We the People aboard the Starship Cooperation, henceforth to be known simply as Cooperation, create a true first for humanity. This fully functioning country aboard a starship will bring about the best that humanity has to offer as we explore space searching for a planet that can support life. When an appropriate planet that can produce sustenance and comfort for human life, the people aboard the Community will enter the planet to create a new human settlement.
Article I
Power shall be bestowed equally between experts voted by a simple majority among the members of the crew. There shall be a President of Agriculture, Artificial Environment, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Commerce, Community Management, Computer Hardware and Software, Education, Energy, General Technology, Health, Housing, Labor, Mathematics, Security, and Transportation.
The only people who may apply for any position as President are those who were top of their class in university and have had at least five years experience working in a related field.
More presidents shall be added by majority vote among the people and a consensus among all existing presidents.
Addendum Year 46, Day 169: An exception to the rule of experience shall be the President of Community Relations. This person shall be a member of the community that will handle social issues of those aboard the Cooperation. Anyone, regardless of wealth or status, shall be eligible for this position.
Addendum Year 472, Day 362: Splicing animal DNA with human DNA is strictly forbidden. No person with genes spliced with animal DNA shall be eligible to run for President in any position.
Article II
A judicial court shall be established. Each judge is elected by a simple majority. Judges must have been top of their class at university with at least 10 years as a lawyer.
The number of justices shall be related to the population count of the Cooperation. There shall be one justice for every two-hundred-fifty people.
Addendum Year 2, Day 14: The above shall be henceforth be known as the high court. Lower courts shall be established in each of the settlements established. These judges shall be elected by a simple majority. One judge shall be appointed to each settlement except in the case the population of a settlement is in excess of one hundred. In such a case, An additional judge shall be elected to a settlement at a population of one hundred, and additional judges shall be elected for each additional hundred people in a settlement.
Article III
For the purposes of record keeping onboard the Constitution, the timekeeping methods from Earth shall be applied. There shall be sixty seconds in one minute, sixty minutes in one hour, twelve hours in a day, and three-hundred sixty-five days in a year.
The concept of months shall not be carried forward, nor shall the concept of leap days. The afforementioned time period shall be symbolic rather than scientific as time aboard the ship shall not be calculated by rotations around a sun.
Article IV
Fifteen days after the moment that all crew members sign this document, the Starship Community shall leave the planet to begin its mission. Upon leaving the atmosphere of Earth, this document will go into effect.
The four thosand initial crew members will be joined by their family members, making up a total of 20,004 people aboard the Cooperation when it departs Earth.
Ratified on Year 1, Day 1, by the undersigned:
Margaret Allison, Anako Akane, Akira Amano, Kathleen Anise, Abeba Aregawi, Robert Annison, Kimberly Astley, Alinta Baymarrwangga, Jennifer Beckam, Maria Bianchi, Charlie Blaze, Paula Bauer, Brian Baxter, Leroy Black, Frederick Boyer, Stephen Carson, Amy Cedar, Altanchimeg Chuluunbat, Karen Cokeley, George Cramer, Melanie Cranberry, Friedrich Daege, Sarah Danza, Maeko Date, Sunny Drake, John Dunham, Erica Estavez, Traci Fralin, Lucy George, James Halwood, Hana Hamzawi, Kevin Han, Kathleen Hanson, Patricia Hart, Dennis Hartford, Richard Houser, Kaja Irmscher, Anya Jackson, Cochise Jicarilla, Megan Jones, Akira Kasuga, Hinata Kashiwagi, Nigel Katel, Ai Kawasaki, Hideo Konoshi, Barbara Lace, Dennis Lake, Alfred Land, Hua Lui, Jeramiah Lyagushka, Sun Li, Gwenhwyfar MacMuireadhaich, Saeko Makimura, Betty Marsh, Carla Martin, Mary Mint, Miah Monte, James Murdock, Hiseo Nakaya, Peninah Nasae, Seraph Ng, Mai Nguyen, Nicholas Norman, Shenjīng de Nushì, Scott Nye, Colleen O'Beollain, Peter Oak, Akari Ootake, Ananda Osgood, Kara Osmond, Xavier Oxford, Theodore Pablo, Ho Pak, Siah Park, Aarav Patel, Pradeep Pattem, Nikolay Pavlov, Vladimir Pavlovsky, Drake Potter, Leroy Bolan Price, William Quick, William Quigley, Jill Rankin, Mark Roland, Anika Robinson, Peter Samuel, Chun Sang, Takako Saito, Haruka Sato, Michael Smith, Leroy Stern, Albert Strickland, Kazuma Suzuki, Hana Tanaka, Hikari Tachibana, Michiko Toda, Takaya Ugaki, Catia Undalov, Esmeralda Villanueva, Hua Wang, Thomas Walsh, Aiko Watanabe, Awinita Watie, Li Wu, Talita Ximénez, Mei Yang, Adriel Yazzie, Chun Zhang, Fen Zhao, Eliza Zimmerman
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Comments
well, this looks interesting
hopefully cooler heads will prevail
A Whole Lot Here...
...that I don't have a feel for yet. I'm not clear whether we're dealing with a few hundred people on board or several thousand (or more). It's unclear to me whether "the crew" is a general term for everyone aboard or represents a group of people actively dealing with the voyage as opposed to other occupations. Our narrator gives the impression that in effect people take turns as captain and her term is short enough that wasting time is a bad idea. But in the context of a 300-years-and-counting trip, "short" seems like a relative term.
Part of my problem is that I misread (I think) her comment about being called by derisive terms that originated early in the voyage -- while identifying herself as the first gender-fluid person on board -- as meaning she'd been alive herself since those earliest days. On further review, I assume she's saying that insulting terms from the ship's early days were repurposed to apply to her kind.
Hope things get clearer as we move on. Looking forward to more.
Eric
Interesting take on the
Interesting take on the issues of today regarding race relations, gender relations, TG/TS/ LGBT relations. Looks to me like it will be an interesting 30 chapters of space travel.
400 years cooped up
Why would people want to do something medically that would change them in some way? It's clear they never thought to the next generation of children born, or that they would also be affected.
Put a bunch of people in a small space for an extended period of time, and it won't be long before some start coming unglued. They will start making accusations about others, little things start getting to them. They start dividing between what's been accused and those against being accused.
Those of those space ship are doing the same thing. They are cooped up in what has become a sardine can, allowing them limited space to move around without bumping into someone.
That the Captain switches between male and female has not helped the overall situation.
The splicers born of parents who fooled with their bodies had no choice in how they appeared, something lost on those who want something to distract them from what they are living in.
The root problem is all the people being cooped up for so long. To alleviate that growing intolerance, they targeted the splicers. And the bubble burst.
Others have feelings too.