Diisarirga Estate

Cabrini  Planetary Survey         

Cabrini is a Company world owned by the Cabrini Development Corporation. It is located in the Sabine Subsector, Deneb and orbits the gas giant Gremancy in the Cabrini system. Cabrini is an idyllic garden world.   The Cabrini Development Corporation (CDC) is a combination of an agribusiness and an overblown homeowners association. Its primary purpose is to retain exclusive exploitation rights to the planet in the hands of its owners and members, as well as to exclude even residency privileges to offworld colonists.

Habitation on Cabrini is limited to the plantations and a few cities, excepting the estates owned by the private stockholders of the CDC. These same stockholders are the owners of Cabrini's vast plantations, where agricultural products are produced, using primarily TL6 techniques. Much of Cabrini's population is employed on either the plantations or on the estates. Most CDC stockholders do not live on Cabrini full time. They are rather primarily absentee landlords, with local CDC employees working the plantations for them. The estates are vacation homes, where their ultra rich owners can rest outside the public eye. This group consists almost exclusively of Imperial Nobles and Megacorp executives. The few who are not from among this group are typically retired eccentric billionaires, living out the remainder of their lives in isolated opulence.

Inhabitants of Cabrini are typically separated into homeowners and everyone else. Everyone else is usually either an employee of CDC or of an individual homeowner. These are the Citizens of Cabrini. There is a small number of SPA employees and workers from other Imperial agencies on Cabrini, but most of these are from offworld and have very little exposure to either the plantations or the estates.

Starport

The Imperial Starport is a Class C (III) port. It is a coastal Starport, located on Iirames Bay. It has an associated Scout Base.

Planetary Details

Size:  3000 mile

Atmosphere: Standard

Hydrographic Percentage: 50%

Geographic Details: Landmass consists of one large continent and two small island continents. Various archipelagos dot the Great Ocean and Canadian Sea. Most settlements are on the large continent, Iirames, and are centered on the sound of the same name.

Population: Most of the five hundred thousand inhabitants live within the enclaves sprinkled around Iirames Bay.  Most inhabitants of Cabrini Starport  are transients who work for the SPA or members of the IISS who maintain facilities there and are not counted in these population figures.

Control Rating: CR 0 (No restrictions.) Since most visitors to Cabrini are invited, and because the estate owners do not want restrictions on their activities, weapon laws are very lax. The number of local predators inhabiting the natural areas outside the estates and enclaves makes carrying arms for protection a necessity.

Tech Level: TL6. Cabrini is a non-industrial world. There are no local commercial manufacturing capabilities. Cottage industry located at the various plantations produce most local tech. Areas have been set aside for agriculture. Agricultural products are packaged for export locally. While the private estates often import Imperial standard tech, most employees of the CDC are limited the fairly primitive technology.

History

A stopping point on the way to Ara Pacis, Cabrini spent much of its early history red zoned by the IISS. A working ecosystem on a world almost the same size as Terra's moon was unusual enough that the Scout Service scientists wanted to ensure that outside infection by offworlders did not contaminate their investigation. By the time they had more or less completed their work, the surrounding systems had been organized into the County of Iirames, named for fiefdom lands granted the patent holder on Cabrini. The Emperor, as was the custom in those days, appointed a minor baron, Iikheneni Ikhen Diisarirga from Kesali (Vland/Kakadan) as count. Diisarirga was from an old, but not especially high ranking, Vilani family. Diisarirga was a shrewed businessman who had managed to accumulate enough wealth to become a serious player in Vland politics.  Diisarirga had no intention of leaving for the frontier to administer his county. Instead he appointed a cousin to inspect the county worlds and report back.

The cousin, Eshiraharuker Diisarirga  also considered himself a shrewed business man. The County originally included the Worlds of Ummiikam,Vanzeti, Cabrini, Ara Pacis and Sui'tang. Cabrini, which was red zoned, was the only world to have a Standard atmosphere. None of the planets were inhabited. Eshira Diisarirga saw very little potential in any of these worlds. They needed no Imperial representative to their non-existent populations. Even Cabrini seemed to have little value to the Kesali citizen. Diisarirga was born and raised in the underground arcologies of a vacuum world and saw no benefit to a world where the environment was uncontrolled. The fact that the IISS had the world red zoned only supported his prejudices on the subject.

