The Last Space Viking by MERRY CHRISTMAS

Author:MERRY CHRISTMAS [CHRISTMAS, MERRY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pequod Press
Published: 2011-07-19T05:00:00+00:00

NISSABA

I

The next planet on their list, appeared even less civilized than Horus. The sun was a G5 sun with twelve planets, most of them the size of moons. One was a Jovian gas giant about the size of Saturn, without the rings, and then there was an earth-sized world smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone. It had a large moon, but it was fortunately located more than half a million miles from the planet.

Nissaba had five continents, but only the largest one seemed to be occupied. There was evidence of a civilization at the mountainous northwest corner of the equatorial continent, plus a number of small settlements in the central plains and a fairly extensive grouping along the entire east coast. There were indications that some of the other continents and islands were occupied, but only sparsely.

The historians put the Nissaban’s cultural level at Civ-Level 3, equivalent to Fifth Century Pre-Atomic. “There is one large city,” Ulrik Selner stated as he reviewed the information, “of an estimated half a million or so in the northeast, and a handful of towns, of around fifty to a hundred thousand people along the eastern region. The mountainous area in the northwest is not as highly populated, and what appears to be their major center holds less than a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The central continental plains area is dotted with fortified castles surrounded by farmland. There are a few large towns at river junctions, but none with a population larger than fifty thousand people.”

“Any spaceports, old Federation cities or industrial areas?” Morland asked.

“Yes,” the Historian replied. Everyone stirred, hoping that at last they had found a planet they could turn into a base of operations. “There’s a spaceport in the center of the big continent near the major river. It’s surrounded by an Old Federation city.”

His exec cleared his throat. “How big is the city?”

Selner had consulted with his staff before the meeting. The youngest one, Walter Ovard, spoke up. “Not big. It’s unoccupied at present, unless you count the hundred or so itinerant sheepherders living out of old buildings with their flocks. I’d guess the population, when it was occupied, was about a hundred and forty thousand people. Nissaba was one of the late colonies, settled after the Big War. We’re estimating the present population of the world at approximately sixty to eighty million.”

“Any idea of who settled it?”

Ulrik Selner paused to stroke his graying beard. “According to the records I found on Odin, Nissaba was colonized by a group of Persians, fleeing from persecution on Terra. They were a mixed group, including a large number of Zoroastrians, some Muslims and a few Christians. Initially, in the Third Century Atomic Era, they settled on Hathor, which is nearby. However, during the System States War, they were persecuted and driven off-world. Due to war time propaganda, it wasn’t unusual for small minority groups on many Federation worlds to be accused of supplying aid and comfort to the enemy. On

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