by David Weber
Sphinx’s major industries are mining, forestry, and animal husbandry. Industry has been slow to develop but is now beginning to make considerable ground. Planetary population as of the 1920 PD census (291 AL) is approximately 1.1 billion humans and twelve million treecats.
Sphinx is orbited by Her Majesty’s Space Station Vulcan, the second largest construction and commerce node in the home system, as well as two small moons, Perseus and Bellerophon.
Gryphon (Manticore-B V)
Radius: 5,939 km
Gravity: 1.05 G
Orbit Period: 615.51 T-days
Sidereal Day: 22.71 hours
Hydrosphere: 51%
Of the three habitable planets in the Manticore Binary System, Gryphon’s diameter, mass and planetary density are the closest to Earth’s. It is only borderline habitable, however, due to the slight hydrosphere and parts of its continental interiors are nearly Martian in their arid beauty.
Gryphon is a world of extremes. While the hydrosphere covers a relatively small percentage of its surface, its oceans are comparatively deep, providing the thermal reservoir that makes Gryphon habitable even with the combination of extreme axial tilt and large orbital radius. The end result is a rugged “continental” climate with extremely cold winters and, relatively speaking, scorching summers.
Gryphon has trade-worthy concentrations of rare earth elements and fissionable materials, but is otherwise mineral-poor. More than two hundred kilometers from the coasts, the land is dry for half the local year, then drenched as the fall rains come, which are followed by a hard freeze. Gryphon’s stark beauty, mountainous terrain, and excellent skiing make the recreation industry a primary contributor to the planetary economy. The planet is also home to a disproportionately robust planetary industrial infrastructure, partly because of ease of access to the Unicorn Belt and the Royal Manticoran Navy’s policy of basing much of its primary R&D complex there and producing many of its prototypes in Gryphon’s shipyards. As of 1920 PD, Gryphon had a planetary population of no more than six hundred million.
Her Majesty’s Space Station Weyland orbits Gryphon. It is significantly smaller than both Hephaestus and Vulcan, with an average population of just over three hundred thousand. Since the beginning of the war it has been closed to all civilian traffic. Gryphon has a single large moon, named Egg, which produces extreme tides on its deep, narrow oceans.
Unicorn Belt
The Unicorn Belt is the primary resource extraction location in the Manticore Binary System, being both the innermost and richest of the three asteroid belts in the Manticore-B subsystem. Just outside the hyper limit, at any given time there are at least twenty resource extraction motherships working their way around the belt, each with dozens of ore boats serving its needs.
Total Belter population as of 1920 PD was approximately three hundred million.
The Manticore Wormhole Junction
The Manticore Wormhole Junction, the largest wormhole junction so far discovered, has secondary termini at no less than seven other star systems. The “reach” of those termini give the Junction a critical location in the wormhole network, which has made it indispensable to the Manticore System’s thriving economy. A trip from the Core to the Verge via the wormhole, for example, could reduce travel time by upwards of six months as compared to making the same voyage through hyper-space. This generates substantial savings in operating costs and permits carriers to make many more voyages in the same time window.
Those advantages have allowed a star system with less than one-fifth the population of the Sol System to grow to a Gross System Product equal to seventy-eight percent that of the Sol System by 1900 PD and to exceed it comfortably by 1920, despite the strain of a major war against a far larger adversary. This is possible in no small part because the combined termini of the Junction directly cover an irregular volume of space over a thousand light-years across its widest point. The proximity to other wormholes and their warp bridges extends the Junction’s “reach” still further, however. For example, it would take 18.5 T-months for a freighter in the delta bands to make the 1,680-light-year voyage from Basilisk to the system of Mullins on the far side of the Solarian League. By way of the Junction and the warp bridge connecting Mullins to the Titania System, 116 light-years from Beowulf, the same ship can make the same trip in only thirty-eight days, or less than seven percent of the longer time. The implications for the transport of freight and passengers are apparent, and those same implications apply to the transportation of information, helping to explain Manticore’s emergence as the explored galaxy’s premier banking and financial markets center.