Over the next century both Ara Pacis and Vanzeti were developed by local Deneb interests. The Emperor appointed barons to these worlds, which petitioned for more independence from their absentee count in Imperial affairs. The Count Diisarirga saw little reason to protest. There was no Duke of Sabine and the Count wanted no distractions of Imperial duties for his far away county. Cabrini remained red zoned, more from Imperial inertia, than for any great need. The Scouts no longer even maintained a base there, but merely visited every few years to check progress of their automatic planet based sensors systems.

The end of the Vargr Campaigns opened up Sabine sector to greater exploitation. Mariikharimasi Alice  started out as two steps above an ordinary con artist. Parleying land grants on Thingen  into a fortune, Marii soon found it expedient to convert her assets to cash and seek her fortune elsewhere in the sector. A fortuitous meeting with a detached duty scout on Magash in 387, brought to her the opportunity of a lifetime. The scout, John Michael Hodak, had lately returned from servicing the automated equipment on Cabrini, a job the IISS had turned over to contractors such as Hodak. He waxed eloquent on the untouched beauty of world.

Hodak and Rimarii developed a scheme to gain title to the world and then partition it for resale. The Ministry of Colonization, which was still fairly active at this time, was known to have standards that often prohibited candidates of dubious qualifications or legal status from joining colonies.  Rimarii saw a market in selling to those who could not make the Ministry list.

Using Hodak's ship the pair made their way to Kesali. There they made the acquaintance of  Naagaasir Millii Diisarirga, son of the Countess of Iirames, and a reputed gambler and rake. Naagaasir saw potential in their plan, but quickly realized the Ministry of Colonization would exercise control over any conventional colony development scheme. Instead he proposed they create a front company, Cabrini Development Corporation, to instead sell large tracks of the planet to the nobility and megacorps for their eventual exploitation. It soon became evident to him that Rimarii and Hodak had little interest in actually settling Cabrini, being more interested in selling Cabrini.

Diisarirga obviously saw potential that his partners did not. Using his connections and with the concurrence of his mother Diisarirga managed to procure enough funding for CDC to purchase the world from the Emperor. Rimarii and Hodak realized very little money on their interest of the project, and are assumed to have left Kesali for parts unknown with what they did receive. Diisarirga managed to make CDC a going concern. Large parcels of land were conveyed to individual owners for use in farming. The purchase included an Imperial lifting of official Red Zone status, while guaranteeing a free hand in the world's exploitation, independent of the MoC.

A manager, experienced in agribusiness was hired to set up plantation farms for the owners. By 395 several large farms had been established. Over the next half century many local Deneb nobles bought into the CDC, guaranteeing them both estate land on Cabrini and farmstead rights. CDC imported workers from several worlds in the sector, typically utilizing easy credit terms, long term contracts and prepaid passages to ensure a stable compliant workforce.

By 525 Cabrini's population was effectively stable. CDC no longer routinely brought in workers. Many CDC management positions were being filled by locals. By the period of the First Frontier War Cabrini was a regular  food supplier of Magash's (Deneb/Sabine) growing population. Cabrini saw ground fighting during the civil war as various factions  attempted to strike at rivals with estates onworld. The population and the CDC struggled to remain neutral in the conflict but the planet saw more violence than was common for most worlds in this period.

Leadership of the CDC moved outside Diisarirga control during this period as the family's internal conflicts, and the distractions in the Spinward Marches and at Capital left them with little interest in their Cabrini holdings. Regular shipments of food cargo did not resume until 620, when Arbellatra won the Second Frontier War.

CDC efforts in keeping Cabrini stable have worked very well. A worker uprising in 989 was crushed with the aid of mercenaries from offworld. More diligent educational screening since that time has resulted in the preempting of many potentially disruptive thinkers into the management of CDC. This has had the unexpected benefit of improving the lot of the workers. CDC has stop the practice of shifting workers from plantation to plantation with the seasons. Previously it was common practice to move workers from one hemisphere to the other during seasonal changes, to keep them employed at maximum efficiency. This was highly disruptive of worker lifestyle. The present practice is to allow workers to practice off season trades. This has result in a decline of required imports, as more items are produced by workers locally. It has also reduced worker unrest. The greater stability has also actually increase productivity, though it has required increased manpower, which the workers seem quite willing to provide, now that spouses are spending more time together in the cold season.

Tech Level

TL6 is listed Tech Level. Cabrini has almost no industrial capacity. Many high tech items are imported for use on the estates, but the plantation workers make do with TL6 devices. Cabrini is most marked by what technology is not commonly available.

