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Metasoft Baseline Reserves |
The vec civilization known as the Metasoft Version Tree
has a long tradition, or deep-seated imperative routine perhaps, of
maintaining small entirely unaltered human baseline
populations on specially prepared worlds. Some analysts say this is a
relic of the original purpose of the Metasoft colonization strategy,
conceived by humans long ago as a way of preparing worlds for eventual
human colonization in advance; others say it is a genetic hedge against
the possible breakdown of technological society. The establishment of a
large number of widely spread self-sufficient populations of baseline
humans may result in the survival of some or many of those populations
following any large scale collapse of the galactic society
(particularly a collapse involving massive information loss), and this
survival may well result in a spontaneous reboot of that society (in
due course).
Dilmun, Earthland,
Heimat, Jafalgia,
Niuearth, and Wurm are some of the best known of the Metasoft Baseline
worlds, and illustrate the varied approaches Metasoft authorities have
taken towards the management of such reserves.
This world was originally colonized in the 2900s by the Colbartists, a group of humans and cyborgs who wished to live without hyperturing supervision. However the experiment failed, and the world was taken over in turn by the NoCoZo and the Taurus Nexus. Following the First and Second Consolidation Wars and the breakup of the Taurus Nexus Niuearth fell into Metasoft hands, and has been maintained ever since as a holiday world and retreat for human baselines and nearbaselines, a place where human derived bionts can interface with the rich Metasoft culture and experience the painstaking hospitality of the Version Tree. Since becoming part of the Metasoft reserve system Niuearth has always had unrestricted access to the rest of terragen civilization, unlike many other Metasoft baseline reserve worlds, which are kept separate from outside influences to avoid contamination.
Wurm is an ice age world with a Palaeolithic population of baseline humans; these humans occupy the ecological niche they originally evolved to fill, specifically gatherer hunters on the cold tundra and the warm equatorial plains. Before it was terraformed the planet was in a cool, early stage similar to the Precambrian era of Earth. The biosphere of this planet was mostly reconstructed to match the Pleistocene of Old Earth from available genetic information. Humanity remained at the Palaeolithic level of development for more than a hundred thousand years, and the Metasoft guardians of this world expect the population to remain in this natural, unspoilt state for the foreseeable future.
This planet is maintained at a preindustrial stage of development by
the Metasoft socioengineers; the planet has practically no axial tilt,
and so no seasons; vigorous agricultural crop species have been
artificially geneered to make farming a relatively easy task, and
pests, blights and diseases are practically non-existent. Droughts,
earthquakes and floods are relatively rare events in most regions of
this hospitable world, but the best land has long been claimed by
families, states, kingdoms and empires that periodically wage war upon
each other when population pressure becomes too great.
There is no life extension or electronics on this world, and the
Metasoft guardians rarely intervene except to withdraw individuals who
probe too far into the realms of "natural philosophy" and discover
forbidden technology. Such abductees usually become Metasoft "Fellow
Travellers": humans or cyborgs who accompany the vecs in their
explorations and other endeavours.
Heimat is a large, low density Gaian world, with 65%
land
cover. There are many and varied biome regions on this world, and it
has a rich native biosphere that is almost completely compatible with
Terragen biochemistry. The baseline humans were not tweaked to
compensate for the mild incompatibility, but a large number of native
species were adapted by the Metasoft geneers to be entirely safe to
eat. The strategy of guardianship on this world differed from that on
Wurm and Dilmun, as no interference at all was permitted in the
development of the baseline societies. Thick deposits of lignite and
petrochemical carbon compounds were present in the crust, so after
several thousand years the various states and empires entered an
industrial phase.
By 7153 a.t. the Gahn Space Agency managed to send a craft to the dusty
moon of their world, which had been evacuated by the Metasoft observer
vecs a few days before. Over the next few hundred years the Heimat
baselines developed into a middletech spacefaring civilisation, partly
driven by the frequent sightings of "ghost ships" forever at the edge
of detection and by incomprehensible data transmissions picked up by
their radio telescopes.
These transmissions frequently originated from inside their solar
system, but as their instruments became more sensitive scientists found
that the galaxy was alive with complex emissions of all sorts. The
peoples of the empire of Gahn, and of all the other nations of Heimat,
were seized with the urge to reach out into this buzzing galactic
milieu. With the development of intelligence augmentation techniques,
genetic engineering and rudimentary AI systems, the Heimat humans could
no longer be regarded as unspoilt baselines; just before the completion
of the first interstellar probe, the Metasoft guardians finally
announced themselves and welcomed them into the Version Tree as
probationary members.
Before the end of the eighth millennium many more baseline reserves in
the Aries Sector had become middletech civilisations in their own
right; this scandalized the guardians of lowtech purebaseline worlds
like Wurm and Dilmun, and this conflict in philosophy eventually led to
the Schism between the branches of the Tree and ultimately the Second
Vec War, which of course involved many nearbaseline fellow travelers as
well as aioids.
