Travellers' News Service

A service of the Travellers' Aid Society

selected pre-2298 Entries

late 2295

Super Walton's World Now Open! Sam Walton's / Macau Incorporated, the metanational famous for enormous, low-priced retail superstores, has officially opened the first Super Walton's World in Terran orbit. The Super Walton's World is a new concept from this major corporation. It is a hollowed out asteroid with tens of thousands of square meters of products. A 5,000 person-capacity McDonalds is located in the lower floors of the Super Walton's World. A fancy restaurant on the upper deck provides a panoramic view of mother Terra overhead. The 90,000-seat Stratosphere Stadium is the central attraction of the asteroid. The medium orbit of Super Walton's World gives viewers a complete orbit in four hours. Full service garages for grav vehicles and small spacecraft will be open within the month.

The initial concept for the Super Walton's World originated in the Outworld Alliance, where a Walton's World superstore opened in 2280 to service the belters stationed at Ceres.

Twilight Zone Posts Record 3rd Quarter Earnings The Twilight Zone flying restaurant announced record earnings this quarter. The exclusive restaurant and hotel, which cruises at ten kilometers' altitude along Terra's equator, is famous for its breathtaking perpetual twilight. Using the latest in gravitic thrust technologies, the Twilight Zone keeps pace with the terminator, keeping the large craft in an unending post-sunset atmosphere. Reservations in the 250-room hotel must be booked at least two months in advance. The several dining halls, with a total capacity of 800 people, are usually booked a month in advance.

Psionics Suppression Technology Breakthrough? Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Psionics Center have announced a possible breakthrough in psionic suppression. Dr. Carl Zapasti, senior researcher at the Psionics Center, revealed a device called a "Psionic Shield Helmet." This helmet generates low-frequency electrical noise that jams telepathic communication and scrying. The demand for such technology has been strong in recent years, as fears of psionic corporate espionage has been featured in several recent Hollywood blockbusters. An unfortunate side-effect of the psionic shield helmet is the unconventional appearance of the hardware. Gracious descriptions liken it to "a colander or pasta strainer with holes, wire, and gizmos sticking out of it." Commercial models are expected to be on the market by the end of the year.

LEO Traffic Disruption Traffic in the chaotic Low Earth Orbit region of space was disrupted this week by the unexpected arrival of a US Navy destroyer. It broadcast extremely high priority signals that permitted it to take precedence over all other traffic in the LEO region. Knowledgeable sources identified the craft as the USS Bradburn, which was supposed to be on maneuvers in the deep system of Delta Pavonis. The destroyer spent about six hours in low orbit before departing towards the American Naval Facility in Lunar orbit. Speculation about the purpose of its visit has been fruitless. An unnamed source suggested that the President of the United States' address to the UN Security Council later this week may shed some light on the mysterious matter. United Nations Traffic Control reports that no serious disruptions of regular traffic occurred.

Jerome Prepares for Launch The experimental unmanned vehicle Jerome, named for the French physicist Dr. Emile Jerome, is nearing completion. This space craft will be the first full-scale test platform for the Jerome Effect Drive (JED). The Jerome Effect, or electromagnetic quantum jump, is the induced effect that was discovered at the Grenoble synchrocyclotron facility in France. The original effect was induced upon a hydrogen atom, which performed a quantum jump of several angstroms from its original location. Larger tests done at the Swiss C.E.R.N. facility, have been able to jump molecules. By generating a rapidly fluctuating field, the Jerome Effect can be induced repeatedly, causing matter to appear to move rapidly through space. Scientists describe the motion by saying that matter is displaced instantly from one point to the next without actually passing through the intervening space. According to current theory, a fast cycling of a JED in a low gravity field will allow pseudo-velocities in excess of the speed of light!