There is no commercial satellite network. The CDC has decided that benefits in weather forecasting and communications that would come from such a network would be more than offset by the greater accessibility that GPS and orbit surveillance would give both the worker population and outsiders. Visiting owners will often leave their ships in orbit to act as relays or have a private satellite to allow their estate to communicate with the starport. Commercial TriV is available via fibre-optics cable in the cities. The plantations make do with commercial shortwave radio. Lyceum, large outdoor theaters, exist at most plantations, playing inported TriV productions on Sixday and Senday.

The estates are generally powered by imported fusion generators. The plantations generally make do with solar power generators. This is usually of the solar furnace rather than photovoltaic type. This technology uses a fluid with a relatively low boiling point to operate a turbine to produce electricity. The port cities use a similar system. Wind generators are also used. Christhome receives its power from a hydroelectric plant, which then delivers electricity to each structure via a local power distribution network. No planet wide power distribution system exists.

Cabrini System

The Cabrini system consists of three gas giants, two asteroid belts and a single icy planet. Cabrini orbits the gas giant nearest the system's cold sun. Cabrini is the only inhabited world. There are no other stations or settlements in the system.   

Cabrini Downport

Cabrini Down is located on Xavier Bay.  It is a class C (III) Starport. A rail line connects the port to Christhome.

The Planet

A wide variety of agricultural products are produced on Cabrini. The majority of products are food staples. Despite their designation of "plantation" not all products are strictly crops. There are meat plantations, as well as grain and fruit plantations, and even fishing plantations. Almost all agricultural products come from imported stock. The exceptions are the roosta, which is a local grazing animal raised for meat, and sealife, which is harvested by fishing and potting.

Individual plantations are operated by the CDC under the management of an overseer who works for the owner. Facilities in the port cities, as well as the railroads, the trucking companies, and ocean going freighters are operated by the CDC. That makes most of the citizens of Cabrini employees of the Cabrini Development Corporation.

Regardless of the product most plantations are set up in a similar way. A central village is the heart of the plantation. The village consists of a number of buildings and is where the majority of workers live and where the plantation business offices are located. The central structure of the village is the ranchhouse. This is where the overseer and foremen live. One wing of the ranchhouse is usually the office complex, where administrative tasks associated with the plantation are done. Workers generally live in single story cots, which usually consist of a central greatroom and a number of bedrooms. There is usually a barn, where tractors and other farm implements are kept when not in use. Most plantations include one or more workshops, where locally produced mechanisms are fabricated, mostly by hand. There is a garage where work vehicles are housed. A clinic for the plantation doctor and his staff. The Lyceum is used for theater presentations, video entertainment and public gatherings for plantation business. A storehouse/commissary provides foodstuff and other goods to the workers, which are generally charged against their wages. A power shed is usually also located at the village, which provides power for the plantation. Often there is a stable for work animals, especially if the plantation is in the meat grazer business. A schoolhouse, run by the CDC, provides education for worker children. Overseers often bring in private tutors for their families and the children of the foremen managers are often afforded access to them.

Most plantations are large enough to have stations located around the property. A station usually consists of a number of buildings. There are barracks or a bunkroom, to provide temporary housing for workers during planting and harvest. A farm station will include grain elevators and barns or storage sheds, to provide a collection point for product after harvest. There is sometimes a power shed, if the station is too remote from the central village to draw power from there.

Internal roads usually join the stations to the central village. Often communication and power lines are run along the road, though radio communication is sometimes used. A single external road usually leads from the village to the nearest railhead.

Most railheads are nothing more than a barracks with mess hall and facilities for loading cargo onto trains for delivery to the port cities. There is usually a post office which is the only permanently occupied building.  The post office is really a combined communications station and package delivery outlet. The station master is responsible for mail and train coordination. Any tickets for passage will be bought from the station master. He or she is an employee of the CDC and usually lives with their family in living quarters in the back of the post office.

While the plantations are owned by the individual homeowners, the port cities are owned by the CDC. They are planned communities.  There are cotts for the employees who work there, and nicer houses for the managers. Typically there is an "entertainment" zone where ships crews and local workers can spend their wages on whatever iniquitous distraction they can afford. All such establishments are CDC owned, and are only opened during off hours. Gambling is generally not available, though the company does not discourage private games, provided they occur outside working hours. During harvest times work hours can run round the clock, meaning the recreational establishments are closed for extended periods. CDC schools provide for education through the teenage years. Higher education requires travel to Christhome or off world, for those few who can afford it. Most jobs on the plantations or in the processing factories do not require much education and the CDC is flexible about requiring school attendance once the individual reaches 16 standard years of age.

