Xerxes

Xerxes is the wealthiest (but definitely not the most populous) city of Sashar (Empty Quarter 0536), and seat of the Ustad Dat, the government of the planet. While the majority of the planet must live at TL-5 to TL-7, the flow of trade thru the Class-D Imperial Starport, thin as it is, permits the wealthiest neighborhoods to live at TL-8.

Demographics

Roughly 12 million sophonts live in this city, including one million Bwaps in the Bwap quarter, and 121,000 Vargr on their best behavior. The forces of the law are quick to expel undisciplined Vargr from their beautiful capital city; and woe to any adult -- Human, Bwap, or Vargr -- who is caught without a current work permit or authorized Noble license.

(There is more leniency to unattended and abandoned children, as they are simply rounded up and placed in government boarding schools. Naturally, after graduation they will spend time working off their education debt as soldiers, bureaucrats, city and road workers, or -- God forbid -- workhands for government terraforming projects. By the kindness of the Council of the People' Servants, all work terms have a maximum of fifteen years.)

Architecture in the Bwap quarter ingeniously uses low-tech methods to create the sealed, extremely humid environment the Bwap need to survive, including heavy use of sprinklers and mist dispensers, careful engineering of pressurized enclosures, and numerous, comfortable baths and soaking stations. Almost all street traffic is by foot or by sealed, electric go-carts and streetcars. Most of the sunlight falling on the area falls onto transparent roofs, evaporating the large water catchments and increasing local humidity; the sporadic rainfall of the area is similarly husbanded and redirected to Bwap usage.

Xerxes – Sources of Wealth

Setting aside the large (for Sashar) income generated by out-system trade, commerce, and the small but lucrative information market, the various sources of Xerxes' wealth are as follows:

Taxes

The taxes of the rest of the planet, gathered by the technocracy and funnelled to Xerxes. While much of those monies are immediately re-circulated back to the general economy, a bit of that wealth sticks to the hands of those collecting it. Over the decades, this has led to Xerxes being built up to a beautiful capital city, especially in the gilt-edged Palace District, where the major families maintain their premiere residences.

TL 6-7 fishing and aquaculture

Heavily dominated by Humans and Vargr clans, the entire Hengam Sea has been turned into a fish and kelp cultivation and harvest zone.

Water purification, distribution, and recycling trade

An exclusively Human occupation, this competitive industry purifies and pipes water to the massive cities within the Kavir Cone, a manufacturing region 500 miles inland of the Hengam Sea, where a significant fraction of the planets’ 12 billion sophonts live.

TL 8 information processing

While the populous cities of the Kavir Cone provide Sashar's TL 6-7 manufacturing plant, the design work for the major planetary corporations is handled with the TL 8 computers available in Xerxes. These machines and their networks are run and maintained by off-world expatriates, especially the Iper'Mar.

Terraforming/Waste Processing Facilities

There is a major network of terraforming/waste processing facilities on Xerxes. The same corporations that ship in water to the heavily populated cities of the Kavir Cone also pump out the organic waste generated by all those bodies. This waste is extremely useful in building up the topsoil of Sashar; it is dried, processed, and irrigated to fertilize the land.

C-hands

"The Economic Means".

At TL 5–7, most of the work is handled by a vast army of terraforming corporate workhands, hired via yearly work contracts, and paid in room, three rations of food and water, free smokes, free uniforms, medical care, and a small number of silver coins. Twenty years of profitable service is rewarded by a small pension and the possibility of a proper corporate position for their children.

"We are poor, we struggle, but we are free."

Those who elect to serve with the low-tech terraforming corporations under a lifetime contract are given 'bronze handcuffs': a permanent job, guaranteed food, shelter, clothing, and medical care until death, and free education, uniforms, and medical care for their children (up to age 16). Only a token amount of silver is paid, though: most 'money' is actually corporate script, which can be tendered only at company stores.

"Our chains rest lightly on our wrists."

G-hands

"The Political Means"

In contrast, government workhands -- usually political enemies of the State, but sometimes debtors to it -- are expected to care for themselves; refusal to work is rewarded with beatings, sometimes to death. No pay, food, shelter, or care is provided -- the workhands are expected to handle that themselves, while fulfilling their daily work allotment. Some G-hands manage to organize themselves and survive the four to fifteen years of enforced servitude until they regain their liberty; but others don't. Everyone suffers greatly during their time here, except perhaps the guards.

"We're paying the price for angering the wrong people."

The Worldbuilders -- various groups of idealists, patriots, and fanatics -- voluntarily take up the work to build up the topsoil of Sashar. The Ustad Dat ensures that they get an ample supply of dried human waste to spread across the wilderness, just as they please: otherwise, they are largely ignored. Most of these groups only last a week or a month before returning to their homes in the cities, but a few are in it for the long haul. Despite the low-prestige, low-tech, back-breaking labor, the hard core Worldbuilders get great joy in seeing previously barren fields and valleys turn into green and fertile fields, especially after the rains come. While they sometimes work for the pay of land developers, this market is dominated by the corporations: the Worldbulders generally do their work on rough land that is likely to be left uncultivated, even after the topsoil has been laid down and the first wave of hearty, drought-resistant bio-geneered plant-life has rooted itself into the soil.

"We're bringing our world to life."

I-hands

"The Illegal Means"

Subsector slavers have taken to dumping surplus cargo here in recent years. In return, they get paid enough to make it worth keeping the slaves alive a bit longer, instead of just tossing them out in jumpspace. When the planetary government can afford to pay for it, they also discourage small-time pirates from lurking around.

"This turf is taken – go play somewhere else." Naturally, they vanish when an Imperial Navy ship arrives, but somehow always reappear mere days after the Navy ships leave.

The I-hands don't officially exist, and suffer greater abuse than even the G-hands. Truly disposable slaves, they are worked very hard, and expected to scrounge for their own food and build their own shelter on their own 'copious spare time'. (In fact, they are valued as less than proper slaves, who are at least fed, housed, and receive medical treatment at the expense of their owner.) These individuals are never freed: they labor in 'the Fields of the People' until they die. Note that chattel slavery is illegal within the Third Imperium; attempts to rescue the slaves tend to result in 'disposing of the evidence'. All paper trails lead to small-time criminals, who are easily handed to the Imperium (and just as easily replaced) without a second's thought.

"A grim way for a man to die."

TL 7-8 Bwap agriculture

Most local Bwap food production only supplements the city's needs. The Bwap of other cities, who specialize in both quantity and quality production, actually produces most of the vegetable foodstuffs of the city. Most of the Bwap of Xerxes work as bureaucrats in the various government, technarch, and corporate hierarchies. A large minority work as local agents of starfarers and interstellar organizations, especially for Bwap- and Vilani-run corporations; only a relatively small minority work in food production. A rather secretive branch of the Tap-a-wewaka-atapas, referred to by Humans as 'the Plumbers', make absolutely certain that the Bwap community has access to the water they need to survive. Fortunately for all concerned, no-one has seriously threatened the independent, self-sufficient, triple-redundant Bwap water network in over a century.

References and Contributors (Sources)

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• Alvin Plummer. "Adventure: Water War." Stellar Reaches 12 (2010): 27.