Whewould you hide?

Hi Janet,

Welcome back, glad to hear you're still writing.

I was remembering the characteristics of the hideout of a historical pirate, Jean Lafitte. His camp at Barataria, near New Orleans, could be reached by ship only by sailing up the right channel among a dozen that wound through the swamps of south Louisiana. The trip involved many twists and turns, required thorough knowledge of underwater obstacles, and for the wind-powered ships of the era took a lot of time. All of which discouraged the curious and gave Lafitte plenty of warning of someone coming up, giving him time to scout the vessel and set an ambush or raise an alarm if needed. In case he did get surprised from the sea, he and his folks could go overland through the swamps and melt into New Orleans, a route that could be traveled in a day given a good mount, but was as twisted and as hard to navigate for the uninitiated as was the approach by water from the Gulf. And if by chance both those options were cut off, Lafitte was on good terms with many of the Cajun families who hunted and fished the swamplands in the region, and could bolt off through the swamps in a shallow draft boat with every expectation of aid, a friendly escort, and discretion from his neighbors. The guy was so formidable that both the British and Americans approached him for an alliance in the run-up to the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

I'm not sure how to translate all that into solar system terms, but here are a couple of ideas. For aerospace engineers, delta v, or the need to burn the engines to speed up, slow down or change direction, is costly in fuel and weight and therefore is something to be avoided. So a 21st Century Lafitte would want to be someplace that took a lot of delta v to reach, to keep out the curious. Something way far out, like the Oort Cloud, or far out of the plane that most of the planets orbit in, are two possibilities. Another is taking up residence in a densely-populated asteroid field that required a lot of changes of course to navigate, slowing down the interloper so that he could be examined and reacted to. Like Lafitte he'd want a back door to sneak out of, not sure how to arrange that. And he'd want some locals that could be tempted or befriended into cooperating, folks far enough away from civilized life that they don't care about appearances so much, and who are somewhat in synch with his rebellious streak. Unconventional folks, like wildcat miners, doctrinaire terraformers who have turned their back on human society in pursuit of their far-off goal, or smugglers with plenty of reason to be hostile to the authorities.

To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
From: janet_baker76@...
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:03:10 +0000
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Where would you hide?

Wow thanks Victor. I don't know what you mean by singleships. I was thinking of having my guys escape in something I was calling a pod, a slow cheap unit for housing miners. Is it like that? Would singleship be a better name--more known among spacers?

Also, what would the difference be between hiding in the jovian system, and hiding in Mercury's? Regarding light, energy, view? (hehe)

I won't bore you guys with the kind of economics I'm using, but it's basically private ownership with severe common-good restrictions on profit and monopoly applying--it's really the economics of the middle ages. One of the things about space exploration that interests me myself is its possible opportunity to try different economic systems, and to refine cultures (meaning, concentrate characteristics) rather than diluting them, the way the constant drumbeat of diversity insists. If 'claiming' asteroids isn't too far outside the lines of believability, I'll use that. (Man, you'd have to go back a long long way in Europe to find unclaimed land. That's why America was such a boost to capitalism.)

I recently changed my plot and everything, is why I'm asking these questions now, five years down the road, due to reading about Elizabethan England. They already plotted it for me. Heroines and heroes galore. If I had a planet I'd model it on Merry Old England (pre-Reformation).

Thanks again, Victor, and hello, all, and thanks to all for your answers.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Victor Smith" wrote: