Ringworlds:Inspired by...

[Vashon]

By both Larry Niven's work, the Halo franchise and the Long Earth series.

Unfortunately, Im barely proficient in green text posting, much less actual story telling. Which is why even though I had a bug up my ass regarding an HP story on here, I apologized and exited the thread. Out of respect.

So what I will attempt to do is world-building. But again, shit writer, so it would be mostly laying down rules, how things work, etc. And of course general guidelines. Im less writer than say, creative director. Ill update occasionally and am more than willing to accept ideas and such. This is more setting construction than anything. Once most of that is done, I guess we can shill the setting to whoever feels like using it. Lets get started.

The Rings in question have an inner circumference of 30,000km and are 500km wide. Depth/Height, as measured from the outside, would be 500km as well. Within the all of that is atmosphere, shields, station armor and assorted docking, defenses etc. The crust takes up approximately 50km of space, this is of course an average, oceans(more like titanic rivers)and mountains aside. At various points on the station, it is possible to find and use prebuilt megastructure tunnels that eventually lead to zones near the the outer hull, for travelling in between Rings and other utilities, such as observation and station management. It is also possible to locate pre constructed infrastructure and power plants, that run on pre-dammed up rivers along with extensive transmission networks that extend a thousand kilometers away, plug and play, in addition to a small automaton workforce that will not be expanded for the humans convenience. More on that.

Now here's the thing, these Rings were built for humanity, by...whoever, but the builders couldn't be bothered to encourage humanity to live peacefully with each other. Encouraging everyone to get along was not what they had in mind. They just wanted to help us out with resource depletion and overcrowding. Which is why they included station management. Its mostly for the purpose of immigration/emigration control, organization, and trade policy in broad strokes. The people whom the aliens selected that get this job are generally from fantastically diverse backgrounds, and generally bigotted in one way or another. But this matters less than you think.

Because these Rings? There are a shit ton of them. Loads and loads of them. They are in the Martian orbit and dont quite crowd it, but close. For being as large as they are, they are only 40,000km apart from each other. There are over 5,000 of them! Although at first less than a 1,000 get Station Management. From both the people the Aliens chose and representatives of each nation on Earth with 10 million people or more. Those with less have to negotiate for an inclusion into a Nation-Station. These stations have preset policies however, only those both born in and considered citizens of said nation(s) may immigrate and reside there. Visitors are allowed but no further than designated zones. The rest?

They have policies as discriminatory or inclusive as they wish, to be tweaked and refined as time goes on, set by the original SM(Station Manager), as defined by him/her and whoever else is given certain status. From outright total exclusion to the option of cases by case exceptions.

The method of enforcement is simple. The InterWorld Shuttles, being massive craft, along with their Shuttles Pods, are fully automated with alien built AI. The Stations retain the capability of manufacturing more as needed from harvested materials. The Rings also have formidable defenses of their own. And all the Rings communicate with each other. You just cant go here or there if the policies dont allow it. Shuttles wont take you, automatons may remove you. Very Gently.

The IWShuttles easily have the range needed to go from Earth to Mars and back again assuming each is as close as possible. Otherwise, refueling and restocking is necessary at different Rings. They can make the shortest trip in weeks, the longest possibly necessary trip in a few years.


The environment of the Rings however, is the real marvel. Its all massive forests, jungles and swamps, not a desert to be spotted. The oceans and rivers positively teeming with life, and the whole place is chockfull of wilderness wildlife. From clonestock mostly. Some of it, near the prebuilt settlement starters, from abductions( ) and clandestine purchases.


So. The Endless Rings. Ringworlds. Would you settle one that you were allowed on? Or even just explore one? Heres a hint. Some ocean rivers look like they stop. They dont, they just go under the continents for a bit.

 

[Biigoh]

I would have an in media res start to it... with the Ring Worlds being discovered? First by deep-space telescopes, and then communication... offers by the alien AI? for space if the people are willing to move there...

Go with explorers PoV next... and then colonizers...

 

[Vashon]

The Rings get delivered within an approximately month long period. And yes, long range telescopes pikc them up, as well as amateur scopes as well. That many(I already did the math, it was a little over 5,800 with room to spare) objects that are larger in ways than Earth, much less Mars?

