To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Phobos Ch53

Phobos

When compared to the gray celestial body of Luna that orbited the Earth, Phobos was a very pitiful rock. It was small, lopsided, and ugly. And before the miraculous increase in Mar's mass it had been on a predicted collision course for its parent world. The increased mass and subsequent increase in gravity counter-intuitively saved the satellites decaying orbit by increasing the slingshot like force that kept it from hitting Mars directly. It had no mineral deposits that were worth the effort of landing mining equipment. The only thing this world had going for it were the museums.

After the Martian colonial council had learned that the Earth was on borrowed time great efforts went in to finding permanent housing for the masses of humanity that would soon need new homes. Mars had already been colonized and terraformed by that time, but everyone knew that the former red world could never truly be a total replacement for our cradle. Many large celestial objects received lots of investment and infrastructure conducive to human life.

Venus received a partial terraforming that stabilized the atmosphere and dropped surface pressures enough for massive land-able cities to touch down on its surface. Those cities then became the agricultural heart of humanity, sucking Venus's carbon rich atmosphere to feed humanity as farmland on Earth began to dry up and turn to dust. Ceres became the burning heart of Sol's industry as the small world's location within the asteroid belt made it the most suitable for processing the mineral rich asteroids. And Luna received massive amounts of development as massive domes were dug into the moon's regolith in an attempt to act as a new home for Earth's massive population.

But no matter how much money the Martian council borrowed from Galactic Union banks, none of these worlds would ever be a suitable new home for Terrans. The rise of Mammaloids, and the mass introduction of life extending medicines on Earth had caused a spike in global birth rates far beyond what the Council had ever projected. And now they were stuck in a cycle of borrowing more money to try and expand those less suitable homes for humanity.

Somewhere along the way someone had thought about the great amount of cultural heritage that would be lost to humanity if Earth truly became uninhabitable. And thus Phobos was deemed to be the placed that held the great reserve of Earth's heritage. Massive domes housed the Taj Mahal, the White House, and the whole city of Venice. Other domes contained maritime museums; ships once commissioned for war now turned into floating museums. One could tour all four Iowa class battleships, and then walk only a couple hundred meters over to visit the Trincomalee. Aster had personally visited almost every ship in the Dome of Naval History, she had stood on the deck of a caravel and imagined herself as a pirate captain during the 'golden age of piracy', wearing a tricorn hat and raising the black flag. But today she wasn't here to daydream, today she had come to do business. Today she had come to buy the Obama.

Bell and Karega had decided to join her, and since Bell was a naval historian, and Kar was a student of all history, Aster welcomed their presence and expertise. They had taken a private shuttle to the small moon, rather than ride in the overcrowded ferries that regularly went between Mars and Phobos, and landed directly on a platform just outside the Obama's resting place. Unlike every other exhibit Obama was a space worthy vessel and didn't need an expensive pressurized dome to house it, so instead they dug into the surface of the world and laid the Obama in dry dock that looked suspiciously like a grave for the mighty vessel.

Two finely dressed gentlemen and a women in a pantsuit met them on the platform just outside the docking hatch. The men were smiling and looked very pleased to see them, while the women didn't bother disguising her contempt for their presence.

"Ms. Astarte it is a pleasure to meet in person at last" the lead men said as he shook her hand. "I am John Murphey; the director of all the heritage museums on Phobos."