Background Info – Planet Belos
I wrote this with Dragon, so please excuse any mistakes.
Appendix: Belos
The planet Belos was extremely unfortunate in that it both possessed three gravity points and the native intelligent race (the Belosi), being barely more advanced than Earth’s Middle Ages, was utterly unable to defend itself when the planet was discovered. The Tichck discoverers, in line with Galactic protocols of the time, declared a protectorate over the planet and promised they would work to uplift the natives until they could stand on their own two feet. Unfortunately, in line with Galactic history, the protectorate is run solely for the benefit of the so-called protectors and the interests of the natives are never take into account. The galaxy simply doesn’t care.
The planet is unusual in that it has one large continent rather than several smaller continents broken up by vast oceans. The natives had no trouble spreading out to occupy most of the continent by the time the Galactics arrived, something that may account for their slow technological development. (The protectors insist the Belosi are inherently dull-witted and need protection for their own good, but when their studies are checked by Repeatable academics and adjusted for circumstance they appear to be as intelligent and capable as the galactic average.) Almost nothing is known about the world as it was before the galaxy intruded and what little there remains is generally assumed to be propaganda rather than genuine historical records. The local culture was effectively destroyed very quickly, and wherever social structures existed prior to the invasion were either repurposed or simply eradicated. There are tales passed down by a handful of Belosi lorekeepers, but it is impossible to tell if they are genuine or nothing more than make-believe whispers of a vanished world. A number are, in fact, designed to tell the Belosi that they must obey their masters, suggesting a more recent origin. The only disproof of this is a simple fact that their masters don’t care. They see no reason to treat the Belosi as anything other than helpless slaves.
On paper, the planet is ruled for the benefit of its natives and power will be transferred to them when they are capable of handling it. In practice, the planet is ruled by a corporate power structure, almost completely dominated by the Tichck (see below), and the Board of Directors has near-absolute power. There is almost no democracy, let alone political representation, for anyone, unless they own shares in the planetary consortium. It is theoretically possible for anyone to buy and vote shares, and a considerable number of Tichck own shares, but in practice there are very few individuals with the wealth it would require to buy enough shares to have any major influence on policy.
The Board of Directors appoints the city mayors and ruling councils, the senior security and military officers and nearly every other major position on the planet. These offices are expected to select their own subordinates for family connections and competence, the latter coming a very distant second. The formal chain of command is actually very simple. The informal chain, a patron-client system open only to the Tichck, is far more confusing. It is often very difficult to determine how much formal or informal authority any given officer possesses, at least not without being able to trace the informal chain of command. This system, naturally, is a breeding ground for vast corruption. It is not an exaggeration to say the planet is amongst the most corrupt in the known universe. Nearly every smuggling organisation or underground criminal association has at least a small presence on Belos.
There are three major megacities on the planet’s surface, housing everything from the planets governing elite to corporate headquarters, surface industrial facilities, and everything else a modern planet requires. The megacities are brutally stratified, with the ruling and visiting population rarely having to encounter their servants on anything other than their own terms. The servants themselves live in slums, barracks, and warrens, where they are kept isolated when they not on duty. They are permanently indebted to their masters and, no matter how much they work, it is rare for any of them to gain their freedom. Any trouble causing is met with heavy punishment, no matter how minor the offence. It is not uncommon for a personal servant to be whipped to death and then replaced very quickly.
There is a very small population of free Belosi, but they are too tiny to gain any real traction. Even they are subject to laws that ensure they remain, at best, third-class citizens. They have very few protections from security harassment, or the punishment meted out to actual slaves. Most keep their heads down and try not to be noticed.
Outside the cities, the planet is a wasteland. Large tracks of land surface have been devoted to plantation slavery, with the slaves raising bioengineered crops that are a vital part of the galactic economy. Other sections are devoted to mining, corporate experimentation, and raising troops, the latter mercenaries bred and trained for service off-world. The Belosi are treated like cattle, born and bred for service in an increasingly poisonous environment. There is no technological reason the system cannot be made a great deal kinder, and less environmentally damaging, but the ruling powers simply do not care. They are aware that the Belosi are becoming increasingly unhealthy, on a planet that is effectively being reformed, yet this has not forced any change of plan. Their intention is to ship in labourers from other worlds, rather than make their endeavours more environmental friendly or even genetically engineer the Belosi for the new environment.
The plantations are heavily policed. All Belosi are supposed to be noted and logged in the security records and any Belosi found anywhere outside their assigned area is arrested, detained, and either shipped to a penal camp or simply executed. Despite this, there is an underground of rebels devoted to learning as much as possible about their masters and finding a way to escape their control, with camps in the rougher parts of the planet and cells in both plantations and cities. The ruling class are aware there is a rebel movement, but they are largely unconcerned. The Belosi simply do not have the weapons they need to liberate themselves, or the contacts with the rest of galaxy they need to purchase weapons and supplies. Indeed, despite years of contact and enslavement, the Belosi understanding of the outside galaxy is very limited.
