Historical Timeline
2083. Mareike Baarda publishes “On the Relationship between Certain Ghost Condensates and the Casimir Effect” in Arkiv fur matematik astronomi och fysik, the first of her five revolutionary papers of that year.
2084. Based on Baarda’s work, Gregor Hoekstra publishes the first design for a supra-luminal engine which he names the “ghost drive.”
2096. Engineers at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Lab announce a successful test of the first ghost drive.
2099. The first ghost ship departs from the newly designated NASA ghostport in White Sands, New Mexico.
2102. Exploration and colonization of habitable planets in the Local Bubble begins.
2103. Seven major powers (US, China, India, Russia, European Union, Japan, and Brazil) on Old Home Earth sign a Grand Alliance to facilitate exploration and settlement of extra-solar worlds. Eventually, the Grand Alliance expands to include over 128 nation states and becomes the governing organization for Old Home Earth and the newly settled extra-solar worlds.
2104. Sparta, a habitable world orbiting Tau Ceti, colonized.
2112. Discovery of the Immaculate Concourse, a collection of six habitable planets in the BetaCVn system, approximately 27 light years from Old Home Earth. Colonization begins that same year.
2120-2400. Rapid expansion of humans into habitable star systems centered roughly on the Immaculate Concourse with a diameter of approximately 800 light years. Estimates from the time period suggest that this consisted of nearly 10,000 worlds at its greatest extent, although currently fewer than 2,000 worlds are confirmed.
2306. An exploratory expedition of the Grand Fleet discovers dysprosium deposits on a habitable moon of a gas giant in a remote star system, now catalogued as NOMAD 129.683.365.120.B.3.
2312. Cabot Industries Trust purchases title to the above system from the Grand Alliance Fleet, names the star Cabot’s Star, the habitable moon with the ore deposits Cabot’s Landing, and the gas giant it orbits Kenebec. The source of the name Kenebec for the gas giant about which Cabot’s Landing orbits is unknown, but speculation centers on the ancient North American tribal language Abenaki, in which “kinipek” means “bay,” possibly a reference to the location of the initial human settlement.
2318. Cabot Industries bioengineers a species of wheat for the satellite Cabot’s Landing and designs a limited ecology to support human habitation on Cabot’s Landing.
2318. Mining operations and human occupation of Cabot’s Landing begins. At its height, over 39,000 humans lived on the satellite.
2400. Growing religious fervor in parts of the Grand Alliance on Earth leads to civil unrest, which spreads to the colonized planets.
2462. Sparta withdraws from the Grand Alliance. Within weeks, over 80% of extra-solar worlds declare independence from the Grand Alliance. A new religious-based US government withdraws from the Grand Alliance on Old Home Earth and declares war on the extra-solar planets. The Great Disintegration begins.
2462. Cabot Industries closes the mines on Cabot’s Landing and begins to withdraw all personnel from the system.
2463. Sparta destroyed by a fleet of former Grand Alliance ghostships under the command of the US religious government.
2463. Old Home Earth devastated by retaliatory raids, including at least two asteroid strikes, by an ad hoc fleet of former trader ghostships from several extra-solar planets. Catastrophic climate disruption results in mass extinctions on Old Home Earth, although isolated pockets of humanity manage to survive.
2464. The Grand Alliance Ghostfleet engages in widespread attacks on the extra-solar planets. By the end of 2464, the Fleet has been destroyed, industrial capacity throughout the former Grand Alliance territories is vitiated, and interstellar travel ceases.
2464-2970. Dark Ages. No interstellar travel or communication. Scientific research ceases. Industrial capacity on most planets plummets. Widespread poverty and disease. Smaller human colonies fail.
2970. Gregor Stapledon, later Gregor I, discovers dozens of moth-balled Grand Alliance Fleet ghostships on New Arizona in the Immaculate Concourse. He uses them to launch the first interstellar expedition in over five hundred years.
2975. The Parliament of the Immaculate Concourse proclaims the Empire of Humanity, renames itself the Parliament of Humanity, and expands to include representation from member worlds. The elected Parliament exercises limited governance of the Empire through legislation, an executive ( led by a Prime Minister), and a permanent civil service. The Parliament named Gregor as the first emperor, granting him largely ceremonial duties to represent the ideals of the Empire. Gregor’s leadership and vision were instrumental in the founding of Pasargadae on New Arizona as the capitol of the new Empire.
The Parliament established a policy of bringing all humans together in a new communion of worlds that avoids the errors of the old Grand Alliance. In particular, each world in the Empire has representation in the Parliament according to its population, has local autonomy, and the Empire enforces a pledge of non-interference in the governance of member worlds.
To enter the Empire, the government of a member planet must be a representative democracy. Many planets followed the example of the Parliament of Humanity and established ceremonial royal houses with varying titles depending on their Old Home Earth heritage. (Examples include Baron, Chairman, Comte, Margrave, Mwami, and Sultan, among many others.) Confederations of planetary systems, sometimes with shared nobility, are also common; for example, see the the Commonwealth of Elsinore or the Maharaja of Navabhaarat.
2975-present. Grand Empire expands to over 1000 systems and becomes the dominant political entity in known human space.
3107 The Praetorian Syndicate, a trading alliance headquartered on the Grand Empire planet Elsinore, launches an expedition to Cabot’s Landing. The Syndicate claims title to the planet as successor to Cabot Industries Trust.
3112. The Syndicate re-opens the mines on Cabot’s Landing.
3142. The mines become unprofitable. The Syndicate closes the mines and withdraws all personnel from the planet.
3149 The Empire of Humanity encounters the the Exalted, a hostile confederation of human-occupied planets loosely organized around a religion originating on the planet Uzvišeni in the Carthage system. The name Uzvišeni translates to “exalted” in the primary language the planet, although the official language of the Exalted confederation is a version of the Old Home Earth language Esperanto.
3168. Pursuant to an act of the Parliament of Humanity, the Emperor issues a decree that the owners of privately held but otherwise unoccupied planets must maintain continuous official human residence on the planet, with the failure to do so resulting in the title to the planet reverting the Empire. The Syndicate initiates the practice of maintaining an official Resident on Cabot’s Landing.
3168-3174. The initial Cabot’s Landing Resident serves with her extended family of forty-two individuals.
3168-3176 The Exalted invade Dongeradeel, a planet in the Elsinore Commonweath. Conflict continued for eight years until forces of the Empire Of Humanity expel the invaders and liberate Dongeradeel in late 3176.
3174-3180. The second Cabot’s Landing Resident serves for six years with his spouse.
3180. Elam Vandreren becomes third Resident of Cabot’s Landing, with a contract for a ten-year term.