The wormhole nexus lies 412 light-minutes from Manticore A. First transit was made in 1585 PD, to Beowulf, followed within a few years by Trevor’s Star and Hennesy, and, over the years since by Gregor, Matapan, Basilisk, and most recently, Lynx.
Substantial levels of Crown revenue are directly derived from Junction usage fees and service fees from infrastructure usage, but the Junction also underpins a banking and financial market, dependent upon information flow through the Junction, which constitutes a very significant percentage of the total Manticoran economy. Junction fees are computed based on a fixed base transit fee, applicable to all vessels and modified by type of ship, size of ship, cargo carried or passengers embarked, and the normal-space distance between the termini used. Maritime law currently recognizes three types of commercial vessels: courier, passenger carrier, and freighter. Couriers are charged the base fee at a small multiplier. Freighters and passenger carriers pay an additional fee based on the “empty” tonnage of the ship, plus a surcharge per ton of cargo or passenger embarked, and all vessels are assessed an additional fee equal to 2.5 percent per light-century of normal-space distance covered in the transit. (That is, for the four hundred seventy-five light-years between Manticore and Beowulf, the total fee multiplier would be roughly 15 percent.)
Even with the increase in usage fees due to the Star Empire’s need to fund a war, the savings are still sufficiently compelling that traffic through the Junction has done nothing but increase. The expansion of the Junction’s “reach” through its newly discovered termini, plus the opening of additional hyper bridges in several spots around the Solarian League’s periphery, helps to account for much of the increased usage. At the same time, the sixty-percent discount on transit fees for Manticoran-owned and -registered vessels has simultaneously forced Solarian shipping houses to cut prices to remain competitive and driven more and more of the galaxy’s shipping under the Manticoran flag, increasing Manticore’s share of the galactic merchant marine. This has fanned long-standing resentment on the part of many Solarians, who feel that the Star Kingdom of Manticore has long used the Junction’s leverage to increase the size of its own merchant fleet at the expense of other star nations, including the Solarian League.
In addition to usage fees, an entire sub-economy has sprung up specifically to service the activity tied to Junction traffic. While not flowing directly into the Crown’s coffers, revenue is still generated indirectly via various taxes. A large number of platforms providing warehousing and transshipment stations, maintenance and refueling facilities, and financial offices are located in the vicinity of the Junction. The majority of these platforms (which must be equipped with station keeping drive capability in order to maintain position with the Junction) are owned by one or more of the Manticoran cartels, sometimes with participation by one or more of the Solarian transstellars, although the Star Kingdom has pursued a deliberate policy to discourage outright non-Manticoran ownership of such facilities. Despite that, there is room for smaller players who tend to specialized markets, such as the foodstuffs trade or environmentally controlled storage. In addition, the Junction makes the Manticore Binary System a logical shipbuilding hub, and the Star Kingdom’s commercial shipyards are among the largest and most efficient in the known galaxy. Indeed, a sobering percentage of humanity’s total merchant fleet, and especially of its more modern units, is the prod
uct of Manticoran builders.
The sheer volume of traffic through the Junction also means that even though emergencies are low-probability events, they nonetheless happen on a frequent basis. Junction search-and-rescue capabilities are among the galaxy’s best, and its service platforms can handle virtually any urgent refit. For those without a pressing issue, the stations can provide environmental replenishment, and a large number of “rest and recreation” platforms offer temporary lodging and entertainment facilities for crews and passengers on layover.
Physical goods are not the only thing shipped through the wormhole. As already noted, the Junction is also a natural focal point for the galaxy’s financial institutions. A number of banks and financial firms have major branches located on stations around the Junction, on one or more of the major inner-system habitats, or on the planet Manticore itself. A large fleet of dispatch vessels, many owned by the firms themselves, stand ready to carry encrypted fund transfers rapidly anywhere in the galaxy, via the wormhole network. The banks also facilitate credit voucher redemptions and currency exchanges. If money is the lifeblood of the galaxy, then the Manticoran Wormhole Junction could be considered its heart.
