Freelance Traveller

Prestwick

by Richard Perks

Ganith is a solar weather station providing Prestwick and passing spacecraft with warning of violent solar activity on Sitva. Virriko is a government-owned maintenance facility for the various navigation beacons positioned around the small gas giant Dupperda. The 3 rings around Waylori form a spectacular view from Prestwick’s night sky. They are abnormally dense compared to normal ring systems with some bodies with dimensions approaching 50 metres. The primitive port facilities on several barren worlds are primarily stopping points for space going tourist trips – Zero G day trips.

History

Prestwick was settled during the Nth Interstellar war period as a sister colony to Dawns. It was primarily to provide protein rich seafood supplements to the advancing Terran Confederation fleet and the various growing Terran Confederation outposts. Its population consisted of pacific islanders displaced several centuries earlier when the Terran Confederation confiscated their islands to provide planetary defence sites around the pacific during the dark days of the early interstellar wars. The population was primarily Polynesian, with significant minorities from Asia and China, together with a handful of Europeans left over from the various 20th century European empires.

The population soon grew and Prestwick became a flourishing agricultural (sea farming) colony by the end of the Interstellar Wars. It has developed some basic industry and seabed mining (primarily bauxite nodules dredged from the sea floor and refined into Aluminium using the plentiful wave and wind power). The colony had reached a population of approximately 500,000 and a TL9 when the long night fell.

The planet regressed to TL4 during the Long Night, although the benign planetary conditions allowed the pre-twilight population levels to continue. By –500IE, interstellar traffic levels started to pick up, and Prestwick became a minor stopover for free traders. The native Polynesian hospitality made Prestwick a favoured stopover for traders in the know.

Prestwick was contacted by long range IISS scouts early in the 200’s together with most of the worlds in this cluster. Preliminary peaceful contact was made soon after. Prestwick officially joined the Third Imperium in 387IE, almost a century before the coreward end of the Solomani Rim Sector.

Prestwick developed steadily and slowly over the next 8 centuries. Population remained fairly constant at approximately 500,000, but the technology level rose to TL8, with significant areas of TL9 infrastructure, supplied by the nearby industrial world of Kelvin. Even the disturbances associated with the Imperial Civil War did not cause significant disruption.

Prestwick’s main exports were always agricultural (kelp, algae, seafood), supplemented in later centuries by seabed mining – aluminium etc. Power was plentiful from wind and wave turbines, supplemented by the occasional imported TL9 fusion plant.

But even before the official IISS contact, Prestwick was a favourite rest and recreation spot for free traders and was used by the IISS in a similar capacity in the second to fifth centuries imperial. After the imperial civil war, IISS assets had moved almost a sector rimward, but they were replaced by rich industrialists from the desert world of Kelvin looking to get away from it all.

By the 800s, Prestwick has a flourishing tourist industry to supplement its agricultural sector, supported by a class C starport. The use of a second island chain to provide R&R facilities for the miners from ICA, Obidos and the Jefferson mining camp in the Nape system, further increased the tourist revenue. Prestwick invested the money wisely in a staged TL increase program (to keep its facilities up to date), and provide TL9 light industry, primarily to service tourist demand. They also invested in the start of a TL9 infrastructure. Prestwick even invested in a small shipping line using TL12 Bastien liners for the run to Kelvin, and modified J1/J2 subsidised merchants on the economy runs to the nearby mining worlds.

In 1104, Sternmetal Horizons established a TL15 mining facility on the inner world Jithon. Its purpose was to harvest the various heavy metals lying molten and exposed on the surface. The mining station consisted of three insulated caverns. The first held the miners accommodation, the second held the actual mine itself, whilst the third held a company type F spaceport. The station also had a covert purpose, that it allowed Sternmetal to keep an eye on LSP operations in the cluster.

By 1116, Prestwick was a flourishing world on the verge of TL9 with an expanding tourist industry, (helped by the island scenery, the gas giants ring system in the night sky, and a balmy average temperature of 19C). The feudal technocracy government had recently purchased two 200tn TL8 slow merchants to mine the gas giant ring systems for minerals not readily available on Prestwick.

