New Oxford

New Oxford is a small research colony in the Tau Ceti System. It is located on a moon orbiting a planet inhabited by a pre-space age civilization that is in their equivalent of the renaissance era. Because of that, New Oxford is the leading centre for xenoanthropology, xenoarchaeology and other cultural sciences in the United Republic of Earth and its Colonies.

All research conducted by the scientists of New Oxford follows the strict rules enforced by the United Republic's government. Those rules are there to minimize the risk of contaminating the local cultures by alien intereference. All personnel that travels from New Oxford to the surface of the planet must land during the night and away from any population centres. They must also have surgical or cosmetic alterations to their appearance, so they can blend into the crowd.

The non-intereference rules made it really hard to study the local population for a several years after the colony's establishment because of the language barrier. About 10 years later, with the aid of sophisticated AIs, several of the languages have been translated into English. Since then, the research has been booming.

Architecture

The settlement is built under three domes connected with each other via special tunnels. Underneath the domes is something that from the outside resembles massive buildings, not a settlement. In reality, however, this is just the outer shell that was placed there as a backup in case a dome broke. Inside there can be found passage ways almost as wide as streets on habitable worlds, housing units, public services and research facilities.

Geography

The moon on which the colony is located is a barren place full of impact craters of meteors. The only resource that the surveys found were deposits of ice on the moon's poles and in several places accross its surface. Those deposits are used to extract water and oxygen for the population. All other supplies, including food, must delivered from other places in the United Republic.

The moon's gravity is weaker than that of a regular human-habitable planet. As the result, the colony's inhabitants must be constantly supplied with medicine to counteract the muscle atrophy and other health issue resulting from prolonged stay in such environment. Because of their developing bodies, children are always on the top of the list when it comes to the distribution of those medications. In case of a shortage, a child would always get medications first even if it meant that the colony leader would not. Breaking that rule is one of the few instances where a court is allowed to consider the death penalty.

If not for the pre-space civilization on that planet no one would even consider colonizing this barren rock

— An inhabitant of New Oxford

Type

City

Location under

Tau Ceti System

Owning Organization

United Republic of Earth and its Colonies

Characters in Location

• Samantha Mason