Management of the wormhole is provided by the Manticoran Astro Control Service (ACS). While responsible for all traffic in the Manticore System and its termini-connected systems, ACS is primarily concentrated around the Junction due to the high volume of traffic. While ACS is a civilian service, it does coordinate with the Royal Manticoran Navy in order to track traffic in the system, with the RMN enforcing ACS’s traffic control and conducting customs inspections. As a secondary responsibility, ACS also controls intrasystem civilian search-and-rescue craft for any space-based emergency response.
The Old Star Kingdom
The Old Star Kingdom consists of the Manticore Binary System along with the Basilisk System, Trevor’s Star System and Lynx System. All three secondary members anchor their respective ends of the Manticore Wormhole Junction and were added before the Star Kingdom formally became the Star Empire of Manticore.
The Basilisk System was annexed by Manticore in 1865 PD after the terminus was fully surveyed, but a vicious political squabble over the rights of the native sentient species of the planet Medusa delayed the formal declaration of sovereignty over the entire system. The political fallout after the Havenite attempt to seize the system in 1901 allowed the Cromarty Government to formally annex Basilisk as a member system, with the provision that formal admission of Medusans as full citizens of the Star Kingdom would occur after a fifty-year period. At that time they would be allowed to vote on whether to accept or refuse membership.
San Martin, in the Trevor’s Star System, was a longtime ally of the Star Kingdom until it was conquered by the expanding People’s Republic of Haven in 1883 PD. The system was liberated in 1911 during the First Havenite War and formally requested membership into the Star Kingdom in 1914.
Lynx was the fourth and final member of the Old Star Kingdom, having requested membership in 1919 PD, shortly after the first survey transit of what was eventually called the Lynx Terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction. The terminus is anchored near MQ-L-1792-46A, a planetless M8 star approximately four light-years from the Lynx System.
Silesian Confederacy
The decision to partition the Silesian Confederacy was, essentially, an understanding between Queen Elizabeth III and Emperor Gustav XI which recognized the ultimate failure of the Silesian Confederacy as a government.
Arguably, the annexations by the then-Star Kingdom and the Andermani were territory grabs. In the context of their individual and mutual experiences in the Confederacy, however, it is an understandable reaction to the chaos that has reigned almost since the Confederacy was founded. Manticore and the Andermani had provided most of what little stability was present in the area for many decades prior to the partition, expending a great deal of money and many lives in fighting piracy and “privateers” licensed by various breakaway governments. Moreover, the region remained a dangerous potential flashpoint for both star nations. While both have both profited enormously from trade and shipping, the Andermani have long coveted control of Silesia, in no small part because of the way in which Silesian instability tended to spill over onto the Andermani Empire, whose borders lie much closer to the Confederacy. Manticore, with the greater insulation provided by distance but only a single transit away via the Manticoran Wormhole Junction, has traditionally been less than sympathetic to that aspect of the Andermani’s Silesian policy. This has been a source of considerable tension over the years as the Royal Manticoran Navy has traditionally served as the primary counterbalance to Andermani ambitions. Ultimately, Elizabeth realized that agreeing to a division which permitted Emperor Gustav to address those “spillover” issues once and for all was in the interest of the Star Kingdom, given its need to retain the Andermani as an ally. The Silesian government consented to the annexation in 1920 PD and assigned its powers to the respective star nations, although individual system governments were left in place.
The Andermani-administered portion of the former confederation has been subjected to typical Andermani policy. Using the Imperial Andermani Navy (IAN) as the steel fist inside the velvet glove, the Andermani have put an efficient, if not unduly gentle, stop to the piratic depredations and insurrectionary movements. While planetary governments have been left largely in place, the Empire has made it clear to them that membership in the Empire is a privilege they would do best to accept gracefully. Faced with Andermani firmness and the gratitude of system populations no longer subject to cronyism, corruption, and bloodshed, only the most foolish of system governments would dare disagree.
