Method
• 14 Footnotes and references
• 15 Resources
• 15.1 References
• 15.2 Further reading
• 16 See also External links
extras
meet the author
Credit: Charlie Hopkinson
PHILIP PALMER’s first novel was Debatable Space, but he has previously written for radio, television, and film. He lives in London. Find out more about Philip Palmer at www.philippalmer.net.
introducing
If you enjoyed
RED CLAW,
look out for
BELLADONNA
by Philip Palmer
The Cop was in a cheerful mood. The sky was a rich blue. The twelve moons of Belladonna shone like globes on a Christmas tree in the daytime sky. He could smell orchids.
He was one-day old. He would, his database warned him, grow more jaded with the passage of time. But for the moment, life felt good.
It was a short walk from the spaceport to the crime scene. He was in constant subvocal contact with the Sheriff, Gordon Heath, and the crime scene photos scrolled in front of his eyes as he walked. But the air was fresh, and the orchids were fragrant, and so were the roses, and the hollyhocks, and the grass. The Cop registered felt a faint stirring of remembered regret.
“I’m Sheriff Heath.”
“I’m aware of that,” said the Cop.
“Pleased to meet you too,” the Sheriff chided, and the Cop registered the hint of irony, but decided it would be politic to ignore it.
The Cop and the Sheriff were standing outside a twelve-storey hotel made of black brick with a spire that touched the sky. Police officers had cordoned off the area with holos proclaiming POLICE and MURDER SCENE — KEEP AWAY. Pedestrians on moving walkways were gawping as they swept past, thrilled at the glimpse of a terror that had passed them by.
“Sheriff, feel free to call me Luke,” the Cop added, in a belated attempt to build a rapport, though this was not and never had been his name.
“Sure, I’ll do that.
‘Luke.’ ”
This time, there was a hint of lurking scorn, but the Cop chose to ignore that too.
Sheriff Heath, the Cop noted, looked shockingly old — too old perhaps for cosmetic rejuve? — though his body was fit and strong. He was bald, heavily wrinkled, with a grey walrus moustache, and peering blue eyes. The Cop had been impressed at his bio: soldier, pirate, artist, scientist and bartender. Now, he was Sheriff of the 4th Canton of Lawless City.
“Through here.”
The holograms of the crime scene didn’t do justice to its horror. Blood and human flesh spattered the walls and ceilings. A screaming severed head was impaled on the bed; inside the mouth, which gaped unnaturally large, was a human heart, squeezed and squirted.
The Cop adjusted his decontam forcefield and hovered back and forth a centimeter from the ground. He used his finger-tweezers to take samples of blood and flesh, and mentally tried to keep a tally of the corpses. He saw legs and hands and entrails and a set of lungs that had fallen under the bed, and he noted that the carpets were damp with piss and strewn with half-digested food from the shredded stomachs of the victims.
At one point the Cop glanced behind, and was startled to see that the Sheriff was pale, and looked as if he wanted to throw up.
“Murder weapon?”
“We found nothing. We don’t know what could have done this.”
“Plasma beam? Samurai sword?”
“Look closer.”
The Cop looked closer.
* The editors acknowledge the exemplary scholarship of the twentieth-century academic and writer Jorge Luis Borges, who located and cited this epic work in his book The Analytical Language of John Wilkins (El idioma analítico de John Wilkins).
1 He grunted and said, “Whatever”, which on past experience I believe to be a form of tacit assent.