Event · treaty
The Lifeboat Laws
Crime to create persons for an assigned mission they cannot refuse or leave. Ordinary children join an existing community with rights and choices; the Lifeboat's embryos were assigned their mission before birth.
Read more in Reaching outward
GJ 1002 b · 15.8 · 15.8 years · \~175 years · Belt Republic seed ship in flight, launched beyond the reach of the Lifeboat Laws; arriving around the 2650s
In the solar system the Mandate holds Jupiter's moons, half of Mars and half of the Moon's south pole, about a third of the roughly 3 billion people off Earth (see The solar system divided). Almost all of them are genetically adapted to their worlds, by state plan (see Designed children, in Ageing slowed, not ended). Beyond the solar system it has no colonies yet. Three light seed ships are in flight, launched for resources and prestige alongside the Line and Belt ships of the 2470s, to Barnard's Star, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. The Mandate never signed the Lifeboat Laws, and its ships carry embryos to be raised on arrival by AI crews, the practice the Laws forbid. The Settlement already disputes the standing of the colonies they will found.
The colony fleets (2470s). The Mandate sends three light seed ships, to Barnard's Star, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti; Line money sends one to Teegarden's Star; the Belt Republic sends one to GJ 1002, beyond the reach of the Lifeboat Laws — a second scandal the Settlement can do nothing about. Array-powered lasers push all five to about 9% of light speed, and all must brake with fusion. None arrives before the 2540s (see Reaching outward).