In all honesty, the Tales From the Long Night setting can’t accurately
be categorized as “Steampunk” any more than it is “Post-Apocalyptic” or “Dystopian.” (Emerging Civilization is more accurate.) The steampunk genre is typically more about
alternate history where steam and clockwork technology never went out of style
and frequently relies on a fantasy element or Victorian era scientific theories
that didn’t pan out, like “the luminiferous aether.” (If you’re into steampunk and wonder where
the term “Aether” came from in terms of historical scientific theory, check
this article out…
Overall, I try to keep the science
in these stories as hard as possible, although I do allow some Space Opera
conventions such as “artificial gravity” and anthropomorphic aliens (I do take
steps to ensure that the Imps aren’t just “people with things on their
foreheads.”) So while there are
airships, steam engines, and clockwork technology, those are based on existing
technologies rather than mystical Aether Crystals and suchlike. Basically, old technologies that the Gentle
Walkers blew the dust off of so folks could get things done without generating
the electromagnetic noise that could get those old blockade drones riled up.
The first limitation Ayeden’s
surviving communities face is energy. Thanks
to the “Damocles” blockade drones, the colonists can’t exactly start building
oil refineries or fusion power plants. Wood,
peat, and biogas are their main fuel sources.
While biogas would work fine for internal combustion engines, those
require electrical systems that bring us back to the sort of electromagnetic
noise that would give Damocles a tickle.
A two-stroke engine might not rise above the targeting thresholds, but
those don’t provide the horses to do any heavy moving. Diesel-style engines are also a no-go because
the colonists really can’t produce petroleum distillates in a meaningful
quantity and no community can spare the crops bio-diesel would require.
That leaves us with steam power.
Historically, the problem with steam power was that by the
time materials and metallurgy had improved enough to make steam safer and more
efficient, internal combustion had come along and provided a better power
source. While the colonists can’t
fabricate high-end alloys, composites, or ceramics on a large scale, they can
reshape and repurpose salvaged materials.
Given that they’re from a civilization that had interstellar travel, it’s
not much of a stretch to assume that their tech base had developed polymers,
alloys, and composites that would be to our modern day tech base what foamed
alloys, titanium or tungsten carbide goods would be to a Bronze Age society. So Ayeden’s boilers and steam engines are not
only efficient and safe, but are also quite superior to anything we could
produce today.
So where’d they get the equipment to work those materials? The fact that underground maglev network that
became Greenline Town has such capabilities is the result of two factors.
The first is a cultural issue at play there. In this storyverse, humanity has lost its
homeworld and damn near caught the Darwin Express to Buh-Bye centuries before
Ayeden Prime was even colonized. After
the Fall of Terra, it was considered in imperative that every community on
every colony had to be as self-sufficient as possible. Every community had to have the tools to make
tools, rather than rely on external sources for basic survival. While they didn’t have Star Trek style
replicators, it seemed reasonable that any machine shop, motor pool or equipment
bay would have on hand the high-tech, nano-bot based equivalent of a 3-D
printer. Feed in the base materials and
elements, and fabricate whatever parts you need. All that needed shipping was whatever base
elements that couldn’t be produced locally.
They couldn’t lay a starship’s keel outside a proper spaceyard, but they
could produce maglev cars and engines for example.
Ok… then why was that maglev network underground in the
first place?
That’s the second factor.
Ayeden’s on the chilly edge of its system’s liquid water zone. The equatorial regions where what we’d call “temperate”
rather than “tropical.” Throw in a more
pronounced axial tilt and a longer day/night cycle, and winter really, really,
sucked. There were open-air cities near
the equator, but communities farther from the equator were typically
underground or arcologies. Those all
fetched rocks in the initial bombardment. (The old Mutual Prosperity Coalition was big
on making examples, and was fine with scorching whatever earth they failed to
take. They intended Ayeden to be an “example”….)
The old maglev tunnels had been built underground because of
Ayeden’s environmental conditions.
Originally, they carried raw materials and passengers from the
spaceports to the outlying arcologies and cities. They were just full of maintenance bays and
depots, where parts and equipment could be fabricated as needed. The concourses and terminals also had basic medical
facilities and shops which had their own light production capacity for small
scale consumer goods.
Most of Ayeden’s current population is descended from people
who were already in that system or were close enough to shelter there when the
attack started. There are some
exceptions, like the refugees who made it there because of the Watchful Mother’s
broadcasts and the Pridesmen who originated in the southern equatorial plains which
were spared the ashfall. Not to mention
the odd Foundling here and there who constantly acted as a source of fresh
genetic material… but you’ll have to read the forthcoming Valorous Daughter for more on that…
The Terror of Twelvety Town is now available on Kindle
And Nook
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