June 2061 Edition of Time: Special Report on the New Colonies
Matriarch Ester Hansson runs a tight ship on Europa. Her intense, hands on style of government led to her appointment, and many hard-line progressives who believe the SFM isn't going far enough to tear down the entrenched societal patterns which enforced the old patriarchy have flocked to her banner and signed up to colonize this hostile new world. Ester believes the deep crevasses running through Europa's rocky exterior are eternal reminders of the ruts of old fashioned thinking into which humanity became trapped before the revolution and the liberation of her sisters. Their explosive destruction to make way for new habitats thus becomes ever so much more satisfying. Despite her extremist political leanings, she has the unswerving support of Matriarch Mona Janssen on Mars, as evidenced by her appointment, and her loyalty to the Party is unquestionable. She works tirelessly to better the lives of her fellow colonists and root out outmoded social moores. A lack of any notable heavy industry, and the absence of even cursory geological information have left the colony completely dependent on supply shipments from Mars, but many colonists have taken this opportunity to explore mediums like poetry and sculpture, both inspired by the stunning views of Jupiter through the deep and majestic crags, and working with the silicate crust itself as a medium.
Colonists on Mercury can't quite agree on which is harsher: Governor Biana Mikhaylov, or the weather. A controversial appointment, many believe she was sent to oversee the new colony on Mercury as much to get her off of Titan as to see it flourish under her heavy handed but highly effective governance. Her long tour as Minister of Bioengineering on Titan has given her extensive experience in hydro and aeroponic administration and deployment, and she has put this to good use sustaining her people under the harsh conditions of Mercury's nonexistant atmosphere, blisteringly hot days, and glacial nights. Just don't cross her, or you'll wish you were outside her well insulated walls. She fought the Central Authority's decision to relocate much needed terraforming installations - and the jobs that came with them - and the leviathan KNS Kresta back to Titan tooth and nail to no avail, and relations between Mercury and its mother colony remain as icy as Titan's seas and Mercury's night.
Archon Temel Yilmaz came out of left field to sweep Luna's first Citizen's General Election. Initially largely populated by non-Citizen refugee labourers and technicians, the small Citizen population of Luna voted overwhelmingly to elect superstar musician Yilmaz over rivals Anaxis of Megalopolis and Theodore Lambrakis. Yilmaz's combination of personal magnetism, stage presence, and wildly entertaining escapades have long kept him in the public eye, and this is only the latest in the long string of unexpected moves which have defined his career. When Geologists struck a massive reservoir of Sorium deep within the Lunar crust shortly after his election, he was delcared Luna's lucky charm. His lassaize-faire attitude towards governance coupled with a hands-on attitude which sees him constantly out of the office shaking hands with newly disembarked CEOs and representatives of major Hellenic corporations have made him popular with the wealthy elite who now call Luna home. Over half of Luna's 12.4 million colonists are Citizens, and it's become the new Athens of the Solar System, with thriving night life, hot new trends in fashion and media, and the fastest growing financial sector in the Solar System. Archon Yilmaz's more eccentric antics are quickly forgiven, swept away in the runaway success of this superstar and his Sorium fueled City of Light.
Lay Magician Milo of Pinara, Captain of the Amathaunta, and commander of the Wolf-Harrington mining operation is a difficult woman to see, in a multitude of ways. Ensconced within the technical marvel that is her Command Cocoon she is almost completely shrouded by the hundreds of superconducting command links which run directly into her neural interface ports. This allows her to directly oversee every aspect of the resource extraction operation going on far below her. Massive terawatt infrared mining LASERs blast segments of the icy crust of the majestic leviathan that is Wolf-Harrington, to be recovered by hundreds of smaller guidance and recovery craft and delivered to the Amathaunta for processing. Finally, the processed resources are transported to the immense Mass Driver which accelerates these containers to extreme velocities and hurls them towards Mars to be recovered in atmosphere and delivered to the many sprawling industrial complexes around Olympus Mons. The Captain herself would not even deign to speak to us until we supplied an interviewer who was almost entirely prosthetic, and resolutely denied interview requests until the Interfacing Committee of the NOUS Explorator Fleets had processed and approved our list of questions. She has a stubborn deliberateness about her, a singleminded devotion to her craft which leaves her superbly qualified for the important task before her. Even after speaking to her, in many respects she remains as enigmatic as her peers. Many fear the degree to which the upper echelons of the NOUS have drifted from humanity, but I find solace in the flicker of humanity evinced by her single-minded devotion to the beautifully choreographed dance of mind and machine. Only the luckiest of us can claim to labour with such love.