There is usually a small hospital, sometimes with an air ambulance. An airship port is usually located outside the city. The warehouse area is typically located between the rail yard and the docks. The cotts are usually not wired for TriV, though the managers home are. Almost every home will have a radio. Public theaters in the entertainment zone run movies off hours, usually including newsreels, with off world news.

Much of the port city is usually devoted to processing plants for the agricultural products flowing in from the plantations. In the case of the plantation ranches this includes meat packing plants.  Byproducts are often shipped back to the plantations for use there. These products include fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides.

Electric powered trolleys provide the major means of transportation in the port cities. A few high ranking managers have access to company cars. A very few might have access to an imported company aircar.

Unlike the plantations each estate is unique. Some homeowners have vast tracks of lands around their estates. Estates are usually not built close to plantations, often not even on the same continent. Estate workers are employees of the individual homeowners.

Weapons restrictions on Cabrini are lax. Many of the plantation areas are susceptible to incursions by local wildlife, much of which is predatory. The homeowners certainly do not want their ability to carry arms limited. Almost all types of hand weapons are allow everywhere but in some of the entertainment zones (especially those serving alcohol.) Certain types of arms, especially military grade weapons, will elicit at least an inquiry from CDC security.

Order is maintained in the port cities and in Christhome by CDC security. Order on each plantation is the responsibility of the overseer and his foremen, who are employees of the individual owner. Estate security is maintained by huscarles or security forces belonging to the individual owners.

Work on the plantations and in the port cities is hard, but there is little unrest among the workers. The CDC prides itself on being able to recognize potentially disruptive individuals while they are still in school. Such individuals are often tracked into programs that will eventually place them in positions of authority in CDC management. Those unsuited for life on Cabrini (as seen by CDC management) are often encouraged to join the annual Imperial recruiting drive, which helps fulfill part of Cabrini's tax obligation the the Emperor.

All of CDC's oversight cannot prevent the occasional worker from "going bush" into the wilderness. Since there are no natives on Cabrini, and the wilderness is completely untamed, going bush is almost certainly suicidal for most workers. CDC, who owns all of the land not held by its individual stockholders can arrest any errant individual for trespass. Security will pick up anyone not authorized to be away from the plantation or port areas, should they stay in the general vicinity of said areas. Vagrants are not tolerated. CDC owns a special plantation, named Nirvana but called "Purgatory" by the workers, where somewhat more stringent management practices are used on workers who consistently flaunt company rules or refuse to pay their company debts, by working them off.

This does not prevent a small number of hardy souls every year from striking out from the plantations into the wilderness. Security will not generally expend much resources hunting them down, as long as they remain in individual or small family groups, far from the plantations, estates and cities. The attempt by any of these individuals or groups to set up permanent settlements have, in the past, resulted in quick retribution.  Leaders have been sent to Purgatory, and spouses and children recommended for off world service.

Gravity

The Vilani Empire found millennia ago that allowing humans to live in environments where gravity was below .8 G results in long term genetic shifts in populations. The low gravity causes the development of a weak boned, abnormally tall subspecies of human in an amazingly short time. Modern medical techniques can counteract most of the effects of  life in reduced gravity. The most beneficial method of counteracting these effects is the use of grav plates to simulate standard gravity. Where this is not possible, due to technological limits, diet and medicine can counteract most of the bone loss and abnormal growth effects, though muscular development is generally retarded.

Flora and Fauna

Besides the roosta, which has been domesticated for meat production, Cabrini has a large variety of various grazing and predatory animals. No Cabrini species seems to have mastered flight. This includes the typically large number of insect-like savager species which inhabit jungle and high plains areas of the world.

Native plants are generally unpalatable to offworld species, and large areas of cleared land have been planted with imported crop species. In some cases they have completely choked out native plants.

Cabrini sealife is varied, including many vertebrate and invertebrate analogs.

Resources

Cabrini's resources are primarily agricultural in nature. These agricultural products are the planet's main export.  CDC has done mineralogical surveys and their reports indicate no substantial mineral wealth, at least none worth exploiting. Cabrini's best resource, its clean, standard atmosphere and habitable environment is reserved to the homeowner stockholders of CDC, and their employees. The IISS has done even more extensive surveys on Cabrini and their reports designate it as a pleasant, but generally boring world with no interesting geological or biological characteristics. No native species is close to sentience. It appears to have never been visited by the Ancients or any other precursor civilization. In short a relatively safe, relatively normal standard world.

The Native fauna might be of interest to hunters, but of course only homeowners, or their guest are allowed to engage in these activities. Likewise camping and other wilderness activities are possible, but CDC's stockholders are not likely to open the world for even well heeled tourist to pursue these activities.

