Sanctum Aspergilium

Sanctum Aspergilium is a research and residence bubbletown located in a distant orbit of the Evermorn System. Equal parts a piece of monumental architecture associated with Protectorate civic religion and a seed vault associated with the mission of the Evermorn Strategic Colony Initiative, Sanctum Aspergilium has components built to persist well beyond the horizon of Evermornan civilization as a means of reinstating humanity should the unthinkable come to pass.

Demographics

In addition to around 1000 permanent residents and up to 500 transient residents, Sanctum Aspergilium has an additional rotating population of 500 adult residents who reside in a permanent state of stasis within its cryogenics vaults. This figure does not include a large number of frozen embryos - human, near-human, and animals both augmented and otherwise - also kept in stasis aboard the station, nor the population of 50 HLAI involved with the operation of the station's important systems.
Most waking residents of Sanctum Aspergilium are scientists, support staff, or the families thereof. Residents in stasis are a more varied collection of volunteers, including sleeper ship crews between rotations, those in protective custody for whom cover identites would be difficult to maintain, 'chrononauts' who simply desire to experience the future firsthand, and those with progressive disorders for which current treatments are insufficient, amongst many other walks of life. The danger of Cryostasis Recovery Syndrome is still present, meaning that any given stay in stasis aboard the Sanctum Aspergilium is still necessarily limited in duration, but the extensive medical facilities aboard the station and the researchers' cutting-edge research into improved Cryoprotectant Therapy significantly reduces the risks and, should the worst occur, sleepers can expect some of the best treatment available in the Cobalt Protectorate spere of influence. Each generation, a portion of the frozen population leaves stasis and is replaced by visitors or, occasionally, volunteers from among the waking population.
The ESCI sometimes uses Sanctum Aspergilium as a reservoir for new deep space colonist recruits, selecting for genetic diversity and the right combination of traits - psychology, biology, training, and so forth - for the environment expected on a given colony world. This selection process dovetails neatly with the Sanctum's other purpose as a seed vault, as the recruits can bring a 'gift' of plant and animal specimens they are familiar with to the mission; for example, a Lepidosian recruit might have a heritage of shale melon cultivation and, as such, have a good idea of where they might grow well on the target world and a cultural knowledge of how they might fit into colonial culinary practice.

Government

Like many colonies, the government of Sanctum Aspergilium mirrors that of the broader Cobalt Protectorate. A set of twelve representatives, one from each of the twelve clans, is selected by sortition from the population every five Evermorn-standard years. When establishing station policy not associated with mission-critical or life-essential matters, the Station Council formulates referenda upon which the station's citizens cast merit-apportioned votes.

Defences

Physical durability and laser emplacements aside, Sanctum Aspergilium also enjoys a mobile defense provided by a Cobalt Knights honor guard and by regular traffic by ESCI-affiliated vessels. The extreme remoteness of the station, being 'halfway to everywhere but close to nowhere in particular,' makes it an unlikely target for attack. At the same time, the sensitive nature of the work being done at Sanctum Aspergilium means that, should the station masters request it, the Cobalt Protectorate will gladly provide additional forces for its defense.

Industry & Trade

Sanctum Aspergilium's region of space was specifically chosen for its emptiness, but this also means that the station lacks much in the way of exploitable industrial resources. Instead, the station's largest commercial ventures relate to biological research, particularly as they relate to cryostasis, artificial wombs, and the creation of artifical exografts - all in accordance with the station administration's overarching purpose, via the ESCI, as a repository for species which might be lost in the event of some widespread ecological disaster or which might be useful for terraforming efforts on newly-colonized worlds. Organizations like White Mountain Laboratories in related fields of science frequenly collaborate with researchers on Sanctum Aspergilium.

Infrastructure

Unlike most bubbletowns, the exterior hull of which is a comparatively thin envelope inflated to maintain a spherical shape, the beshadowed side of Sanctum Aspergilium is embedded in a thick hemisphere ofrock which was once a metal-rich asteroid. This rock is a honeycomb of radiation-hardened vaults where the station's sleeper population and extensive library of seeds and spores are kept. Positioned far beyond the host star's 'ice line,' beshadowed by the station's bulk, and insulated from the operating heat of the station by a combination of shadow shields and an enormous water ice reservoir, Sanctum Aspergilium's vaults are naturally kept at cryogenic temperatures with minimal need for human interventions.

Tourism

Sanctum Aspergilium's remoteness works against its attractiveness as a tourist destination. Spacers throughout the system enjoy the unusual architecture of the station from afar thanks to the prevalence of the high-resolution telescopes important to their profession. The Sanctum maintains an extranet presence, of course; the virutal reality and telepresence tours are popular among a certain set who enjoy science and architectural content.

Architecture

The name of Sanctum Aspergilium is something of a double entendre; it references both the shape of certain types of spores, as the station is involved with the preservation of plant species among otherse, and to the occasionally ornate shape of the religious implement of the same name. The exterior of the asteroid hemisphere at Sanctum Aspergilium's beshadowed end is crowded with monumental carvings depicting, in both statuary and scriptural forms, important figures and moments from the living history of the Evermornan people. A system of noble glass data stores strewn throughout the vaults store valuable data pertaining to the samples held therein, but also have visible-scale inscriptions presenting visitors with information in the manner of a museum. If events were to transpire that would cause the Protectorate to fall, even should this include the destabilization of the Evermorn-Armoa Binary System or the nova of one or both stars therein, this monumental architecture is expected to persist because of its remoteness and durable construction to providing important historical information to any sentient beings who might sift through the wreckage.

Type

Orbital, Station

Population

2000 or more; see Demographics

Inhabitant Demonym

Aspergilian(s)

Location under

Evermorn System

Owning Organization

Evermorn Strategic Colony Initiative