By contrast, the SEM-administered areas have been treated somewhat more gently. By and large, the Star Empire has allowed local governments to continue functioning, subject to the adoption of personal liberties laws matching those of the Manticoran constitution and monitoring by Manticoran Foreign Office advisors. A small number, however, have been placed under direct Manticoran control, with appointive governors, due to special local circumstances, generally related to residual corruption, cronyism, human rights violations, and support for local brigandage. Each star system will be allowed an individual plebiscite on the decision to become full, permanent members of the Star Empire, on approximately the same terms as the Talbott Cluster, pending the completion of certain specifically defined milestones related to human rights, electoral participation, and government and law enforcement transparency. Under the Silesian Protectorate Act as adopted by Parliament, systems which decline to seek admission or fail to meet the required milestone will be retained permanently in protectorate status, although there is provision under the Act for this to be amended.
The occupation is under the jurisdiction of Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN) Admiral Mark Sarnow, serving as Queen Elizabeth’s appointed civilian governor as well as the commanding officer of all RMN units in Silesian space, assisted by Lieutenant Governor Lord James Bannion, Baron Jurgenson, a career Foreign Office diplomat. Accounting for every Confederacy Navy hull has proved difficult due to a combination of the chaotic way in which records were kept and a tendency for Silesian “naval officers” with pre-partition connections to Silesian criminal enterprises to disappear with their ships into the ranks of pirates, smugglers, and other criminal actors. Sarnow has also met some passive resistance in decommissioning obsolescent units, yet the effort continues and has recently begun gathering speed under his skillful direction.
Both the RMN and IAN have been granted the right of hot pursuit into the other’s respective jurisdictions in case of piracy or other military action. The Andermani have also fully recognized the treaty between the Sidemore Republic and the SEM as well as the RMN’s Sidemore Station.
Talbott Quadrant
The Talbott Cluster was long regarded as a galactic backwater which must inevitably be incorporated into the Solarian League. League expansion was predicted to reach the Cluster sometime in the 1930s, a
nd the League had considered it within its sphere of interest for well over half a century, since the Office of Frontier Security’s (OFS’s) establishment of the neighboring Madras Sector in 1862 PD. Due to its location, the Cluster was also of some immediate concern to Mesa, which had interests in the area if only because of simple proximity. Much to the irritation of both Mesa and the OFS, however, a terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction was discovered near the Lynx System in 1919 PD.
This discovery quickly led to Lynx’s successful application for inclusion into the Star Kingdom, followed shortly by plebiscites from each government in the Cluster to decide whether their star nation would also seek Manticoran annexation. Not all star systems within the volume of the Cluster voted to join the Star Kingdom, but representatives of those which did gather in the Spindle System in 1920 to draft a Clusterwide constitution. Although not without controversy or violence, the Talbott Constitutional Convention was relatively straightforward, despite alleged Mesan and OFS attempts to destabilize the cluster to prevent it joining the Manticoran system, and the new constitution was ratified in January 1921.
Because of the astrography and the distances involved (the Lynx Terminus is 612 light-years from the Manticore Binary System) the Cluster’s annexation (as the Talbott Quadrant) prompted the change of the Star Kingdom of Manticore into the Star Empire and the introduction of a federal model of government. The Quadrant is administered by an Imperial Governor (in the person of Lady Dame Estelle Matsuko, Baroness Medusa) as the Crown’s direct representative. It has its own Parliament and executive branch with the Spindle System as Quadrant capital and the location of the RMN’s Talbott Station. By the standards of Manticore, the star nations in the Quadrant are somewhat backward, and income inequality is a problem in several of them. Local governmental forms range from democracies to nations controlled by ruling oligarchies, although most nations have democratically elected governments.
