"The Web"

[Joe Manning 0]

Locals call it 'The Web.' Like many of the terms used in Bull's Head, this possesses a double meaning. While some of the double meanings are more subtle and difficult to divine, anyone could give you both of the reasons that Andus City Station is called 'The Web.'

 

Who founded Andus? Andorians, that much anyone will tell you, a small fleet of them. The origin of Andus is one of those mysteries of Bull's Head of which only a select few individuals are privy to the knowledge. In the Hyades cluster, secrets are horded -- not wholly unexpected of a society founded by people whose trust in their Federation leaders eroded. The Andorians enjoy hording secrets -- as a species, they are innately mistrustful. A match made in celestial nirvana; never mind the irony of Andor's role in driving so many people to the Hyades cluster. If you want to know of how and why the station started, and by whom precisely, you will have to first seek out one of the station's Andorian masters and second convince him to tell you of the station's earliest history. Best of luck with that. Simply aquiring a map of Andus is often an impossible feat.

 

We know this. It began with the founding of a vast asteroid field on the outskirts of the Hyades core. No star. No planets. Just free-roaming debris from some ancient expulsion of matter from the chaotic core. An asteroid field was the natural first step in the construction of a place that could afford the Andorians secrecy. Against whom did they seek secrecy? Their home planet? The Federation? The Guardians? The answer was one of the many secrets to be hidden away in the asteroids.

 

It is known that their resources were scarce. It is also known that something is easier to hide when it is placed inside something else. Thus, the city station did not have its roots between the asteroids nor on the surface of one of them ... but dug into one of them. A large asteroid was chosen and the excavations began. Rock was laser-drilled out of the asteroid, creating empty chambers. The extracted rock was shipped to manufacturing plants on board the ships and converted into construction materials. Manufactured support beams and floor plates were shipped back into the hollowed chambers, and the process of creating hallways and living spaces began. Furnishings followed, all constructed of the excavated rock. The innards of the asteroid were recycled into what would become the core of the city, all overseen by Andorian crews demonstrating almost insect-like industriousness.

 

Next came the vital technological influences. Tractor beams were used to precisely spin the asteroid, creating centrifugal force sufficient to replicate Andor-like gravity. Force field emitters were installed at the entry points, ensuring that the asteroid's interior would be sealed against the vacuum. Atmospheric regulators and power plants were transferred into the new facilities. In a remarkable amount of time, the asteroid's interior was capable of supporting the small community of Andorians.

 

What lay within the chambers of that first asteroid? What still lies within them? Just living spaces? Research labs, perhaps, and factories driving the weapons manufacturing operation that is persistently rumored to be taking place on the station? Did the Andorians simply come to the Andus asteroid field to hide, or did they have more ambitious aims in the Hyades cluster? More ... entrepreneurial aims? Your guess is as good as any other's.

 

Interesting thing about the Hyades cluster -- it attracts people who desire secrecy. Word eventually spread to connected individuals who saw the setup in the Andus field as the prefered way to live. They requested space of their own on the station, bringing cases of latinum for the Andorian masters. Though the Andorians were no doubt reluctant to allow the size of their secret community to grow, the opportunity to profit must have been too substantial to pass up. While the populations of settlements like Tranquility, Goldrock, and Aldebaran swelled with Federation immigrants, Andus grew more slowly; only people in the know were even aware of the station's existence.

 

Before long, one asteroid was not enough, but the space demands only grew. So another smaller nearby asteroid was chosen. It was tractored close to the first and excavated just the same. It was designed to be equally self-sufficient, but it soon became necessary to more directly link the two communities. A corridor was constructed between the two asteroids, a zero-g tube built to accomodate the centrifugal spin of both. Soon, a third asteroid was introduced into the system and also connected to the first. Then came a fourth, and it was connected to both the first and the second. The income generated was used to install gravity plating, eliminating the now cumbersome centrifugal system. In under two years, Andus had grown from a single excavated asteroid into a network of six linked asteroid communities, supported by a bevy of corporate investors.

 

Inevitably, word reached the common masses of the existence of this new station. By this time, Bull's Head had declared itself independent from the Federation, so perhaps the masters of Andus station no longer saw a need for secrecy. Andus was opened to the public, its masters ready to offer the almost limitless vacancies that could be produced by excavating more asteroids. The population of the asteroid field soared. With new resources and manpower, the masters of Andus converted dozens of asteroids at a time into new communities. Many of the asteroid clusters were linked separately at first, then joined to the main network later, as greater interaction between the communities became vital. Many asteroids were repositioned, both to provide premium rental space to wealthier clientele ... and to further confuse the layout of the station.

 

Among the more valuable commodities that one could perhaps hope to attain in Bull's Head are maps of Andus. Currently, there are over two hundred asteroid communities linked together in The Web, some connected to over a dozen other asteroids via corridors both long and short. There are residential communities, corporate office hubs, industrial sectors, commerce centers, all spread haphazardly throughout the network with little rhyme or reason to their placement. It may seem to the unitiatied that this is a clumsy and ill-conceived layout. It suits the Andorians just fine, however.

 

While the existence of Andus is no longer a secret, much that goes on within the city-station is kept out of the sight of the overly inquisitive. In order to reach a specific chamber within the asteroid network, you must have a map revealing the presence of that chamber. The security guards stationed at each of the connecting tubes will not even allow you to pass to an asteroid if you do not possess a map of that asteroid. Once inside the asteroid, you may find more doors blocked off by security checkpoints; a map of an asteroid does not always show every chamber inside the asteroid. And to possess a map, you must know what you are looking for and be well-connected enough to gain access. Visitors to Andus receive the basic Traveler's Map for free; this, however, shows only 10% of the station, allowing access mostly to temporary rental quarters, shop districts, and entertainment centers.

 

Does anyone possess a map of the entire network? It is said that the masters of the station possess a map. But just -a- map. Not a copy of the map possessed by each. One map, of which each master possesses but a fragment. The fragments, so it is said, would only be put together in the event of a crisis, such as an attack on the station. The Andorians always guard against the possibility of a security breach, and the maps are valuable commodities indeed. Securing a map of the area you need to reach (assuming you know what you're looking for) entails getting in touch with a person who knows a person who knows the master whose fragment contains a map of that area. All those layers of security seldom slow the process -- the Andorians are far too efficient at organization.

 

Starfleet has inspected Andus station. The first few starship crews that came to Andus were immediately overwhelmed by the station's layout. They gave a cursory examination of a few of the asteroids (they were steered toward the 'safe' ones by the masters, of course), and quickly filed reports indicating that nothing illicit was going on on the station. The starship commanders knew better. They were certain that the rumors of illegalities on Andus were true; they simply did not wish to commit the time and effort needed to fully investigate a city built into an asteroid field. The Bull's Head patrol, you must understand, was not a popular assignment for the Fleeters; the sooner commanders who received it could file it away in their records, the better.

 

Then along came Captain Fazer. He came to Andus station just two years ago, and he was not like the other starship commanders. He was a square-jawed military man and a stickler for mundane detail; duty and responsibility were very important things to him, you see. He was not content with giving Andus station a half-hearted search. As soon as he arrived, he had his crew catalog every single asteroid in The Web. He split his crew into teams of five on two work-shifts, and devised a search plan wherein every asteroid community could be covered within a month. The plan was submitted to the station masters, reviewed in under and hour, and accepted peacefully ... on the terms that the people of the station be given a day to prepare for the inspection. Captain Fazer suspected this was a stall tactic and stubbornly insisted on beginning the inspection immediately, but the station commanders were quite persuasive in convincing him how much instability could be caused by an inspection conducted without notice. A day of preparation was granted; really, how much on this incredibly complex station could be hidden in just a day?

 

Silly Captain Fazer. He underestimated just how badly his officers could be confused by the weaving passages between the asteroids. Nothing that the masters of Andus station wanted to keep out of sight was removed from the station, yet none of it was located by Fazer's crew. As each search team entered an asteroid via one access corridor, station workers removed any illicit materials via other corridors. As the team departed the asteroid, yet another batch of workers swept in behind them to restore the community to its 'natural state.' It was an almost elegant game of chicken, orchestrated by the brilliant Andus masters' army of worker drones, leading Fazer's men all over the station yet nowhere.

 

Fazer would have loved to shut down the corridors between asteroids, of course. But that would have choked the city's operations for an entire month, terribly disrupting the Bull's Head economy and generating a fierce anti-Federation outcry throughout the Hyades cluster; the good Captain would have had difficulty justifying that to his Starfleet superiors.

 

Fazer departed The Web with nothing to report but a month of his crew's time completely wasted. Starfleet hasn't inspected Andus station since.