Checking in

I thought I might say hello, since I am using Spacesettlers resources so heavily and profitably these days. I especially owe a debt to Mike Combs' wonderful site. One of the standard-setting videos of habitats he has posted has given me the setting for the opening scene of my re-worked novel. There's a broad gleaming public space made of city park-sized circles floating above neighborhoods, supported by columns rising from the hub of transportation/ support spokes streaking to all sides of the rotating sphere. People are gathering on the enormous circles for a presentation from earth. They are a scruffy bunch, not middle-class, looking like the earth-deported criminals and religious extremists they are. Closer examination reveals the physical interior of the colony is not complete. Now, laser lights flicker over the enormous inner space, percussive music blasts, and everything takes on a frightening pulse. On the enormous screen, the President smiles at his telecast companions, representatives from all the world's religions. The Pope, representatives from Islam's factions, protestants in suits, hindus. Outside the observation window a BP Halliburton asteroid mining pod floats, and watches. The colony is their investment. The President is about to announce a new law, one that will end religious conflict forever and bring peace to a convulsing Earth. Almost everyone cheers. But not all. There are new catacombs in the shielding space under the hull. There will be blood, and then they will run for it.