The Jerome is the first attempt at a self-contained, self-induced JED. It is hoped that the Jerome will travel from Lunar orbit to Jupiter and back. If the test is successful, researchers hope to get additional funding for a manned spacecraft.

late 2297

Population Explosion? Growth on Terra and throughout the Terran Confederation continues at an incredible rate. According to the 2297 Confederation Facts Book, census personnel expect the population of Terra to exceed 20 billion by the end of next year. Coupled with population growth throughout the rest of the Confederation, the Census Department informed the Traveller's News Service that the population of the Confederation as a whole will exceed 23 billion by 2300.

Critics of the Terran population explosion wonder loudly where the food will come from to feed the billions of hungry mouths on Terra, where the population is expected to grow by over 800 million people per year through the end of the century.

Here are some other notable population milestones across the Confederation:

• Delta Pavonis will become the first world outside the solar system to pass the 100 million mark next year.
• Tau Ceti 4 will be the second extra-Solar world to surpass 100 million people a year later, in 2299.
• Luna will pass 200 million citizens this year.
• Sigma Draconis gets the medal for the fastest growth rate. The 2290 Census put their population (at colony founding) at 750; the current models show that they should be well over 8300 by the 2300 Census.

Census Department representatives estimate that Confederation-wide, the population will have increased by about 7.4 billion people between 2290 and 2300 - most of that growth (97%) on Terra.

Mystery of the USS Minnow The discovery last month of signs of a Terran colony on Zeta Tucanae has the archaeological world buzzing. Several members of the Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance discovered these remains - including the grave sites of two humans as well as what appears to be a personal journal - while surveying islands. The island selected for the TTCA headquarters turns out to have hosted a settlement of Terrans from the late 21st Century.

A search through the United Nations archives for the names engraved on the headstones turned up the following results:

"Thomas Mallard, Brandy Leuwen: Believed members of the terrorist organization "Free Terra". This organization's stated goals were the destruction of legitimate United Nations rule by any means necessary. The Free Terra terrorist group was believed composed of several resistance cells. It is uncertain exactly how many people were involved with this group, but several prominent scientists, including the Nobel Laureate physicist Dr. Thomas Adams were believed associated with or sympathetic towards this group.

"The Free Terra organization frequently wrote letters to newspapers and other periodicals slandering United Nations regulation of personal freedoms and liberties. The Free Terrans disappeared in 2075. No trace of them ever turned up, although a number of rumors persisted that they escaped United Nations law enforcement personnel and fled to the asteroid belt. Dr. Adams was among the people missing that year."

-- excerpted from United Nations Records, 2075

Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance Formalized With the swift movement of a stylus across a datapad, Gregor MacAllister, former chief ambassador to Zeta Tucanae, became the first Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance. This move, expected for several weeks, completes the transition of the diplomatic mission from one of initial contact to one of normal relations. Career diplomat Mohammed ibn Said, formerly the Arab Nations Federation diplomat to the United States, has assumed the role of ambassador to Zeta Tucanae. He will reside at the Terran Diplomatic Complex outside the Grey capitol city of Terpriwis.

Meanwhile, Mr. MacAllister is expected to oversee operation of the TTCA. It is unclear whether he will spend his time at the TTCA headquarters on Candi's Island or the main human compound on Neo Zealand.

The alert reader will recall that the TTCA was formed earlier this year by then-acting chief diplomat William Ordenburg in order to foster greater interaction and understanding between the peoples of Zeta Tucanae and those of the Terran Confederation.

William Ordenburg is now splitting his time between the obligations of his Marine Fighter Wing assignment and the TTCA Marine Corps, which he also founded. The TTCA Marines are comprised entirely of indigenous Grey volunteers, although there are rumors that Troks will also be admitted for training.

Delta Pavonis War Ends The two-month long strife on Delta Pavonis has ended. According to reports from the front lines, the Sovereign Republic of Mapulto has resoundingly defeated the numerically superior army of the People's Liberation Republic. Reliable sources close to the SRM leadership have stated that the SRM plans on keeping control of all of the Pavonis Mainlands and absorbing the populace of the PLR into their country. It is still unclear what happened to Grand Free President Zho Tse Hunan, the de facto dictator of the PLR.