LOCATIONS: PRISTINE AWARENESS

 

This is a quick location/writing exercise based on APoF's space station tables.  I've expanded on it a bit as needed -- this isn't following the table to the letter.

PRISTINE AWARENESS

Where is it? In Core space, located in the dense accretion disk of a young red star.

Population:  500,000 permanent inhabitants (over 60% non-hominid primates)

Construction: Asteroid interior

Who's in charge? Ellywhen, the elected Teamster's union representative, who has the backing of the local union.  Monks technically own the asteroid but don't seem to care what goes on there.

Issues and dangers?  Thick accretion disk is full of wildcat prospectors.  No centrifugal gravity. 

Notable Features: Chop shop -- Pristine Awareness is a pirate port and the Teamsters don't particularly care where the ship parts they work with come from.

Minor Features: Drydock, dorter (the monks don't usually welcome guests)

THE STATION

The Monastery of Pristine Awareness predates all other settlement of the system.  The monks live in a massive gold-plated dome on the far side of the asteroid.  Most settlement is in a massive pressurized shaft cut into the asteroid and illuminated using a complex array of mirrors.  This arrangement provides an enormous pressurized workspace.  Most of the station's population lives in self-propelled pod/buildings anchored to the shaft and there many massive substantial zero-gee forests towards the bottom of the shaft.  If a visitor does not have winged clothing or a thruster belt they might find themselves awkwardly stuck out of reach of a handhold to the great amusement of the locals.

Obviously, large radioactive ships are not welcome inside the station and major work on drives and reactors is done outside.

Like it or not, Pristine Awareness is a pirate station and, even worse, the pirates have unionized.  Nevertheless, the Union runs a very orderly station.  Do your crimes somewhere else and you'll be fine.  Commit a major crime on the station and you can expect a fair trial followed by a very swift punishment. 

THE CHOP SHOP

Pristine Awareness' shipwrights are not cheap (union rules!) but unless you happen to have an in at a Corp's shipyard, they are the best there you'll find.  Unionists and anyone with a history of sticking it to the corps can expect a steep discount.  They'll buy from almost anyone who isn't an enemy of the Teamsters Union without asking any questions.  The chop shop also has an imposing arsenal of first-rate weapons systems for sale to anyone with solid Union bona fides including AMCAT suitcase nukes and 5m+ laser mirrors. Not cheap but there aren't many free stations that can equip warships that can go toe-to-toe with the corps'.

HOSTAGE EXCHANGE

Hostage taking is a corollary of piracy and the Teamsters ensure that hostages are exchanged in a civilized and orderly fashion.  Several corporate hostage negotiations firms and insurers have a small (and very contentious) permanent presence on the station and deal with Union-appointed intermediaries to negotiate the release of their insureds.  In practice, the Teamsters on Pristine Awareness set the ransom rates throughout Core space and ensure that ransoms change hands peacefully.  Hostages are generally treated well (and may pay for any creature comforts they can afford; it will be added to their ransom).  Low-value or uninsured hostages may work for their freedom or escape their extortionate corporate contracts and turn pirate.  Many choose the second option.  

THE FOREST

Without gravity, trees twist and turn over each other to reach the light.  The forest is a rare haven of nature in space.  Guests who've paid the docking fee and residents who don't want to rent a room can just tie a tent to any unoccupied branch. A very large proportion of the station's population lives here by choice, driving down the cost of hotels and housing.  Has its own microclimate and sometimes filled with thick, beautiful fog.  Full of Solarians.

THE MONESTARY

The Monks of Pristine Awareness live in a massive gilded dome on the surface of the asteroid.  They germline-edited to be blind and deaf and navigate their lightless monastery by touch and smell.  Generations of monks have developed their own language de-novo and the purpose of their confinement is to divine the true language of the universe.  The monastery deals with the outside world using android intermediaries when trade is required.  

THE TEAMSTERS

ELLYWHEN is a grizzled chimpanzee spacer in her 70s.  Doesn't fuck around with occupational health and safety violations.  She is still a working shipwright and can often be found in the yard with a manipulator pack connected to her neural interface socket and cutting torch in hand.  She values safety, order, and quietly sticking it to the Corps.  Ellywhen has the almost unqualified support of the Union but doesn't always get her way when things come down to a vote.  Doesn't like Toba and their continued command of the station's fleet frustrates her.  

TOBA is a solemn chimpanzee android and the elected commander of Pristine Awareness' security forces and defensive fleet.  They are acutely aware of the risk of corporate infiltrators but has increasingly been forced to go behind the backs of other senior members of the Union to thwart major security threats.  Suspicious of outsiders but also values deniable assets.  They have cultivated an extensive spy network outside of the station and may also be willing to trade information and favors.

LANLAN is the station's gregarious and somewhat corrupt orangutan harbormaster.  Her fur is currently dyed a bioluminescent blue.  Because she reads all the manifests of incoming traffic, she can usually help speculators find buyers for their cargos.  She's also responsible for mediating disputes between miners in the accretion disk and is not well-liked by the miners.  Well acquainted with all the best blockade runners and smugglers -- can get you past the CLOUDBANK  blockade or hook you up with an airtight false identity for the right price.  As long as it doesn't endanger the station, anyway.

FIVE DAYS OF RAIN is the gibbon in charge of the Chop Shop.  He'd prefer that the station take a more hawkish posture and sponsor direct actions against the corps.  The other union higher-ups don't agree with his position and he is growing increasingly restive.  As the person in charge of handing out nuclear weapons, this could be dangerous and might lead to open war with the corps.  In the meantime, he finds other way to support privateers and revolutionaries.  Will pay for revolutionary memorabilia on behalf of the Revolutionary Museum and particularly treasures Pre-Mistake artifacts.   

FATHER SOKOL is the station's (human) Neocatholic priest.  The Neocatholic Church is focused on preserving Terran historical heritage and the veneration of non-supernatural saints.  He is responsible for the management of one of the largest (free) libraries in the Core and will personally assist anyone with an interesting enough question.  Generally on good terms with the local Solarian religious leaders (who are also focused on preserving a more abstract form of Terran heritage).  Secret gambling problem.