Cretaceous Clay And The Ninth Ring
Page 49
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“Another common question: How did Nodlon come to be?
“Nodlon began as a mine. Most of us forget our Thornmocker is Daniel Donald Thornmocker the sixth. His grandfather’s grandfather started Thornmocker Industries, and it was his grandfather who started Nodlon.
“T. I. was a global mining firm in the first century. Ironically, Nodlon owes its existence to coal and the invention of anti-gravity technology by Marconi Blaze.
“Thornmocker started mining where Nodlon is today to supply complex hydrocarbons for the construction of the Great Space Station of Ur. No one would haul carbon out of Earth's gravity well on hydrogen perchlorate or any other chemical fuel, but the anti-gravity solved that problem.
“We forget the great space stations required air, water, and complex hydrocarbons. Before they established the space lines from the Oort Cloud and built the refineries on Mars, Earth was the nearest source of carbon.
“They started Ur just prior to the first Regressive War, and it took the vast majority of Thornmocker's hydrocarbons. After they finished Ur, the mine fell on hard times. The Regressive Wars had all but shut down Earth’s economy and the demand for raw natural resources had fallen to an all-time low.
“With the family business threatened, Thornmocker started Nodlon. He turned the mine into a resort for the elite of the Solar System. Nodlon sits in a spectacular valley in Wyoming, and it was easy to throw a shield over the surface and construct a paradise. The mines served as a city under the city.
“Nodlon’s resemblance to The Time Machine was no accident. Thornmocker modeled Nodlon’s society after H. G. Well's novel. He named the city Nodlon after London, and he deliberately fashioned a community after the Victorian era. He got the idea from a trip to London in the late second century. He wanted everyone to remember the city before it was nuked.
“To his credit, Thornmocker wanted to make sure the biots were not abused – at least not in his opinion. Biots weren't treated quite as poorly as one might expect. If the biots weren't happy, at least they tolerated their lives and were never pushed to the point of revolt.
“History records that free biots voluntarily moved to Nodlon even before the Aftershock War. The decision had long term consequences since revolts and bloodshed prevented other powers from arising during the dark days when no one else on Earth dared hand a biot anything more lethal than a popsicle stick.
“After Colonel Justin won the Aftershock War, he emancipated all the biots who served Nodlon during the war. Dwarves were not left out, but there are very few free dwarves living in Nodlon today. Most dwarves are not free – or ‘under contract’ in Nodlon’s society – because they were a new model when the war started. Very few dwarves were able to serve and so very few received manumission.
“Nodlon rose as a superpower in the Solar System because she had three things no one else had: The manna generators of Rickover Station, space yards to build interplanetary supertankers and warcraft, and a highly educated, trained, and loyal staff of free biots.
“No one else had the labor base after the war. Other populations living on the surface perished in acts of war, but Nodlon’s biots lived underground and her elite moved to the Ninth Ring. When other kingdoms had no skilled labor, Nodlon counted on its free elves, goblins and molemen to serve as craftsmen, tradesmen, and working stiffs.
“Offworld ne'er do wells focus on Nodlon because all the other terrestrial powers were blasted back to the stone age and are still recovering. No one wants to tangle with Nodlon’s navy however. Nodlon is the world’s sole superpower and the only surviving nuclear power on the planet.”