Callifrey

Some people debate whether Callifrey is a world at all - arguing that it would be better classified as an asteroid belt with a few crazy colonists living there, or as a rubish dump for the outer planet in the system, Callifrey Secondor.

History

The luxury planet known as Callifrey had a somewhat unusual attitude to garbage disposal: once machinery had aged beyond its useful life, it was simply catapulted towards the sun from the line station. Much of this debris started to accumulate in the asteroid belt, and a few resilient (or mad) people were able to scrape a living salvaging repairable parts.

In 1441, in a coup which is still not understood by anyone not involved, the group of makeshifters living in <address>[/Corian's Library]</address> managed to get awarded official rights to both the name Callifrey and the timetable code CAL. The plutocrats on the big planet suddenly found that some botched paperwork meant that the church didn't even consider them a planet any more - so they quickly registered again under the name Callifrey Secondor, a secondary planet in the Callifrey system.

Salvaging

Callifrey has very little politics. Any property (whether asteroids, refuse or satellites, is considered unowned until someone stakes a claim. In order to own a rock, you need to stick a flag on it, showing both the flag of Callifrey (two white stars on a light blue field), and your name. Larger rocks only allow regions of up to 10 square kilometres to be claimed in this way. Ships (mostly junkships) remain the property of the person whose flag is painted on them, as long as they have been used in the last 22 days. This means that right of salvage quickly applies to unused hardware.

To claim other space junk, you must either tether it to your asteroid, tether it to a ship you are piloting, or keep it within your home. While salvaging unused junk is most people's means of survival, it is considered normal to shoot anyone you see stealing claimed property.

Geography

Most of the belt is made up of small rocks, less than 10km across, occupied by individuals or families. These are approximately 60% asteroids (Hard Rocks), 35% discarded satellites or other large equipment from Secondor (known as Big Iron) and 5% Impure Rocks formed when different types of rocks collide.

The system is held together by a spiderweb of elevators. Most of these are simply lengths of downline connecting two asteroids, rarely more than a couple of hundred miles. Old ground cars or habitation modules are threaded onto the line, and on asteroids where the owner permits travellers to pass through (especially shops, teachers and medics), they normally set up a simple vending device to sell boost bricks.

The only public building is the large asteroid known as <address>[/Corian's Library]</address>, which is legally the world's administrative centre. In practise, all the government does is act as a middle-man for off planet trade, and pay a good price for books and other salvaged data records, which anyone can come and view.

Subpages

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Timetable code: CAL