The world knows and quickly, its too big to keep a secret. I'll say a week after completion the aliens themselves show up and begin talking. Now, they dont show themselves, they speak through specially constructed automatons(yes robots would be easier, but im stuck and i like the flavor) to explain things, in addition to technological gifts. The equivalent of cheapo brand cell phones, but specifically engineered to be compatible and manufacturable by our tech base, given a few decades. Think of it like a modern factory built to construct suits of steel armor for fighting in medieval Europe. The purpose of these is for quick and easy translation. Now only in the first few minutes of the meeting with the UN does anybody act like fools or such, screeching about who gets to decide this or that, does this group or that group end up getting their own Ring, before the Alien Rep just hovers over to one of the diplomats, and buzzes. And stares. And mildly shocks everytime he tries to run off. For about five minutes.

Then the AR explains the rules and clearly states that yes, quite a few peoples of various ideologies, some of them suppressed globally, whose ideas are banned, or not, will end up getting their own Ring. However, there isnt anything to fear about this, as you can simply ban them from yours and well... done. The National Rings can and will be governed differently than the others, with more complex rule sets, but for the first little while, it is stated. Nationals only.

After some discussion, the Governments of the world realize that attempting to outright ban emigration to these Rings is both impossible and stupid, they begin the efforts to set up regulatory and supervision agencies for their own National Rings. And assist Ring Managers with setting up. Not that they need it, but it does help.


Lets talk about the InterWorld Shuttles and their Shuttlepods. My idea for the size of the InterWorld Shuttles themselves is that they are enormous, each one the size of 54 Triple E Maersk Container ships. Line them up lengthwise by six, side by side by three and stack that three times. Huge beasts. The Pods however are much smaller. About the size of a Chinook. 50 of them to a Shuttle. Live Organism Carrying Capacity(LOCC) is determined by the organisms and the length of the trip. There are 3000 IWShuttles per Ring. The IWShuttles are not jusr bunks with food for cargo, they have Recreational areas, and power plugins(it looks silly, since every bit of sockets has several different types of sockets for most plugs imaginable.) In the residential rooms. Like a large and roomy Hotel or Timeshare. They were made like this for families. And to try and avoid Cabin Fever. In fact, some of the Visitor Locations on the Rings were preconstructed large to enough to rival NYC!

As far as durability goes, the IWShuttles are made of advanced materials that they are never bothered by micrometeorites of any numbers, in fact the more the better, it can grab them and use them for ablative armor. As far as our weapons go, break out the megaton nukes to start with. Its a losing battle, since by default they have massive numbers of precise KKVs, the Shuttle Pods and Shuttles themselves. This doesnt mean the people inside would necessarily survived unscathed, but the inertial and gravity compensation units will help. The IWShuttleos can maintain a 6g acceleration rate while keeping a comfy 1g going for its passengers.

The Shuttlepods are easily capable of their job, which is from surface to orbit to surface flights repeatedly. Unlike the IWShuttles however, there are no inertial dampeners or artificial gravity units, so it can be a bit queasy getting back off and on to the Shuttles. They can make Mach 3 in Atmosphere and make hundreds of repeated trips from the energy reserves brought from the Rings. However, this is never necessary, as the Shuttlepods generally dont make their trips until everything is settled and every is packed and ready to go. Most trips are for stocking supplies.

 

[Vashon]

There also certain social rules.

Assuming someone is an adult, and has no other obligations, then it is nearly impossible to force them to actually stay on a Ring. Prison, Marriage and Jobs do count as obligations as would certain other things. Outside of that though, you can't stop someone from leaving.

So Interworld Trade is possible, even easy, travel is restricted here and there, using the IWShuttles as asteroid mining drone is possible, and the Rings themselves are replete with resources, even strangely enough, some fossil fuels. Not that much though. Combined, they only have 5x what Earth ever had, but its all easy access.

So. Anyone who wants to explore this concept that hasn't slammed me onto their ignore list?

 

[Vashon]

I would have an in media res start to it... with the Ring Worlds being discovered? First by deep-space telescopes, and then communication... offers by the alien AI? for space if the people are willing to move there...

Go with explorers PoV next... and then colonizers...

Click to shrink...

If I personally was worth half a shit as a writer, I would. The best I'm good at is rough edge world defining and guidance.

 

[Biigoh]

If I personally was worth half a shit as a writer, I would. The best I'm good at is rough edge world defining and guidance.

Click to shrink...

Hey... everyone has to start SOMEWHERE... no shame in writing poorly if you're actively aiming to improve it.

There are multiple ways to go about this, from the Alt-History timelines, to 1st person chronicles, to 2nd/3rd person stories.

The key thing is to write. Give life to your idea... it doesn't matter how crappy you think it is, just do it and enjoy it. And somewhere along the line, you'll find you've picked up readers, and have a rep for writing stuff.

Set some time a day or a week where you do nothing but write. Use a note pad, use your e-mail compose thing so you can type on your phone when you have time.

If you have an idea, an image in your mind... you can do it.