There are two major other alien populations on the planet itself. The Tichck are a hyper-capitalist race, the logical end results of unfettered capitalism. Their ruling class is known for making robber barons look sweet and kindly, ruthlessly exploiting everyone beneath them in search of a quick buck. They do not, oddly, regard anyone who inherited his wealth with great respect, expecting the son of a tycoon to display the same ruthlessness as his father. The lesser classes are often indebted to their superiors and have to work hard to keep from being exploited; indeed, one of their few good points is that they are completely non-sexist, but only because a lack of overt sexism gives them more people to exploit. Their society is surprisingly flexible as well as solid and it is possible, at least in theory, to rise to the top from nothing. This rarely works in practice and it doesn’t work at all if one is not a Tichck. Their system does not allow aliens (non-Tichck ) to rise above a certain level.
The Tichck speak Galactic One, as might be expected of a race that has been spacefaring for so long, but they follow rules of etiquette that are surprising even to the rest of the Galactics. A superior is expected to condescend to an inferior and an interior is expected to praise his superior to a level that most humans would regard as utterly excessive. Their formal speech is very flowery and they have a tendency to dance around for hours, establishing the pecking order, before they get down to business. The best way to deal with them, unless one happens to be from a major interstellar power, is to genuflect and grovel. There are few upsides to this. Unlike human despots, the Tichck are rarely distracted by flattery, no matter how excessive. They regard it as their due. When talking to races that are not so impressed by their high opinion of themselves, the Tichck normally send representatives rather than come in person. It is rare for them to bend this policy and it is almost always a very bad sign.
The Tichck have, as one might expect, a bad reputation amongst the other Galactics. They are hated and feared, both for their ruthlessness and for their willingness to bend the word of a contract as far as it would go without actually breaking it. They are, amongst other things, the galaxy’s foremost loan sharks; they have few qualms about offering loans to primitive races, isolated colonies, and unsteady corporations, then ruthlessly moving in to collect the collateral if the debts are not repaid. They have, in fact, developed a willingness to sell anything to anyone, provided the money is proffered upfront. Their only major saving grace, as far as the rest of the galaxy is concerned, is that the Tichck will always honour the word of a contract, once signed. That does not keep them, of course, from looking for loopholes. Any Galactic dealing with the Tichck is strongly advised to have every last section of the contract carefully checked and analysed before signing on the dotted line.
The other major race is a sizeable population of Subdo, representatives of a race that was discovered when they were too technologically advanced to be easily crushed, but too primitive to avoid subordination. The Subdo are the galaxy’s foremost administrators as well as corporate mid-ranking personnel, as well as serving as slave masters and security troops. The Tichck use Subdo to run the plantations and keep the Belosi in line. They accomplish this task with gusto. They have a racial inferiority complex that makes them grovel to members of any superior race and, at the same time, humiliate and crush their inferiors. Unlike the Belosi, the Subdo are advanced enough to appreciate the immense gap between themselves and the major Galactics. They do not take it well.
It is often said that the Subdo are the most bureaucratic race in the known galaxy. This may be true. It is true that they are often amongst the most obstructionist of races, insisting that paperwork be filled out properly before they can even consider doing anything to assist the petitioner. They have been known to slow-walk bureaucratic procedures when they don’t consider them to be in their interests, or even to conceal embarrassing or inconvenient pieces of paperwork within the files. It is speculated that this is a form of passive-aggressive resistance to their masters, although it is unclear if the Tichck – with their penchant for flowery speech – have ever noticed. They are capable, however, of acting with extraordinarily speed when they believe it necessary. They’re also well-known for bearing grudges well past the point of rationality.
There are enclaves of numerous other races, mainly corporate representatives and staffers, but few of them are particularly important. They are closely monitored, and they live in the awareness that their long-stay visas can be confiscated at any moment followed by summery deportation.
Beyond the planet’s atmosphere, the system is heavily settled. The Tichck encouraged the development of industrial nodes, asteroid habitats, shipyards and anything else required to build and develop a modern economy. The gravity points ensure a constant stream of starships pass through, all of which are induced to spend their wages in the system. Galactic hotels, entertainment complexes, and anything else a spacer might require are easily found, and the Tichck can be relied upon to look the other way if our visitor wants something that would be frowned upon, if not considered outright illegal, on their homeworlds. They generally turn a blind eye to such things unless they cause local disturbance. A spacer who gets drunk or drugged and winds up in trouble will generally be deported, unless they does something that requires payment. If they or their employers are unwilling or unable to pay, they will be involuntary indebted and put to work to pay off the debt. The Tichck generally don’t push these debts too far, for fear of outside reaction but they do insist that the debt paid before the criminal is allowed to leave the system.
The planet’s future appears to be bleak. The Belosi are finding the environmental damage increasingly difficult to tolerate. It appears likely that their population will start to decline sharply in no less than five hundred years, unless action is taken now. There are almost no Belosi outside their homeworld, and certainly no breeding population, raising the spectre of the species becoming entirely extinct. The Tichck plans to bring in other races to do the grunt labour may work on paper, but almost anyone else would be far more aware of how badly they are being treated and how unlikely it is that they will be able to work themselves free of debt. The Tichck will be required to expand their security arrangements massively, if they wish to stave off a major revolt, but this will make their system even more inefficient and sent profits plunging downwards. The gravity points cannot be moved, yet there is little else the world offers that cannot be found elsewhere.
Outside intervention may be the only hope the Belosi have of survival, but there are few races willing to take on the Tichck. Their fate appears certain.
