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My story for Spring 1999 will be set on a distant planet orbiting the star we call Capella. The planet, which the colonists call Capella-p2, was colonized by humans in the 25th century. 50 brave souls -- 25 fertile couples -- had set out from Earth in the year 2341 on a journey to a planet orbiting a star some 45 light years away. The vehicle in which they traveled was not large, but fast - able to accelerate to nearly 60% of light speed using a fusion process.
During the course of the 80 year flight, the colonists began to develop their social system. Because of the very small gene pool, careful monitoring of mating had to be kept, and the usual rules concerning incest were to be especially strictly enforced. Some of the men and women proved to be infertile, likely because of radiation exposure from being in space and from being near a fusion reactor, despite heavy shielding, and this caused some considerable unrest. Ultimately, the rules regarding monogamy had to be altered just a bit. Thus, all mariages had to be approved by a council of genetic police, and any marriage in which the man proved to be infertile was either annulled, or the couple had to agree to artifical insemination. Additionally, a large supply of frozen sperm had been caried along on the trip, and each couple had to agree to have a child by a donor from the sperm bank. During the nearly 80 years that it took to make the journey, the population of the colony grew very little, just to over 100, as planned. Once the destination planet was reached, these measures, necessary to keep the fragile population viable during the flight, had a profound impact on the colony.
Of course, the entire society is completely free of control from the earth. For the first 20 years, unmanned supply ships arrived from earth, but there was no interactive communication. Gradually the law, the social mores, and even the government of the colony departed more and more from the earth model. The story will be set some 250 years after the initial planetfall. The total population of humans is now at about 15,000. A central city contains most of the population, some 8,500 and the remaining 6,500 either live on farms or in the smaller villages on the periphery.
The planet itself is somewhat like Earth. It is a bit smaller, with gravity at .87g, and the atmosphere is thinner, but with a higher oxygen content. The planet is geologically active, although vulcanism and destructive seismic activity are rare. About 40% of the surface of the planet is water in the form of saline oceans, although there are very large ice caps at either pole. The land surface is spread out over the surface on 9 continents, each taking the form of a very large island. The sun is a yellow giant, and it radiates more energy that the sun, but the planet is about 2 astronomical units from the sun. Thus, the weather is fairly cool. Indeed, the average daily temperature in the temperate zones of planet Plymouth is about 250 degree K, or about 10 degrees below 0 F. The year is very long, about 3 standard earth years, and the day is also fairly long, at approximately 50 earth hours. Only near the equator can human live fairly comfortably, and there the average temperature is about 280 K, or about 45 degrees F. The clothes that are required to remain warm enough for comfort place have contributed, along with the rigid control of procreation, to make nudity rare and to make this a fairly conservative society concerning sex in general.
It is a society fairly rich in engineers and scientists, and poor in philosophers. Lawyers are rare and the law itself reflects a view of the world with clear cut boundaries and very few of the shades of gray type reasoning that is common among lawyers on Earth. Medical doctors are highly prized, but the practice is based as much on continuing with the traditions that came with the 5 doctors on the original star ship, and their medical library, as on original research.
The society is fairly egalitarian with regard to economics. Few have a standard of living that differs greatly from the norm, but unequal outcomes are considered acceptable. This is a fairly capitalistic society, but not a mercenary one like might be found in the industrial revolution in England, or in the late 1800s in America. Everyone works, and most work is valued quite highly. The study of the social sciences and of philosophy are not that highly valued, and Earth history is largely regarded as irrelevant.
Religion is not common, although a few churches exist. Virtually no one is a fundamentalist from any of the old Earth religions since these were selected against among the original colonists.
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