Rebellion

The advent of the Rebellion drastically reduced the flow of tourists, although no major combat occurred in system, although a Solomani raiding force penetrated the system in 1118 and caught elements of the imperial 1157th Lift Infantry Brigade in transit through the system. Fortunately the escort flotilla held of the Solomani raiders and allowed the troopships to jump out, although the troopship Legionnaire mis-jumped due to battle damage and was subsequently listed as missing. The escorts also stopped the Solomani raiders from attacking the mainworld. The mining station on Jithon went off air during the raid and was presumed destroyed. The TL8 spacecraft were incapable to surviving in Jithon’s hostile atmosphere.

Prestwick’s shipping line lost a Bastien liner 6 months later, just before Lucan’s forces requisitioned the rest of the jump capable vessels to act as auxiliaries and troop carriers.

Hard Times

With the general Imperium wide financial collapse/destruction of shipping and starports in black war strikes/mega-corporation asset swaps, caused the complete collapse of Prestwick’s tourist industry. Offworld contract workers left on any available transport, unfortunately this included large numbers of contract technicians from Kelvin.

The lost of offworld trade and technical expertise, stalled the development of Prestwick’s fledging TL9 infrastructure. Thankfully Prestwick’s government was up to the task. The starport was closed, the two offworld bases abandoned (although the crews were recovered and certain items were salvaged) all to minimise the required maintenance burden on the TL7/8 infrastructure. The unemployed tourist industry employees were transferred to the agricultural sector and basic TL3 agriculture set up, whilst the TL8 agricultural machinery was left without maintenance. Citizens were encouraged to set up cottage industries to manufacture low-tech consumer products. Soon Prestwick homes were filled with home-made wooden furniture, local pottery, wooden kitchen utensils etc. all of which reduced the burden on the limited TL8 infrastructure.

The TL8 infrastructure was retooled and re-deployed to provide a complete range of industrial production, concentrating on heavy industry, heavy construction, seabed mining, and vital TL8 electronic and medical technology. Most consumer goods were now supplied by the rapidly growing cottage industries. Prestwick also embarked on an extensive programme of technical education of the unemployed to fill the skill gap created by the departure of the offworld technicians. The two TL8 spacecraft maintained their offworld mining operations.

The TL9 equipment was mothballed for the future, and the fusion plants were slowly mothballed when the lack of parts made their safe operation problematical. This period of enlightened leadership caused gradual erosion of the formal aspects of the feudal technocracy government, as forceful members of the government and other powerful individuals became a charismatic oligarchy.  By 1128, the level of sustainable technology was effectively TL3, which represented the cottage industries, but significant TL8 infrastructure was available to maintain the existing TL8 facilities although not enough spare capacity was available for production of complete new equipment.

Prestwick was a small recipient of the Doom Trade, fleeing middle management and their families left the precarious existence on the mining world of Obidos. The high cost of travel forced most of them to go via low berth. Most did not get any further than Prestwick and over three thousand people are still stored in their low berths in various warehouses near the starport.

Collapse and New Era

The Virus arrived in 1132 on a passing free trader, but thankfully there was no planetary computer net to infect, and the Virus had minimal effect. In the next decade only two vampire ships entered the system, but did not bother Prestwick (their databases told them it was a TL3 non-industrial tourist world not worth raiding or even bombing).

Gradually, the existing TL8 infrastructure was converted to easier to maintain and cheaper TL7 industry. This freed up sufficient spare industrial capacity to allow the gradual expansion of the TL7 infrastructure to cover all aspects of the planetary infrastructure. The extensive early TL3 agricultural efforts allowed the gradually decrease of the population to a more supportable 200,000, without famine. In 1153, contact was lost with one of the two TL8 spacecraft, it was assumed destroyed.

The collapse of the Union of Promise in 1150 resulted in an increase in the number of free traders in the area. They naturally gravitated to the surviving Class C starport on Berens. Prestwick became a favourite stop for traders on the way to/from the starport. Again Prestwick became a tourist attraction although on a massively reduced scale. Prestwick’s agriculture, natural resources and TL7 finished goods found ready markets on passing traders. Prestwick credits are now an accepted currency on worlds within eight parsecs of Prestwick.

In 1199, a passing Guild starship deposited the deposed dictator of “Prosser” together with his personal guard (a platoon of TL7 light infantry). The passing Guild merchant had rescued them when the dictator was deposed by his cousin. The Prestwick government, in keeping with their local hospitality, offered the former dictator asylum. He has set up home on a distant chain of islands and has kept to himself for the last three years, except for the occasional visit of passing guild ships.