Transportation

Transportation of goods from the plantations to the starport is generally by wet ship. Surface roads join each plantation to rail lines which meet on the coast. Small cities have been established where these railhead ports are. Plantations tend to be relatively near each other on the east peninsula, while the starport, and Christhome are located on the west side of the sound. A rail line joins the port at Christhome to the starport.

The estates are sprinkled around Cabrini, in whatever environment their owners find interesting. They are often on the coast, but winter lodges also exists. Homeowners all have access to imported grav vehicles, so are much less limited by distances than your average Cabrini citizen. These citizens are usually relegated to traveling as supercargo on a freighter. Passenger rail cars are added to freight trains when necessary to support holiday travel or the yearly migration of hopefuls bound for school or Imperial service.

Train engines are diesel/electric and burn ethynol, created as a by product of the food processing plants. Most ground vehicles, farm tractors and work vehicles, use the same fuel. Private vehicles are unknown on the plantations and rare in the port cities.

There is air passenger service, which is provided by a number of rigid airships. These vehicles are helium lift, lighter than air craft, using imported powercells and superconducting electric engines for propulsion. The power cells are charged using the local power systems or photovoltaic cells mounted on the airship structure. The component design was chosen for its low maintenance requirements. Most craft have been in service for half a century with low failure rates. Fully 95% of the craft can be produced locally, with only the powercells, solar cells, and superconducting wire imported from off world. Even the motors are hand wound on Cabrini. Service runs between Christhome and the various port cities.

Government

Government on Cabrini is in the hands of the Cabrini Development Corporation. The CDC is a private limited imperial corporation. Its shares are held by both individuals and a number of Megacorp holding companies. These shares are not traded on any stock exchange. Shares are entangled to land registered in the Cabrini Cadastre. Only landowners registered in the Cadastre can develop land on Cabrini. Since all owners are considered Tenants in Common shares can be passed on through inheritance or sale, but land use must conform to the CDC charter, which pretty much limits use to agriculture or habitation.

The Corporation is governed by a board of directors.  Management of CDC assets on Cabrini and agricultural support operations is carried out by a chief executive officer (CEO) hired by the board. In the Imperial scope of things the CDC is a small corporation, with a relatively small managerial staff. Directors meet once every other year to review management and vote on issues beyond the authority of staff to decide.

The workers are not formally unionized, but collective bargaining is permitted in the individual plantation sections and job classes. This usually occurs annually. The respective group of workers vote for a representative who then may petition central management with requests and grievances. In the case of the plantations a representative of the local homeowner is allowed to participate. Elected representatives have no long term authority to deal with management on a day to day basis.

Most plantations run smoothly and worker dissatisfaction seems at a tolerable level. The company makes it easy for dissidents to leave through enlistment in one of the Imperial services, and hard for them to return. Most of the workers have never been offworld and TriV fare is deliberately selected to emphasize the alieness of offworld society. The villages have low crime rates. Most workers are considered industrious, if somewhat unintelligent, by management. Except during harvest and planting times workers have a fair amount of time to themselves. Travel is not routine for workers, but they are allowed to apply for employment at other plantations and the estates. Holiday travel is more common, though workers are likely to only travel a few plantations over to see family or attempt to court a future spouse.

Corporation Branches

Each branch is managed by its own executive. All report to the CEO.

Agricultural Operations

In charge of the various workers contracted out to the individual plantations. This branch is also charged with bringing in trained specialist, like medical doctors or biologists, from offworld when required.

Agricultural Processing

Responsible for operation of the food processing plants, which prepare product for export. Also manages the production of by products necessary for use locally. These are both sold to the plantations and used by other CDC branches.

Transportation & Support

This branch is divided into several sections. Marine Transport is responsible for the operation of the ships which carry products from the railhead to Christhome for land shipment to the starport. Rail is responsible for operation and maintenance of the train system that carries both product and passengers. The postal section provides both package post and dispatch services. They also help Rail stay on time and stay coordinated. Power is responsible for the operation of the electrical system serving Christhome, including its hydroelectric source. They also manage the power systems of the railhead cities. Agricultural Operations provides technicians for the plantation power systems. Air Transport operates the LTA airships.

Export

Provides personnel and equipment at the starport. Also negotiate with offworld carriers, and even freetraders, to move products off Cabrini.

Security

Security provides policing and other safety tasks in the cities and in the general country side. They provide fire, emergency response and wilderness ranger expertise as well. Security has a small number of imported air/rafts, some outfitted as air ambulances, and others as air enforcement units.